The Funeral Murder A PIP Inc. Mystery
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Publisher: Good Read Mysteries, An Imprint of Good Read Publishers
Number of Pages: 248

 

Synopsis

 

In The Glass House, the first book in the PIP Inc. Mysteries series Pat Pirard, recently downsized Santa Cruz Law Librarian, needed to find a new job in a hurry. She printed business cards announcing she was Private Investigator Pat and crossed her fingers, hoping she could earn enough money working for attorneys as a PI to survive.

Pat’s first investigation went well, so she’s excited when she gets a call from an estate attorney who offers her a second job. The attorney tells Pat his client died at a funeral and he needs help sorting out who is entitled to inherit her estate.

Pat quickly discovers the dead woman’s past is as complicated as her estate. And when an autopsy indicates she had two deadly toxins in her body when she died, Pat’s new case becomes not only complicated, but dangerous.

 

 

 

 

Review

 

I enjoy this series for several reasons. Pat is a good investigator due to her experience as a law librarian, she isn’t afraid to be bold which is evidenced by her yellow car and her actions, and she has a dog.  She has a cat too, but I care more about the dog.  However, after reading this book and what happens near the end, cats aren’t all too bad.

The mystery itself is well laid out. There are obvious suspects but no clues that point to one specific character. I had a hard time deciding who the killer was out of the suspects and couldn’t guess because several had strong motives. The killer was a small surprise but several clues leading up to that moment would have pointed you in another direction.

Outside of the mystery, there was also a storyline about adoption and finding your parents. I enjoyed this as it delved into DNA and comparing reports to determine parentage. I found this to be interesting as I wonder how DNA can tell our past and makes us who were are from our hair and eye color to other traits.

The romance between Pat and Tim is moving right along in this book and while it may seem like it is fast, they seem to be well matched and there is a hint of something to come, perhaps in the next book.

Speaking of the next book, I don’t know if the little teaser phone call she received at the end of the book is the next plotline, but it certainly had me intrigued!

We give this book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Nancy Lynn Jarvis left the real estate profession after she started having so much fun writing the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series that she let her license lapse. She’s enjoyed writing about Regan and her husband, Tom, but decided it was time to do a new series.

PIP Inc. introduces protagonist downsized law librarian and not-quite-licensed Private Investigator Pat Pirard. “The Funeral Murder” is the second book in the series.

After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, Nancy worked in the advertising department of the San Jose Mercury News. A move to Santa Cruz meant a new job as a librarian and later a stint as the business manager for Shakespeare/Santa Cruz at UCSC.

Currently, she’s enjoying being a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and Santa Cruz Women of Mystery.

 

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Dough or Die (A Bread Shop Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Publisher: Kensington (August 25, 2020)
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages

 

Synopsis

 

Known for its mouthwatering traditional breads, the Yeast of Eden bakery has gained fame across Northern California’s coast. Now the shop is bound for Reality TV—but a murder may kill its reputation . . .

 

People come to the beach town of Santa Sofia as much for the healing properties of Yeast of Eden’s breads as for a vacation getaway. And now a cable food channel has selected the bakery as a featured culinary delight for a new show. Baking apprentice Ivy Culpepper is excited as the crew arrives, ready to capture all the ins and outs of the renowned bread shop. But instead they capture something much harder to stomach: the attempted murdered of the show’s cameraman just outside Yeast of Eden . . .

With no motive and no clues, and the town craving answers, it will be up to Ivy to sift through the evidence to find the truth. But she’ll have to move quickly before someone else is targeted or the wrong person gets the heat—and the business collapses like a deflated soufflé, right before her eyes.

 

 

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Character Guest Post

 

Olaya Solis

 

The American Dream—it is a real thing. For me, anyway. Opening Yeast of Eden and baking my traditional bread, infusing that bread with herbs and qualities that bring people hope or love or forgiveness, or whatever else they may need is a bonus. I never expected the bread shop to become as well known as it has. It rivals La Brea and Nancy Silverton, at least according to my biggest fans.

When the television people came to me, asking to feature Yeast of Eden on a reality show about the best bakeries across America, I was not certain it was the right thing to do. You see, the women in my Bread for Life program would be featured. Each of them has their own story to tell. They each have their cultures, their traditions, and the bread recipes they have carried with them through the years, and sometimes through generations. But Ivy, who has become my right hand at the bread shop, and who has also become like a daughter to me, thought the Bread for Life women should make up their own minds. In the end, Zula, Claire, Esmerelda, and Amelie decided they wanted to do it. They would share their stories on TV through their bread.

Little did they—or any of us—know that a murder would happen. Dios mio, it has been a terrible thing. The experience will either bring us together or tear us apart. Ivy has a gift for sleuthing. She will do what she can to figure things out before one of us is blamed for the murder. I know she will.

The American Dream, it turns out, has challenges along the way.

 

 

About the Author

 

Winnie Archer is the pseudonym of Melissa Bourbon.

