Andrea Ward

I love Whitney's creativity to turn a church and parsonage into a restaurant and performance space. I am also impressed with the amount of drama she can get into in the process! There were a few mysteries and a few twists. I liked the way they wrapped up. I had part of it figured out and part of it surprised me. I like the way the business is developing and how Whitney is helping those around her reach their dreams. Whitney is one of my favorite protagonists.

I loved that this takes place at a pet rescue. I love Kari and those that helped her in this book. My favorite side character and Kari had a great battle at the end. The victim was a really bad guy with lots of really bad stuff going on, so I really liked Kari bringing justice.I had several suspicions, but I didn't guess the murderer until the end. I guessed part of the solution though and it was a great part of the solution! So the mystery is great, the solution is great, the characters are great and the setting is great. This is an amazing start to a series.

I was so excited to see another Leilani Santiago Mystery! When it was my hold came in to the library, I read the book in one day! I love the way that the author uses the Hawaiian dialect. I also loved the way that she included the pandemic in the story. Lots of the stresses and triumphs that Leilani faces felt very accurate to what I faced during the pandemic.
The family issues help us get to know the Santiago family better. The mystery and its investigation help us get to know the island better and it helps Leilani find more confidence in herself and her future. The mystery and its solution are not straightforward. I really liked the way it was all wrapped up. This was a fabulous folllow up to Iced In Paradise, wonderful setting, compelling characters, and twisty mystery.

Of course, I loved visiting Beacon Harbor again and especially during the Blueberry Festival! There are so many yummy blueberry recipes and several interesting events. We get plenty of time to visit with Lindsey, Betty, Kennedy, Rory, and Wellington. So the setting and characters are what I have come to expect in this series.
The pranks take up a significant portion of the book, so the important information to crack the case happens later in the story. The suspects made me flip flop various times about who could have committed the crime. There is another twist to come late in the book when we found out who committed the crime. When I got all of the information, I was completly surprised.
There are lots of great blueberry recipes. The festival and the pranks are light and fun. The solution to the mystery is compelling. This might be my favorite in the series.
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books.

I really like Megan and the setting of Dublin. I wasn't sure about the job of limo driver. But who knew there would be so much drama as a limo driver? The mystery had lots of twists and turns. I did not see the answer coming, but then it was kind of a surprise for Megan too. It didn't seem far fetched that the family would ask her to help. So it made sense for her to get involved. This was a good first mystery. I will definitely be checking out more of these.

I love Dessa! She starts out struggling, but she finds her strength and a community to count on. I loved seeing her grow throughout this book. I like the way she uses her second sight. The suspects are really suspicious because they all have a really good reason to dislike the victim. This is an amazing start to this series!

Horror and more

I liked the plot, but I could see where the story was going. I didn't expect it to have deeper themes. So it is a horror story, but there is more than just horror to it.
I would have liked a little more character development, but it is only a novella.

This is so heartfelt and sweet. There are 4 people that time travel for vastly different reasons and even though nothing in the present changes all those people change in really positive ways. This is a beautiful book.

This is a great wrap up to the Winterhouse Trilogly. There are a lot of weird and creepy things going on at Winterhouse this Easter. Thankfully Elizabeth and Freddy are around to solve the mysteries! I really liked the pace of the clues and the reveals. This was another great visit to Winterhouse!

I laughed out loud multiple times. I was also totally wrong about the solution to the mystery. The Aunties are trying their best to protect someone in this one and they get themselves into so many hijinks along the way. This one is better than the first one!

I love being able to visit a music festival without having to leave my comfy house! This setting is fun and very fitting for the Pacific Northwest. The characters are very well developed. I could very easily picture what was going on in my head. Also I love a coffee cart. So that adds a lot of interest for me. There was lots of investigation to be done because there were a lot of suspicious people. I really enjoy this series.

