Blazing Summer Darling Investigations by Denise Grover Swank

I am really liking this series about a teen star turned reality star/private investigator. Summer Butler's first season of "Darling Investigations" was a surprise hit and she's back for the second season. Too bad she still has the same sadistic producer, the one who doesn't seem like her very much. In fact, Lauren has hired Summer's arch-nemesis, the boy who convinced her to fake a scandal that led to her downfall. Then, there's the fact that mysterious fires are starting all over town and everyone seems to be looking at Summer's cousin, Dixie. And then there are those pesky murders, also happening.

This book comes out June 5
Four stars
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Follows Deadly Summer 

The Great Sherlock Holmes Puzzle Book by Dr. Gareth Moore

This was fun book full of interesting logic puzzles. The links weren't all correct which led to some frustrations but I would hope that would be fixed by the time they published the book.

Four stars
This book came out May 11
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

A Passion for Haunted Fashion by Rose Pressey

Cookie Chanel is helping out as a costume designer at the local theater. One night, she's in the basement when she meets a 1950s ghost named Peggy while a man is murdered upstairs. The main suspect? Cookie's friend Heather. So she has two murders to solve.
I was a bit bummed because Cookie didn't spend as much time with Heather as would have been nice and Peggy's murder was solved incredibly quickly just to wrap up the end of the book. Not a horrible addition to the series but not one of the better ones.

Three stars
This book comes out May 29
Follows If the Haunting Fits, Wear It 

So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know by Retta

Following the path of many famous people, Retta has released her biography. While it seems like this would be my catnip -- written in her own voice, telling the story of a normal person made good -- it just wasn't hitting the spot. I realize that this was a good book and I started getting into it when she started describing her unexpected love affair with hockey.
I think that, if you want to read this book, you should buy the audio. I missed hearing her voice in my ear.

Three stars
This book comes out May 29

Rainy Day Friends by Jill Shalvis

Lanie Jacobs isn't running away from life per se. She's just sort of licking her wounds, recovering from the discovery that her husband was not just her husband. He had, in fact, married at least three other women that we hear about within the first 50 pages or so. Her choice of hideout? The Capriotti winery. She's spending two months living and working there, helping them to rebrand. What she didn't expect was a tight-knit family unit that invites this stand-offish woman into their fold.
Mark Capriotti is a single-dad who is working to make a good life for his six-year-old twin daughters. They are pretty much plot moppets but not super-annoying.
I didn't love Lanie's story. The B plot in this book was not really needed, especially since it was what took up most of the drama in the last third of the book and took away from us seeing Mark and Lanie developing.

Three stars
This book comes out May 30
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley
Follows The Good Luck Sister

Too Wilde to Wed Eloisa James

In the first book of this series,  Lord Roland "North" Northbridge Wilde tried to impress Miss Diana Belgrave by becoming the most fashionable man in London. But she left him anyway. An heir to a duke and he was dumped. He ran away to the war on the Continent. Two years later, he's back... and finds that his family rescued her from poverty. She's been working as his stepmother's governess.
Diana doesn't mind working. It allows her more freedom than living as a debutante ever did. What she does mind is the thought that she may have run him away from his family.
The time they have together lets them get to know each other much better than the time they spent as an engaged couple ever did.
I liked that these two finally did talk to each other... but it took a long time. The ending was a little twee but I've read worse.

Four stars

Follows Wilde in Love

Followed by Born to be Wilde
This book comes out May 29
ARC kindly provided by Edelweiss
Followed by Born to be Wilde

Reread as hard copy from library May 2024

Bitten Under Fire by Heather Long

Bianca Devlin's boss thinks that she needs a vacation. Which is why she's at a posh resort which got attacked and she was pulled into a kidnapping when she instinctively tried to protect a diplomat's son. Bianca is used to dangerous situations. She travels around the world helping people who are less fortunate than she is. But she never expected to end up here. And definitely did not expect that she would get bitten by a wolf.
Carlos "Cage" Castillo didn't mean to bite Bianca. She just accidentally got in the way of the bad guy he was trying to take down. He admired her guts but now he feels like he has to follow her to make sure that he's bite didn't cause any unintended consequences.
I'm somewhat new to shifter books and, while I didn't like this book as much as the Laurenston series, this was an okay read that I think regular readers of shifter novels will enjoy.

Three stars
This book comes out May 28
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley