ARC Review: Pride Comes Before a Fall by Virginia Heath

Pride Comes Before a Fall
Author: Virginia Heath
Series: Miss Prentice's Protégées (Book 3)
Publication: St. Martin's Press (July 28, 2026)

Description: In the third installment of this witty Regency romcom series, a headstrong chaperone is torn between following her rigid principles or her heart

Despite his many responsibilities, there is nothing Leopold Sloane, the 11th Duke of Debden, takes more seriously than the safety of those he loves. When one of his sisters is injured at a protest rally, he drags his family to Bath for the summer to keep his reckless and rebellious siblings out of harm’s way. The only flaw in his plan is his overwhelming but inexplicable attraction to the new chaperone he has hired to watch out for them. An outspoken conundrum of a woman who soon causes him more trouble than both his sisters combined...but who calls to his soul regardless.

From the moment Portia Kendall read her first revolutionary pamphlet beneath her bedcovers at Miss Prentice’s School for Girls, she realized that her true calling was to make the world a fairer place for the masses downtrodden by the aristocracy. A calling that led her to Equitas, a radical newspaper that champions reform. But as Portia discovers, writing doesn’t pay the bills. To make a living, she must push aside her principles and serve the very people she criticizes weekly in her column. A temporary position as a chaperone in the home of a pompous duke seems like the perfect way to earn enough to follow her heart. Unfortunately, the duke who hires her seems to be more dashing and noble than pompous and soon begins to call to her heart too―as much as she tries to deny it. But dare she risk her principles for love or will her pride always come before a fall?

My Thoughts: The third in the Miss Prentice's Protégée's series stars Portia Kendall. Portia has been determined to reform society since she read Mary Wollstonecraft's treatise on the rights of man when she was a lonely sixteen-year-old learning to be a governess. Her zeal for reform has only grown in the eight years since. Now, she has a chance to be the assistant editor of Equitas after a move to Bath. Unfortunately, the position is unpaid which means she needs to find a job.

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Leo Sloane is the 11th Duke of Debden and he has a problem. He needs someone to ride herd on his two younger sisters. One is a budding reformer and the other has a marked penchant for men in uniform. Despite having a number of highly qualified candidates for the position of social secretary and chaperone, Leo hires Portia.

Determined to never marry and having a marked dislike of dukes, Portia falls in love with Leo despite her need to lie to him about just about everything. Leo has also fallen in love with a woman he's afraid he can't protect from the dangerous things she does in her quest for reform.

This was an engaging story filled with all sorts of information about the social upheaval surrounding the rights of man and judicial reform. I found both of the main characters to be well-written and sympathetic characters. I could understand both of their viewpoints and the problems that ensued when those viewpoints clashed. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst

Sea of Charms
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Series: The Spellshop (Book 3)
Publication: Bramble (July 28, 2026)

Description: Sarah Beth Durst brings cozy fantasy romance to the high seas in Sea of Charms, the third magical adventure in the New York Times bestselling Spellshop series!

Marin has always belonged on the great blue sea

Betrayed by love, Marin lives and works as a supply runner, sailing from island to island, delivering an array of goods with Perri the sea serpent and Ree the sailor shrub as her crew.

On one of her routine trips to the capital, Alyssium, Marin finds a revolution underway―and her friend Dax in the line of fire.

What starts as a rescue evolves into a deal: Marin will keep Dax on as a member of her crew if he pretends to be her boyfriend at the End-of-Harvest Festival back home.

But against her better judgment, Marin finds herself intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, his charming smile―and realizes that perhaps she isn’t saving him. Maybe it’s the other way around.

Sea of Charms is a cozy fantasy romance about finding your crew, your family, and moreover, finding yourself.

My Thoughts: SEA OF CHARMS is the third book in Durst's Spellshop cozy fantasy series. The main character is Marin who is a supply runner on her own boat. She fell in love with the wrong man and would have been bankrupt along with her parents if she had found out about his plans. She learned a lesson that love and relationships couldn't be trusted. 

Because she had always loved the sea, her parents made a deal with a local sorcerer and set her up with her own boat. On her first voyage, she rescued a sea serpent that she named Perri. The two work together to pay off her parents' debt to the sorcerer. 

