Linda

I found this book very enjoyable. The reader did a wonderful job with the voices of the different characters.

The author's characterization was wonderful and she totally drew me into that world and time in history. It can sometimes be a challenge to really show the desperation, fear and courage of the 1940's but I found she brought it all to life and I desperately wanted the characters to survive and everything to work out.

This is the first in the Chatty Corgi Mysteries and it was adorable. The main character Emma is able to understand what her corgi Oliver is saying to her and he helps her solve a murder by using his nose and his insatiable curiousity to find clues.

The small town and supporting characters seem great and my only problem with the story is that Emma goes over all the suspects and their motives etc, far too often. I didn't feel I needed a constant reminder.

Oliver steals the show though and has lots of “book time”, so for that reason I give it 5 stars.

I enjoyed this story and Kristin Hannah never disappoints. It's about 2 sisters who have a rocky relationship with their mother, who is Russian, as she has always been very aloof and frosty with them, although they never understood why. When their father is ill, he makes them promise that they will learn more about their mother and when he passes away they feel they have to keep that promise.

The characters are well developed and the plot is fascinating, my only issue with it is that it seemed to take a long time to get to the “meat” of the story. Once you do, however, it was riveting and heartbreaking.

Tea and Treachery is the first book in the Tea by the Sea series. Vicki Delany picked such a lovely idea and setting for this series. Lily Roberts is running a tea shop next to her grandmother Rose's bed and breakfast. Grandmother Rose, however, is very opinionated and ends up getting herself in trouble when a developer she was unhappy with, ends up dead. It's up to Lily to figure out what happened.

The characters were good and although I didn't care much for Grandmother Rose, I did like Lily and some of the other chacters in the book. It was well-thought out and it kept me engaged all the way through. I would definitely read the next in the series. Maybe Grandmother Rose will grow on me. :)

April has an ex-boyfriend who is dead, but she can see his ghost and the ghosts of the chickens that he ran into with his motorcycle. She goes to stay with her aunt to help run her cafe in Wales. Soon she finds out that she can not only hear ghosts, but she comes from a magical family.

The town has lots of fun characters and they are all trying to discover who killed a famous cricket player. April has seen his ghost and he tells her he was murdered.

I liked the interaction between the characters except for April and her familiar. I didn't care for that part of it, but the rest of the story was good.

A good cozy paranormal mystery. Ruby Mae Jewell helps run the family business and when she finds a woman giving readings with a crystal ball, she buys it from her. Partly she wants to protect the woman from magic she doesn't understand and partly it's a great find. She soon finds out though that there is more to it than meets the eye and everyone wants it.

Ruby Mae and her family (including the family ghosts) were all well thought out and fun. Her boyfriend is a vampire and the town includes magics and non-magical people so there is a whole lot of room for shenanigans.

Sure a fun cozy mystery. Terrific interesting characters. I love that Wren walks her cat Everett on a leash and that he was a big part of the story too. Wren has a shop that sells Bee related products; like honey, beeswax candles, candy and more. I would go to that shop and buy things, absolutely. But when someone dies and one of her lipbalm wrappers are in their pocket, things start to go badly.

I will definitely have to check out the next in the Oregon Honeycomb Mystery series to see what else is going on in this small town.

I loved this book. It's about 3 sisters Gia, Madison and Shelley. They have barely spoken in years because Shelley kissed Madison's fiance to prove he wasn't the guy for her and Madison has never forgiven her. They all come back together when their Grandmother falls ill. Gia, the peacemaker of the sisters concocts a story about being engaged to their neighbour, hoping it will help bring the sisters closer together. The story is heartwarming and sweet. It has humour, romance and it delves into family dynamics and how just because you are siblings doesn't mean that you are alike. I think it is a great beach read and I highly recommend it.

I came for the mystery, however, it doesn't seem to be moving along very quickly and the steamy bits are getting too steamy. At this point (and probably even before) it should have been in the erotica aisle and not the paranormal or mystery aisle.

Interesting without being too technical. A lot of case studies and the result of different people ending up sick when they have had some sort of trauma particularly growing up. A good reminder that our mind and body are not separate. What affects one, affects the other.

If you have had a difficult childhood, marriage etc. this is a must read, or if you know someone who is dealing with trauma this will give you a better idea how to support them.

It was a nice easy magickal mystery with a few twists and turns. Some of which will be revealed in the books to follow, I'm sure. Great for Summer and I appreciated the fact that it was a murder mystery without being gruesome.

Perhaps this novel would have gotten better. I heard a lot of good things about it, but for me, it just didn't hold my attention. I gave up a few chapters in.

Julie Anne Lindsay has quickly become one of my “must read” authors as she never fails to deliver a wonderful story. This one is no exception. Winnie is running Smythe Orchard with her grandmother and they have decided it's time to expand. They are going to get a loan from the bank and keep the orchard open all year long and do Christmas at the Orchard as well. They will give sleigh rides, have customers sample their apple cider and play some games.

Everything goes horribly wrong though when a neighbour is found dead on their property and Winnie's grandmother is suspected of killing her. Winnie starts her own investigation, much to the annoyance of the local sheriff, to clear her grandmother's name.

The characters and town are all well thought out and this has all the cozy feels you are looking for in a Christmas cozy. Definitely a 5 star read!

