Sunday, August 15, 2021
Some October in August! #MrsClausandtheHalloweenHomicide #NetGalley
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Second Book in a Witchy Cozy! #TwoWickedDesserts #NetGalley
Two Wicked Desserts is the second book in Lynn Cahoon's Kitchen Witch Mystery series. I would say that this is a paranormal lite cozy. I think if you are not interested in a cozy that really leans into the magic, you will probably enjoy this series as while there is some magic, the amateur sleuth still solves the murder using traditional questioning and observations.
I like Mia our main character, she is steadfast and remains calm even when bad people are after her. There is a nice slow romance with Trent, who is a grocery store owner and not in law enforcement, which is nice. Instead we have a competent sherrif in Mark Baldwin and Mark and Mia have an entertaining bit of bickering throughout the book.
The food and catering talk in the book is mouth-watering and the pets and Mia's grandma give the story just right amount of magic. This second book is a nice continuation of the first and I look forward to what happens next!
4.5 Stars for Two Wicked Desserts
***
Now that it is August is it time to start reading books about Autumn? What do you think? I think anytime after my birthday (which is in August) is a fine time to start dreaming of the fall.
Saturday, June 5, 2021
#TheSundayPost A Little This, A Little That
Saturday, May 29, 2021
#TheSundayPost May 30th: Are You Ready For The Summer?
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Starting A Garden This Year? #TheBeginnersGuidetoGrowingGreatVegetables #NetGalley
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Judging A Book By Its Cover #RubyRedHerring #NetGalley
Ruby Red Herring by Tracy Gardner is the first book in her new Avery Ayers Antique Mystery series. I chose to pick up this book from NetGalley because I loved the cover. The title is also a perfectly punny cozy title!
Our Amateur sleuth is Avery Ayers. Avery and her sister live in the family home with their Aunt following the death of their parents in a car crash a year prior to the series beginning. We quickly begin to wonder if the car crash was an accident or if foul play was involved. Lilac Grove is a small suburb of New York City. So we have the small-town setting where Avery and her family live, and then we also Manhattan where the family business is located. The family business is an appraisal business that is focused on antiquities and artifacts, we find out the business has suffered since the deaths of William and Anne. Things are now on the upswing due to a couple of contracts Avery's partner Sir Robert has acquired.
My only exposure to the world of appraising antiques and artifacts has been through watching Antiques Roadshow on PBS. Tracy Gardner explains the appraisal process in an interesting and easy-to-understand way. I like the variety of character ages in this book. Avery is 25, her sister is a senior in high school, Aunt Midge is sixty, and the people who work with Avery at the museum span the decades from the late 20s to late 50s. A nice mix of points of view.
Tracy Gardner does a very good job highlighting Avery's struggles with mental health after the deaths of her parents. She is seeing a therapist and working on anger issues as well as grief, I appreciated that her pain and her struggle wasn't glossed over in pursue of the mystery plot.
4 Stars to this new cozy series, this one takes some liberties with the standard cozy tropes, and I'm always open to reading new twists on cozy mysteries!
I received an ARC of this book, it may change some when it is in final form. All my opinions are mine!
Saturday, May 1, 2021
#TheSundayPost Time to Embrace Those May Flowers
Friday, April 30, 2021
Have You Hugged A Tree Lately? #NationalArborDay ! Read #MenareFrogs Under a Shady Tree! #netgalley
Happy Arbor Day! Go give a tree a hug! They do so much for us and they always look beautiful!
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Cozy Review for Wednesday #ReservedforMurder from #NetGalley
Before I share my review for Reserved for Murder by Victoria Gilbert, I must show you a picture of the breakfast muffins I made. These muffins were supposed to be Blackberry Breakfast Muffins, but I didn't have blackberries, so I used blueberries. I also added about 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts to the mix, which was a very good call on my part! The recipe is from the back of the book Color Me Murder by Krista Davis. The muffins are 5 stars and I do recommend them!
Now on to today's book review. Reserved for Murder is the second book in the Booklovers B&B
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Ready for some Coziness? #NetGalley #PintofNoReturn
Trinidad is one of the three former wives of a white-collar criminal named Gabe. She is now divorced from said con-man and has relocated to her ex-husband's hometown. Why? Well, the only good thing he seems to have done was leave her a building in Upper Sprocket, Oregon. Trinidad Jones is opening an ice cream shop that will feature fantastical giant shakes with loads of toppings that she calls Freakshakes. Just a few weeks before her July 4th opening, Trinidad stumbles across a dead body.
Thursday, April 1, 2021
New Release by Brittney Morris #TheCostofKnowing #NetGalley You Can't Put This Down!
Brittney Morris writes the kind of book you can't put down. Her YA characters are compelling and loveable and you just want all the good things for them. If you have not yet read her novel Slay, I suggest you add Slay and The Cost of Knowing to your TBR pile and follow Brittney Morris so you don't miss any of her future books. Reviewing this book is a little tricky because I want to be sure not to spoil anything and yet I want to tell you so much!
