How to Lose a Bride in One Night by Sophie Jordan

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Definitely my favorite in this series.

 We don't learn very much about Annalise except that she broke her leg and now limps and was in service until her ultra-wealthy father swooped in and picked her up out of obscurity. The story opens with her marrying marrying a duke, the dream of every girl, right? Except that, on their honeymoon cruise, he tries to kill her and then dumps her overboard. Annalise is found by Owen Crawford who is the Earl of Crawford, although he doesn't tend to bandy that about. He finds a gypsy encampment that is willing to take them in. Okay, there is some case for suspension of disbelief

Annalise's foot breaks in such a way that when the gypsy heals her, she no longer limps. Oh, and that extra weight? It drops off during her week-long coma and she is no longer very hungry so she just keeps it off. Um, why did we need all that? She had to be the Ugly Duckling and the Beggar Princess?

It's a fast book and it relies a little bit on the reader having read the previous books. While not absolutely necessary, it does help to know a little bit more about the characters.

Searching for Someday by Jennifer Probst

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It was really interesting that I kept sort of noticing things as I was reading that really annoyed me, but my overall feeling about this book was one of good will. I enjoyed it quite a bit and devoured it almost in one sitting (darn planes kept landing).
Kate Seymour is a matchmaker with some mystical powers, namely, she can sense a spark between two people who were meant to be together. Okay, yes, hokey

and even more hokey, she loses the power when she denies her own feelings.But it seemed to work.

Slade is a divorce lawyer who doesn't believe in love. He becomes a client of Kate's so that he can debunk the myth of them doing any good in the world (because he's overprotective-ly trying to save his sister from heartbreak.)
This is all very cliched and should have driven me nuts. The sex scenes were a bit more graphic than I like but you can always skim those. I was impressed that the characters were so good about protection, none of this magic hoo-ha or "I know you're a virgin so you must be pure" crap.
The worst part of this review is that I can not tell you why I enjoyed the book so much, especially since, as I noted, so many things irritated me (I didn't put them all in. Why point them <i>all</i>  out if they're  personal rather than storyline peeves? It must have been the writing. And I can't wait for the next books in the series.

Rumor Has It by Jill Shalvis

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Okay, I know this is an ARC from NetGalley and we're not supposed to ding books since it's not the final copy, but there were three, three, spelling/grammar errors in the first thirty pages. Very distracting. Luckily, I got into the flow of the story and there either weren't any more or I missed them.
Kate is a stereotypical romance heroine. She's smart, so when she gets nervous she gets verbal diarrhea (in the form of scientific facts) or clumsy (as in literally trips over her own feet.)
Griffin has just come back from the war. Not by choice. An IED caused some major damage and he's no longer active. He's back in Sunshine, Idaho for his sister's wedding (Kate's BFF.) Nobody thingks that he'll be good for Kate, including Grif, but somehow, the attraction is just to strong to deny.

One favorite quote from page 151--
Some men brought flowers.
Griffin had brought her mace.
She loved that about him.

Loved the unexpected ending to the storyline about someone watching her. Also loved that Griffin (why spell it "Grif?" It looks like a dog bark and took me out of the story every time) got to work through a lot of his issues but that Kate grew a little as well. The epilogue was unneeded and a little annoying.

It's implied that they're getting their HEA, does it explicitly have to be stated that they're getting married?

Sugar Cookie Sweetheart Swap--Anthology

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Where There's Smoke by Donna Kauffman

Clara Parker is not at a good point in her life right now. She's just been dumped (while on speaker phone, in the local grocery store.) Her job as a dating advice columnist is, quite obviously, not going to be an option. Her boss's suggestion that she do a baking column isn't going well either (she set her kitchen on fire.) Luckily, her old buddy, Will Mason, was nearby. He's a hunky (like, in a calendar, causing riots in a bookstore type hunky) firefighter. He and Clara never quite hooked up, though both wanted to. Maybe now is their second chance...

An interesting story, best of the group in my opinion.

The Gingerbread Man by Kate Angell

Abby is one of Clara's closest friends. She lived withher grandmother who has passed away. Lately, she's been amusing herself with an online business making erotic gingerbread cookies. During the local fundraiser, a stranger comes in, buys a box of her cookies, and then disappears. Well, at least until Abby finds his car off the road and takes him to her house. Lander Reynolds is grateful to Abby Denton for saving his life. And as they spend more time trapped in a snowstorm, they start to get to know each other, in a romantical type way.

An okay story. I liked Abby and Lander and this reminded me of Christmas shorts from the nineties but it was a little... slow.

