Luck of the Draw by A.R. Casella, Denise Grover Swank

I get that the Casella/Swank books are supposed to be fun, fast, and fluffy books but I wish this book had been a bit longer so that we could see more how Dee and Dylan's relationship builds. Their meet-cute is adorable. Her Bad Luck Club sponsor has told her she needs to break the rules and her friend Sam (also going through a divorce) knows just what to do. There are weddings at a local park almost every weekend; they are going to crash one. One that Dee happens to know the bride and groom but also happens to be attended by Dylan who is bartending/bouncing. The latter because the bride and groom (River and Georgie) have people who might crash and destroy the wedding. They weren't actually expecting Dee and Sam. 

And Dylan certainly wasn't expecting Dee. He is struck by her beauty and is immediately drawn to her.  It seems that Dottie told her that she was right where she needs to be, the same thing Dottie told Dylan a few months ago. The insta-lust is palpable and believable. The longer term is part of what I'm missing. So is a longer discussion on Dylan's transition into a new position. 

Still, an enjoyable book that regular readers of the Asheville Brewing series will enjoy.

This book came out June 13th, 2021

Follows Bad Luck Club

Followed by Love at First Hate (Bad Luck Club series)

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Forbidden Miles by Claire Kingsley

I don't really get the whole sturm and drang of dating a sibling's best friend. If I hadn't been working my way through the series, I might have skipped this book. Especially since I also don't love New Adult and Brynn is twenty-one. Can people find their OTL at twenty-one? Certainly. But it's not my favorite reading. 

After finding her best friend and boyfriend together, Brynn Miles is okay with moving back home. She's got a friends-with-benefits who is helping her move back home. Little does she know that PDA with the FWB will help her find the love of her life... a man she already knows.

Chase Reilley never looked twice at Brynn Miles. His best friend for life is her brother, Cooper, and the two have been set up in the previous book as man-sluts. They'll sleep with anything that has a vagina but never actually pair up with any of them. However, seeing Brynn in the back booth of the local diner makes Chase suddenly realize that she is a Woman. And she must be his. But Cooper can't know.

Which, admittedly, Cooper doesn't take the news of their dating well but that also might be because he walks in on the two of them before they have a chance to talk to him (which Chase WAS planning on doing).

This is a fast and furious romance with the "I love yous" and marriage proposal happening just after the 50% mark. That means that there have to be a least a couple of Big Misunderstandings in the latter half of the book. And for some of the series arc to take up space that might have been given to a lengthier courting and more understanding that these characters might be finding their HEA and not just a HFN.

Three stars

This book came out July 20th, 2018

Follows Broken Miles

Followed by Reckless Miles

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

The Obsessions of Lord Godfrey Cavanaugh by Stephanie Laurens

Lord Godfrey Cavanaugh has always love art and paintings. He loves his job as an art authenticator... usually. Right now, he is slogging through a winter storm and isn't sure that he is going to make his destination. His valet has twisted an ankle and things are looking dark. Luckily, he finds a man named Masterson who is heading to the same manor house. Unluckily, being out in the cold brings out the same weakness that he used to suffer as a child, basically a really bad flu. 

Elinor "Ellie" Hinckley is hopeful that selling her mother's favorite painting will help restore some of the family's money. At least enough to get them through for awhile longer. She's 28 and the daughter of minor gentry so she has no hopes of marriage when a handsome man lands in their family's lap; she's more concerned about the painting being proved to be an original masterpiece. 

But all is not as it seems in the manor and Godfrey is going to be the person to help figure out what is going on. 

If you've enjoyed other books in the series, you know what you're going to get. It's a romance from Stephanie Laurens but a little muted since there is a looooooong stretch where Godfrey is ill so the action is a little lacking. I am curious about the side character of Mr. Jeffers (I was listening to the audio so the spelling might be wrong here) -- he was introduced as a man shrouded in mystery and, at least in my mind, ended the book in the same place.

Three and a half stars

This book came out 

Follows The Beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Vortex by Catherine Coulter

Like other recent books in the series, this one has parallel stories running through it. Dillon and Sherlock aren't actually in the same place or even working on the same case and, actually, aren't in the book as much as usual. But it was still a Coulter FBI Thriller. 

Mia Briscoe is a reporter working on a story related to a mayoral candidate for New York City. In no way did she expect it to lead to the story of a lifetime and the solving of her best friend's murder. But the man is seriously connected and all of a sudden, Mia is under attack. 

Meanwhile, Olivia Hildebrandt is under fire. The CIA operative has been attacked in her own home. She knows it has something to do with her boyfriend's disappearance. They had been on a mission to remove an undercover operative in Iran and now her boyfriend is gone. 

There was also sort of a throwaway story with Sherlock investigating a woman whose second husband has died mysteriously. I guess to reiterate what an awesome investigator she is?

Three and a half stars
Follows Deadlock

This book comes out August 10th, 2021
ARC kindly provided by William Morrow and Custom House and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

This book definitely suffers from being an older book -- lots of derogatory reference that (hopefully) wouldn't be included in books today. The overall mystery was interesting but there were a lot, a LOT, of red herrings that resulted in some last act twists and turns.

Anthony Cade is leading tours in South America when one of his friends comes up with an assignment. If Anthony delivers a manuscript to a London publisher by the 13th, his friend would get 1,000 pounds and he'll give Anthony 250. Anthony is ready for an adventure so he takes it on. He arrives safely in London but his first night there, the waiter who delivered his dinner breaks into his room and rifles through Anthony's suitcase. While the manuscript is safe, the packet of letters that someone had been using for blackmail is gone. 

A dead body that shows up in the lounge of the person who was ostensibly being blackmailed, another a shooting occurs at a house party just when Anthony is sneaking around, a country's throne is at risk, and Superintendent Battle is called into the scene. 

Three stars

This book came out in 1925

Followed by Seven Dials

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

This is definitely a nineties romance with a heroine who is too sweet to live and a hero who is so overly masculine that he might die from testosterone poisoning. But it also has a sweet story of the hero's mother (in her fifties) finding new love after she's been widowed for four years. And Gracie Snow does show some signs of being a strong heroine; Bobby Tom is just a jerk.

Gracie Snow is trying to expand her horizons. She's leaving working in a nursing home and teaching Sunday school for the bright lights of Hollywood. Her first task? To get former football player Bobby Tom from Chicago to Texas where he's supposed to be starring in a movie.

Bobby Tom knows he's hot stuff. He's tall, handsome, and rich. He can get any woman he wants. But he doesn't particularly like this short, plain woman who is trying to make him do something he doesn't particularly want to do. Yes, he signed a contract but so what? They can take the delays out of his paycheck. Is he avoiding his hometown where he actually requested the filming take place? Yes. His hometown is threatened with losing the biggest employer and they are trying to bring tourism to the town by creating a shrine out of his childhood home. And it's just all too much. But annoying Gracie Snow is making the trip at least a little bit better.  By the time they make it to Texas, he's willing to pay her salary in order to keep her around.

Four stars

This book came out April 1st, 1995

Follows It Had to Be You

Followed by Nobody's Baby but Mine

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Broken Miles by Claire Kingsley

Roland Miles is the oldest of his siblings and, as such, his father expected him to take over the family vineyard. Roland ran hard and ran fast. All the way to San Francisco. Too bad his need to prove himself cost him his marriage. Not that he sees it that way. All he knows is that Zoe left him. And he's not upset by it anymore. So when his brother Leo calls and tells him that the family vineyard is about to be taken by the bank, he only hesitates for a moment. Has it really been almost two years since he's been home?

Zoe Sutton is shocked that Roland has returned. But she's even more surprised that her feelings for him don't seem to have diminished at all. Even though her heart was broken, and it's been a long time since their divorce, she is still having some feels. 

Fast, fun, and fluffy. I enjoyed the book.

Four stars

This book came out March 5th, 2018

Followed by Forbidden Miles

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own