Murder by Milkshake by Eve Lazarus

This book caught my interest when Book Riot talked about the method of killing - arsenic delivered by milkshake. And Lazarus does a deep dive into the story but it's very interesting that, as a biographer, she inserts her own opinions into the story. It is most obvious at the end but it is sort of a thread throughout the book.
I was also slow to wade through the vast amount of information at the beginning and the end. I get that Lazarus did a lot of research (and probably needed to pad the book length) but it was not really interesting to read nor did I really feel like it added anything to the overall story. And there may not have been the research material to learn more about Rene but I wish we had heard more about him in particular.

Three stars
Borrowed this book from the library
This book came out October 1st, 2018
Opinions are my own

Laughter Yoga by Madan Kataria, M.D.

I started this book right before the COVID-19 pandemic got bad in my area and finished it during quarantine. It is definitely hard to read a book about laughter yoga when it seems like the whole world is falling apart. And to that end, I wish that the chapter on laughing without laughter had been longer (and probably would be on rewrites.) Other than that, I think Dr. Kataria did a great job of trying to to describe why laughter yoga works and to utilize it correctly. I vacillated on the overall rating because, though the book was well-written and laid out, there was a lot of self-congratulation that played into the writing. Overall a useful book.


Three and a half stars
This book comes out April 7th
ARC kindly provided by Penguin Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Murder at Enderley Hall by Helena Dixon

In the first book of the series, Kitty Underhay discovered that she had more family than she knew. Now, she's been invited to go visit. And the family lives in a grand estate and have several people other than Kitty visiting. Kitty meets many of them on the first day, including Nanny Thomas who was her cousin Lucy's nanny and is now companion to Kitty's aunt. She is a dithery sort of old woman who is ruthlessly bullied by the lady of the house. But she doesn't know much of anything about anything. So why, after a set of papers relating to the Ministry of Defence go missing, is Nanny the one who ends up dead?
Kitty calls Captain Matthew Bryant, who now has his own investigative agency, to come down and investigate. He is able to come down to help her figure out exactly what is going on.
It took a bit for me to get into this book and I wish there had been more development between Kitty and Matt. Also, the ending was a bit flat but overall a nice book that, when it moved, moved quickly and I'm looking forward to the next.

Four stars
Follows Murder at the Dolphin Hotel
This book came out March 19th
ARC kindly provided by Bookouture and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

A Stroke of Malice by Anna Lee Huber

Six months into her pregnancy, Lady Kiera Darby has been invited to Duchess of Bowmontʼs Twelfth Night party. She and her husband Sebastian Gage are looking forward to relaxing and having some fun. But some of the relationships among the Bowmont family seem strained and it only gets worse when a body is discovered in the catacombs below the house.
No one can identify the corpse but suspicion is quick that it is that of the Duchess's son-in-law who has supposedly been in France for almost a month. But is that really who it is? And why is somebody stealing the evidence that points to that being the case?
The mystery was a little convoluted but I enjoyed getting to know Kiera a little better in this book and seeing how her husband respects what it is that she does.

Three stars
Follows an Artless Demise

Followed by A Wicked Deceit
This book comes out April 7, 2020
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

One Perfect Summer by Brenda Novak

23andMe is uncovering a lot of long-held family secrets. Serenity, Reagan, and Lorelei have discovered they are half-sisters and have decided to spend a weekend together in Lake Tahoe to try and get to know each other. Serenity is dealing with the fall-out of her eight-year marriage ending; Reagan had and affair with a married man; Lorelei's husband has just admitted that he cheated on her with her best friend. The three ladies spend enough time together to realize they need more than just the weekend they originally planned for.
I liked the depiction of Lucy, Lorelei's four-year-old, in this book. She wasn't a plot moppet at all. However, I did not like the fact that all of the characters felt a little flat. This is a long book but there was So Much going on that none of it felt like the kind of in-depth story that Novak can do. I actually would have liked it much better had every romantic interest been edited out and the ladies had just had time to grow from the bonds with each other.

Three stars
This book comes out April 7th
ARC kindly provided by Harlequin Mira and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

Naomi and Nicholas are supposed to get married in three months but neither of them especially likes the other. Naomi wants out but she can't afford to help out with any of the money that's already gone into the wedding planning (mostly done by his mother) since her job is currently precarious at best. She also has no family and her best friend hates Naomi after having been set up on a date with a friend of Nicholas's who turned out to be a scumbag. The more she thinks about it, the more Naomi realizes that she really doesn't like Nicholas and she really hates his overbearing and controlling mother. So she decides to sabotage the marriage. While doing that, she starts to notice that he may have been ahead of her.
The whole first part of the book is really Naomi and Nicholas kind of being horrible people. And I did not like it (yes, it was part of the description- I just didn't think I'd dislike them SO much.) However, the second half of the book, after all of their horrible things finally make them realize they might still like each other was absolutely delightful.

Three stars
This book comes out April 7th
ARC kindly provided by Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Haunted Lady by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Hilda Adams has just gotten home from her last job when the phone rings again. She doesn't want to take the case but she knows the name Eliza Fairbanks and she remembers seeing the wedding of Fairbanks' daughter (though the marriage eventually ended in divorce.) So Hilda packs up herself and puts a cover on her birdcage and heads over to the Fairbanks mansion.
It seems that Eliza has reported a high number of animals entering her room, bats and rats, as well as mysterious happenings like her closet door opening when no one is there. The only one who believes her is her granddaughter, Jan.
But then Eliza is murdered and Hilda is left in the house. Possibly with a killer. For sure with a lot of people, all of whom are lying to her for one reason or another.
A decent story but some parts to slog through. Hilda was pretty kick ass (especially for the time she was written in) even though she made some missteps in this story.

Three and a half stars
This book will be reissued on April 7th
ARC kindly provided by American Mystery Classics and NetGalley
Opinions are my own