Pop Goes The Weasel

Pop Goes The Weasel
M.J. Arlidge













This book has your eyes popping from the very first pages! Really enjoyed this thriller!

Helen Grace is a detective with baggage. She has a dark side and some secrets. Now she has some grisly killings to figure out. Men are turning up murdered and gruesomely mutilated after meeting with a prostitute on a viscous killing streak. Tensions are running high in the quest to catch this killer before more men turn up dead.

Her relationship with her superior Cheri Harwood and her fellow detective Charlie Brooks is strained to say the least. Harwood is looking to add a star to her name with the solving of this case and she allows scrubby reporter Emilia Garanita access to the case that sets Helen off. Charlie's return after a long absence due to injuries brought about in the previous book has both she and Helen walking a tight rope.

The twists and turns lend a great suspenseful tempo to the book. I enjoyed the writing and the mystery was aces. Great read, I highly recommend!

3 1/2 Cannolis

The Murderer's Daughter

The Murderer's Daughter
by Jonathan Kellerman
netgalley review














Grace pulled me into her gripping story from the very start!

Grace Blades has been dealt a very raw deal from the beginning of her life. Born to the ultimate in stereotypical parents, trailer trash addicts, she has no real joy to speak of. Her time is passed trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible. You see, Grace is not just a little smart, this girl is HIGHLY intelligent. Sadly at the tender age of five she witnesses her mother kill her father then herself and becomes part of the system.

She manages to land in a foster home of a well off widower whose brother in law is a psychologist. He feeds Grace's hunger for knowledge and she continues to grow intelligence wise in leaps and bounds. When a tragedy takes place in the home after three odd children come into it, she is adopted by him and his wife.

Grace is nurtured and goes to all the best schools and colleges. She becomes a very successful psychologist herself. There's one thing, Grace has a penchant for sex with strangers and the adrenaline rush she gets from it. What ensues brings her past speeding to the present and puts her in grave danger.

I highly recommend this book. It's the first time I have read Kellerman and I absolutely enjoyed his writing style and the story itself!

4 cannolis

Name Of The Devil

Name Of The Devil
Andrew Mayne
Edelweiss review













This book had me sitting up straight within the first two pages! That is one awesome way to start a book!

Jessica Blackwood must find a killer who has left a trail of bodies from West Virginia clear across to Mexico. A church along with several of it's parishioners has exploded into nothingness, the town's sheriff acting as if possessed by some evil force seems to be the culprit. She has to employ some of her magician background to get to the bottom of this carnage that has ties all the way to the Vatican.

Along the way she has some unwanted (maybe) help from her obsessive stalker former boyfriend Damien who seemingly is in the right place at the right time to quietly and unseen save her hide.

A fast paced thriller with some really great characters. I like Jessica, she's a strong smart protagonist. I like how Mayne writes, my only complaint was the fizzle of bickering between Jessica and Vonda Mitchum, the lead investigator on the case. I'd have like to see that come to a conclusion. Not a bad thriller and if you didn't read the first in the series, it doesn't hurt in any way.

3 1/2 cannolis

Route 66 To The Milky Way

Route 66 To The Milky Way
by Janet Rendall
book received in exchange for fair review











What a good read this was. Science fiction isn't my usual genre and I found this interesting and a breeze to read. What a pleasant surprise.

Frank Ryder is an FBI agent who is on the case of alien tracking. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, two people's bodies have gone missing, a nurse named Polly Johnson, and an older gentleman with a fatal brain injury. The plant like aliens, May and Homer crashed during the bombing and have a small window of time to inhabit a body after it dies, before they die themselves. The only clue May has to return home is is the number 66.

The couple spend years on the mother road learning as much as they can about humans, trying to assimilate all the while desperate to go home. May reads Alice In Wonderland and takes literally the idea of falling down the rabbit hole to another dimension and thinks eating her way through will get them there. Homer on the other hand buys a Oldsmobile Rocket 88 to get them back.

As they continue on this journey Homer is becoming sicker and sicker. Frank is hot on their trail and after the Roswell disaster, he is not going to let them get away. Frank finds himself attracted to May/Polly and is having a tough time keeping the two separated. The story is circulated by the FBI that she's a Russian spy and the brand new CIA is buying it so she is in danger. The question is can Frank save her before either agency gets their hands on her?