One of her trips takes her to Belde to deliver and enchanted statue at the request of the head librarian of Alyssium, the capital city. There she picks up a crew member who happens to be a sentient plant. Ree has always dreamed of being a sailor and Marin doesn't want to keep him from his dreams. 

The next time they go to Alyssium which is the business center around which Marin's work circles, they find themselves in the middle of a revolution. Marin has a friend named Dax at the music conservatory and she is worried about his safety. She takes him and his friends to another island for safety. Dax asks to travel with her for a while. 

Marin is afraid to fall in love since she felt her last failed relationship was her fault and she's still dealing with the consequences. But Dax gradually finds his way into her heart. The quartet - Marin, Dax, Ree, and Perri - have a lot of adventures and learn a lot about themselves. Together they form a found family and gradually Marin puts her fears behind her for new adventures. 

This was a wonderful cozy fantasy. The characters were engaging and realistic despite their very fantasy-like appearances. The world building was magical. Filled with talking plants, flying cats, and unicorns that give milk which is made into magical cheese, the story was heartwarming and hopeful. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Seance Garden by Juliet Blackwell

The Seance Garden
Author: Juliet Blackwell
Publication: Berkley (July 28, 2026)

Description: After a cheesy ghost tour in one of California’s oldest towns stumbles upon an actual haunting, a skeptical historian of the occult becomes entangled in solving a murder case.

When Professor Harper Grae loses a bet with a friend, she finds herself on a local nighttime tour of “haunted” locations in Monterey. Harper’s a lifelong non-believer in the occult, though her academic career is devoted to the historical and societal significance of witchcraft, ghosts, and medicinal poisons of all sorts. But her skepticism immediately gets tested when the tour stumbles on the body of local artist Delilah Mason—who’s found murdered on the grounds of a nearly two-hundred-year-old mansion, once home to the infamous Perles family.

On the night Mason’s body is found, Harper catches sight of something in the house that she can’t shake, something that’s impossible to explain, at least not rationally. Soon the murder investigation reveals that this is the second time a woman has been found murdered beneath a sprawling cypress tree in the gardens of the Perles Mansion. And when Harper’s closest friend is questioned by the police, Harper fears the authorities will fail to uncover the real killer.

As Harper asks questions around town and digs deeper into the supernatural speculation and rumors surrounding the murders—two women killed in similar circumstances, separated by nearly two centuries —she sees evidence she can’t ignore that the notorious mansion truly is haunted by the ghost of Isabel Perles.

What will it cost Harper to rethink everything she’s always believed to admit that the veil between the living and the dead might actually be crossed?

My Thoughts: Professor Harper Grae is new to Monterey. She's the only professor of history at a tech college. Her field of study is witchcraft, ghosts, and medicinal poisons. When she loses a bet to a college friend, she is forced to take a ghost tour of Monterey. She doesn't expect to find a woman buried alive on the grounds of a historical adobe nor does she expect to see something in a room of mirrors.

When the buried woman - local artist Delilah Mason - dies, a murder investigation ensues. It turns out that her friend Tariq had a relationship with the artist at one time. Of course, the woman also has an ex-husband, a brother, and a dealer for her art and some other intimate relationships that could provide suspects.

It seems Delilah was also experimenting with using microdoses of various poisonous botanicals to try to cure modern diseases. She was using the tour guide and some of Harper's students to distribute her cures which were a lot more dangerous than she was willing to admit. Botanical poisons is one of Harper's areas of expertise which gives her an insider's knowledge. 

The story was quite creepy as Harper is determined to deny the whole idea of ghosts while seeing a number of suspicious and unexplained things. I liked Harper's skepticism but also liked when she came to realize that she might be wrong. 

This was an entertaining and spooky mystery.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (July 20, 2026)

 It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Want to See What I Added to My Stack? links to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene at Reading Reality.

Other Than Reading...

This has been a week! It began with very high temperatures for Duluth. We hit 93 both Monday and Tuesday. Then the smoke from the wildfires burning in Canada and Northern Minnesota moved in giving us the world's worst air quality. I think the worst day had and AQI of over 1100.  

Then, with orders to keep windows closed, our 25-year-old air conditioner died. The repair man tried his best, but the compressor can't be fixed. We need to buy a new one with estimated installation no sooner than August 1. Luckily, the air cleared and the temperatures lowered from the 90s to the 80s so we have been able to have the windows open. 

