Grace Under Fire by Julie Garwood

Regular readers of the series, I do not think you will be disappointed. You get the a gorgeous, virginal heroine (who has never even had an orgasm) with chiseled manly hero who will never stop to ask directions. They are both remarkable (Isabel has just graduated college and she's a really good listener who is also an amazing singer/songwriter but a terrible driver (so quirky!); Michael is an ex-Navy-SEAL lawyer who graduated college at 20 and is about to join a law enforcement group that is hard to get into). New to romance readers will find this book exactly meets expectations. Garwood has found a formula and sticks to it including throwing a whole bunch of stuff at the heroine that only the hero can rescue her from. Like, a lot of stuff including a man who has just been shot lurching toward Isabel and she, reacting quickly, grabs his gun and shoots the man chasing him directly between the eyes. 

I have been waiting to read Isabel and Michael's book otherwise I might have given up on the series but there is also something comforting in knowing exactly what you're going to get when reading a Garwood book. I just wish her characters would start using condoms. Or even acknowledge that birth control is very integral to romance in the 21st century. 

Three and a half stars

This book come out July 19, 2022

Follows Wired

ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer

Franny Doyle and Hayes Montgomery III have the ultimate meet cute -- she's having the worst day of her life, fired from her job and on the subway when her dress splits all the way down the back. He lends her his jacket and someone captures a series of photographs making it look like the two are having insta-lust. It's not true but it launches the two of them into their fifteen minutes of fame which each can use for some momentum. Especially since Franny accidentally launches her new interior design version on the fictional version of Good Morning, America.

It is a series of coincidences that lead the two to meeting again and again. Even though neither really believes they are going to be in a relationship with the other, they are going to end up in an HEA.

The best part of this book is the friendships. Franny has her ride or dies and Hayes has his cousin Peyton.

Four stars

This book came out March 15, 2022

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

Fascial Fitness by Robert Schleip, Johanna Bayer

This book showed up as available in my library and I thought it looked interesting so I clicked. It's an interesting book that I think may have been translated or written by someone for whom English is not a first language because there are some odd word choices. That can make it difficult to interpret some of the exercises but there are pictures that will help you figure them out. 

An interesting read, especially the information about the fascia and why it's so gosh darn important to do the exercises and to just move in order to keep your fascia working optimally.

Three stars

This book came out July 6, 2021

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Cultish by Amanda Montell

It took me a little bit to get into this book, but once I did, I really enjoyed Montell's writings. She grew up with a father who had escaped a cult and his stories fascinated her. She feels like growing up with parents like that meant that she had a better chance of identifying a cult. I really liked that she mentioned that it is usually optimistic people who end up staying in cults, not under or overly educated people (though those two things seem to help). 

In her talking about cults, she touches on Jonestown (and the fact that a-the people drank Flavoraid and b-most didn't want to drink it) and how that happened.  There is also discussion of the Heaven's Gate group. Both times, she talks about how, viewing people as being in cults seems to dehumanize them, that others can judge them based on that. However, it is easier than many people think to join a cult. Reductive language, creating a we/they attitude, shaming people for wanting to leave are all tactics. Of course, there are things that could be argued whether or not they are cults: MLMs, CrossFit, QAnon.

Four stars

This book came out June 15, 2021

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Remember Love by Mary Balogh

While growing up together, everyone thought that Gwyneth Rhys would grow up to marry her next-door neighbor. What no one realized was that she was in love with his older brother, Devlin Ware. One magical night they kissed and promised to be together. That was the same night that Devlin discovered a secret about his family that led to his banishment. 

Six years later, after a lifetime of being in the army, Devlin is back and is now the Earl of Stratton. Everything has changed and Gwyn is on the cusp of being engaged. But can old love be rekindled? Or did it never die?

The first part of this book was So Slow. Even slower than most Balogh novels. But in the second part, it picked up and was a better Balogh flow. 

Four stars

This book comes out July 12, 2022

Followed by Remember Me

ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

The Reunion by Meghan Quinn

Three siblings are heading home for their parents' anniversary, each with their own issues. Oldest brother Ford is a workaholic who doesn't see his secretary, Larkin, as a love interest until they return to their home town. Middle brother Cooper would like to help if only his siblings would listen. Oh, and he slept with his ex-wife's best friend... and would like to again. Youngest Palmer doesn't want to admit that her life as a travel blogger (influencer?) is over. She gets drunk her first night back home and breaks her arm, getting her in touch with her old crush Beau (also Larkin's brother).

I really enjoyed the first half of the book, the set up, getting to see the characters, etc. I didn't mind the fact that all of the relationships were really only a third of the book because they were engaging. The second half, however, dragged. There was just so much quarreling and missed connections that it got to be a slog to finish the book.

Three stars

This book came out February 22, 2022

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own

Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas

A second generation of Wallflowers is on the loose. Pandora Ravenel grew up in a household where girls were not valued. She and her sisters were pretty much allowed to grow up feral (really? Even if boys were the prime offspring, girls needed to be married off so they would have had at least a nanny or something) so she never learned she was supposed to be stupid and interested in marriage. Instead, she wants to market her board games and run an industry. Of course, if she gets married, all of her property will automatically become her husband's.

Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, though super-eligible, isn't really ready to get married. He's too busy being ashamed of himself for banging a married woman because she's tied him to her with super-kinky sex (or so we're told.) But all of that falls away when he accidentally compromises Pandora and immediately falls in love. No, really, he pretty much decides that, after five minutes of conversation, she will be his wife. And then he gets upset because her family doesn't immediately force her to marry him. So they all get invited to Evie and Sebastian's country house (my faves from the Wallflower series) where they get to know each other better. 

And then the story starts to get really crowded with Gabriel's ex (and, even though he was all angsty about his "dark side," Pandora's innocence makes him learn to love vanilla sex again (?)) and a plot to blow up the aristocracy.

Overall a nice book with just a few to many things included as well as a few thing not really explained.

Three and a half stars

This book came out February 21, 2017

Follows Devil in Disguise

Followed by Hello Stranger

Hard copy I didn't keep

Opinions are my own