On the Square by Brenda Murphy

Going home is rarely fun for people in romance novels but for Mai Li it is particularly sharp. She left at nineteen (or twenty, I can't remember now) after coming out to her mother meant that her mother no longer acknowledged her existence. Growing up she was mocked for not being white as well as for being gay. She wouldn't have come back if her relationship and her cooking show hadn't imploded. Now she has nowhere to live except her family's old house which is in more disrepair than she expected. And she can only get one contractor who is willing to meet her.
Dale is a single mom to three sons, only one still at home. She's been barely holding it together financially since one of her exes wiped her out. Getting Mai's job will definitely help keep the wolf away from the door. When the roof at Mai's place collapses, Dale invites Mai to move in. They are both fighting their feelings (for somewhat ridiculous reasons but people in real life are often ridiculous) but finally admit that they might have a chance at an HEA.
There was just a little too much sturm and drang in this story for me to really fall in love with either character but I have a feeling that Brenda Murphy will become an author I keep an eye out for because both Dale and Mai were fairly well-rounded and I did like much of their relationship building.

Three and a half stars
This book came out August 17th
ARC kindly provided by NineStar Press, LLC and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Gay All Year by Richard May

I am trying to expand my reading horizons so, when I saw this book of short stories from NetGalley, I requested them. And, from a literary standpoint, most of these stories were good but some gaps in stories and things left unfinished. I am very much a reader who likes character development and relationship building (which is possible in short stories) but there wasn’t much of that in this volume. And one story also had a main character who sort of cheated on his partner who wasn’t technically his partner... But if you are one-true-pairing kind of reader, at least one story will not be your cup of tea.

Within the page constraints, these author did a fairly good job of giving an idea of how he could stretch his wings. I very much appreciated the range of characters and the celebration of holidays outside of Christmas and Valentine’s Day. I was surprised by the touches of Christianity added in the first couple of stories. If the author writes longer stories at some point, I would be tentatively interested.

Three stars

This book came out August 17th

ARC kindly provided by NineStar Press, LLC and NetGalley

Opnions are my own

Who Wants to Marry a Duke Sabrina Jeffries

Miss Olivia Norley is happy being a wallflower. She loves chemistry and wants nothing more than to work with her great-uncle on his experiments. When she meets Marlowe Drake, the Duke of Thornstock at a ball, she is more bemused by him than anything else. They share a passionate kiss that gets interrupted. And though he doesn't want to actually marry Olivia, Thorn is affronted when she turns down his proposal.
Nine years later, Thorn has become a cynic (after one kiss? Really?) who is astonished to learn that Olivia is going to be the chemist who proves whether or not his half-brother's father was killed by arsenic. He decides that he is going tag along on this research. Even if he is behind on delivering his latest play, the sixth in a series whose most popular and comedic characters are based off of Olivia and her stepmother. Or at least the twisted version he created of them in his own mind.
As he gets to know more about Olivia, Thorn starts to realize that the story he created in his own mind might not actually have been the truth. And when someone starts targeting Olivia for death, Thorn realizes that she actually means quite a bit to him.
The action in this book was a little more dramatic than others in the series. And Thorn was sort of a jerk for a lot of the story but it was a book that most Jeffries readers will find incredibly enjoyable.

Three and a half stars
Follows The Bachelor

Followed by Undercover Duke
This book comes out August 25th
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Crazy Rich Cajuns by Erin Nicholas

The romance between Kennedy and Bennett has been slowly building in the last two books of this series. She's the former beauty pageant girl turned goth and he's the wickedly smart son of a politician who also has his own money. He's besotted; she's mostly in denial. But then he gets her to agree to attend his father's retirement and all bets are off.
I didn't love all of the dynamics between the two as much as I had hoped. Bennett was just too much of a flip flop between a cinnamon role and an alpha. He did sort of let Kennedy
find her wings but it felt sort of begrudging; I just wish we had seen more of him supporting her.


Three stars
Follows Beauty and the Bayou 
Followed by Must Love Alligators
This book came out September 30th, 2019
Borrowed from Kindle Unlimited
Opinions are my own

Someone to Romance by Mary Balogh

Lady Jessica Archer is 25-years-old and on the verge of being on the shelf, even if she is a duke's sister. But when her family sees her talking to Rochford, the heir presumptive to the Earl of Lyndale, they immediately fly into romance mode. Of course she should end up with an earl. Too bad she is more taken with the mysterious Gabriel Thorne. He seems to be a wealthy merchant from Boston and he set his eyes on her when she kicked him out of a private sitting room. Well, her brother's secretary did, but in her name. Gabriel needs a powerful wife to help him reclaim his birthright and he figures that Jessica will do. Too bad Jessica wants to be wooed for herself. But maybe that wooing will lead to something they can both love with... for the rest of their lives.
Regular Balogh fans will love this book. Gentle as always, with great character development. There are a LOT of characters from previous books in the series but Balogh actually makes them fit in pretty well. At least for regular readers. The denouement was a little rushed and expected but did not detract much from the overall joy of the book.

Four stars
Follows Someone to Remember

Followed by Someone to Cherish
This book comes out August 25th
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Can't Help Falling by Cara Bastone

Tyler Leshuski likes his life. At least he mostly does. His life has shifted recently. His best friend found a girlfriend. Now Tyler, the one who picked him up and helped raise his kid is superfluous. And the new girlfriend, Via. Comes with a best friend/foster sister, Serafine "Fin" St. Romain, who is the most beautiful woman ever. And Ty should know, he's dated them all. Even at 42, he's not ready to settle down. But he will ask Fin out. Too bad she rejects him soundly. To the point that he changes his entire life. Which gets upended once again when the foster system Ohio calls; his 14-year-old sister has been left home alone and he is her only family.

Fin didn't mean to hurt Fin quite so badly. She's just used to men not taking "no" graciously. When his entire life shifts, she knows she needs to apologize. Her life isn't going smoothly either. Her entire life she's been wanting to be a foster parent but she's too young, too single, and her job as a psychic means that she has no guaranteed cash coming in so she's been rejected yet again. And Ty is sort of a double anyway. But when Kylie enters his life, Fin starts to see that her friend Mary might be right and she may have misjudged Fin.

A cute story but a little TOO cute at the end. Fin is set up as a psychic but we didn't to see much of her work other than how Tyler directly impacted it. It would've been nice to see a little more upfront.

This book comes out August 25th

ARC kindly provided by Harlequin and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Psych-Out (Eastwind Witches #5) by Nova Nelson

Nora is swearing to all and sundry that she is no longer in the mystery solving business. But, when witches start doing things completely outside their own nature, Nora can't help but get involved. She is trying to concentrate on her witch-y studies, especially now that she suspects that she might be a truly powerful witch. Past lives and nightmares might lead to even more about her current life.

Three stars
Follows Quesos de los Muertos
This book came out May 7th 2018
Borrowed as an audiobook from the library
Opinions are my own