My chronic cough means that I need to stay inside and not breath the nasty air. This means I got a lot of reading and listening done. The All-Star Break helped because I didn't have baseball to watch until Friday. 

I added 8 new books last week. Four of them were new Review copies which means that my goal of lowering my review stack was a fail this week. Since I also read four review books, I stay at 44 review copies on my stack. 

I also added four audiobooks this week. I took advantage of an Amazon Prime perk and changed from a monthly Audible subscription to an annual one. The annual subscription works out to $8.33 a credit and gave me all 24 credits to use immediately. That means that three of my audiobooks this week used Audible Credits. They were also audiobook copies of books that were already on my TBR mountain as Kindle books. The fourth new one was $4.99. It was a retitled reread of a book I read and enjoyed some years ago and the sequel to another books I read this week that just happened to have a cliffhanger ending. 

This coming week has more August review copies on my stack. I'll also be reading a couple from my 2026 TBR pile which currently sits at 21 books. This week should also include some cooking since my brother's shifts this week mean he'll be home for dinner most days. 

Read Last Week

• Murder in Blackfriars by Jennifer Ashley (Review, August 11) -- Cook Kat Halloway gets involved in a murder investigation as she and her fiancé Daniel are trying to discover his past. My review will be posted on August 4.
• The Ruling Class by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Audiobook, Mine since May 11) -- Teen Tess Kendrick is forced to move to Washington, DC, to live with her older sister Ivy and finds herself moving in the world of political movers and shakers. My review will be posted on August 18.
• The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Audiobook, Mine since July 13) -- Sequel to The Ruling Class with even more political intrigue and secrets. My review will be posted on August 20.

• Death at a Scottish Halloween by Lucy Connelly (Review, August 11) -- When two men named Duncan Craig die during the Halloween celebrations, Dr. Em and her Scooby gang are on the case. My review will be posted on August 5.
• The Matchmaker's Cottage by Kat Sloane (Review, August 11) -- Romance marred by the main characters mental issues set in a New York State B&B. My review will be posted on August 6.
• Death of an Irish Druid by Catie Murphy (Audiobook, Mine since April 8) -- Megan is showing some friends around Ireland when she stumbles upon yet another murdered man. This time he's floating in a sacred well. My review will be posted on August 25. 

• You Can Tell Me by Melinda Leigh (Kindle & Audiobook, Mine since May 20) -- Spinoff character Olivia Cruz gets her own romantic suspense story. My review will be posted on August 19.
• Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan (Review, August 11) -- PI Annie Gore travels deep into Kentucky to see if the death of a snake handling preacher was the accident it seems to have been. My review will be posted on August 6.
• Make It Out Alive (Kindle & Audiobook, Mine since July 16) -- Quinn & Costa go undercover as honeymooners to catch a serial killer, catch him, and then are kidnapped themselves by his previously unknown partner. My review will be posted on August 20.

Currently

• Murder on Charity Lane by Jo Nichols (Review, August 18)
• Night Candy by Max Tomlinon (Audiobook, Mine since July 18)

Next Week

• Homeward for a Spell by Jamie Pacton & Rebecca Podos (Review, August 18)
• For Services Rendered by Will Smith (Review, August 18)
• The Bravest Hour by Anna Lee Huber (Review, August 25)

• And the Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Audiobook, Mine since July 19)
• The Oxford Guide to Scandal & Lies by Kate Westbury (Review, September 1)
• The Long Call by Ann Cleves (Kindle for $2.99, Mine since May 28)

Reviews Posted

• Sleep No More by Jayne Ann Krentz (Audiobook)
• If Books Could Kill by Kate Eberle (Review Copy)
• Savvy Summers and the Po'boy Perils by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Review Copy)

• The Twelve Jays of Christmas by Donna Andrews (Audiobook)
• Death at King's Cross by Rosanne Limoncelli (Review Copy)
• Deadly Does It by Abbi Waxman (Review Copy)

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

Review:

• Murder on Threadneedle Street by Andrea Penrose (Review, September 29)
• Home for the Homicides by Elle Cosimano & Hannah Morrissey (Review, October 13)

• Murder at Pellhurst Pond by Clara McKenna (Review, October 27)
• The Riddle Maker by Bruce Borgos (Review, November 17)

Bought:

• Night Candy by Max Tomlinson (Audiobook, Audible Credit)
• And the Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Audiobook, Audible Credit)

• The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Audiobook, $4.99)
• Make It Out Alive by Allison Brennan (Audiobook, Audible Credit)

What was your week like?

