The Bachelorette Party

 *I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for my honest review.*

A group of 4 ladies have an overnight (or a weekend) at a remote and secluded island that they have been visiting for years. And they aren't seen again. Ten years later, a group of women are invited to a Bachelorette Party on a secluded island resort in the same area.

Tessa is a true crime junkie since her babysitter went missing - one of the original 4. She has made true crime her life with a podcast that recently crashed and burned in a fantastic manner. While she wants to stay hidden away in her misery, she has been invited to the bachelorette party and is hoping against hope that resort in on the same island where the original 4 ladies went missing.

This story unfolds in a tantalizingly slow fashion. Just when I thought I knew how it was going to go, there would be a twist of some sort that would make me think something else. It is definitely a twist on a closed room mystery. I enjoyed how everyone had a motive for everything. I felt like it was very smartly written! Revenge is best served cold!

Four stars!

The Pumpkin Spice Café

What started out as a pleasant cozy (very light) mystery turned very spicy at the end and it was a not unpleasant turn of events.

Jeanie's aunt retires and leaves Jeanie the Pumpkin Spice Café in Dream Harbor and Jeanie moves into the little apartment above the café and begins to make herself at home in the small New England town. But with all of the ruckus every night in the alley behind the café, Jeannie can't sleep and when she catches the hunky town farmer making a deliver and assumes he is trying to break in, she starts an unassuming friendship and they are both infatuated with each other. And harboring doubts on their own.

The characters in the quaint town are adorable and funny! And gossips!! Whooo wee does news get around there! And with a bit of mystery thrown in as far as who might be sabotaging the Cafe and trying to force Jeanie out of her place. This is more of a rom-com and quite a lovely book!

Five stars!

Dead Tired

 *I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for my honest review.*

I was so happy to get back to Alice and her other mom friends in this series. The mums are all tired and running ragged trying to do all that they can with the babies. And they happen upon a nude protester photo shoot and then they are invited to a sit in to protect a local area from being torn down, of course they show up to be chained to the trees to protect the eco system. And they wake up to a murdered protester.

I feel like reading about the group of mums making their way around with the babies while they investigate is way more interesting than the actual investigation. Alice is still a mess in every sense of the word and Jack and Helen are just along for the ride. The plotting is great and the characters are funny and so believable with all the quirks that have made this series one of my favorites.

I am here for the ride with Alice and her friends and whatever they find themselves in! Five stars!

the Serial Killer's Guide to San Francisco

 

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for my honest review.*

Capri (emphasis on the PRI) is a strong willed woman who started a tour company in San Francisco 10 years ago when her marriage fell apart. As the granddaughter of the infamous Overkill Bill serial killer, she emphasizes serial killers and murders in her tours and the company has become quite successful. Then a murder happens and the cops are calling it a copycat of Overkill Bill who has always maintained his innocence and Capri's ex-MIL goes missing and she is the person that the family turns to for help.

I loved that Capri was such a strong character and didn't kowtow to anyone, including the hot detective. (Because, of course, there is a hot detective!) And she even stood up to her own dad about looking into the original Overkill Bill murders to try and find out if her grandfather really was innocent. Adding in several other characters that help with the tour company and her graduate school attending daughter, there is a great cast of characters to build on for any future books in the series!  A single POV and snippets of San Francisco tourist locations and this made for a great debut!

Four stars!

The Maid

 

Another novel about a neurodivergent main character. Five stars from me again!

Poor naive, unassuming Molly the maid works in the Regency Grand Hotel in a big city and is one of the best maids due to her attention to detail and ability to follow all of the rules to the letter. She is definitely unique and on the spectrum in some capacity. But she is also so easy to like in her quaint ways and way of talk. When Molly finds a body in a room she is about to clean, she does what she can to help her friends who might be affected by the murder. 

Such a sweet reminder in the book to be careful of your friends and know your enemies. But when you can't tell which is which, it makes it mighty hard to survive. And Molly is on a bit of a down ward spiral after losing her Gran several months ago. Gran helped her find her way. But she still has Gran in her mind and in her heart and with her Gran as her guide through life, Molly just might make it after all.

This was such an endearing novel (minus the death and mystery) and Molly is such a strange bird in a great way that it is easy to root for her to figure things out. It's also kind of easy to sort out what is going on even when Molly doesn't.

I can't wait to read the next in the series!

