June 19th's Book Beginnings and Friday 56

Welcome to Friday!  For me, it's even better because I'm taking today off.  My own personal 3 day weekend.

I'm going to start the celebration with Book Beginnings and Friday 56 for the week.  This week's featured book is The Mountains Wild by Sarah Stewart Taylor.

                                                      

This is the first book from this author in over a decade.  I was very happy to find her writing again.

Here's how the book begins:

My mother singing.  That's one thing I remember.

Jumping ahead to the 56% point in the book:

Roly and Wilcox and Regan are waiting for us at Pearse Street.  No reporters today.  Griz is late but when she comes rushing in, clutching her phone, I know she has something.

The book comes out on Tuesday, and I will have a review ready to post that day.  I hope you'll come back and see what I thought.

In the meantime, have a great weekend.

Book Review: Billy Boyle by James R. Benn (Billy Boyle #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters and sense of time, good mystery

Cons: Historical detail does slow things down at times

The Bottom Line:

Hunt for spy; killer

Introduces character

A trip back in time

Search for the Spy

I’ve heard about the Billy Boyle mysteries several times over the years.  It had crossed my radar yet again right before a friend started raving about them.  That was the added push I needed to travel back to World War II with the first in the series, entitled Billy Boyle.

Billy had just made detective in the Boston police department when World War II hit America.  In an effort to keep him away from the front lines, his family uses their connections to General Eisenhower and Billy finds himself assigned as Uncle Ike’s personal investigator.

Billy’s arrival in London in the summer of 1942 is just in time because there is about to be a meeting to discussion Operation Jupiter, the plans to invade Norway and free it from the Germans.  There’s just one problem – there is a spy in the ranks, and no one knows who it is.  So Billy goes to the meeting to see if he can find the spy before the plans for the invasion are ruined.  However, things are complicated when one of the exiled Norwegian officials dies under mysterious circumstances.  Does Billy have a murder on his hands?  Can he find the spy?

World War II has always been a time in history that fascinates me, however this book made me realize there are large parts of it I don’t know much about.  While many of the characters are obviously fictional, Operation Jupiter was a very real part of the war – and if I had heard about it in the past, I had forgotten about it.  I enjoyed learning about it here, and it provided a wonderful backdrop to the action.

Unfortunately, I did find that action to be hit and miss.  The author had obviously done a lot of research on the time period, and he was anxious to share that with us.  Some of that period detail resulted in a slower story than I would normally enjoy.  It’s a curse I’ve found in other historical series as well.

And yet.

And yet I found myself captivated by the characters and the world that surrounds them.  Billy leads a cast of very real characters even if most of them are fictional.  I loved Billy, someone who is out of his element but is trying not to show it.  That vulnerability is especially appealing.  While he really doesn’t know anyone when the book starts, he quickly makes some friends, and I look forward to seeing them again in future books.

Don’t misunderstand, either.  There is a good story where.  The murder part is a classic locked room mystery, and everything is explained by the time we reach the end.  The suspects and their motives are strong – assuming of course it was even murder.

This isn’t one of my typical cozies, and I wasn’t sure what I might find in the way of content.  I was very happy to find that it was still very mild.  There is a smattering of foul language and the violence never gets more detailed than it truly needs to be.  I was especially impressed with the restraint Billy showed when it came to the women he encountered.  It was a refreshing change from some of the non-cozy series out there.

The book has a mixed tone.  There are some very light, fun parts that made me smile if not laugh.  There are other parts that get pretty deep.  These are balanced perfectly for a richer story.

I’m coming to this series late, so I have a lot of catching up to do, but make no mistake – I will be reading more books in this series.  Now that I’ve met Billy Boyle, I have to know what happens to him next.

Fight through more of World War II with the rest of the Billy Boyle Mysteries.

Movie Review: Adventures in Babysitting (2016)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun, wacky family comedy

Cons: Definitely some themes parents will want to talk through with their kids

The Bottom Line:

When a kid sneaks out

It leads to chaos for all

In remake that works

When Babysitting Gets Out of Hand

Time for another true confession – even though I grew up in the 1980’s, I have never seen Adventures in Babysitting.  After all, I didn’t watch very many movies until I went to college.  However, when The Disney Channel decided to remake it with one of the stars of Girl Meets World in a lead role, I decided to give the remake a chance.  I’m glad because I mostly enjoyed it.

