Monday, September 23, 2024

A Jingle Bell Mingle A Novel by Julie Murphy; Sierra Simone

This series is more explicit that I usually prefer to read (not yucking anyone's yum; it's just not MY thing) but Murphy and Simone write So Darn Well that I tend to just plow through the naughtier bits and enjoy the rest of the story.
In this case, we get Sunny and Isaac. Isaac is the last singleton of the former boy band, INK. His two bandmates fell in love in the previous books. Isaac is in the pits of dark despair because he lost the love of his life, his muse, when she was young. And now he is ruined for all others and isn’t sure that he even deserves to live. He will, however, occasionally have sex. The last time he did so was with Sunny, former part-time porn star, now working on a script for the Hope Channel.
Sunny has a pretty rich back story herself but we mostly see her trying to be an independent woman who takes care of her son… er, her cat, Mr. Tumnus. He’s the whole reason she agrees to move out of a crappy hotel and sleep at Isaac’s mansion, it’s so her cat doesn’t have to suffer.
The two obviously have the hots for each other and there is some sexy time, even as Sunny insists on trying to find Isaac’s next muse. But this is a romance so it may just be that his muse is right under both their noses.


Four stars
This book comes out September 23, 2024
Christmas Notch #2
ARC kindly provided by Avon and Harper Voyager, and NetGalley
Opinions are my own


Sunday, September 22, 2024

The Holiday Cottage by Sarah Morgan

Imogen lives for her work. She lives for it so much that she’s made up a personal life just to avoid her coworkers’ questions and to hide her lack of a life.

Dorothy runs her own company and likes Imogen’s marketing so much that she moved her account when Imogen moved to a new company. Her daughter Sarah is concerned that Dorothy has picked up another stray (Dorothy has any number of animals that she’s adopted as well as people who Sarah is afraid will take advantage. But they both know something that Imogen doesn’t and it threatens to upend her life.
Luckily, handsome vet (and son of Dorothy’s best friend) Miles is there to help. And he has a golden retriever named Ralph who has decided that Imogen is his person.

A sweet story. Fans of Morgan will know what to expect.  

Four stars
This book come out September 24, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Canary Street Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own



Saturday, September 21, 2024

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Waggoner

Sherry lives in small town Winesap. She’s very proud of the help that she’s given to the sheriff’s department in solving various murders. While older, she’s not exactly elderly but she IS a librarian. A perfect cozy novel heroine. Or is she? It seems odd that there are so many deaths in her town. And it’s even odder that so many people come to her to solve the murders. It all starts to go off the rails when someone close to her dies. Is this really her life or is there something more… demonic going on?
While there isn’t as much demon hunting as you might think based on the title, this book is laugh out loud funny in several places and I really, really hope that there are going to be more in the series.


Four and a half stars
This book comes out September 24, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Friday, September 20, 2024

Murder at the Merton Library by Andrea Penrose

Wrex receives a note from a friend of his brother's, asking him for help. But when Wrex arrives at the college, the friend is already dead. It will be up to our intrepid team to find out what happened to the man. 
As we get further into the books, the mysteries are fine but, for me, it's more about the characters. And there is some growth for them in this book. Sheffield and Cordelia get closer to marriage, the Weasels start to interact more with their newest member, and we get to learn more about Wrexham and his brother. 

Four stars
This book came out September 26, 2023
Wrexford & Sloan #7
Borrowed as hard copy from library
Opinions are my own

Monday, September 16, 2024

The Examiner A Novel by Janice Hallett

Hallett writes mysteries in a way that no one else does. She has tight stories that leave clues the whole way through but you never can quite tell where she’s heading until you get there.
Like most of her stories, this is told in two parts; one told in “present” time while the other is told as the bulk of the story unfolds. In this case, we have six students and a teacher who are embarking on a Multimedia Arts course teaching creative-types who to work in the “real world.” It is a prospective course and being added to the calendar full time means that Angela “Gela” will get to keep her job.
We watch the six students work their way through the nearly ten months of the course as they work through personality clashes and their assignments. But some of the students aren’t there just to take the class and at least one of them won’t be alive at the final presentation.
The last section dragged on a bit (the last day was maybe 1/4 -1/3 of the book) and the end was a bit over the top but always a fun read from Hallett.

Four stars
This came out September 10, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Atria Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Friday, September 13, 2024

Clean Sweep (the graphic novel) by Ilona Andrews

This book is great with setting up the world building. We've got Dina Demille who is an innkeeper. Her parents disappeared and she's wondering where they are. Her sister married and moved away. Her brother is a wanderer. Maybe not a hard world to build until you realize that Dina is actually linked to her inn and that they people that stay at her inn are beings from other planets using Earth as a place to stop on their travels. 
From the opening chapter, we actually get a glimpse of this one Dina approaches one of her neighbors. Something has been killing dogs in the neighborhood and she wants Sean Evans to take care of it. At first, he denies responsibility (and the fact that he's a werewolf) but she finds him staking his territory on her apple trees later that night. It's a hilarious encounter that only gets better
The graphic novel adaptation is pretty good but I still like the Graphic Audio better. 

Four stars
The adaptation came out March 5, 2024
Kindle ebook
Opinions are my own

Monday, September 9, 2024

Grit by Angela Duckworth

The title pretty much says it all. If you have stick-to-it-tive-ness, it will generally take you farther than innate skill. Duchworth's own father used to tell her that she was no genius but she stuck to it and turned out fabulous.

Do the stories start to sound the same? Yes. Does Duckworth tell you that you need to cut your losses sometimes? Yes. Did she tell us how to identify when that is? Not really.
I did overall enjoy this book but there is nothing new for regular self-help readers.

Three and a half  stars
This book May 3, 2016
Borrowed as hard copy from library
Opinions are my own