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

I can't believe that I put this book off as long as I did. What a fantastic debut novel for Karryn Mayne and I am adding her to my authors to follow on Goodreads. And recommending this book to everyone!

On the surface, Lenny Marks is set in her ways and one could assume it is due to being on a spectrum of some sort. That is certainly what I thought for most of the novel. Her schedule is never changing - grocery store, food, work - every week it is all the same thing. Until she realizes that she is lonely, admits it to her mum, and her mum starts pushing her to make friends at work and to engage. And when a letter from the parole board is delivered to her at work, it starts a spiral of changes that Lenny can't stop.

Lenny's quirkiness with her anagrams to calm herself sometimes had me thinking - "wait... can you really make that word?" And the answer was always yes!

The novel was a great pace and with a bit of a mystery behind the parole board letter. and it works to dismantle Lenny's world piece by piece until she is precariously close to collapse. The characters are fantastic and Lenny's loneliness is palpable. Her actions to try and make friends and adjust to the outside world are enough to bring her (and me) back to being alone in her home and disregarding every chance to change her life.

I want to say that I hope I can read more about Lenny Marks, but in order for that to happen she needs another mystery and I would very much rather for her to live her life in the peace that she finds!

Five stars!! A must read!

House of Glass

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

Stella is an attorney appointed to look out for the best interest of a 9 year old while the parents are going through a nasty divorce. At every turn, the parents and grandmother thwart Stella's attempts to get to know Rose and find out what would be in her best interests. Another wrench in Stella's job is that Rose has been non-verbal since her nanny died by falling through an attic window. And Rose may or may not have witnessed the fall and the death. This is just one of the answers that Stella can't get to. While the family is divorcing and Rose is non verbal and they are recovering from the loss of the nanny, they are slowly switching all of the glass in the home out for plastic of some sort.

Stella is also coping with the crappy time she had growing up and almost witnessing her mother's overdose and, naturally, taking on this case helps her start to resolve those feelings and be able to investigate the overdose.

The family comes off very unlikeable and manipulative in the book. There is a good pace and the writing was pretty great. I listened to the audio version and the narrator did a great job with the suspenseful parts. It kept my attention and my heart raced a bit when the twists were revealed and when creepy things happened with Rose. 

Five stars!

One Big Happy Family

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

Charley is working at a legendary hotel on the coast of Maine with a crotchety and handsy boss who has recently died. She thinks she had it made with room and board included with the job and isn't sure how things will work out with the boss's daughters who will inherit the hotel - will she keep her job or be out on her bum? This is the weekend that the will will be read and Charley is nervous about changes that may or may not be coming her way. Add to the mix a hurricane that is heading straight toward the hotel and it sets up a great story for a locked room mystery.

The descriptions of the characters and how the stories were laid out was fantastic! Some things I was able to guess, but other things were out of left field to me. The 3 daughters were so different in their lives and personalities as were their partners and the children. It kept Charley on her toes to be able to take it all in and keep everything tidy throughout the weekend.

I feel like there were things that were added in that were secondary to the main story at the hotel, but there was also reason for Charley's thoughts to be split between there and the assisted living house where her grandmother was. But the grandmother story line was a lot more secondary to me and somewhat of a distraction.

Very enjoyable book with very despicable characters! A great read! Five stars!

Last Girl Ghosted

What a twisted cat and mouse game!

Wren signs up for a dating site and meets Adam and feels an instant connection until he disappears and a PI comes looking for him. Interspersed with this main story from Wren's POV are stories from other girls who have gone missing and their last interactions with the world. We also have Wren's back story unraveled piece by piece to find out how she got to where she is in the novel.

Adam doesn't seem like the controlling type when they are dating and getting to know each other. He seems like the perfect guy until he disappears. The novel unravels the plotlines in such a great way to keep the story moving forward and give just enough of the back stories to keep the reader drawn in. And the thought processes that Wren has while she is searching are quite believable and real.

Just another reason to abstain from internet dating and dating apps after listening to this book! Five stars!

Sticks and Scones

 

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for my honest review.*

My second book in this Bakechop Mystery series and I really want to go back and start from the beginning! Jules and Carlos are working with Lance and his Fair Verona Players theater troupe in the Uva vineyard when one of the actors is murdered in the wine cellar. And Jules is dizzy on and off the whole book.