Melissa Bourbon Ramirez is the national bestselling author of seventeen mystery books, including the Lola Cruz Mysteries, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series, and the Bread Shop Mysteries, written as Winnie Archer. She is a former middle school English teacher who gave up the classroom in order to live in her imagination full time. Melissa, a California native who has lived in Texas and Colorado, now calls the southeast home. She hikes, practices yoga, cooks, and is slowly but surely discovering all the great restaurants in the Carolinas. Since four of her five amazing kids are living their lives, scattered throughout the country, her dogs, Bean, the pug, Dobby, the chug, and Jasper, a cattle dog/lab keep her company while she writes. Melissa lives in North Carolina with her educator husband, Carlos, and their youngest son. She is beyond fortunate to be living the life of her dreams.

 

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Giveaway

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Synopsis

 

After more than forty years in the United States, Lan still feels tentative about her place in her adoptive country, one which she came to as a thirteen-year-old refugee. And after eighteen years of being a mother, she still ventures through motherhood as if it is a foreign landscape. Lan explores these two defining experiences of her life with the help of her fierce, independently-minded daughter, Harlan.

In short chapters that both reflect and refract her mother’s narrative, Harlan describes the rites of passage of childhood and adolescence, as they are filtered through the after-effects of her family’s history of war and migration. Lan responds in turn, revealing her struggles to understand her American daughter.

In this unique format of alternating storytelling, their complicated mother-daughter relationship begins to crystallize.

Lan’s struggles with the traumatic aftermath of war, emotional flashbacks and dissociative identify disorder, become operatic and fantastical interludes as told by her daughter. Through explosive fights and painful setbacks, mother and daughter search for a way to accept the past and face the future together.

Family in Six Tones is at once special and universal, speaking to the unique struggles of refugees as well as the universal tug-of-war between mothers and daughters.

 

 

 

Featured on Good Morning America

 

Excerpt

 

In my life, there is Saigon, my childhood city, and there is Harlan, my daughter. One is loss and the other is love, although sometimes loss and love are intertwined. Both are volcanic, invasive experiences, their own particular battle zones, full of love and warmth. All‑powerful, all‑encompassing, searing, awakening. Once experienced, they take over your life, altering the very cells in your body, both in the moment and in retrospect.

I am writing as a refugee who lost a country and as a mother whose love is vaster than even the vast parameters of loss. In Vietnamese, the word for country is a combination of earth and water, elemental and archetypal. Traditionally, the Vietnamese are tethered to their ancestral home, born of land and sea, the way newborns are tied umbilically to their mothers, sharing one swollen, tightly packed body, ferociously, bound almost despotically by flesh and blood.

For all of us refugees who enter America with our contingent lives, there is the all‑powerful, all‑venerable American Dream. Do we follow it? Are we trespassing when we enter it? Or do we float into the dreams we invent ourselves? Having witnessed so many refugee families struggling to make it, I wonder whether the American Dream is really for dreamers. Are you dreaming if you’re working twelve hours or more a day?

It might seem strange that being a refugee and being a mother feel so similar to me, but both involve a tortuous and lifelong drive in search of home and security—in one case for oneself; in the other, even more furiously, for one’s child. The journey of a refugee, away from war and loss toward peace and a new life, and the journey of a mother raising a child to be secure and happy are both steep paths filled with detours and stumbling blocks. For me, both hold mystery. It is like crossing a river on a monkey bridge. The bridge, indigenous to the Mekong Delta, is hand‑made, with slender bamboo logs and handrails. It is frail and slippery, and crossing it requires agility and courage; it is both physical and mental. I have not made my crossing alone but have had fellow travelers on this bridge—we could call them darker selves that emerge from the hidden, almost mystical shadows.

Carl Jung saw shadow selves as selves that are cradled in the darkness and lie outside the light of consciousness. But what I think of as my shadow selves are denser, perhaps more fragmented from the self than Jung’s original use of the term. They might seem like strangers at first, unknown, unknowable, and as a result frightening, a presence manifesting unruly states that had to be fought with or unshackled from. Over time, with a deeper reservoir of understanding, I have come to see them as guardian angels, as they are now more integrated with me than not.

After more than forty years in the United States, I still feel tentative here at times. And after almost seventeen years of being a parent, I continue to venture through motherhood as if it’s a new culture. No matter how many parenting books I have read or how much advice I have received, I still feel like an immigrant in the universe of motherhood. As I tentatively make my way through this landscape, I find that I vacillate more than I am certain, shifting my terms of engagement more than digging in. Like an immigrant newcomer, I am ambivalent. I question myself, especially when my precocious kid sarcastically unleashes comments like “Great parenting, Mom” after I make a decision she doesn’t like. She sounds so sure in her skepticism, and her certainty stands in stark contrast to my inner uncertainty.

Even something as basic as language—mother tongue, which for me is Vietnamese—posed a dilemma. I wasn’t sure whether I should speak it to Harlan when she was a newborn. Even something as beloved as a country or a language could be a burden. And I wondered whether it was better for her not to be hyphenated or fragmented in any way. My husband, Bill, didn’t speak Vietnamese. There would be no conversation. She would hear only my monologue. So I didn’t stick to a Vietnamese‑only regimen with her. I wanted to give her what I did not have and have not been able to achieve: wholeness. I wasn’t sure I wanted her to be disjointed and bifurcated like me. By the time I changed my mind and saw hyphenation as an unconventional form of wholeness, as having a set of twos instead of multiple divided halves, her little brain had become an English‑language brain. Now she would have to learn Vietnamese and any other language as a second language. That delayed decision remains a moment of regret.

