This Week's Winner

We have another winner to announce, don't we.  So let's get to it.  The winner of Truffled to Death is...

...Donna!

I'm off to send you an e-mail, so please be sure to check your inbox.

Thanks to everyone who entered.

Book Review: Snow White Red-Handed by Maia Chance (Fairy Tale Fatal #1)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great characters in fast paced and fun plot

Cons: Ending a bit rushed

The Bottom Line:

Dwarf cottage in woods

And death by poison apple

Magical debut

Once Upon a Time, a Great New Cozy Series Began

If you have spent any time on my blog, you’ve noticed I love fairytales.  I recap Once Upon a Time, and I’ve read several twists on fairytales aimed at Middle Schoolers.  And there’s my whole love of Disney, which is built on fairytales.  That’s why, when I heard about Snow White Red-Handed. I knew I would have to read it.  A fairytale cozy mystery series?  Sign me up!  I wasn’t quite sure how it would work out, but I had to give it a try.  Now that I have, I only wish I’d read it sooner.

Ophelia Flax and Prudence Bright have found themselves fired from their job as actresses half way across the Atlantic heading to England in 1867.  Acting quickly, Ophelia gets herself a job as the new lady’s maid to Pearl Coop, the new wife of American millionaire Homer T. Coop.  Prue is also hired as the new scullery maid.  Their new job takes them to a castle in Germany’s Black Forest.

Within two weeks of their arrival, a cottage is discovered on their property that some claim belongs to the dwarfs of Snow White fame.  At Pearl’s insistence, renowned fairytale scholars Winkler and Gabriel are brought in to investigate the site.  Things take a shocking turn when Homer is murdered the next afternoon after taking a bite of a poisoned apple.  What have Ophelia and Prue gotten themselves into?

The book is told from the limited third person points of view of Ophelia, Prue, and Gabriel.  I wasn’t expecting that, and it threw me a little at first, but I quickly got into the flow of the story and was hooked in no time.

While there is some set up to the story, it is actually handled very quickly, and by the second chapter, we are investigating the potential dwarf’s cottage.  The pace never lets up, and the story is filled with great twists and surprises along the way.  I never wanted to put the book down, and the further along I went, the harder it was to do so.  I did feel the climax was a bit rushed, but everything was logically explained.

Likewise, the characters were wonderful.  Obviously, we get to know Prue, Ophelia, and Gabriel pretty well since we are seeing the story through their eyes.  The rest of the cast is just as good.  I’m hoping that the author finds a way to bring a few of them back in future books even though it looks like the action will be taking place in a different settings.

While the multiple person point of view isn’t something I normally find in the books I read, I do actually like the technique.  It was used perfectly to tell us the story, and the switches were always obvious, so I never had a hard time following things.

The fairytale aspect was worked in perfectly.  Not only does it drive the plot, but there are references to other tales worked into the narration.  I also liked it because it added something different to the book.  While definitely still a cozy mystery, it creates a plot that is different from the standard formula, which I loved.

So you’ll want to be caught reading Snow White Red-Handed.  This is a fun debut that promises many more magical mysteries ahead.

Enjoy more magical mysteries with the rest of the Fairy Tale Fatal series.

Book Review: The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder by Kathryn Kenny (Trixie Belden #30)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Good characters, old and new, and a fun mystery

Cons: Molinson suspecting Mart doesn’t ring true for me.

The Bottom Line:

Vandal hits the school

Trixie must clear her brother

Some flaws but still fun

Mart the Midnight Marauder?

I’ve got to admit, the title of this book introduced me to a new word.  Even though I was a teen the first time I read The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder, I don’t think I’d ever heard the word before.  It’s just not a word used in common speech.  I have, of course, heard it used in historical contexts.  So even though I sat down that first time not knowing what exactly would be happening, I quite enjoyed the book.  That hasn’t changed on my latest reread.

And yes, here comes my standard Trixie Belden introduction post.  If you know this, feel free to skip to the next paragraph.  But if you are new to Trixie, this was a series for kids like the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew.  Trixie and her two older brothers and their friends in the area just outside of Sleeyside, New York, formed a club, the Bob-Whites of the Glen, to help each other and those in need.  Along the way, fourteen-year-old Trixie kept stumbling upon mysteries that she proved to be quite good as solving.

When Trixie wakes up that Saturday morning in March, she is only worried about Reddy, the Belden family dog.  He’s missing, and she feels like it is something more than him off chasing rabbits.  But then her brother Mart starts acting funny.  And when she and the Bob-Whites arrive at school to help with some cleanup, they find it’s been attacked by someone calling himself the Midnight Marauder.

