small town florida – Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery

Be My Ghost review

August 30, 2021 Tari Hann

This is the first book in a new series called Haunted Haven by Carol J. Perry who also writes the Witch City series. Haunted Haven is set in Haven, Florida, a fictional town made up of all the best of some older Florida towns, while Witch City is set in the real location of Salem, Massachusetts, hence the series name. I started reading the first in Witch City for a book club discussion that never happened, but I do remember really enjoying what I got read of that book.

I’m completely in love with the Haunted Haven series and its location and characters after having read this first book, and as far as I’m concerned, that second book can’t come out soon enough!

My Goodreads review:

Be My Ghost by Carol J. Perry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this! The outcome was so good that I really am going to have trouble waiting until the next book! Lorna was such an awesome ghost friend to have, well, once Maureen wrapped her brain around ghosts even existing in her inn. I just loved Gert, Molly, Sam and George, the seniors who lived year-round at the inn but worked there as employees too. They enjoyed some good gossip, but they were pretty darn protective of their new owner and wanted to help her solve the murder of one of the guests who happened to be a ghost hunter with a huge following.

Again, I was over the moon with how the showdown and reveal came out. I’m rooting for Ted and Maureen to grow even closer. They made a great sleuthing team and beach running buddies to begin with. There was just something about him that made me trust him the whole time. I’m almost as excited as Maureen is for her plans for the inn and to see how she gets it squared away into a profit-making place. Book two, please don’t wait a year to come out!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own. Release day is tomorrow, August 31, 2021.

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Whole Latte Murder review

April 27, 2021April 27, 2021 Tari Hann

It’s release day for the fifth book in the All-Day Breakfast Cafe by Lena Gregory. This series quickly became one of my favorites, and I’ve followed it from the get-go. The characters are likable and realistic. Gia got on my nerves in the beginning, but the more I got to know her, I realized it was just her fiercely loyal and helpful nature coming out, not to mention her curiosity when it came to cases. At least she’s been in a good relationship place with Hunt, but I’d like for them to at least state they’re officially a couple, lol. She always calls him her sort-of boyfriend. Savannah’s always a hoot and the more adventuresome of the two. It’s absolutely hysterical when Savannah teases Gia about the creepy crawlie things she doesn’t like (snakes, scorpions, but I definitely share Gia’s opinion on creepy crawlie things!).

If you love this series (and really, anything by this author), you definitely won’t be disappointed in this book! It’s very hard to put aside as you’ll see from my review.

My Goodreads review:

Whole Latte Murder by Lena Gregory
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As this story got underway, I found that I couldn’t put my Kindle down and even read with an extra long charger cord. Yep, it was that good. This mystery was very Savannah-focused and just showed how close she and Gia have always been as friends. They’d literally do anything for the other and consider each other the sister they never were born with. Something was off with one of Savannah’s brothers after she was abducted, and no matter what the danger was, Gia was determined to find her bestie.

I love that Trevor had a nice bigger role in this book too, and we did get some insight into one of Savannah’s brothers and a little more visting with her dad–I like her dad a lot! Another fun character that I don’t quite remember how he came into the previous stories (and I’ve read them all), but I really like him too is Alfie who has some mad hacking skills and loves electronics. I was thinking he was a lot like Sebastian on NCIS: NOLA and it’d be fun to see Alfie again sometime. I might have to cruise through the previous books and refresh my memory on him!

I had my suspicions about who was behind the abduction, but wasn’t quite sure who the killer was. That was some showdown though, and both girls were extremely brave (and actually crazy to have gone there to begin with but hey, there’d be no plot if they didn’t do stuff like that) during the showdown. That was another time when Alfie was pulled in to help.

Just reading about where and when Savannah’s wedding might be makes me excited to read the next book when it comes out. From what I saw, it’s definitely a Christmas theme and comes out in October. I can’t wait!

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

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A Tale of Two Cookies review

April 26, 2021April 26, 2021 Tari Hann

This is the third book in the Cookie House series that started in 2019 by Eve Calder who lives in Florida and does a fabulous job of describing her home state and all its awesomeness to readers. I fell in love with the setting and the characters from the very first book and am always glad when another book follows. Now I’m anxiously waiting for the next book which if it follows the current pattern will be probably next year at this time (but we can always hope for sooner!)

My Goodreads review:

A Tale of Two Cookies: A Cookie House Mystery by Eve Calder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A missing person mystery that’ll have readers guessing the whole time “Is this person dead or not?” It was an interesting case as Kate and her friends sleuthed along with Ben and the police. One of her good friends was in town and her fiance disappeared right before their wedding, so Kate felt like this woman had taken her under her wing in a previous career, and being the awesome friend Kate is, she didn’t want to let Desiree down. I really like all Kate’s friends (especially that fun and crazy Maxi!) and it’s so cool how Sam’s character changed for the better from the very first book. He always does a little something in each book to let Kate know he completely trusts her now.

I love how the whole town always works together during a case. The cookie lessons at the Cookie House turned into a sleuthing session or a session where Ben would give them the lowdown on the case progress. The perp was a very sneaky and convoluted planner that was for sure, but there were a lot of someones who were equally smart and able to figure things out. The showdown was great!

The very ending of the book was really good, because it did the complete wrap-up of anything that wasn’t explained along the way. I’m always looking forward to the next in this series!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own. This book releases tomorrow, April 27, 2021.

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A Waffle Lot of Murder review

October 27, 2020October 27, 2020 Tari Hann

This is the fourth book in the All-Day Breakfast Cafe series by Lena Gregory, and it quickly became one of my favorite series just like her Bay Island Psychic series. The characters are so awesome, and I just love Gia’s big dog Thor! Since Halloween is my second favorite holiday (Christmas being first), I really extra enjoy any book set around Halloween where I can picture decorations and fun spooky community haunted houses.

