Thursday 28 March 2024

'Bout to Dye in Birmingham (A Cousins Cozy Mystery series ) by Beth Hamer Miles

From author Beth Hamer Miles comes a hilarious take on the worst year of your life...It’s March 2020 in Birmingham, Alabama, but Maggie Baxter and her cousin Hugh Lee Pinkston are facing problems even bigger than the quarantine. While navigating her home health job, along with shutdowns, face masks, and toilet paper shortages, Maggie stumbles upon a dead man—snipped in the bud with his own set of monogrammed scissors!It's a salon scheme gone south, and now, Maggie and Hughley are in the midst of a murder investigation. Missing hair salon owners, disappearing patients, destructive raccoons...and why does everyone have purple hair? It’s a mystery fit for Shear-Lock Combs! Can Maggie and Hughley find a killer and survive 2020...or will this be their last bad hair day?

"Realistic dialogue, good character development and interesting setting. Looking forward to reading next one! 5 Stars!"~ So Many Books  (Summary via Goodreads)


I love when authors make the story as real as they can or throw some real life things into make believe stories and Beth Hamer Miles does just that in her new Cousins Cozy Mystery series !!

In 'Bout to Dye in Birmingham main characters Maggie and Hughley, who are cousins, are about to test their relationhip and friendship ... and Maggie is going to test her sanity a bunch of times !!  It is March in the year 2020 and it's the beginning of when the coronavirus begins to affect people in the United States.  The colleges have closed forcing Maggie and Sam's twin daughters, Anna and Jenna, to move back home.  Now they will have all three kids, Anna, Jenna and their son, Evan all under one roof along with Sam who already works from home.  The only one that will be impacted the most will be Maggie who is an at-home speech therapist so she will continue to visit clients in their homes.

But right before everything closes down Maggie is going to get one more luxury treatment and get her hair done.  She is referred to Lula's Locks by one of her client's who is Lula's mother.  Unfortunately Maggie takes the back entrance to the salon which is a long dirt road with a dead naked body in the way.  Little does Maggie know that she will be getting herself and Hughley in the middle of everything !!

Not that finding a dead body isn't bad in itself but Maggie and Sam are going to have to move everyone into Hughley's house when their house ends up having a lot of problems and issues where they are unable to continue staying there.  Luckily Hughley has a huge house and doesn't mind the company.  Plus the house next door to Hughley becomes a project for him when he becomes friends with Dean who is going to be staying there and fixing it to put it on the market.

Readers will fall in love with this book instantly !!  This was one story that I did not want to end.  I was having so much fun staying at Hughley's huge house hanging out with Maggie and crew.  It was also interesting to read a story that included the coronavirus ... as horrible as that was, it is a part of our lives and knowing that it affected everyone helps.  I think readers will really feel for this story and will be on the lookout for future books for sure !!!



Tuesday 26 March 2024

Murder Marks the Page (Tomes & Tea Mystery series Book # 1) by Karen Rose Smith

The first in a new series spun off from the Daisy Tea Garden Mysteries, Daisy’s daughter Jazzi Swanson has opened her own book and tea shop, providing a variety of literature and flavored beverages for a rural New York community. But Jazzi has not only inherited her mother’s gift for brewing tasty drinks—she also has a nose for sniffing out murder.

New York State’s Belltower Landing is a lakeside resort town where tourists spend their summer days boating, floating, and paddle-boarding on the water. It’s also the perfect place to cuddle up with a good book and enjoy a cup of tea, courtesy of Tomes & Tea. Owned and operated by Jazzi and her best friend Dawn Fernsby, the book bar is beloved by vacationers and locals alike, but browsers grabbing brews in the off season aren’t enough to help them make ends meet.

Between brainstorming social media publicity ideas for the shop and fending off flirtatious men she has no interest in or time for, Jazzi befriends a woman named Brie who has recently made contact with her biological father. As an adopted child herself, Jazzi is more than happy to give Brie emotional support, especially as her wealthy father’s wife and children see her as a threat.

