Batten Down the Belfry
Batten Down the Belfry combines two of my favorite things to do: read cozy mysteries and watch house flipping shows. Whitney and her cousin Buck flip unusual properties. This time they buy an abandoned church and parsonage, which they plan to make an entertainment venue and restaurant, respectively. Not onlyContinue Reading
Eating Salad Drunk
Eating Salad Drunk is a bunch of haikus by comedians that you have probably never heard of. The book proves two things. Haikus are more fun to write than to read, and Comedians are no better than anyone else in writing humorous ones. I’m disappointed. I had high hopes forContinue Reading
The End of Getting Lost
Gina and Duncan are a newlywed couple on a belated honeymoon touring Europe. Gina is recovering her memories after an accident. The reader soon suspects that Duncan is hiding something from Gina. What can it be? How will Gina respond if the truth is revealed? The answers lie in theContinue Reading
A Killer Sundae Tour Review and Giveaway
My Review In A Killer Sundae, Win, the owner of the Crewse Creamery ice cream parlor, has a new food truck. Her time at the local Harvest Time Festival is well spent selling ice cream until she is accused of murder by nut. It seems her frenemy and television reporter,Continue Reading
Tour Spotlight and Giveaway A Dash of Death
A Houston reporter-turned-mixologist mixes it up with murder in this series debut from Michelle Hillen Klump, superbly catering to fans of Diane Mott Davidson and Lee Hollis. Bad news for Samantha Warren: The plucky Houston, Texas, reporter lost her job and her fiancé in rapid succession. But Sam has aContinue Reading
Mickey7
I read science fiction for its great and unexpected ideas. While you know what you will encounter in a mystery or romance, reading science fiction is more like a leap into space with no memory of putting on a bungie cord. Mickey7 contains just that type of big idea. TheContinue Reading
The Art of Papercraft
If you’re feeling crafty (in a good way), The Art of Papercraft will give you some relatively inexpensive paper crafting ideas. From an Origami Candy Dish to wall hangings, this book has forty different projects using various techniques. It even teaches how to make the paper itself. The instructions areContinue Reading
The Wedding Murders
If you remember 1990s boy bands with fondness, don’t miss The Wedding Murders. Secrets abound at the present-day wedding of a member of a 90s boy band. At its heart is the mystery of why the band broke up so many years ago. Then, the killings begin. The Wedding MurdersContinue Reading
Huh? Why? and Punch Tour Review and Giveaway
My Review Software engineer Marty, his two college-aged children, his sister Laney, her two young daughters, his girlfriend Meghan, his neighbor Mrs. Kim, and Laney’s family dog Buddy are on vacation in Hawaii. But it’s not much of a vacation for Marty as he is pushed into helping the policeContinue Reading
This Way to the Universe
Curious about physics but hate all the math? Same here. This Way to the Universe provides a dense and diverse look into the subject written in plain English, mostly. From quantum physics to astrophysics, most questions are answered here. However, don’t expect an easy read. I would describe it asContinue Reading
Clean Air
Imagine that instead of higher temperatures and rising waters, it was the trees that started the apocalypse. That is the setting in Clean Air. It is ten years after The Turning, when runaway tree pollen killed more than half of the world’s population. The world has rebuilt using robots controlledContinue Reading
Cherish Farrah
The love-hate relationship between teenage girl bffs is explored in Cherish Farrah. Farrah is the child of upper middle-class black parents. Her best friend, Cherish, is the black adopted daughter of even wealthier white parents. When Farrah’s parents have financial difficulties, she decides to take over Cherish’s life of beingContinue Reading
City of the Dead
It’s always a pleasure to ride along with psychologist Alex and LAPD detective Milo on one of their only-in-LA cases. City of the Dead, the 37th book in the Alex Delaware series, is no exception. A pseudo-psychologist is found dead in her house with her throat slashed. Outside nearby aContinue Reading
Grow More Food
Grow More Food is written for serious gardeners. If you are an intermediate gardener and want to level up production, this book will help you do it. However, you should have at least two to three years of home gardening under your belt first. Alternatively, you can start here ifContinue Reading
A Taste for Poison
As a lifelong mystery devotee, I definitely have A Taste for Poison. After all, my favorite author, Agatha Christie, used it in many of her plots. Agatha had been trained in pharmacology during WWI, which gave her plots authenticity. Now, aspiring mystery writers, and potential murderers I suppose, can justContinue Reading
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead
Just when Finlay thought she was out, she is sucked back into crime in Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead. Former hitwoman (a long story described in the previous novel in the series, Finlay Donovan is Killing It), Finlay, and her accomplice/nanny, Vero, are trying to stop an assassin. An anonymousContinue Reading