June 8th's Can't Wait Wednesday

It's the middle of the week, so that must mean it is time for Can't Wait Wednesday.

This week, I'm featuring Gone but Not Forgotten, the sixth Cat Cafe Mystery from Cate Conte.

Between all the cats and the island setting, I really enjoy this series.  Here's the official plot teaser.

In Gone but Not Furgotten, the sixth in Cate Conte's Cat Café beloved cozy mystery series, Daybreak Island has a killer on the loose…and this villain isn’t afraid to use their claws.

Maddie James has big plans for the summer season at JJ's House of Purrs. But when her friend, master meditator and Tai Chi teacher Cass Hendricks, brings a potential animal hoarding situation to her attention, Maddie has to refocus her attention on the furry felines who may need a helping paw.

Cass has brought his Zen teachings to Fisherman's Cove—a tiny, working class town on Daybreak Island—and one of his students, Laurel, has been on the receiving end more than one hissy fit from her neighbors, mostly because of her cats. When Maddie and Cass go to Laurel's to check out the situation, not only do they find a plethora of cats in need, but also a dead body. Laurel appears to have had an unfortunate accident falling down her stairs, but Maddie gets a sneaking suspicion that something more sinister might be behind her death. When she voices her concerns, she's horrified that it's Cass who falls under suspicion.

With Grandpa Leo's help, Maddie has to dig into the secrets this small community is keeping close to find out why Laurel really died before Cass is put behind bars . . . or the killer strikes again.

This book comes out on June 28th, so just about four weeks to go.  I have a pre-order for it, so I'll be getting it that week, hopefully.  Then, it's just a matter of making the time to actually read it.

June 1st's Can't Wait Wednesday

With the holiday this week, I almost missed that it was time for Can't Wait Wednesday.  But we are at what would normally be the middle of the week.

This week, I'm featuring Muddled Through by Barbara Ross.

This is the tenth book in her Maine Clambake Mysteries.  Here's the official plot description:

Mud season takes on a whole new meaning in the coastal town of Busman's Harbor, Maine, when local business owners sling dirt at one another in a heated feud over a proposed pedestrian mall. Vandalism is one thing, but murder means Julia Snowden of the Snowden Family Clambake steps in to clean up the case . . .

When Julia spots police cars in front of Lupine Design, she races over. Her sister Livvie works there as a potter. Livvie is unharmed but surrounded by smashed up pottery. The police find the owner Zoey Butterfield digging clay by a nearby bay, but she has no idea who would target her store. Zoey is a vocal advocate for turning four blocks of Main Street into a pedestrian mall on summer weekends. Other shop owners, including her next-door neighbor, are vehemently opposed. Could a small-town fight provoke such destruction? When a murder follows the break-in, it’s up to Julia to dig through the secrets and lies to uncover the truth . . .

This is one of my favorite series.  Between that and the surprising ending the previous book left us with, I'm very anxious to read this one and find out what happens to the characters next.  It's been a long wait between books.

The book will be published on June 28th.  I've got an ARC, so I'll be starting it in a couple of weeks.

May 25th's Can't Wait Wednesday

 It's Wednesday, so that must mean it is time for another Can't Wait Wednesday.

This week, I'm spotlighting The Drowning Sea by Sarah Stewart Taylor.

Isn't that another lovely cover?

This is the third book in the Maggie D'Arcy Mysteries.  Here's the official teaser.

In The Drowning Sea, Sarah Stewart Taylor returns to the critically acclaimed world of Maggie D’arcy with another atmospheric mystery so vivid readers will smell the salt in the air and hear the wind on the cliffs.

For the first time in her adult life, former Long Island homicide detective Maggie D’arcy is unemployed. No cases to focus on, no leads to investigate, just a whole summer on a remote West Cork peninsula with her teenage daughter Lilly and her boyfriend, Conor and his son. The plan is to prepare Lilly for a move to Ireland. But their calm vacation takes a dangerous turn when human remains wash up below the steep cliffs of Ross Head.

When construction worker Lukas Adamik disappeared months ago, everyone assumed he had gone home to Poland. Now that his body has been found, the guards, including Maggie's friends Roly Byrne and Katya Grzeskiewicz, seem to think he threw himself from the cliffs. But as Maggie gets to know the residents of the nearby village and learns about the history of the peninsula and its abandoned Anglo Irish manor house, once home to a famous Irish painter who died under mysterious circumstances, she starts to think there's something else going on. Something deadly. And when Lilly starts dating one of the dead man's friends, Maggie grows worried about her daughter being so close to another investigation and about what the investigation will uncover.