Harlan was born in the United States, far from Vietnam, but I have bequeathed Vietnam to her whether I wanted to or not, sometimes as a gift, sometimes as a burden, but always as a marker or an imprint. I lost Vietnam when I was thirteen years old, in 1975. Forty years after the fall of Saigon, in 2015, my daughter herself turned thirteen, which for me meant the past had turned to the present, bringing itself to me in a singularly haunting act once again.

 

From FAMILY IN SIX TONES by Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2020 by Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao.

 

About the Authors

 

Lan Cao and Harlan Margaret Van Cao are the authors of Family in Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, an American Daughter.

Lan Cao is the author of Monkey Bridge and The Lotus and the Storm, and most recently of the scholarly work Culture in Law and Development: Nurturing Positive Change. She is a professor of law at the Chapman University Fowler School of Law, and an internationally recognized expert specializing in international business and trade, international law, and development. She has taught at Brooklyn Law School, Duke University School of Law, University of Michigan Law School, and William & Mary Law School.

Harlan Margaret Van Cao graduated from high school in June 2020 and is now attending UCLA. She was born in Williamsburg, Virginia and moved to Southern California when she was ten.

 

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SOMETHING WORTH DOING

 

A Novel of an Early Suffragist

 

by

 

Jane Kirkpatrick

 

 

Genre: Christian Historical Fiction

Publisher: Revell

Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Number of Pages: 336

 

 

 Scroll down for the giveaway!

 

 

 

 

Some things are worth doing—even when the cost is great

In 1853, Abigail Scott was a nineteen-year-old schoolteacher in Oregon Territory when she married Ben Duniway. Marriage meant giving up on teaching, but Abigail always believed she was meant to be more than a good wife and mother. When Abigail becomes the primary breadwinner for her growing family, what she sees as a working woman appalls her—and prompts her to devote her life to fighting for the rights of women, including the right to vote.

Based on a true story, Something Worth Doing will resonate with modern women who still grapple with the pull between career and family, finding their place in the public sphere, and dealing with frustrations and prejudices when competing in male-dominated spaces.

 

 

Amazon ┃ Barnes and Noble ┃ Bookshop.org

 

Christianbook.com ┃ IndieBound ┃ Revell

 

 

 

PRAISE

 

“I have long admired Jane Kirkpatrick’s rich historical fiction, and Something Worth Doing is well worth reading! Oregonian Abigail Duniway is a vibrant, fiercely passionate, and determined activist who fought for women’s suffrage. Women of today have cause to respect and admire her—as well as the loving, patient, and supportive husband who encouraged her to continue ‘the silent hunt.'” —Francine Rivers, author of Redeeming Love

 

“On the trail to Oregon, young Jenny Scott lost her beloved mother and little brother and learned that no matter what, she must persist until she reaches her goal. Remembering her mother’s words—’a woman’s life is so hard’—the young woman who became Abigail Scott Duniway came to understand through observation and experience that law and custom favored men. The author brings alive Abigail’s struggles as frontier wife and mother turned newspaper publisher, prolific writer, and activist in her lifelong battle to win the vote and other rights for women in Oregon and beyond. Jane Kirkpatrick’s story of this persistent, passionate, and bold Oregon icon is indeed Something Worth Doing!” —Susan G. Butruille, author of Women’s Voices from the Oregon Trail, now in a 25th anniversary edition

 

 

 

 

Interview with Abigail Scott Duniway,

of Something Worth Doing by Jane Kirkpatrick

 

 

Abigail, what about you made the author decide to devote a whole book to you?

 

I’m quite the character, actually. I traveled the Oregon Trail in 1852 as a teenager. I became a wife, a mom, a sister; I had several siblings, including one brother with whom I had a terrible rivalry. But I think it was my struggle between career and family that made my story so compelling. There have been several books written about me, and a documentary film made about me, but Something Worth Doing is the first novel. In a novel, the author can explore not just what I did and when I did it, but why and how I might have felt.

 

What was your career?

 

For seventeen years I owned and edited a newspaper that supported women’s rights, especially getting women the right to vote. I also traveled around the country, without a chaperon, giving speeches to support suffrage. People threw eggs at me, but sometimes they listened. I also taught school, ran a millinery, was a caregiver, and wrote twenty novels—all in the 1800s. I guess I’d say “writer” was my real career.

 

I’ve read about suffrage women marching through the streets with banners. What makes your story different?

 

I never urged unladylike actions, like taking over a saloon. Holy cow chips, that was not a good strategy. I promoted the “still hunt,” winning over the hearts of men who would ultimately grant women the right to vote. I visited legislatures and listened to their worries about women becoming full citizens and gave them sensible arguments.

 

How did your husband feel about you doing this suffragette work?

 

First, I must correct you. We were suffragists, not suffragettes; that little “ette” extension minimizes the enormous risks we took during more than forty years of effort. And my dear Ben supported me 100 percent. Otherwise, no one would have taken me seriously.

 

I must ask about your brother-sister rivalry. What was that about?

