Well Played by Jen DeLuca

Willow Creek is fine for a small town but Stacey always thought she'd leave. But it's been years since her mother had a nearly fatal heart attack bringing Stacey back. The highlight of her summers has been the local Ren faire and even there, she hasn't changed much since she started in as a teen. That is really brought home to her when her friends Emily and Simon get engaged and start planning the wedding. They are moving forward but Stacey is not. 
One evening after a little too much wine, Stacey emails her summer hookup seeing if there might be something more. He responds and the two are soon in an epistolary relationship. We still see everything from a third person omniscient side of Stacey as she starts to slowly fall for the person on the other end of her screen.
I loved that the potential Big Misunderstanding was cleared up early but didn't love that it was twisted in the end. Still, a good book and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Three stars

This book came out September 22nd, 2020

Follows Well Met

Followed by Well Matched

Borrowed as an audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Street of the Five Moons by Elizabeth Peters

 A great example of why I love this series even though it's ... 40 years old? Good Lord. So self-referential (you would never meet the villain at the end) and wry. Vicky Bliss is a fantabulous character. A blonde with a body like a centerfold, a mind like a steel trap, and the wit to keep you reading.
This time, there are replicas of famous items that are being put out into the world, including one from her very own university. So Vicky's off to Rome to figure out what's going on. Her adventures are fun and fascinating. As is John Smythe, the Englishman she meets along the way. 
The mystery is fairly clued with the reader able to guess the villain(s?) fairly easily. And all of the characters are painted so vividly including secondary characters like Herr Schmidt, the Italian principessa, Bruno, the Italian count as well as his son, his mother, and his mistress. Even Caesar the dog.

Three and a half stars

Follows Borrower of the Night

Followed by Silhouette in Scarlet

This book came out in 1978

Borrowed as an ebook from the CloudLibrary

Opinions are my own

The Fall of Shane MacKade by Nora Roberts

Shane MacKade's brothers are dropping like flies. He loves women as much as the rest of them, but, only one for the rest of his life? Uh uh, no way. 
Then, Regan's younger friend comes to town. Dr. Rebecca Knight is interested in... well, everything. She's a nerd. It's only been the last few months that she's been able to come into her own, as a woman. Before that, she was your quintessential workaholic. Shaggy hair, no makeup, the whole nine yards. But she's put herself together and is on to her latest research, haunted houses. And, well, Shane has one of those. 
So, the fact that they're highly attracted to each other is somewhat inconvenient. Especially since Shane's not a settling down kind of man, but Regan is most definitely a marrying kind of woman.
I usually read this book when I read the rest of the series but probably wouldn't read it otherwise because Shane is definitely an alphahole womanizer who is changed by the love a magical, virginal vageen.

Two and a half stars

Follows The Heart of Devin MacKade

This book came out April 1st, 1996

Ebook from Kindle

Opinions are my own

Feel the Burn by G.A. Aiken

Gaius Lucius Domitus lost an eye to his uncle when he was a child. Then his cousin (the uncle's daughter) kidnapped his sister and tortured her for years. So it's understandable that he's spending a lot of time hunting down the entire family and trying to kill them. But he is somewhat distracted by the cult of the eyeless human god. They are growing in numbers and very opposed to anything that is "unclean." In fact, the cult has been going through other temples and "purifying" the inhabitants. Mainly it is a lot of unnecessary killing. 

And that's what Kachka of the Steppes has been asked to do by the human queen Anwyll, get rid of the cultists. She is not generally impressed by men but this particular male dragon is... not horrible. And he's good in bed. As a descendant of women who keep men only for sex, breeding, and trash removal (more or less), this is pretty important. Plus, he's good in battle which is going to be important as the two band together to beat the eyeless god to what he is looking for.

Dragon Kin #8

Three stars

This book came out November 24th, 2015

Follows Light My Fire

Followed by Bring the Heat

Ebook borrowed from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Reread as Audible plus audiobook January 2024

Sandcastle Beach by Jenny Holiday

Maya Mehta and Benjamin "Law" Lawson have been fighting for more years than anyone can remember. It started when they were teens (at least she was) and has carried on into their twenties. As any character in the book (or any reader of the other two books in this series) could fairly easily tell, these two were meant for each other. 

Maya Mehta needs the new grant that the town is offering. She has created a theater group that is just months away from failing. She's hooked a former boy band-er to come and be in her next play but the money would SO come in handy in renovating her falling-apart theater.

Law needs the grant the town is offering. He is third generation operating the family bar and he's ready to expand into a restaurant as well. But he doesn't want to mortgage (and possibly lose) the bar.)

Mirroring the play that Maya is putting on, <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, the two find that their squabbling might just be hiding a bigger attraction than either of them realize. The story does get a little hokey in places but previous readers of the series will be familiar with the level of sweetness and be prepared for it. This is my favorite book in the series so far and I am already ready to read the next one.

Three stars

This book comes out March 9th
Follows Paradise Cove
ARC kindly provided by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews

 Hugh d'Ambry was the Big Bad in the Kate Daniels series. At least until around book 8 when he was unceremoniously kicked to the curb by the man he idolized, Roland, an old god. When the book begins, he has descended into alcoholism while his Iron Dogs (the men who followed him) are being decimated by another of Roland's men, Landon Nez. They need a place to call their own, where they can dig in and stay.
So they go looking for some people that need protecting and find a group known as The Departed. They live in a magic wood and have several groups trying to steal their land. That includes Nez. In order to cement the union, Hugh and the leader of The Departed, Elara, marry. Neither is very excited about it. They
I liked that we don't know everything about the background of Elara and her group. Obviously they had to do something desperate in order to survive, but what? and why? How is this series going to cross over with Kate Daniels again (and it will, as they will have to team up in order to defeat Roland -- it does in Magic Triumphs but there is definitely more than what we see in this one book that happens before then)? 

Four stars

Follows Magic Binds

Followed by Magic Triumphs

This book came out June 18, 2018

Ebook borrowed from Libby

Opinions are my own

Reread March 2024

Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews

If you've read the Kate Daniels series (I don't think you have to have to enjoy this book but I'd highly recommend them anyway), you'll remember her adopted daughter, Julie. Well, Julie is back in Atlanta but she doesn't want anyone to know because there is a prophecy that, if she sees Kate, Kate will die. And Julie figures she's okay because she's got a new face and a new smell... no one should know who she is. Except that a lot of people seem to figure it out but that is not out of character for this world. 
Julie, now known as Aurelia, is up against a Big Bad who gets his power from his followers doing human sacrifice. She is powerful from her own magic but also from an infusion of blood that Kate gave her (and Kate is the daughter of a god.) Also, Aurelia has been studying with Kate's aunt (another god more or less) for a long time and is now her aunt's logical heir (assuming that her aunt will die.) 
So, not only does Katie have a big ol' target on her back, as her protector, Aurelia does as well. But she is back on her own turf so she's got some home field advantage.
This was a rather short book but there was a lot of packed into it and I am excited to read the rest of the series. I am currently rereading the Kate Daniels series which is really letting me see how many ties are woven in and storylines that are being continued in these books.

Four stars

This book came out January 12th, 2021

Ebook borrowed from Libby

Opinions are my own