Old secrets, hidden relationships, crime, and village politics are woven throughout this small seaside community, and as the summer progresses, Maggie is pulled deeper into the web of lies, further from those she loves, and closer to the truth.

The first two books in the series were both good, so I'm expecting this to be another good book.  I also enjoyed the author's earlier series, so she's been a favorite for a while.

The book comes out on June 21st.  I have my ARC thanks to Netgalley, so I'll get starting this one soon to have my review ready to go on release day.

May 18th's Can't Wait Wednesday

Welcome to the middle of the week and another edition of Can't Wait Wednesday.  How can it be the middle of the week?  I have way too much work still to do!

Anyway, before I spiral into panic mode, let's take a deep breath and look at an upcoming book I can't wait to read - The Navigator's Daughter by Nancy Cole Silverman.

I've got to say, Level Best Books comes up with some great covers, don't they?  Here's the official plot teaser:

Getting caught in the middle of an international art theft ring wasn't supposed to be part of the deal Kat Lawson made with her dying father. But when her father receives a mysterious letter informing the former WW2 navigator/bombardier that his downed B-24 has been found and asking him to come to Hungary, Kat suspects this is all part of some senior rip-off scam. Her father insists she go, not only to photograph the final resting place of his plane but also to find the mother and son who risked their lives to rescue him and hid him in a cave beneath an old Roman fortress. Kat's trip uncovers not only the secrets of the cave where her father hid and of those who rescued him, but a secret that will forever change the direction of her life—that is—if she can get home safely.

This is the first in a new series, but I've read Nancy Cole Silverman's earlier books and enjoyed them, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one as well.

The book comes out June 7th, but I've got an ARC already.  I'm planning to review it June 9th.

May 11th's Can't Wait Wednesday

 We are midway through the week, so it must be time for Can't Wait Wednesday.  And we definitely have a book that I can't wait to read this week.

I'm featuring Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron.

Ellen is an award-winning author, and if you are familiar with her books, you know the awards are well deserved.  This is the first in a new series set in New Orleans.  Here's the official teaser:

Twenty-eight-year-old widow Ricki James leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet stunt. The Big Easy is where she was born and adopted by the NICU nurse who cared for her after Ricki’s teen mother disappeared from the hospital.

Ricki’s dream comes true when she joins the quirky staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the spectacular former Garden District home of late bon vivant Genevieve “Vee” Charbonnet, the city’s legendary restauranteur. Ricki is excited about turning her avocation – collecting vintage cookbooks – into a vocation by launching the museum’s gift shop, Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware. Then she discovers that a box of donated vintage cookbooks contains the body of a cantankerous Bon Vee employee who was fired after being exposed as a book thief.

The skills Ricki has developed ferreting out hidden vintage treasures come in handy for investigations. But both her business and Bon Vee could wind up as deadstock when Ricki’s past as curator of a billionaire’s first edition collection comes back to haunt her.

Will Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware be a success … or a recipe for disaster?

The book comes out June 7th, but I've got an eARC already and I will be reading it in the next couple of weeks.  I'm looking forward to meeting this new cast of characters and finding out what they get up to here.

Have a great rest of your week.

May 4th's Can't Wait Wednesday

 Given the date, I feel like I should be featuring a Star Wars book for this week's Can't Wait Wednesday.  But alas, I read mysteries, not Star Wars novels. (Well, I did read a few, but before I started reviewing, so no reviews on here.)  Looks like I'm rambling again.  Let's get to it, shall we?

This week, I'm featuring Death in the Aegean, the first Intrepid Traveler Mystery from M. A. Monnin.

Isn't that cover gorgeous all by itself?  I love it.  Here's the official teaser:

When private banker Stefanie Adams takes a much-needed vacation to the Greek isles, vowing to embrace opportunities as they come, instead of finding romance and adventure she is suspected of murdering a bride who accused her deceased father of artifact theft. Unfortunately, the newlywed’s accusation also ties Stefanie, a former archaeology student, to the robbery of a newly discovered Minoan statue, the golden Akrotiri Snake Goddess.

With two high-profile crimes to solve, Greek police are under pressure, and both crimes lead straight to Stefanie. To avoid Greek prison and maintain her career, Stefanie must identify which of her fellow travelers is the real killer.

