What do you do when you've been waiting for 8 years for an absent fiance you're not sure even likes you? In Tessa Dare's Castles Ever After series, if you're a lucky heiress, you say screw the groom, I just inherited a castle. Who needs ya? Clio has been trained to be a compliant woman of the ton, to the point of starvation to have the proper figure, but she's discovered she doesn't want her groom anymore. As a landowner, she has other plans, so she employs her groom's brother, Rafe, who she prefers when all is said and done, to release her from the overlong commitment. The profligate brother, Rafe was charged with watching after things while his brother was gone, and since he's screwed up everything else in his life, that's the one thing he is determined to succeed at. Except he's always been soft on Clio, too.

I am really enjoying this series of "what would a Regency-era heroine do if she suddenly inherited a castle?" It gives them power they wouldn't normally possess and the opportunity to be who they want to be. Cleverly written, believably Regency, I would highly recommend the latest addition (as well as the first!) to the Castles Ever After series.

Plusses and minuses.

First, i did enjoy this book. The family dynamic was strong, much like Kristan Higgins and the Blue Heron series. The chemistry between Ford and Mia was tangible.

What I didn't like: throwing in odd points of view to promote the other books in the series. This book isn't about them, so they don't deserve center stage. The restraint between Ford and Mia got tiresome after a while, the conflict, repetetive. And then when they let loose, it took over the rest of the story and went right into lady porn. I'm also not a billionaire characters fan, and there were a lot of them running through this novel. Ford dropped money a bit impulsively.

My evaluation? If you like 'em steamy, this is for you. For myself, one book from this series was enough for me.

Maybe the timing on this was perfect ... I was on an Alaska Airlines flight on my way home from Seattle ... And so was Megan, the character in the book. But I digress.

Megan caught her fiance in a compromising position and called off the wedding with just six weeks to go. The problem is that her mother - Momzilla- pulled out all the stops and is planning "the wedding of the century" and there are no refunds to be had. How can Megan tell her? Well, she doesn't, or rather she waits to tell her in person, four days before the ceremony is scheduled. But a funny thing happens on the way home. She takes a Dramamine, which she mixes with alcohol, and she's down for the count, but not before she tells the cute guy sitting beside her about her dilemma.

Josh's business is about to go under thanks to corporate espionage, and he's determined to expose the person responsible. With nothing to lose, he takes a flying leap at fate for the first time in his life and fate rewards him. What he doesn't count on is fate's sense of humor.

I found the characters well drawn and although the plot is improbable, it is still a fun read. I did feel the steamy parts could have been done better but that didn't distract me from enjoying the story overall. Loved Gram, almost felt sorry for the psycho Mom, and am looking forward to reading "bitchy Blair's" story.

A fun historical with a bastard child of a politician who grows into a spy for her father and is thrown into intrigue with a titled gentleman to stop a murder.

What distracted me: There was some inconsistency in Fantine's character, from the beginning where she remarks how she knows Spanish, and yet when called upon to learn a foreign language (French) is concerned with applying herself. Her spoken English jumps back and forth between cockney and cultured on a whim. She went to a proper school, but dropped out, so how did she learn to fit in so well? If she wasn't willing to apply herself, seems as if she wouldn't have made an effort to mimic her roles so well.

What I liked: There was plenty of humor with Fantine and Chadwick while they tested each other's abilities to solve the crime. Fantine's character was developed nicely, from street rat with no desire to be respectable to wanting to be part of the swells.

Overall, I enjoyed the read.

In this next installment of the Mapleton series, reluctant police chief Gordon Hepler has a new boss, and a new challenge. A movie crew shows up in town. What starts out as additional security detail quickly becomes something else when the film producer turns up suspiciously dead. Unable to shake the feeling that something doesn't add up, Gordon follows protocol until the cause of death is determined, against the wishes of the new mayor to let it go. Could this be the end of Chief Hepler's tenure as Mapleton's police chief?

As always, Ms. Odell walks us carefully through the evidence, presenting a list of suspects and potential causes of death. She keeps you wondering to the end whodunit, and then takes it a step further to lead you into her next book with a continuing thread from her last book. Will Gordon be around to watch his top officer uncover a multi-jurisdictional crime spree?

Another awesome book by Jill Shalvis. She consistently delivers top notch stories..

I love the way Jill writes damaged, vulnerable characters, and hot alpha men. Her women are self-sufficient and her men are loyal. She is my "go to" for an adventurous, sexy read and I don't even know how to write a review anymore that doesn't gush. She provides consistently excellent writing and consistently fun stories.

I have yet to read a Jill Shalvis book I don't like.

Katie has survived a bridge collapse, in fact she is the sole survivor. So what does she do? Takes off to LIVE her life rather than walk blindly through it. And she finds the adventure of a lifetime in snowboarder Cameron Wilder.

Cameron Wilder has survived a near-death experience of his own, but rather than embrace his second chance, he looks at what he's lost, rather than what he still has.

Together, they combust under the sexual attraction that pulls them together, and in a surprising twist of who's more emotionally scarred than who, they must find a way to move on toward their happily ever after.

For me, the success of Jill Shalvis's novels lies in her depth of character, in seeing right into their souls, and in some cases, seeing through the eyes of the people around them, past the lies the characters tell themselves. Adventurous, sexy, and heart-warming.

I really enjoyed this book! It's a bit of a different take, time travel not from present to past, but from past to further past. And in the Scottish Highlands, with a hulking highlander in the midst of it. I was able to predict the ending, for that matter most of it was fairly predictable, but comfortably so. If it had been different, I wouldn't have liked it as well! Four stars because there were places the language was a bit difficult to follow in places, either formal or dialect, but overall I'd recommend this.