I really enjoyed this story. What a nice writing style Janet has. Smooth and easy, you just turn the pages effortlessly. A wonderful surprise was finding my hometown of Redlands featured in it! If you find Route 66 intriguing, well this is just a great plus. Pick this book up and get ready for a ride!

4 cannolis

Broken Promise

Broken Promise
Linwood Barclay
Netgally review














This is a pretty good thriller. Fast paced, nice balance of likable to hated characters. Starts one two three and gets you.

David Harwood is a widower with a young son. He works at the Boston Globe, but finds his time is not being spent with his son so he decides to pack it in and go back home. Literally home, to his mother and father's house. He takes a job with the local paper only to have it fold the exact day he starts.Talk about bad luck.

His mother asks him to bring his cousin Marla some food she prepared. He gets quite the surprise when he finds his cousin caring for a baby that isn't hers. What a can of worms he just stumbled upon. Marla tells him an angel has given him to her, and when he calls his mother he finds out this isn't the first time she's gotten hold of a baby.

Other things are happening around town too. Squirrels are being strung up and hung on a fence, the college campus is trying to deal with a so far unsuccessful rapist, and the local amusement park has a cryptic message left on its ferris wheel.

The baby's mother has been brutally murdered and David is going to use his skills as a reporter to try and get to the bottom of it. Will it lead back to his cousin? Has something more sinister gone down here? Only time will tell if any of the strange goings on are connected and if David will survive it himself.

The only complaint I have was how many stories were going on. I don't want to give too much away, but we are obviously going to get another book. Still worth the read, I like Mr. Barclay's writing style.

3 1/2 cannolis

Crazy Mountain Kiss

Crazy Mountain Kiss
Keith McCafferty
received by publisher in exchange for fair review













This is a great read for those who love thrillers. I've not read this series before, and you don't need to for following. I find that a great plus when a series can function as stand alones as well.

When a cabin renter climbs to the roof to unclog a chimney, he finds a Santa's hat blocking it, thinking just removing it and some sticks stuffed in by a crow will solve the blockage issue. Never did he expect to find the body of missing teen rodeo star Cinderella Huntington's eyeless face staring up at him.

Sheriff Martha Ettinger and her crew arrive to remove the body and start an investigation into what happened to this much loved local celebrity. P.I. Sean Stranahan is hired by Cindy's mother Etta, who is quite the celebrity herself. Her husband and Cindy's step father, Jasper Fey is the epitome of cowboy, serving as a consultant to movies is hotheaded and a tough cookie. Cindy went missing along with sometime ranch hand and teen friend Landon Anker. Is he a suspect or victim of foul play? What starts to be uncovered is quite the crazy web of coincidence and town connections.

Was Cindy murdered? Was this just a horrid accident? Martha and Sean plow through leads that take them on an expedition of quirky characters. Not always a gasp filled adventure, there were times that I held my breath. My only gag issue was with Martha and the ME. Since she seems to enjoy romantic endeavors with co-workers, the ME seemed to think she might be up to a romp. That's all I'll say about it other than not necessary. The lead characters don't stir downright love, but it isn't a deterrent. I like Mr. McCafferty's writing style and recommend this book.

3 1/2 cannolis

Somebody I Used To Know

Somebody I used To Know
by, David Bell
received by publisher in exchange for review















This was a decent thriller for me. Right out of the gate it grabs you, which is a major plus. I love when the game is on right from the get go!

Nick Hansen lives a quiet life. He's a social worker, a rescuer of an aged dog, divorced, and trying to be a good step-dad to his ex's son Andrew. While at the grocery store,  he's knocked for a major loop when he sees a young girl who is the spitting image of his college girlfriend who died in a campus fire that claimed her and three other young lives.

When he attempts to speak to her and ask if she is related to the family in any way, she bolts like he's some crazed killer. Well, the next morning the police show up at his door thinking he may just be that! It seems this young girl was murdered in her motel room and of all the wacky coincidences, his name and number was in her possession.

What ensues is a  major hunt by Nick with the help of his friend Laurel. He starts digging into the past, what took place the night of that horrid fire and the days before it. Sometimes the truth is more bizarre then lies and for Nick, it might have been better to just leave well enough alone.

I enjoyed reading this book. It got a little slow at times, but not enough for me to give up on it. The ties throughout and the mystery right through to the end make for great thriller ingredients. Easy reading thanks to smooth writing, great character description, always a plus for me.

