Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Let It Sew







This book about the Southern Sewing Circle takes place near Christmas. Tori, the librarian, finds a picture that Charlotte Devereaux drew before she died. This leds to a body buried outside the library. It turns out Charlotte's husband had not left her, he was dead. It takes a lot of sleuthing for Tori to find the answers she seeks - who did it and why?

Tori and the sewing circle manage to plan a Christmas event at the library because the town events were changed by the newest member of the Sweet Briar Christmas Decorating Committee, Maime Wellington. Mamie is Councilman Jordan's girlfriend and does not want anything that his late wife did around to remind him of her which hurts his son.

All of Tori's questions are answered by the end of the book and the ladies even help Mr. Jordan and his son.

I loved this book and gave it five stars on Goodreads.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Detective's Secret Daughter

 


The Dectective's Secret Daughter by Rachelle McCalla is the 3rd book in the Fitzgerald Bay Series.  I bought the book in 2012 because the author and I share the same first name.  It is an inspirational romantic suspense book from Harlequin.

Victoria Evans left Fitzgerald Bay with her aunt on the night of a horrible accident.  Her father killed Owen Fitzgerald's cousin supposedly while drunk.  She did not find out she was pregnat with Owen's child until later.  She did not return for ten years because she could not look at any of the Fitzgerald's and she was afraid they might take her daughter away.  She did not know Hank Monroe had left town on the same day and there were rumors that they had left together.

Olive Henry had been killed after staying at Victoria's Inn.  Owen's brother, Dr. Charles Fitzgerald was the prime suspect.  The Inn is robbed and Owen sees Paige Evans and believes she is his daughter.  Victoria tells him that Paige is his daughter.  Paige hears humming from the robber and that is the best clue.

Since this is a Harlequin Romance, you know that there will be a happy ending.

I loved this book.  The perp is not revealed to near the end.  I am sorry I did not get to read the other stories in this series as the characters appear in several books. 

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Novel Way to Die



A Novel Way to Die by Ali Brandon is a delightful cozy mystery. It was purchased in 2012 as it was going to be used by the cat mystery group at Yahoo.com in January 2013 for discussion. Hamlet is the black cat mentioned in the sub-title A Black Cat Bookshop Mystery.

Darla Pettistone is the owner of Pettistone's Fine Books and Hamlet's human since the death of her Aunt Dee. At the beginning of the book, she is looking for a part-time employee. Robert Gilmore dresses in all black and looked very familiar to Darla when he come to apply for the job. He was the young man who had accused her of murder in Double Booked for Death. He has a letter of recommendation from Mary Ann Plinski, Darla's neighbor who owns an antique shop. He knows books and he gets along with Hamlet who gives him a fist bump, So, he is hired after Jake checks his background.

Robert's old boss, Porn Shop Bill comes into the store and says Darla stole his employee. So, Darla calls Jake (an ex-cop) to come up to the store. He claims Robert owes him a hundred dollars. Darla decides to pay him to get him out of the store. She has him sign a receipt for the money first.
Curt Benedetto who was a new regular customer at the bookshop walks in. Bill and Curt seemed to know each other but not in a friendly way. Bill finally leaves after Darla threatens to call 911. Then. Curt mentions that he saw Hamlet very early in the morning running out of the brownstone he was working on.

After Darla brings up the fact that Jake lives downstairs, Curt asks if she is seeing anyone. But, Carla asksif he has been going out with Tera Aguilar, the daughter of Hilda Aguilar who owns Great Scentsations. He admits he had been dating her but liked to play the field.

A week later, Barry Eisen (Curt's business partner) picks up the book that Curt was waiting for. Barry invites Darla to see the brownstone that he and Curt were fixing. When they arrive at the house, a building inspector is waiting for Barry. Barry send him away, saying that it is not a good
A Novel Way to Die by Ali Brandon is a delightful cozy mystery. It was purchased in 2012 as it was going to be used by the cat mystery group at Yahoo.com in January 2013 for discussion. Hamlet is the black cat mentioned in the sub-title A Black Cat Bookshop Mystery.

