ARC Review: The Marriage Method by Mimi Matthews

The Marriage Method
Author: Mimi Matthews
Series: The Crinoline Academy (Book 2)
Publication: Berkley (November 25, 2025)

Description: The Academy always comes first . . . which makes marriage to its most formidable adversary an exceedingly inconvenient arrangement.

Well removed from London’s more curious eyes, the Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies strives toward one clandestine goal: to distract, disrupt, and discredit men in power who would seek to harm the advancement of women—by appropriate means, of course.

When intrepid newspaper editor Miles Quincy starts to question the school’s intentions, the Academy appoints Penelope “Nell” Trewlove, one of their brightest graduates, to put this nuisance to rest. An easy enough mission, she supposes. Or it would be, if Miles wasn’t so fascinating—too fascinating to resist—and if Nell’s visit to London didn’t perfectly coincide with the murder of one of Miles’s reporters.

When the inexorable claws of fate trap Nell and Miles in a compromising situation, they agree to an arrangement that will save their reputations while enabling them to investigate the story that led to a man’s death, as well as the surprising chemistry between them . . .

My Thoughts: Penelope Trewlove from the Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies is sent to London the encourage newspaper editor Miles Quincy to focus his attention elsewhere. Nell hasn't left the school since she was dropped off there as a five-year-old orphan. A fall from a rooftop while rescuing a friend has caused permanent hip and thigh damage and left her with a limp. 

Nell's first meeting with Miles leads to scandal when his stray cat gets caught in her crinoline and the two are discovered trying to untangle it. Miles is very concerned with his reputation since he grew up in a slum and guards it fiercely. Nell would also lose her reputation but doesn't agree with Miles' solution of marriage as the answer. 

It isn't until Miss Quincy sends her away from the school to protect its reputation that she agrees to marry Miles. But she isn't willing to give up her secondary purpose for visiting London which involves another orphan who disappeared there while on her way to the school. Meanwhile, Miles is also searching for his missing gossip columnist.

The two agree to work together to find both missing persons which leads them into the underworld or London and the world of prostitution and murder. 

I enjoyed this historical romance which was filled with all sorts of Victorian detail. 

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

ARC Review: The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelley Armstrong

The Haunting of Paynes Hollow
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication: St. Martin's Press (October 14, 2025)

Description: From New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a nail-biting supernatural horror about a haunted lakeside property and twisted family secrets.

When Samantha Payne’s grandfather dies, she figures she won’t even get a mention in the will. After all, she hasn’t seen him in fourteen years, not since her father took his own life after being accused of murdering a child at their lakefront cottage. Her grandfather always insisted her father was innocent, despite Sam having caught him burying the child’s body, his clothing streaked with blood.

But when she does attend the reading of the will at the behest of her aunt, she discovers that her grandfather left her the very valuable lakefront property where the family cottage sits. There’s one catch: Sam needs to stay in the cottage for a month. To finally face the fact she was wrong and her father was innocent, in her grandfather's words.

Traveling to Paynes Hollow, Sam is faced with the realities of her childhood and the secrets kept hidden in the shadows of her memories. When her aunt goes missing a couple days into their stay, Sam begins to question everything again. Plagued by nightmares and paranoia, she begins hearing sounds in the forest and seeing shapes crawling from the water as the rippling waves of the lake promise something unspeakably dark lurking just below their surface.

My Thoughts: For more than a touch of spooky, THE HAUNTING OF PAYNES HOLLOW really fits the bill. 

Sam Payne hasn't seen her grandfather for fourteen years. She attends his funeral with her aunt as her last obligation to him. She is pressured into attending the reading of the will certain that there is nothing in it for her. However, she is surprised to learn that she will inherit a 300 acre property worth $10 million if she only spends one month living on the property.

The summer camp is the source of many good childhood memories and the most horrible memories of her entire life. She sees her beloved father burying a child and learns that he committed suicide afterwards. She is the one who turns him in. Her grandfather refuses to believe that his son was a murderer and cuts Sam and her mother off from any support.

When Sam's mother comes down with an inherited early dementia, Sam has to change her life plans to support her. Instead of attending medical school, she has a low-paying lab assistant job and a crappy apartment so that she can afford her mother's care. 

As soon as she arrives at the property the dreams and visions start. Everything has preserved to be exactly like it was when she left fourteen years earlier. And the caretaker - the older brother of the boy her father murdered - is to be her keeper and make sure she follows all the terms of the will including the ankle bracelet that proves she hasn't left the property. 

Then her aunt disappears after an argument about Sam staying on the land and the local sheriff is less than helpful in trying to find her. As events get even more creepy, Sam has to decided what is real and what might be only in her mind. 

This was a terrifying - read only in the daytime - sort of story for me. I liked the way the horror kept building. I enjoyed Sam's determination to fulfill the terms of the will both as a proof to herself of her own strength and to get the better of her cruel grandfather. 

