The Café between Pumpkin and Pie -- Anthology

In the town of Moonbright, young woman who chant some specific lines on Halloween are destined to see the reflection of their true love before the night is over. Three loosely connected stories explore the romances of 2021.

Love Over Easy by Katie Angell

Hannah Allan is in a little over her head. Dressed as Bo Peep so that her sister's children (her sister is home with a cold and her brother-in-law is at work as a policeman) can go to the Halloween parade and then go trick-or-treating. She didn't expect to run into Jake Kaylor. He is the man that every woman in Moonbright wants. Hannah's sister was his girlfriend for awhile but they didn't work out. 

Hannah's family owns the Corner Cafe. She works as a waitress and may not always get everyone's orders right, but she is pleasant and the town loves her. Jake is beyond what she can imagine, the bad boy extraordinaire. Yet he somehow has eyes for her. And she's looking back...

Some of the language by Angell is a bit formal and I'm not sure I bought an HEA but for sure there was an HFN.

Three stars.

Love Rising by Stacy Finz

I've read Stacy Finz before and was happy to recognize some characters from previous books. Of the three stories, this felt the most cohesive and it may have helped that the main characters knew each other in the past and seemed to be willing to meet each other halfway to make the relationship work.

Sydney Byrne is only in Moonbright to sell her grandmother's house and then she's going back to San Francisco and back to her bakery. She's not sure why Nick Rossi is at the house at o'dark thirty, nor does she know why he's tearing down the wall to her grandmother's crafts room but she never suspects that her grandmother may have made alternate plans.

Nick doesn't know why Sydney's grandmother hired him but he always fulfills his clients requests. Especially when it means that he's tweaking Sydney's nose at the same time. The two were close in high school with Sydney tutoring him. But then his girlfriend caught them kissing and spread horrible rumors about Sydney that Nick did nothing to stem. Now they're all grown up, both single, and he's thinking that they can test the waters again. But Sydney's life is across the country, how can they make it work?

Three and a half stars

Romance on Tap by Marina Adair

I really liked that Adair wrapped in the experiences of a child adopted from another country but still loves her adoptive parents. Mila Cramer is back in Moonbright so that her parents can have one last Christmas in the house she grew up in. While she's in town, she's determined to lift the curse that Ford James put on her when he kissed her during Seven Minutes in Heaven in high school. That was the last time she kissed a man with whom she had such chemistry. But Ford's twin brother Hudson might book a spoke in those plans.

Again, having characters who already have a history served the author well in this short story. It made me believe that they might have a shot at an HEA because they do know each other... at least their histories. 

Three and a half stars

Three and a half stars

This book comes out August 31st, 2021

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber

Still struggling to adjust to life after the war and after her husband's return from death, Verity Kent is further distressed to be going to her childhood home where her mother's sharp tongue and the ghost of her brother Robby will only bring up bad memories. Her great aunt Ilse has also shown up. The seventy-nine-year-old woman is a favorite relative of Verity's but she is not the same woman Verity remembers. Which makes sense. The woman has lost all of her relatives and her longtime personal maid. Now she has barely made it to a foreign country where many people actively hate Germans. 

They are all off to Yorkshire where Verity's past still seems to haunt her. Then Ilse's maid, Bauer, is brutally murdered and the village is riled up in innumerable ways.

This was a good book and the mystery was fine but even better are the ways that Verity and even Sidney grew in this book. We get to see more of the family that Verity has been avoiding. Family hurts are brought to light; maybe not all healed but at least finally acknowledged. It was a nice diversion from the dealings with Lord Ardmore.

Four stars

Follows A Pretty Deceit

Followed by A Certain Darkness

This book comes out August 31st, 2021

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Breaking Badger by Shelly Laurenston

I loved this story. It didn't focus quite enough on the romance between Finn and Mads but it read quickly and had a lot of the fun that readers expect from a Laurenston book with just the right amount of exclamation marks (they were a little thick on the ground in the last book.) 

The Malone brothers have been divided from most of the rest of the shifter community since their father was murdered and no one else acknowledged it as such. The oldest three are working to figure out who did the actual deed. They don't care so much about the why (at least that I read) as they do about justice.

Mads and her teammates (they're certainly not friends!) have been sent to a mysterious island where they once again encounter the Malone brothers (you don't HAVE to have read the previous books in this series but why wouldn't you?). When the Malones figure out that the only way they might find out what happened to their father means kissing up to the badgers, Finn is nominated to be the one to do the kissing which is going to be especially hard since his brother kicked the badgers out after they brought thank you pastries (I just love this idea so much.) 

