DANCING WITH DANGER by Kimberly Griggs

Fiction, Cozy Mystery

5*****

Blurb: What’s a Southern Belle to do when she dreams of being a hula dancer? Move to Hawaii, of course! Native Georgian Ruby Bell has her work cut out for her finding her niche among hip-swaying dancers of Kauai. But when she creates Hula Fit, a unique fusion of fitness and Hawaiian culture, she lands herself a job at the premier Aloha Lagoon Resort and Spa. Her class sparks attention from locals and vacationers alike, making Ruby feel she’s finally found her bliss. Unfortunately, things go from delightful to downright deadly when Ruby discovers her new friend, Phoebe, strangled by a coconut bra in the back of Ruby’s studio! With the local police investigating on “island time,” Ruby fears it’s up to her to find a killer, save her studio’s reputation, and bring justice to her friend’s memory. Navigating through a maze of deceit and betrayal, Ruby uncovers a cast of suspects more colorful than an island sunset, including a bodybuilder ex-boyfriend with a volatile temper, a troupe of senior citizens caught at a clothing-optional pool party, a jealous rival, an awkward admirer, and even the hunky owner of the local Smoothie Hut who seems to have his eye on Ruby. Between blackmail, deception, and a mysterious box of incriminating photos, Ruby finds herself tangled in a deadly dance. Can she hula her way through the shadows and unmask the killer… before the music stops for good?

Thoughts: This cozy mystery is set in a Kauai resort that is sort of like the usual small-town setting, but much more exotic. From the hulas to the luau to the flowers and ocean… The descriptions alone are worth the read. And the smattering of Hawaiian words helps with the setting. But the characters… Ruby Bell is perfectly quirky. Even though she’s a fitness instructor and very much into aerobics and weightlifting, she loves her smoothies (no green stuff please), diet cokes, and junk food. Give her a cheeseburger and fries and she’s in Heaven. And the “Golden Girls” were a hoot! Especially Mae.

The mystery is a good one, even though I kind of knew who the perp was from early on. But there are plenty of suspects for who killed Ruby’s friend Phoebe. I found it interesting that Ruby’s other friend Autumn was the one who kind of pushed her into sleuthing, but then left Ruby alone most of the time to do the hunting for clues on her own. But she did come to the rescue when needed.

Overall, a fun read in an exotic location.

Recommended.

Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

MISTAKEN IDENTITY MURDER by Leslie Langtry

Fiction, Cozy Mystery

4****

Blurb: Merry Wrath, ex-CIA agent turned Girl Scout leader, is having a hard time dealing with the fact that the girls in her troop are now at that extremely dangerous age—the middle school years. Bearing this in mind, Merry should have anticipated what disaster chaperoning the school dance would be. Chaos reigns with everything from a rogue attack penguin to a punch-induced hallucination brought on by the very latest synthetic LSD. Things only get worse when a man is murdered, and the killer has been caught on camera—and is none other than Merry Wrath!  Merry knows she’s innocent, but proving it to the police is another matter. And family issues are keeping her awake at night too, now that Merry’s hosting the Holy Mud Man from Chechnya and his goat Warren, to see if her new twin nephews are prophets. Add to that the zoo is considering revoking Scout Lauren’s junior zookeeper status, and there’s a howler monkey loose in City Hall, and Merry may just be in over her head. Can she control her girls and solve the case before Officer Kevin Dooley and his hamster patrol throw her in jail?

Thoughts: This was a hilarious, sometimes confusing, oddball cozy mystery. If you take all the weird characters you’ve read about, put them in a town called “Who’s There”, and add in the CIA, hamsters who are cops, a hermit who parades as a Hobbit, a Holy Mud Man, and a town mayor who’s a thirteen-year-old girl (who likes to take animals from the zoo for fun), and you’ll get an idea of what’s going on here.

Actually, no you won’t. But all of the above is in there and plenty more. Merry is an ex-CIA operative. Her best friend is an ex-assassin (and enemy!). Merry’s husband, Rex, is the town cop and he shows her a video of her stabbing a man to death. And Merry and friends are off and running to prove her innocence. Merry also runs the local girl scout group—but those girls are scary! While the demon cultists aren’t. There are a lot of suspects in the story for Merry and friends to track down.