On Goodreads, Brittney Morris wrote: "My love letter to all the Black men who had to grow up too early." This love letter is wrapped in an amazing tale about a teen, Alex, who in the aftermath of a car accident that killed his parents on election day, now sees visions of the future whenever he touches any person or object with his hands.
Alex has been managing to be a functioning human for four years even as he is hit with a vision every time he touches anything and the longer the touch continues the further into the future of the object or person's life he sees. Worst of all Alex can't change the future. He tried a few times and it didn't change anything, all the bad things happen. What a nightmare! I could not function.
Brittney Morris gives us an excellent depiction of crippling anxiety and how it affects Alex due to his power. Additionally, she shows how anxiety permeates Alex's life because he is a Black teenager. He has to navigate a world of never-ending minefields. He has to use code-switching not only to hide his power but also to make his existence more palatable to white people.
This is a five-star read for me. It is beautifully descriptive as it deals with hard subjects, you can feel the love Brittney Morris has for the characters on each page you read, and I don't think it would be possible to read this and not love these kids. I stayed up late to finish it and my heart is filled with both joy and deep sadness.
The Cost of Knowing is the sort of book that will stick with me for a very long time; it's a book that makes me want to send a thank-you note to Brittney Morris for putting it out into the world.
Saturday, March 20, 2021
#TheSundayPost #ShamrockShuffle Who's Ready for Spring?
Saturday, March 13, 2021
#TheSundayPost Goal This Week: Mason Bee Open House
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Can You Guess How Much Snow We've Had This Winter? (so far) & #TheSignofDeath #NetGalley
As you may know, I live in the Chicagoland Area, the heart of the Midwest, USA. We get snow every winter. In November and December and into January we were really lucking out in the snow department; as in, we had very little snow. It's not that I am a passionate hater of snow, it's just that snow makes running more difficult, because not enough sidewalks are cleared for people who need sidewalks.
If I were to run to be the Queen of Illinois, I would run on a platform that would involve municipalities paying people to shovel the snow so that all sidewalks were cleared within 24 hours of any snow event of over two inches. I would also love to have heated streets, but mostly I dream of a world where sidewalks are not buried under mountains of snow each winter. This is on my mind because over the last few weeks it has snowed almost every day and now we have over two feet of snow on the ground! Bah!
Saturday, February 20, 2021
One Month from Now = Spring! #TheSundayPost
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
#Recipe and #ChickLit #BookReview & Spicy Chicken with Polenta
So my polenta was not as creamy as it should have been. I think I should have added more broth? All in all the meal was enjoyed by the family. I will definitely make it again. I did have to change the cooking times on the chicken because I didn't have any chicken thighs when I decided to make this and I substituted a giant split chicken breast and chicken legs. I also couldn't find berbere seasoning so I used a chili powder blend with cinnamon in it and added some ginger powder to that. As you can see I found this recipe in my physical copy of Real Simple Magazine. Paging through an actual magazine is a nice relaxing way to unplug in my estimation.
Thursday, February 11, 2021
An Actually Easy Bread Recipe! And #APocketInTime #NetGalley Review!
We were out of potatoes and I didn't feel like making brown rice again, and I thought it was a good day to try and make fresh bread. I did a search for easy bread recipes and I found one to try that lives up to the description of the World's Easiest Homemade Bread. This is a real five-star recipe and I am here to recommend it to you. You don't even knead this dough!
I recommend eating the bread slathered with butter. Life is short!
And speaking of recommendations, let me share a review for a new time-traveling romance by Lexi Post. I received a copy of this book from Net Galley, as always the opinions are mine. Do you like Bridgerton or Outlander? If so, give this book a read, A Pocket in Time is the second book in the Time Weavers, Inc. series. So you can read the first book and then this one or just read the second one, whatever works for you.
In the Author's Note, Lexi Post writes "A Pocket in Time was inspired by Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist." I thought that was a unique place to start this book and as a fan of time-travel and romance, I knew this was a book I would have real fun reading. Katz Almira is the heroine of this story, she is going back to Regency England to steal something that can change the course of history. Among her skill set is pickpocketing so she is perfect for this assignment. She only has two weeks to complete this task or it will be too late to fix the timeline in the present day.
The construct of Katz Almira being in a time and place she doesn't belong in and can't stay in without putting the entire world in peril really raises the stakes on the HEA. How are Jack and Katz going to overcome the literal obstacle of time and space? That is the central mystery of this book and I applaud Lexi Post for making it so hard for these two to get together.
If you like me enjoy characters with hard cynical outsides and gooey marshmallow insides, you'll love Katz and Jack. It's nice to read a story where the male lead is more willing to dive off the deep end and profess his love without the certainty that the female protagonist will return his affections.
4.5 stars to this book. Really great read!
#APocketInTime #NetGalley
Friday, February 5, 2021
#TheSundayPost Love is in the Air? Or is that Football?
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Breakfast For Dinner Vegetarian Edition and A #Romance Review