Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

I love the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories. She is wise and kind and always helps kids and parents in inventive
ways. Kid's a show-off? Make it so that he turns invisible so no one watches him. Got a crybaby? Tears that will flood a house.

This one is good but a little more preachy than the others in the series. 

Three stars

This book came out 1955

Follows Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

Maybell Parrish doesn't really like the real world so she spends a lot of time in her Alternate Universe (AU). But the real world has finally come up with some good luck. Well, sort of. Her great aunt, the one with whom Maybell spent a wonderful summer when she was eleven, has died. And she left Sarah everything. At least that's what Maybell is told to begin with. However, she learns to her horror that she is actually a co-inheritor. The other is a man whose face she knows. It's the face her (now erstwhile) friend used to catfish Maybell. Used to being quiet and now faced with a man that she thought was fictional (and largely is thanks to her imagination), Maybell has a decision. Does she give up the first good thing in her life or does she work toward a brighter future?

I think that Hogle may just not be an author I enjoy. Maybell spent a lot of time in her imagination and I'm not sure how it really ended up serving the story. It meant that we got less time with Wesley who seemed like a good guy with his own issues that might have been interesting to explore. I was also having trouble figuring out how time flowed in this novel and some of that was the fact that these two didn't ever interact with anyone else in the story except for the great aunt's caretaker who was more of a plot point than a true character. 

Three stars

This book came out April 6th, 2021

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

How Sweet It Is by Dylan Newton

A fun and frothy book, this was a perfect book to bring to the beach and just enjoy the ride as Kate and Drake meet and begin their HEA. Some good points about celebrity and assumptions. I would've liked a little less showboating on Drake's part and to have seen a little bit more of his family because their ties seem awesome and a bit more of Kate's family and their eventual acceptance of her career choice. I am hopeful that his two brothers and Kate's bestie, publishing agent Imani, might be some sequel-bait. 

Kate Sweet has one goal in life, to win an EVPLEX, a major award given to Event Planners. But, while she has some great renown for her weddings, wedding planner don't usually win. So when her best friend calls with a proposition for Kate to fill in and complete a horror writer's book launch, she's hesitant but decides to take a chance. 

However, the first meeting with said publisher goes horribly with a series of events that culminate in Kate being on top of him when Imani walks in... with the director who is optioning Drake's book (but also helped Drake's ex publish a tell-all about him). 

Drake is bemused by this woman who comes in and plans the exact wrong kind of event for his book launch. In fact, he fires both her and Imani. But then he realizes that he's being a jerk and rehires her. And then he realizes that she is actually pretty good at her job and that he just needs to slow down and listen because she and he might be creating something pretty grand together.

Four stars

This book comes out July 13th, 2021

ARC kindly provided by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts

Hope Beaumont was introduced to the series in book one, The Next Always, when she joined the Boonsboro in as the innkeeper. When she and Ryder Montgomery saw each other for the first time, a bolt of lightning hit each. Then they took an instant dislike, each assuming the other was some sort of snooty or snotty. So of course, we the readers knew they were some day going to fall in love. 

It's a good, steady Roberts story with a little bit of the supernatural thrown in. In this book, we get to find out about Lizzie and her lover and they get their happy ending as well (it's a romance, this is not a spoiler.)

Three and a half stars

This book came out November 1st, 2011

Follows The Last Boyfriend

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Flare Up by Shannon Stacey

I wish I had read this book closer to the time I had read the others in the series because I had forgotten most of Wren and Grant's back story (some of which was seen in other books) and I couldn't remember most of the rest of the characters which made me feel slightly disconnected. I think it would have been different if I just hadn't read the series at all but knowing that I had read about these people but just couldn't remember their stories frustrated me a little. I also didn't realize that there were two or three chapters at the end of the book from another of Stacey's series and was sort of startled at how quickly the ending wrapped up when I was expecting so many more pages.

Grant Cutter was well on his way to the HEA that all of his other friends were experiencing. Then Wren Everett just disappeared, breaking his heart. He is therefore fairly shocked to see her again when he is called to a fire in a not-so-great part of Boston. 

Wren is also surprised to see Grant again. She ran to protect him when she feared that her abusive ex had found her again. But now that Grant is back in her life, she isn't sure she can walk away again.

I liked that Grant didn't immediately try to swoop in and rescue Wren when she lost almost everything in the fire. Instead, he was respectful of what she needed. He was a little less understanding about why she ran in the first place but I was actually more shocked that some of the women in his life were less understanding as well. 

Three stars

This book came out 

Follows Under Control

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

Not my favorite Agatha Christie for sure but an okay read nonetheless.  Part of my yuck includes casual racism and romanticizing of physical violence. 

Short synopsis: Girl, who recently lost her father, sets out to find adventure. When she witnesses an accidental death on a train platform, it sets off a train of excitement which leads to South Africa as well as several attempts on her life. Colonel Race is actually a minor character but the events in this book do lead him in to his life of fighting crime.

Three stars

This book came out August 22nd, 1924

Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Premium Plus

Opinions are my own

Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh

When Nayna Sharma was 14, her sister ran away to get married. This wouldn't be so bad if their family weren't so darn traditional. Seeing how it affected her family, Nayna has since become the perfect daughter. And more and more she's starting to feel like she's in the perfect cage. Now that she's agreed to an arranged marriage, she sees the door to the cage swinging shut. For one night, she just wants to be a "normal" twenty-eight-year-old woman. So she goes to a party and makes out with a guy. At least she does until she sticks her foot in her mouth. And he disappears. Until he shows up at her parents as the next possible marriage match...

Raj Sen is traditional and he wants a traditional life. That means a wife who stays home and takes care of him and, hopefully, his future children. But when he meets Nayna at a party, he decides that he needs to find her again before he can fall into marriage. He is shocked that the dutiful daughter he is meeting is the same woman. But he asks her if they can see where the relationship is going to go. Working around old pains, meddling families, and family health issues makes the path to an HEA rather hard but worth it.

I might have been anticipating this book a little too much. It was very good but I got rather annoyed with the frequent mentions of Nayna being so dutiful and Raj being long suffering. It may also have been different if I had read it rather than listening to it. edited to add: It was different reading it. I liked it so much more as an ebook.

Four stars

This book came out September 18, 2018

Follows Cherish Hard

Followed by Love Hard

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Reread as ebook from Libby January 2022