3 1/2 cannolis

The Truth and Other Lies

The Truth and Other Lies
by Sascha Arango
*received book in exchange for fair review














You know what I love? I love a book that makes me gasp! This book made me gasp out loud, and more than once. If you can do that for me when I'm reading, then I'm one happy girl.

Henry Hayden seems like quite the unremarkable person when you first meet him. Oh, rest assured, there's a lot more to this man than meets the eye. Henry met fell in sort of love with and married Martha. Martha is quite shy, quiet, almost invisible. She's also the reason he's such a successful author. Henry is a ladies man, and Martha stays in the shadows just looking the other way. That is until she gets a look at his editor.

His life starts crumbling when his editor/lover tells him she's pregnant. How in the world is he going to take care of this mess? Well, Henry is quite resourceful to say the least. Unfortunately he makes a life changing error that has the police breathing down his neck, and a past that is trying to break through to the present.

Pick this book up! I loved the mystery of it, I loved the unexpected twists, and while Henry is just unlikable, you can't look away to see what he'll do next. Enjoy!

4 cannolis

The Fixer

The Fixer
By Joseph Finder
book given by publisher in exchange for fair and unbiased review














Amazon Blurb -

When former investigative reporter Rick Hoffman loses his job, fiancée, and apartment, his only option is to move back into — and renovate — the home of his miserable youth, now empty and in decay since the stroke that put his father in a nursing home.

As Rick starts to pull apart the old house, he makes an electrifying discovery — millions of dollars hidden in the walls. It’s enough money to completely transform Rick’s life — and everything he thought he knew about his father.  Yet the more of his father’s hidden past that Rick brings to light, the more dangerous his present becomes. Soon, he finds himself on the run from deadly enemies desperate to keep the past buried, and only solving the mystery of his father — a man who has been unable to communicate, comprehend, or care for himself for almost 20 years — will save Rick... if he can survive long enough to do it.

*****

I found this book to be a great thriller. It struck the perfect balance of bad guys, characters that you just hate and wanting to see the good guy come out on top.

Rick Hoffman used to have it all, gorgeous girlfriend, fantastic job as a reporter, living a cushy envious life. Suddenly he loses everything and has to move back home in his empty dilapidated old  home of his youth. 

Realizing that the house is a mess and in need of major reno-ing, his neighbor who is also a contractor offers to take on the job. With his father in a home due to a stroke, Rick finds the house just a burden, he agrees and a discovery is made inside the walls, a few million dollars that could put Rick and his sister if he's inclined to share, on easy street.

Where did all this cash come from? What was his father, an attorney, really dealing in, and how can he hide this money not only from the tax-man, but from his neighbor Jeff who just might not be so neighborly anymore. 

Suddenly thrust in the middle of a dangerous game of cover up, Rick finds himself having to look if he's being followed. Some very powerful people will go to some severe ends to keep certain secrets just that.

If you love to wonder what's going to happen next, pick this book up for sure. Great page turner, you keep wondering just who's going to be at the root of this whole mess. Great read, Joe has an easy writing style that makes the pages just go.

4 cannolis

Let Me Die In His Footsteps

Let Me Die In His Footsteps
Lori Roy
Read by publisher request
in exchange for fair review













Amazon Blurb -

On a dark Kentucky night in 1952 exactly halfway between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, Annie Holleran crosses into forbidden territory. Everyone knows Hollerans don’t go near Baines, not since Joseph Carl was buried two decades before, but, armed with a silver-handled flashlight, Annie runs through her family’s lavender fields toward the well on the Baines’ place. At the stroke of midnight, she gazes into the water in search of her future. Not finding what she had hoped for, she turns from the well and when the body she sees there in the moonlight is discovered come morning, Annie will have much to explain and a past to account for.

It was 1936, and there were seven Baine boys. That year, Annie’s aunt, Juna Crowley, with her black eyes and her long blond hair, came of age. Before Juna, Joseph Carl had been the best of all the Baine brothers. But then he looked into Juna’s eyes and they made him do things that cost innocent people their lives. Sheriff Irlene Fulkerson saw justice served—or did she? 

As the lavender harvest approaches and she comes of age as Aunt Juna did in her own time, Annie’s dread mounts. Juna will come home now, to finish what she started. If Annie is to save herself, her family, and this small Kentucky town, she must prepare for Juna’s return, and the revelation of what really happened all those years ago.
*****

This was a good read.  I enjoyed the turns it took, a nice surprise in it, good characters throughout. It took you back and forth to past and present, but it doesn't get choppy or stilted.  A nice mystery to keep you wondering.