 

I can’t give the story away, now can I? Let’s just say that our sibling rivalry is still talked about two centuries later!

 

 

 

 

Jane Kirkpatrick is the New York Times and CBA bestselling and award-winning author of more than thirty books, including One More River to Cross, Everything She Didn’t Say, All Together in One Place, A Light in the Wilderness, The Memory Weaver, This Road We Traveled, and A Sweetness to the Soul, which won the prestigious Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center.

 

Her works have won the WILLA Literary Award, the Carol Award for Historical Fiction, and the 2016 Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award. Jane divides her time between Central Oregon and California with her husband, Jerry, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Caesar.

 

  Website ║ Bookbub ║ Facebook 

 

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———————————

 

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

 

THREE WINNERS!

 

1st: Copy of Something Worth Doing + Oregon Map Bag

 

+ $25 Barnes and Noble Gift Card;

 

2nd and 3rd:

 

Copy of Something Worth Doing + $10 Barnes and Noble Gift Card. 

 

SEPTEMBER 15-25, 2020 

 

(US 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

 

 

9/15/20	Character Interview	StoreyBook Reviews
9/15/20	BONUS Post	Hall Ways Blog
9/16/20	Review	Jennifer Silverwood
9/17/20	Excerpt	Max Knight
9/18/20	Review	Forgotten Winds
9/19/20	Author Interview	Librariel Book Adventures
9/20/20	Scrapbook Page	Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
9/21/20	Review	It’s Not All Gravy
9/22/20	Deleted Scene	Texas Book Lover
9/22/20	BONUS Post	All the Ups and Downs
9/23/20	Review	Momma on the Rocks
9/24/20	BONUS Review	The Clueless Gent
9/24/20	Review	Missus Gonzo

 

 

 

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Synopsis

 

“In Wendy Walker’s thrilling novel Don’t Look for Me, the greatest risk isn’t running away. It’s running out of time.

One night, Molly Clarke walked away from her life.

She doesn’t want to be found.

Or at least, that’s the story.

The car abandoned miles from home.

The note found at a nearby hotel.

The shattered family that couldn’t be put back together.

They called it a “walk away.”

It happens all the time.

Women disappear, desperate to leave their lives behind and start over.

But is that what really happened to Molly Clarke?

 

 

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Review

 

Lately, I have been a sucker for psychological thrillers and this one did not disappoint. There were even times where I got the heebie-jeebies and that doesn’t happen often.

This story has a lot of twists and turns especially at the end. There were several things that totally surprised me and I never saw coming. I can’t say too much because it would definitely give away the ending.

It is interesting to see what people will do and believe when it comes to family. The Clarke’s have seen some tragedies over the last few years which have also torn their family apart. Denial, acting out, losing hope are just some of the things that the family endured. But despite all of that, Nic just couldn’t believe her mom was gone and that could have led to her downfall if she trusted the wrong person.

The book flips between Molly and Nic’s POV which kept the story interesting. Once we know what happened to Molly, I have to admit I was a bit freaked out because I knew this couldn’t end well and just the situation itself was intense. There is a little girl, Alice, that is around the same age as Molly’s deceased daughter, Annie. For a young girl (9), she came across and possibly a sociopath. Her emotions were all over the place and we would see her go from happy to mad to sad to coy in what seemed like minutes. But at the same time, she wanted Molly to be her new mommy and she would do things she probably wasn’t supposed to do.

This is the first book I have read by this author, but I will definitely check out what else she has written because if they are anything like this book, I’m sure I will enjoy those stories.

We give this book 5 paws up.

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Wendy Walker is the author of psychological suspense. Her novels have been translated into 23 foreign languages and have topped bestseller lists both nationally and abroad. They have been featured on The Today Show, The Reese Witherspoon Book Club, and The Book of the Month Club and have been optioned for television and film.

 

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Undone in Uluru: A Traveler Cozy Mystery
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Independently Published (August 25, 2020)
~150 Pages

 

Synopsis

 

A missing person + a do-gooder father + a new friend = An adventure in which Naomi finds more than a murderer.

Naomi is off to Australia with her father in her latest vacation. She expects a drama-free trip to Oz with her dependable father. That all ends at check-in when they encounter a young woman searching for her boyfriend. Fellow traveler Daniel drags them into a search for the missing man in the Red Centre. In between sunset tours, daytime hikes, and Vegemite tastings, Naomi wanders ever closer to danger.

 

 

 

 

Guest Post

 

Today we have one of the characters from this book, Naomi, that is here to share some insights into her character.

 

 

Naomi

 

I zipped up my luggage, the highlighter yellow luggage my mother gave me for Christmas, before our trip to Iceland together.

Pre-Iceland I thought it was a hideous piece that I would never use. I thought she chose bright yellow because it’s exactly what I wouldn’t want. I thought she chose it just to annoy me.

In order to avoid a barrage of snarky comments from my mother, I used the four-wheeled hard-sided luggage for our trip to Reykjavik. I envisioned its demise while we there in order to prevent further trips with it.

But I was wrong. My mother was right. (You have no idea how much that pains me to say.)