The biggest shock comes when Trixie learns that Mart is Sergeant Molinson’s prime suspect.  With the town quickly turning against teens in general because of this and other vandalism in town, Trixie’s going to have to act fact to clear her brother and find the real culprit.  But who might it be?

The thing that drew me to this series about the time I was growing tired of the Hardys and Nancy was the very real characters.  Trixie had flaws as well as strengths and she jumped to wrong conclusions on her way to solving the mystery at hand.  The same is true of the rest of the rather large cast of regular characters.  While the best of the character development took place in the earliest books in the series, this book gets the characters right and their strengths and weaknesses are on great display here.  And that includes Di and Dan, two Bob-Whites who sometimes are sidelined for entire books.  They aren’t in every scene, but they are involved quite heavily.  Because of the large cast of regular characters, you might be a bit lost if you jumped in here, but if you back up to the beginning of the series, you’ll quickly get filled in on everyone.  The new characters aren’t quite as well developed, but you can see the potential in some of them to be great characters if they had shown up again later in the series.  And they are certainly memorable

The mystery?  It’s a little obvious despite the writer’s attempts to hide the clues, although I don’t think I guessed it as a kid.  Still, rereading it knowing the solution, it is fun to see how the author planted what we needed to know so we could reach a satisfying conclusion.

The one thing that bothers me about this book is Sergeant Molinson.  Now, as a character, he’s usually gruff with Trixie and her friends since they are sticking their nose into police business and getting in serious trouble as a result.  However, this is book thirty in the series and roughly the thirteenth time Trixie’s caught a villain in their town.  Would Molinson really suspect Mart of being the marauder?  I find that extremely hard to swallow and I always have.  Yes, it’s supposed to give Trixie a motive to investigate and a get us invested further in the story.  But really?  Heck, there was one book where Molinson asked Trixie and her friends for help.  That doesn’t sound like someone who would turn around and think Mart was vandalizing the school and their favorite hangout.

Okay, rant over.

Because, despite that flaw, I absolutely love this book.  When this series is at its best, it provides fun moments and good mysteries, and that’s what we get in The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder.

Missed Trixie?  Here's a list of the Trixie Belden Mysteries in order.

This review is part of this week's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday.

June 13th's Weekly TV Thoughts

Girl Meets World (6/5) – Based on the title of the episode, I thought Auggie would be telling stuff, but I loved the real tell-tale-tot.  Once again a delightfully funny yet touching episode that was so much fun to watch.  Really, this show needs to come to DVD.

America Ninja Warrior – Yes, I was rooting for Kacy, so it was hard to see her go out.  But, as she said, it wasn’t something stupid, and she gave it her all.  And there were some great runs tonight.  Plus, it looks like we found an obstacle tougher than something they gave us in Venice, so I have to take back my comment from last week.

Royal Pains – Why am I so surprised that Evan and Paige are going to have trouble having a baby?  It would have been nice to skip that.  I knew where Divya’s story was going to go, although I was happy with how quickly she got out of prison.  And it was Jeremiah who got her out, too!

Melissa & Joey – Not a huge fan of the tattoo plot, but I loved the sub-plot.  That “actress” did such a great character change.  Plus I’m still rooting for Zander.  I love his character.

Baby Daddy – It was going along okay until that final scene.  It was a bit over the top for me, and I do like farce.  Maybe you had to see it in person to fully get it.

Girl Meets World (6/12) – I was so glad to see the janitor again since this time I knew who he was (hadn’t watched the earlier seasons of Boy Meets World when he was on before).  Overall, not one of their stronger episodes.  It had some fun moments, but fairly predictable overall.

An Interview with...Me!

Just a quick post to let you know about an interview conducted with me over at Daniellaark.com.  I hope you'll take a few minutes to go over and read it.  There are some fun questions included.

Movie Review: Jurassic World

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Action, thrills, effects, acting

Cons: A few predictable plot points, thin characters

The Bottom Line:

Monsters run amok

Some flaws, but still mostly fun

Mindless thrills for us

“I Will Not Turn this Island into a War Zone.”  “You Already Have.”

After 2001’s Jurassic Park III, I thought the franchise was really and truly dead.  After all, it’s been 14 years since that film came out, and it wasn’t all that great.  But if there is money to be made, they will find a way, and they came back with Jurassic World this year.  It doesn’t really break any new ground, but that doesn’t matter.  Why?  Because it’s a lot of fun.