I like how the story progresses from the monotony of everyday life in the bakeshop to a murder and investigation and then back to the bakeshop to make adjustments to everyday life as needed. The supporting characters seem to be well rounded and fit in to help with the mysteries and to keep things running at Uva and the bakeshop. The recipes also sound wonderful! And this is why I want to read all of the books in the series. And visit Oregon!

Five stars for me!

The Women

While many love Kristin Hannah, I am not one of her followers. (I felt like she name dropped brands too much in Firefly Lane and it was just ridiculous. I got it - set in the 80's. Stop beating readers over the head with it!) But I've heard a lot about The Women and thought I would give it a try. It did not disappoint..... much.

Frankie enlists in the Army Nurse Corps to impress her parents after her brother is shot down in Vietnam. What follows is very MASH like without all of the comedy. And then depression and addiction upon her return when nurses aren't acknowledged as actual vets.

The story is good, if not a little drawn out and far fetched. But with books, there is always some kind of suspended belief, in my opinion. And with the story being in the 60's through early 80's, the only thing that Hannah could really use to indicate the times was song titles and clothing styles so it was not as bad as the other book that I read.

All things considered, I am glad I read The Women, but am not a Hannah convert.

Four stars.

 

A Cyclist's Guide to Crime and Croissants

I've read so many great new series recently! Here's one!

Sadie's best friend is killed in a hit and run accident so she has a mid-life crisis and buys a cycling tour company in France and leaves. All of this back story is sprinkled throughout the book. The story really picks up 9 months after Sadie has moved to France and her old boss and his family come for a cycling tour and to see how Sadie's new life is. The interesting part is that Sadie has known her old boss and his family almost her whole life and grew up in their carriage house.

Between some vandals that are targeting Sadie and the family friends trying to lure her back to the states, Sadie is having a hard time keeping the group on track while also trying to make sure that the blogger on this trip is having a grand time so as to leave her a good review which could make or break her new venture.

This was a lovely start of a cozy mystery series and made me feel like I could go on a cycling tour in France despite not enjoying cycle classes at the gym at all! Isn't that the way good books make you feel? Like you can be immersed in whatever is happening on the pages? Also, there is a lot of discussion of croissants and I had to be strong to not buy all of the croissants and pastries in the vicinity of my house.

Can't wait for the next in the series! Five stars!

Summers at the Saint

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

I really expected a light summer beach read from this book and author and I was surprised to find a death and some shady business practices that needed to be resolved.

Traci Eddings was born an Ain't and then married into the Saint family - The Saint Cecelia being a local resort on the coast of Georgia. After Traci's husband died, he left the hotel to her and she has had to run it with her late husband's family watching her and breathing down her back. And this summer, things are really going downhill fast with workers leaving and Traci having trouble finding replacements. Until she has the idea to create a dormitory where some of the workers can stay for free on the grounds for the summer season. When tragedy strikes her own family, Traci struggles to hold on to control.

Some of the things going on with the hotel, I could spot were issues right away. I think that this was a lighter mystery for the beach fans. I really enjoyed the pacing and the bit of suspense of what happened 20 years ago when a boy drowned in the pool and what happened in the current summer with the deaths and complaints being received. And the multiple POVs did not detract in any way from the story. A solid 5 stars!

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice

 

Five whole stars from me! Seriously, why haven't you started this series?

I love love love this series!!

Everything just flows together and just when you think that Fin and Vero are going to be found out, something swoops in and saves their asses. Things seem to come full circle in this book from the previous 3. I don't think that you need to read the first 3 t5o enjoy this one, but I don't know why you wouldn't want to read the first 3 because they are hilarious!

Fresh out of their stint at the Police training academy and the fire that ended the stay there, Fin and Vero are headed to Atlantic City with the kids, the ex-husband and Fin's mom for a girls weekend. 

I really have no idea where Cosimano comes up with her ideas, but I hope that the ideas don't stop because I love this series!!

Lessons in Chemistry

What a sometimes heartwarming and maddening novel all at the same time. All I can say is thank goodness I wasn't born in this age where I would have been stuck as a homemaker. 

I feel like I am very late to the party with finishing this book, but it was worth it. Elizabeth Zott is a scientist in the US in the 1950s and struggling with the misconception that women should be in the home and only in the home. What an incredible story that was told with plain speak matter of factness and not preachy at all. It simply and concisely explained the societal expectations surrounding men and women in the 1950s.

I will be watching the Apple+ series soon, but I am sure that it will not live up to the book as most movies and books based on best sellers do not. But I will watch just to see the live action Mad Zott. And six thirty, the dog.

