The Trouble With Witches by Amanda M. Lee

Clove is about to meet Sam's parents and she is terrified. The situation becomes complicated when Bay starts seeing ghosts on the tanker that Sam has recently brought onto his property. Also seeing the ghosts? Little Annie. And that makes the situation that much harder.

There are a couple of other things going on including Landon (and possibly his snotty partner) moving from Traverse City to their own small town. And there's a firebug who seems to be escalating.

The two stories don't actually intertwine which was sort of interesting (as even the characters note). If you liked the rest of the books in this series, this will be no different.

Three and a half stars

This book came out October 31, 2016

Follows Charms & Witchdemeanors

Followed by Murder Most Witchy

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Gnome Schooled by Erik Henry Vick

There is a new Grand Cynosure in town and he is declaring a war on snacks. He had ties to a gnome extremist group but has supposedly cut those ties many years ago. But that war becomes even more important when an angel turns up dead of an overdose on Cheez Its. It's a murder that sends Dru and Leery to work with Ice Cofy, a man who is both Claw and Warder. They will also be sent to a number of different factions in order to figure out who actually supplied the drugs that killed the angel.

Lots of little in jokes to the TV series here. The story starts and ends with the GC but it is so loosely tied to the meat of the actual story (the drug dealers) that it doesn't make much sense but it was highly entertaining.

Three stars

This book came out August 28, 2020

Follows They Ate Gatsby

Followed by A Tail of Two Cities

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Matchmaking a Single Dad by Denise Grover Swank, Angela R. Casella

Holly Mayberry and Cole Garrison do not like each other. Not a little bit. Not at all. Yet sparks fly when they are around each other. Because they dislike each other so much. It has nothing to do with a series of misunderstandings that occurred after they kissed almost a decade ago. But now they are thrown together when Holly starts working with a number of students after school and Cole's (incredibly precocious) daughter Jane is included in the group. 

Unbeknownst to the two of them, they are also matched in the dating app that Holly is helping to develop. It will take the two of them banding together against Cole's in-laws who are trying to take Jane away in order for them to figure out that they can, at the very least, be enemies with benefits. 

The timeline in this book was very confusing to me. I do enjoy this series but this story was maybe not as well plotted as some of the others.

Four stars

This book came out August 11, 2022

Follows Matchmaking a Billionaire

Followed by Matchmaking a Grump

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

They Ate Gatsby by Erik Henry Vick

Key witness J. Gatsby is not in court and he's got a good reason, he's dead. His ghost points toward a group of vampires known as the Dead Set. This is a super exclusive group that only someone who moves in high social circles would be able to infiltrate. One who might want to bring along her werewolf partner along as a bodyguard.

This book has an unexpected ending but it was better than the last book because Dru has, finally, stopped talking like a little girl.

Three stars

This book came out July 24, 2020

Follows Silkie Stalkings

Followed by Gnome Schooled

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Her Pretend Christmas Date by Jackie Lau

Younger sister Julie Tam has always felt inferior to her sister Charlotte. No fault of Charlotte's but she is an engineer with a job that their parents understand. Now, Charlotte's dating a perfect guy and Julie is... well... she's making jewelry and waiting tables. She's not ashamed of either but neither does she enjoy getting into fights with her parents over what she's doing with her life. She needs something and the perfect fix might be the right man. Too bad the blind date she's been set up with, Tom Yeung, isn't going to be that man. But she decides to tell her parents he is anyway. And when her mom asks if Tom wants to come for Christmas, Julie throws caution to the wind and asks the man who's unknowingly been her fake boyfriend for months if he'd like to go with her. When he says yes, she's absolutely floored. But grateful.

Through tribulations (sleeping on the floor) and trials (couples gingerbread house bakeoff), the two start to get to know and appreciate each other.

Four stars

This book came out December 8, 2020

Follows His Grumpy Childhood Friend

Followed by The Professor Next Door

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Marple -- Anthology

I was drawn in by names like Alyssa Cole, Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, and Elly Griffiths and even more by the promise of more Miss Marple stories. Enjoyment will vary based on whether or not you are looking for authors who write like Christie or just more stories with Miss Marple. 