Brothers Gray and Zach (Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson) are being shipped off to spend part of their Christmas vacation with their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard).  She runs Jurassic World, the theme park that has been built over the bones of the original Jurassic Park.  Gray loves dinosaurs and is thrilled at the idea, but his older brother Zach isn’t really that interested.  When the brothers arrive, they quickly get passed off to others since there is much Claire needs to take care of, including the new Indominus Rex and the enclosure that needs to be finished so its exhibit can open in a few short weeks.

Meanwhile, there’s Owen (Chris Pratt) and his work training the Velociraptors and Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) who thinks these trained beasts will make the ultimate weapon.  Owen keeps warning that the Raptors are completely unpredictable and should not be let outside the cages, but Hoskins won’t listen.

When the unthinkable happens (as you know it will), chaos ensues with Gray and Zach in the worst possible location.  Will they be okay?  On an island full of tourists, will anyone survive?

Let’s be upfront and honest – this is a monster movie.  It may be cool with dinosaurs and wonderful special effects, but it’s really just a monster movie.  But as such, it succeeds beautifully.

The beginning of the film is great at introducing the characters and the new dinosaurs and advances in the Velociraptors.  No, the Raptors aren’t talking like I jokingly predicted after the last film.  In fact, the advances felt like they flowed well from what came before without being unbelievable.  Okay, okay, too unbelievable.  Mainly, it has to do with Owen’s training.  Does it fit with the first film?  Not really, but it’s interesting.

But when the dinosaurs start running amok, the party really gets going.  There are plenty of tense moments that will keep your eyes glued to the screen.  No, I didn’t jump, and the jump moments are kept to a minimum.  But there are still plenty of great thrills to be had as the characters try to survive the carnage happening around them.

Okay, so some of the plot points were a little predictable.  I called parts of the film before it happened.  But you know what?  I didn’t care.  I was having so much fun, it didn’t really matter.  And, the fact that it has been so long since the last one came out makes it feel fresher even though, at its heart, this is a monster movie.  There are only so many ways these films can happen, right?

Likewise, the characters are just developed enough to make us care about the outcome of the film.  I found some of that development predictable, but again, I didn’t care.  They worked for the film, and that’s all that matters.

The acting across the board is great.  The actors do a great job of making us care about their thin characters.  Considering how much of the film they are acting against effects that aren’t there, their acting is even more impressive.  I bought their terror.

Special effects?  There was one shot early on I didn’t quite buy, but for the rest of it, I was fully on board.  And for a film and franchise that is built on special effects, that’s important.

Yes, there are flaws, and it would be easy to sit here and pick them apart.  Yet, Jurassic World is fun, and that’s what it wants to be.  This is a mindless summer film.  Sit back and enjoy and you will have a wonderful time.

June 12th's Book Beginnings and Friday 56

We've made it to Friday.  As our reward, it's time for Book Beginnings and Friday 56.

This week, I'm featuring a book I actually finished up on Wednesday, Snow White Red-Handed by Maia Chance.  This is the first in the Fairy Tale Fatal Mysteries.

My review will be up next week, most likely on Tuesday, but here's a spoiler for you - I LOVED IT!  Can't wait for the sequel in September.

Shall we get to the quotes?  Here's how it begins:

Miss Ophelia Flax was neither a professional confidence trickster nor a lady's maid, but she'd played both on the stage.  In desperate circumstances like these, that would have to do.

Since page 56 is the start of a new chapter and setting the scene for the action about to take place, I'm going to take the last couple of lines from page 55 instead.

She seesawed the case back between two antique iron-girded trunks.
There.  She brushed off her hands.  Inspector Schubert would never, ever find it.

That's it for this week.  Have a wonderful weekend.

UPDATE:  On a completely different topic, I was interviewed today over at Daniellaark.  I hope you'll stop by and read it.

Book Review: Farmed and Dangerous by Edith Maxwell (now published under her Maddie Day pen name) (Local Foods Mystery #3)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Engrossing mystery with great characters

Cons: A little slow to start, but worth it

The Bottom Line:

The mystery grows

Into book you can’t put down

Harvest it today

Farming, and Murder, Don’t Slow Down in Winter

I’m a city boy, and I freely admit it.  As a result, I think of winter as a down time for farming when nothing happens and farmers just eat the fruits and vegetables of their labors.  That’s not the case for Cameron Flaherty in Farmed and Dangerous.  Not only is she trying to grow some crops, but she finds herself involved in her third murder in less than a year.

Cam is hoping to get a contract to supply vegetables to Moran Manor, the local assisted living facility where her great-uncle now lives.  Even though it is the off season, she is providing vegetables and some recipes as a trial this January.  If everything goes well, she will be able to provide more on a regular basis once the real growing season begins.

