Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery

The Secret, Book & Scone Society–review

February 3, 2018February 3, 2018 Tari Hann

This book is the first in a new series by the same name as the book by well-established author, Ellery Adams (Book Retreat, Charmed Pie Shoppe, Supper Club). It’s a little different from a typical cozy mystery and I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, in fact it did take me a little longer to really get into the story but I am so glad I stuck with it! It was worth every minute reading! I’m usually not a fan of personal feelings types of books but the mystery was really good and it wasn’t super-saturated with the personal damages or hurts that the characters had once gone through. It was awesome how they became friends and were able to trust someone again–books played a big role in that. I can’t wait to see what the author has in mind for my new friends in Miracle Springs, NC in her next book!

Goodreads review:

The Secret, Book and Scone Society by Ellery Adams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow this was an intense book but in a good way! It was definitely not like a typical cozy that I usually read but as always, this author doesn’t disappoint! There were murders and mysteries to solve which, I have to admit, got me a little more interested in the book. By the time it got close to the end, I didn’t want it to end!

Nora Pennington was badly injured with extensive burns but until she met with three other women who also had secrets to share, she never thought she’d trust anyone again. She came to Miracle Springs for healing of her spirit more than anything. An out of town man that she’d been talking to earlier ends up killed by a train and she can’t let it rest that this man could have committed suicide. So she starts talking to some local ladies about it.

The three of them, Nora, Estella, June and Hester start out as unlikely friends but they soon become a strong alliance even when investigating a couple of murders which may be the result of something shady going on at local subdivision building site. Nora volunteers to be the guinea pig who wants to build a new home in the subdivision and she soon finds a lot of weird things that don’t add up.

With a crooked sheriff they can’t turn to, at least they have the help of a couple of honest first responders, EMT Jed and Deputy Andrews, so with their help, the criminals are brought to justice. Nora finally feels the trust she has been looking for and tells her story and secret to her new friends.

This story was really incredible and I totally see what everyone has been raving about. I’m so glad now that my book club chose this one for February! I cannot wait to see what the author has in store for this unique group of friends.

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Double Whammy–review

February 2, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the first book in the series Davis Way Crime Caper by Gretchen Archer. It was selected as an online book club selection for February so I was able to borrow it through Overdrive and thought I better get it read and some notes made. I honestly wasn’t sure I’d be that crazy about it (to me casinos = snoozeville) but found that it was really funny and didn’t focus as much on the casino as the main character’s various undercover jobs, most of which turned out hilarious.

As of this writing, Amazon has once again taken down my reviews so I’ll have to wait till they are back to post my review on Amazon. Here’s my Goodreads review:

Double Whammy by Gretchen Archer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was really a hilarious, fast-paced thrilling ride of a read. Davis Way, a former police officer, has had it with job rejections. She keeps going after the same one and finally lands a job in Biloxi, MS with a casino as security. Most of what she does is undercover and definitely with a different identity. But there’s more to meet the eye than just video slots cheating, someone may have tampered with the software along the way.

When Davis is trying to figure that out, she ends up in prison, accused of shooting the main boss so it’s interesting to see how in the world she manages to come out of this alive herself!

There were a lot of fun characters in this story. I think my favorite was the cabbie, George. He seemed to be up on everything and knew Davis’s every move. I think George was my favorite since I could tell of all the characters, he really had Davis’s back.

The book was hilarious in a lot of parts, serious in some but the ending was so satisfying. The real shooter was caught and everything was wrapped up nicely with a great ending.

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Of Murder and Men–review

February 1, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the third book in the Cat Latimer series by Lynn Cahoon. I had just finished the second book and was really anxious to see how things progressed so I did something I usually don’t do which is read more than one book from a series, right after one another. I’m glad I did. This book was kind of like a conclusion to a trilogy although I still have a couple of things I’d love to ask the author but I’m hoping she’s saving them for the next book or books.

My Goodreads review:

Of Murder and Men by Lynn Cahoon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh my goodness was this a good book! I guess a book is really something when you read past the 20% warnings on your Kindle and the battery just dies on you. Luckily, I own a backup Kindle 😉

Cat Latimer has her January writers’ retreat people coming. Since we didn’t have a book for December, we find out that the retreat for that month actually went on without incident. Cat’s friend and business partner, Shauna, has fallen for a local landowner and isn’t going to be at the retreat much this time but she’s still got everything under control especially after Cat confesses to her that she forgot to turn the oven on to bake a breakfast casserole.

Shauna later gets the news that her boyfriend, recently turned fiance’ was found dead in his horse barn after having gotten up in the middle of the night to answer a text. Meanwhile Cat is still looking into Michael’s murder and now she feels like she needs to look into Kevin’s as well.

