The Widow of Rose House/ Diana Biller/ 352 pgs

This is a debut book which strongly reminds me of those written by Simone St. James. It's a wonderful combination of historical fiction, romance, and mystery, complete with a ghost. Alva is newly returned to New York, albeit in disgrace. In France, she'd been on the verge of scandalously divorcing her husband (for good reason). In retaliation, he put out rumors that she was all kinds of immoral. But then in a twist of good luck for Alva, someone killed him. In New York, Alva's high society parents snub her. She purchases a dilapidated house outside the city but it turns out it's haunted and the construction workers won't stick around unless the ghost is gone. Much to her chagrin, Alva is forced to turn to the delightful Sam, a scientist/inventor/ghost hunter. Sam and his family are truly the best part of this book. They are amusing, intelligent, fun-loving, and best of all, kind. Sam and Alva fall for each other in the sweetest way, but given her past, it's a long road to a happy ending. This was a wonderful read.

A Princess in Theory/ Alyssa Cole/ 373 pgs

This book received a lot of buzz in 2018. I mean, look at that gorgeous cover! The story within is just as lovely. Naledi is an orphan who grew up in the foster care system. She compares herself to defective Velcro. No one ever "sticks" to her. To protect herself, she doesn't really let anyone too close. She's made a life for herself in NYC, though, as an epidemiology grad student. The book opens with her receiving emails from an African country, claiming she is a princess bound to wed the crown prince. She laughs these off, as we all do. Little does she know, the emails are for real. Prince Thabiso is the crown prince of Thesolo. He and Naledi were betrothed as children. Then her parents left the country in a cloud of mystery and, unfortunately, they died in a car accident not long after arriving in the US. Thabiso's assistant tracks Naledi down. When he goes to introduce himself to her, she mistakes him for someone else and he decides to get to know her as just another guy, not the prince. Their romance is sweet and hot, and as you can imagine, Naledi is quite upset when she finds out he deceived her about his identity. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I love Cole's historical romances as well, so she's definitely one of my favorite authors right now.

The Affair/ Amanda Quick / 340 pgs

After almost a solid month of reading suspense, I turned to a twenty-year-old book by Amanda Quick to give me a break from the intense stuff. The Affair is a historical romance with a nerdy chemist hero and an independent heroine who is not afraid to make her own way.

Baxter is a scientist, a bastard (in the literal sense), and a man who just wants to be left alone in his lab. Or so he thinks. His aunt asks him to investigate a woman named Charlotte who just might have murdered his aunt's best friend. Charlotte also plans to investigate this woman's death and decides she needs a bodyguard and man-of-affairs while going about her business. Baxter and Charlotte realize early on that they are working toward the same goal so they band together to find the murderer. They also realize early on that are attracted to each other. In fact, their mutual attraction/affection/love came about all too quickly for my taste. The villain is a man coincidentally linked to both Baxter and Charlotte. I wouldn't say this is one of Quick's best books, but it is a nice solid read.