Evil in Small Places by Lucy Foley

I think Foley very much tried to write in the vein of Christie and succeeded here and there though her own voice peeped through in places. This is a story very much like previous Marple stories; Jane goes to visit an old school friend and the choirmaster, a woman much disliked in the village, is murdered. 

The Second Murder at the Vicarage by Val McDermid

Told from the first person view of St. Mary Mead's vicar, Leonard Clement, we visit a lot of old characters when the maid from the Murder at the Vicarage, Mary, is found dead in the kitchen. I feel like Christie usually gave us more clues than we got in this story but it is fun to read all of the Easter Eggs.

Miss Marple Takes Manhattan by Alyssa Cole

Dear nephew Raymond West has a play opening in New York that is based on one of his novels. Of course, he wants to bring Jane with him. She sneaks out of the hotel to go shopping and accidentally meets one of the actors in the play, though she doesn't know it at the time. Later, at an off-Broadway theater, the woman's co-lead is found behind the curtain having apparently been accidentally electrocuted and it is up to Jane to solve the mystery. 

Cole uses a deft hand to add in a wider pantheon of characters than we normally get to see in a Christie novel. 

Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware

Raymond West and his wife, Joan, again share the stage with Jane in a story set at Christmas. Of course, it will be pleasant to have the "children" with her again but it's not like the Christmases of her youth. 

The Open Mind by Naomi Alderman

This story was a little more complicated with Miss Marple in the seventies watching an older man take drugs with a very young woman while his colleagues watch and comment that he is preying on another young girl. It's not a surprise that he dies. 

The Jade Empress by Jean Kwok

On a cruise to visit her nephew in Hong Kong, Miss Marple meets an interesting Chinese expat, Mr. Pang, who is taking his daughter to meet the half-brother she never knew about. There are a series of mysterious happenings that point to Mr. Pang's being threatened and then he is murdered. 

A Deadly Wedding Day by Dreda Say Mitchell 

It is the wedding day of the son of a baronet and a young woman from the Carribean. His seats are full, hers have only her aunt, Miss Bella. A young woman shows up unexpectedly, makes a small scene, then eats dessert and dies. Miss Marple and Miss Bella figure out what actually happened. 

Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths

A first person story with an author debating whether to kill off his best-selling creation. He goes to the beautiful Villa Rosa where all of the occupants seem to have dark histories. Except maybe the nice Miss Marple. 

The Murdering Sort by Karen M. McManus

Raymond West's grandchild is the first person narrator of this short story. She has made a new friend, an American devoted to the environment, and has been invited to visit at the girl's grandfather's birthday. Unfortunately, it ends up being the night that the grandfather announces a new will, and then proceeds to die. Well, it seems like he does but it turns out he is testing his family... until he really does die. 

The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse

Miss Marple meets a young priest who is confused since his lady love has disappeared. Yes, she might have run away after her mother died but the general consensus is that that is not her usual demeanor. 

The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo

Miss Marple is visiting Raymond and Joan in London but jumps at the chance to leave when Dolly Bantry calls. She is missing some family heirlooms and the son of the local house has vanished as well. She doesn't tell Jane about another missing girl. 

Four stars

This book comes out September 13, 2022

ARC kindly provided by William Morrow and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Love, Comment, Subscribe by Cathy Yardley

Cathy Yardley writes such lovely contemporary novels about women in tech. This is just another wonderful addition to her canon. I went back and forth reading the ebook and listening to the book on Audible and enjoyed both versions. 

Growing up, Lily Wang just wanted to be popular. We get to see one interaction where she tries to join the popular kids but is pushed back to her circle of friends, the ones who call themselves the Nerd Herd. There is some hurt from her friends but they smooth it over quickly. Except for Tobin Bui, Lily's high school arch nemesis. But now he's a popular YouTube star and Lily could use his... not help per say but his name. Her own beauty channel has maxed out on viewers and she's not willing to get into a feud or start trashing products in order to build more. So a collaboration seems like it could be a good idea. Even with someone who mostly does pranks.

The two work together and manage to produce several successful videos even though their working styles are completely different. And, of course, this is a romance so working together might just prove that these two opposites will attract.

Four stars

This book came out October 21, 2021

Followed by Gouda Friends

Borrowed as ebook and audiobook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own