The luggage is lightweight, easy to use, and easy to find. If given a choice I would have chosen the blue one the brand had. But the yellow one was really the best one for me.

I placed my e-reader in my carry-on bag. It was loaded with plenty of fiction books from Australian writers for the journey. It is a long flight. A very long flight.

I bet my Dad’s e-reader was loaded with books on Australia too. But no fiction. Most likely it was biographies of Australians, books on the history of the continent, with a focus on the Aboriginals, and books on Australian nature, with at least one about the Outback.

(If my mother was traveling ‘Down Under’, her tablet would have been loaded with Hugh Jackman films.)

My father raised me from the time my parents divorced over fifteen years ago. We’ve always got along. Something I could not have said about my other travel companions prior to our trips to South Africa and Iceland.

My mother has asked a lot of questions about my upcoming trip. I had few answers. My father planned it all. I was just tagging along.

My sister had joked I wouldn’t meet anyone like Osp on this trip. I met Osp, Thor to my mother and sister, in our Icelandic hotel. We went out a few times but he didn’t like all the time I spent talking to his friend, Þröstur. He was a police officer and I had questions about Milo’s death! I don’t regret my decision.

I can’t imagine getting pulled into looking for a murderer on a vacation with my sensible father. He would encourage me to leave it to local authorities.

Maybe I would have time for a romance.

A little romance on vacation would be nice…

 

About the Author

 

A. R. Kennedy lives in Long Beach, New York, with her two pups. She works hard to put food on the floor for them. As her favorite T-shirt says, ‘I work so my dog can have a better life’. She’s an avid traveler. But don’t worry. While she’s away, her parents dote on their grand-puppies even more than she does. Her writing is a combination of her love of travel, animals, and the journey we all take to find ourselves.

 

 

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Twitter –  Goodreads – BookBub

 

 

Giveaway

 

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Little Bookshop of Murder: A Beach Reads Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (September 8, 2020)
Hardcover

 

Synopsis

 

A Shakespearean scholar inherits a beachside bookshop–and a murder mystery–in this delightful new cozy series for fans of Kate Carlisle and Ellery Adams.

 

Summer Merriweather’s career as a Shakespeare professor hangs by a bookbinder’s thread. Academic life at her Virginia university is a viper’s pit, so Summer spends her summer in England, researching a scholarly paper that, with any luck, will finally get her published, impress the Dean, and save her job. But her English idyll ends when her mother, Hildy, shuffles off her mortal coil from an apparent heart attack.

Returning to Brigid’s Island, NC, for the funeral, Summer is impatient to settle the estate, sell her mom’s embarrassingly romance-themed bookstore, Beach Reads, and go home. But as she drops by Beach Reads, Summer finds threatening notes addressed to Hildy: “Sell the bookstore or die.”

Clearly, something is rotten on Brigid’s Island. What method is behind the madness? Was Hildy murdered? The police insist there’s not enough evidence to launch a murder investigation. Instead, Summer and her Aunt Agatha screw their courage to the sticking place and start sleuthing, with the help of Hildy’s beloved book club. But there are more suspects on Brigid’s Island than are dreamt of in the Bard’s darkest philosophizing. And if Summer can’t find the villain, the town will be littered with a Shakespearean tragedy’s worth of corpses–including her own.

 

 

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Guest Post

 

We welcome Maggie to StoreyBook Reviews today and she shares with us one of her pet peeves, which happens to be one of mine too!

 

One of my pet peeves is book snobbery. Whether it is a literary book lover putting down a romance reader, or a mystery reader rolling their eyes at romances, I don’t like it. It’s none of anybody’s business what other people read and if they don’t invite your comment and opinion, keep yours to yourself. So why did I make my new main character, Summer Merriweather a book snob? Because like all interesting characters, if you scratch the surface of her, there’s more to her traits than meets the eye.

Her mom, Hildy, owned “Beach Reads,” a bookstore specializing in romances and mysteries. Summer was commandeered each summer to work at the bookstore and to share her mom with the customers and the book community she was such a vibrant part of. When summer discovered Shakespeare at school, and understood his plays, and loved his language, it set her mind, body, and soul on fire. Hildy didn’t carry Shakespeare at the bookstore. “Who wants to read Shakespeare at the beach?” She’d say.

So you see, there is a lot to unpack there in just that one paragraph. So when Hildy, summer’s mom, passes away mysteriously and leaves the bookstore to Summer, she faces a conundrum. She’s broke, her career is not what she expected, and her mom’s book friends were there with open arms. They asked Summer to attend a book group meeting in honor of Hildy, so she read the assigned romance, at first, gritting her teeth, but as the story unfolds, she surprisingly finds herself enjoying it.

By the end of the book, while Summer is not an avid romance reader, she’s no longer quite the book snob she was. And, as the series continues, I hope she grows and learns to love all genres.

 

 

About the Author

 

Maggie Blackburn is the author of the Cora Crafts mysteries and the Cumberland Creek mysteries under another pen name. Her books have been selected as finalists for an Agatha Award and a Daphne du Maurier Award and as a Top 10 Beach Reads by Woman’s World. She has also been short-listed for the Virginia Library People’s Choice Award. She is the mother of two young women who are off following their dreams in the music business. She currently lives in Waynesboro, VA, and works at the University of Virginia as a development associate.