However, the night her produce is served, the unthinkable happens – one of the residents dies.  Worse yet, it is Bev Montgomery, who Cam has had several run ins with since taking over her great-uncle’s farn a year ago.  When the whispers begin that Cam poisoned Bev, it interrupts her budding romance with detective Pete Pappas.  In an attempt to clear her name and salvage her relationship, Cam begins to dig into the mystery.  Can she clear her reputation?

The first 50 pages or so start a little slowly.  Part of the time is used to set up suspects and ease us back into the characters we already know and love, but part of it is spent talking about what Cam is currently growing in her Hoop House and starting up in the barn and how she’s growing stuff in the middle of winter.  While I certainly expected some of that, it could have been mixed into the mystery better.  It felt like the time after you’ve planted seeds but before you actually see anything sprouting.

However, once the murder happens, things really do pick up and I was instantly hooked on the story.  From there forward, the time that Cam was spending on the work of the farm she also spent thinking about the clues and events and trying to piece together a solution.  And, of course, she spends lots of time out searching for clues and talking to suspects.  I got so caught up in the story that I had a hard time putting the book down and read just under half of it on a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon.

The characters in this series are great, and they continue to grow here.  I was thrilled with the developments in Cam’s love life.  She still struggles with her tendency toward being an introvert, but I like that character trait because it’s something different in the series I read.  The new characters introduced here are just as real as the ones we’ve gotten to know over several books.

Author Edith Maxwell is part of the Wicked Cozy group blog.  Fans of the blog will enjoy a couple of cameos by characters from her blog mate’s series.

While our weather has been a little cooler than normal in Southern California for early June, this book is set in January in Massachusetts – the middle of winter.  I found myself shivering a few times as I read the descriptions of winter weather.  Okay, so it doesn’t take much to make me cold (I am a Southern California wimp), but I still think the descriptions were great without slowing the story down.

And yes, there are recipes – three to be exact.  If you don’t normally tend to read the recipes in the back of culinary mysteries, you’ll want to make an exception here since there is a good laugh hidden in one of them.

Despite the slow start, Farmed and Dangerous grew into a fun read that I completely enjoyed.  If you take the time to dig into this book, you’ll be richly rewarded.

Be sure to read the rest of the Local Foods Mysteries in order.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

And the winner is....

The problem with scheduling a giveaway for the time when you are busiest is you forget to pick a winner.  But I've just looked over the entries, and, with the help of random.org, selected a winner from the 15 entries.  And that winner is...

Shelley S!

Check your e-mail.  I'll be sending you one momentarily so I can connect you with your prize.

And if you haven't entered yet, there's still time to enter the Truffled to Death giveaway.

Ornament Review: The Grinch in Disguise - 2014 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great Grinchy moment

Cons: Tips forward when hung

The Bottom Line:

Creating disguise

Leaping from a classic book

Can’t go wrong with this

No Disguising This Fun Ornament

Hallmark loves ornaments based on Dr. Seuss’s Grinch and loves ornaments made to look like Dr. Seuss books.  Naturally, they combine these two quite regularly, like in 2014’s The Grinch in Disguise.  The result is almost always charming, and this ornament is no exception.

As you might guess from the title, this ornament features the Grinch putting the finishing touches on his Santa Claus costume before slinking down to Who Village to steal Christmas.  He’s actually standing outside the book putting the hat on his head.  He’s facing us, but the mirror illustration on the left hand side is directly from the book.  The two don’t quite match up, but it’s a very fun touch.  On the right hand page are a few lines of the text which caption the picture.  And around the back of the ornament?  It’s the cover of the book naturally.

Being a reader, these ornaments always appeal to me.  Essentially, they’ve taken a picture from the book and made it 3D.  It certainly helps that this was a favorite book as a kid.  The end result is just so cute and perfect, how can you not want to hang it on your tree?

Yes, there is a loop at the top of the book, so you can do just that.  He actually tips forward a little, but if you hang him up higher on your tree, that will just allow you to enjoy the detail better.

But, unlike a real book, you can set this out on any flat surface.  The platform the Grinch is standing on in front of the book adds just enough stability to keep the ornament from tipping over.

The Grinch and Seuss books are both unofficial series from Hallmark.  This means they tend to do one (or more) every year, but they don’t number them.  Still, I always enjoy seeing what their offerings for the year are.

If you have fond members of this story, you’ll be glad you tracked down The Grinch in Disguise.  It’s a fun ornament sure to bring out warm memories.

Original Price: $14.95