Write more, Bonnie Garmus! Five stars!

A Smoking Bun

Also published in February, this was a nice cozy from a new to me author! Four stars!

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and St. Martin's Paperbacks for my honest review.*

Jules and Carlos are hosting Carlos' ex and her family for a few days at New Year's and Jules is excited to be spending time with the whole family and showing them Mount Ashford. they take a midnight snow shoe excursion that is interrupted by a rude party pushing past them. The next day, there is a Downhill Dummy event and everyone is having a grand time until someone is killed by a dummy. So Jules investigates the death that might be a murder or might just be an accident.

What a cast of characters! This was my first time reading Ellie Alexander and I was surprised to see it was the 18th book in the series. I have a lot of catching up to do!

I enjoyed the descriptions of the events and the mountain! And the employees of Torte - seems like there could be a lot of side stories there. Even from not reading the prior books in the series, I didn't feel like I missed anything and I enjoyed what character development there was with the family from Spain and all of the employees in the bakery. I felt like the pacing of the mystery and all of the other happenings in the town were spot on and the re-hashing of the mystery every few chapters was great to keep up on the details that were important.

I will be reading the series to catch up soon!

 

The Guest by B.A. Paris

Published February 20, 2024 and a 5 star review for me! A great twisty thriller.

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

Iris and Gabriel have just returned from holiday and found Laure has taken up residence in their bed. As shocking as this seems to the reader, it is explained that Laure is a long time family friend who has had access to their home in the past while they are on vacation as they have had access to Laure's and her husband Pierre's home in Paris. But wow! Laure has had news of Pierre's one night stand from years past that resulted in a child that she was unaware of. And Iris and Gabriel can't kick Laure out of their house while she is in crisis, right?

Laure seems to be very overbearing and low-key obnoxious with wearing Iris's clothes and rearranging the kitchen without asking among other things. I won't lie that as a reader it gets a little irritating how much Iris and Gabriel let Laure get away with. I feel like everything at the beginning of the story pays off quite well.

As mentioned above, the first part of the story drags a tad, but sets up the rest of the story. At the end, I couldn't put it down and couldn't read fast enough! Paris writes a great twisty story with surprises.

The Traitor

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine, and Bantam books for my honest review.*

I loved the first in this series so much and I was very excited to get the second to read! It did not disappoint at all!

Taking the energy of Alias Emma running through London in one evening and add to it "Below Deck" on a super yacht and you have a super thriller mystery! Emma is investigating a dead MI6 operative and has to train to be a replacement steward on the yacht to investigate. And still trying to solve who the mole is within her MI6 department.

I cannot say enough good things about this book and this series. It is smart and sassy and fresh and well written and fast paced. I don't think you have to have watched all 15+ seasons of all the Below Decks, but it definitely helped me understand what obstacles Emma was facing by going undercover.

I am definitely recommending this book and this series to friends! Five stars! I think this is a standalone novel, but it is so good that I don't know why you wouldn't read Alias Emma first! Seriously.... do it!!

The Expectant Detectives

 

This novel was published just last week and I finished it today. I give it 5 stars. It is not a cozy mystery and not a rom-com - some foul language used. I highly recommend!

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for my honest review.*

Alice and Joe are expecting a baby and decided to move from London to the Cotswolds to raise the baby in a smaller village. And it turns out that they have moved to a sleepy village with a "hippie, dippy" commune. They start prenatal classes and meet some other expectant families. At the second meeting, one of the other mothers ends up giving birth and a body is discovered at the nature store on the first floor of their meeting location.

This book was hysterical!! Helen is a riot! All of the main characters are fantastically different and totally believable and easy to root for in their "detectoring"! The pace was spot on and I can't wait for the next in the series. Very well done!!

Coconut Drop Dead

 

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for my honest review.*

Lyndsay Murray is still running her Spice Isle Bakery and trying to grow business and the Caribbean American Heritage Festival is looming. Luckily after the last installment, the bakery is going to be a vendor at the festival and get more business. And then there is a murder at the festival and Lyndsay is asked to help with the investigation.

I still enjoy the extended family and everyone being involved in the investigation. And the family is also starting to push Lyndsay towards the hot detective even though she is trying to stay focused on the bakery. One complaint was that everyone kissed their teeth. Everyone! Isn't there another phrase to show disdain or discord?

A great series so far! Four stars!