 

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Giveaway

 

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Asbury High and the Parcels of Poison: Asbury High YA Cozy Mystery
Young Adult Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Publisher: Purple Milk Publishing (May 24, 2020)
Paperback: 269 pages

 

Synopsis

 

Asbury’s fearless foursome is back!

Is their favorite hangout to blame for recent food poisonings? Or is there something more sinister at work?

After an unprecedented first year of high school, the gang is ready for a relaxing summer vacation, although in Asbury, that may be easier said than done. This summer, the Food Network is running a summer special highlighting local hot spots, Carly, Maddie, Pilot and Cornelious are psyched to have the world’s best restaurant featured—their very own Brady’s! In fact, Maddie can almost forget that her arch-nemesis, Alexis Johnson, will also be on TV for winning the logo design for Caulfield’s Candies… almost.

However, after patrons start falling ill, shoobies and locals alike point the finger at Brady’s and rumors of food poisoning. When Brady’s threatens to close its doors, Pilot realizes his mother’s job is in jeopardy, as well as his future in Asbury. With the aid of Cornelious’ wealthy cousin Dane, who spends every summer with the quartet, the gang is once again thrust into an investigation. Unfortunately, they find themselves thwarted by both the local police (who believe their recent success was due to luck, rather than skill), and Cornelious’ father, who has decided to run for Mayor of Asbury and cautions his son on the need to maintain a spotless public image.

With a new pancake house on the boardwalk, Mainlanders invading their beaches, and the Pitbulls sneaking around and terrorizing shoobies (as usual), there’s no shortage of suspects. But can they solve the case before the summer, and Brady’s, are finished?

 

 

 

 

Guest Post

 

Today we welcome Kelly and her thoughts on why she writes cozy mysteries.  Take it away Kelly!

 

One of my most favorite things to do has always been to figure things out. I guess that’s why I actually loved going to school. Thus, it makes sense that mysteries have always held a tight hold on my heart. Whether I am reading, writing, or watching the occasional movie, the genre is most often a mystery. Don’t worry—my husband would even agree, I am not one to ruin a good movie or book for anyone else by voicing my suspicions.

Thus, when I finally decided to write out the stories banging around inside my head, crafting a mystery series was the obvious choice. As I was only eighteen when I outlined the series and wrote the rough draft of Asbury High and the Thief’s Gamble (book one of the series), writing young adult came naturally. After a few years of research, and reading some pretty awesome cozy mysteries, I realized that the cozy mystery genre was the one for me. Not only did my series take place in a small town, with amateur sleuths as the protagonists, but I didn’t have any desire to add scenes of graphic violence or sex to any of the books in my series. Furthermore, the more I researched, the more I felt truly at home in this genre. I honestly feel some stories get lost in adding too much violence or graphic scenes, and the mystery or overall feel of the book gets lost. Thus, my Asbury High series fits perfectly into the cozy mystery world, and I am excited to continue writing in this genre for years to come.

 

 

About the Author

 

For as long as she could remember, Kelly Brady Channick loved making up stories and leaving her listeners/readers on the edge of their seats.

Perhaps that’s why she always managed to talk herself out of trouble…

After graduating from NJ’s own Ocean City High School, Kelly accepted a basketball scholarship to Holy Family University, in Philadelphia. As a lifelong athlete, Kelly understands the importance of teamwork and overcoming adversity, something she hopes translates into her books.

Before writing page-turners, she taught first, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade — like a dessert menu, she simply had to test them all out. But her favorite job is the one she’s now doing full time: writing. Kelly loves to craft whodunit mysteries, leading readers through various twists and turns filled with red-herrings, hidden clues, and more peculiar characters than a reality show.

Kelly lives in South Jersey with her handsome husband, energetic baby boy, two cookie-stealing dogs, and an awfully smart cat.

 

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The Wreckage of Us

By – Brittainy Cherry

Release Date – September 8, 2020

Publisher – Montlake

 

Synopsis

 

I know I should stay away from Ian Parker.

But when my drug-dealing stepdad kicks me out, I have nowhere to go. Squatting in an abandoned shed on Ian’s grandpa’s farm seems like as good a plan as any.

Ian finds me there, of course, and he insists on me moving into his spare room. I should say no, but the appeal of a roof and a warm bed is too much. Not to mention Ian’s brown eyes and strong arms.

We’re nothing alike, but the spark between us is undeniable. My life is finally looking up.

Until I call the cops on my stepdad and unintentionally get my pregnant mom arrested.

Now I have to sacrifice my dreams to take care of my mom’s baby. She’s the only family I have left. Meanwhile, Ian’s band is taking off; his dreams are coming true.

Ian is my one chance at love. I just hope he doesn’t become the one chance that got away.

 

 

 

Interview with Brittainy Cherry

 

The Wreckage of Us takes place in the inauspicious town of Eres, Nebraska. Not exactly a place where happily-ever-afters are made. What made you choose this setting?

 

I wanted to tell a story about a small town that was overlooked by the world as a whole. Most people would overlook a town like Eres, Nebraska, but there are still people who are living, who are loving, and who are struggling in these small towns. I wanted to show their stories, and how even though the rest of the world may not see them, that they still matter. They deserve their happily ever afters just as much as the rest of the world.

