A few months ago, I was offered a copy of a book that's essentially catnip for me: The Court of Shadows, by Victor Dixen, out today! This is a long review, so here's the quick version:

We've been fans of Felicia Grossman's books since the beginning, but I think she's outdone herself with Marry Me by Midnight. Since the death of her father, businesswoman Isabelle's place in the family surety business is at risk. She needs to marry, but she also needs to make sure the man she gives that much control to won't steamroll her or squander her money. Fending off the advances of the Barab brothers, who own the other half of the business, she hatches a plan: she'll hold a series of balls at which she will entertain suitors from the Jewish community... and pick one by midnight at the final ball.

These mini-reviews are all second-chance contemporary romances. Those of you who know my reading preferences might be surprised to learn that I liked and recommend all of them. One of them is maybe cheating a bit, but I'll get to that in the post.

I read all four of these in the last month and have determined I require most of the following criteria:

• A convincing reason the couple separated.
• That obstacle must be surmountable and not something that will come up again. If they've already broken up once, I will not settle for a Happy for Now ending.
• Equal amounts of suffering for both characters. I hate when one character has been miserable for a decade and the other was happily pursuing their dreams. (If both are happy in the interim, that's fine!)
• Some kind of flashbacks or enough exposition that we get a good feel for the foundation of their relationship. This is my preference for novellas, too.

 With those very me-specific requirements in mind, here are my reviews of Jana Goes Wild, Happy Place, The Seven Year Slip and Snow Place like LA! I also wrote about Julie Soto's debut, Forget Me Not back in May and I think the same list above applies to that book, which is probably why it worked so well for me.

Ratings are based on whether or not I recommend them to fellow readers -  DNF (Did Not Finish), Pass, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), Read It, Read It Soon.

I pitched this book to one of my reading Discord servers as "if Jessie Mihalik wrote erotic romance." I didn't mention that the FMC reminded me of Inara from Firefly, but that too!

An adjunct professor and a widower find love behind the bar in Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up.  Charish Reid is an auto-buy/auto-read author for me because of her skill with character building, humor and tension. I was a little hesitant to pick this up because I don't enjoy books with lots of alcohol, but I'm happy to report this book strikes just the right balance by focusing on the workplace dynamics rather than endless descriptions of alcoholic drinks. If that's a concern for you, have no fear! I would put this in the same category as Natalie Caña's stellar debut, A Proposal They Can't Refuse, but with more heat.

Ratings are based on whether or not I recommend them to fellow readers -  DNF (Did Not Finish), Pass, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), Read It, Read it Soon.

In a Jam reminded me why I fell in love with romance novels. It's beautifully written, with dedicated arcs for both of the main characters and a hard won romantic arc that somehow feels epic and down-to-earth at the same time. 

More mini-reviews!  Reviews of This Poison Heart, My Dear Henry, Blood Debts, Cruel Illusions, So This is Ever After and Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove. I liked or loved all of these audiobooks, a couple of which I felt were enhanced by the listening experience.

I'm way behind on writing reviews, so the only two books I can give accurate content notes on are My Dear Henry and Blood Debts.

Hope you find something you'll like!

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K.J. Charles starts a new series with The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, an historical gay romance set in rural Kent, England. Gareth and Joss are together for a couple of blissful weeks at a London meeting house for gay men, but when Joss says he needs to go back to Kent for a while to tend to his business, Gareth breaks things off entirely. Gareth's father, a selfish nobleman, left young Gareth with his uncle when his mother died and started a new family. Gareth quite reasonably has abandonment issues and doesn't want to be left by another person he loves.