But Brie is also looking to start a family of her own. Unfortunately, all the potential princes she’s met through a dating app turn out to be frogs. Then, when Brie is found murdered, Jazzi finds herself playing detective. With a list of suspects ranging from jealous half-siblings to less-than-suitable suitors, Jazzi may need to consult some of her shop’s bestselling mysteries to help her uncover a killer . . .  (Summary via Goodreads)


Right after I finish writing my review for Murder Marks the Page by Karen Rose Smith, I am going to go pack because I am moving to Belltower Landing immediately ... as soon as I find out where this fictional town is located.  Murder Marks the Page is the first book in the Tomes & Tea Mystery series by Smith and boy does she set the stage beautifully !!!

In Murder Marks the Page readers are introduced to Jazzi and Dawn who are longtime friends having met in college at a group for adoptive children.  They bonded over the fact that they were both adopted and became roommates and then moved back to Belltower Landing where Dawn is from and where Jazzi would spend her summers.  Now they are business owners as well as roommates.  They own Tomes & Tea where they sell tea, baked goods and books.

Jazzi and Dawn are introduced to Brie by their friend Delaney who knows about their adoptive pasts and feels that Brie, who is looking for her adoptive father, will benefit from their experiences.  Unfortunately shortly after they meet, and before they can begin to help her with her quest, Delaney finds Brie's body.  This was right after Jazzi had dinner with her and was getting to know her so her and Delaney are questioned by the police.

Jazzi knows that she should focus on the shop and not murder but she is drawn to Brie's case because that is what Jazzi's mom would do.  And even though she needs to convince Dawn not to share her part of the business and this is the time of year that the town relies on tourists, Jazzi can not say no the Brie's mother when she asks for help.

There is a lot going on in the town of Belltower Landing and readers will love every part of it.  Getting to know a new town, the businesses, the people and the relationships is always fun with a new series and Karen Rose Smith does not disappoint !!  She is spot on with this debut book and you will become a fan as soon as you open the book.  You will want to move there also ... and if you find Belltower Landing, please let me know .... we can be roommates !!



Tuesday 12 March 2024

Chilled to the Dog Bone (A Samantha Davies Mystery series Book # 5) by S.A. Kazlo

It's Saint Patrick's Day weekend in chilly upstate New York, and Samantha Davies, children's picture book author and sometime sleuth, is excited to attend the annual outdoors games put on by the local Wings Falls fire company. It will be a weekend filled with fun activities such as a skillet toss, four-wheeler race, and the ever-popular decorated wooden outhouse race across the ice. Sam is looking forward to dancing the night away with her beau, police detective Hank Johnson at the Firefighter's Ball. Sam's rug hooking group, the Loopy Ladies is sponsoring one of the outhouses and their senior member, Gladys O'Malley, will have the honor of riding on the "throne" to the finish line.

Only not all goes as planned when the neighboring fire company's chief is found in Gladys' place—frozen solid and dead as a doornail! To make matters worse, both Gladys' and Sam's fingerprints are all over the evidence at the murder scene, taking them from attendees to suspects. Now it's up to Sam to clear their names and get to the truth. The only problem is the victim had disagreements with almost everyone in town, from the Wings Falls fire chief to a sexy blonde named Sunny Foxx—with two xx's—and a slew of other suspects. Can Sam find the killer before the Luck of the Irish runs out for her? Or will she become chilled to the bone when the killer catches up to her...

"A doggone entertaining mystery filled with small town scandals! Funny and entertaining!"~ Fresh Fiction  (Summary via Goodreads)


Chilled to the Dog Bone is the fifth book in the Samantha Davies Mystery series by S.A. Kazlo and boy is this series a HOOT !!!  

Samantha and her lovable dog, Porkchop, are just trying to enjoy life.  Sam just published her first book, a children's book about Porkchop, titled Porkshop the Wonder Dog, and they are going to be doing their first appearance promoting the book at the local library.  Sam is also enjoying her relationship with Police Detective Hank Johnson as well as her time hanging out with her cousin, Candie, and their friends in the Loopy Ladies rug hooking group.  

Unfortunately another murder is going to take time for her to try to solve when the outhouse races at the local Firemen's Convention are postponed when a neighboring fire department's chief is found dead in the Loopy Ladies outhouse .... and Sam and her neighbor (also Hank's aunt) Gladys are on the suspect list !!!  And when Hank is taken off the case, Sam knows it's just a matter of time before her childhood enemy Joe "Sandy" Peters will try to put the cuffs on her whether she is innocent or guilty.