The stand out visiting character in this book was Shirley, a retired police detective who is on the retreat so she can write a police procedural. I just got the biggest kick out of her. On one hand she really likes Uncle Pete but she tries to brush it off as a professional friendship. She also grabs onto the whole Michael murder mess and won’t let go until she finds something useful. I really hope we do get to see more of Shirley.

I liked the little character cross-over that the author did from her Tourist Trap series. Cross-overs are fun, like introducing one set of your friends to another set. And that’s how I feel about the characters in this series as well as the Tourist Trap series. It’s always fun to go back to visit them.

I was glad to see some of the items that had not been resolved since the first book finally put to rest. I think Cat will always have questions about Michael but her main issues are at peace now. I’m anxious to see how the different things that Shauna, Shirley and Seth have suggested they do for the retreat turn out as well. Long live the writer’s retreat!

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Fatality by Firelight–review

January 30, 2018January 30, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the second book by Lynn Cahoon in the Cat Latimer Mystery series. Just a quick backstory, Cat has inherited a huge Victorian house that she and her ex-husband bought and planned to fix up. In the meantime, she divorced him then found out he was killed. The house reverted to her, mortgage-free. Cat holds writers’ retreats and is starting the second retreat in this book. Lots of mystery and even mentions of the mob are happening in this book.

I would honestly recommend that anyone interested in this series read the first book first. I think you’ll enjoy this one a lot more if you do, and it will make a lot more sense even though the author does a great job of filling in some things that happened at the first retreat.

My review on Goodreads:

Fatality by Firelight by Lynn Cahoon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cat Latimer and her friends Shauna and Seth (actually he’s her boyfriend now) are gearing up for another hopefully successful writer’s retreat. All Cat wants is a nice week with no murder or crazy excitement going on during the retreat. Apparently that was too much to hope for because while she and her guests are at the first day’s activity, skiing, a local man is found murdered in one of the ski resort’s rooms. Uncle Pete, Cat’s uncle who is with the police department seems very interested in one of the guests who was last seen with the dead man.

Meanwhile a couple of mysterious men are spotted around town, one of which seems to be most interested in Cat herself. She can’t help but think that this man could possibly have some connection to her deceased ex-husband, Michael.

This book was just as exciting as the first one was. Basically, it was one I didn’t want to put down. I do love the idea of Cat trying to move past Michael’s death by using his study more, and also that she’s now in a good place with Seth. He seems so perfect for her. Shauna was her usual fun self and I just love Uncle Pete! The guests were definitely a group of diverse and interesting characters. They will have you wondering (like I did) whether one of them is actually a killer. Or could it be someone from the outside?

I like that some things from the first book are continued through this one, some explained, some not but that’s kind of fun, like a nighttime serial drama. There were a couple of side mysteries and I was right about one of them. I wasn’t totally sure about the killer though but I’m glad it wasn’t the person I had suspected.

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Curses, Boiled Again!–review

January 29, 2018January 29, 2018 Tari Hann

I was able to read and review an advance copy of the first book of a new series, Lobster Shack coming out January 30. The author is Shari Randall from Connecticut which is where the book takes place. So many awesome characters. I think my favorites were Aunt Gully and Verity. Make sure you catch this new book when it comes out!

My Goodreads review:

Curses, Boiled Again! by Shari Randall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a really interesting and exciting start to what I hope is a long lasting series. It takes place in Connecticut in a fictional town called Mystic Bay. Allie and her sister Lorel are helping their Aunt Gully (real name Gina but everyone calls her Gully, possibly for how her singing sounds lol) get her lobster restaurant, the Lazy Mermaid underway. Mystic Bay’s annual Food Festival is going on and chaos breaks out when the four judges end up with extreme cases of food poisoning after sampling a lobster roll from another local shop. One of the judges ends up dead.

The state detective seems to be trying to accuse the man from the shop where the lobster roll came from but Allie just knows he’s innocent. Along with her friend Verity, they go on a sometimes comical adventure of sleuthing.

I really enjoyed all the different characters in this book! There were quite a few but it really wasn’t hard to remember the main ones and those that mattered the most to the story. Allie was a typical dancer, always on the move, although carefully and awkwardly since she’s trying to heal from a broken ankle. Her older sister Lorel is a little uptight and seems to be only concerned with social media for the restaurant and things of business. But in the end, they both adore their Aunt Gully and family does come first.

Aunt Gully was such a fun character! She was loving, always needing to take care of people no matter what. Allie’s good friend Verity was a good comic relief sometimes.