 

Hazel, your heroine, is newly eighteen when her criminal step-father throws her out of the house. She literally has nothing when the story begins—not even her mother’s support. What choices does Hazel make? Do you agree with them?

 

Hazel chooses to find a job in order to help her mother from a distance. I think she acts on impulse, not exactly thinking things through. She doesn’t get the opportunity to think far into the future, she only has right in that moment. Second by second. I do agree with her choices in a way, since she isn’t harming anyone with these choices. She is just doing her best to make it to the next day.

 

Forget about healing, Hazel is in survival mode. What keeps her going?

 

Her twisted love and care for her mother is keeping her going—along with her unborn sister. She knew what it was like to grow up in her household, and she wouldn’t want her little sister to go through those same kind of struggles. So, that pushes Hazel to keep moving forward and fighting for her family.

 

Your hero is a very interesting mix of both the town’s “golden boy” as well as the town’s “bad boy”. Ian is…complicated. How did you get to know him? How does Hazel get to know him?

 

I believe Hazel and I both got to know Ian the same way—piece by piece. He has a wall of protection up from the world due to the trauma he experienced as a child. Being abandoned by his parents really did a number on Ian’s trust. Yet, the beautiful thing about Ian is when he loves, he loves fully. He does everything he can to make sure those he loves are taken care of. Once his pieces are discovered, he makes a beautiful complete puzzle.

 

Music is Ian’s whole life. He sees it as his escape, a way out of the stifling Eres, Nebraska. However, he struggles with his emotions and allowing himself to really feel the music he is making. What needs to change for him?

 

He needs to tap into his darkest struggles. He has to go to the edge of his anger, his hurts, and express those feelings on the page in front of him. Ian holds so much in that it becomes a creative block in a way. Once he starts breaking those walls down—with the help of Hazel—he discovers his real creativity. He finds his voice, he finds his songs. He finds himself.

 

Hazel and Ian are an unlikely pair. They really get on each other’s nerves and they want different things out of life. Yet despite their differences, they find a connection. What is the spark that brings them together?

 

I think it’s loneliness. They grew up without having the true love of their parents. And in the town of Eres, drugs are a big issue. Those drugs affected both of their parents lives in different ways, but it’s a connecting factor for them both. They are able to connect with one another because they both know what it’s like to hurt so deeply and dream of a parent’s love.

 

The theme of “impossible love” runs through your novels. Two people that can’t possibly make it work realize that they don’t want anyone else but each other. What excites you about these types of stories.

 

I think there’s something so exciting about a love worth fighting for. When the passion is given from not only one side of the equation, but both the hero and heroine know the feelings they have run deep. Sure, there are struggles, like there are in everyday life, but they know they wouldn’t want to struggle with anyone else in the world. They fight for their happily ever after, no matter what. And that, in my mind, is what makes the impossible love become possible and true. That’s what gives us the happily ever afters that we as readers crave.

 

Currently our country and the world are going through unprecedented crisis. The arts have become so important for people to feel a sense of normalcy. As a writer, how do you hope your story affects your readers?

 

I hope my stories give my readers hope. I hope it reminds them that even throughout the storms, the sun will always shine once the clouds move to the side. There’s beauty in the storms, too, if you are willing to look hard enough. There are lessons of self that can be learned, and I think my characters discover that from time to time. I just hope to showcase that this is still a time to believe in happily ever afters, and that the world’s story as a whole, is far from over. We still have so much beauty to still discover. We still have so much light to find. And those facts alone, give me hope, and I hope my stories do the same for readers. I hope I give them light.

 

How has our current situation affected projects you are working on now? (Any spoilers you can tell us about what is up next for you?)

 

I’m finding myself more forgiving of my writing pace! I fell off for a while and found it hard to be creative, but now that I am in a groove, I am finding writing fun again. It’s my great escape from the issues around me. Words save me day in and day out, and I’m thankful for that. Up next for me is my second book in my Compass series, which is entitled Eastern Lights. It’s my first ever romantic comedy, that is filled with so much heart. I think readers are going to love getting to know Connor and Aaliyah’s story!

 

***

 

The Wreckage of Us Excerpt

 

A typical Eres Saturday night.

I wandered the ranch with a notebook and pen in my hand. I kept scribbling down lyrics and crossing them out before trying again to create something better, stronger—realer. I kept drumming my fingers against each other, trying to unlock the pieces that I was missing. As I paced back and forth, a voice broke me away from my mind.

“It’s the words.”

I looked up to see Hazel sitting in the rocking chair that Big Paw built for my mother years ago. I used to sit in Mom’s lap as she’d read me stories before bedtime all those years back.

There’d been times I thought about getting rid of the chair in order to forget that memory, but I hadn’t found the strength to let go just yet.

“What do you mean it’s the words?” I asked, walking up the steps of the porch. I leaned against the railing facing her.

She blinked and tilted her head in my direction. “Your words are trash.”

“What?”