Jonathan has lived quite a life and really turned things around for himself. It's not surprising that he is so compassionate with the people he meets through his show “Queer Eye”. I think this would be an amazing book for a young person in the LGBTQ++ community to read, but really, anyone who has ever struggled with abuse, drugs, family dynamics, sexual issues or self-love will be able to relate. Johathan talks about it all and is honest and raw, but manages to remain funny and upbeat through it all.

Alma is a demon-hunting witch with the Protectorate, but when she can't kill a suspected demon, they fire her. Each small town has their own Protectorate and when Tristan, the one for her small town gets killed, Alma tries to find out why and be whom.

Add to that a non-magical friend who won't stop talking, a gnome that lives in her yard, a father who's a criminal and a dog who just shows up and you have a cozy paranormal mystery that is interesting and fun.

Lucy Swift goes to visit her grandmother, but when she gets there she finds out her Grandmother has died. Lucy invherits her grandmother's knitting shop, Cardinal Woolsey's.

Then it turns out that Gram was murdered, but isn't really dead, she is undead and has been turned into a vampire.

Now it's up to Lucy to figure out who killed her grandmother and why. The only problem is she doesn't know who to trust, including her Gram's vampire friends who have their own knitting club.

This book was awesome and I'm really looking forward to reading more in the series and getting to know more of the characters in the book and their back stories as well.

I was not a fan of this book. It had a satisfactory ending, but it seemed very unbelievable to me. The main character Susan is not likeable in the least and is very condescending to everyone around her. From what I could see the whole family was like that.

She meets Rob who is her brother's best friend and while she is trying to get more dirt on her brother to help her win a court case she starts to fall for him. But, she doesn't really act that way. If you have ever watched Star Trek TNG and know the character Data, she acted like that. She was used to Rob and seemed to feel some sense of loss when he wasn't around, but I wouldn't have called it love.

I didn't find I cared for any of the characters except Rob and Susan's next door neighbour. I wish the story had been about them.

The Woman in the White Kimono” was a beautiful, emotional read. I love historical fiction as I always learn something new, or learn to think of something about history in a new way. This story digs into the history of Japanese women falling in love with American GIs during WW2. These women were shunned and disowned and this is the story of that love and spans decades as the past and the present meet in a bittersweet, unexpected way.

Good story that has a lot of different elements to it; a relationship between the sisters, disfunctional families, romance, and growth of the characters. I enjoyed the fact that the characters were complicated and multi-faceted. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Susan Mallery did a terrific job navigating between the stories of each sister, Sunshine and Margot, and I enjoyed both of them.

The story of Bluet and her father living in the backwoods of Kentucky is fascinating. Bluet because part of the Packhorse Library project and brings books by mule to remote and poor communities in Kentucky who have no way to get to a library.

Bluet's real name is Cussy Mary and she is called Bluet because her skin is Blue. She is the last person who looks like this and is the object of prejudice and hatred, but to the people she brings books to, she is a welcome sight.

This is a wonderful story about family, friendship, loneliness, love and the hardships faced by many in rural areas throughout the 1930's and 40's.

If I could give a book more than 5 stars, I would. This was an amazing book blending together the two storylines of Alice and her complicated, modern day family and the second storyline of her Polish grandmother during WWII. Many books try to do more than one storyline and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. In the case of author Kelly Rimmer, I think she did a terrific job with both. The part of the story set in Poland during WWII is beautifully done; captivating and heartbreaking. I was fascinated by the story of Alice's grandmother, but my heart was also wide open to the trials and tribulations of Alice's life with her executive husband and their two children; one of whom was on the Autistic spectrum and the other who was academically gifted. It created a very busy and often chaotic family where Alice felt like she had to do everything. So when Alice's grandmother asks her to go to Poland for her, Alice is left with the choice of honouring her grandmother Helena's wishes or staying home where she feels she is essentially needed.

Ultimately I feel this is a story of the power of love; romantic love, the love of family and friendship, and the love of faith.

Captivating Story

The story of Jo and Old Gin kept me fascinated from beginning to end. It was a story of the racism that people of Chinese descent faced during that time and how they struggled to fit into society. It was also a story of perseverance, strength and the bravery to question the status quo.

I was disappointed in The Baker's Secret. It had all the qualities of a terrific novel, but it fell short. The character development was lacking and I found much of the story was not as riveting as I felt it could be. Without giving anything away, let me just say that I feel there are better WWII stories out there and although this one was interesting in parts it was certainly not my favourite.

When Grace Tucker, the first lady, disappears after discovering her husband's affair, it's up to Sally Grissom, part of the Secret Service, to find her. That's the premise, but there is so much more going on. Between back room politics, sharpshooters with an attitude and not knowing who she can trust, Sally Grissom has her work cut out for her.

James Patterson never fails to deliver. This is the 4th book of his that I have read and I am always kept captivated by the characters and the plot twists that he delivers. I'm not sure how he manages to do that when he is often collaborating with other writers and ghost writers, but it seems to work for him.

This is not the sort of book I generally read, however, there was so much hype surrounding it, I decided to check it out. Apparently it is the author's first novel. I thought they did a wonderful job of drawing the reader into the story and like many mysteries there were enough twists and turns to be interesting.

Character development is often something that new writers tend to gloss over and I didn't find that the case with Alex Michaelides. I felt as though the two main characters were fairly well fleshed out.

It's still not my type of read, but I would recommend it for someone interested in murder mysteries.