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Flawless by Elsie Silver. Rating: 3.75 stars.

Read from August 20th to 21st.

Yet another opener to an Elsie Silver, yet another one read in less than 24 hours. I did the same thing with the Rose Hill series. Am I reading Elsie Silver out of order? Yes. Do I care? Not really. I wasn't originally planning to read this one because I don't love the rodeo or bull riders, but there's a hockey romance a few books into this series so I decided to just read the first few books and go from there. I'm currently at the stage in my life where I'm missing my hockey romances. I had a challenge a few years back where I read one per month and I haven't read a lot since. All of that to give way too much background for no reason.

What worked for me in this one was the characters. I loved almost all of them. I hope Rob steps on a lego every time he takes a step and that there's always a rock in his shoe. But the rest of the characters were great. I have always loved the idea of a big family on a ranch who are all kind of nosy and joking with each other. Which is the Eaton family to a tee. I know we're going to get some romances from the brothers later on in the series which I think is going to be fun. I wish Cade was a little less of a grump but that's what his book is for I'm sure. I loved the hero in this one for a few reasons. He falls first, he falls fast, he falls hard. There's just something about a hero who's down bad that I obsess over. I also liked that he made a point of telling Summer that he's protective, not possessive, because I feel like a lot of romances don't distinguish between the two. Rhett is protective, not possessive, and I love that he cares so much about her even in the moments when she can't see herself the way he sees her. I felt like the third act breakup made sense and didn't make me want to bang my head on a wall like most of them do. I also enjoyed the resolution to the third act break up. He needed to do what he did, but she also needed to show up for him like she did. It felt like they were meeting each other where they were at and making the choice to pick the relationship.

I didn't like most of the sex scenes. I just don't like dirty talk in books I think it's really awkward. The second hand cringe is just so bad for me. And there's a LOT of dirty talk in this book. The author does a good job with those scenes outside of that, for the most part, which is more than I can say for a lot of romance authors. I just wish we were able to get more out of the side characters we're going to see get books of their own later in the series. I feel like I know very little about Cade who is the hero of the next book. He mostly just seems like a grumpy man who is stressed about money and being a single parent. I'm hoping we get a chance to go deeper with the character in book two.

The Velvet Knife by Maureen Johnson. Rating; 4 stars.

Read from August 17th to 20th.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Harper Collins for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Velvet Knife is the sixth book in the Truly Devious series, a series that follows a teenage detective named Stevie Bell. In this one, we follow Nate and Stevie who are spending their Christmas vacation in New York. Nate is there at his agent's apartment to finish his book while a freshly 18 Stevie is just trying to get away from her parents. The residents on the 8th floor of this building are all unique and very welcoming to the new, temporary residents of the floor. Things go south when the next door neighbor dies of apparently natural causes. But then another neighbor dies of not so natural causes. Can Stevie get over her heart break long enough to look into this case? Why is David now in New York? And can Stevie solve the case before she has to return to Ellingham? The Velvet Knife comes out on September 29th and is available for preorder now.

I was beyond shocked when I got the email saying I was approved for this ARC. Maureen Johnson is one of my favorite authors and Stevie Bell is such a great character whose sleuthing abilities I adore. Stevie is pretty much always a mess but she has to know the answers to the questions. She has to figure out the murder or it will just linger in the back of her mind, taking up all of her attention. I found that the setting felt very Murders in the Building for me. All of these eccentric characters on one floor who are kind of nosy and noisy and who turn to Stevie for answers. The mystery from the 70s was good and yet hard for me to read at times. I think the whole cult of it all made it difficult because as the reader I could see every step the leader was taking to make these girls fall into his trap. While also seeing how these girls could see red flags but ignore them because that's the whole things with cults or manipulative/abusive relationships of any kind. I think my struggle to read those sections was a sign of how good those chapters were and how easily the author made me feel for these characters. You can see the train crash coming but can't do a single thing to stop it. In the present day timeline, I enjoyed seeing our usual cast of side characters and the stuff they were dealing with. I loved that Nate managed to turn in his book. I feel like we were watching him write for years and he finally did it.

I am still such a David hater. At one point while I was reading, I turned to my husband and said, "She needs to punch him in the face." I knew she would never, but I would. Janelle probably would too. As someone who had a couple of on again, off again relationships, I hated seeing how they were with each other. Her letting her feelings dictate how she moved forward while he was mad at her for struggling with how everything went down in England. I felt like the present day situation was wrapped up in a way I didn't love. Too spoiler-y to explain fully. But it makes sense for the situation.