Sugar And Spice by Kimberly Kincaid

Lily Callahan is a caterer who wants to expand her business. And winning the local bake-off is an easy way to do it. But she's up against Pete Mancuso (the guy who dumped Clara in the first story) who is a pastry chef who has dreams of his own. The sparks that fly between them in a partnership round make the ratings go through the roof. It's an attraction that the sponsors want to exploit and one that the two of them can't deny.

A bit to syrupy for me but an okay story.

Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak

As always, Brenda Novak writes a fiercely compelling book with hard-to-deal-with themes.
I've been wondering about Sophia's story. She was the golden girl of high school, the bitch who treated everyone with disdain, including Ted Dixon. But in past books, she's been working her way back into the group of friends Novak has been centering her books around.

And that's what I didn't love in this book. She's obviously been abused and is trying to make amends but everyone seems to still blame her for not only what she did oh so many years ago but also for the pyramid scheme her husband set up.

Now, it seems that her husband, Bill, a real jerk who has defrauded most of the town with a Ponzi scheme, had died and Sophia's left holding the bag. She has no working skills and a daughter to care for.
The only person semi willing to help is Ted, a guy she unceremoniously dumped in high school. He, and his mother both still hold a grudge. Besides, he's dating another girl in their group of friends. But that doesn't mean that he is completely heartless. He gives Sophia a job as his housekeeper (did I mention that he's come up in the world?).
A familiar romance trope with a uniquely Novak-spin. The characters are fully-developed and evoke a feeling of camaraderie in the reader. It can be heartbreaking but definitely worth the read.

The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins

Wow. I have to say, I was predisposed not to like this book when it opened with a family friend/gynecologist telling Hope that, at 35, her eggs are dying and she has to have kids now!!!!! Um, okay. This sends Hope into a spiral and she decides that the guy that she’s been having a friends-with-benefits-relationship with for almost 20 years is going to her one and only. Really? She’s known for a looooong time that he’s not interested in being in a real relationship but now she’s going to leap into the marriage question?

Granted, she’s pushed into asking by a frenemy who really wants said guy for herself but… okay

It’s a testament to Kristan Higgins writing skills that I not only kept reading the book but really, really enjoyed it. And that as I write this review, I keep thinking of more and more things about the book that bothered me but I still have warm fuzzies and will re-read this book before the gods of NetGalley push its expiration date.

Hope is kind of in a rut. And we’ve all experienced this, where we think life is going okay and suddenly it’s x number of years later and we haven’t at all accomplished what we thought we were going to.

I also liked her hero, Tom. He desperately needs to stay in the country in order to remain physically close to the boy who was almost his stepson. However, he finds out that the university where he’s teaching can’t afford to renew his greencard

another peeve here-even though there’s a last minute change and suddenly there’s no need for Hope and Tom to marry… unless it’s truly love…-why hinge the whole book on a premise that’s gone at the end?

He’s got issues (ahem, the drinking) but he’s aware of and working on many of them. And he really loves his stepson.

Sometimes a Rogue by Mary Jo Putney

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Oh. I liked this book. I've been waiting to read Sarah's story since her twin got married in Loving a Lost Lord. And Sarah starts out the book as a heroine.
She's walking with her sister, Mariah, a duchess about to give birth. They hear some men planning to kidnap Mariah and Sarah bravely takes her place. She's a spinster with nothing to lose while Mariah is living a very happy life.
It's a good thing that Rob Carmichael is just arriving on the estate. He's a Bow Street Runner (though noble born) and is still recovering from his some-time bedmate falling in love with, and marrying, a man that Rob doesn't particularly like (another good book, No Longer a Gentleman.) He thought they were in a committed relationship but the same wasn't true for the woman with whom he was involved.
But now he gets his HEA. If only they can escape the men who have kidnapped Sarah.

I loved that Sarah could ride horses so well but really disliked that Putney kept calling her a "tomboy who ran wild." It's great for the first description of Sarah as a girl, but after about the third time... eh. It was also interesting to me that Adam's aunt came back into the picture, though it was plain she was the villain but I am very happy that they killed her off.
I also enjoyed Rob's grandmother. She is cruel to him at first but then realizes that she is backing the wrong team by continuing to believe the lies of his dead half-brother and quickly starts to help Rob start cleaning up the mess left by the last two earls.
A major relief was that Rob's first love didn't turn out to be alive. The bastard daughter was an interesting spoke but I was so afraid that her mother was going come back and I just didn't see how Sarah could compete or how Rob could turn her away without being a complete jerk, even if she had "changed."

I loved the character development of the major characters and the minor characters were also fun. The villain was... maybe an unnecessary wrinkle but it was minor in an otherwise highly enjoyable book.