Yes, I'm a little late this month. I wanted to wait until after the holiday weekend here in the states. But here's my monthly reading summary for September.
No, I didn't get
the index updated this month. I was having too much fun hanging out with my family this weekend.
All ratings are on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (great).
It’s opening day for Maddie James’ new cat café on Daybreak
Island. However, the day has hardly
started when Adele, one of her volunteers, gets into a shouting match with
socialite Holly over one of the cats.
When Holly turns up dead, naturally Adele becomes a suspect. Maddie is sure the police are missing
something. Can she figure out what it
is?
I love the setting of this series. Daybreak Island is a place I’d love to visit
– between the murders, of course. The
mystery gets a bit sidetracked early on here due to some strong sub-plots, but
I was enjoying those sub-plots as well, and things get back on track before too
long with a surprising ending. The
suspects are all strong, but it’s the main characters who made me excited to
return to this series. They are all
fantastic, and spending time with them was as enjoyable as spending time in the
setting.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
The book features Danny, a young boy whose day in the museum
gets much better when he meets a real Dinosaur.
The two spend the day together, heading downtown, to the zoo, and
finally spending some time playing with Danny’s neighborhood friends.
I remember enjoying this book as a kid, and it holds up well
today. While there is really nothing in
the way of plot, the pictures and words, sometimes more captions to the
pictures than anything else, tell of a delightful day together for these two
new friends. The pictures are a bit
dated since the book came out in the 1950’s, but I doubt kids notice or
care. Instead, they’ll be caught up in
the fun of spending a day with a dinosaur, smiling and laughing at some of the
situations along the way.
Key West is hosting a conference with some leading
dignitaries from Cuba, and Hayley Snow’s mom has landed the plumb catering gig,
with Hayley among those helping out. The
conference is being greeted with protests, and tensions are high. They only get worse when an artifact on loan
from Cuba, is stolen. Then a man helping
Hayley’s mom is murdered. Are the two
events connected?
I have missed this series, and it was so fantastic to be
back. This book has now added two more
must visit locations on my bucket list trip to Key West, Harry Truman’s Little
White House and Hemingway’s house. The
politics of the US Cuban relationship is front and center and handled in a mostly
even-handed manner. The politics and the
drama around the conference to tend to overshadow the mystery at times,
especially in the first half. Things do
build to a great climax, however. And it
was great to see Hayley and her friends again.
Fans will be interested to see the latest in Hayley’s complicated love
life, and we get to see plenty of Miss Gloria.
This truly was a fun visit.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
It’s awards season in Hollywood and actress turned PI Day
Anderson is celebrating when her boyfriend, Omari, is nomination for the Silver
Sphere Award. However, after one of the
parties he has to attend to mingle with the judges, Lily Davis is
murdered. Lily was a publicist for the
Silver Sphere Awards, and they have offered a reward for information leading to
the arrest of her killer, so naturally Day jumps in to solve the case. This one seems much easier than her first
murder case. Is she missing something?
Of course, she is, and the book soon involves plenty of
complications that kept me reading as fast as I could. There are some fun twists before we reach the
climax. Day and all her friends are
back, and I loved spending more time with them and seeing how their
relationships have changed. I also
really enjoy the insider’s look at life in the Hollywood world. Everything is brought together by humor that
had me laughing and smiling the entire way through the book. Those who loved the first book will be equally
delighted with this one. And if you
haven’t started this series yet, you need to do so today.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
This book introduces us to Sebastian Rudd, a lawyer who
handles the clients no one else wants to take on. We’re talking about an older teen accused of
a horrible crime and convicted by the people of his town. Or a mobster on death row. With enemies from the ranks of the police and
the clients he hasn’t been able to get off, can Sebastian navigate his life?
The book is really more of a character study with several
cases taking the foreground at various points.
It reads like these stories were originally published separately and
brought together for this book, although I haven’t researched to know if that
is true or not. The ending definitely
leaves things open for more books. My
issue is that I had a hard time liking many of the characters and found myself actively
rooting for Sebastian to lose some of his cases. The fact that all the cops were over the top
corrupt didn’t help any at all. Plus
Sebastian came across as a knock off of Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller
character, and that certainly didn’t help matters at all since I love Mickey.
Lena London and Camilla Graham have just returned from their
first joint book tour when Lena gets a call from her friend Allison. Allison has found a dead body on the edge of
her property. Lena goes over to be with
Allison only to recognize the letter opener sticking out of the victim as one
she gave her boyfriend Sam. Who is
trying to frame him for murder now?
After the second book in the series, I was anxious to see
what would happen to these characters next and how the cliffhanger would be
resolved. I’m thrilled to say I was very
satisfied with how things developed here, and I am confident that fans of the
series will be as well. If you aren’t
familiar with the series, it borrows heavily from Gothic stories, so this isn’t
a typical cozy plot, but that doesn’t make for a bad story in the
slightest. The pages turned all too
quickly. I was annoyed by some timeline
issues early on, but those were minor overall.
Lena is a strong heroine, and the rest of the cast are charming and
eccentric. If you haven’t started this
series yet, I recommend it; I just don’t recommend you start here. You really need the previous two books to
fully appreciate what happens here.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
Lady Georgianna, Georgie to her friends, is finally planning
her wedding to Darcy O’Mara. However,
before they get married, they need to figure out where they are going to
live. The answer comes from an unlikely
place, and soon Georgie is out to the country to get their new home ready for
them. She isn’t surprised when she
arrives to find the house is running on a minimal staff, but the staff that is
there is extremely surprising. Something
is definitely up, but can Georgie figure out what is going on? Will she finally get married?
As is typical for the series, the book started off a little
slowly for me, giving us updates on the various people in Georgie’s life and
talking about the wedding plans. There
was also a recycled sub-plot in this section that annoyed me. However, once the action moves to Georgie’s
potential new house, things really picked up.
