Tag: county fair

Give Fudge a Chance review

Tari Hann

This is the eleventh book in the Candy-Coated Mysteries by Nancy Coco aka Nancy J. Parra, and I’ve loved and devoured every one of the series so far. Haven’t tried any fudge recipes but they did inspire me and the fam to visit Mackinac Island in 2018. We hope to return again soon because the place really is magical–and without any gimmicks to make it that way. The magic’s in the whole experience of Mackinac, yep gotta go back! I loved Allie and Jenn’s latest adventures but since Jenn’s having a baby, Allie wouldn’t let her physically go sleuthing, so she turned once more to the senior ladies’ “book club” as they called their slightly undercover murder board club, lol. Fun, laughs and of course, fudge recipes are gonna be had when you read this!

#NetGalley #KensingtonCozies #NancyCoco

My Goodreads review:

Give Fudge a Chance (A Candy-Coated Mystery Book 11)Give Fudge a Chance by Nancy CoCo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It was great to escape back to Mackinac Island where life’s fun and carefree…until somebody gets themselves killed, that is. The first murder was at the haunted house attraction for the county fair, and when the second came along, Allie wouldn’t be the dyed-in-the-wool sleuth she’s become if she didn’t believe they were connected. As in true Allie fashion (but hey, I wouldn’t have it any other way!), she sleuthed when she was told not to and had a close call or two…but she always gets her perp.

That was some exciting showdown and events leading up to it! Yay for Carol whose transition from just Mrs. Tunisian walking her dog in the first books to being a full-fledged, kick-butt sleuth in this book, well it’s been an awesome transition. She wasn’t too shabby in the last few books either, since she and the ahem, “book club” love helping Allie with cases. I’ve got a feeling Allie won’t feel so much like she needs to protect these older ladies, ’cause Carol sure proved that!

As always, there’s a preview for the next book at the end of this one and all I can say is, I can’t wait!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Kensington Cozies via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

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Death on a Deadline review

Tari Hann

This is the second book in the Homefront News Mysteries by Joyce St. Anthony, better known to cozy mystery fans as Joyce Tremel who wrote the three-book Brewing Trouble Mysteries. This is probably the only historical mystery I can honestly say I enjoy reading. I’m not sure why I haven’t enjoyed others but maybe it’s because 1942 is modern enough that people don’t seem that much different or uppity like they can seem when it’s the 1800s. It’s like a very grown-up Nancy Drew if you ever read the ones from the 1940s, and surprisingly I don’t miss the characters being able to use their phones to research suspects, etc. Or sometimes it’s actually fun to imagine what they’d have done with tech back then and how differently things could turn out. They seemed to do just fine though when what they had at the time was all they knew.

I’m really hoping for more books in the series so we can welcome home everyone from the war especially Bill and Pete!

#CrookedLaneBooks #JoyceStAnthony

My Goodreads review:

Death on a Deadline (A Homefront News Mystery Book 2)Death on a Deadline by Joyce St. Anthony
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I fell in love with this series with the first book and was eager to get into the second one which was set in summer during fair time when the rally was on to buy war bonds. Since they didn’t have any huge name stars coming, they did get a few what we might call B or C listers now. When one of said stars was found dead, the obvious thoughts were that one of their own did him in. The guy had lotsa secrets he was keeping and what’s this…he was blackmailing for some of those secrets.

There were plenty of suspects although one of those I never really considered as a suspect, but I did keep wavering on which of the others was the killer. The person whodunit was on my list though. I loved the showdown and what Irene was able to do to the perp. They had the whole story explained by Walt eventually or at least the parts they didn’t all already know. I get a kick out of Peggy and Irene sleuthing, but it was fun that crazy Sylvia from the first book was included too. She was always a hoot! One of her particular talents was really useful for this case.

I’m not sure how many more books are planned but the war went on plenty long enough for maybe a few more. I’d love to see Bill and Irene’s Pop get home! The story about the hometown boy shot down in the battle of Midway was pretty sad especially when his good friend (one of the stars, another hometown guy) gave a little memorial speech about him at a bond rally. Hoping for a next book to look forward to!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

View all my reviews