Between the light-fingered backpacker with an eye on the bride’s jewelry, the travel blogger whose career the dead woman ruined, a flirtatious German tourist who is after more than romance, and the long-suffering bridegroom, Stefanie’s task won’t be easy. Everyone, it seems, had a motive for wanting to see the last of Emma Keller.

Stefanie’s investigation entangles her in a web of danger and intrigue, international crime and long-buried secrets. When she herself becomes a target, Stefanie doesn’t know who to trust. As charming Thomas Burkhardt warns, Where Greed Leads, Murder Follows...

The books comes out in a couple of weeks on May 19th.  I'll be buying the book, so don't know when I'll get a chance to read it.  But hopefully soon after I get it.

April 27th's Can't Wait Wednesday

It's Wednesday, and I'm back with another Can't Wait Wednesday.

This week, I'm featuring A Sprinkle in Time, the second Shake Shop Mystery from Dana Mentink.

I love ice cream, so what's not to love about a mystery series set in a shake shop?  Plus, it's set in Oregon, and I love finding cozies set on the west coast since so many focus on the east coast.

Here's the official description:

The second book in the Shake Shop Mysteries—a new murder in town has Trinidad Jones thrown for a scoop!

It's Alpenfest in Upper Sprocket! Yodelers are congregating in the square, tourists flocking to the town, and Trinidad Jones is scooping up some fall flavors at her Shimmy and Shake Shop.

The cherry on the sundae is her upcoming feature in The Scoop magazine. She's determined to serve up the perfect interview, but it won't be easy, thanks in part to her meddling Cuban grandfather Papa Luis who has decided to make Sprocket his home for the foreseeable future. Papa Luis has set himself up as a taxi driver in his classic 1951 Buick.

But things take a turn when Papa Luis tells her he's found a corpse in his trunk. Upon closer investigation, they realize the body has disappeared. With the assistance of Juliette and Bonnie (her sisterhood of exes) and the way too handsome nut farmer Quinn Logan, Trinidad must solve the mystery of the disappearing corpse, before her father is up to his neck in a murderous mess.

I enjoyed the first in the series when I read it last year.  Hopefully, this one will be good, too.  It comes out May 24th, so I don't have long to wait.

April 20th's Can't Wait Wednesday

Welcome to the middle of the week.  That must mean it is time for Can't Wait Wednesday.

This week, I'm highlighting Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry.

This is the first in a series from a new to me author.  Here's the official teaser:

Don't miss the first book in a brand-new gripping and hilarious bookish cozy mystery series by author Tamara Berry! Put your sleuthing hat on—Buried in a Good Book features: A thriller writer who knows way more than anyone should about death and dismemberment

Her young daughter who's more intrigued by dead bodies than she probably should be

An isolated cabin in the woods that's probably—definitely—hiding something

The tiny mountain town that seems less than troubled by a sudden abundance of murders

Bestselling thriller writer Tess Harrow is almost at the end of her rope when she arrives with her teenage daughter at her grandfather's rustic cabin in the woods. She hopes this will be a time for them to heal and bond after Tess's recent divorce, but they've barely made it through the door when an explosion shakes the cabin. Suddenly it's raining fish guts and...is that a human arm?

Tess was hardly convincing Gertie that a summer without Wi-Fi and running water would be an adventure. Now she's thrust into a murder investigation, neighbors are saying they've spotted Bigfoot in the woods near her cabin, and the local sheriff is the spitting image of her character Detective Gabriel Gonzales—something he's less than thrilled about. With so much more than her daughter's summer plans at stake, it's up to Tess to solve this case before anyone else gets hurt.

Doesn't that sound like fun?  Between the Oregon setting and all the craziness that it appears this book will have, I can't wait.

Release date is May 24th, and I already have my pre-order in.  Looking forward to seeing what happens to Tess.

April 13th's Can't Wait Wednesday

It's the middle of the week, so Can't Wait Wednesday.

This week, I'm highlighting The Shadow of Memory by Connie Berry.

This is the fourth book in an antiques themed cozy series set in England.  I tend to gravitate to American settings and I'm not super interested in antiques.  Yet, I found this series with the first book, and I've been hooked every sense.

Here's the official teaser:

In Connie Berry’s fourth Kate Hamilton mystery, American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton uncovers a dark secret buried in Victorian England.

