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| 1250283809
| 9781250283801
| 1250283809
| 4.14
| 68,787
| Jun 11, 2024
| Jun 11, 2024
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it was amazing
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Emma Wheeler studied as a screenwriter, but she’s spent the last ten years as a caregiver. After college, she had won a prestigious fellowship in Los
Emma Wheeler studied as a screenwriter, but she’s spent the last ten years as a caregiver. After college, she had won a prestigious fellowship in Los Angeles, and her family had gone camping to celebrate her graduation and her bright future. But a rock climbing accident left her father disabled, so she changed her future. Her younger sister Sylvie was only 12, so Emma turned down her fellowship and stayed home in Texas to help her father and make sure her sister got through school. Now it’s ten years later, and as Emma sister is graduating from college, and Hollywood is calling. Emma’s agent (and high school boyfriend) Logan calls with the chance of a lifetime. Her favorite screenwriter, Charlie Yates, known for his action movies, has written a romantic comedy. And it’s awful. He is in need of a ghostwriter to help fix the script, and Emma is the perfect choice. So Emma hands over the caregiving duties to her sister and heads out to L.A. for eight weeks of writing with an award-winning screenwriter. She flies out, Logan picks her up at the airport, and he takes her right to the house of Charlie Yates. And Charlie takes one look a her and says no. He hadn’t known she was coming, or that Logan had told her she could stay at Yates’ house as they did the rewrite, and he turns the entire idea down. He does eventually offer Emma one night in his guest room, before she catches a flight back to Texas. She eventually agrees. And as they talk, Emma teaches Yates something he didn’t know about writing a romance. After thinking over Emma’s ideas about romantic comedies and reading the scripts that won her the prestigious fellowship ten years before, Yates decides to ask her what’s wrong with him rom com script, a retelling of the classic It Happened One Night. Emma has pages of notes and decides that since he’d been so rude to her, she would go over them all, in detail. From page one to the ending (he doesn’t even have the lovers end up together), she rips through every piece of wooden dialogue, every romantic misstep, and every time he failed to create the magic that movie fans would be looking for before she gets on that plane to go back home. And then something crazy happens. Yates listens to her. He takes pages of notes on what she says. And he decides he really does need her help with the script. They spend the next eight weeks together working side by side to rewrite the script while also going for drives, making dinners, swimming, babysitting Charlie’s ex-wife’s guinea pig Cuthbert, and taking line dancing lessons. Emma gets to meet people in the industry, and she talks often with her sister at home to help with her homesickness. And unexpectedly, or maybe obviously, she finds herself falling in love with Charlie. But when they have an epic fight, followed by a medical emergency that sends Emma racing back to Texas to be with her family, she thinks that her screenwriting dreams are over for good. After everything that’s happened, will Emma be able to find her happily ever after? Or is all of those cheesy love story ideas just the stuff of movies? The Rom-Commers is the latest rom com from the perpetual feel-good novelist whose consistency and writing ability makes her every book feel like a hug. Katherine Center has crafted another story filled with truth and compassion, pain and laughter that reminds you of comfort foods, warm blankets, and favorite nights with friends. Her love stories are not too saccharine or unrealistic. They are told about the type of people you imagine are all around you on any given day. I am also a big fan of Nora Ephron and Nancy Myers movies and how captivating rom com films can be, so I jumped into The Rom-Commers with high expectations and a longing for laughter and love. I was not disappointed. I thought this was a fun look at the movie industry and it gives those classic rom coms the respect they deserve as masterful stories told with brilliance. This is a beautiful book, filled with heart and tears and laughs and love, and I bet it will steal your heart as it did mine. Egalleys for the The Rom-Commers were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 03, 2024
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Jun 11, 2024
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Nov 13, 2023
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Hardcover
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| 1250860083
| 9781250860088
| 1250860083
| 3.68
| 1,475
| Dec 27, 2022
| Dec 27, 2022
|
really liked it
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When Juniper Jessup, Juni, decided to move back home to Cedar River, Texas, to open a record and coffee shop with her two older sisters, she knew that
When Juniper Jessup, Juni, decided to move back home to Cedar River, Texas, to open a record and coffee shop with her two older sisters, she knew that there would be challenges. What she didn’t expect was that the grand opening party they had planned for weeks would end with murder. But when Juni opened the door to the supply closet at the end of the night, ready to clean the place up for the official opening the next morning, she found the body of a young woman. Juni had grown up in Texas but had left to go to Oregon after college, to be a part of the tech industry. As a coder, she loved the fast-paced environment and the challenges of creating something from nothing, but when the startup she had been working for shut down with no notice, she decided it was time to move back home. One of her sisters had discovered that the storefront where their grandparents had opened a record store decades before had come available, and the Jessup sisters decided to pool their money and rent it. Juni, Maggie, and Tansy had grown up in the store, as their parents had taken it over, and they watched as the original records their grandparents had sold turned to cassettes, then CDs. Once streaming hit big, their parents had been forced to close the store. But now vinyl is back, and being close to the music scene in Austin means that there are lots of music fans who are looking for a hip store to learn more about records. And the addition of the coffee shop with the punny daily specials adds character and fun to the shop. But the dead body in the closet does not. Juni’s high school boyfriend is now a detective with the local police, and his attention goes to Juni’s uncle Calvin very quickly. Beau Russell notices that Calvin has a bunch of moving violations that he hasn’t answered for, and now there’s a bench warrant for him. Beau arrests Calvin, so he could also question him about the murder. But when Juni and her sisters get him out on bail, by putting up the record store as collateral, Calvin repays them by disappearing. Juni can’t help but notice that it only makes him look guiltier. She didn’t have much when she left Oregon to move back to Texas to open her own business. She’s currently living with one of her sisters and riding a tricycle instead of driving a car of her own. She’s not about to let her one investment slip away, and she doesn’t for one second believe that her uncle could kill anyone. She decides that she will have to find the killer in order to clear Calvin’s name, and her sisters agree to help. As Juni revisits the city where she grew up and reconnects with old friends, she finds herself with an increasingly confounding set of clues that lead her in different directions. But she is as determined to save Sip & Spin Records as she is to show off her collection of vintage rock-n-roll t-shirts, and she will not let herself get distracted by old boyfriends, angry strangers, dangerous thunderstorms, Baby Shark, frustrated grad students, pecan pancakes, or postal workers. Vinyl Resting Place is the first cozy in the new Record Shop Series by Olivia Blacke. The characters are interesting and multi-layered, and the record shop adds a lot of texture to the story. The combination of the small town and the nearby Austin creates a lovely juxtaposition of the intimate family space and the larger music scene. And the puns of the coffee drinks shoe a playfulness that runs throughout the story. I enjoyed Vinyl Resting Place. I loved the store and the relationships between the sisters. The small town of Cedar River has a lot of charm and what sounds like very good food. Juni and her sisters have a lot of confidence and all seem to be bringing their best to the shop. But I thought the plotting could have used more surprises, as I figured out who the killer was without a lot of work. However, I did enjoy this story, and I look forward to visiting the Sip & Spin again soon. Egalleys for Vinyl Resting Place were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 24, 2022
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Dec 29, 2022
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Dec 29, 2022
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 1250816165
| 9781250816160
| 1250816165
| 3.83
| 4,563
| Oct 27, 2022
| Dec 13, 2022
|
really liked it
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Private investigator Agatha Raisin and her assistant Toni were traveling to a wedding when they were interrupted by a man running in the middle of the
Private investigator Agatha Raisin and her assistant Toni were traveling to a wedding when they were interrupted by a man running in the middle of the road. But it wasn’t just any man. It was a naked man. When they stopped and talked to him, they found out why he had been running and why he had been naked. Edward Carstairs is a member of the Mircester Naturist Society, and he was getting their meeting place ready for their barbecue. That was when he saw the man with his head bashed in sitting on the Lone Warrior stone. When Agatha and Toni take him back to the where he had seen the body, they see nothing on the 3 foot by 6 foot stone. But Agatha believes him anyway. She thinks that he had seen a body and that someone had since moved it. But in the time it took Agatha and Toni to check out the stone and head back to their car, there were several other society members milling about. In other words, they were surrounded by nudists. And Agatha is determined to get to the bottom of it. Of the missing man, that is. Her detective agency has several other cases going as well. There is a brewery where things are going missing, and there is a posh girls’ boarding school where one of the students has been caught with drugs. But Agatha dispatches her investigators on those while she focuses on the missing body. Although that doesn’t stop her from also looking into the handsome Italian choir director who is in town helping the local church choir. But the more she learns about some of the members of the Mircester Naturist Society, the more suspects she comes up with. There is the enigmatic Jasper, who plays the master of ceremonies for a fantasy game about angels and demons. There are the two sisters who Jasper claims as handmaidens. There is the young man who found the body, Edward, who has taken a shine to Toni. And when the police find the body and Agatha figures out who it is, then she finds more connections both in the society and outside of