Jenny Parker (Sabrina Carpenter) and Lola Perez (Sofia Carson) are both up for a photography internship, but that’s all they have in common.  Jenny is a responsible, driven young woman, while Lola is laid back to the point of irresponsibility.  While at an interview for the internship, the two meet and take an instant dislike to each other.  They accidentally switch phones, and Lola takes a call intended for Jenny – a desperate call for a babysitter.  Desperate for money, Lola takes the job.

Jenny has her own babysitting gig that night, and while there, she learns what Lola has done.  She brings her charges to confront Lola and switch back her phone only to discover that one of Lola’s kids has snuck out for the night.  Desperate to save her reputation, Jenny is the one who actually leads the group into the city to try to track down the boy.  But when things go from bad to worse, will anything get them all home safely before the parents find out?

I must admit a part of me is still of two minds about the film.  All of the kids, including the babysitters, make some bad choices.  They seem like a good idea, but when you stop and think about them, they really aren’t.  I remember the original was controversial, partly for that very reason.  This is definitely a movie to talk about with your kids.

On the other hand, this movie is fun.  There are some wacky situations the kids find themselves in over the course of the evening, and they are played perfectly for laughs.  The little bit of stunt work involved is fantastic as well, and makes the physical comedy work.

If you’ve been reading my reviews of the Hallmark movies I’ve watched over the last few years, I’ve commented on the Hallmark cheese factor.  This may be a Disney Channel movie, but I noticed it here as well, mainly among the adults in the cast.  However, the acting is perfectly in tone with the light hearted movie, and you’ll get lost in the story before you know it.

Speaking of story, each of the kids get their one sub-plot and as a result their moment to shine.  It’s mostly predictable stuff, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

By the time the movie was over, I was completely enjoying myself.  While I can’t compare it to the original, I found the remake of Adventures in Babysitting to be fun for a new generation.

Book Review: The 20th Victim by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Women's Murder Club #20)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Strong story

Cons: Ending rushed

The Bottom Line:

Assassin at work

Keeps pages turning quickly

Patterson thriller

Rehearsal for Assassination?

It took me a little longer than normal to get the newest Women’s Murder Club book this time around.  With the libraries closed right now, they didn’t get the listing for The 20th Victim up as quickly as normal, and many of us were watching for it.  Fortunately, I still got on the waiting list fairly early for the ebook version, so I didn’t have to wait too long to visit Lindsay and the rest of the crew.

Getting fast food turns out to be fatal for one man who is taken out by a sniper as he is leaving the drive through on morning.  His wife in the seat next to him is left physically unharmed.  It’s a perfect sniper shot.  While Lindsay gets the case as part of her job as a San Francisco homicide detective, reporter Cindy gets a key clue.  Someone wrote “Rehearsal” in the dust of the car’s back window.  The question is, rehearsal for what?

Meanwhile, Claire has some scary news of her own to deal with, and Yuki has to prosecute the case of a teenage getaway driver who won’t flip on the real criminals.  Even Lindsay’s husband, Joe, has a case of his own when his college roommate thinks his father was murdered.

It’s no surprise to fans of the series that this book is filled with several storylines that weave in and out of each other.  In this case, I think there was one story too many since the book had to rush to wrap them up.  The easy candidate is the repetitive plot that we saw earlier in the series.  Or maybe it should have shortened something in the middle.  Either way, the climax is definitely rushed for all the stories.  Along the way, the pace never lagged, however, and I was always happily turning pages when I had time to read.

As always, the characters are relatively thin.  We’ve spent enough time with them that we certainly care about them, but the focus is on the plot, and that doesn’t leave us much time to delve into the character’s personalities or see much growth.

Despite my picking on the negatives, I enjoyed this book.  Most of those negatives are baked in when I pick up a book in this series.  The plots were definitely some of the stronger in the series, and I enjoyed seeing how things unfolded.  I kept my teaser as brief as possible since discovering some of the early twists in the story was definitely some of the most fun.

Fans of James Patterson will be pleased with The 20th Victim.  It’s another fun page turner with familiar characters.

Check out the rest of the Women's Murder Club mysteries.

Ornament Review: Family Love - Snowtop Lodge Companion Piece - 2019 Hallmark Release

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great reminder about family

Cons: None for me

The Bottom Line:

Snowman celebrates

The love of family ties

Lovely ornament

Celebration of Family Love

2019 saw the 15^th anniversary of the Snowtop Lodge series, and they released a couple of special ornaments to celebrate.  Family Love is one of those, but it’s a great ornament all on its own.

As fans of the series would expect, this ornament features a snowman.  He’s wearing a velvet Santa hat and a red vest, although the vest is painted on.  He’s holding a green banner with “Family” written on it.  Across his stomach is the phrase “Strung together with love.”  Below that are snowpeople holding hands.

