Hate to Date You by Monica Murphy

Another book where the best friend isn't a dick about their best friend and a sibling falling in love. It makes the story so much better. In this case, Stella Ricci's best friend has a brother. This is the man with whom Stella had one hot night and then he walked out never to be heard from again. 

Carter knows he was a dick, leaving early after his hot night with Stella. He knows that living with her (his sister's idea) isn't going to go over well but, well, he is trying to figure out his life. He just moved back to town after living the high life as a real estate agent. He made a lot of money but he spent a lot of money too so the cheaper rent will come in handy. 

Stella isn't at all delighted but she endures. Then, somehow, Carter starts to become wrapped up in her family, working on updating her grandmother's home and giving her father advice. They were just supposed to be having something light. What is going on?

Four stars

This book came out April 3rd 2020

Follows Holidate

Followed by Rate a Date

Borrowed as audiobook from Liby

Opinions are my own

Healthy Happy Sexy by Katie Silcox

If you want to read a white woman writing about an ancient practice from another culture, this will be the book for you. This book has some obvious and glaring errors ("eskimos" do not have over a hundred words for snow; women do not sync cycles) and definitely wouldn't be an effective tool for anyone who has even a basic knowledge of Ayurveda already. It does serve as a very surface-level exploration of what the Western world thinks Ayurveda means but doesn't provide anything new to the subject.

Three stars

This book came out January 13, 2015

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

Murder at the House on the Hill by Victoria Walters

I didn't read this book in time before it archived in NetGalley but I was interested enough to buy it when it became available on Kindle. Overall, it was an okay read but I really couldn't get over the fact that Nancy (named after Drew) decided to investigate a death because of a bet. Yep. A woman dies and Nancy and her grandmother decide that they will try and beat the police to the answer because Nancy's best friend (who is probably desperately in love with her but leading other women on) thinks they can't. Ew. 

The Roths are a wealthy family that live in Dedly End. Around thirty years ago, they had a party that ended when the housekeeper was accused of stealing money. That was the last time the mansion was open to the public. Now, they are having a party again and Nancy and her grandmother, as  business owners (a mystery bookstore that is arranged according to Nancy's deceased father's whims). The party is to celebrate the granddaughter of the house's engagement. There are two other children, both sons, and the elder son is married to a woman that the rest of the family doesn't seem to approve of. And she is the one who ends up dead.

Three stars

This book came out September 23rd 2021

Followed by Murder at the Summer Fete

Ebook from Kindle

Opinions are my own

Hot Pursuit by Christina Skye

I hadn't read books from this series in a while. Christina Skye is an interesting writer though I usually like her paranormals better than her contemporaries. This was... okay. 

Suspense writer Taylor O'Toole has just discovered that she was adopted and can't decide what to do about it. This seems to be a point about why she's in such emotional upheaval but doesn't really add anything to the story. The bigger problem of her life right now is that somebody seems to be trying to kill her. All she did was try to help a friend by spying on the friend's boyfriend. The guy turns out to be a despicable jerk who is creating poisons for a foreign power and he's spent their money but hasn't turned over the money. Her sister's husband is worried about her and has sent Izzy who in turn sent Jack Broussard to watch over her. Jack is a SEAL and is ready to help out, even before he falls in love with Taylor. A bit dated, after all, it was written in 2003 and some of the technology is different. Even women's attitudes would be different because, oh my god, Taylor is an idiot but she mostly didn't REALLY annoy me until the end so an okay book.

Three stars

This book came out July 27, 2004

Follows My Spy

Followed by Code Name: Nanny

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own

Murder in an English Village by Jessica Ellicott, Barbara Rosenblat

Beryl Helliwell is surprised to recognize a name in the rooms for rent section of the newspaper; it is her friend from finishing school, Edwina Davenport. Presenting herself as a prospective lodger, Beryl finds out that her friend is close to financial ruin and offers to stay and help out. She also starts a rumor in the village that Edwina was just pretending to be poor and that they are both actually secret agents in town to unbury the secrets of the past, just a harmless rumor, right? Except then Edwina is attacked and nearly strangled to death in her own garden. And rumors about a Land Girl who disappeared in the war start swirling. Finally, one of the women who worked with the missing girl is murdered.

With a policewoman who doesn't think much of loose women (who are out after dark  and/or go to movie theaters) and a doctor who thinks that Edwina is making things up because she never married, this book certainly includes attitudes of the time. The mystery is a little overly littered with red herrings but Barbara Rosenblat makes this book worth a listen.

Four stars

This book came out October 31, 2017

Followed by Murder Flies the Coop

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Trojan Gold by Elizabeth Peters

A mysterious photograph is sent to Vicky through the mail. With no name on the envelope, she is not certain who it came from. The envelope, removed by the overly efficient Gerta, may or may not have been covered in blood. Of course, Schmidt is not going to let this rest. He wants to know exactly who sent the letter and where the lost jewels depicted in the picture went to. Good it be that there is a lost stash of museum items stolen by the Nazis yet to be uncovered?

Vicky doesn't necessarily believe it to be so but she is willing to find out. And maybe that will bring her across the path of her on-again/off-again beau again. 

This book is better in the audio version. The narrator, Barbara Rosenblat, is one of my favorites and bumped it up an entire star. 

Four stars

This book came out in 1987

Follows Silhouette in Scarlet

Followed by Night Train to Memphis

In my Audible library

Opinions are my own

Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts

The last in the trilogy, we are reading about the virgin queen and the vampire. There is a lot more sturm and drang than I enjoy in a romance but I did like that Moira knew her own mind and took her future into her own hands and I actually did enjoy the battle scenes even though I don't usually enjoy books about vampires.

It is time for the final stand down. If Moira can't win this battle, she will lose for not only her people, but humanity in all the other worlds as well. She knows that she owes it to her people to fight, to be their queen but she wants to take a moment for herself. Or several.

Three and a half stars

This book came out November 1, 2006

Follows Dance of the Gods

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own