it. Her list keeps getting longer. In the meantime, Agatha flirts with neighbor and ex James. She asks Charles to help her learn more about the society and about the stone that Edward had found the body on, one of the Rollright Stones, as it turns out, ancient stones that were part of local lore and stood guard over an ancient burial ground. She flirts with one of the local police officers. She accidentally-on-purpose bumps into Jasper again, to learn more about the society. And she finds time to have dinner with the handsome Italian choir director. And little by little, she learns enough to figure out who the killer is. But not before one of her staff is endangered by one of the suspects and another one ends up in jail. Will Agatha be able to solve the case before she loses one of her own, or even her own life? Devil’s Delight is book 33 in the beloved Agatha Raisin series. Originally created by M.C. Beaton, these books can go on after her death because she hand-picked the writer to continue Agatha’s stories, R.W. Green, and left behind her notes for some future books. Devil’s Delight continues the series with this charming story filled with surprises, hints of romance, and more than a few naked people. I have long been a fan of the Agatha Raisin books, and I thought this was another fun installment of the series. It may not have as much substance as some of the other Agatha Raisin books, but I thought the nudist story line was a lovely diversion, and the setting of the Rollright Stones added a lot of texture and atmosphere along with a history lesson. I did struggle a bit with Agatha’s obsession with her looks. I know that it’s on brand for her, but it seemed pervasive in this book. Agatha is more than just the way she looks, and I would have liked a little more balance in her self-assessments. That being said, I really enjoyed Devil’s Delight. I am so delighted that this series has a way to move forward, and I will always look forward to a new Agatha Raisin book. Egalleys for Devil's Delight were provided by St. Martin's Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 06, 2022
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Dec 13, 2022
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Dec 13, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1982168927
| 9781982168926
| 1982168927
| 3.72
| 2,721
| Nov 15, 2022
| Nov 15, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Travel Agent Leda Foley is finding her business is taking off. Well, her businesses, actually, She takes care of her travel clients, but she has also
Travel Agent Leda Foley is finding her business is taking off. Well, her businesses, actually, She takes care of her travel clients, but she has also started taking clients who are interested in channeling her psychic powers towards helping them find something, or someone, that’s gone missing. Enter Dan, who is concerned because his sister has been missing for weeks. She is a corporate landscaper and was last seen on the job site. It’s a large open area that will become shops and apartments, and Robin is planning all the plants and greens. She had been leaving the space when she disappeared, along with $30,000 in cash that she was about to take to the bank. While those closest to her don’t think she would just disappear with the money, there are those who wonder. Meanwhile, Seattle detective Grady Merritt has lost his dog. He had been hiking with the dog and his daughter Molly in a nearby national park, and their dog Cairo just disappeared on them. They called for him and asked everyone they saw if anyone saw the dog, but no one had. Grady and Molly went back to the park the next weekend to try to find him. Molly is handing out flyers and asking everyone if they’ve seen him, when he finally reappears. With a leg. A human leg. Grady calls the local authorities and makes a deal with them that he will retrieve anything that comes out of the dog for the next couple of days in order to get Cairo back home. The local police brush him well for clues and send him back home with Grady and Molly. But apparently he had more than just a le in his mouth because the next day, they find a wedding band that had gone through his system. Grady takes the ring to Leda, to see if her psychic powers get a hit, and while she can’t figure out what she’s seeing, she does decide to call around to local jewelry stores to see if anyone remembers engraving the quote. Her calls work, and she finds the jeweler, which leads them to a name. The ring turns out to belong to Paul, a professor and the husband of Robin, who had gone missing several weeks earlier. Now that Leda’s missing person case and Grady’s found leg case are linked, they work together to fill in the missing pieces. But it’s not until Leda hears a couple of children playing that she starts to piece together what happened to this couple and how to capture those responsible. Flight Risk is the second novel in the Booking Agents series. Author Cherie Priest has created these amazing characters, and she writes a tautly plotted mystery that is filled with humor and warmth. Leda may be a psychic, but she’s smart about it, exercising her muscles with her karaoke, taking items from the crowd and selecting a song for the person based on what she feels from the item. As she practices, she finds it easier to understand her flashes when she’s trying to solve crimes, which is just so smart of her. I love Leda, her best friend Niki, and all her friends at Castaways, the bar where she does her karaoke. The way Leda and Niki make themselves so comfortable with Grady and his colleagues is hilarious, and the relaxed vibe of the book just makes Seattle come to life in these scenes. I love the camaraderie of Flight Risk and the gentle crime-solving. I can’t wait until it’s time for Leda to create another trip for me to take! Egalleys for Flight Risk were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 28, 2022
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Dec 08, 2022
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Dec 08, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 9798201792831
| 3.54
| 3,118
| Dec 06, 2022
| Dec 06, 2022
|
really liked it
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When Claire Macintosh showed up to the gala for the Museum of Literature, where she works as director, she was ready for the next step. Or she thought
When Claire Macintosh showed up to the gala for the Museum of Literature, where she works as director, she was ready for the next step. Or she thought she was. But when she thought about her boyfriend stepping up to propose to her, she fled to her office. And then she ran right out the door. She actually ran out so fast, she had left her purse and her phone behind. But she just can’t marry Trey, no matter what her mother says. When she runs out of the museum in her gown and strappy sandals, she discovers a horse-drawn carriage being steered by Santa, and without giving it a second thought, she jumps in and grabs the reins. It’s only when she gets away from the museum that she realizes what a bad position she has put herself in. She has no money, she doesn’t have her phone, and she’s just committed grand theft sleigh. But a closer look at Santa reveals yet another problem. Reporter Sam Carpenter dressed up like Santa and borrowed a carriage to try to get a story about the ultra-wealthy Macintosh family. So when Claire jumped in and hijacked his night, he was not upset. He even loaned her his Santa jacket, since her gown wasn’t really appropriate for December in New York City. She wants to get to her cabin in Maine for Christmas Eve, and he wants a story. Maybe they can come to some sort of agreement? But when they get mugged, and Sam is forced to give up his wallet and his phone, then they have to get creative to find a way to Claire’s cabin. It’s a journey of Santa and his elf to get to Maine, and they are going to need to make some friends and take some chances. And maybe they find a special gift for themselves this holiday as well. It Happened One Christmas Eve is the third novella in Jenn McKinlay’s Museum of Literature Romance series. These novellas are quick reads but packed with humor, warmth, and more than a little heat. This story speaks to a lot of classic Christmas literature, like A Christmas Carol and A Visit from St. Nicholas. I got to listen to this novella, and narrator Sara Young made this a fun holiday romance with her expert reading. Even though It Happened One Christmas Eve is shorter than a novel, it is packed with action and fun, and even that classic holiday discussion of whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not. There are some big coincidences, but it’s Christmas. There are supposed to be miracles at Christmas, so I had to forgive those. But these characters are fun and interesting. I would have loved to have more time with them, especially as things get a little rushed right at the end, but this is a fun romance for a quick holiday read or for a short book to help round out your reading goals as the year comes to an end. A copy of the audiobook for It Happened One Christmas Eve was provided by Dreamscape Media through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Dec 06, 2022
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ebook
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0358567351
| 9780358567356
| 0358567351
| 3.16
| 539
| Nov 29, 2022
| Nov 29, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Jo Porter knows what it’s like to have to share your story with your sisters. Her mother was a lifelong fan of Louisa May Alcott, and when she had thr
Jo Porter knows what it’s like to have to share your story with your sisters. Her mother was a lifelong fan of Louisa May Alcott, and when she had three daughters, she named them Jo, Bethamy, and Meg. And when she gets an inheritance of a house in Kansas with a little land, her mother decides to move her family there and start a sort of Little Women-themed tourist attraction, where they would act out scenes from the book. Jo has been starring in Little Women Live! for years. But she’s not a little kid anymore. Jo is a junior in high school now, and she’s thinking about her future. She’s getting tired of having to put on the show every year for her classmates, and she’s wanting more for herself and for her time. She loves cross country running, but she can only commit to her team as much as the show’s schedule lets her. Which makes it more difficult for her to think about that sports scholarship that would help her get through college. Ever since Jo and her mother and sisters moved, she has felt responsible to help keep the house running smoothly. After her parents divorced, she has done what she could to help her mother and try to keep he sisters focused. But in putting herself in that role in the family, she has let some of her own dreams slide away. And then she meets Andrea and Hunter. Andrea is a journalist who has come to Little Women Live! to write a feature on the family. She is smart and sophisticated, and she talks to Jo like she is genuinely interested in her and her future. And her son Hunter is confident and artistic, a photographer who helps his mother capture the piece she’s working on. He’s the first guy who Jo was interested in for a long time. While they do hire a local teen to be in the show as Laurie, he’s a local football star that Jo has never been attracted to. And the boy next door, David, went out with her older sister Meg, so Jo feels weird about her friendship with him, even