The Haunted Homecoming by Angie Fox

It's fall which means Homecoming in Sugarland, Tennessee. Verity Long is ecstatic because her peripatetic mother is coming to visit. She doesn't understand why her mother feels the need to travel all over the country when she could be living in the best place on earth. Her mother is especially excited to see a friend of hers she hasn't seen since high school, Ashley. Everyone else is excited because a big donation means a new scoreboard and the placement means that the school's time capsule is going to be dug up. Unfortunately, the capsule holds more than just good memories. There is a body in the capsule and it's wearing the same dress that Ashley was last seen in. Verity's mom begs her to figure out what happened to her friend.

Once again, Verity is running around talking to ghosts. And also meddling in their business. Well, Frankie and Molly business anyway. It seems Frankie is getting some cold feet about spending "Forever After" with Molly because... well, they're ghosts. And forever after is a darn long time for them.

I think you definitely will have want to have read other books in the series. It may not be absolutely necessary but it adds layers to the story.

Three and a half stars

This book comes out August 17th, 2021

Follows Southern Bred and Dead

Followed by Give Up the Ghost

ARC kindly provided by Moose Island Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Silver Ghost by Charlotte MacLeod

Max and Sarah are attending... some sort of function. I started this book awhile ago and it really didn't hold my interest. But there's a lot going on at this thing. Morris dancers, big dinners, the theft of some valuable cars and a murder. The solution seemed rather convoluted and depended on a plot device that has since been disproven but we got to see a bit more in the life of the Bittersohns and the eccentricities that surround them. 

Three stars

This book came out December 7th, 1987

Follows The Recycled Citizen

Followed by The Gladstone Bag

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

Four In Hand by Stephanie Laurens

Four gorgeous sisters in town for the season, all wards of one dangerous duke, or are they? In actuality, the oldest sister, the one who the duke is the most attracted to, is no longer in his care, and therefore not off-limits. But he doesn't want to let her know so he can stay close. Especially since these girls are rare beauties and he knows exactly what men are after. Even his friend and his brother who are the front runners for two of the girls. Can the girls get their men without giving up their virginity?

This is obviously an earlier romance novel with heroines who are arch but innocent and heroes who are rakes but in love.

Three stars

This book came out in 1993

This was a hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason by Susan Kandel

Cece Caruso is thirty-nine, divorced, and the mother of a twenty-one-year-old daughter.   Her latest biography of a mystery writer is due soon but she is blocked. She just can't identify with Erle Stanley Gardner, the writer of Perry Mason mysteries (and more!) But, in his correspondence, she finds a letter from an inmate who swears that he is innocent. Gardner left a note that the case rang a bell for him. So, Cece decides to follow up. And she is soon chasing down the story of a man whose wife was murdered and, left without an alibi, her husband was imprisoned. But Cece thinks the an is innocent. And she's procrastinating her book anyway...

She is also having to deal with the fact that her daughter's marriage is crumbling and there is an added character of her gardener who keeps trying to talk to her about her yard. An interesting first book in a series. I liked the addition of all of the biographical notes about Gardner. The mystery was a little shaky and I didn't completely understand why Cece was getting involved but this could be a fun series.

Four stars

This book came out May 4th, 2004

Followed by Not a Girl Detective

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

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