I had part of the mystery right but had no idea why. There was also a little side mystery that tied in with the killing but I didn’t have that figured out. I never do get the reasoning right even if I guess so it was a fun little journey reading those last several chapters, not really able to put the book down (that was hard to do at any point!). Allie ends up reinjuring her ankle but for a great cause. You’ll just have to read it and find out!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book provided by NetGalley and the publisher.

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Survival of the Fritters–review

January 28, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the start of a brand new series which sounds to me like it’s going to be a lot of fun and have tons of possibilities for cases. I read an interview with the author, Ginger Bolton, (also known as Janet Bolin who wrote the Threadville cozy series) and she said she based this donut shop on a real one called Cops and Doughnuts out of Michigan. Deputy Donuts is the name of the shop in this series and the shop was named after Emily’s adorable torbie cat, Deputy Donuts or Dep for short.

Look for this awesome new book on January 30, 2018!

Here’s my Goodreads review:

Survival of the Fritters by Ginger Bolton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an awesome first book for this new series! And what a great idea for a donut shop with the whole police theme going on. Emily and her father-in-law own Deputy Donuts and are usually host to most of the town of Fallingworth’s (WI) police force. When Emily and some of the older ladies in a knitting club find one of the donut shop’s favorite customers murdered in her own home, Emily is forced into interacting with her late husband’s police partner, Brent. They had all three been good friends until one evening when Alec was shot and Brent was just hurt. Emily hadn’t contacted Brent since then. I liked how Brent and Emily can now remember things that Alec had said or done.

Just before the murder, the murdered woman’s good friend Lois moved back into town. This murder also took place five years after the murdered woman’s son was killed. This was a case Alec and Brent had not been able to solve. The main suspect now is Lois’s great nephew, Randy who was a real stinker in high school but seems to have reformed. A state detective is pulled in eventually on the case so Brent, Emily and Lois decide to do a little sleuthing on their own.

There were so many good twists in this plot that I never saw it coming when the killer was revealed. The ending was pretty exciting and Emily took charge of the situation until the police arrived and took the perp into custody.

I like that Emily is at least acknowledging that Brent was hurting too when Alec was shot. I know their friendship is going to be a little slow coming but I hope they can become even better friends. If Alec was anything like he was described, I would think he would have wanted his partner and best friend to be there for his wife after he passed. There were some good funny parts too. I think I have new favorite little catch-phrase (non verbal kind of noise now), mmp! Even the cat was saying it.

The characters were really well developed and very easy to like. Tom seemed like the type that anyone would just love to have as a friend or father-in-law. Emily’s friends Misty (police officer) and Samantha (EMT) were a lot of fun and good, faithful friends. Lois was a hoot! She was the funniest thing at times, kind of made me think of Betty White.

Oh there are some yummy sounding donut and fritter recipes at the end of the book, the favorites that Deputy Donuts serves.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book which was provided by the publisher and NetGalley.

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Death Crashes the Party–review

January 25, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the first book in the Liv and Di in Dixie series by Vickie Fee. I had a lot of fun reading this book. I don’t think I’ve laughed this much reading a mystery before! It’s funny where it’s appropriate and serious when it’s supposed to be. Super entertaining and I’m anxious to read the rest of the series!

My Goodreads review:

Death Crashes the Party by Vickie Fee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think this is the most I’ve ever laughed while reading a mystery! I love the author’s style and how she words things, just little things that make a person giggle.

Liv is a party planner in Dixie, TN who had two dead bodies show up while she was talking with some clients so she’s really anxious to find out what really is going on. Dave, the sheriff who is sweet on her friend Di, had interviewed her at some length about the bodies. Liv is just wanting to get through one of the biggest 40th anniversary parties she’s ever planned without a hitch. But real life isn’t that way and as it turns out, the dead guys may have had something to do with drug smuggling going on in Liv’s husband’s family trucking business.

These characters are just awesome! Di is such a hoot and it’s so cute how the sheriff likes her and can be sweet one minute then take on his all-business cop persona the next. He wasn’t actually too strict with the girls when he found out they were investigating. Di is the kind of friend everyone would want, total support and “come use my house whenever you need to get away”, things like that. She and Liv make a great team.

I liked that the main character was happily married. It’s very few and far between that I find a cozy with a happily married couple in it that isn’t the parents or grandparents…or the sleuth’s best friend. Larry Joe was a great husband, very understanding and supportive. I’m anxious to keep reading in the series and see if he ever gets that home renovation done that he wants to do.

There were enough twists and little subplots that I definitely didn’t guess who the killer was until the reveal. What a surprise! And of course all ends well and everyone who is supposed to be in custody ends up there.