I found the story to be a fun read with a satisfying ending, but, like most series, coming into it not from the beginning, can be confusing at times. Though the author does an excellent job at weaving in the various connections between everyone. I would have liked a little more scenery, though, but overall, a decent story.

Recommended.

Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

UNBRIDLED HAUNTINGS by Misty Simon

Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Paranormal

5*****

Blurb: What’s a girl to do when the past comes back to haunt you? With her colorful past, Iona Hoover is hoping for a bland and beige future when she moves back to Chincoteague Island in Virginia to help her aunt run a pet treat store called Unbridled Bliss. But when she finds a dead body, suddenly her whole world goes topsy-turvy. She’d grown up in turmoil and had relied on her imaginary friends to vent to when she was little. But now the quartet she’d called the Silver Bettys is back and they weren’t her imagination, they’re ghosts. They want to help her solve the mystery but there’s only so much they can do according to the rules of the afterlife. Iona will take all the help she can get though and when she uncovers some secrets in the small town that others would like to keep hidden, she knows she’ll need every ghost on deck to figure out whodunnit or she could very well be joining the Silver Bettys on the other side.

Thoughts: I loved this book! The characters are fun, especially the “Silver Bettys”—the ghosts who make Iona’s life a lot more interesting. And the setting – the story takes place on Chincoteague Island, a place I have visited.

Iona is technically an ER nurse who burned out so left that job to help her aunt out at her specialized bakery for pets. But things really go strange when a man wanders in and demands coffee (thinking he’s at a coffee shop three doors down). Iona shares her pot with him and he leaves but drops something. When she tries to return it, she finds him dead. And then the fun begins. She and her best friend (who had a True Crime pod cast) and the man she’d had a crush on for years start gathering clues. And her “imaginary friends” from when she was a child are helping them. But no one can see the ghosts except her. It makes for some creative instances.

Overall, this is a fun story with great characters and a unique setting.

Definitely recommended.

June 30

Birthdays: Winston Graham (1908), Czeslaw Milosz 1911), Harry Blackstone, Jr. (1934), Assia Djebar (1936), Jose Emilio Pacheco (1939), David McPhail (1940), Ahmed Sofa (1943), Daniel Goldhagen (1959), Adam Roberts (1965), Dinaw Megestu (1978),

Czeslaw Milosz won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Quote: “Let’s try the library,’ I tell him. ‘We can find out anything there!” ― David McPhail

“Don’t think about how your characters sound, but how they see. Watch the world through their eyes – study the extraordinary and the mundane through their particular perspective. Walk around the block with them, stroll the rooms they live in, figure out what objects on the cluttered dining room table they would inevitably stare at the longest, and then learn why. Be generous to your characters: kill them, save them, break their hearts and then heal them. Stuff them with life, emotions, histories, objects and people they love, and once you’ve done that, once they are bursting at the seams, strip them bare. Find out what they look like—how they stand, talk move, when they have nothing left. Now put them back together, fill them once more with life, except now leave enough room for the reader to squeeze their own heart and imagination inside.” – Dinaw Megestu

Tip: In dialogue, try to avoid the “But as you know…” syndrome. If the reader should know it, then you should have had it in before this.

Jumpstart: Open any magazine to a picture and write a paragraph about what is happening or what is being advertised. You’re trying to describe this to someone who can’t see it. Be specific.

June 29

Birthdays: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900), John Toland (1912), Julia Kepes (1918), Frederic Dard (1921), Charlotte Bingham (1942), Quintin Jardine (1945), Brian Herbert (1947), Breece D’J Pancake (1952)

Antoine de Saint-Expury is best known for his novella “The Little Prince”

John Toland won the Pulitzer Prize for History for “The Rising Sun”

Quote: “Just repeating a statement often and with great vehemence does not make it a fact, and no amount of repetition can make a rational person believe it.” ― Brian Herbert, Kevin Anderson, Mentats of Dune

“Never underestimate the power of the human mind to believe what it wants to
believe, no matter the conflicting evidence.” ― Brian Herbert, House Harkonnen

 “You can’t write any form of fiction unless you enjoy reading it. You must be sincere in your approach. It’s no good despising the form. So many people think they could earn some money from writing something for which they have no affection. It won’t work. The first thing you have to have is belief.” – Charlotte Bingham

Tip: Try not to give your reader “ping-pong” dialogue. Break up long passages of dialogue with actions.

Jumpstart: List ten things that annoy you. Pick two and write about them. Why do they annoy you? What can you do about them?

CORPSE IN THE CRAFTSMAN COTTAGE by Lori Pollard-Johnson

Fiction, Cozy Mystery

4****

Blurb: Thirty-four, newly divorced and parenting two little girls, Jan Weatherly is determined to make it on her own doing what she knows best: do-it-yourself home flipping. With her BFF Pam Bacchus by her side, she purchases their first fixer-upper—a cute Craftsman cottage with quick profit potential in rainy Rainier, Washington. With the first swing of her claw hammer, however, Jan pries back faux cedar paneling and reveals a nude, snow-haired corpse floating in a makeshift aquarium. If that didn’t fully sour their dreams in a plume of formaldehyde-tinged air, Sergeant Daniels arrives and bans the women from the crime scene. Will they continue sleuthing, despite Daniels’s warnings, or simply wait for their dreams of financial independence to fall apart?

Thoughts: This was a different type of cozy mystery. First of all, the main characters—Janny and Pam—are best friends who are both divorced (their exes are also best friends) with kids. They used to work for their exes in their construction company so now, they’re going out on their own and renovating and flipping houses. Unfortunately, while working on their first one, they discover a dead body. Banned from the house by the police, they go about trying to figure out how they’re going to survive with no money coming in and no idea how long it’s going to be until they can get back to work so they can sell the house.

The characters are realistic in that they’re women with kids and real problems. But one of the best characters was the dog Moxie – a hairless Chinese crested dog who isn’t pretty, but who is protective of Janny (her mistress). I may not be a dog person, but even this “cutie” made me go awwww. Meanwhile, their exes are doing things that make the women get even more angry at them (asking Janny’s girls to keep secrets, new truck, new house, new boat, new girlfriend…). Janny finds her backbone and lets hers know exactly how she feels about this. And he agrees! And then there’s the cute Detective Daniel’s. Real people. Real problems.

Recommended.

Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

CRIMES AND CONFECTIONS by Catherine Bruns

Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Cookies & Chance Series

5*****

Blurb: With her beloved grandmother on vacation in Italy, baker Sally Muccio has her hands full. Between running a business, running after her toddler daughter, and running to keep her crazy parents out of trouble, Sal can’t seem to catch a break. Adding to her overload, Sal’s ever youthful mother Maria decides to enter the local Mrs. Buffalo beauty pageant, and she elects Sal and Josie to provide sweet treats for the audience. It’s sure to be an exciting day for all involved. But when vengeful contestant Charmaine Weatherwax sabotages Maria’s gown, the beauty contest quickly turns into an ugly affair. Hours later, Charmaine is found dead in her apartment! To make matters worse, Sal’s mom is caught on a surveillance camera entering the woman’s apartment shortly before her death. Are the chaos cookies about to hit the fan for the Muccio clan? Sal will need to find the real killer before her mother’s sent up the river without her stilettos!
Recipes Included!

Thoughts: I loved this story! It was full of quirky characters and lots of suspects. My favorite character—and she wasn’t even there for most of the story—was Sally’s grandmother, Rosa. Goodness, how she has that family spoiled! They seriously need to learn how to cook! And I’m sure there are lots of takeout places around Buffalo, NY. Why just cold cuts or burned pizza? If Sally can make cookies, surely she can learn to make a simple pot of spaghetti! One character I didn’t care for much (besides all the suspects) was Sally’s father. Unfortunately, though, I have known people like him so he was realistic, just a pain.

And that’s the who draw of this story—the characters. They are realistic, if a bit comical. This series is all about family, and what a family they are. But when bad things happen, they are all there to make sure you have support. When Sally’s mother gets accused of murdering the winner of the Mrs. Buffalo beauty contest, Sally and friends get to work figuring out who really did the deed. Add in a little romance for Rosa, and you have an entertaining read. And the delicious recipes at the end are an added bonus.

Recommended.

Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

BEATING IN TIME by M.J. Schiller

Fiction, Contemporary Romance

4****

Blurb: Once upon a time, their hearts beat as one…

Drummer Levi Cannon knows that all the platinum records in the world won’t fill the Remi-sized hole in his heart. I left Last Chance Beach and Remington Lawson behind when I took my shot at fame and fortune, but I had no idea what I was sacrificing. Now that a fundraiser has brought me home, I want more than anything to win her back. But it’s been eight years. There may be a bridge that connects the island to the mainland, but am I a fool to think that I can build something that will span the chasm of all those years? Remi Boyd knows that her love for her brother’s best friend has never died. But what kind of fool would I be to trust him again after he broke my heart? I was a child when he left. Now I’m a woman who’s been a wife and I’m also a mother to the most precious girl in the world. I can’t drag her through some torrid affair, and that is clearly all Levi can offer me. Music took him away. Music brought him back. But is it too late to recapture what they once had? Or can Last Chance Beach work its magic for them?

Thoughts: This is a story about friends who grew up together. Levi spent a lot of time with Remi’s family. Wyatt—Remi’s older brother—was Levi’s best friend. Plus, Levi’s father was an alcoholic abuser so Wyatt’s home was his “safe” place. Levi and Remi have one beautiful night, then he leaves town for eight years. When he comes back, as a rock star, he knows he still has feelings for the girl he left behind, but how does she feel about him? And can he have a second chance with her? But to do so means changing his life.

The characters and setting are both so real, I feel as if I know them, and as if I can go visit that beach sometime. The emotions are raw and out there. Told in multiple first person, the author is kind enough to let us know when we are with Remi or with Levi. Though I will admit to still getting a little confused at times, but that’s on me, not on the author. She did a very good job with the changes.

For me, the book started off slow, but once I got into it, I loved it. Especially the end with… Nope. Not going to give that away. But I thought what the author did was amazing. That was the best part of the book for me. I mean, I knew what was going to happen (come on, it’s a romance!), but the way it happened was so beautiful.

Recommended!

Disclaimer: Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

SUNSET LEDGE by Darlene DeLuca

Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Second Chances, 

4****

Blurb: Jack Armstrong lives like a recluse on his Texas ranch. In the difficult years after his wife’s death, he goes through the motions of life and wants to be left alone. Caroline Tate, a widowed ecology professor, arrives at the ranch for a much-needed break and to take nature photos for her sabbatical project. But relaxing is a challenge when she finds herself at odds with the curmudgeonly cowboy who owns the place. Jack generally steers clear of the guests, but this time, it’s not so easy. Vivacious Caroline doesn’t fade into the background. This city gal comes with pearls around her neck, a big red flower on her floppy hat, and way too many questions. Her self-assured, adventurous spirit gets under Jack’s skin, and she soon stirs feelings long dormant inside him.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this story. It’s different from your usual romances in that both main characters are older (60s), widow/widower, with families. Caroline is a college professor on sabbatical who is looking for “what’s next” in her life – but she wasn’t planning on a relationship. Jack is a stoic, no-nonsense rancher who is set in his ways. Somehow, the two of them manage to figure out that they might be able to work together. 

I liked Caroline’s nature. She’s a mixture of stubbornness and independence that rankles Jack. But she’s also good with animals and nature. Jack is almost a stereotypical old rancher. He’s a gentleman who wants nothing to do with softer emotions. I would have liked to have seen maybe a scene with the townspeople changing and the nature preserve go through – but those are minor things. But the description of the scenery is really well done—especially since Caroline is a photographer, so we get to see things through her eyes – like facing down a rattlesnake! 

Recommended.

Disclaimer: Disclosure of Material: I received a final and/or advanced reader copy of this book with the hope that I will leave my unbiased opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… My Opinions. I am posting this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”