though they enjoy running together. Jo finds herself feeling resentful and trapped in a family business, wanting to chase her own dreams, but wanting her family to be okay with her choices also. Will she find a way to create a future for herself, or will she end up alienating everyone who genuinely cares for her? Belittled Women is a unique spin-off of the classic novel, with both a love of the story and original characters and an examination of the story and Alcott’s motivations for writing it. I learned a lot more about Alcott and her work by reading Belittled Women, and I have a new appreciation of the layers in the book and the themes that run through it. Having the Porter family mirror the March family and examine the dynamics of both their own family and the March family through the live scenes adds so much to the typical reading of the classic book. There area lot of things I liked about Belittled Women, but there were parts I struggled with too. I admired Jo and her dedication to her family. But I also wanted more for her. Her snark displayed how frustrated she was with her situation, and that got a little dark at times. However, the way the sisters bickered and the dynamics of the parent-child relationships was clearly off-kilter, and I worried about the welfare of these sisters at times. I admire Jo for taking full responsibility for her issues, but I wanted some of the adults to step up more and be there for her. But even with that, I think that Belittled Women explores important aspects of the classic novel and of modern life for parents and teenagers. And there is a lot of humor, which helps bring some lightness and balance to the lives of these teenagers. Voice galleys for Belittled Women were provided by Harper Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 24, 2022
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Dec 2022
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Dec 01, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 1250819164
| 9781250819161
| 1250819164
| 3.67
| 18,193
| Nov 29, 2022
| Nov 29, 2022
|
it was amazing
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Maya is frustrated. It’s been over two years since her relationship with Jordy ended, and she is still seen as the bad guy. Just because his sister ma
Maya is frustrated. It’s been over two years since her relationship with Jordy ended, and she is still seen as the bad guy. Just because his sister married a prince—an actual prince—and he joined an actual royal family, he has shown himself to be selfless, focusing on philanthropy. But Maya knows that his new image is all a lie. He is a deceitful, cheating jerk, and all she wants is for the world to see him as he really is. And then fate called her. Actually, it was a television producer named Gwendolyn. But it might as well be fate. The production company she works for is putting together a new reality show called Second-Chance Romance, and she wants Maya to be a contestant. The concept is that there is a person who invites their exes back, to see if there is still any romance there with any of the contestants. And for this season, they are featuring Jordy. Maya’s first instinct is to hang up and lose Gwendolyn’s number. But as she thinks about it, she realizes that this may be her chance. She can finally make everyone see who he really is, that he was the liar and she was the one left heartbroken. He had cheated on her with a woman named Skye, and she has been waiting for two years to show the world the truth. Skye is traveling when she gets the call from the producer. She is looking forward to seeing Jordy again, but she doesn’t want to run into his crazy ex. She didn’t want to let Jordy go, so she had told everyone that they were still together, even though they clearly were not. He had been with Skye. If that crazy Maya had just him go, there would have been no drama. Skye doesn’t think she’ll be there. I mean, if she was that delusional, they won’t invite her onto the show, right? But of course they do. There are six women total, and they are all there to compete for time alone with Jordy. And of course, they put Maya and Skye together in one bedroom, with bunk beds. Right off the bat, they are fighting. Skye wants Maya to take her crazy elsewhere, and Maya just wants to be believed. But ultimately, they have to compete with four other women for Jordy’s attention. As the days slip by, and the competitions pile up, the women start to see things a little differently. Maya comes to understand that Skye only knew what Jordy had told her. And Skye starts to see that maybe Maya hadn’t been a crazy, clingy ex. Maybe she had been telling the truth. And if that’s true, then maybe it’s time Skye and Maya team up to take him down. But will they be able to do that with four other women competing for his love and a gaggle of producers and cameras around them? Or will they find themselves falling in love instead? Never Ever Getting Back Together is Sophie Gonzales’s latest rom com, and it has everything a great love story needs. There is the jilted ex and the second chance, the reality show and the royal family. There are social media trolls, catty competitors, ball gowns, and steamy kisses. And there may just be a happily ever after to boot. I loved Never Ever Getting Back Together. The reality show made for so much fun, and the characters just sang from the pages. Maya and Skye are both strong women, and I couldn’t help but root for them throughout the book, no matter how many dumb moves they made in the search for love. There are surprises and laughs and moments that made me want to cheer out loud. I only wish I could binge the show for real, just to see for myself how many times and for what bizarre reasons Jordy took his shirt off, because that screams out go be made into a drinking game. Maybe with Jell-O shots. Egalleys for Never Ever Getting Back Together were provided by Wednesday Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 22, 2022
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Nov 29, 2022
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Nov 29, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1982188863
| 9781982188863
| 1982188863
| 3.48
| 3,288
| Nov 08, 2022
| Nov 22, 2022
|
it was amazing
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A storm is coming. While Ramona is living her mom life in Savannah, the news is all saying the same thing. There is a hurricane coming, and people sho A storm is coming. While Ramona is living her mom life in Savannah, the news is all saying the same thing. There is a hurricane coming, and people should be prepared. Around her, people are talking about evacuating. Ramona hasn’t decided yet if she’s leaving or if she will just hunker down at home and try to ride the storm out. She needs to talk to her husband Desmond to see what he thinks. She’ll have to pick up her son Alex from school. But first, she has to pick up her toddler daughter Nanette from her babysitter, because her babysitter has decided to evacuate, and she wants to leave right away. Ramona is at work when she gets that call, and she is reluctant to leave, as the company she works for talks about being family friendly but still wants her in the office as much as possible. She hopes her boss won’t notice if she sneaks away to pick up Nanette. But when she gets her toddler home, Ramona can’t help but notice the woman standing in her kitchen. Another mother from Alex’s school, she thinks, but she can’t remember her son’s name. And then her husband walks out in his underwear, and Ramona realizes what is going on. Beside the storm. Beside the struggle with the potty-training. Beside the boss who doesn’t understand her. There is a Category Four hurricane coming at them, and her husband has been having an affair. And Ramona has to decide what to do about all of it. And about her mother, who lives on the water in an older house and who refuses to evacuate without her cat and dog. And about Alex’s class pet, a guinea pig named Clarence Thomas, who gets to come home with Alex for the long stormy weekend. And about Bailey, the teenager who lives next door and who volunteered to help Ramona stash her backyard furniture in the shed, and who seems to have nowhere to go and no one to care for him at the moment. Meanwhile, her mind keeps flashing from the present to the past, to the good memories of her and Desmond, and the bad memories, and her memories of the day that Prince died. He had been a significant part of her self-image, and then he was gone, and she’s felt lost ever since. But she doesn’t feel like she can stop and put herself back together again, not with this storm coming. Right now, she just has to survive the storms. Then maybe she can take a breath and find her own purple rain. None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive is a tribute to mothers everywhere who have to carry the emotional burden of a family with a partner who isn’t paying attention to what’s going on. This funny and smart debut novel looks at the struggle of today’s complicated life and the women who let pieces of themselves get away while they take care of everyone else. Author Carolyn Prusa reminds readers of the small joys of life and art and friendships and music in between all the things that need to be dealt with, whether a hurricane is coming at them or not. I am a big fan of humorous novels of modern life, and this definitely hit me on that level. But this one also spoke to me on a deeper level, in that place where life carves out chunks of you as time goes by but leaves things in its wake—beautiful sunsets, old friends, good music, kindnesses. None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive is filled with compassion and warmth as well as lightning and thunder. And while I never dressed up as Prince for Halloween, I do still have to stop and sing every time I hear “Raspberry Beret,” so his legacy lives on for me too. This is a very special story for those needing a pick-me-up as this year closes out. Highly recommended. Egalleys for None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 20, 2022
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Nov 26, 2022
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Nov 28, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1538708159
| 9781538708156
| 1538708159
| 3.75
| 4,036
| Oct 04, 2022
| Oct 04, 2022
|
really liked it
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Kara Ingalls shows up for work and sees the line outside her café. Part of her is happy that there are so many people waiting to get in the door. A ve
