A Mystery in the Agatha Christie Tradition - Patchwork Quilt Murder

 I pre-ordered this book at some point earlier this year and forgot all about the pre-ordering. I recently got around to reading it and it is a five-star book for me. The Lucy Stone series is marketed as a cozy mystery series and to be sure there are craft and cooking themes in many of the books, but the series is more in the vein of a classic Agatha Christie-style mystery. 

In this book we say goodbye to an old friend, not Ms Tilley, I'm almost certain she is immortal. There are some heavy themes in this book including frank discussions of mental illness. Leslie Meier excels in writing books that address the current moments in society and how that affects the imaginary town of Tinker's Cove. Lucy Stone and the other residents feel like real people and it's very easy to immerse myself in her books. It's like visiting family. 

I read the books out of order, there isn't any romantic subplot, Lucy has her same group of friends, and the children grow up. If you prefer romance-free cozies, this could be a good series for you. 

This cover is quite cute! 

I sent my third book off to my editor and am using my writing time to try and make social media posts. This is my latest attempt using Canva. How many hours will it take to gain some mastery of Canva? I've got a long way to go! 

Is There Anything Better Than a Cozy Mystery and Charcuterie?

 

Something about summertime always has me reading cozy mysteries, it might be because my library has an adult summer reading challenge with prizes? The Diva Goes Overboard is the seventeenth book in The Domestic Diva Series. I've read many of the books in this series, but not all of them. Once again, Krista Davis puts together a mystery where I almost have it figured out, but the total solution alludes me. The title of this is funny because there is a scene where someone goes overboard, and in the book there are all these scenes involving charcuterie boards. Well done, Ms.Davis!  

I borrowed this book from my library and since we are having a summer reading challenge, maybe I'll win a fun prize for this read! I would say it is a 4-star book. Enjoyable and not super easy to solve the mystery!

Even though some tiny bugs are still eating the heck of the leaves on my flowers. Look at this beautiful zinnia! 

The Sunday Post- Have you finished watching Bridgerton yet?

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news a

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. you can write about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Having finished my rough draft of Is This Love Fur Real, I watched the second half of Bridgerton yesterday.  It was very well done, I thoroughly enjoyed Penelope and Portia coming to a better understanding and healing their relationship.  Portia Featherington is one of my favorite characters. I read many a social media post about the season while scrolling and geez Louise people really go overboard on critiques. 

Readingwise, I finished The Diva Goes Overboard and am a third of the way through the latest Lucy Stone cozy mystery.  I'm also listening to a Kim Harrison audible exclusive. I'll be making a concerted effort to make my posts about these books and more this week. 

I've completed the first week of summer school and we only have two weeks left!  Summer school is only three and a half hours per day four days a week and we only go through June twenty-seventh, so it's nice. I'm working in a classroom of junior high kids. I was worried they would be a lot to handle, but I have found they are just wonderful and delightful!

In garden news, my zinnias have bloomed and we have cucumbers!  How was your week? 

Oh I almost forgot yesterday I ran a 5K for Imerman Angels!  Bonus was my middle kiddo ran it too! It was his first race!

The race is held at Montrose Beach (Lake Michigan) 

And here are my garden pics!

The Sunday Post! Am I Ready For Summer School?

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Before I get started here is a progress picture of my gardens. After this picture was taken my BIL pruned my zucchini plants. He is confident that within a day or two I should have a bunch of flowers and flowers mean vegetables!

I have just a few days left of drafting and then I'm on to revising so I can send my third book to my editor. I am also working as a pararprofessional (teacher's aide) for summer school! It is only three and a half hours a day, four days a week for the rest of June. 

I just finished listening to the Cozy Mystery Book Clue June book  Murder at the Lakeside Library. I am halfway through The Diva Goves Overboard  (which is about charcuterie boards, not boats), and The Scent of Dreams. 

 I need to get a post for the excerpt of T.J. Klune's upcoming book Beyond The Sea this week. I really cannot wait to read the whole book later this year!

Oh on the TV and Movie front, I watched the new Netflix movie Hit Man starting Glen Powell, it was very enjoyable! If you want a fun and funny movie, check it out!

How was your week? 

When You Read A Five Star Book and Can Only Hope It's The Start of a Series!

 

I listened to the audio version of this book and it is excellent. The reader is fantastic, she does an excellent job with all the characters. The main character of this book is Clara, and she is a hero you want to root for. What makes this book stand out from the crowd are these factors:

1.The Setting is Washington DC in the 1920s.

2. The side characters have their own story arcs and those don't take away from the main story.

3. A unique magic system in a mundane world.

4. Leslye Penelope includes actual historical people in the book in a very creative way.

That's about all I can tell you without going into spoiler land. When I started this book, I was hooked right away it has excellent pacing. 

If you read this book I'd love to hear your thoughts!

On the gardening front, I've harvested my first vegetable! 

The first 'fruits' of my garden labor! 

June Already! The Sunday Post! Coming To You From Cicada Central

 

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Happy June! Yesterday I went to book club at my local bookstore, Love's Sweet Arrow. We discussed the book The Monsters We Defy.  I really enjoyed the book and I will write up a post about it tomorrow to share. 

For my personal writing, I'm finishing the draft of my third book. We have two more days of school, so I will have more time to work on it this week! On the bummer side, I have to have oral surgery on Thursday so that stinks. 