Audiobook Review: The Twelve Jays of Christmas by Donna Andrews

The Twelve Jays of Christmas
Author: Donna Andrews

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
Series: Meg Langslow Mysteries (Book 30)
Publication: Minotaur Books & Macmillan Audio (October 19, 2021)

Length: 10 hours and 4 minutes

Description: The cast of Donna Andrews’ New York Times bestselling Meg Langslow mystery series is back for an unforgettable holiday story in The Twelve Jays of Christmas.

Meg and Michael’s annual holiday celebration is well underway, with a throng of out-of-town relatives staying at their house. Hosting these festivities is a little harder than usual—they have to relocate all the events normally held in their library, currently occupied by Roderick Castlemayne, the irascible wildlife artist who’s creating twelve paintings of birds to illustrate Meg’s grandfather’s latest nature book.

Still, the celebrations continue—and the entire family rejoices to learn that Meg’s brother Rob and his longtime fiancée Delaney have finally decided to tie the knot. Unfortunately, they decide to do this in the middle of Meg and Michael’s annual New Year’s bash, dashing their mothers’ hopes of planning the wedding to end all weddings.

Delaney’s mother sneaks into town so she and Meg’s mother can secretly plot a way to talk the happy couple into having a big bash. Hiding her only adds to Meg’s holiday stress—it’s almost a full-time job fending all the visitors who want to confront Castlemayne—reporters, bill collectors, process servers, and several ex-wives in search of unpaid alimony.

Then someone murders Castlemayne in the middle of a blizzard and sets loose the birds he was painting. Can Meg help the police crack the case before the killer strikes again? Can she keep Christmas merry in spite of the body in the library? Can she negotiate a compromise between Rob and Delaney and their disappointed mothers? And can she recapture the twelve escaped jays before they begin nesting in the Christmas tree?

This intrigue-filled Christmas mystery takes readers home to Caerphilly to join in Meg's family's holiday celebration—including, of course, another baffling mystery.

My Thoughts: The 30th Meg Langslow mystery takes place in the days before Christmas. The relatives are gathering. The library has been taken over by Robert Castlemayne who is a wildlife artist painting twelve bird pictures to illustrate Meg's grandfather's latest wildlife book. 

Castlemayne is a nuisance who smokes in the library and lets the birds - this time blue jays - loose so that he can paint them in their natural setting. Meg also spends a lot of time fending off Castlemayne's unwanted visitors including his two ex-wives who are demanding their alimony. 

Besides Castlemayne's problems, Meg is also dealing with her mother and Delaney's mother who has snuck into town to try to convince Meg and Delaney to have an over-the-top, blowout wedding which isn't what either of them actually wants. 

Then, for some reason, grandfather has decided to keep some wombats in Meg's basement, and the house is overrun by the Pomeranian puppies Meg thought she had adopted out but who frequently show up for playdates. 

With Michael and the boys off on a ski trip and Meg hampered by a badly sprained ankle, Meg has her hands full solving all these problems before Christmas arrives.

I bought the Kindle copy November 21, 2024, and the audiobook June 5, 2026. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Deadly Does It by Abbi Waxman

Deadly Does It
Author: Abbi Waxman
Series: A Mason & Mann Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Berkley (July 21, 2026)

Description: When Natasha Mason’s AA sponsor is in deadly danger, she turns to the cranky yet brilliant Julia Mann for help, in this exciting new mystery novel from the USA Today bestselling author of One Death at a Time.

Mason, a Gen Z adrenaline junkie, and Mann, an ex-con, ex-actress, and lawyer turned sleuth, have already solved one murder together. United by their commitment to sarcasm and general disappointment with the human race, they now face a second crime that’s way too close to home. Alexa Rousso keeps having accidents, and no one but her thinks it’s a coincidence. Could her checkered past be coming back to get her? Mason and Mann’s investigation takes them to the Bay Area, to the Central Coast, and – of course – to the hippest spots in Los Angeles. Will the Berkeley boho vibe convert Mann from vintage couture? Will the wine snobs of Ojai drive Mason to drink (or to vinicide, which isn’t even a thing)? More importantly, will they solve the mystery before the murderer’s sights settle on the detectives themselves, or will this new challenge also be their last?