Kara Ingalls shows up for work and sees the line outside her café. Part of her is happy that there are so many people waiting to get in the door. A very small part. Most of her is irritated and anxious to see the crowd. She knows that they will be a person down, so she’ll be the one standing at the counter helping them. And she likes to help people. She wants people to come to her café. She just doesn’t want them all to show up at the same time and expect her to be friendly and perky. Where did all these people come from? Ben Reese is nearby, grinning at their successful campaign for the cat café. He is part of a team trying to build up local small businesses, and after their first article on the café, there is a line of people waiting outside. And a grumpy woman who looks confused. He tries to talk to her and is taken aback by her attitude. Most small businesses would be thrilled to find a line of people waiting for them to open. But this woman, Kara, is not happy. A short conversation with her leaves Ben flat. He understands why she is surprised by the customers waiting on her café, but he thought she could be grateful for his work. After a client meeting, he heads home and does some more renovation on his house. But when he hears a soft mewing and finds a tiny kitten who had gotten into the ducts, he doesn’t know where to turn except the irritated Kara and her cat cafe. Kara wasn’t very happy to see Ben again, especially after he’d told her just that morning that he wasn’t an animal person. As a veterinarian, she can’t understand that. She opened the cat café especially to help the casts that need someone in their corner to help advocate for them. And now this guy is here to dump the kitten he’d found, and during the holiday season, when a lot of their foster families are traveling and can’t take on another kitten. She checks out the kitten to make sure he’s okay and talks Ben into taking him back home until she can find a placement for him, just a day or so. He agrees, reluctantly, and gets ready to head back home when he finds out that his friend had been flirting with Kara’s partner in the café, Charity, and gets them invited to her Friendsgiving. Between Ben keeping the kitten at his place, Friendsgiving, and his company working on marketing plans for local small businesses, he can’t seem to stay away from Kara. And while he finds her smart, funny, and attractive, he is reluctant to give another relationship a shot. After what happened with his last girlfriend, now his brother’s fiancée, Ben isn’t ready to take another chance. Kara is caught between her past and her future. She wants the café to be a success. In fact, she wants to add a clinic to it, to offer even more care for the cats she loves. But she can’t be involved in any public way. After her ex-husband used her work laptop to steal money and top donor identities from the nonprofit she worked at, she had to disappear from social media. He repaid a lot of money and went to jail, but a lot of people still believed she was involved in his crimes. She can’t let the café go down because of what he did to her. And she is having trouble opening herself back up to a new relationship. But when she sees Ben smiling at that kitten, she knows that he is an animal lover underneath it all. But is that enough to build a relationship on? A future? All she knows for now is that she needs $6000 to keep the café open into the new year, and $40,000 if she wants to make her dream of the clinic come true. It’s going to take something big to raise that money. It will take a brand new marketing plan, with a new website and lots of social media interaction. Their 25 Days of Catmas campaign is a start, but will it be enough? Can it save the cat café, heal two broken hearts, and help tame a kitten named Chaos? A Cat Café Christmas is a new holiday themed rom com from Codi Gary, and it’s filled with adorableness. Each chapter starts with a short blurb about a cat that’s up for adoption, and the adventures of the kitten Chaos is just precious (although not everyone agrees, like the chihuahua of the foster mom who tried to keep the kitten for a bit). These characters are smart, the banter is fun, and the kissing adds some spice. Kara and Ben are honest with each other about their past relationships and handle their mutual attraction with maturity and respect, which is a really lovely twist. I enjoyed A Cat Café Christmas and it’s sweetness and catness. Fans of television holiday movies will find a lot to like in this one, as will romantic comedy readers and cat lovers. It’s a fun escape from the holiday craziness, or a reminder of the magic of the holidays if they feel too far away. And if you find that there is a kitten in your life that terrorizes your dog or uses your shoes as a litter box, then you can empathize with what happens to the characters in A Cat Café Christmas when Chaos is unleashed. Egalleys for A Cat Café Christmas were provided by Forever through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 12, 2022
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Nov 21, 2022
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Nov 21, 2022
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Paperback
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| 0593201825
| 9780593201824
| 0593201825
| 3.94
| 351
| unknown
| Nov 01, 2022
|
it was amazing
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Libby Beckett is ready for Christmas. Living in Collinstown, running her Y.A.R.N. shop, and working hard as the president of the Chamber of Commerce,
Libby Beckett is ready for Christmas. Living in Collinstown, running her Y.A.R.N. shop, and working hard as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, she has planned the holidays for her shop and for the town with detail and panache. There will be a 20 foot Christmas tree, and everyone from town will hand the ornaments to each other down the street to decorate it. Everyone’s decorations are on point. And she even set up a once-in-a-lifetime event for her store. The Gallant Herdsman, Vincenzo Marani, has brought four vicuña to the shop, and he will be shearing them for an audience. They are graceful animals, and their soft fur is only sheared once every three years, so the yarn that is spun from it is the most luxurious and most expensive in the world. Vincenzo, whose family is known for their fashion house, has turned his charitable efforts into keeping the vicuña safe from extinction and educating people on them. But he is also the epitome of handsome elegance, and Libby can’t stop herself from admiring his gallantry. Vincenzo has brought four vicuña to Collinstown, and Libby has sold out events for knitters and others to watch him shear the animals. Libby is thrilled that he had chosen her yarn shop over all the others that had applied, but when an old friend from college shows up, Libby has some misgivings about it. She had forgotten that Vincenzo was friends with her ex-husband Sterling. And now Sterling has shown up in town, and Libby is angry. Sterling had been calling her, trying to adjust their financial arrangement, since her store seems to be doing so well. He had grown up with old money, and he runs the family’s successful pharmaceutical company, so he has the resources. Libby had decided not to bend on their agreement, whether she needed the money or not. It had given her the chance to open her store. And when Sterling tries to talk to her about it, she tells him—actually, yells at him—that she has no intention of changing her mind and that she would be happier if he were out of her life. She can’t deny that. Half of the town heard her yell it to his face, before she realized what she was doing and calmed herself down. But when Libby is awakened the next morning by the chief of police pounding on her door, she is stunned to find out that Sterling had been murdered. He had been stabbed by the shears Vincenzo had used to shear the first vicuña earlier that evening. Libby’s very public fight with Sterling makes her a prime suspect. The murder weapon makes Vincenzo a prime suspect too. But will Libby and her friends be able to figure out which of Sterling’s many enemies was the one who cut his time short before she’s the one who is arrested for his death? It Came Upon a Midnight Shear is the third book in Allie Pleiter’s Riverbank Knitting Mystery series. These books knit together compelling characters with small town shenanigans that (despite the sketchy murder rate) make me want to pull up a chair in the yarn shop and crochet until all my problems dissolve. (Sorry, I’m not a knitter, but I feel like I would be accepted in Y.A.R.N. anyway). I love how Pleiter can blend some humor and light flirting into these murder mysteries. It Came Upon a Midnight Shear is smart and well-plotted, with lots of twists and interesting surprises. The writing is smooth, like a silky yarn, and the pattern slowly comes together as the chapters unravel. The intricate beauty of knitting is a strong metaphor for how Pleiter writes, and I appreciate just how artfully she manages to make her stories. And I loved how she worked in the vicuña, adding texture to the story and helping educate readers about their value, their lifestyle, and their propensity to spit. Egalleys for It Came Upon a Midnight Clear were provided by Berkley Publishing Group through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 2022
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Nov 14, 2022
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Nov 14, 2022
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 1250843243
| 9781250843241
| 1250843243
| 3.32
| 4,178
| Nov 01, 2022
| Nov 08, 2022
|
really liked it
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When undergrad Jay Kemp was killed on campus, Detective Marlitt Kaplan was the first one on the scene. She had been talking to her mother in her mothe
When undergrad Jay Kemp was killed on campus, Detective Marlitt Kaplan was the first one on the scene. She had been talking to her mother in her mother’s office at the University of Georgia in Athens, where she was a professor. Marlitt had heard the collision and gone running down to the street. She found the UGA junior lying in the street, in a pool of blood. When she started talking to the witnesses, she found that a lot of them were saying that the driver had been a young man. He had looked remarkably like the victim. He hadn’t braked. And he had been smiling when he hit Jay. Marlitt had grown up around the university, so she knew her way around campus. She understood how the students interacted. She understood the Greek system, so when she found out that Kemp was a Kappa Phi Omicron, Marlitt wanted to dig into the fraternity. She’s heard all the stories about the problematic Greek life on campus. She’s seen it on the news. She knows about the underage drinking, the sexual assaults, the hazing. The deaths of kids just wanting to fit in and have fun with their friends. Is that what this is, another Greek-related tragedy, or is just an accident? Marlitt’s partner and their lieutenant think that she is too focused on the fraternity, but she just can’t let it go. She questions the brothers and takes a tour of Kappa house. As part of the investigation, they look at Kemps’ phone records and laptop. They talk to his roommate and his girlfriend. They can’t find anything that directly links any of the Kappa brothers to Jay’s death. And then one night, Marlitt wakes up to find her bedroom on fire. She is recued in the nick of time and spends time in the hospital. At first, she drifts in and out of consciousness. It takes her days before she can remember anything of what happened. She struggles to make sense of it. She thinks she remembers voices before she woke up with her hair on fire, but she can’t be sure. She was told that when she was rescued she was speaking German. Clearly, there is more going on with this accident than meets the eye. As Marlitt struggles to recover, and then to try to get back to her investigation, she is plagued by questions about Jay, about the Kappas, and even about her own family. Will she be able to find the pieces she needs to make sense of it all, or will she be broken by this investigation and her own personal demons? The Resemblance is the fiction debut from former professor Lauren Nossett. It is a powerful, emotional look at life on a college campus, particularly in a fraternity. It’s a smart and political look at the secret society in Greek life, and how they are often sheltered by campus and even local politics. This story is layered with secrets and betrayals, the darkness that is the worst of human nature and the way we try to protect those closest to us from that darkness. I listened to The Resemblance on audio, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, who did a beautiful job with this story. The story itself is troubling. It’s troubling in part because it’s a mystery where the solution is unclear, where justice is not done, and where the future is murky. It is powerful, and it is a story worth spending some time with. But it is also painful and complicated and demands a lot of the reader. It’s not a light read, but it’s filled with important questions about what exactly we are teaching our kids at college and how we can do better by future generations. Dark and twisted, but also revealing and thought-provoking. A copy of the audiobook for The Resemblance was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 02, 2022
