The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

It took me a long time to warm to Lucy and Catherine. I almost DNF'd this book several times but finally made it through the first part of the story. There are so many blogs and podcasts that were singing the praises of this book that I guess I expected more from the beginning. But once we really started seeing the two fall in love and each getting to spread their wings in her own way. Did the last Big Misunderstanding need to happen? Not really. But the middle part of the book, seeing the Countess of Moth, an amazing embroidery artist, fall in love with a woman who looks at the stars, was finally the story that I had been expecting.

Three stars

Followed by The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows

This book came out

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh

When one of the most powerful men in the land dies on a surgical table, it shouldn't automatically be labeled as a murder. But when his wife insists on an autopsy... and he's found to have been poisoned, Inspector Roderick Alleyn is called in. There is, of course, no shortage of suspects. The man's wife was a chilly woman who didn't love him, his sister pushed patent medicines on him, there was the young woman he had seduced and her potential husband (both at the operating table), as well as at least one radical who disagreed with the man's politics.
The solution wasn't exactly fairly clued but it wasn't completely out of left field either. An interesting book with just a few too many red herrings.

Three stars

Follows Enter a Murderer

Followed by Death in Ecstasy

This book came out in 1935

Borrowed as an ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Murder at Mandeville Hall by Stephanie Laurens

Alaric, Lord Carradale, is finally ready to settle down. He doesn't want to spread the news because it means that he will be inundated with "help" from his three sisters. While he is a wolf of the ton, right now, no one knows the extent of his family fortune. God forbid the matchmaking mamas start to look into him if and, if he even hints that he might be looking at marriage, they will dig and they will start pushing their daughters at him.
He's at Mandeville Hall to show up at the house party his friend Percy throws every year but he's not ready to partake of the licentiousness as usual. Instead, he plans to retire to his own home at the end of every evening. But when he comes back after the first day, he discovers a body.
Miss Constance Whittaker has been sent by her grandfather to retrieve her cousin from a house party that is known to be rather... licentious. But she arrives too late; her cousin is dead. And Alaric is cradling her body. But she doesn't think that he is the one who killed her. Instead, she decides to team up with him to figure out what is going on. Unfortunately, there is another murder and Scotland Yard needs to be called in. As this is a titled group of people, of course, Inspector Stokes and Barnaby Adair are called in to help figure out what is going on.
This book mainly focuses on Constance and Alaric which is good for seeing their relationship grow but won't be good for the people used to seeing Barnaby and Penelope in the middle of the action. And the mystery wraps up early with a heavy romance on the romance for the rest of the book.

Three stars

Follows Confounding Case of the Carisbrook Emeralds

This book came out

Audiobook borrowed from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Confounding Case of the Carisbrook Emeralds by Stephanie Laurens

I had thought of this as being Laurens' mystery series but, as usual, it is more about the relationships and the characters than the actual mystery. Which I am okay with. We have a very lovely romance between Hugo Adair and Cara Di Abaccio. 
We are dropped in when Cara's aunt accuses her of stealing the Carisbrook emeralds. Of course, she is innocent but no one is willing to go against her aunt. No one except Hugo that is. He immediately realizes someting is wrong when she doesn't come to church and finds her at Scotland Yard. Of course, Inspector Stokes immediately also realizes that she is innocent and sets out with Barnaby and Penelope to clear her name. 
The solution ends up being rather convoluted with many layers but I don't know if people are reading these for the mysteries.

Three stars

Follows Loving Rose

Followed by The Murder at Mandeville Hall

This book came out June 14th, 2018

Opinions are my own

The Dating Plan by Sara Desai

I was really not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. The cover and the description drew me in. I hadn't read the first book and felt physically disappointed that I hadn't when I finished The Dating Plan. The characters were well drawn. I really felt like I knew Daisy and what made her tick. Would my family ambush me with a prospective date at a convention? No, but they have at church. It's embarrassing no matter how you cut it. But Daisy, who doesn't admit to having many social skills, handles it. Not with ease. Especially since she's just seen her ex-boyfriend making out with her ex-boss in the bathroom. And what's worse is that she was thrown off by seeing her brother's childhood best friend at the conference. The same guy who stood her up for her senior prom. But that was ten years ago, so she's not bitter. Really. Oh heck, she sure is.

Liam Murphy is delighted to see Daisy again. Her family was warm and welcoming to him when his own was not. Surely she must be over the whole prom thing... oops. Even better, because when he needs to be married for a year in order to inherit his grandfather's business, who better than someone who hates him?

Four stars

Follows The Marriage Game

Followed by The Singles Table

This book comes out March 16th

ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Marriage Game by Sara Desai

Layla Patel has become famous. And not for a good reason. Too bad her loss of anonymity also led to the loss of her boyfriend, her apartment, and her job. Now she is trying to get her own recruitment agency started up above her parents' restaurant while also trying to live up to the ideal image her parents have of her brother who died. It was, in fact, his idea to move the family business to this larger location. Now she's also trying to keep it together when her dad has a heart attack the day she returns. She doesn't need to deal with a guy claiming that her office space is his own.
Sam Mehta has a rough family history as well. He gave up a promising career to become a surgeon when his sister's husband through her down some stairs paralyzing her. But the hospital where both Sam and the husband worked refused to hold him responsible. So Sam is now a corporate downsizer, the man who comes in and fires people. He's not exactly happy but he has plans to get even. But Layla is distracting him. Apparently her father was trying to find her a husband and the ten candidates are nowhere near good enough.
A lovely book. I read the second book in the series and enjoyed it a little bit more but this one was good as well.

Four stars

Followed by The Dating Plan

This book came out June 9th, 2020

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Harriet "Hal" Westaway is at the end of her rope. Her mother died three years ago and she is barely hanging on to her apartment and her lease at the pier where she tells fortunes. There is a loan shark after her and she is frightened. When a letter comes from a lawyer telling her that she has an inheritance, she is delighted. And then defeated. The letter obviously isn't meant for her but for someone else. She decides to spend the last of her money anyway and go to the funeral for Mrs. Westaway. 
It is there she meets the Westaway clan. They have a past like any other family but theirs seems especially dark and Hal is going to have to think quick to make it out alive.
I didn't like this book at first; it was sort of slow going. But then I got sucked in and enjoyed the story.

Three and a half stars

This book came out May 19th, 2019

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own