I was intrigued by what she was facing and couldn’t wait to see how it
all was resolved. There is some great
character growth for Georgie and another series regular here; overall, the cast
is great like always. I was very
satisfied with how this book ended.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
When the body of Lionel Byrd is found in his rental house,
the police also find a photo album with pictures of murder victims. One of those victims was someone that Lionel
had been arrested for killing three years ago, and Elvis Cole was hired by his
defense attorney to help get him off.
Elvis did thanks to an ironclad alibi.
Was Elvis wrong then? Or is
something else going on now?
This is a compelling case that moves quickly from one plot
point to another. I followed Elvis down
a couple of blind allies and wrong turns before he figured things out. While we don’t get all the answers we might
like, the book isn’t set up to give them to us.
However, the conclusion is still satisfying. The characters we meet here are strong. This is really Elvis’ story, so we don’t see
too much of his partner Joe Pike.
Another couple of regulars appear here, and they are definitely the best
versions of themselves. Do take the
title of the book seriously; some of what we learn along the way is more graphic
than I felt it needed to be, and we don’t get as much of Elvis’ trademark wit
here. Still, this was a book well worth
reading.
A body has been found hanging from the Hollywood sign, and
radio reporter Carol Childs is sent to the scene. The police have ruled it a suicide, but Carol
thinks something else is going on.
Before the weekend is over, Carol is contacted by a PI who shares her
belief that there is more to this death.
Then a caller to Carol’s new late Sunday show all but confesses. What is really going on?
From this intriguing premise, we get another fun mystery
filled with plenty of suspense. I did
have some issues with some moral issues brought up in this book, which is funny
because I am on the opposite side of things on some TV shows I watch. A psychic we met in the first book is back,
but I was happy that her “ability” only played a small part in the book. In fact, I enjoyed seeing her again since she
is a fun foil for Carol. I really liked
the cast of characters as well. There
were some timeline issues in the middle of the book, but overall, they were a
minor annoyance.
It’s the week of the Fourth of July, and Allie and her aunt
Gully are getting ready for the onslaught of customers the holiday weekend will
bring to their town of Mystic Bay, Connecticut and the lobster shack that Aunt
Gully has started. However, the holiday
weekend takes a sad turn when Allie finds a dead body in the bay. No one seems to know who she was. But if no one recognizes her, who would want
her dead?
I enjoyed the first book in this series, and it was a
delight to return again. The characters
are lots of fun, and it was great to see them again. The new characters fit right in; they were so
nice, it was hard to believe there was a killer hiding among them. I did think the plot wandered a bit in the
first half, but it picked up in the second half. When we reached the climax, I discovered
there were some clues I hadn’t even realized where hiding in the book. The location is charming; the perfect summer
resort town. So if you are looking for a
book to hold on to summer, pick this one up.
Despite working as a travel agent, Cyd Redondo has barely
traveled herself. That’s why she is so
excited to finally win a promotional trip that sends her to Africa. And if she can check in with some of her
clients while she is there, so much the better.
At least, that’s what she thinks until she lands and discovers that one
couple has been arrest. And there seems
to be a rash of lost luggage. What is
really going on?
The book took a little bit of time with set up before the
story really took off, but once it did, it was a fantastic trip. There were so many twists, I had a hard time
putting it down. Cyd is a remarkable,
resourceful main character, and it was easy to root for her to overcome the
many obstacles in her path. There is plenty
of humor to keep things going, as well.
There is enough language, sex, and violence (especially against animals
done by the bad guys in a couple of scenes) to keep this from being one of the
cozies I normally read, but if you know that going in, you’ll be just fine.
Lucy has taken over managing her family’s Mediterranean
restaurant in Ocean Crest, New Jersey, and she is thrilled when they are hired
to cater the wedding of socialite Scarlet Westwood. However, in the middle of the reception,
Lucy’s chef and ex-boyfriend, Azad, gets into a fight with the best man,
Henry. As the night is winding down,
Azad finds Henry’s body in the back of their locked catering van. Naturally, the police think he is a great
suspect, but Lucy disagrees. Can she
figure out what happened?
It was great to be back in Ocean Crest, and I felt like we
got to see a bit more of this resort town.
I loved it, and I’d love to be able to visit in real life, just maybe
between the murders. The mystery here is
very strong, with several viable and well-developed suspects. I followed along with Lucy’s thoughts as she
investigated figuring that her current theory would turn out to be wrong, but
when she finally figured out the truth, it made perfect sense. Most of the characters are strong, although a
few of the supporting characters still seem to be a bit weak, and the way that
Lucy’s mother focuses on her love life annoyed me. The love triangle is still going strong here,
although I have a feeling I know where it will go. There are three delicious sounding recipes at
the end of the book. Overall, this is a
fun second in the series.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
When paramedic Zoe Chambers arrives at the scene of an
apparent suicide, she can’t help but draw parallels to the death of her great
uncles several decades ago in the same barn.
Meanwhile, Police Chief Pete Adams uncovers another tie to Zoe’s past in
the investigation. Is the modern death a
murder or a suicide? What is the
connection to Zoe?
I’m sorry I waited so long to return to Zoe’s world, but it
was fantastic to be back. Zoe and Pete
really are co-leads in the series since they split time as our viewpoint
characters. In this case, they both have
sub-plots involving their parents, as well.
The rest of the characters are just as fully developed as our
leads. The plot is compelling, always
pulling me in and making me reluctant to set the book down. The tone of the book is definitely more
somber, and the smattering of language coupled with a few scenes on the edge of
being graphic keep it on the traditional side of the spectrum. While not as light as many of the cozies I
read, it is still wonderful reading.