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Nov 11, 2022
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Nov 11, 2022
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Hardcover
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| 1496737520
| 9781496737526
| 1496737520
| 3.95
| 7,150
| Oct 25, 2022
| Oct 25, 2022
|
it was amazing
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Dimpna WIlde is a veterinarian, just like her father. She grew up in a charming town in Ireland called Dingle, and when she grew up, she left and didn
Dimpna WIlde is a veterinarian, just like her father. She grew up in a charming town in Ireland called Dingle, and when she grew up, she left and didn’t come back. She had her reasons for that. And now she has reasons for heading back home. When things went bad in Dublin, she held on there as long as she could. But it wasn’t until she got the phone call that she had decided she finally, after well over twenty years, had to head back home to Dingle. Johnny O’Reilly was dead. Johnny had been the patriarch of the wealthy O’Reilly family. He had been found dead on the beach with Last Dance spelled out in rocks next to him and a tarot card, The Devil, in his pocket and medicine used to put down animals next to him on the pristine beach. Detective Inspector Cormac O’Brien is new to the area, but as soon as he makes his way to the beach that is the final resting spot of Johnny O’Reilly, he knows that he is facing the case that could make or break his career. The local Garda don’t know him yet, don’t trust him, but he has to find a way to get them on his side. They know all the locals. They know the gossip. He can’t solve this without the rest of the force, but it will be an uphill battle to find the killer. He can tell immediately that the scene was staged. But then they realize that there was a witness, a child, based on the size of the footprints, and find that a local 13-year-old girl has gone missing. Dimpna saw her on her way to town and knows where to look for her. It’s one of her dogs who tracks the girl, and Dimpna is the one who finds her in an abandoned building and brings her out to safety. But this one triumph for Dimpna doesn’t offset all the bad news she’s had since returning home. It turns out that her father has been suffering from dementia, which has gotten worse, and his veterinary clinic has suffered. He is separated from her mother, who is a tarot card reader. And after all these years, Dimpna still feels responsible for the death of one of their finest race horses. It had gotten out of the barn and was hit by a trailer before it could run its first race. The horse was named Last Dance. It’s clear to Dimpna that someone is trying to frame her family for the death of Johnny O’Reilly. Either she can trust the new DI Cormac to solve this one, or she can work it out for herself and keep her family out of prison. No Strangers Here is the first in a new series by Carlene O’Connor. I’m a fan of her cozy mysteries, especially the Irish Village Mystery series, but this new series is quite different. These are more nuanced and atmospheric, with strong characters and a charming setting. But this is a darker story, more layered, with the motives of the killer reaching far back into the past and attacking the good people of Dingle on many levels. As I said, I love O’Connor’s cozy mysteries, but I really enjoyed this one as well. I was pleased to see how well she made the switch from the lighter mysteries to this complex story of humanity and all of its worst and best qualities. No Strangers Here is beautifully written, with characters who feel genuine and a plot that flows with intelligence and integrity. O’Connor’s cozies are a light snack, an appetizer, a slice of cake. This book is a meal, and it should be savored by readers of dark thrillers and mysteries that slowly reveal those secrets that can lead to murder. Egalleys for No Strangers Here were provided by Kensington Books through NetGalley, but they also sent me a physical ARC to review. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 28, 2022
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Nov 07, 2022
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Nov 07, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0593098633
| 9780593098639
| 0593098633
| 3.77
| 661
| Nov 01, 2022
| Nov 01, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
Trudell Beckett is an old-fashioned librarian. So when the library in her town of Cypress, South Carolina decided to go high tech, by getting rid of t
Trudell Beckett is an old-fashioned librarian. So when the library in her town of Cypress, South Carolina decided to go high tech, by getting rid of the print books in favor of computers and tablets, offering electronic books and magazines instead, she couldn’t help but balk. She rescued as many of the books as she could and set up a secret library in the basement, in a room that was a bomb shelter during World War II. She has friends who volunteer to help, and her cat Dewey keeps watch over the books while Tru works upstairs. When Trudell is asked to speak about the library to the most elite book club in town, she agrees, if for no other reason than to find out what their meetings are really like. The Arete Society is meeting at Hazel Bailey’s this month, and she is known for her hosting skills. Trudell knows she’s going to see a beautifully decorated home and eat a delicious meal. But as soon as Tru shows up with her good friend Flossie, she can tell that things are not going well. Hazel is frazzled, and when they get inside, they find out why. The president of the book club is local celebrity Rebecca White. She had been an actress when she was younger, scoring a role on a popular soap opera. But she had retired from acting while she was still young, and she had moved to Cypress. Now she was ruling the book club with an iron fist. As Tru and Flossie make their way into Hazel’s house, they immediately hear Rebecca criticizing Hazel for the food she has clearly spent hours making. Then Rebecca drags Trudell into the living room and makes her help rearrange the furniture to where Rebecca wants it, instead of the cozy space that Hazel had crafted. Rebecca gives Trudell her final instructions for the living room and then returns to the kitchen. When there is a loud bang, Flossie rolls her wheelchair in to figure out what that was. And when there is a second bang, Tru goes to the kitchen to join her. Flossie tells her friend that the second bang was her, banging her chair into the cabinet. But then Tru notices Rebecca on the floor, surrounded by a broken casserole dish and the upscale macaroni salad Hazel had prepared. Trudell can tell that Rebecca won’t be eating anything, any more. And then Hazel comes back into the kitchen from the back door, where she had been throwing out the dessert she had burned while Rebecca had distracted her. Trudell can’t figure out who could have killed Rebecca. They were the only ones in the house. Hazel had clearly been really frustrated with Rebecca, but would she kill her? Flossie was one of Tru’s best friends, but she had been trying to get into the book club for five years, and Rebecca was clearly standing in her way. Tru can’t see her killing anyone, and she didn’t think that Flossie could have hit Rebecca hard enough from her wheelchair to kill her. Is it possible that someone snuck in to the house and killed Rebecca while Hazel was outside and Trudell and Flossie were in the living room? Who would do that? The rest of the book club members show up shortly before the police, so they are taken to the living room to wait to be questioned. There is the mayor’s wife and the head librarian, the new town manager, and special guest Joyce Flowers, who was going to interview Rebecca for her show Ideal Life. And then Jace shows up. Jace is Hazel’s son and Trudell’s boyfriend, but he’s also a police officer. He’s not allowed in the house, so when Tru is able to leave, she takes Jace back to her place. They stay up late talking about the murder and who could have killed Rebecca, and Jace ends up falling asleep on her sofa. The next morning, on only a couple of hours of sleep, Trudell heads to the library to do her job, but nothing goes right. She’s late, which her boss hates. And then the local start-up Tech Boys are there testing a new robot librarian. But Tru hadn’t been there when all the other librarians had been scanned by the robot, so it thinks Tru is an intruder and corners her in the library. She finally gets free and gets an angry call from her mother. When she had been outrunning the robot, Tru had ignored the calls ad texts she’d gotten. But while talking to her mother, she finds out that no one has seen her father for several days. There is mail piled up at his place, and he doesn’t answer her texts. Trudell is in a tough place. Jace is begging her to investigate the murder, to show that his mother hadn’t killed Rebecca. Her father is missing. And things are strained at the library, between her secret basement library and the tech gone wild. Will she be able to solve all the mysteries, find her father and solve a murder, to keep everyone she loves happy? Or will she inadvertently get too close to a killer, who wants to take her out of circulation? A Book Club to Die For is the third book in Dorothy St. James’ Beloved Bookroom Mystery series. These cozy murder mysteries are charming and sweet (aside from the murders, obviously). Trudell and her friends are smart and industrious, and they are upholding the library traditions of the past with their basement library with real books, a card catalog, and cards to check them out. Fans of traditional libraries will enjoy the nostalgia of that, and fans of well-written mysteries will enjoy the plot. I am a big fan of these mysteries. There is a grace to the writing that makes the reading feel effortless. These are fun characters, and the secret basement library feels a little like an old-fashioned speakeasy. I also loved the contrast with the upscale book club and all the gossip and rumors of those in power in the town. A Book Club to Die For is a great installment to this series. It just gets better and better. Egalleys for A Book Club to Die For were provided by Berkley Publishing Group through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 27, 2022
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Nov 2022
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Nov 01, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0578335867