I love the sentiment of this ornament.  It is love that holds a family together.  And, even with everything going on right now in the world, that family love (and love from friends) is such a huge encouragement.  The snowpeople aren’t quite as detailed or fun as the scenes on the official series ornaments, but that’s okay.  This one is wonderful just the way it is.

Being a snowman, this guy stands on his own thanks to his nice, flat base.  He is porcelain, so you’ll want to make sure you set him out someplace he won’t be knocked around.

Naturally, he’s also designed to be hung on your tree.  The loop is hiding in the Santa hat, or at least it is in mine.  You can barely see it.  The good news is it is still easy to get a hook through the loop.  The even better news is that the ornament hangs straight.

Obviously, this ornament caught my eye because I collect the rest of the Snowtop Lodge series.  However, you really could enjoy Family Love whether you have the rest of the series or not.

Do check out the rest of the Snowtop Lodge series.

Disney Pin Review: Pongo - Windows of Magic - 2019 Release

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Lots of heroes

Cons: No hidden items, no Perdita

The Bottom Line:

Roger, Dalmatians

In this magical window

No room for extras

My Thoughts on This Pin are a Bit Spotty

I appreciate it when the designers of the Windows of Magic pin series are able to work in multiple characters.  However, with the pin dedicated to the heroes of 101 Dalmatians, I feel like they tried to work too many characters into the window.

The main focus is on Pongo, as it should be.  He takes up about half the window.  The rest is broken into three sections.  Two of those are taken up by two of the puppies, and the final section is devoted to Roger.  The sections for the puppies are so small we can’t see anything behind them.  Behind Pongo, there’s a clock, and behind Roger, we can see a horn, part of a piano, and some sheet music.  The window’s frame has a paw print at the top, and features bones on the side and bottom.

I appreciate the fact that they tried to work so many characters into this pin.  But I feel like the result is a bit too busy.  Also, I enjoy these pins because of the hidden things we can hunt for, but in this case, there isn’t room for the hidden things.  Finally, where is Perdita?  She’s as much a part of this as Pongo.

Don’t get me wrong, I do still like the pin.  The faux stained-glass still looks wonderful, and that was a big draw of the series for me.  I just don’t love it as much as I do so many of the others in the series.

This pin might not be quite as fun as some of the other Windows of Magic, but it will still be a great pin for fans of 101 Dalmatians to get.

Want to see a picture?  Check out my post on Instagram.

Disney Pin Review: Cruella de Vil - Windows of Evil Pin - 2018 Release

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Lots of fun little touches

Cons: Nothing spotty about it – it’s great!

The Bottom Line:

Cruella’s window

Features lots of fun touches

With great stained-glass look

My Thoughts on This Pin are Black and White

Obsession can make a good villain.  There is none who better exemplifies this than Cruella de Vil, the subject of the Windows of Evil pin I’m looking at this month.

Cruella’s face takes up about half of this faux stained-glass window.  She’s grinning at us, which is creepy as always.  You just know she’s up to something when she is grinning like that.  Around her is a light green background.

At the top of the window is one of my favorite features of this pin.  We have a silhouette of her two henchmen, Jasper and Horace, framed in a square.  Why do I love that so much?  Because it is a callback to the scene where we first see them through a window just before they break in to steal the puppies.  It’s such a very fun way to include them without them taking away from Cruella.

Down at the bottom are a couple more silhouettes, this time of puppies.  One is white and one is black, but they are the opposite of Cruella’s hair.  The frame itself is spotted, just like Dalmatians, and up at the very top is a “C.”

Obviously, there is much to like about this pin, and I do.  The details (I didn’t name them all) are fantastic, and the way they have faked the stained-glass look is excellent.  I believe this is also the only time (definitely the first I’ve reviewed) where the pin for the villain features something related to the hero on it.  This is a fun pin from top to bottom.

Since this was a limited-edition release, it is long gone from pin stores at Disneyland.  However, if you are a fan of Cruella, this is definitely a pin worth tracking down.

Want to see a picture?  Check out my post on Instagram.

June 13th's Weekly TV Thoughts

Hollywood Game Night – That was a close game, and it was close all the way through.  I’m a little surprised they never tried to put the balls between the guy’s legs in the first game.  Glad this fun show is back.

Press Your Luck – Last week was preempted here in LA, but I certainly enjoyed this week’s episode.  I couldn’t believe how long some of the players went between wammies.  Kind of saw their change of luck coming, but I was hoping the guy in the bonus round would wind up winning big.  He was doing so well for so long, too.

