Hello, and welcome back! It feels like fall might really be on its way here! Yay! The sky is that bright autumn-blue with no clouds, the air is cooler and there's a breeze riffling through the leaves that will start to change colors in a couple more weeks. I'm thrilled. Evenings here are perfect for sitting out on the glider with a book, though I can see I'll need a sweater or jacket pretty soon if I want to continue (and I do!). I hope you're all enjoying the season and plenty of good reading material.

The first book I have to share with you this week is Still Mr. and Mrs. by Mary McBride (Warner). Angela and Bobby Holland work for the Secret Service and even though they're estranged, the President's mother needs protecting, and they're assigned the job of husband/wife housekeepers in her home. Angela's the emotional one, and Bobby shows none, which was part of the problem between them. Can they make this work? Frankly, while I liked the idea of the story, the story itself didn't do much for me. Their happy ending is tied up a little too neatly for me, and while we hear about how their chemistry was never the problem, I didn't see any evidence of that. Of Cupid's five arrows, this one gets two.

The other book I want to share with you this week is Once upon a Kiss with novellas from Nora Roberts, Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan and Marianne Willman (Jove). I've been looking forward to this anthology since I heard it was scheduled, and I'm excited to finally have it in my hot little hands. The first story is Nora's, "A World Apart," with Kadra, Slayer of Demons sent on a mission from her world into ours to dispatch a group of particularly nasty demons bent on destruction. Her partner is Harper Doyle, who's not exactly expecting to wake from his birthday celebration to find a nearly-naked woman in his bed, or to go off demon-hunting. There is so much humor in this story, not to mention the sizzling attraction between this pair, I don't know how anyone couldn't enjoy this. I had to finish it before going to bed.

Next is Jill Gregory's "Impossible," where Princess Erinn of Marlbury is renowned for her nonexistent magical skills, and Tynon, Duke of Bordmoor needs a witch to lift the curse that has taken his castle. Oh, and did I mention their families have been feuding and fighting for a hundred years? Of course, the feud must end, but the way they manage it may not be quite the way you'd expect.

In "Sealed with a Kiss" from Ruth Ryan Langan, Arianna Douglas must go off with a group of Highland warriors to be wed to their laird as part of a bargain her father made for the protection of their village. Too bad the leader of the group, Lachlan MacLean, is such a handsome fellow and that Arianna is desperate to find a way out of her marriage.

Finally is Marianne Willman's "Kiss Me, Kate," with Kate Singleton inheriting a lovely estate in England only to find that Michael Bellamy believes he owns part of it and plans to excavate the ruins there. Throw in a few fae folk and things really get interesting.

I enjoyed these so much, I'm giving this anthology four and a half arrows.

Until next week, happy reading!