I loved visiting Udderly Delicious and Penniman again! This time we are off to an art festival at Mount Mull. The castle that a rich guy built for his Scottish wife back in the day. Now a retired supermodel and current businesswoman owns it. She has Riley coming in to provide ice cream for the festival and there is even going to be a cookbook.
We meet Adam, the photographer, and learn so much drama that surrounds him. It is obvious that he is the victim, but who is the murderer? Vye, his talented and underrated assistant? Maud, the ex/supermodel? Prentiss, Maud's long suffering assistant? Luca, Willow's new love interest who didn't trust Adam's intentions? Or someone else from Adam's past? And how did his body get locked into the dungeon/conference room?
I picked out the important clue, but I didn't know what that clue meant. Of course, I think I picked up on some unimportant clues as well. So I wasn't that great of a sleuth.
Oh! And Brandon made another monstrous ice cream creation. It was green with marshmallows and some other stuff in it. Of course you know Riley made some good ones too. Primarily pumpkin spice. I don't think she made a Mint Chocolate one even though that is the title of the book. That however is the biggest complaint I could make about the book.
The mystery was great. The characters were great. The setting was great. The book was great.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.

Another great visit with Whitney, Collette, Buck and Sawdust! There are so many interesting characters around this new flip house. So many suspects! I thought I knew who it was a couple times, but I was wrong every time. The solution was unexpected and interesting. I like how the last couple chapters give is a follow up to the property and several characters. It is a good wrap up. This is becoming one of my favorite series.

I think I liked this one more than the first one! We get more history of Winterhouse and that family. Elizabeth really developed as a character and had to make some hard decisions. This is a great book 2 and I already checked out book 3, so I can read that one.

There was some forward movement on the Red Hand story and we see Sabrina and Daphne developing as characters. This was a great next step in this series.

Another crime that implicates Ellery and he has to investigate again. He is getting a little better at investigating. The mystery was again very twisty. The solution was unexpected and came up rather suddenly. The romance is still moving at a pleasant pace. We also get to know more of the secondary characters that make up Pirate's Cove. This is a great follow up to Secrets and Scrabble #1.

Pirate's Cove has so many secrets! I liked the character of Ellery and the discoveries he made as well as the clumsy investigating he did. The mystery was very interesting. The solution was very clever. And the slow burn romance is my favorite. I can't wait to visit Pirate's Cove again.

The setting was so whimsical and the plot was very well structured. There were several twists and turns, so I was constantly guessing. I love Tempest and the Secret Staircase crew. I liked the tension between a curse or logical explanations. And there are some mysteries left for the next one. This is a great beginning to a series.

I loved the characters and the set up is dark, but the darkness isn't dwelt on. I could see the twist coming and it was revealed quickly after that. I liked that the twist wasn't drawn out. The ending was forced into happily ever after. It didn't really make sense to be that happily ever after. So if I think of the ending that I would have preferred, then I like it better.

This is a powerful book that is begging to be discussed and argued over. We get a series of traumatic events without the feelings and interior changes that happen when humans are dealing with trauma. So there is a lot of assumptions that we can fill in about it. And I think that says as much about the reader as it says about the author or the characters.
This is a horrific story and there is a lot of trauma, so reading this may not be for everyone at just anytime. But it is important.

This was a powerful story. The little details added up to a big deal. That really drove the narrative forward. In the end, I am left disturbed becasue maybe this doesn't seem so fictional.

This is a wonderful book for kids and adults to see how wrongful incarceration hurts many people, but it doesn't become trauma porn. Zoe is a person with a life and the others around her are real and trying to live their life. This is a book I would like my kids to read.

The plot was okay. There were a lot of soap opera tropes mixed with erotica. If that was supposed to be ironic or funny, I would have raised the stars, but they are supposed to be scary thriller plot points.
The twist at the end was almost good. I didn't like the delivery method of the twist though. Also the longer I was thinking about it, the more I didn't buy the twist.
The characters were bad. I didn't really like any of them and they were rather bland. The trauma that they all go through doesn't seem real with their behavior though. So that made them seem even less real and deep.
So this one was not for me.

I like the magic system. I like that Amari's magic is not easy for her. I like that her roommate doesn't have it easy either. I like the way Amari is able to see that people with or without magic have the same hang ups. I like the family aspects in the book. There are a couple twists and I really like both of them.
This is a great book for middle grade or for adults!

In some ways this is a kid who finds out they are special and need to save the world. The use of Hispanic legends and Spanish words makes it feel different. Charlie doesn't feel sure about himself and he learns to lean in to who he is. I thought that part was well done. I also really grew to like the characters who were helping him. I will definitely be reading the next one to see what happens next.