My Thoughts: The second Mason and Mann mystery begins when Mason's AA sponsor Alexa had problems. The event she's organized is sabotaged when the extremely large vegetables used as decor fall from the ceiling causing chaos. Then she mentions that she has been receiving threatening letters.

Juliet Mann, ex-alcoholic, ex-con, ex-movie star turned lawyer, agrees to take Alexa's case and try to find out where the harassment is coming from. Mason, also an ex-addict and Gen Z adrenaline junkie, is Mann's assistant who has a special interest in this case.

As Mann and Mason try to unravel Alexa's past to discover what secrets she might have and not remember or not say, they travel to Northern California which is also Mason's home turf. She needs to see her parents since her father has had a recent heart attack and is being harassed at work in the hopes that he will resign his teaching position. 

Problems with her sponsor and problems with her family add a lot of stress to Mason's investigation. Luckily, she has the help of Juliet Mann and her eccentric cast of associates as they unravel old secrets and new ones too.

I enjoyed the large cast of interesting characters. I like the relationships between them all. The mystery was also satisfyingly complex. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Death at King's Cross by Rosanne Limoncelli

Death at King's Cross
Author: Rosanne Limoncelli
Series: A Four Queens of Crime Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (July 21, 2026)

Description: DCI Lilian Wyles is confronted by a troubling case, one that only the four queens of crime can help solve—even amidst the ongoing war efforts.

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh are back in the follow-up novel to The Four Queens of Crime.

1941, London. When DCI Lilian Wyles finds a young woman murdered at King's Cross Station, she needs the help of someone she can trust, but Richard Davidson, her former Scotland Yard partner, has joined MI5 and is busy tracking black market routes outside of London, so for now, she is on her own.

After having met the four queens of crime during a murder investigation two years earlier, DCI Wyles has kept in touch. But Agatha, Dorothy, Margery, and Ngaio are all involved in the war effort and have problems of their own.

Agatha is volunteering at the University Hospital Pharmacy, where a dangerous anesthetic has been stolen. Dorothy has heard unsettling information from her connections at the BBC regarding members of the Royal Navy. Margery, who has been in the countryside helping families escape the city from the bombing, is worried about one of her charges whose older sister has gone missing. And Ngaio, who has relocated to New Zealand and is volunteering as an ambulance driver, has begun gathering secret intelligence from wounded soldiers and sailors that may put her in danger.

When the four queens contact DCI Wyles for help, the information they share makes the final pieces of the puzzle fall into place. DCI Wyles once again finds herself collaborating with her old partners in crime to solve the mystery and close the case in this thrilling sequel, perfect for fans of Nicola Upson and Anna Lee Huber.

My Thoughts: The second Queens of Crime mystery begins with the discovery of a body at King's Cross Station. The young woman in barefoot and wearing only a silk slip and a man's overcoat. DCI Lilian Wiles arrives on the scene only moments after the unidentified woman's death. 

Though quickly identified, the investigation into the woman's death is quickly snatched out of Scotland Yard and into the auspices of MI5. Lilian is curious and somewhat upset by this change of jurisdiction especially when she sees the woman as part of an investigation she's already conducting into the disappearances of a number of young women. 

Meanwhile, the other four queens of crime are each doing their parts in the war effort. Agatha Christie is volunteering in a hospital pharmacy where she is noticing the some chloralhydrate is going missing. Dorothy Sayers is working for the BBC where she runs into a blackmail plot determined to undercut the country's war efforts. Margery Allingham is safe in the country where she is hosting a young woman evacuated from London. The young woman's sister has gone missing, but a note filled with Cockney rhyming slang has reached her indicating that her sister is in danger and in need of rescue. Ngaio Marsh is back home in Christchurch, New Zealand, driving an ambulance, visiting evacuated soldiers, and directing a play whose actors are young university students and writing long letters to Richard Davidson who has moved from Scotland Yard to MI5.

Each of the queens of crime has clues that all lead to the same mystery. It isn't until Lilian puts all the clues together that they understand what is going on. They rescue the young women and foil a plot against England's best good.

This was an enjoyable mystery. I liked the World War II setting. I liked the insights into the lives of four very famous mystery authors. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.