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Bless Her Dead Little Heart–review

January 21, 2018January 21, 2018 Tari Hann

I’ve been wanting to get to this book on my TBR pile for awhile so when a Facebook group I’m in, Cozy Mystery Once a Month book club decided to read it for our January book, I was pretty happy about it. I had already read one of Miranda (Dean) James’s books, the first in the Cat in the Stacks series and loved it. This one was just as awesome!

My Goodreads review:

Bless Her Dead Little Heart by Miranda James

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Talk about your dysfunctional family! And to think that An’gel and Dickse were just minding their own business one day, babysitting their friend Charlie Harris’s cat, Diesel. That crazy day when their friend Rosabelle from college showed up on their doorstep insisting her whole family was out to kill her. Imagine their surprise when said whole family showed up!

This was a really a fun and sort of old school type mystery, really refreshing and different to have all the suspects in one house. It kind of reminded me of “And Then There Were None” as the murders started to happen.

The Ducote sisters were something else! They were almost like the ladies in the Golden Girls show only amateur sleuths. They didn’t actually do the questioning, they did more talking about the case between the two of them. I thought it was fun how sometimes they would actually come up with the same idea at different times.

I think my favorite character had to be Benjy, the stepson of Rosabelle’s son Wade. He was nineteen years old, wanted to be a veterinarian and loved animals as much as Dickse did. I loved it when Dickse and Benjy would get together and do things, sort of like the grandmother figure he never had.

I had someone pegged for the murders but it sure wasn’t the person who actually did it. Some great twists and turns to be had as well as an appearance by one of Rosabelle’s husbands who had a secret of his own going on.

I loved how this series is sort of tied into the other series by Miranda James, The Cat In the Stacks since Charlie Harris is the main character in that and the Ducote sisters are watching his cat for him. It’s always pretty comical when people see Diesel who is a large Maine coon cat and they can’t quite figure out why he’s so big. I know I’ll be reading the rest of this series eventually!

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Biscuits and Slashed Browns-review

January 20, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the fourth book in the Country Store series by Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) I really love this series since I’ve recently read the middle two books so I’d be caught up when I read this advance copy of the book. This book will release on January 30, 2018 so I’ll hold off on the Amazon review until then.

Here’s my Goodreads review:

Biscuits and Slashed Browns by Maddie Day

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every time I read a new book in this series, I think it’s the best one yet. This one did not disappoint! South Lick is having a maple syrup festival and one of the judges ends up murdered so of course Robbie is going to do her best to find out what happened so that none of her friends ends up being blamed. As always she has to watch her back so the murderer doesn’t make her the next headline.

I love how Abe and Robbie’s relationship is growing. It’s refreshing that he doesn’t get on her case for investigating even though he gets worried about her. Danna was away for most of the book and I missed her fun, quirkiness but Adele was there so at least I feel like I got my share of favorite characters that I’ve grown to love. Turner is a new employee but he fits right in.

I found myself missing Octavia Slade who has been detective in the last two books but this time we have a guy who is local but back from whatever leave he was on.

Like all the books in this series, one of the ongoing themes is family and that it doesn’t always have to be people related to you to be your family. That’s one of the things I love about cozies, the warm family feeling to be had.

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A Measure of Murder-review

January 19, 2018January 19, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the second book in the Sally Solari series by Leslie Karst. Another murder mystery with twists that I definitely didn’t figure out.

My Goodreads review:

A Measure of Murder: A Sally Solari Mystery by Leslie Karst

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sally’s joined a choral group that will be performing the Mozart piece she always dreamed of singing but somehow in the process, one of the members ends up dead, having fallen out a window in the building they use for rehearsal. Since Sally was formerly a lawyer and got some publicity when she helped solve her Aunt Letta’s murder, she gets talked into helping find the killer. Hopefully she won’t be the next victim as she gets closer to the truth! Especially after a second body is found.

It was fun visiting with the characters I remembered from the first book. I think Javier and Sally’s dad are my favorites even though her dad wasn’t in this story a whole lot. A lot of the book dealt with technical language regarding music, singing and composers, which to me wasn’t quite so interesting but I was still interested in finding out who the killer was, and it was not the person I was thinking. There were some good twists in the plot as well as a side mystery which was solved and the person responsible decided to do the right thing about it.

I liked that Sally and her dad were coming to a better understanding of what she wants to do. She is still helping at Solari but she really is hoping to ease another woman into her position so she can take on cooking at the restaurant her aunt left her, Gaugin. Her dad seemed much more calm and understanding.

As always, the food mentioned in the book sounds scrumptious and for anyone inclined to try some of the recipes, there are four of them after the book ends.

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