Kirsty Greenwood, Romantic Hero

Gertie Bickerstaff is not okay. The final novel of her popular cowboy romance series is due soon, but she has terrible writer’s block. On top of that, her longtime boyfriend has just told her he wants a break. Desperate, Gertie performs a “manifestation ceremony” in hopes of getting her career and love life back on track. But she’s shocked when the villain of her series, River Oakley, shows up (shirtless, of course) in her apartment. The two must team up to figure out how River got here and how to send him home, but an unexpected attraction complicates things. I really enjoyed Greenwood’s previous novel, The Love of My Afterlife, and this one suffers a bit by comparison. I’m tired of contemporary romances where the heroine is a mess and the hero is perfect, yet somehow he loves her anyway. River never felt like a real person to me, and Gertie’s hand-wringing passivity got on my nerves. All that said, the novel is funny and breezy and a quick read. I did have fun with it, but I don’t need to ever read it again.

Claudia Gray, The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield

Despite their mutual affection, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney haven’t seen or communicated with each other since he fought a duel over her. Now Jonathan feels stifled by his parents’ concern and jumps at the chance to visit his Aunt Jane and Uncle Charles at Netherfield. There he’s promptly embroiled in another mystery when Mr. Hurst, also a guest of the Bingleys’, drops dead in the breakfast room. Only Juliet can help Jonathan find the killer, but as they conduct another investigation together, they must also navigate their feelings in the face of parental disapproval. I’m continuing to enjoy this series a lot! I love the deep dive into Austen’s fictional worlds; this book in particular is fun for me, as a lover of Pride and Prejudice, since it imagines what the Bingleys, Darcys, and Bennets would be like 25 years after the novel. The mystery itself is pretty light in this installment (and I did guess the killer!), but that’s understandable because the novel mostly focuses on the various character relationships. I’m genuinely emotionally invested in what will happen next and will anxiously await the next book in the series!

Darcie Little Badger, Elatsoe

Ellie is basically a normal teenage girl—except for the fact that her pet dog is a ghost. Because of her Lipan Apache heritage, she has certain special abilities, including the power to raise the dead. When her cousin Trevor dies, supposedly in a car accident, Ellie communicates with his spirit and learns he was actually murdered. But the murderer, Abe Allerton, is a prominent man in the mysterious town of Willowbee, Texas, and Ellie will need all her family’s power and support to take him down. I’m glad the “indigenous author” Bingo square in my LibraryThing challenge prompted me to pick up this book, because I really enjoyed it! The world-building is unique, Ellie is endearingly snarky, and the ghost dog steals the show. The plot was interesting and fast-moving, and I liked the resolution of Ellie’s final confrontation with Abe. Overall, I enjoyed this one more than I expected to and would be interested in reading more by the author.