Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann

Lucky Hart is auditioning to be on a reality show. But not just any reality show, one that involves a haunted house. See, she has powers and thinks that she may be able to connect to the house. If chosen, she'll become the caretaker of Hennessee House. 

Through her explorations, there's also the people she meets along the way including a man named Maverick and his daughter, Rebel.

The first two-thirds of this book were really great. I enjoyed the character building and the world building. We get to see some characters that really communicate with each other. However, then there's too much going on and Lucky and Maverick stop talking for... reasons (?) in the third act and the whole story just sort of fell apart from there. 

Three and a half stars

This book comes out May 21, 2024

ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Last to Pie by Misha Popp

I'm still rather bemused by this series. The characters are well-developed, the premise is interesting (murder by magic pies... cool). The plots are not always coherent and heavy topics are sometimes explained oddly. I think regular readers won't find this book to be very different from the first two.

Daisy is up against a crooked cop in this book. He is beating his wife and she needs help. But it's not just one cop and, in the end, Daisy and Melly may be fighting for their own lives in addition to the client's. 

Three stars

This book comes out May 21, 2024

Follows A Good Day to Pie

ARC provided by Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Tastes Like Shakkar by Nisha Sharma

Have we read books before where the two best friends of the hero/heroine from the first book fall in love? Why, yes, yes we have. But have they perfectly played off the repartee of Beatrice and Benedick? Maybe. But I haven't read them. Highly enjoyable book although I thought the B-plot was a bit rough and really could have been left out.
Bobbi and Bunty have been thrown together for some wedding planning. He became her number one enemy when he, well-known chef, turned her down in for catering a wedding. She lost a lucrative contract and her uncle lost confidence in her. Now the man that raised her seems like he is pulling her dream further and further out of reach.
Bunty is trying to juggle the life he wants with the expectations of his family. While he is still in food, his father is trying to woo him back to the family business, frozen naan. To add to the complications, it is on the West Coast while his friends, and Bobbi, are on the East Coast. What is going to be more important in the end?

Three and a half stars

If Shakespeare Was an Auntie #2

This book came out August 1, 2023

Follows Dating Dr. Dil

Followed by Marriage & Masti

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

The Castleton Affair by Benedict Brown

Marius and Bella have a mysterious visitor one day. He's from the government and he needs their help to retrieve an agent who has been taken. They are eager to jump on (at least Bella is) and they follow a series of clues to rescue Earnest Castleton. But that's only the beginning of the story.

Suddenly, they are swept up into government secrets, spies and lies. In addition, Marius has to pretend to be Gilbert (Bella's fiance who he doesn't like) in order to attend a house party. That's where all sorts of things are going down, including murder. 

I would definitely have read the other two books in this series before this one. An enjoyable read but it didn't quite all fit together for me.  

Three and a half stars

This book comes out May 15, 2024

A Marius Quin Mystery #3

Follows The Hurtwood Village Murder

Followed by A Body at the Grand Hotel

ARC kindly provided by Storm Publishing and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Murder at the Piccadilly Playhouse C.J. Archer

A famous actress is dead. But was it by her own hand? Or was there something more sinister at play? 

Cleo made a little bit of a name for herself solving the murder of a man in her uncle's hotel. Because of that, the actress's lover asks her to look into the death. We get to see more of the people who work at the hotel, including Cleo's maid Harmony and the others who help her in her inquiries. We also see a bit of Mr. Armitage, although, he mostly refuses to join Cleo so there's not much of him. 

Cleo seems determined to get her name next to his on his detective business though. She sort of blunders her way around and there was at least one informant that there is some foreshadowing around, that he may not be innocuous and seems to have settled his focus on Cleo. 

Three stars

This book came out May 31, 2021

Cleo Fox #2

Follows Murder at the Mayfair Hotel

Followed by Murder in the Drawing Room

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

You May Now Kill the Bride by Kate Weston

Five friends have been tight since they were girls. Now, one of them is getting married. Technically, two of them are but this book focuses on the first wedding, Tansy's. Mainly because the hen party is about to go off the rails. 

It starts off bad enough that Tansy has a new influencer, ahem, "content creator" friend. Plus, she's gone all vegan in the last few years so her bachelorette is at a retreat that has no alcohol, no sugars, and nothing that makes a party fun. Plus, the five friends all have secrets including one big one. Tansy is particularly stressed because she is being blackmailed. She's not sure why. Or, to be more specific, she's not sure which one of her secrets is going to be exposed. Of course, it could be worse. She could be dead. And that's exactly what happens. But she's not the last to die...

There were so many arch comments that were dropped at the end of chapters. I felt like I was reading a serial radio show... but find out what happens in the next chapter! This was definitely fairly clued and the end was a bit over the top but a good story. 

Three and a half stars

This book comes out May 14, 2024

ARC kindly provided by Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Old Girls Behaving Badly by Kate Galley

Told in alternating viewpoints by Gina and Dorothy, we get to see these two women becoming friends. Gina is seventy-one and has just been told by her husband that he no longer wants to be married. No real reason other than the fact that he's bored with his life and thinks she's boring as well. So, while she's trying to figure out what her next steps are (with little help from her daughter who seems to blame Gina though her son is somewhat more sympathetic,) she sees an ad for a companion. 

Dorothy's granddaughter is getting married and, though she is generally just fine on her own, her family want someone to keep an eye on her; she just had a fall and she is older. 

Dorothy does her best to run off all of the potential caregivers but she clicks with Gina. But she doesn't want Gina as just a companion, she wants help getting back a painting that was stolen from her husband. The person who she believes took the painting is the same person hosting the wedding at his estate, Leonard. So the opportunity has presented itself. 

But there may be more than just a stolen painting that Leonard has that includes shady dealings. And it's those dealings that may be leading to the many "accidents" happening to Leonard. Before the book is over, will there also be someone dead?

Three and a half stars

This book comes out May 23, 2024

ARC kindly provided by Boldwood Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own