The Inheritor's Powder by Sandra Hempel

I can't remember where I heard about this book but it looked interesting. And it sort of was. It's a microhistory about arsenic and how forensic science was formed to determine whether someone had been poisoned. The whole story is framed around the poisonings of the Bodle family.
The beginning started off well with a narrative history of when the Bodle family became ill. The story was interesting and it was a nice introduction to the topic. But the middle got bogged down a bit as the science part was introduced and the pacing of the story changed and then the switching back and forth between the story of the family and the story of the science kept up the different pacing.

Three stars

This book came out November 3rd, 2014

Borrowed this from the library

Opinions are my own

Paradise Cove by Jenny Holiday

Being a female doctor is tough. It's a hard world to break into and then there are all of the hours you have to work. That doesn't really make it conducive to having a relationship. Even if you're dating another doctor. Especially if you walk in the door and find said other doctor screwing a resident on your couch. Even more disheartening is realizing that the past few years of your life have been directed by your ex.

Dr. Nora Walsh is dealing with ALL of that. She sees a notice that there is an opening for a small town doctor in Paradise Cove and she decides to take the position but her plan is just to stay for two years, pay off her student debt and save for a house that she can share with her sister. She's not looking for a forever home or a forever love.

For his part, Jake Ramsey is barely even looking for someone to grunt in the general of. He lost his infant son to the flu and his marriage imploded soon after. He barely even wants to talk to the friends he's had since childhood. His life is all about helping out around town and that's what leads him to be one of the first people to meet Nora. They share a pretty intense experience and then... start hanging out. Nora gives him sympathy but not too much and not too little. She's the Baby Bear of sympathy. 

From the beginning, I was really hoping that a particular plot line wouldn't pop up. But it did. While Holiday is an entertaining writer and I am very much looking forward to Maya and Law's story, the end of this book was just a little to fraught to feel like there was a concrete resolution.

This book comes out July 28th

Follows Mermaid Inn

Followed by Sandcastle Beach

ARC kindly provided by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Witch Hunt by Cate Conte

When the book opens, Violet Mooney is having an ominous feeling, like this just isn't going to be a good day. But her yoga class goes well and the coffee shop visit with her best friend is helping until Carla Fernandez stalks in and accuses her of planning a seance. Violet feels blindsided. And an interaction with an unusual woman at her store doesn't help. The woman claims that she wants a reading but her aura doesn't match the statement. Her day goes sideways when she finds out that Carla has been murdered and Violet's own scarf was found nearby. At the police station, her life goes off the rails when her mother, missing for twenty-seven years, shows up with a sister, Zoe, that Violet knew nothing about.
This is a first book so there are some things that are a little thin like the development of Carla's character, the developing relationship with Carla and her mother as well as her sister, and all of the other people in town that are being set up to be in further books in the series. But overall, a cute book.

Three stars
This book came out June 30th, 2020

Followed by Witch Trial
Book borrowed from library
Opinions are my own

Death Metal by Nova Nelson

Nora is still figuring out what it means to be a Fifth Wind witch. While hanging on the porch with her crush, a possible romantic moment is interrupted by a ghost who's death has been called a suicide but she knows she was murdered. And now Nora thinks so too. So she's off on another mystery.

It seemed like there was an equal amount of time spent on the mystery and the will they/won't they with Tanner and Nora. Dear God there was so much back and forth in Nora's mind about Tanner. I'm going to read the next book in the series but I'm really hoping that it's not going to be more of that because it just makes Nora seem supremely wishy-washy and that is not the character we're seeing in the rest of the book.

Three stars
Follows Crossing Over Easy
Followed by Third Knock the Charm

This book came out June 19th, 2018

Borrowed as an audiobook from the library

Opinions are my own

Vultures in the Sky by Todd Downing

During a time of unrest in Mexico, there were a group of people on a train. They were all nervous because of the political issues as well as rumors of religious zealots. Then, there are also the vultures following the train... and someone is killed. Then another person. The remaining passengers become more and more nervous. But Hugh Rennert steps up to get to know the other passengers and tries to discover why a man should have been killed and why so many other passengers are lying.
Basically a locked room mystery, I heard about this book on the Classic Mysteries podcast. The mystery is described there as a fair play story (the readers should be able to guess who the murderer was) but I actually found it incredibly confusing. The book was published in 1935 and the attitudes and descriptions of the Mexicans and women are very much of the time and hard to read in the modern day.

Two stars
This book came out in 1935
Borrowed from the library
Opinions are my own

Winterset by Candace Camp

Anna Holcombe and her brother have a family secret which means that, even though she loved Reed Moreland, she turned down his marriage proposal. The reason Reed even met her, living out in the country, is that he bough her uncle's estate. Now, knowing that Anna rejected him. He wants to sell. Except that he keeps having dreams that she is in trouble. And he just wants to make sure that she is okay.
For now she is, but someone is killing the local townspeople. And an old legend is resurrected. One that could bring the Holcombe family's secret out into the open.
A fun book with interesting characters.

Four stars

Follows Beyond Compare

Followed by An Unexpected Pleasure
This book came out January 8th, 2018
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own

Hitched by Pippa Grant and Lili Valente

Blake and Hope were introduced in the previous book in this series. They obviously have good chemistry but Hope doesn't believe that to be enough. Her parents' marriage is proof that no one should ever get married. But her grandmother's will leaves a valuable alpaca to whichever of her grandchildren get married first. And Hope's cousin has already found a willing candidate off Tinder. Blake is not her first choice. Or her second or even her third. He's far down the list and she only calls him when her first option craps out and no one else interested. But Hope has something that Blake wants; she can help him get a liquor license for his winery ahead of opening which will make or break his work.
For his part, Blake is only too willing to play along. Except that he knows something that Hope doesn't, he still loves her and is ready to do whatever it takes to win her heart for good.
Not quite as good as the first two but still a fun book.

Three and a half stars
Follows Hammered

Followed by Humbugged
This book came out September 3rd, 2019
Borrowed book from Kindle Unlimited
Opinions are my own