Darla Pettistone is the owner of Pettistone's Fine Books and Hamlet's human since the death of her Aunt Dee. At the beginning of the book, she is looking for a part-time employee. Robert Gilmore dresses in all black and looked very familiar to Darla when he come to apply for the job. He was the young man who had accused her of murder in Double Booked for Death. He has a letter of recommendation from Mary Ann Plinski, Darla's neighbor who owns an antique shop. He knows books and he gets along with Hamlet who gives him a fist bump, So, he is hired after Jake checks his background.

Robert's old boss, Porn Shop Bill comes into the store and says Darla stole his employee. So, Darla calls Jake (an ex-cop) to come up to the store. He claims Robert owes him a hundred dollars. Darla decides to pay him to get him out of the store. She has him sign a receipt for the money first.
Curt Benedetto who was a new regular customer at the bookshop walks in. Bill and Curt seemed to know each other but not in a friendly way. Bill finally leaves after Darla threatens to call 911. Then. Curt mentions that he saw Hamlet very early in the morning running out of the brownstone he was working on.

After Darla brings up the fact that Jake lives downstairs, Curt asks if she is seeing anyone. But, Carla asksif he has been going out with Tera Aguilar, the daughter of Hilda Aguilar who owns Great Scentsations. He admits he had been dating her but liked to play the field.

A week later, Barry Eisen (Curt's business partner) picks up the book that Curt was waiting for. Barry invites Darla to see the brownstone that he and Curt were fixing. When they arrive at the house, a building inspector is waiting for Barry. Barry send him away, saying that it is not a good time. They look through the house and eventually find Curt's body at the bottom of the basement steps with a crowbar on his back. Barry lifts off the crowbar and sees that Curt is dead. They call 911 and wait. Reese who is Jake's ex-partner is the police detective who comes to investigate.
Darla sees bloody paw prints on the basement floor but does not say anything. She later has Jake test Hamlet's paws for blood. Jake finds evidence of blood on Hamlet's paws.

Hamlet provides clues to the murderer by knocking books off the shelves. The titles of the books help the bookstore staff to the identity of the killer. The evidence that Reese finds leads him to arrest Hilda. All during this time, Hilda's daughter has been missing.

Since, I do not want to give away the perp, I am not mentioning the books that Hamlet has left as clues.

I like this book even more than the first one and will look for any further books in the series. Hamlet's personality comes out in more ways than one in this book. He can be like a bro to Robert and he can show he does not like people by hissing or pawing them as he does to some of the interviewees for the job that Robert wins. It is Hamlet's personality that made me call Darla his human vs his owner.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Valentine Reading




Hosted by: Rebecca and April at My Shelf Confessions
The Wicked Valentine’s Read-A-Thon is a time when we all get together to dedicate the days of February 7-14 to as much reading as possible. You read as much as you can in order to get yourself a little further through that huge to-read pile! We know real life gets in the way and even if you can’t participate more than one day, you’re welcome to join in on the fun!

 Twitter Party! #WWReadathon

Continuing this edition are the Twitter Parties! We’re having two ones: dates are coming. You’ll have a chance to win some prizes on there as well, so be sure to stop by!
Of course we’ll be there throughout the week too, though! ;)

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

How to Lose a Tooth


I read How to Lose a Tooth by E.C. Stilson.  This book was a free e-book which I obtained in 2012.
It is a cute story about a child with a loose tooth who tries to lose it in various ways.  It has charming illustrations and is suitable for a parent to read to a child or for a child to read by themselves.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Homeless in Hawaii



I purchased Homeless in Hawaii by E. C. Stilson as an e-book for my Kindle for PC application in 2012.  It is a memoir and part of E.C.'s Golden Sky trilogy.  This book is about the Eliza running away from Utah with Cade and thhey eir winding up Homeless in Hawaii.

Eliza and Cade survived by being street musicians.  She tells about the places in Hawaii they visited.  We meet the people they met. 

Eliza at times tries to push Cade away even after she finds out she is pregnant.  They were and are soul mates and meant for each other.  I am so glad that E.C. discovered that she could write otherwise I would not have been able to share her three wonderful memoirs.  This book completes Eliza's tales and I glad I follow her blog so I get to read more of her adventures.