Gardening update, something is feasting on my tender little plants. My brother-in-law recommended neem oil, so I am going to give that a go.  Below is a gardening update picture. 

Have you read any 5-star books lately?  I read an excerpt of T.J. Klune's upcoming book Somewhere Beyond the Sea, and it's amazing. I can't wait to finish it!  I'm currently listening to First Contact on Audible by Kim Harrison and I'm really enjoying it. I also have the new Charlie Donlea book that I need to read ASAP because it's a new release from my library, so no renewals of the loan. 

So many great books out there! 

Have a wonderful week!

Me and Christina Lauren. I didn't realize there was a photo op and so here I am with no makeup and a sweatshirt on! 

All the 2011 Feels!

  This spring I was listening to an episode of the podcast Fated Mates and they mentioned that JR Ward had a new book coming out in the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series.  I read a bunch of books in the series back in 2011 and 2012, until I was caught up and then I assume I got distracted. 

However, when I heard about The Beloved by JR Ward I got a craving to check it out. I put the book on hold and last week my hold came up. I started reading it Sunday and right now I'm at the fifty percent mark. I'm enjoying my return to the book's universe.  It's like I found an old favorite jacket that I haven't worn in years and it fits perfectly and feels nice and soft, just like I remembered.

Are there any series you started, didn't finish, and then years later revisited?

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In this weeks writing, I'm getting to know one of my side characters from Too Kölsch For Comfort better and now she has a best friend. I enjoy writing female friendships so much!   We got a ton of rain today and I am hoping that my plants will flourish this week and that I'll have a nice garden update to post on The Sunday Post!

How To Help A Hungry Werewolf, Put this book on your Spooky Season TBR

 

This book has a fabulous cover! Don't you love it? Is this a Paranormal Romance? Is this a RomCom? Does it matter? Let me tell you, I have thoughts about certain parts of the book that I need to discuss in a book club setting! 

Since the tagline of the book is (to paraphrase) What We Do in the Shadows meets Gilmore Girls, I'm categorizing this book as a Paranormal RomCom. Heavier on the Rom than the Com, but a good amount of Com.

Now then important things you should know about the book. The prologue features an incident of our male lead being a jerk and humiliating Cassandra, our female lead,  very publically in high school by making fun of her size. For me, and this is just me, I don't have a problem with a high schooler saying something mean about another high schooler, this is something that happens every day all day. I don't like it in my fiction when the female lead says terrible things about her looks to herself. Cassandra doesn't do this so the book works for me. 

I found the ending satisfying. I thought it was going to go one way when I started reading the book but it went another way that was actually better. I love the magic and the world it takes place in and I would have enjoyed more of the world, the magical rules are really fun and different. 

This book is like when you have your phone in portrait mode to take a picture. We spend this book with Cassandra and Seth in focus and getting more in focus as the story goes on while the side characters and the setting are a bit blurry. I hope that there is a second book in this series so I can see more of this world. 

Throughout the book, I felt like our main characters acted much younger than their age of twenty-seven. Especially, Seth, I decided maybe what I was supposed to understand was because he became a werewolf, and that slowed his maturity. And maybe since Cassandra doesn't know an important fact about herself, her growth is also stunted. 

My rating for this book is 4 stars, if you read it let me know, I'd love to talk about a couple of spoilery things! 

I rec'd an ARC from the publisher, all my opinions are my own! 

The Sunday Post First Week Of May! Time to Draft Book Three!

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. Join in weekly, bi-weekly, or for a monthly wrap-up. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

May has arrived and it's past the last time for a frost in my garden zone so I picked up some plants yesterday. A local greenhouse had a pop-up plant sale at one of our local breweries, so I got some seedlings. I got thyme, oregano, a bell pepper, marigolds, cucumbers, kale and zinnias. 

I've got room for a few more plants. At the end of this month, I'm picking up four heirloom tomato plants from the Chicago Tomato Guy. Exciting! 

Reading-wise, I just finished reading an ARC of How to Help A Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein. I'll talk about that this week.

Writing-wise, I have my outline for Is This Love Fur Real? Today I need to buckle down and write two thousand words. My short-term goal is to get to fifteen thousand words in my rough draft by next Sunday. Wish me luck!

How was your week? 

 

Off To A Strong Start- Three Kinds of Lucky by Kim Harrison

I listened to the audio version of this book. I enjoyed this narrator and thought she did an excellent job. This book is an urban fantasy and it's the first in a new series by Kim Harrison. Some of the plot reminded me of one of the books in her Hollows series. I don't want to elaborate as it could be considered on the spoiler side.

In my opinion, this book has only a hint of romance, great for people who don't want a big romantic side plot. If you want an action-oriented story featuring a heroine who thinks she has little agency at the beginning and then begins a story arc where she grows into her own, grab this book. 

Kim Harrison is a lovely writer and some of her sentences are poetry. When I read her books, I always get a sense of light melancholy and this book is no exception. Maybe it's because Petra has lost her parents before we met her.

My rating for this book is 4.5. The book is slow building so if you pick it up be patient. It's worth it and I am looking forward to Petra Grady's future adventures! 

Saturday was Independent Book Store Day. Did you go out and shop? Or order online?  I picked up these books!