A Borrowed Boyfriend by Angela R. Casella

Casella has begun this new series with a corker that is just as fun and enjoyable as her previous books. I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series.

Nicole and Damien are back, working to implement their plans to right wrongs and be fairy godmothers to those who have been kicked in the pants by life. Marnie Jones is sure one of those people having gone viral for tripping on her wedding gown after her groom announced, at the altar, that he could no longer marry her. It became huge because her sister is an actress on a long-running series of a teen detective (and her sister hasn't been a teen for a good long time.) Marnie one night tells her sister that she is doing just fine, dating a new man. 

Nicole and Damien decide to help her find that man. Overhearing their conversation, Griffin, co-owner of a bar with the two of them, volunteers himself as tribute. He saw Marnie earlier and is entranced. She is entirely too good for him (tragic backstory alert!) but he decides to take his chance.

There were a few sticking points in this book and it does, as Casella's books do, push the bounds of wacky but I did enjoy it thoroughly.

Four stars

This book came out June 9, 2022

Followed by A Stolen Suit

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

The Meaning of Love by Stephanie Laurens

We saw when Melissa and Julian met, she was fifteen and he was twenty-two. They recognized that they were meant for each other but they were both so young and the age gap was... ew. Now Melissa is twenty-three, about to be on the shelf, and Julian is thirty and has succeeded his father as earl. Neither believes the other to be unmarried. But they are. And they meet again at a ball. Well, Melissa is trying to avoid Julian by going out into the garden with a man she doesn't realize is his cousin, Gordon. Gordon, who needs money, decides that will be the time to try and take advantage of her but she saves herself and then Julian intervenes. When he intervenes, a torrid embrace occurs and the two are discovered. Well, an engagement is announced. But the two do something startling in a romance book and talk about it and decide to take the time of their engagement to decide whether they should actually suit. And that would be fine except someone just keeps trying to kill Julian. And trying to kill Julian. Then a little trying to kill Melissa. And then trying to kill Julian. There is Just So Much Attempted Killing. it was overly wrought. Otherwise, a normal story in the Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Chronicles series, fast, fun, and fluffy.

Three stars

This book came out October 14, 2022

Follows Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Intrigue

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

How to Keep House While Drowning by K.C. Davis

I really liked that Davis give you options for how to read her book. She very much says right off the bat to take the things that help you and leave the rest behind. I liked that she said to decide what is care and what doesn't actually need to be done. Being organized does NOT equal being clean. Nor is staying organized as easy as some authors would have you think.

There is a difference between rhythm and routine: if you get off beat for a little bit, you can always get back into the rhythm. I especially liked the three rules at the end of the book: I rule the list, the list does not rule me; Missing days off your list is not good or bad but morally ambiguous; I do NOT have to complete the whole task. A very refreshing turn from the books, etc. that say that we have to be perfect in order to be "good." 

Four stars

This book came out April 26, 2022

Borrowed as audibook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Better Homes and Hauntings by Molly Harper

Nina Linden has gone through it in the last few years: cheating husband who took her to the cleaners. She is trying to rebuild her gardening services. To that end, she accepted a job where she has to live on a private island for weeks to help get it in order. It seems that everyone else who has previously held the position has left quickly. 

Cindy Ellis runs a cleaning/organizational service. She has become the go-to person for the rich and elite. She knows one of the other people on the boat out the island, Jake. He took her on a date years ago and then ghosted her. And now he's pretending he doesn't know her. But he is one of the people on the island, along with his best friend Deacon, the tech mogul whose family owns the island and the man financing the renovations. 

This is a bit of an adventure with dual romances, a madcap cousin, ghosts/reincarnations/something that causes visions, an ancient mystery, and Nina's ex-boss who isn't quite sane and is trying to sabotage her new business.

Four stars

This came out June 24, 2014

Audiobook from Audible

Opinions are my own

The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman

I had read a handful of the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries and thought this series might be interesting as well. There are only two books but it is a fast, fun, and fluffy book which Gilman shows her talent as she adds layers to each of the mini-mysteries that come around and pay off in the end. I think a lot of my enjoyment came from  Ruth Ann Phimister, the narrator. 

The book opens with a dream. Madame Karitska dreams of a street, not a fashionable one, but one she can afford to live on. On the street is a yellow door. As she is walking down the street, she notices a sign in the window. There is a room for rent. The sign went up only 5 minutes ago. Once in the rooms, she slowly builds her clientele and proves to the police that her gift is real. Along the way, she picks up a couple of other psychics as well, one is a wealthy man who just came into his gift and one is a child whose family is at the heart of one of her mysteries.

Four stars

This book came out in 1975

Followed by Kaleidoscope

Audiobook from Audible

Opinions are my own

Girl Walks Into a Bar... by Rachel Dratch

Most famous for being on Saturday Night Live, Dratch is also known for not having been on 30 Rock even though she started off as one of the stars. In the book, she tries to emphasize that that is just how it works in Hollywood but she was still disappointed that she was replaced. But most of the book isn't supposed to be about her time on television but more about what happened in her midlife when, at 43, having given up hope of having children, she suddenly found herself pregnant by a man with whom she was in what could best be called a friend-with-benefits-when-they're-in-the-same-town. 

I do like autobiographies, especially when they are read by the authors. The book was a little thin but I found myself identifying with Dratch in various places of her life, including being a single, childless woman at baby showers.

Four stars

This book came out March 29, 2012

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Set on You by Amy Lea

Crystal Chen is a fitness influencer. Her father thinks she should find a new job; her followers mostly adore her (though there are the trolls who say that she is too curvy to be focusing on fitness.) Her ex boyfriend dumped her for his previous girlfriend making her officially a rebound. So she's not very excited when the jerky (but Hemsworth-handsome) guy at the gym leaves his seat unwiped after he's done using a machine. So she says something to him. And he remains a jerk. 

Unfortunately, even though we get to see more of Scott Ritchie (he's a firefighter) because his grandfather is engaged to Crystal's grandmother, he never really gets his character redeemed. He sort of remains a smug, too smooth dude bro throughout the rest of the book and, for me, that made the book less enjoyable. I also didn't love the last Big Mistake that the two characters have but this was an okay first book and I would be very interested in reading another book from Lea.

Three stars

This book came out May 10, 2022

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own