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

Audiobook Review: The Vineyard at Painted Moon by Susan Mallery

The Vineyard at Painted Moon
Author: Susan Mallery
Narrator: Tanya Eby
Publication: Harlequin Audio (February 9, 2021)
Length: 10 hours and 34 minutes

Description: Step into the vineyard with Susan Mallery’s most irresistible novel yet, as one woman searches for the perfect blend of love, family and wine.

Mackenzie Dienes seems to have it all — a beautiful home, close friends and a successful career as an elite winemaker with the family winery. There’s just one problem — it’s not her family, it’s her husband’s. In fact, everything in her life is tied to him — his mother is the closest thing to a mom that she’s ever had, their home is on the family compound, his sister is her best friend. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She’s on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends and, worst of all, her family.

Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews — but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of the life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon.

My Thoughts: Mackenzie Dienes is living the life she has always wanted. She's a winemaker for an excellent and established winery. She's married into the Barcellona family which gives her family which she didn't have as an orphan. She is best friends with her sister-in-law Stephanie. 

But her perfect life comes tumbling down when Rhys, her husband of sixteen years, asks for a divorce. Sure, Mackenzie knew that she and her husband weren't in love anymore and were more like friends and roommates, but the family and the job were enough for her. 

Mackenzie doesn't know what to do. Divorce, even an amicable one, will cost her the job she loves and the family she has built. And, to pile on, farewell sex has left her pregnant with a baby her husband doesn't want. 

As Mackenzie is trying to rebuild her life, her sister-in-law Stephanie is also at a crisis point. She wants a new job that will take her away from the family vineyard where she can never seem to please her perfectionist mother. And she doesn't want to start over with her ex-husband even though they are getting along better as they parent their two children.

When Mackenzie partners up with a man who wants to develop a vineyard, she has a chance to rebuild her life, but her ex-mother-in-law Barbara is doing everything she can to sabotage her. And things don't really improve with her ex-mother-in-law when they recruit Stephanie to do the marketing for the new vineyard.

Barbara is also a viewpoint character, and she doesn't come off well. Her complete focus on her vineyard has ruined her relationships with all of her children but she isn't accepting any of the blame for the way things are turning out. She manages to alienate the man who loves her and asks her to marry him.

This was an interesting story. I liked the way Mackenzie and Stephanie managed to rebuild their lives once they got out from under Barbara's thumb. 

I bought this one May 21, 2021. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman

Christa Comes Out of Her Shell
Author: Abbi Waxman
Publication: Berkley (April 16, 2024)

Description: Just when she thought she’d gotten far enough away . . . a life-changing phone call throws an antisocial scientist back into her least favorite place—the spotlight. A hilarious and insightful new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

After a tumultuous childhood, Christa Liddle has hidden away, both figuratively and literally. Happily studying sea snails in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Christa finds her tranquil existence thrown into chaos when her once-famous father—long thought dead after a plane crash—turns out to be alive, well, and ready to make amends. The world goes wild, fascinated by this real-life saga, pinning Christa and her family under the spotlight. As if that weren’t enough, her reunion with an old childhood friend reveals an intense physical attraction neither was expecting and both want to act on . . . if they can just keep a lid on it. When her father’s story starts to develop cracks, Christa fears she will lose herself, her potential relationship, and—most importantly—any chance of making it back to her snails before they forget her completely.

My Thoughts: This story was a wonderful combination of humorous and heart-warming. Christa Liddle has hidden herself away on an island in the Indian Ocean studying ocean snails. She grew up in the spotlight as the daughter of a TV presenter/naturalist who disappeared in Alaska when Christa was a toddler. 

Christa's mother kept the legend alive and furthered her husband's work by setting up a foundation to support conservation efforts which is what led to Christa's fame since she was brought along to publicity events and TV shows mainly to be cute and hold cute animals. In her teens she went a little wild drinking and using drugs until a traumatic event at one of her mother's benefits. Sent off to boarding school. Christa feel in love with zoology. 

But now her life in isolation comes to an abrupt end. The father who disappeared twenty-five years earlier has reappeared from the depths of Alaska. Christa, her two older sisters, and her mother have to deal with all the changes this makes in her life. For Christa, it brings out her fears that her youthful excesses will be brought up again. 

It also means a reunion with Nate who was a childhood friend of her older sisters and the object of Christa's crush. He was the one who saved her from more harm at the benefit. She doesn't know quite what to make of him now that she is seeing him through adult eyes. But they seem to be falling in love.

This was an excellent story. I laughed out loud more than one time as I was reading and I felt deeply for the confusion Christa feels about the reappearance of her missing father. 

Favorite Quote:

"I have no idea who you are, but thank you very much for the small pizzas." I looked at my mom and raided by eyebrows. "We haven't been introduced."

The man was tall, wearing a T-shirt, jeans and no shoes. He had one of those muscular bodies that look super casual yet probably take years of effort, and a face like a model for an outdoor-clothing company. He turned and looked at my mom too. Apparently, we were both raised in Regency England and needed a formal introduction.

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