Annie Holleran has the "know-how" a tingling feeling of what's going to come. Just like her Aunt Juna who's gone away leaving a mess behind. She also has her Aunt Juna's black as coal eyes. It makes people scared of her, won't look at her head on. She's 15 1/2 now and it's her ascension, that time all girls look forward to, approaching womanhood and looking down the Fulkerson's well to see the face of their husband to be. All but Annie, she's feeling dread, the know-how is swelling in her, filling her with unease.

Sneaking out at midnight to the neighbors well, all alone so no one knows what she's doing she runs through her families lavender field to the Baine's  property. Her family doesn't get along with the Baines, the bad blood goes back to her mama and aunt's teen years. She's worried about being on their property but pushes past it and gets to the well. What she see's that dark night sets in motion things she never expected.

Annie is a sweet character. Lori Roy has crafted a great Southern mystery. You can smell the lavender floating in the air! There is one part that actually had me gasp out loud. Love when a book just catches me off guard. I definitely recommend this read.

4 cannolis

The Bullet

The Bullet by Mary Louise Kelly
 Netgally review















Amazon Blurb -

Two words: The bullet.

That’s all it takes to shatter her life.

Caroline Cashion is beautiful, intelligent, a professor of French literature. But in a split second, everything she’s known is proved to be a lie.

A single bullet, gracefully tapered at one end, is found lodged at the base of her skull. Caroline is stunned. It makes no sense: she has never been shot. She has no entry wound. No scar. Then, over the course of one awful evening, she learns the truth: that she was adopted when she was three years old, after her real parents were murdered. Caroline was there the night they were attacked. She was wounded too, a gunshot to the neck. Surgeons had stitched up the traumatized little girl, with the bullet still there, nestled deep among vital nerves and blood vessels.

That was thirty-four years ago.

Now, Caroline has to find the truth of her past. Why were her parents killed? Why is she still alive? She returns to her hometown where she meets a cop who lets slip that the bullet in her neck is the same bullet that killed her mother. Full-metal jacket, .38 Special. It hit Caroline’s mother and kept going, hurtling through the mother’s chest and into the child hiding behind her.

She is horrified—and in danger. When a gun is fired it leaves markings on the bullet. Tiny grooves, almost as unique as a fingerprint. The bullet in her neck could finger a murderer. A frantic race is set in motion: Can Caroline unravel the clues to her past, before the killer tracks her down?
*****

This was a great thriller! I totally enjoyed it right to the very last page! I never expected what was coming which makes a book all the better for me.


Caroline Cashion is an unassuming professor at Georgetown who adores her job. French Literature is her subject and she loves it and the fact that she gets paid to immerse herself in it. There's nothing better than getting paid for something that doesn't feel like work. She's been having pain in her wrist as of late, her doctor attributing carpal tunnel syndrome, sends her for x rays. The finding destroys everything she thought she was. Buried in her neck kissing her spine is a bullet.  How is it possible? Who did this? How did she not know?

The ensuing tumult turns her life upside down. Her parents and brothers are her adoptive family. Her true parents were killed in a home invasion gone bad, or was it something more sinister than that?

To find out Caroline journeys home to get to the bottom of it all and find out who she really is and just what happened that fateful day. Will it put her in the killer's sights after a case gone cold for 34 years? You'll just have to read and find out!

Awesome story, fantastic writing style. I highly recommend this book.

4 cannolis

The Winter Family

The Winter Family
Clifford Jackman
Book received by publisher
in exchange for unbiased review














Amazon Blurb -

 Spanning the better part of three decades, The Winter Family traverses America's harsh, untamed terrain, both serving and opposing the fierce advance of civilization. Among its twisted specimens, the Winter Family includes the psychopathic killer Quentin Ross, the mean and moronic Empire brothers, the impassive ex-slave Fred Johnson, and the dangerous child prodigy Lukas Shakespeare But at the malevolent center of this ultraviolent storm is their cold, hardened leader, Augustus Winter—a man with an almost pathological resistance to the rules of society and a preternatural gift for butchery. 
     From their service as political thugs in a brutal Chicago election to their work as bounty hunters in the deserts of Arizona, there's a hypnotic logic to Winter's grim borderland morality that plays out, time and again, in ruthless carnage.
     With its haunting, hard-edged style, The Winter Family is a feverishly paced meditation on human nature and the dark contradictions of progress.
*****

I was quite surprised that I enjoyed this book. In a million years I never would have picked it up at the book store nor library.Westerns are not my thing, but this one grabbed me.Graphic and blunt in its violence and mayhem, I found myself riveted to this crazy psychotic band of brothers as they travel from the south heading out west then back to Oklahoma.

Quentin Ross is one crazy son of a gun, a liar in the truest sense of the word, smart as a whip, almost poet like when he speaks at times yet a stone cold killer. A Union soldier, he's leading his men in Georgia as they tackle the end tasks of the Civil War, lying to his superiors at every turn. Here is where he connects with the Empire brothers, Jan Muller, freed slave Fred Johnson, Indian Bill Bread and Augustus Winter, the young and angry boy man who with his haunting amber colored eyes brings people to their knees. 

Winter becomes the leader of this family of killing misfits, takes this crew on a ride of murderous destruction. No one is spared and Winter is ruthless. Hired as mercenary type thugs, one has to wonder what would possess someone to even entertain doing any kind of business with this group. Those who do find out just what a mistake they have made, for there is no controlling Augustus, and there is nothing any of these men will stop at to protect themselves and each other.

What a ride this was, I found the twisted wickedness fascinating. Jackman writes with vibrant detail so that you feel you're right in the middle of the whole situation. If westerns coupled with stone cold killers are your thing, pick this book up!

3 1/2 Cannolis

Hey There Longmire Fans!!!

photo-Johnny Louis Photography

This is the latest book in the loved Longmire series by Craig Johnson. Have you started the series on Netflix? Which do you like better, reading a series first, or watching then checking the book out? The latest sounds like a ride of KING size proportions! 

Read on for all the info from book summary to tour dates -

When the largest, most complete T. rex skeleton ever found turns up—along with a dead rancher—in Absaroka County, Wyoming, Sherriff Walt Longmire must solve a sixty-six million year-old cold case that’s heating up fast. DRY BONES (Viking; $27.95; ISBN: 9780525426936; On-sale: May 12, 2015), by New York Timesbestselling author Craig Johnson, is the 13th in the mystery series which inspired the hit TV show Longmire, soon to be on Netflix for its upcoming fourth season.

Walt and Undersheriff Victoria Morretti don’t know what to make of it when they find Danny Lone Elk, a Cheyenne rancher, dead and floating in a turtle pond—until they learn that “Jen”, a T. rex skeleton named for the paleontologist who discovered her, has been unearthed on his land. Walt soon finds himself in the middle of an ownership dispute between the deceased man’s family, a local natural history museum, and the Cheyenne tribe, as well as a political charade involving Wyoming’s ambitious acting Deputy U.S. Attorney.

With the case growing more complex by the day, Walt is blindsided by a shocking tragedy that leaves his daughter heartbroken. Meanwhile, residents of Absaroka County are determined to “save Jen” from those who would claim her for the federal government and remove the dinosaur from her Wyoming home. It's up to Sheriff Longmire to get the bottom of Danny Lone Elk’s death, determine where rightful ownership lies, and, hopefully, win the dinosaur for Wyoming. Toxic Cheyenne artifacts, illegal prescription drugs, missing film footage and missing persons all come into play as Walt and Vic try their best to “save Jen.”

About the Author:

Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire mystery series. Johnson’s series is the basis for Longmire, the hit TV original drama that has been picked up by Netflix for its fourth season. He is the recipient of the Wyoming Historical Award for fiction, the Western Writers of America Spur Award for fiction, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for fiction, the Rocky Award from Left Coast Crime, the Nouvel Observateur Prix du Roman Noir, and thePrix 813. His novella, Spirit of Steamboat, was selected by the Wyoming Library Association as the One-Book-Wyoming, the inaugural state read. Find Craig’s events at www.craigallenjohnson.com (Tour of Duty tab). He lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population twenty-five (still).

Longmire was the highest-rated scripted program in A&E’s history and stars Robert Taylor (Matrix, Vertical Limit) as Sheriff Walt Longmire, Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba, Young Guns) as Henry Standing Bear and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, 24, Riddick) as Victoria Moretti. Longmire was developed by Shephard/Robin Productions for Warner Horizon. In fall 2015, all 10 new episodes of Longmire Season 4 will be available to stream on Netflix.

 Events for Craig Johnson’s DRY BONES Tour:

Tuesday, May 12, 12Noon      Tome on the Range                                         Las Vegas, NM

Tuesday, May 12, 6PM                        Collected Works                                              Santa Fe, NM

Wednesday, May 13, 7PM       Tattered Cover (Colfax)                                  Denver, CO

Thursday, May 14, 7PM          Old Firehouse Books/ Midtown Arts Ctr.      Fort Collins, CO

Friday, May 15, 5:30PM          Sunriver Books & Music/ SHARC Center      Sunriver, OR

Saturday, May 16, 2PM                       Powell’s (Cedar Hills Crossing)                       Portland, OR

Sunday, May 17, 2PM             Sunrise Mountain Library                                Phoenix, AZ

Monday, May 18, 12Noon       Clues Unlimited                                               Tucson, AZ

Monday, May 18, 7PM                        Poisoned Pen                                                   Phoenix, AZ

Tuesday, May 19, 7PM                        Book Passage (Corte Madera)                         San Francisco, CA

Wednesday, May 20, 7:30PM  Book Shop Santa Cruz                                    Santa Cruz, CA

Thursday, May 21, 7PM          Book People                                                    Austin, TX

Friday, May 22, 6:30PM          Murder by the Book                                        Houston, TX

Saturday, May 23, 3PM                       Barnes & Noble Lincoln Park                                     Dallas, TX

Sunday, May 24, 2PM             Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookstore                  Philadelphia, PA

Tuesday, May 26, 7PM                        Chester County Books                                     Philadelphia, PA

Wednesday, May 27, 7PM       Left Bank Books/ St. Louis County Library    St. Louis, MO

Thursday, May 28, 7PM          BookSmart/ Circle Cinema                             Tulsa, OK

Friday, May 29, 7PM               Books & Co.                                                    Dayton, OH

Saturday, May 30, 11AM         McIntyre’s Fine Books                                                Pittsboro, NC

Sunday, May 31, 3PM             Quail Ridge Bookstore                                                Raleigh, NC

Monday, June 1, 6PM              Watermark Books                                            Wichita, KS

Tuesday, June 2, 7PM             Once Upon a Crime                                        Minneapolis, MN

Wednesday, June 3, 7PM         Mystery to Me / Hotel Red                             Madison, WI

Friday, June 5, 7PM                 Anderson’s Bookshop                                     Chicago, IL

Sunday, June 7^th, Time TK      Printers Row Lit Festival                                 Chicago, IL

Monday, June 8^th, 7PM                        Barnes & Noble                                               Billings, MT

Events for Craig Johnson’s Outlaw Motorcycle Tour:

Sunday, June 14, 2PM             Red Lodge Book                                              Red Lodge MT

Sunday, June 14, 4PM             Red Lodge Library                                           Red Lodge MT

Monday, June 15, 12 PM         Elk River Book                                               Livingston, MT

Monday, June 15, 7PM                        Country Bookshelf                                          Bozeman MT

Tuesday, June 16, 7PM                       Fact & Fiction                                                 Missoula MT

Wednesday, June 17, 7PM       Polson Public Library                                      Polson MT

Thursday, June 18, 7PM          Auntie's Bookstore                                          Spokane WA

Saturday, June 20, 12 PM        Seattle Mystery Bookstore                               Seattle WA

Sunday, June 21, 4PM             Paulina Springs Books                                     Sisters, OR

Sunday, June 21, 6PM             Paulina Springs Books                                     Redmond OR

Monday, June 22, 12PM          Burns Public Library                                        Burns OR

Tuesday, June 23, 7PM                       Betty's Books                                                  Baker City OR

Wednesday, June 24, 7PM       Rediscovered Books                                        Boise ID

Thursday, June 25, 6PM          Haley Public Library                                        Haley ID

Friday, -June 26, 4PM             Dubois Public Library                                     Dubois WY

Saturday, June 27, Time TK    Mountain Spirit Habitat Groundbreaking        Cody WY

Aunt Dimity And The Summer King

Aunt Dimity and the Summer King
By Nancy Atherton
book received by publisher in exchange for fair review

Amazon Blurb - 
It’s June, the roses are in bloom, and the small English village of Finch may be in big trouble.  Two cottages are for sale, but something—or someone—is driving buyers away.  Has a developer targeted Finch?  Will property values skyrocket?  Will a wave of wealthy weekenders drive out the longtime locals?