Sam and Candie begin their investigation even though they have been warned off by Hank.  They know that they have to do whatever they can to prove that Sam and Gladys are innocent, however, this will not be an easy case to solved as the suspect list is longer than they imagined.  It seems like nobody liked Ivan Kline and the more they dig, the deeper they get ....

Readers cannot help but fall in love with this series !!  There is so much to love, even the murders are interesting !!  You will love Wings Falls, the businesses, the people, and the relationships and friendships.  There are plenty of times that I have read a book and wanted to jump into the story and live in the town and the Samantha Davies Mystery series is one on the top of that list !!  I know you will love it as much as I did.  The only sad part is when you close the book when you get to the end .... but hopefully a new one will be coming out soon and we will be happy again !!!

Saturday 9 March 2024

Cirque du Slay (Hayden & Friends Book # 2) by Rob Osler

In the rollicking mystery, perfect for fans of Steven Rowley and Elle Cosimano, the circus becomes the stage for a high-profile murder investigation.

With quirky LGBTQ+ amateur sleuths, Cirque du Slay will delight readers looking for a madcap mystery with high-flying excitement!

Pint-sized Seattle middle school teacher and gay dating blogger Hayden McCall and his best friend Hollister are invited to a fundraiser for Bakers Without Borders. The celebrity performer, Kennedy Osaka, is the artistic director of Mysterium, an upscale circus arts show combining magic, acrobatics, and a Michelin-star dinner. But Kennedy is a no-show—until she’s found dead in her hotel suite.

When frenemy Sarah Lee is discovered in the room with the body, Hayden and Hollister are on the case to find the real culprit before Sarah Lee is charged with the crime.

The suspects for the murder are as unique as Mysterium a Russian trapeze artist, a cowgirl comedian sharp-shooter, an over-cologned operations director, a feisty, green-haired costume manager, and Adrenalin!, a sexy troop of Romanian male acrobats...If Hayden and Hollister are to clear Sarah Lee of suspicion, they’ll have to outsmart a killer for whom trickery is art.  (Summary via Goodreads)


Readers will love the Hayden & Friends Mystery series by Rob Osler.  This is a very unique series and with the second book just released, you have plenty of time to catch up if you aren't already a huge fan !!

Cirque du Slay has main character Hayden and his best friend Hollister again working to solve a murder and uncover the truth ... except this time Hayden has to struggle with the fact that Sarah Lee is not one of his favorite people.  

In Cirque du Slay a circus like show, Mysterium is in town and Sarah Lee grew up with one of the performers so she asks her to come perform at a fundraiser being held at a friends bakery.  When Kennedy does not show up or return her calls, Sarah Lee storms out saying that Kennedy is a dead woman.  Kennedy goes to the hotel where a number of the performers are staying and is found by the police standing over Kennedy's body holding the murder weapon.  Unfortunately Kennedy does not remember entering the room or the events until the police arrived.  Because Kennedy works for Hayden and Hollister's other close friend, Burley, the group know they must look into the murder and clear Sarah Lee's name.  

Hayden and Hollister begin investigating at the big tent and surrounding trailers of where Mysterium is set for a month-long performance.  In order to get in and have access to everyone, they have to go undercover.  This is all well and good until they get in hot water and need to rethink everything !!  

Readers will love this series.  It is a fresh look at cozy mysteries in a lot of ways !!  First the main character is a male, a gay male.  His best friend is a black woman who wears black, has a mohawk hairstyle and is as sweet as can be.  Hayden often seeks the help of his aunt's neighbor who is an elderly man.  Throughout the story Hayden shares posts from his Mates on Dates blog.  And there are a lot of other unique things regarding this series but I will leave some of the mystery for you to uncover as you dig into this amazing series !!!



Friday 23 February 2024

Crime and Cherry Pits (Farm to Table Mysteries Book # 4) by Amanda Flower

Head back to snowy Michigan just in time for the annual cherry pit spitting contest. It's all fun and games until the local drama professor chokes on more than just his pride.