“The lyrics to your songs, they are complete garbage, filled with clichés and bubblegum. Don’t get me wrong, the music style and tempos are brilliant. And even though it pains me to admit, your voice is so solid and soulful that you could be a star in a heartbeat. But your lyrics? They are pig shit.”

“I think the saying is horseshit.”

“After spending weeks in a pig pen, pig shit seems to truly sum up my feelings about your music. But my gosh, your voice. It’s a good voice.”

I tried to push off her insult, and tried to ignore her compliment, too. But it was hard. I had an ego that was easy to bruise, and Hazel was swinging her punches while also speaking words of praise. It was as if every bruise she made, she quickly covered with a Bandaid.

Insult, compliment, insult, compliment. Wash, rinse, repeat.

“Everyone else seemed to enjoy it,” I replied, tense with my words.

“Yeah, well, everyone else are morons who are drunk off their minds.”

“Oh? And you think you could do better?”

She laughed. “Without a doubt.” “Okay, Hazel Stone, master of lyrics, give me something to go with.”

She gestured toward the other rocker beside her—the one Dad used to sit in.

I sat down.

She pressed her lips together. “Okay. Give me one of your songs. One that you know is crap but are pretending isn’t crap.”

“They aren’t—”

“Lying isn’t going to get us far tonight, Ian.”

I narrowed my eyes and murmured a curse word before I began flipping through my notebook to find a song for Hazel to magically make better. “Fine. We can do Possibilities.”

“Hmm… What is it about?”

“A new relationship forming. I want to showcase those beginning feelings, you know? The fears and excitements. The nerves. The unknown. The—”

“First chapters of love,” she finished my thoughts.

“Yes, that.”

She took the pencil from behind my ear and took the notebook from my grip. “May I?”

“Please. Go for it.”

She began scribbling, crossing things out, adding things in, doing whatever came to her mind. She worked like a manwoman, falling into a world of creativity that I didn’t think she’d held inside of her. The only thing I knew about Hazel Stone was where she came from, and the clothes she wore. I hadn’t known anything else, but now she was pouring herself out on the page, and I couldn’t wait to see what the hell she was scribbling.

She took a breath and handed the notebook back to me. “If you hate it, no harm, no foul,” she said.

My eyes darted over the words. “It’s possible this is forever ours. It’s possible we’ll reach the stars. We’ll fight for this, we’ll make it real. Is it possible, possible, to show you how I feel?”

“Shit.” I blew out a breath of air. “Hazel…that’s… It’s like you crawled into my head and read the thoughts I couldn’t decipher. That’s the chorus. That’s it.”

 

 

About the Author

 

Brittainy Cherry has been in love with words since she took her first breath. She graduated from Carroll University with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts and a minor in creative writing. She loves to take part in writing screenplays, acting, and dancing—poorly, of course. Coffee, chai tea, and wine are three things that she thinks every person should partake in. Cherry lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her family. When she’s not running a million errands and crafting stories, she’s probably playing with her adorable pets.

 

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Synopsis

 

Waylon Jenkins has a problem. Well, he’s got a few of them. The ghost of Betsy Ross lives in his house, he’s pretty sure his favorite client is the victim of ongoing domestic violence, and he’s been roped into helping the police investigate a series of murders.

And his penis fell off in the shower this morning. He needs a new one, but none of his friends are willing to donate theirs to the cause.

In case it isn’t obvious by now, Waylon Jenkins is a zombie.

He’s also one of the most highly respected and in-demand makeup artists in Hollywood, and that keeps him busy, no matter how dead he is. But now he needs to find out who’s committing a string of murders, and make sure nobody hurts Mitzi (one name only), one of his most faithful (and famous) clients.

He also needs a new penis.

Pluck & Cover is the first in the Zombie Cosmetologist Novellas, a new series by J.D. Blackrose, author of The Soul Wars and The Devil’s Been Busy.

 

 

 

Review

 

If you are looking for a mystery short story that will make you laugh then look no further than this book.  The premise is wacky, the characters are plucky, and good overcomes bad in the end.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I opened to the first page, but finding a zombie concerned about his manhood was not one of them! And then to have Betsy Ross sewing it back on?  You know that the rest of the book is going to a scream, and not in fear but in laughter.

This story moves at a fast pace and there are multiple storylines that somewhat merge together near the end, or at least several of them do. The characters have interesting backstories but we don’t find those out until closer to the end of the story. I think some of it could have been dropped in earlier because it would have made more sense or at least the reader would have a better understanding of Waylon and Early.  I found it interesting that the police had no issue with Waylon being a zombie. But at the same time, it made him a more likely suspect.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and want to know more about the characters, how they came to be the way they are and how they came together (although we find out how Early and Waylon know each other) and will this company that is producing zombies succeed?  I also expect that the next book will have just as much humor in it and will be an enjoyable read.

We give this book 4 paws up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

J.D. Blackrose loves all things storytelling and celebrates great writing by posting about it on her website, www.slipperywords.com. She has published multiple series through Falstaff Books, as well as numerous short stories. She spends a lot of time chatting with the imaginary people in her head and is often accused of having a hearing problem. As a survival tactic, she has mastered the art of looking interested. She credits her parents for teaching her to ask questions, and in lieu of facts, how to make up answers.

 

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