Recently received

Barnstorming (Grail McCarthy #12) by Laura Crum (Perseverance Press trade paperback, 15 April 2012).

Gail McCarthy has turned fifty, and is considering resuming her career as a horse veterinarian. Life interrupts her plans when she embarks on a solitary ride and finds a fellow equestrian shot dead.

 Gail’s friend, Detective Jeri Ward, heads up the investigation, and Gail is drawn into the escalating chain of events when a second rider is murdered. She must make sense of this threat to her beloved hills and trails... or she may be the sniper’s next victim.

Austentatious by Alyssa Goodnight (Kensington Books trade paperback, 31 January 2012).

While browsing in an Austin shop, Nicola James finds a blank vintage journal hidden among a set of Jane Austen novels. Even though Nic is a straight-laced engineer, she's still a sucker for anything Austen-esque. But her enthusiasm turns to disbelief once she starts writing in the journal - because somehow, it's writing her back...

Itching for a bit of excitement, Nic decides to follow her "Fairy Jane's" advice. The result: a red-hot romance with a sexy Scottish musician who charms his way into Nic's heart in about five seconds flat. But a guy like Sean doesn't exactly fit into her Life Plan. With no one but Fairy Jane to guide her, Nic must choose between the life she thought she wanted - and the kind of happy ending she never saw coming...

Mix-up in Miniature (Miniature Mystery #6) by Margaret Grace (Perseverance Press trade paperback,  15 April 2012).

Geraldine Porter is thrilled to meet bestselling author and miniatures enthusiast Varena Young. The celebrity seems to seek friendship with Gerry and her crafts group, and makes a generous offer of a house from her collection for a library fund-raiser. But Young is suddenly murdered, and Gerry is left to investigate the crime. She and her eleven-year-old granddaughter Maddie delve for information on Young’s mysterious past, and they find a clue to her murder in a secret room...of a dollhouse.

Curses!:  A F***ed-Up Fairy Tale by J.A. Kazimer (Kensington Books trade paperback, 28 February 2012).

  
I’m no hero. In fact, up until a couple of days ago, I was the villain. Kidnapped maidens, scared kids, stole magic tchotchkes—until I got into a little scrape with the union. Now I’m cursed with the worst fate in New Never City—no matter what I do, I gotta be nice.

So when a head-case princess named Asia barges into my apartment and asks me to find out who whacked her stepsister, Cinderella, I have no choice but to help her. And I’m more than willing to head back to her parents’ castle and do some investigating if it means I can get into her black leather cat suit. Except this twisted sister has a family nutty enough to send the Biggest Baddest Wolf running for the hills—and a freaky little curse of her own...