Shiloh Bellamy can hardly believe it—for the first time in her family farm's seventy-year history, she has managed to score a highly-coveted booth at the Cherry Farm Market in Traverse City, Michigan. It's a huge win in her master plan to bring the rundown farm back to life… and the fact that her coup has sent her next-door neighbor and organic farming competitor into fits of jealousy doesn't hurt, either. But the festive atmosphere at the farm market takes a dark turn when a man entered in the famous cherry pit-spitting competition chokes and dies right in front of Shiloh, who is standing near the sidelines as a spectator.

When the death turns out to be more suspicious than a cherry pit down the wrong pipe, Shiloh finds herself under local law enforcement's microscope—she has developed something of a reputation for being unwittingly involved in local murders. And when they discover her cousin Stacey had been secretly dating the man in question—and that he was married to someone else—Shiloh begins to worry that everything she has worked so hard to accomplish with her family's farm is about to be taken away. It will take all her investigative skills, a tenuous friendship (or is it something more?) with the local sheriff, and some help from Shiloh's trusty pug, Huckleberry, to prove the cops are barking up the wrong cherry tree and put the real killer behind bars for good.  (Summary via Goodreads)


Crime and Cherry Pits is the fourth book in the Farm to Table Mystery series by Amanda Flower and it will make you hungry, feel tired, and determined to find a murderer !!!

Crime and Cherry Pits has main character Shiloh and her assistant, Chesney, manning their booth at the annual Cherry Farm Market in neighboring Traverse City.  Shiloh moved back home to Michigan to turn her family's farm organic and participating in the Cherry Farm Market will help get the word out about the farm.  Unfortunately at the first cherry pit-spitting competition, one of the male contestants looks like he's choking on a pit so Shiloh jumps in to save him .... only to find out he was poisoned !!  And to make matters worse Shiloh's cousin, Stacey, turns to her to find out who killed him to clear her name.  Turns out Stacey was dating the deceased, Dane Fullbright, but had just found out he was married !!

Even though Shiloh has a lot on her plate with still doing chores at the farm morning and night, baking for the Market every night, and working the Market all day, she still finds time to snoop and question people.  Even though everyone tries to warn her to leave it alone, she will do whatever she can to help her cousin, even though there is family drama going on as well.  

Shiloh will have readers tired and wishing they were as energetic and focused as her.  Plus reading about all the cherry related foods as well as other foods will have you hungry.  I know at the mention of tacos, I was hooked !!  

Flower knows how to grab the readers attention immediately and you will be hooked until the end !!  And Flower also knows how to end a story teasing readers with the possibilities of what is to come ....

Tuesday 20 February 2024

Double Grudge Donuts (Deputy Donut Mystery Book # 8) by Ginger Bolton

The countdown is on as Deputy Donut Café owner Emily Westhill gets ready for married life. But before she takes the plunge, she’ll need to poke a hole in a deadly criminal’s plans . . .

When the Fallingbrook Arts Festival rolls into town weeks before she’s set to tie the knot, Emily expects talent and friendly competition at the week-long summer series to go together like coffee and double fudge. But the fun crumbles fast after a lively bagpiper takes first place on day one and turns heads for the wrong reasons—all before Emily and her tabby cat find him dead in a clear case of murder. Along with a distinctive weapon at the crime scene, several strategically placed items leave disturbing clues about the killer’s identity, including a broken piece of a Deputy Donut mug . . .

While detectives aren’t sure who silenced the bagpiper’s music, they don’t trust Emily or her family to tell the truth. With her nuptials and career on the line, Emily launches an unsettling investigation to save herself from trouble and bring a dangerous figure to justice. The search not only brings too many suspects into the picture, but also leads to a strange discovery on Deputy Donut’s rooftop. A discovery that tells Emily she better get cooking, because someone may be watching her every move . . . and carefully plotting to turn a wedding into a funeral!  (Summary via Goodreads)


When you start reading Double Grudge Donuts, the eighth book in the Deputy Donut Mystery series, by Ginger Bolton you are going to have a HUGE suspect list.  

In Double Grudge Donuts the Fallingbrook Arts Festival is starting and it will go on for a week.  During the festival entertainers will first walk around town stopping at specific businesses to perform their acts.  Then they will perform at night and get judged.  During one of the performances, Kirk MacLean will interrupt playing his bagpipes.  Kirk will continue playing his bagpipes throughout town for the next couple on days until he is found dead by Emily Westhill on her way to her shop, Deputy Donuts.

