Xeni’s complex feelings around her relationships with her family as her aunt’s death reveal a surprise that reverberates across time and place. This book deals with grief, as both Xeni and Mason lost a close family member and friend, but the grief arc does not drive this book. That is something I love about Weatherspoon’s writing, her pop culture references are so well done and seem to fit right into my kind of humor. Xeni doesn’t know what to expect, but Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust” is not it however she sees her aunt’s humor in the request. We find her waiting by a river to pay her last respects with her aunt’s close friend group when Mason arrives late to play the bagpipes. When her Aunt Sable dies in upstate New York, Xeni is the one she stipulates in her will to close out her estate. Xeni is part of a large, complicated, musical family from California. This is book #2 in her Loose Ends collection where secondary characters from other novels get the chance to shine (and find their HEA!) I am not sure if this counts as a trope, but I love it when minor characters get to be the main course! We met Mason as Silas’ cousin in Sanctuary and Xeni is part of Sloan’s girl squad in Rafe (and, of course, the girls chime in during this book as well). Xeni is a wonderful addition to the world of Rebekah Weatherspoon. It features a woman sick to death of her family’s sh*t and a plus-size Scotsman who just wants to make sweet, sweet music. **This is a stand alone romance that can be read along with RAFE: A Buff Male Nanny. They had no plans to actually fall in love. With no choice but to say I do, the unlikely pair try to make the best of a messy situation. He also never imagined that Sable would use her dying breaths to play match-maker, trapping Mason and her beautiful niece in a marriage scheme that comes with more complications than either of them need.

He never imagined she’d leave him more than enough money to settle the debt that’s keeping him from returning home to Scotland. When his dear friend and mentor Sable Everly passed away, Mason McInroy knew she would leave a sizable hole in his heart. The ruggedly handsome and deliciously thicc Scotsman who showed up at her aunt’s memorial, bagpipes at the ready. Xeni must marry before she can claim the estate that will set her up for life and her aunt has just the groom in mind. The Secrets, lies, and a crap ton of cash spilled on her lawyer’s conference room table all come with terms and conditions. With the feud between her mom and her sisters still raging even in death, she knows this will be no easy task, but when the will is read Xeni quickly discovers the decades old drama between the former R&B singers is just the tip of the iceberg.

Xeni Everly-Wilkins has ten days to clean out her recently departed aunt’s massive colonial in Upstate New York.

She just wanted to claim her inheritance.

Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon