Synopsis

 

When Kannada Khan, an investment banker turned homeless man, saves the life of Robert Prosperi, a struggling hedgie, he is repaid with a unique yet risky job offer that could change his fortune forever.

With plans for a theft on Wall Street, Robert aims to undermine his rival, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, and Kannada seeks to return to a life of normalcy. They recruit a motley crew from Main Street—a bartender, a stockbroker, an attorney, a computer hacker, a pilot, a boxer, a confidence man, and an upscale luxury companion—to carry out their scheme.

Three weeks is all they have to infiltrate the heart of American financial power and steal the proceeds from the biggest Initial Public Offering in recent history. However, money isn’t the only motive driving Kannada. Chasing his past flame is his game. Now she’s working for and dating the very Wall Street titan they’re trying to rob.

 

 

 

 

Excerpt

 

Yawn. In an old, broken-down, graffiti-laden subway train, Kannada Khan, a bearded, homeless Indian man in his mid-thirties, woke from his much-needed slumber, as his head and spine never quite acclimated to the pile of tomatoes he kept for a pillow, nor the hard, merciless floor. He stretched his arms toward the ceiling and smiled as he took in the scenery; colorful markings and initials, photographs displayed in lightboxes, and poetry in unused advertisement fixtures slots. He appreciated the moment; this moment was his life.

Kannada adjusted his dark gray beanie and slowly circled his head around his possessions. The tin can, used for begging, red plastic milk crate, employed as a chair, and three bags, filled with clothes and papers, were still there, and so was his breakfast, lunch, and dinner—nut bars. A few business books he had checked out from the Science, Industry and Business Library lay near his head. I need to return those.

 

 

Review

 

I worked in the financial industry years ago so the setting and intricacy of the stock market and related activity were all too familiar. The author does a bang-up job of bringing Wall Street and the floor of the NYSE to life. I was lucky enough to go on the floor of the exchange (all prior to 9/11 of course) and it is amazing.

The characters in this book are diverse and have different skill sets that allow Kannada’s written novel to come to life. It isn’t what Kannada had intended, but when he saves Rob’s life, it is an opportunity that cannot be cast aside. Kannada wants to move past his past because being tied to a company that was taken down as part of a Ponzi scheme is nothing to be proud of. I think he also wanted to get his fiancee back but it may be too late for that…or is it?

Rob’s plan to take down his adversary with Kannada’s help via his book is genius. A lot of effort goes into recruiting the right players, mapping out the plan, and executing said plan. The book moves at a fairly fast pace but really picks up steam near the end when everything is set in motion. I devoured the last 25% and was on the edge wondering if everything would work out, would someone be found out, would it all collapse? I won’t spoil the book for you because the ending was a bit of a surprise to me, but maybe it shouldn’t have been.

This was a great read and would make an excellent movie. In a way, it is like Oceans 11 (or 12 or 13) but different. But if made into a movie it would be action packed with colorful characters.

We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

SAMEER GARACH was born in Houston in 1986 and earned a BA in Mathematics with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin. During graduate studies in quantitative finance, he developed a passion for writing and subsequently wrote his first novel, The Bull Option, a unique and cunning financial thriller that moves at a breakneck pace. He later went on to write Dakota and the American Dream, a charming and hilarious contemporary satire that entertains adults as well as children.

Sameer enjoys meditation, yoga, nature, long walks, travel, photography, and music.

 

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Instagram * Pinterest * Goodreads

 

DRAGONWATCH: CHAMPION OF THE TITAN GAMES

 

by Brandon Mull

 

Release date: 10/13/20

 

Middle Grade Fantasy

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

As the war with the dragons intensifies, all eyes are turning to Titan Valley for help. A dragon sanctuary unlike any of the others, this one is home to enslaved dragons ruled by the powerful Giant Queen, one of the five monarchs of the magical world. In addition, it houses the arena for the Titan Games, a series of gladiator-style battles presided over by none other than Humbuggle, the demon who stole Seth’s memories!

Seth is seeking for his memories. Kendra is seeking for Seth. And everyone is seeking to stop the dragons from taking over the world—everyone but Ronodin, the dark unicorn, who has his own devious agenda. In the monstrous battle between giants and dragons, who wins? In the race to retrieve a magical talisman that could help win the war, can Kendra trust Seth? Will they find the answers they desperately need in a realm of trolls and titans? Or are more betrayals imminent?

 

 

Amazon * B&N * Kobo

 

 

About the Author

 

Brandon Mull is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Fablehaven, Beyonders, and Five Kingdoms series. A kinetic thinker, Brandon enjoys bouncy balls, squeezable stress toys, and popping bubble wrap. He lives in Utah in a happy little valley near the mouth of a canyon with his four children and a dog named Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Brandon loves meeting his readers and hearing about their experiences with his books.

 

Website * Instagram * Facebook

 

 

 

LOW WATER CROSSING

 

Book Two of the Sulfur Gap Series

 

by

 

DANA GLOSSBRENNER

 

 

Genre: Literary Fiction / Family Saga

Independently published

Date of Publication: July 19, 2020

Number of Pages: 476

 

  Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

 

 

 

Low Water Crossing is a tribute to those who endure heartache and nevertheless celebrate, to those who wait—and live full lives while waiting.

A backhoe unearths a human skeleton buried on Wayne Cheadham’s West Texas ranch. The investigation points a grisly finger at Wayne’s first wife. And so begins the wild ride through twenty-five years of love and heartbreak.

Wayne’s a highly eligible bachelor who runs into trouble, first because he’s naïve, and next because, well, life is unpredictable. He’s a loveable guy with a peaceful outlook. Just about anyone wants the best for him, dang it. To cope with sadness, he arranges for an old steel-girded bridge to be placed in the dry pasture in front of his house. Says it helps him adjust his perspective. Others say it’s the world’s largest yard ornament. He takes in stray emus and abandoned horses and becomes a mentor to a loveable little boy without much family. He sits and ponders his plight at a low-water crossing over the creek.

A cast of characters from the fictional small West Texas town of Sulfur Gap—the staff of a high school burger shop hangout on the Interstate, coffee groups at the Navaho Café, hairstylists from the Wild Hare, a local sheriff and his deputies, and the band at the local honky-tonk—knits together the community surrounding Wayne, and all bring their own quirks. People you’d find anywhere, some with thicker Texas twangs than others.

The town, the ranch, and familiar Texas cities such as San Angelo, Abilene, and Austin provide a backdrop for universal themes of love, grief, and loyalty.

 

 

 

Amazon || IndieBound

 

 

 

When I decided to read this book, I had no idea it was the second in the series or that I had read the first book. Granted, I had read the book 4 years ago and there have been many books between then and now. But as I was engrossed in the book, some things sounded familiar especially towards the end. That being said, you do not have to read the first book, The Lark, to fully enjoy this story.

This novel revolves around Wayne Cheadham but is told from the perspective of his three wives with brief chapters between the three to share his point of view. The novel starts off with a dead body being found on his ranch and his suspicions on how the body arrived there and when. The story then delves into his first marriage to Lucy when he was in his early 20’s and she was 17. Life was quite an adventure for them but perhaps not adventuresome enough for Lucy considering her behavior but we learn that much of this stems from the emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother. I think anyone that had her mom would not have come out unscathed. As Wayne states, the best thing to come from that marriage was his son Luck.

Time moves on and Wayne is in late 20’s when he meets Cynthia and her two daughters. Cynthia has a secret that she is hiding and it could have an effect on their relationship until she confronts her past and learns the truth about what happened. I think she is good for Wayne, at least an improvement over Lucy. There are struggles with their relationship and raising their children, but somehow they make it work. There are some lessons learned by both parties which make for a stronger relationship. I found it engaging to see how the ex’s were portrayed and the interaction with the family. Cynthia’s ex is one of those guys you wouldn’t want to have around much but I appreciated the strides he made later in the book. Growth is possible!

Wayne is alone again after a tragedy strikes his family and it is about 10 years later when he meets his third wife, Lou. Lou arrives in town looking for a long lost sister after her father passes away. This is the part of the story that ties back to The Lark with her nephew, Charley. Lou has had an interesting life and despite being stuck in Oklahoma for some time, she doesn’t let that stop her from living life.  I think this part of the book was my favorite because I felt like Wayne had really grown into the man he was meant to be and was ready for a woman that was even-tempered and seemed to get him.

I enjoyed this book for the family dynamics, the strength and weaknesses of the characters, and the intricacies of a small town that make life interesting. I relished the time span as it brought me back to my younger days and I could relate to what Lucy dealt with during her youth. Life in a small town can be tough. This book made me smile and even cry a little bit, and definitely chuckle at the bridge Wayne had moved to his front yard, but overall left me with a satisfied feeling.

We give this book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dana Glossbrenner has lived in West Texas all her life. She is the author of Women Behind Stained Glass: West Texas Pioneers (non-fiction) and The Lark: Book 1 of the Sulfur Gap Series.

 

 Facebook ║ Website

 

Goodreads ║ Amazon ║ Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

————————————-

 

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

 

TWO WINNERS: 1st winner gets signed copies of both books in the Sulfur Gap Series; 2nd winner gets a signed copy of Low Water Crossing. 

 

 October 6-16 , 2020

 

(U.S. Only)

 

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

 

 

Visit the Lone Star Literary Life Tour Page

 

For direct links to each post on this tour, updated daily.

 

Or, visit the blogs directly:

 

 

10/6/20	Review	Reading by Moonlight
10/7/20	Excerpt	Texas Book Lover
10/7/20	BONUS Post	Hall Ways Blog
10/8/20	Playlist	The Adventures of a Travelers Wife
10/9/20	Review	Bibliotica
10/10/20	Deleted Scene	All the Ups and Downs
10/11/20	Author Interview	The Page Unbound
10/12/20	Review	Chapter Break Book Blog
10/13/20	Scrapbook Page	Max Knight
10/14/20	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
10/15/20	Review	The Clueless Gent

 

 

 

 

 

blog tour services provided by

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

Zuleikha arrives in the US from Lahore, Pakistan, by marriage, having trained as a pianist without ever owning a real piano. Now she finally has one-a wedding present from her husband-but nevertheless finds it difficult to get used to her new role as a suburban middle-class housewife who has an abundance of time to play it.

Haunted by the imaginary worlds of the confiscated contraband books and movies that her father trafficked in to pay for her education and her dowry, and unable to reconcile them with the expectations of the real world of her present, she ends up as the central figure in a scandal that catapults her into the public eye and plays out in equal measures in the local news and in backroom deliberations, all fueled by winds of anti-Muslim hysteria.

The Black-Marketer’s Daughter was a finalist for the Disquiet Open Borders Book Prize, and praised by the jury as a “complicated and compelling story” of our times, with two key cornerstones of the novel being the unsympathetic voice with which Mallick, almost objectively, relays catastrophic and deeply emotional events, and the unsparing eye with which he illuminates the different angles and conflicting interests at work in a complex situation. The cumulative effects, while deliberately unsettling to readers, nevertheless keeps them glued to the pages out of sheer curiosity about what will happen next.

 

“ A gorgeously written book with a protagonist I’ll never forget.” —Lily Brooks-Dalton, author of Good Morning, Midnight, now a major motion picture: The Midnight Sky

 

 

Amazon * IndieBound * B&N

 

 

About the Author

 

Suman Mallick received his MFA from Portland State University where he also taught in the English and Creative Writing departments. While his homes away from home include Calcutta, India and Portland, Oregon, Mallick currently resides in Texas with his beloved daughter and dog. The Black-Marketer’s Daughter is Mallick’s debut novel and was shortlisted for the Disquiet Open Borders Book Prize.

 

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Trending Topic #Murder (Trending Topic Mystery Series)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Camel Press (September 8, 2020)
Paperback: 218 pages

 

Synopsis

 

Meet 28-year-old celebrity blogger Coco Cline, who has started her own social media consulting company in her hometown of Central Shores, Delaware. Her new clients, Peter and Olivia Chen, are ten days away from the grand opening of their specialty consignment shop when Coco finds their store clerk Stacy dead behind the register.

Worried that a cloud of suspicion will ruin their chances of a successful business launch, the Chens ask Coco to work alongside the inexperienced, small-town police force to speed up the investigation. Using her celebrity status and social media savviness, Coco realizes Stacy’s seemingly ordinary life was all an act. Following a trail of cryptic online posts and muddied gossip, Coco and her friends discover Stacy’s questionable relationships just might be the reason for her untimely demise.

 

 

Amazon  – Barnes & Noble – Target

 

 

About the Author

 

Sarah E. Burr grew up in the small town of Appleton, Maine, and now lives outside New York City. Since she was seven, Sarah has wanted to be Nancy Drew, but she wasn’t stumbling across any mysteries in corporate America. Deciding it was time to follow her dreams, Sarah left her career in healthcare information technology three years ago and started writing mysteries of her own. The Trending Topic Mysteries is her first traditionally published series. Sarah also writes the Court of Mystery series.

Sarah attended Elmira College and graduated with degrees in Political Science and Philosophy & Religious Studies. She loves to weave these themes into her writing. When she’s not spinning up new stories, Ms. Burr is off seeing Broadway musicals, reading up a storm, video gaming, and enjoying walks around the city.

 

Website * Blog * Facebook * Instagram * Twitter * Goodreads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sew Deadly Cruise (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
9th in Series
Independently Published (October 1, 2020)
Print Length: 226 pages

 

Synopsis

 

Life is looking up for magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack. Newly engaged, she and photojournalist fiancé Zack Barnes are on a winter cruise with her family, compliments of a Christmas gift from her half-brother-in-law. Son Alex’s girlfriend and her father have also joined them. Shortly after boarding the ship, Anastasia is approached by a man with an unusual interest in her engagement ring. When she tells Zack of her encounter, he suggests the man might be a jewel thief scouting for his next mark. But before Anastasia can point the man out to Zack, the would-be thief approaches him, revealing his true motivation. Long-buried secrets now threaten the well-being of everyone Anastasia holds dear. And that’s before the first dead body turns up.

Craft projects included.

 

 

Amazon – B&N – Kobo

 

 

About The Author

 

USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

 

Website * Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog * Twitter

 

Pinterest * Goodreads * Newsletter * BookBub

 

 

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

So, imagine developing a detailed marketing plan for your book and then implementing it. That’s what this book offers.

In this book, you’ll learn:

– How to develop your author’s platform material

– How to write your marketing content

– How to engage in marketing activities

– How to get more book reviews

– What kind of events to hold

– How to get publicity

– How to use (or not use) advertising.

– What other authors say about book marketing

 

 

Amazon * B&N * Apple * Kobo * Gardners

 

 

Excerpt

 

Book Marketing: What Doesn’t Work For Other Authors

 

While working on my new book, Book Marketing Fundamentals, I asked some author friends what doesn’t work when marketing their books.  Below are the answers arranged in no particular order.  Along with the author’s name is a link to their Amazon page or website.  While most of the authors write fiction, a few are non-fiction authors.

The wide diversity of the answers came as a surprise to me.

 

  What is your least favorite or least successful marketing tactic?

 

Mark Cain – The use of social media.  I feel particularly strongly about Facebook, in which I’ve invested way too much time over the years for too little payback.  I have yet to do Facebook ads, though.  Their cost is high, and I have yet to be convinced of their efficacy.

 

Elizabeth Craig – I feel ads are the most time-consuming and highest learning-curve option for promo.  Each ad opportunity (whether BookBub, Facebook, or Amazon) operates slightly differently.  To make sure you don’t lose money, I’d highly recommend taking either a paid or a free course (Reedsy offers some: https://blog.reedsy.com/learning/courses/ ).  And to really do it right, you should compare different versions of an ad and different audiences.  As an English major, I’ve found it very tough-going.

 

Stuart Aken – I’ve never measured activity, so I can’t answer this in terms of success. But my least favourite activity is the whole spectrum of sales.  I long for the days when publishers did all the marketing and promotional work and left authors free to create the work.  It’s the creation that matters to me.

 

Lorraine Ash – Following the online theme, any endeavor that is taken over by a computer algorithm or function instead of a human.  I’ve been involved in many expert online ad campaigns, some of them quite expensive.  Results have always looked great in terms of numbers of impressions and clicks, but not in books sold.  They don’t necessarily convert to sales.  People engage people.  Machines do not.

 

Peadar O’Guilin – Constant bombardment.  Begging.  As a regular book purchaser, I need to feel that when I buy a book it’s because it was my own choice.

 

Nicolette Pierce – Direct sales or direct promotion to my fans.  I’m not very good at promoting my own work without an ad platform.  I know this about myself, so I rely heavily on other tactics such as newsletters, AMS ads, Facebook ads, etc.

 

L. Diane Wolf – Bookstore appearances used to be all the rage and they can be a lot of fun, but there is the downside of book returns.  We do send the same author and book sheets to book stores, but we caution our authors that if they do a book signing or event, make sure the stores don’t order too many books and sign any that remain after the event. (Because those can’t be returned.)  Plus, so many stores just don’t host events anymore.

 

Stephanie Auteri – I set up a Facebook author page because my publisher asked me to.  But I felt so lackluster about it — partially because it felt forced, partially because I was already so engaged on other platforms — that it remained mostly stagnant.  To be clear, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t create a Facebook author page.  What I am saying is that you don’t need to be on every single social media platform out there.  Consider where your target audience is hanging out.  Consider which platforms you’re most active on and comfortable with.  The goal is engagement and if you’re not naturally engaged and engaging on a platform, it’s going to be a dud for you.

 

Hank Quense – Anything on Facebook.  Boosting posts or buying ads on Facebook are complicated and don’t produce anything useful.  The reports aren’t user-friendly either and difficult to interpret.

 

Nanci Arvizu – Facebook. I’ve seen authors run successful campaigns, but they’ve usually got a wizard behind the curtain running those ads, requiring a budget, like, real money, and a lot of authors aren’t in the position to take the financial plunge this could become if they don’t set it up right.

 

There you have it.  Who knew there were so many ways to hate marketing activities!

 

About the Author

 

Hank Quense has been self-publishing books for over ten years.  HIs non-fiction books cover fiction writing (Creating Stories), self-publishing (How to Self-publish and Market a Book) and marketing (Book Marketing Fundamentals). He also lectures on these subjects in schools, libraries and on webinars.

He recently created a new section on his website called Writers & Authors Resource Center.  Most of the content is free and much of it is unique.

There you can also read an expanded sample of Book Marketing Fundamentals.

 

Facebook * Twitter * LinkedIn * YouTube Channel

 

 

 

 

Deadly Travel: A World War II Mystery (The Deadly Series)
Historical Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Publisher: JDP Press (September 28, 2020)
Number of Pages 320

Synopsis

 

Travel to Berlin in 1939 is treacherous. Carrying out two clandestine missions in the enemy capital could prove deadly.

 

When a Quaker Kindertransport chaperone is murdered in the East End of London, Britain’s counterintelligence spymaster tasks Olivia Denis to join the group rescuing children from Nazi Germany. Olivia must find not only a killer, but a traitor relaying sensitive material to the enemy.

Once they reach Berlin, Olivia discovers she must rescue the family of an imprisoned British spy before she leaves the next day. An attack convinces Olivia the family’s two young sons are in grave danger, but where to hide them?

Can she protect the boys before they become the traitor’s next victims?

Deadly Travel, Book Five of the Deadly series, is for fans of World War II era spy thrillers and classical cozy mysteries, of intrepid lady sleuths with spunk and smarts. No explicit cursing, sex, or violence.

Continue your journey today into Olivia’s world of intrigue in London in the days leading up to war.

 

 

Amazon – B&N – Kobo

 

 

About the Author

 

Kate Parker caught the reading bug early, and the writing bug soon followed. She’s always lived in a house surrounded by books and dust bunnies. After spending a dozen years in North Carolina, she moved to Colorado. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful, but she’d developed a love of wide rivers, warmer and wetter weather, and fast-growing greenery that sent her hurrying back to North Carolina.

Deadly Travel is the fifth book in the Deadly Series, and Kate’s plan is to follow it quickly with Deadly Darkness, both set in 1939 in the days leading up to war. There are at least three more of the Deadly Series coming that will bring the beginning of the war to Olivia’s doorstep. Kate reports that she is having fun creating new stories to entertain readers and chaos to challenge her characters.

 

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Giveaway

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Borrowed Crime: A Jane Doe Book Club Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (October 6, 2020)
Hardcover

 

Synopsis

 

A shoe-in read for fans of Ellery Adams and Kate Carlisle, On Borrowed Crime is the first in Kate Young’s new Georgia-set, sweet tea filled, Jane Doe Book Club mysteries.

 

The Jane Doe book club enjoys guessing whodunit, but when murder happens in their midst, they discover solving crimes isn’t fun and games…

Lyla Moody loves her sleepy little town of Sweet Mountain, Georgia. She likes her job as receptionist for her uncle’s private investigative firm, her fellow true crime obsessed Jane Doe members are the friends she’s always wanted, and her parents just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. But recently, with her best friend Melanie on vacation, and her ex-boyfriend and horrible cousin becoming an item and moving in next door to her, her idyllic life is on the fritz. The cherry on top of it all is finding Carol, a member of the club, dead and shoved into a suitcase, left at Lyla’s front door.

Unusual circumstances notwithstanding, with Carol’s heart condition, the coroner rules Carol’s death undetermined. But when they discover the suitcase belongs to Melanie, who had returned from her vacation the following morning, Sweet Mountain police begin to suspect Lyla’s best friend. Determined that police are following the wrong trail, to clear her friend’s name, and to not allow Carol become one of the club’s studied cold cases, Lyla begins to seek out the real killer. That is, until she becomes the one sought after. Now, finding the truth could turn her into the killer’s next plot twist, unless she wins the game of cat and mouse.

 

 

Amazon – B&N – Kobo – IndieBound

 

 

About the Author

 

Kate Young writes Southern mystery novels. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and the Guppy Chapter. Kate lives in a small town in Georgia with her husband, three kids, and Shih Tzu. When she is not writing her own books, she’s reading or cooking.

 

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads * BookBub

 

 

Giveaway

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mistletoe, Moussaka, and Murder (A Kebab Kitchen Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Publisher: Kensington (September 29, 2020)
Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages

 

Synopsis

 

Not even her impending nuptials can keep Lucy Berberian, manager of her family-owned Kebab Kitchen, from the Jersey Shore’s annual Polar Bear Plunge. But her dive into the icy ocean is especially chilling when she finds a fellow swimmer doing the dead man’s float—for real . . .

Who would kill a man in cold blood during Ocean Crest, New Jersey’s most popular winter event? When Lucy learns the victim is Deacon Spooner, the reception hall owner who turned up his nose—and his price—at her wedding plans, she can’t help wondering who wouldn’t kill the pompous caterer . . .

Perhaps the culprit is the wedding cake baker whose career Deacon nearly destroyed? Or the angry bride whose reception he ruined? With her maid of honor, Katie, busily planning Lucy’s wedding without her, Lucy will have to get to the bottom of this cold-hearted business in time for Kebab Kitchen’s mouthwatering Christmas celebration—and before her hometown’s holiday spirit washes out to sea . . .

 

Recipes included!

 

 

 

Amazon * Barnes & Noble

Google Books * iBooks * Kobo

 

 

Review

 

I love taking trips to the Jersey Shore and imagining this cozy touristy town with a boardwalk situated next to the beach. And of course, I imagine the food at Kebab Kitchen and can picture all of the deserts at Cutie’s Cupcakes. I think I might have gained a few pounds just reading this book, the recipes at the end sound divine.

Lucy is back on the case after a fellow polar bear plunge swimmer washes up dead. Who killed him? Why? Lucy is determined to discover the truth especially when her friend Susan of Cutie’s Cupcakes is arrested for the murder. There is no way Susan could have done it, but the evidence is stacked against her. Lucy tries to stay out of the situation but her instincts take over and she investigates with her best friend Katie.

From reading all of the other books in this series, the killer has been someone you would never expect. Perhaps they had a small role, or it just doesn’t seem like they have the motive. Well, in this case, my spidey sense went off and while I may not have known the why, I did figure out who the killer was but not until near the end. I was quite surprised to discover they why and that this character was willing to throw Susan or anyone else under the bus. But that is why this person is a criminal, they have no morals. There are several potential suspects, all with good reason to kill Deacon, but which one will it be?

Along with the mystery, there is also the relationship between Lucy and Azad. They dated when they were in college but events led them to break up. After some time, and her mother’s interference, these two have reconnected and are now engaged. Lucy has her concerns and has stalled on setting a date, but I think they cleared that hurdle in this book. I enjoy watching their relationship continue to blossom.

I enjoy this series and recommend it to everyone looking for a cozy with some good greek food.  I want that hummus bar here in my town!

We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Tina Kashian spent her childhood summers at the New Jersey shore, building sandcastles, boogie boarding, and riding the boardwalk Ferris wheel. She also grew up in the restaurant business where her Armenian parents owned a restaurant for thirty years. She worked almost every job—rolling silverware and wiping down tables as a tween, to hosting and waitressing as a teenager.

After college, Tina worked as a NJ Deputy Attorney General, a patent attorney, and a mechanical engineer. Her law cases inspired an inquiring mind of crime, and since then, Tina has been hooked on mysteries. The Kebab Kitchen Cozy Mystery series launches with Hummus and Homicide, followed by Stabbed in the Baklava and One Feta in the Grave by Kensington Books. Tina still lives in New Jersey with her supportive husband and two young daughters. Please visit her website and join her Newsletter to enter free contests to win books, get delicious recipes, and to learn when her books will be released.

 

 

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Giveaway

 

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