| 9780578335865
| 0578335867
| 4.54
| 254
| unknown
| Sep 27, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Lauren Allen grew up cooking and eating a variety of foods. She loved to try new dishes and the try her hand at making them. She studied journalism is
Lauren Allen grew up cooking and eating a variety of foods. She loved to try new dishes and the try her hand at making them. She studied journalism is college, spending time in Spain and later in Mexico. And her love of food kept growing. She got married, and her family grew bigger, with four kids. She turned her love of home cooking and turned it into a website where she shares her recipes and meal plans with her followers. And then she brought it all together into a cookbook. Allen focuses on simple recipes. As a mother of four, she understands how families are stretched these days—stretched by tight budgets and by busy schedules. She offers tips for making things ahead and instructions if you want to freeze a dish, and also gives you substitution ideas and variations to offer more ways to use a recipe. And she even offers tips for dealing with picky eaters, like making sure they’re hungry before having them try something new, saving the best for last, and getting them involved in the cooking. After getting home cooks up to speed on the equipment and ingredients they need, Allen jumps right into recipes for Breakfast. With classics like Belgian Waffles, Buttermilk Biscuits, and Classic French Toast, it’s hard to go wrong. There is also Healthy Granola, Overnight Oats, Easy Homemade Scones, and a Breakfast Casserole that can be put together in the evening and baked in the morning for an easy, delicious breakfast celebration. From there, Allen goes to a chapter on Muffins and Breads. There are some healthy treats, like Healthy Applesauce Oat Muffins or Bran Muffins, Buttermilk Cornmeal, or Pumpkin Bread. And there are also ideas for baking Perfect Cinnamon Rolls, Easy Artisan Bread, and Pretzels, with ideas for dipping sauces. Dinners includes classics like Italian Meatball Subs, Grilled Fish Tacos, Mini Meatloaves, or Slow Cooker Ribs. For more challenging flavors, there are Black Bean Burgers, Grilled Hawaiian Chicken Teriyaki Bowls, and One-Pan Jambalaya. There are even global favorites like Pad Thai and Butter Chicken. There is a chapter on Soups, which includes classics like Beef Stew, Corn Chowder, Broccoli Cheese Soup, Chicken Noodle, of course, and a Classic Homemade Chili. And there is a chapter on Salads and Sides, like Artichoke Dip, Baked Wedge Fries, Authentic Mexican Rice, Butternut Squash Salad, Macaroni Salad, Baked Potato Salad, and Gourmet Mac and Cheese. And for that sweet tooth, there is a chapter full of Desserts. Chocolate Brownies, Banana Bread Bars, Snickerdoodles, Apple Crisp, Peach Cobbler, Chocolate Cream Pie, Tres Leches Cake, Texas Sheet Cake, Caramel Popcorn, Fudge, and Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treats, just to name a few of the treats that are included. The Tastes Better from Scratch Cookbook has well over 100 recipes ideal for easy family cooking. And each recipe comes with extra tips, times for both prep and cooking, and a QR code that you can scan to take you to Allen’s video for that dish. There are lots of beautiful photos of each finished dish, and some recipes include photos of the cooking process. The Tastes Better from Scratch Cookbook is a great starting place for someone with a young family, wanting to learn more about cooking at home, planning for meals, and getting picky eaters on board with family dinners. It’s a little basic for how I cook, but it would make a really great gift for a beginner cook. I do love how there are photos for every recipe. I think that’s important for new cooks, and having the extra information online will be a big help as well. Egalleys for Tastes Better from Scratch Cookbook were provided by Greenleaf Book Group through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 20, 2022
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Oct 28, 2022
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Oct 28, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250827094
| 9781250827098
| 1250827094
| 3.70
| 5,545
| Oct 18, 2022
| Oct 18, 2022
|
it was amazing
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Shelby Springfield has a lot to prove. As a teenager, she starred on a popular teen sitcom named The World According to Jackson. It was a bubblegum sh
Shelby Springfield has a lot to prove. As a teenager, she starred on a popular teen sitcom named The World According to Jackson. It was a bubblegum show about being an American teenager. It starred Lyle Jessup, with Shelby as his girlfriend and Cameron Riggs as his best friend. Backstage, the sparks were flying between Shelby and Cameron, not Shelby and Lyle, but when the show ended, Cameron left Hollywood as fast as he could. In the wake of Cam’s leaving, Shelby became a pop singer and started dating Lyle . They were social media sweethearts, until he dumped her for her best friend and then wrote a song about how the breakup had been all her fault. He had a hit song and a new love, and Shelby was publicly humiliated and vilified. After burning out in Los Angeles, Shelby had moved back to Michigan, where her father taught her about rehabbing houses. She started working for him, helping to bring houses back to their former glory. Now they work as a team, with her father and his crew doing most of the work of the house while she works on restoring distinctive pieces that add to the beauty and informs the area’s history. Her latest project is a set of built-in bookshelves that she restored and is putting back in place before adding that last coat of varnish. Now she’s thinking about getting back into television, but not back to Hollywood. She wants them to come to her, to film her and her father rehabbing houses in Michigan. There is some interest in the project, but her father just doesn’t have that same on-camera charm that she does. She needs another option, and when the idea comes up that Cameron Riggs be her cohost, she was willing to try. But would he be willing to? In the years since the show ended, Cameron had gone a different direction. He attended college and then landed a job with National Geographic, working behind the camera, making documentaries all over the world. But after years of world travel, he got a call from Shelby and decided to take some time off to move home to Michigan. It’s an opportunity to connect with Shelby again and help her make the pilot for a reality house rehabbing show. But it’s also a chance to reconnect with his family, maybe even with the father he barely knew, who resented his success as a teenager and for splitting up the family all those years Cam and his mother spent in Hollywood. Plus, it’s Shelby. He could never say no to her. But when they have a meeting with the producer, they realize that this new show will be more of a challenge than Shelby and Cameron realized, since Lyle has taken over as showrunner. He says he’s over all their teenage drama, but it’s clear that he still has something to prove. But will his machinations take down the show, and their growing feelings for each other, or will Shelby and Cameron be able to build something strong together, with a past they can celebrate and a future that has a strong foundation? Built to Last is an addictive rom com that blends a story of child stars grown up and of reality home restoration show hosts into a fun and inventive tale of old friends who become new friends and so much more. These characters are smart and funny and strong, and when they learn to get out of their own way, they are almost unstoppable. I devoured this book. I loved how Shelby was able to find something for herself, that she had built with her own two hands. I liked Cameron a lot, and I was really impressed with his years with Nat Geo. I loved watching them get together and try dating for real, with honesty and respect, taking the time to build something real, just like with the house they’re rehabbing. But the character that I thought stole all the scenes she appeared in was best friend Lorelai Jones, former country star. She was pitch-perfect and brightened up the story. So basically: loved the story, loved the characters, loved it all! Egalleys for Built to Last were provided by St. Martin’s Griffin through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 18, 2022
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Oct 24, 2022
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Oct 24, 2022
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0063212269
| 9780063212268
| 0063212269
| 4.06
| 137
| 2022
| Oct 11, 2022
|
really liked it
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Jack knows a lot about science. His parents are scientists, and they have involved him in their research. It happens that their research involved coll
Jack knows a lot about science. His parents are scientists, and they have involved him in their research. It happens that their research involved collecting roadkill and noting the stages of decomposition in their backyard. But since his dad moved out. he’s having to pick up some of the slack on the data collection. When he is out with his mother and they come across an animal in the road, his mother stops, and Jack has the choice of diverting the traffic or scooping their latest treasure. He loves his mother, and he wants to help her since his dad left so suddenly, and they used to work together on the research. But he also has to do his schoolwork, and his best friend Andre wants his opinions on the zombie comics he draws. He has a crush on Zoe in his Algebra and Earth Science classes. And he thinks he saw a cougar out back. Cougars used to live in Tennessee, but they’re been labeled extinct in the state. So Jack isn’t sure at first. But he chooses to do his Earth Science project on cougars, so he does some more research. It turns out that he is not the only one to claim to see a cougar in Tennessee, so he keeps his eyes open and his phone ready. In the meantime, he deals with the pressure of school, where some of his classmates call him names like The Roadkill Kid or Jack the Ripper. He struggling in Earth Science, which he feels really bad about, since both of his parents are scientists. But they haven’t been paying that much attention to him lately. He hardly talks to his dad anymore, just gets a random text at unfortunate times (like, the middle of science class). And his mother is caught up in her research, knowing that the grant that she depends on is based on this research. But as the pressure on Jack intensifies, and his parents don’t seem to be paying attention, Jack is getting angry. He doesn’t want to listen to the adults anymore. He doesn’t want to have to act like an adult anymore. He wants to be a kid. Instead, he feels like he’s decomposing. It will take all his courage to tell his parents how he’s feeling and to stand up for the cougar he knows is out there, but if can do that, maybe he can even find a way to pass his science class and get the girl. The Decomposition of Jack is the latest middle grade fiction book from award-winning author Kristin O’Donnell Tubb. It’s the perfect book for kids interested in science, particularly biology and chemistry. There is a lot of talk of the science of decomposition, with Jack making it really clear what happens to the animals as they break down. It’s a good lesson for science kids, but it can be a little difficult to hear about, so sensitive readers may want to be careful. There is some extra information at the end of the story about those who collect roadkill and use it for research, for art, for composting, and for food, as well as ways to find out more about the cougars living in Tennessee. I am not a biology lover, so some of the descriptions were a just a little over the top for me. I chose this book to see how Jack dealt with the way his parents were acting. And I really did enjoy that part of the book. Jack is a good character, smart and funny and self-aware. This is a good story, with a good heart, and I think kids will really enjoy it, even with all the grossness (or maybe, for some, because of it). Get this one for your science-loving kids, and they will thank you for it. Voice Galleys for The Decomposition of Jack were provided by Harper Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 12, 2022