Before Kirk was murdered Emily learned that no one liked him and all of them had reason to murder him .... including Emily's parents who are staying with her for the week to attend the festival and help her get ready for her upcoming wedding.  Unfortunately with this new murder, Emily's fiance Brent, who is a detective, is going to be very busy solving the case.

Readers will love that Bolton allows you to get to know Emily, her parents, friends and the town before throwing the murder into the mix.  This also provides you with a long list of suspects to weed through.  And when you learn of one very vital part of how part of the murder was handled, you will be amazed and most likely, never would have thought of it.  Bolton has a very creative mind that will have you loving this series and counting down the days until the next book.  




Thursday 15 February 2024

Sprites and Scuttlebutt (Magical Mystery Book Club Book # 6) by Elizabeth Pantley

This book club is hooked on traveling into books to become the amateur sleuths! In this journey, the club travels to the Kingdom of Everglow.

The royal family is rocked to the core when a key staff member falls dead at a community event. In the turmoil that follows, any evidence of what happened is destroyed, so they must go by the recollection of witnesses who were too busy enjoying the celebration to offer any valuable testimony.

The royal family is further distressed when they return to the castle to see signs of a break in that somehow defied their complex security system. They wake the next day to discover that one member of the royal family has fallen into a deep, deathlike sleep.

Can the Snapdragon Inn Book Club uncover the plot behind this attack on the royal family? Can they find the antidote to wake the sleeping royal from a supernatural slumber? Can they bring peace back to the worried royal family and the frightened community?

Let’s hope they can, since they must solve the mystery and reach The End to get out of the book and back to their home in Colorado.

"You can’t enough of this series! It will blow you away!"… Cozy Mystery Book Reviews

“One of my go-to series. The quality and enjoyment are guaranteed.”… All and Any Books

“I adore this series, and it just keeps getting better with each book!”… Fiction Vixen

“I guarantee you will LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it !!!!”… Goodreads  (Summary via Goodreads)


When you have a favorite author and/or series, you cannot wait for the latest book to be released ... you may even do a countdown of days until it will be in your hands.  That is something I do with the Magical Mystery Book Club series by Elizabeth Pantley.  I am sure that I am not the only one either !!

Sprites and Scuttlebutt is the sixth book in the series and it lives up to the hype of this series.  In the Magical Mystery Book Club series Paige and her select members of the magical book club get together every so often and have a "magical" meeting.  They grab snacks and venture down to the library in the basement of the Snapdragon Inn and scatter and pick out a book for their next jounrey.  Once they have picked out and agreed upon the book, one of the members starts reading the book out loud.  After a few minutes the room gets foggy, the globe in the library starts spinning ... when the room clears and settles down, the group finds themselves characters in the book and have to solve the case and write "The End" on the whiteboard in order to return to the original Snapdragon Inn in Colorado.

Luckily for the group the Inn always travels with them and is filled with whatever they need to make their time there as comfortable as possible and with Sprites and Scuttlebutt, the sixth book, they will need to have some normalcy and calm.

In Sprites and Scuttlebutt right before the group picks their journey book, they uncover a huge secret .... Frank the Inn's feline resident was a King in a previous life but a spell was cast upon him turning him into a talking cat.  This will help the group as they will be traveling to Everglow and solving a murder within the Royal Kingdom.

Once the fog settles they find themselves in a very colorful area that is full of sprites who are mythical fairy like creatures with coloful hair and small wings.   At an outdoor concert someone from the Royal family, the Queen's advisor, is killed.  Then one of the Queen's daughter becomes ill !!! Luckily for the book club members the Snapdragon Inn has become a suite in the castle allowing them complete access to the castle and all the people that could possibly be involved in the crimes.....

I could go on and on and on about this series and everything in the books but I think this is a good spot to stop and encourage you to go grab your copy, if you are caught up in the series or go grab all the books, so that you can get lost and enjoy everything that Pantley shares.  The Magical Mystery Book Club series is guaranteed to become one of your favorites !!!  Mark my words !!!