music festival – Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery

Songs of Wine and Murder review

June 6, 2023June 6, 2023 Tari Hann

This is the fifteenth book in another favorite long-running series, the Tourist Trap Mysteries by Lynn Cahoon. I’ve loved every one that I read and just wish this was a real place I could visit. The shops are awesome and I could probably get lost in Jill’s bookstore for a long time with a favorite coffee drink or go dog-sit Emma while Jill worked. As with all this author’s books, I love how the main character treats her employees like family and even calls them family. Jill might not work in food herself, but she has a need to feed those she cares about, just like the other awesome leading characters.

#NetGalley #LyricalPress/Kensington #LynnCahoon

My Goodreads review:

Songs of Wine and Murder by Lynn Cahoon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a crazy case where we got to see another town business as sorta the spotlight of the story, Darla from the winery and her boyfriend Matt who was in a band that was competing in the festival that weekend. Toby, Aunt Jackie, and Sadie/Pastor Bill each had their own mini side stories which I was relieved all had good outcomes. Toby’s a great character and I love the bro banter between him and Deek. Aunt Jackie’s changed for the better since she married Harrold (he’s such a sweetie!). Sadie and the good pastor were too adorable as well.

It didn’t surprise me as to whodunit and with this perp, the arrest action took place behind the scenes which is always a refreshing change for me (especially if I just read a book with a showdown and a crazed killer). Jill and Greg are always an awesome couple, but they were growing even more as they went through a finance class together and Greg actually got Jill to use a planner, amazing right? Those two are gonna be great parents someday! Can’t wait to see what happens in the next book!

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

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A Tale of Two Biddies–review

September 23, 2018September 23, 2018 Tari Hann

This was the second book I read during our road trip and vacation last week. I read a total of six books, and I will be posting them here during the next few days. This was another fun installment in this series, League of Literary Ladies by Kylie Logan. I wanted to be caught up before our book discussion on the third book next month.

My Goodreads review:

A Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the first book of this series that I read earlier this spring. When I found out one of the book groups I’m in on Facebook was going to discuss the third book in October, I thought that while I was on vacation last week I’d read the second book. I had already felt like I knew these ladies and they were friends I was going back to visit.

When Bea Cartwright found the body of a local guy named Richie, everyone wondered if he really had been killed as he’d feared ever since a few days before when he said he was pushed into the water. The town was having a Bastille themed festival, and that included a heavy-metal band named Guillotine. It turned out that Richie had a few secrets he’d been keeping, one which most likely led to his murder.

I was really surprised when the killer was revealed. It was a great plot twist! I can’t wait to read the next since it’s a Halloween theme!

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Curiosity Thrilled the Cat–review

September 4, 2018September 4, 2018 Tari Hann

It was such fun reading the first in the Magical Cats series by Sofie Kelly! I had read an ARC of book 10 last week and decided I just had to read about Owen and Hercules from when Kathleen first found out they could disappear and walk through walls. It was interesting to see some of the people characters at the beginning as well.

My Goodreads review:

Curiosity Thrilled the Cat by Sofie Kelly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After having won and read book 10 of this series, I just had to go back to the beginning and see how this all got started. It was so much fun reading about Kathleen’s reactions to the first times she witnessed Owen appearing or disappearing and Hercules walking through a door or a wall. And the handsome detective Gordon wasn’t nearly as grouchy or impatient with her as I was worried he’d be, lol.

Someone killed the guest conductor for the annual music festival’s final performance, possibly in Kathleen’s library room, so of course she was a person of interest in the murder investigation. There were also a couple of incidents where Kathleen could have been badly hurt–could someone have been trying to scare her off the case?

I had kind of guessed who the killer was but not for the right reasons. I was honestly just trying to think of who wasn’t in book 10…I guess that was cheating a bit right? I still had a lot of fun reading to see what drove this person to what they ended up doing. The man killed wasn’t a saint and many would have agreed that he had it coming. Everything was neatly wrapped up and in the end, Kathleen’s mom came through with a conductor for the final concert. Maggie, Kathleen’s good friend, had a trick up her sleeve as well, which as I know from book 10, turned out to be a very good thing!

Finding out the backstory of Kathleen’s good friend Rebecca was interesting. She was such a good friend to Kathleen and almost like a mom to her since Kath’s parents were both back in Boston. I really liked the characters of Roma, the veterinarian and Maggie, Kathleen’s artist friend. Roma was such a good sport to go sleuthing with Kathleen and Maggie. I loved her sense of humor since she had treated Kathleen on several occasions when she was hurt: “That’s why I like my four-legged patients, they don’t talk back or complain.” Maggie was a good and loyal friend to Kathleen, just what she needed since her own BFF from college was back in Boston–although Kathleen did have to call on her for some help with the investigation.

I really want to keep reading in this series, I’m loving these cats so much!

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The Cats Came Back–review

August 31, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the tenth book in the long-running series Magical Cats by Sofie Kelly. I was so surprised when I got the email that I had won an advance paperback copy of the book. It’s releasing on September 4 and I knew I could never read all the previous nine, so I started it today and finished. Like most cozies I’ve jumped into a series and read, this one was very good at explaining the characters. I never felt like I didn’t know what was going on, but I do plan to go back to the beginning and start with the first book very soon! It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the setting and the regular characters. I always enjoy seeing how relationships grow, so that will be fun to see Marcus and Kathleen at the very beginning.

My Goodreads review:

The Cats Came Back by Sofie Kelly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had entered a drawing for an advance paperback copy of this from the publisher and ended up winning. I voluntarily read and reviewed this and my opinions are my own. Even though I had never read any of this series, I wasn’t lost at all. All the recurring characters were explained without getting redundant, so I quickly learned who everyone was and also quickly grew to love the town of Mayville Heights, MN. I managed to get this read in just one day.

Kathleen Paulson had been living in Mayville Heights for several years now with her two cats, Owen and Hercules. They weren’t just your everyday cats. Owen could appear and disappear, and his brother, Hercules could walk through walls. They were very intuitive too. Kathleen could tell them what to do and they completely understood her, and most of the time they did what she said, most being a keyword here 😉

When the summer music festival was in full force, a damper was put on things when a body showed up on the Riverwalk while Kathleen and Ruby were out having a photo session with the cats. The cats were going to appear in a calendar promoting the town. Ruby was the one to discover the body, and it appeared to be that of a singer who had come to perform in the music festival. Since Kathleen was dating Detective Gordon, he knew her penchant for solving mysteries and he also knew he wasn’t going to change that part of her, so he mainly warned her to be careful while investigating.

There were plenty of suspects, and while I had my suspicions about someone that did turn out to be the killer, I still wasn’t really sure until it was revealed. The showdown was really exciting as Kathleen worked to avoid the killer in the basement of the theater. I loved what she ended up doing to the person too. Everything was wrapped up as the final concert of the music festival was soon, as was Kathleen’s veterinarian friend Roma’s wedding. The ending was very sweet and now I want to start at the beginning and see just how much Kathleen got on Marcus’s nerves in the beginning lol. I’ve been collecting the series, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to read any of them yet. I got the first book out of storage and am planning to read it very soon!

Thanks again to Berkley Publishing for the giveaway and for picking me to be one of the recipients of this advance copy of the book.

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