Four stars

This book comes out August 31st, 2021

Follows Badger to the Bone

Followed by Born to Be Badger

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Reread as audiobook from Audible

Witch Me Luck by Amanda M. Lee

I never had an arch enemy in high school but Bay Winchester sure did. Like most fictional high school nemeses, Lilah Stevens is beautiful, popular, and mean. Really and truly mean. And Bay was her favorite victim. And still is. Because Lilah is back in town and she's set her sights on Bay and on Bay's man, Landon. She's not even subtle about it, immediately sidling up to Landon soon after someone robs the local bank. Landon's not having it and, in fact, is too busy reaming out Bay because she ran to the shots rather than away from them.
It was really nice to see how much Bay really did trust Landon. Although, she did wobble quite a bit on the trust issues, especially when it comes down to reporting the evidence that points to her cousin Clove's beau, Sam, as the bank robber. Even when it means that Clove is no longer talking to Bay.
There was a little too much drama in this one for me but I do love that the women are finding their HEAs without losing too much of themselves.

 
Three stars
This book came out May 1st, 2015

Follows Something to Witch About

Followed by Life's a Witch

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Something to Witch About by Amanda M. Lee

Bay Winchester's life is never easy but these days seem unnecessarily complicated. Right now, her father is building an inn with his two ex-brothers-in-law that is going up against her mother and her mother's sisters business, her cousin Clove is sneaking around doing who knows what, her boyfriend Landon's family is in town visiting and his mother doesn't really seem to approve of her, her great aunt Tillie is growing pot and her new greenhouse just dug up a set of bones, when Bay goes down with Landon and the police chief to see what is going on, a poltergeist shoots right through her. The remains are identified fairly quickly and Tillie seems to be a viable suspect for the death. As Bay tries to clear her great-aunt Tillie's name, she is also working not to alienate Landon's mother completely nor let his family see exactly how different her family is.

There was a lot of movement forward for Bay as well as her two cousins in this book which was highly enjoyable. 

Four stars

This book came out October 17th, 2014

Follows Witching on a Star

Followed by Witch Me Luck

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Love at First Hate by A.R. Casella

In previous books in the series, we were introduced to the Bad Luck Club. This was for the people who seemed to have more bad luck than good but who were actively working to make a change. Blue, a previous heroine, even graduated. But it seems that one of the members has written a book about the club claiming that she founded it. And new Bad Luck Clubs are popping up all over. But was she really the inspiration?

Molly O'Shea is ready to jump-start her career. She's just lost her job at a dating blog site and is back in Asheville to watch her sister's dogs while her sister is on a babymoon. What else does she have to do? But this reveal about the BLC might get her going in a different direction, more in line with what she wants to do. Too bad that researching the club might ruin what could have been a great relationship with Caleb "Cal" Reynolds. Because picking at the secrets of the club mean picking at the secrets of Cal's past. And he doesn't want those secrets to resurface.

I really liked that Molly came clean with Cal early in the book. I was getting some definite squick from the idea that she might lie to him about why she was getting in touch.

Four stars

This book came out August 12th, 2021

Follows Luck of the Draw (Asheville Brewery series)

Followed by Jingle Bell Hell

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Hidden Miles by Claire Kingsley

Leo Miles hasn't left his family's property in three years. Not since he came back from the war scarred down one side of his body and with PTSD that confines him to the vineyard. His solace is his online gaming where he hangs out with his friend Gigz (short for giggles.) Hearing her voice just makes him feel good. When he hears her voice at a wedding on the family property, he's astonished. But he can't show her his physical self.

Hannah Tate knows she needs to leave her relationship but she's terrified that her abusive boyfriend will hurt her when she does (TW for physical harm). She is shocked to have a moment with a stranger at her boyfriend's cousin's wedding but intrigued. When she finds out the man is her online gaming buddy, Badger, she's shocked. But it turns out to be a blessing because he ends up being the only one she can call when her boyfriend does put her in the hospital. She ends up staying with him and eventually falling in love. Well, lust for sure. But he doesn't seem to feel the same. Or maybe he can't. But their feelings are about to be crystallized because the storyline involving Leo's father that has run through all four books in the series is about to come to a head.

This was some serious relationship whiplash in this book. If you don't like the h/h to have a relationship at the beginning of a book, this book will not be for you. Hannah's boyfriend is defintely an asshat but she doesn't get rid of him for well into the book. And there were so many Big Misunderstandings at the end... it just kept going. 

Three stars

This book came out March 22nd, 2019

Follows Reckless Miles

Followed by Gaining Miles

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own