Lori Shepherd has a lot on her plate—a brand-new baby daughter, her father-in-law’s impending nuptials, and a visit from her dreaded aunts-in-law—but she refuses to stand back and watch while big money destroys her beloved village.  Lori suspects that a local real estate agent is illicitly lining her pockets at Finch’s expense, but before she can prove it, she’s sidetracked by a chance encounter with eccentric inventor Arthur Hargreaves, dubbed the Summer King by his quirky family, is as warmhearted as the summer sun.  In his presence, Lori forgets her troubles—and Finch’s.

Lori snaps out of her happy trance when a series of unsettling discoveries shakes her faith in Arthur Hargreaves.  She stumbles across a detailed map of Finch in Hillfont Abbey.  An ancient feud between Finch and the Hargreaves family comes to light.  Arthur appears to be making secret deals with the shady realtor.  Is the Summer King as kind as he seems?

With Aunt Dimity’s otherworldly help—and her new baby girl in her arms—Lori mounts a crusade to save her village from the Summer King’s scorching greed.
*****

I just loved this wonderful cozy! This was my very first cozy and what a great way to start one. Aunt Dimity And The Summer King was delightful. Each character was so vibrant it was as if they were standing in front of me. What a lovely writing style Nancy has, smooth and descriptive without being tedious. As someone who really enjoys psychotic thrillers, this book surprised me and has me wanting more.

Lori Shepherd has been very busy. Her new baby girl, young twin boys, her father in law is getting married and his snotty wicked sisters are coming from America. Add empty cottages in her beloved town to her list of worries and she starts digging into the mystery as to why no one wants to move to her sweet Finch. A bit of snooping uncovers an ancient feud between Finch and the neighboring town of Tillcoate that all have been privy to but her. In the middle of this mix is the mysterious Arthur Hargreaves Lord of Hillfont Abbey who just may have a hand in keeping buyers away. Lori is on the case with some solid adivice from the beyond in her departed Aunt Dimity.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book! If you need a break from hard core thrillers, love quirky funny characters, and a bit of mystery do read Aunt Dimity And The Summer King!  

4 cannolis

Luckiest Girl Alive

Luckiest Girl Alive, Jessica Knoll

Amazon Blurb - 

HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE.

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?

*****

*Fair and unbiased review given in exchange for ARC*

This book was great. It kept me going to the last page! Ani is a bold brash, ballsy, girl!

Ani (pronounced AHni) FaNelli has it all. Beautiful, awesome job at a great magazine, a handsome filthy rich fiance, lives in Tribeca, what more can a girl want right? Well, there's a storm brewing underneath Ani's well constructed facade. It's bubbling right there at the surface and it's taking all of her inner fortitude to keep it from not exploding. How bad? The first pages has her imagining sliding the kitchen knife she's deciding on (Wustof or Shun)  right into her fiance. Oh, she likes the Shun by the way.

And so we're introduced to a character that is complex to the nth degree. Every single aspect of her life is thought out, crafted, from what clothes she wears, the food she puts in her body, to the words she uses to speak to others. Oh yes friends, "Nice to meet you.", vs "Nice to see you.", can show your hand as to your real background in a flash.

Why? Who is Ani Fanelli and what has made her this way? Born TifAni FaNelli in a Philly suburb to a dad who she has no interaction with and a mother who is obsessed with labels, luxury cars and dreams of living in the high falootin Main Line. A silly indescretion as a 14 year old kid gets her taken out of her Catholic school and put into this "hoity toity" private school where she'll be hob knobbing with all the goober smoochers and where her life takes a drastic turn that will alter her forever.

Wow, this book takes you on a ride! It was absolutely exhausting trying to keep up with Ani. Every single aspect of her life was so planned I don't know how she could keep up with it. You feel for her and what she went through as a kid. You struggle with not hating her as an adult, she is razor sharp and will slice right through you, yet she is quite vulnerable under that sculpted exterior. Jessica has crafted quite the tale, her writing keeps you going, never getting tedious. You keep waiting for what's coming anticipating it with each page turned, get ready friends, climb aboard and enjoy the thrill that is the Luckiest Girl Alive.

4 cannolis