Size Matters by Alison Bliss

Sam Cooper just got out of a doozy of a relationship and he's not looking for anything else right now. Not even a night of comfort. Until he meets the emerald eyes of a curvy brunette and then her friend comes over and picks up his friend Max. Too bad he opens his big mouth and the brunette seems to think he's rejecting her based on her size.
Leah knows she's not a size 2. Her ex dumped her because she was too big and her mother mentions her size every time they talk. So she's not surprised when the hot guy at the bar rejects her. It's par for the course. What's surprising is that he comes back to apologize. And then somehow announces to her mother that they're engaged. So now Sam has to help Leah back up his story since he's the one who got her into this mess in the first place. That includes a weekend at her grandparents' place at the beach.
This was a fast, fun, and fluffy story. Like one of Leah's confections, this is sweet but without a lot of substance. Leah and Sam fall in love and get engaged over the course of... a week? We don't get to know them much other than Leah  is not a fan of her size but that Sam is and he wants to save her.
I am looking forward to more books in this series. Especially if Leah's friend/bakery buddy, Valerie, gets to find her own man.

Three stars
This book came out November 29

Jed and the Junkyard War by Steven Bohls

Jed's parents have been doing strange things like dropping him off in the middle of Yellowstone and expecting him home in eleven hours since he was a kid. So when he wakes up one morning and all that's left is a note telling him to crawl through a tunnel with a backpack full of batteries and water bottles and an unusual watch to wait for his grandfather. Finally, he realizes what they've been doing all those years.
But the tunnel leads to an unusual new world. One where batteries are currency and the sky rains junk. It's a new world and Jed is fighting just to survive.
A really nice build up and great world building. Too bad the ending was sooooo flat.

Three stars
This book comes out December 6

Deadly Treasures by Vivian Conroy

Lady Alkmene grew up with a somewhat peripatetic existence, moving from house to house while her father was on botanical explorations and after her mother died. One boy that never seemed to care was Duncan Woolsbury. He used to torment her and Alkmene used to do her best to get even. Now Duncan is  getting older and his parents are afraid that he's never going to get married and present an heir to the viscountcy. They want Alkmene to present herself as a candidate to be his wife. She's very excited to travel to some far away place like Egypt or the Himalays. Unfortunately, it turns out he's excavating a medieval village in Cornwall.
When she arrives, Duncan is being held in between two constables. It seems a man was killed on the work site, his head bashed in with Duncan's own hammer. And there is a lot of intrigue around the site, supposedly there is a pile of gold buried somewhere in the castle. Duncan may have found some of it but there are plenty of people that would like for him to fail. So was the man killed because of something he did or to prevent Duncan?
I would have liked to see more character development in both Lady Alkmene and Jake Dubois. We're in book three and they're pretty much the same people we met in the first book.

Three stars

This book came out November 21

Follows Diamonds of Death

In Bed with the Georgians by Mike Rendell

I thought the idea for this book was interesting. And the execution was okay. The division of the chapters was interesting but allowed for a LOT of repetition and overlap. The decision to put almost all of the illustrations into an appendix was definitely odd and really difficult to flip back and forth in an ebook. If you like history or would like to learn more about the Georgian period, this was an okay book. The writing was readable if not particularly exciting and the idea was a good one.

Three stars
This book came out November 21

One Sexy Mistake by Sarah Ballance

I haven't read the other books in the series but didn't feel like I missed anything because of it. The book opens with both Olivia and Grady swiping right on Tinder and agreeing to a one night stand. But, since this is a romance novella, there are complications. In the form of a big storm. And the fact that Grady kinda-sorta already knows Olivia but he doesn't tell her that. Or that he helped cost her a job. And the fact that the ending is over-the-top stalker-weirdness. It was a quite lovely novella until then and I liked that Olivia and Grady were forced to get to know each other and that they seemed to have a good connection. But Grady's ideas of romance are not only creepy, they're illegal and took me right out of the story. And, of course, there's the whole "would this book fall apart if these two sat down and talked to each other the answer is yes" issue. 
I will definitely try Ballance again. I just did NOT like this book.

Two and a half stars
This novella comes out on November 28

The Heiress and the Hothead by Sabrina Jeffries

Somehow, I seem to have read this novella before but it wasn't labeled as a re-issue. I kept wondering what happened with Amanda Keane but I apparently knew? This is the novella that is the most danger-boniest of danger-boners.
Stephen is a reporter who is trying to change the world. He knows that the mill situations are dangerous for the workers and he is writing scathing articles. He wants to take some heat off by writing about Amanda Keane, owner of a factory in America but she keeps dodging him. Now he has tracked her down to a house party. And there, he meets a woman who is not at all what he expected. She may be the one person who can tame his fiery articles and teach him a new way to fight.
It's a novella so there's not a huge chance for the romance to develop. Mostly just a fight-fight-kiss.

Three stars

Comes out November 28

Wild at Whiskey Creek by Julie Anne Long

Glory Greenleaf comes from the wrong side of the tracks. Her family is poor and her brother has been arrested for running meth. Arrested by Eli Barlow no less, Jonah's childhood best friend. Well, all three of them used to run around together. This occurred pretty much right after Glory (Glory Hallelujah, no less) and Eli had one explosive night together. Of course, now that's all over.
Their paths cross again when Eli is called to the bar Glory is working at because there is a very serious poker game in which Glory seems to be the prize. She mostly rescues herself but then Eli also steps in.
Franco Francone, apparently self-absorbed movie star, is back in this book. This time, he too is hitting on Glory. He, of course, means nothing by it, not wanting a real relationship but we do get to see a bit more of the man. Hints at depth were in the first book and we see more here.
We also hear about Glory's talent (singing and songwriting) and her struggles to go further with it.
This was an okay story. It was nice to see Eli and Glory work their way back to each other but I never quite bought them as a pair.

Three stars
This book comes out November 29
Follows Hot in Hellcat Canyon
Followed by Dirty Dancing at Devil's Leap