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Oct 20, 2022
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Oct 20, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0593158067
| 9780593158067
| 0593158067
| 3.84
| 70,446
| Sep 29, 2022
| Oct 18, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
Harriet Reed has risen through a difficult childhood to write a thriller, she knew she had accomplished something. When that book became a bestseller,
Harriet Reed has risen through a difficult childhood to write a thriller, she knew she had accomplished something. When that book became a bestseller, she knew she no longer had to worry about her future. And then she fell in love. When Harriet met Edward Holbecks, she knew who he was. Everyone knows the Holbecks. They’re old money, like the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts and the Gettys. Harriet didn’t really care about that. Edward wasn’t all that close to his family either. He had gone off on his own to form his own company instead of taking over the family company. But now, Harriet and Edward are moving to New York, Harriet moving from her home country of England and Edward moving back to the city he grew up in, and it’s time for Harriet to finally meet his family. Edward is reluctant for Harriet to meet the family, as he knows that his family is difficult on anyone who is in a relationship with him or one of his siblings. But Harriet is courageous. She agrees to meet with his sister Matilda for tea, but then she realizes it’s the same day and time as her meeting with her publisher. Harry is supposed to be working on her latest novel, but she’s gotten a little stuck since moving to New York. She’d already pushed her deadline back, so she explains to Matilda’s assistant about the meeting. In mere moments, her editor calls her to reschedule their meeting. As Harriet is talking to her, she realizes that her editor works for a company that is owned by the Holbecks. So that’s how it’s going to be. Harriet agrees to meet Matilda for tea, on her terms. Harriet is surprised to have a genuinely good time with Matilda. She finds her charming and thoughtful, so when Matilda invites her and Edward over for a family dinner soon. Harriet decides to say yes for them. Matilda is thrilled, as they were hoping that Edward moving back to New York meant that he would be back in the fold. It wasn’t until much later that day, when Harriet was talking to Edward on the phone about how the tea had gone, that he told her where she had fallen into the trap. The dinner Matilda had invited them to? It’s Thanksgiving. As a Brit, she had no idea. In the run up to the Thanksgiving dinner, Harriet has to hunker down and finish her novel. But she also figures out that she’s pregnant. Edward is thrilled, and Harriet feels excited. She thinks that this may give her a little bit of power against any Holbecks who may not want her in the family. But when they show up for Thanksgiving, Harriet is met with warm welcomes and encouragement. And then Robert asks to speak to her alone. Robert is Edward’s father, the patriarch. He is intimidating, but Harriet can’t help but feel an attraction to the power of the man. He gives her a microcassette, telling her that it is a book idea. But days later, when she’s finally able to locate a microcassette player she can use to listen to it, she realizes it’s not a book idea at all. It’s a confession. To murder. Harriet is stunned. Is it real? Is it just a story? Is Robert playing games with her? And what does this mean to her relationship with Edward, and for their child? She decides to research whether it’s possible if Robert’s story is real, and she finds herself drawn deeper into the stories he tells her. But by getting deeper into the story, she is getting deeper into his secrets. Will she be able to carry the weight of the family secrets, or will the family games be the end of her? Bestselling thriller writer Catherine Steadman is back with The Family Game. The look inside this old money family, at all the advantages and burdens they have, is crazy. Watching the secrets unfold, wondering what was going to happen next, was fascinating. There is a lot of momentum in this book, and layers of lies to dig through in order to get to the truth. I loved this book. Watching as Harriet wove herself deeper and deeper into the fabric of this family, into their secrets (bringing her own secrets in there too), kept me hooked into these characters’ lives. I could feel my own anxiety ratchet up as Harriet spent time with the Holbecks, and I wanted to reach out and pull her out. I couldn’t, of course. All I could do was keep reading, until the very last page. I have been a fan of Steadman since her first novel, and I think she just keeps getting better and better. The Family Game is exceptional, and I can’t wait for her next novel. Egalleys for The Family Game were provided by Ballentine Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 12, 2022
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Oct 19, 2022
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Oct 19, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 0358353998
| 9780358353997
| 0358353998
| 4.38
| 423
| unknown
| Oct 18, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
Rose Levy Beranbaum is known for writing Bibles. She’s written her Cake Bible and Baking Bible and Pie and Pastry Bible (along with several other best
Rose Levy Beranbaum is known for writing Bibles. She’s written her Cake Bible and Baking Bible and Pie and Pastry Bible (along with several other best-selling cookbooks). And now she feels like it’s time to eat some cookies. I mean, bake some cookies. But that’s the thing about cookies, isn’t it? They so edible. Even if you’re full after a marvelous meal, you can still find room for a cookie. Everyone loves them, from young kids to old, because when you have a really good cookie, you feel like a kid again, no matter your age. Beranbaum understands that, and she has written this cookbook for the kids in all of us. Beranbaum brings her expertise and attention to detail to her new Cookie Bible, where she shares all the cookie recipes she’s been collecting for decades, as well as some new inspirations, with bakers and readers ready to master tasty, beautiful cookies that are filled with surprises, textures, flavors, and techniques from around the world. Almost every recipe comes with her inspiration for the recipe, with her liberally giving credit to the other cookie bakers who have shared their recipes for her to experiment with. And the beautiful photos throughout will whet your appetite to bake and to eat. Written for beginners as well as experienced bakers, The Cookie Bible is packed with recipes for cookies that are Rolled by Hand, Dropped or Piped, Shaped by Hand, or Rolled and Cut as well as chapters on Holiday Cookies, Bar and Cake Cookies, and Meringues and Candies, and even one chapter on extras like homemade Dulce de Leche, Wicked Good Ganache, Candied Orange or Lemon Peel, Milk Chocolate Mousse Ganache, Lemon Curd, and Raspberry Jam. Each recipe is packed with helpful information, spelled out, so bakers can follow her path to cookie success. For example, her My Dream Chocolate Chip Cookies, starts out with the basics of oven temperature, baking times, and special equipment as well as the ingredients for the dough and the Mise en Place (a French cooking term that means getting what you need together and prepped). For this recipe, the Mise en Place includes browning the butter and toasting and chopping the walnuts. Then there are the step-by-step instructions to Make the Dough, Shape the Dough, Bake the Cookies, and Cool the Cookies. Then there are several Baking Gems, some of Beranbaum’s tips to bring the best flavor to the cookies. These gems are about the kind of chocolate and butter to use, how to use the oven to get the level of crispiness you want, and how to freeze the dough to bake later. And then she offers variation ideas for different chocolates or nuts. She even has two different recipe variations for this cookie, for a Thin, Crisp, and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie and for a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie. Those same types of instructions and ideas are included throughout The Cookie Bible, whether it’s for a classic like her Fudgy Pudgy Brownies, Gingerbread Folks, Florentines. or Scottish Shortbread Wedges, or if it’s for her Candied Pineapple Biscotti, Lemon Jammies, Bourbon Balls, Churro Nuggets, Lemon Cranberry Squares, Tahini Crisps, or Pumpkin Pecan Cookies, just to name a few of the dozens of recipes included in this cookie compendium. I am a big fan of cookies, as they were the first think I learned to bake, and they are what I still turn to as my favorite easy comfort bake. I was so excited to see that one of my pastry heroes had turned her attention to cookies, and I know I will refer to this book over and over in my baking years to come. This will be one of those cookbooks where I buy the Kindle version as well as the hardcover, because as I find my favorite recipes in the hardcover, I will inevitably end up spilling things on those pages and possibly gluing the pages together (I’m guessing . . . based on previous experiences with my favorite baking cookbooks. But you should do what’s right for you.) Keep in mind, though, that this would be a perfect gift for bakers watching competition shows and wanting to know how to get started in baking. It would be an even better early holiday gift, so bakers can start making cookies for all those end-of-the-year holiday parties and exchanges that require lots of delicious cookies. Egalleys for The Cookie Bible were provided by Mariner Books through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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not set
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not set
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Oct 18, 2022
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1250795214
| 9781250795212
| 3.91
| 862
| Sep 27, 2022
| Sep 27, 2022
|
really liked it
|
Willa Bauer knows a good cheese when she sees it. She has spent years traveling around, trying cheese and learning to sell them before settling in the