Match Game – That was an impressive come from behind win in the first game, although it was an easy match.  Then, in the second game, they had only one match in the two rounds.  It is funny how it goes like that sometimes.

The Titan Games – The women’s titan wasn’t defeated, but we finally had someone else win the men’s competition.  I always hated challenges when I was tied to someone else because I was never strong enough to do my own thing.  I certainly feel for those who lost there.

Stargirl – Wow.  I feel bad for the new friend.  Yes, she did something stupid, but her family is being harsh.  I’m not so sure Henry is completely at fault, I think the mean girl stole the picture and sent it out.  (Yes, Henry shouldn’t have been showing the picture to his friends, that’s for sure.  I just don’t think he was involved in it going to the entire school at all.)  Her powers are pretty impressive.  But what, if anything, does the principal have to do with all of this?

Holey Moley – I’m disappointed.  I wanted that Mohawk wet.  I wanted to see what happened to it.  That was a very impressive hole in one to end things.  Yes, luck, but still, very nice.

Don’t – I thought this show looked like fun.  Some of the challenges were, and some weren’t.  I do like that a family is working together and everyone goes home with money.  I’ll see what I think of the second episode.

June 12th's Book Beginnings and Friday 56

Welcome to Friday.  Time for this week's Book Beginnings and Friday 56.

This week, I'm offering teasers from Billy Boyle by James R. Benn.

                                          

Yes, this is a mystery.  It's the first in a series set in World War II.  I finished it earlier this week, and I enjoyed it.  I'll have a review up on Thursday - assuming I get it written between now and then.

In the meantime, here's the beginning of chapter 1:

I wanted to die.  No, actually I didn't want to die.  Or live.  I just didn't care.

A fun beginning, right?

Here's another fun exchange from page 56:

"Will there be a test?"
"Oh yes, indeed!" Kaz laughed.

This book has some fun exchanges and moments, and I got to highlight two of them.  Overall, this is a serious mystery.  And it's good.  I hope you'll come back on Thursday to see my full review.

Have a great weekend.

Book Review: Murder on Lexington Avenue by Victoria Thompson (Gaslight Mysteries #12)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Characters; compelling mystery

Cons: None

The Bottom Line:

Murder in office

Links to deaf community

Another strong case

Working on Saturday is Murder

I guess is shows my lack of creativity, but I am always amazed when an author can keep coming up with compelling cases that touch different aspects of a character’s life.  Victoria Thompson has an even harder quest since she has to find reasons to keep bringing two characters together to solve murders.  But she does it wonderfully once again in Murder on Lexington Avenue.

New York City Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy is called to a crime scene on a Saturday.  A man has been killed in his office, and Frank almost immediately learns the man was involved with one of the schools for the deaf in New York City.  His interest is piqued since his own son, Brian, is deaf, but Frank chose to send his son to one of the rival schools in the city.

Frank starts his investigation, but while questioning one of the suspects, he finds he has to get midwife Sarah Brandt involved in the case.  Suddenly undercover with the victim’s family, Sarah is able to learn more about the family dynamic and get various members to confide in her.  Will that lead Sarah and Frank to solve the case?

The story starts right away.  There’s no set up before Frank is called to the scene of the crime.  The plot is intriguing with plenty of suspects and motives.  I was certain I had it figured out several times before Frank and Sarah brought the case to a satisfactory conclusion.

Frank and Sarah both have families that we’ve gotten to know, and we do get to see both of their families a little bit before the plot fully takes over the book.  I always enjoy getting updates on these supporting characters.  I believe that a longer mystery arc got a huge kick start here, although I’ll have to keep reading to find out for sure.  (Not that I’m complaining about that in the slightest.)

As always, Frank and Sarah work together to solve the crime.  It takes a while for Sarah to get involved in this case, but once she does, she is fully involved and as important as Frank in solving the case.  I loved watching them working together.  It may be unofficial since he works for the police and she’s a midwife, but they felt like a solid team here.

Because of Frank’s son, Frank brings a personal knowledge to this case that I really enjoyed.  It allowed us to see some development in him.  This book also shows a light on issues in the deaf community in the 1890’s.  While some have been resolved in the decades since, the author’s note at the end talks about those that still rage on today.  I loved how the author talked about those without slowing down the mystery.

The Gaslight Mysteries are always wonderful trips back in time, and Murder on Lexington Avenue is no exception.  You could jump in here or start at the beginning.  Either way, you’ll enjoy solving crimes with Frank and Sarah.

Here are the rest of the Gaslight Mysteries in order.