As Kate Hamilton plans her upcoming wedding to Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, she is also assisting her colleague Ivor Tweedy with a project at the Netherfield Sanatorium, which is being converted into luxury townhouses. Kate and Ivor must appraise a fifteenth-century paintingand verify that its provenance is the Dutch master Jan Van Eyck. But when retired criminal inspector Will Parker is found dead, Kate learns that the halls of the sanatorium housed much more than priceless art.

Kate is surprised to learn that Will had been the first boyfriend of her friend Vivian Bunn, who hasn’t seen him in fifty-eight years. At a seaside holiday camp over sixty years ago, Will, Vivian, and three other teens broke into an abandoned house where a doctor and his wife had died under bizarre circumstances two years earlier. Now, when a second member of the childhood gang dies unexpectedly—and then a third—it becomes clear that the teens had discovered more in the house than they had realized.

Had Will returned to warn his old love? When Kate makes a shocking connection between a sixty-year-old murder and the long-buried secrets of the sanatorium, she suddenly understands that time is running out for Vivian—and anyone connected to her.

The book comes out May 10th, and I'll have a review that day thanks to an ARC I got a couple of months ago.  Really looking forward to diving in.

April 6th's Can't Wait Wednesday

 I'm back this Wednesday with another entry for Can't Wait Wednesday, the weekly event where we post about books we can't wait to read.

This week, I'm highlighting Strawberried Alive by Jenn McKinlay.

Since this is the fourteenth book in Jenn's popular Cupcake Bakery series, I'm not the only one who can't wait for it to come out.

Here's the official blub:

The crew from the Fairy Tale Cupcakes shop risks getting burned when they set out to find a murderer who is terrorizing their town

Life is smooth as buttercream at the Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery, and newlyweds Mel and Joe are stopping to smell the flours. But things start to crumble one night when an unknown gunman takes a shot at Mel. Though the bullets miss their mark, the cupcake crew goes on high alert to figure out who would want to kill a small-town baker, and why.

When more business owners are attacked, things turn fatal, and locals begin to wonder if the killer could be one of their own. Every shop owner in town starts to fear it’s only a matter of time before they too become victims of the mystery murderer. Despite the cupcake crew's superb baking skills, it will be anything but a piece of cake to catch the killer, as they try to prevent anyone else from being berried.

I really can't tell you how much I love this series and look forward to returning to visit the characters when each one comes out.  And yes, my love is very much about the characters.  Yes, the cupcakes always sound divine (and the recipes look scrumptious, although I have yet to try any of them).  The plots are fun, too.

The book comes out May 3rd, and I just snagged my ARC from Netgalley, so I am planning to review it on May 5th.

What are you looking forward to this week?

March 30th's Can't Wait Wednesday

Years ago, I participated in Waiting on Wednesday a few times, but it ended back in 2016.  As I've recently decided to jump into a few of these weekly blog events again, I was happy to find that someone else has kept the spirit of that old event alive.  Teressa at Wishful Endings now hosts Can't Wait Wednesday.  The idea is to share about a book that isn't out yet, but we already can't wait to read it.

This week, I am featuring Claws for Suspicion, the third Catskill Pet Rescue Mystery from Deborah Blake.

This series has charmed me from the first book, and I can't wait to see what trouble Kari finds along the way in this one.  Here's the official blurb.

When someone from her past comes to town to cause trouble, Kari Stuart and her sassy kitten Queenie will have to work hard to protect the Serenity Sanctuary in this new Catskills Pet Rescue Mystery.

Kari Stuart is finally starting to relax into her role as the new owner of the Serenity Sanctuary and is looking forward to the various fun autumn activities in the beautiful Catskills town of Lakeview, like the annual Oktoberfest celebration. It’s time for friends and quality bonding with handsome vet Angus McCoy. Until the unexpected arrival of her unpleasant ex-husband, Charlie Smith.

He comes bearing a shocking revelation—the paperwork on their divorce never went through, and they are still married. Worse yet, he thinks this entitles him to half of her lottery winnings—although he'll happily take partial ownership of the sanctuary instead. Kari isn’t sure if he’s telling the truth, or if it’s just another one of Charlie’s lies.

But things go from bad to worse when an unexpected death makes Kari the main suspect in a murder investigation. Will she and Queenie be able to find the real killer and keep the home they’ve built at the sanctuary safe, or is their string of luck finally tapped out?

Why do I have a feeling the ex is going to be the murder victim?  I know they didn't say it, but I'd actually be more surprised if he isn't.

The books comes out May 3rd.  Fortunately, I don't have that long to wait.