Willa Bauer knows a good cheese when she sees it. She has spent years traveling around, trying cheese and learning to sell them before settling in the small town of Yarrow Glen and setting up her own cheese shop. Curds & Whey is the culmination of her lifelong dream, and while she’s still struggling with that first year of a new business, she has had an event drop into her lap, and she is going to take full advantage of it. Celebrity chef and vegan Phoebe Winston has come to town to promote her new cookbook. She is appearing at Curds & Whey for a cooking demonstration because Willa was an early adopter of the vegan cheese who is sponsoring Phoebe’s book tour. Willa is hoping the event will bring in some extra sales and some good publicity for her store. When Phoebe first shows up at the shop, she is electric, and entitled. She insists on having chairs for every ticket holder, which Willa was not prepared for. And Phoebe insists on having the ingredients prepped and ready for six different recipes, even though she will only be preparing two. Phoebe’s assistant Thomas helps get Willa all the information to prepare for the event, while Phoebe asks Willa’s employee Archie to take care of her dog Buttercup for a while. But despite Phoebe’s rudeness, Willa does her best to prepare the store for the event. But when some leaked photos of the vegan chef eating barbecued ribs damage Phoebe’s reputation, Willa is left to wonder if the event will even happen. And then, when Phoebe ends up murdered, Willa knows that her hopes for an amazing event are over. Willa will have to cancel the event, refund everyone’s ticket prices, and pay the expenses herself. But more importantly, when it comes out that Archie was the last one on the security cameras at Phoebe’s rented house, Willa knows that this event could cost her even more. It could put Archie behind bars. Willa immediately starts to investigate, enlisting the help of all the friends she can recruit, to exonerate Archie and find out the truth. Could her assistant Thomas have finally turned on Phoebe for all her bad treatment? Could it be her old friend from culinary school, whose recipes Phoebe may have stolen for her first cookbook? Could it be the mysterious stalker whose photo was sent to Phoebe and then disappeared after her murder? Or was it someone who was upset that she lied about being vegan? As Willa and her friends add suspects to the list and then track down the answers to their questions, they get closer and closer to a killer. But when Willa gets too close, will she be able to find a way of escape, or will she be put out of business for good? Gone for Gouda is a charming cozy, set in a small town, and with a good cast of characters. The backdrop of the cheese shop is fun, and there are even several cheese-related recipes at the end of the book, like the Beer-Cheese Soup that Willa has made at the beginning of the story to enjoy the coming of fall. The mystery has lots of red herrings and potential suspects, as well as delicious cheeses and a cute dog. I enjoyed Gone for Gouda. I am big fan of cheese, so I love all the food descriptions. I like Willa and her friends, but I do find it a little tiresome that Willa is romantically interested in a couple of different men in the middle of a murder investigation. But overall, it’s a fun cozy read, good for curling up with some tea or apple cider and a good plate of cheese. Egalleys for Gone for Gouda were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 13, 2022
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Oct 17, 2022
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Oct 17, 2022
|
Mass Market Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 198486114X
| 9781984861146
| 198486114X
| 3.60
| 1,947
| Dec 06, 2022
| Dec 06, 2022
|
it was amazing
|
Crash Robertson was seven when she first met Bernie Sanders. He had spoken at her elementary school about climate change, and she was sold. She finish
Crash Robertson was seven when she first met Bernie Sanders. He had spoken at her elementary school about climate change, and she was sold. She finished school, and then college, and then as a grad student in political science, she had applied for an internship in this office. Just like everyone else. But she was from Vermont, and her mother ran the general store in her small hometown of Eagle Creek, and she knew just where to score the good stuff. Doc McGilliam’s Twice-Distilled Golden Reserve Batch of grade-A Vermont maple syrup. That put Crash far above any of her competitors for the internship, some of whom had brought maple syrup from corporations. No self-respecting Vermonter would touch that. But Doc’s? It’s the real thing, and suddenly Crash was a real intern, working for a real Senator in Washington D.C. After an outbreak of food poisoning at the office, Crash was one of the last people standing. So when Bernie’s chief of staff asked if she would keep an eye on him over Columbus Day weekend, she agreed. Of course. And then she found out that he was heading to Eagle Creek to grand marshal the parade for Champs Days. In other words, Crash was going home. But almost immediately after arriving back in Eagle Creek, Crash finds herself face to face with a dead body. The local banker, Ferman Fletcher, certainly wasn’t her favorite person in town, but she doesn’t know why might have killed him. But it turns out that Bernie is a voracious reader, and his latest binge of cozy mysteries about a cannabis bakeshop set on the beach has him hungry for a crime to solve. And for Crash’s mother’s griddlecakes. Crash wasn’t given much direction for the weekend. She had the Senator’s itinerary, a business card with the number of a fixer (which, if she has to use it, will end her internship immediately), and one rule for dealing Bernie. Never let him out of your sight. Armed with rule one of Bernie Club and a phone number for extreme emergencies, Crash follows Bernie into the investigation, because what choice does she have? What they find are a tech billionaire who has been buying up as many of the local family-owned maple shops he can, a town that is struggling from a lack of jobs and a challenging economy, a curious autopsy report that appeared as if from nowhere, a poutine food truck, a mythical prehistoric sea serpent, a missing barrel of maple syrup, aged maple trees getting chopped down, and drones wanting a better retirement plan than a scrapyard. It will take a couple of skillful investigators to figure out what’s really going on in Eagle Creek and to protect what’s most important. But they will need to survive the weekend in order to set things right. Senator Bernie Sanders will most definitely survive anything that comes his way. But can Crash find that same luck for herself? Feel the Bern is a new cozy mystery set in Vermont with everyone’s favorite mitten model, Bernie Sanders, and his intern. The blend of real and fantasy works well if you like your murder mysteries with a few liberal political speeches thrown in for fun. Written by Andrew Shaffer, who wrote the Obama/Biden mysteries Hope Never Dies and Hope Rides Again, is back with new crimes and a a new political crimefighter. When I saw the cover for Feel the Bern, and read the blurb of what it was about, I knew I had to read it. And I was not disappointed. I absolutely loved this book. The writing is smooth, so the pages almost turn by themselves, and the characters of Bernie and Crash are perfect. This book is so clever, both as a mystery and as a light political satire, that it’s just as delicious as the pancakes at Eagle Creek’s Beefcake Breakfast. There are even some recipes at the end, so you can experience for yourself some of the dishes mentioned throughout the story, like the Yankee Pot Roast, Poutine, Vermont Cheddar Mac and Cheese, Maple Pecan Cookies, and “Feel the Bern” Maple Sriracha Hot Sauce. If you do not read this book, you are making a huge mistake. Let me repeat: a HUGE mistake. So grab your favorite mittens, make yourself some of Bernie’s Famous Maple Baked Beans, and head to Vermont for a long weekend of syrup, secrets, and soapboxes. Egalleys for Feel the Bern were provided by Ten Speed Press through NetGalley, with many thanks. ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Dec 2022
not set
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Dec 09, 2022
not set
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Oct 17, 2022
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Paperback
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 4.14
|
it was amazing
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Jun 11, 2024
|
Nov 13, 2023
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|||||
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| 3.68
|
really liked it
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Dec 29, 2022
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Dec 29, 2022
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|||||
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| 3.83
|
really liked it
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Dec 13, 2022
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Dec 13, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.72
|
really liked it
|
Dec 08, 2022
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Dec 08, 2022
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|||||
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| 3.54
|
really liked it
|
not set
|
Dec 06, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 3.16
|
really liked it
|
Dec 2022
|
Dec 01, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.67
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 29, 2022
|
Nov 29, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.48
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 26, 2022
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Nov 28, 2022
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|||||
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| 3.75
|
really liked it
|
Nov 21, 2022
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Nov 21, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.94
|
it was amazing
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Nov 14, 2022
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Nov 14, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.32
|
really liked it
|
Nov 11, 2022
|
Nov 11, 2022
|
|||||
|
| 3.95
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 07, 2022
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Nov 07, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.77
|
it was amazing
|
Nov 2022
|
Nov 01, 2022
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|||||
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| 4.54
|
really liked it
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Oct 28, 2022
|
Oct 28, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.70
|
it was amazing
|
Oct 24, 2022
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Oct 24, 2022
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|||||
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| 4.06
|
really liked it
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Oct 20, 2022
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Oct 20, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.84
|
it was amazing
|
Oct 19, 2022
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Oct 19, 2022
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|||||
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| 4.38
|
it was amazing
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not set
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Oct 18, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.91
|
really liked it
|
Oct 17, 2022
|
Oct 17, 2022
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|||||
|
| 3.60
|
it was amazing
|
Dec 09, 2022
not set
|
Oct 17, 2022
|
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