My Goodreads review:

A Waffle Lot of Murder by Lena Gregory
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really loved the whole Halloween in Boggy Creek event! What a cool idea to have individual haunted houses for people to tour and businesses to decorate and make spooky! Except the woods had become complete with a real dead person found by none other than Gia and Savannah. Even though she’s an awesome main character, sometimes Gia seriously gets on my nerves with how darn persistent she is, but she’ll turn around and do something incredibly unselfish for her bestie or another friend, and I always get reminded that she’s very driven and passionate about the people she has in her life. All I can say is Hunt is the most patient man in this entire universe! lol

There were so many good distractions and things to throw readers off the track that I wasn’t sure until the reveal who the killer was. I was so set on it being someone else for most of the book. I just love Earl and Cole! They’ve always stepped it up a notch to help Gia whenever they could with Earl being the most faithful customer ever since day one. Cole was the best thing that ever happened to the cafe cooking scene too. It’ll be interesting to see if he adopts a dog and if Gia ever lets Savannah talk her into being a multi-dog mom! I’m already anxious for the next one which I’m hearing comes out in the spring.

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A Cold Brew Murder–review

November 30, 2018November 30, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the third book in the All-Day Breakfast Cafe by Lena Gregory, one of my many, many favorite authors. These characters (and any in her other series as well) always feel like old friends when I read the latest installment. I’m so anxious now for book 4!

My Goodreads review:

A Cold Brew Killing by Lena Gregory

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is another of my favorite series that just keeps getting better. One of the Facebook book clubs I’m in had the first book in this series for our November discussion, and since I’d read the second one this summer, I was in the mood to read this one–especially since I had all the characters and situations fresh in my brain! 😉

When a local guy who was running for mayor was found dead in Trevor’s ice cream shop freezer, Gia had the need to help find the killer despite what her sorta-boyfriend (as she calls him) acting-Captain Hunt Quinn says. He is awfully sweet to her and I loved the awesome scenes they had together! He had his few little moments of jealousy over Trevor, but Gia assured him he had nothing to worry about. I liked the side mysteries as well that centered on Harley and Skyla.

A new character introduced was Skyla who was Willow the cafe waitress’ mom, and she had a secret of her own, as did the gentle homeless man Harley that Gia has kept supplied with dinner since the first book. Harley is such an awesome character. He doesn’t say much, but he sure is always there for his pal Gia. Another character that was somewhat new but introduced in the second book was a retired cook named Cole who was now working for Gia and loving it. He said retirement was boring. Earl (my fave since the first book since he makes me think of Columbo) got more page time as well, since he’s also a helper in the cafe when Gia needs him as well as a regular breakfast customer. A really cool character that I liked from the second book was Cybil, a somewhat mysterious woman who always walked in the woods. Gia became closer friends with her and invited her to the cafe. Cybil was a widow that Gia thought might enjoy meeting Earl, a widower.

Savannah is such a hoot! She’s the perfect bestie and she was determined that she and Gia would get a girls’ getaway. It didn’t quite happen the way she planned, but it was still some good adventure. Gia and Hunt are in a really good place right now. I like how their relationship has been a little slow, sometimes shaky but not stormy. I’m anxiously waiting for the next book!

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Murder Made to Order–review

July 2, 2018July 2, 2018 Tari Hann

This is the second in the All-Day Breakfast Café series by Lena Gregory, who also writes the Bay Island Psychic series that I just finished earlier this spring. I loved Scone Cold Killer, the first in this series and I think I like this book even more! I know from her other series, the books and characters just keep getting better! These two series are definitely ones that the friendship described and the emotions in those friendships can cause me to have a leaky eye or two! I just love the sweet dog in this series that Gia has adopted. I think the picture I found captures what Thor probably looks like a lot!

The third book, A Cold Brew Killing, releases in November, stay tuned because I will definitely be reading that one, possibly earlier than its release if I can get my hands on the ARC.

My Goodreads review:

Murder Made to Order by Lena Gregory

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s not every day that I can read a book practically non-stop but I sure did that with this one! This book was everything and more that I hoped the next in the series would be. An old mystery was solved, a couple of relationships got even better and Gia had a great personal epiphany.

Gia Morelli and her dog, Thor, were taking a walk in the park when she stumbled onto the body of the council member, Marcia Steers, who just the day before had urgently wanted to talk to her. Her detective friend, Hunter Quinn, aka Hunt, had been acting a little distant lately and Gia found out that before she’d come to Boggy Creek, Hunt and Marcia had been an item. Gia had trust issues but she learned to overcome them in this book and I have to say I’m proud of how she’s grown since the first book. Hunt was removed from the case due to his previous relationship with the deceased but Gia kept on investigating, along with her friend Savannah who was dating Hunt’s detective friend, Leo. Someone seemed to be stalking Gia and she hoped to get to the bottom of this mystery before she ended up dead like Marcia.

I just love this town and the main characters! I think if Earl was real, I’d just need to hug him, he’s that much of a sweetheart. I guess the only people I truly don’t like at all are Maybelle and her husband. Is it awful of me to keep wishing Maybelle is the perp so she’ll be out of the picture? 😉 Gia and Savannah are more than just friends, they’re like sisters and they seem to be lucky enough to have two of the greatest guys available. Some really awesome things happened in the course of the book, the showdown was exciting, what followed was totally sweet and Gia finally came to a decision about where she wanted to be. You’ll just have to read the book if you want to find out all these things. No worries, even though I read the first book, it had been awhile but I didn’t even have to refer to it since the author is really good about explaining previous happenings without giving away any of the spoilers from the first book.

Anxiously awaiting book three now!

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