A small island off the coast of Ireland complete with deserted homes, castle ruins, and a boggy cemetery. Does this sound like the perfect place to have your wedding? Maybe, maybe not --but it is an excellent setting for a spooky thriller and a bit of murder. The book creeps on slowly introducing you to bits and pieces of the wedding party. There is a handful of point of view characters including the bride, the groom, the best man, and the wedding planner as well as a few more characters. We learn slowly, like the storm moving in from the ocean, about traumatic events in some of the characters' pasts.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Talk About Spooky Atmospheres, Wowza!
A small island off the coast of Ireland complete with deserted homes, castle ruins, and a boggy cemetery. Does this sound like the perfect place to have your wedding? Maybe, maybe not --but it is an excellent setting for a spooky thriller and a bit of murder. The book creeps on slowly introducing you to bits and pieces of the wedding party. There is a handful of point of view characters including the bride, the groom, the best man, and the wedding planner as well as a few more characters. We learn slowly, like the storm moving in from the ocean, about traumatic events in some of the characters' pasts.
Sunday, May 16, 2021
I Took A Vacation to Ireland Over The Weekend!
The weather was gloomy Friday and Saturday, so I turned to reading and found myself quickly in the midst of murders and ghosts in Ireland.
Saturday, May 15, 2021
#TheSundayPost My Belated Mother's Day!
Friday, May 14, 2021
What's A Kitchen Witch? Magic in the Kitchen and a Cozy Review!
What is a kitchen witch? It can be a handcrafted doll that is used as a good luck charm in Scandanavian kitchens or it can be someone who practices magic centered on the craft of cooking and all things related to food. One can be a kitchen witch who practices in the Wiccan tradition. In my opinion, if you cook with love and talk to your plants, and have a green thumb and secret recipes for delicious cookies that you won't share- I probably think you are a kitchen witch.
In paranormal fiction, various types of witchcraft are as popular (i.e. Harry Potter) as vampires and werewolves. Of course, I don't think vampires or werewolves exist, but paganism and Wiccan practices have been around for millennia and only got a bad wrap when men took over religions. Under the cozy mystery umbrella is the subgenre of paranormal cozies. Paranormal cozies are chock full of many different types of witches!
One Poison Pie by Lynn Cahoon is a series featuring Mia who is a kitchen witch and is working on starting up a catering business, only to have a murder pop up right before her first catering gig! This magical cozy is light on the magic and heavy on the sleuthing and traditional cozy themes, so if you haven't read a magical cozy yet, this could be the perfect foray to see if you like it.
I enjoyed the fresh tone of the book, Mia has common sense and a dogged determination to get her fledgling business off the ground. She also has a terrible ex, a grandmother who holds secrets and a potential new boyfriend. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Two Wicked Desserts, which I will be reviewing next month thanks to a copy from Net Galley.
Solid 4 Stars! A series I will continue!
As you know from reading my blog, I'm an aspiring cozy writer myself. I love the idea of a kitchen witch protagonist and I have been doing research and have an idea I am working on, I also have an 80% complete rough draft for another cozy mystery series idea. What I need to do is focus, finish one of these books and then go from there!
This is a beautiful book filled with recipes and rituals to be more connected to the Earth.
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Let's Hope This Warm Up Is Here To Stay! Plus! NEW Cozy Series Book- Farm to Trouble!
Prolific cozy mystery writer Amanda Flower is out with a new series. I was drawn to this series by the fresh look of the cover and the fun title. I'm excited to say this is the book of the month for June's Cozy Mystery Book Club. I am reading it early because this is when I was able to borrow it from my library!
Monday, May 10, 2021
Pierced Peony Silver Dagger Blog Tour Giveaway! - New Cozy!
Saturday, May 8, 2021
#TheSundayPost The Second Sunday in May!
Friday, May 7, 2021
The Installment in the #PsyChangeling #Readalong #COYER Challenge Book 6! And Grocery Store Monopoly Talk
Just when you think you think a book is going to be full of pining and delayed gratification Nalini Singh comes out of the gate hot! Sexy time right from the get-go. I love this series because of stuff like this. Nalini keeps the readers guessing and that keeps this reader, reading!
Branded by Fire tells the story of Mercy from the Dark River pack and Riley from the Snow Dancer Pack. She's a leopard and he's a wolf. Can a cat and a dog find happiness together? Let's find out! In this story, we have two main characters that are antagonists to each other but also have wild chemistry. Frienimies to lovers is a solid descriptor, but none of the I hate you, I love you. Their relationship is more nuanced and because they are at the top of the pack hierarchy, they have to consider how becoming mated would affect both of their packs. I know they will get there, just a matter of how fun getting there will be for me the reader!
Nalini Singh shares more about the lives of the couples we have already met, as the packs face a new challenge when the Human Alliance emerges as a terrorist group. There are also developments in the growth of Sienna Lauren, a character that readers know will be more and more pivotal as this story continues. Lastly, is Nalini rehabilitating Ashaya's sister Amara? Will Amara be fit to be around the pack in the future?
Solid advice from E-Psy Sasha to Mercy!
4 stars to the Branded by Fire, It was fun to read Mercy and Riley's point of view and see their romance play out!
While I've been trying to read this week, I'm also in the midst of trying to win fabulous prizes from my grocery store's monopoly game. Thanks to a friend that passed on a ton of tickets to me, I'm up to my eyeballs in chances to win major prizes! All I need to do now that all of the tickets are opened is to scan them in my app. So far I have won over 36 individual bottles of water, five loaves of french bread, and three bottles of ranch dressing. Wish me luck, maybe I'll win $25,000! Who knows! If I do, I'll let you know!
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!
Monday, May 3, 2021
Food Talk and Today's Cozy Review, Spotlight Scandal by Stella Bixby
About every six weeks, I'll treat myself to a couple of meals from Blue Apron. This past week was that week. We got Pork & Marinated Cucumber Steam Buns which turned out to be completely delicious and now that I have made it and have the recipe, I am going to make it on my own in the future. It was so good I forgot to take a picture. The second meal I made was Steaks & Black Bean Butter Sauce. This meal was also very yummy. The only thing was the kale became too wilted. Weird.
Now on to today's book review. This book takes place near Christmas, so if you like holiday cozies, add this to your collection when it comes out May 11th, 2021, and then read it come December! I might re-read it too! I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review. I enjoy Stella Bixby's writing style so I am a member of her 'review crew' This book is the third book in the Magical Mane Series. The books are novella length and lend themselves to fun weekend reading.