Month: June 2017

A Few Titles To Look Forward to in July!

The good, the bad and the horrible! A short list of the books coming out in July that I have read and have reviews waiting to be posted. Plus I’m putting this at the top;I’ve had a couple of authors, indies, ask me to read their YA fiction. Most of them look awful and I don’t read YA, but one is intriguing. So if you do YA, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the author. I personally do not know him.

July is a huge month for releases! Here are a few I’ve read.

A House to Mend a Broken Heart (Welcome to Willow Tree Hall)   This was a very sweet book with a cast of characters of all ages! Release is tomorrow!

Who Is Rich?  Who is Rich? Still don’t know and still don’t care. Release July 4th,

Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook  Also coming out on the 4th of July, Lost Boy.

 

The Writing Desk  Release Date July 10th or 11th. I enjoy Rachel’s writing.

I Need a Lifeguard Everywhere But the Pool  Release Date is July 11. I laughed so hard tea came out of my nose!

Watch Me Disappear  Release July 11th. Hmmmmm

To Kill a Hummingbird (A Bird Lover's Mystery #4) Mr. Ripley is back on the 11th as well! Always a treat!

Two Nights The Release date on this one has changed a few times now. July 11th is the latest I have heard.  It’s Kathy Reichs.

30 Second Death (A Tobi Tobias Mystery #2)  Laura Bradford is a very skilled cosy mystery author. July 11th Release.

Killer Party (A Tourist Trap Mystery, #9)  Another in the tourist Trap Mysteries. Out on the 18th.

The Marriage Pact  Coming out on the 25th. Enough said.

The Wildling Sisters  Coming out on the 25th. Very Nice.

That should hold you nicely. I’m sure my list will change later in the month, but let me know what you thought if you plan to read one or you have already been granted your wish by Netgalley!

xx  Happy Friday

SWEET LITTLE LIES BY CAZ FREAR

Sweet Little Lies

Cat Kinsella was always a daddy’s girl. Until the summer of 1998 when she sees her father flirting with seventeen-year-old Maryanne Doyle.

When Maryanne later disappears and Cat’s father denies ever knowing her, Cat’s relationship with him is changed forever.

Eighteen years later, Cat is now a Detective Constable with the Met. Called to the scene of a murder in Islington, she discovers a woman’s body: Alice Lapaine has been found strangled, not far from the pub that Cat’s father runs.

When evidence links Alice to the still missing Maryanne, all Cat’s fears about her father resurface. Could he really be a killer? Determined to confront the past and find out what really happened to Maryanne all those years ago, Cat begins to dig into the case. But the problem with looking into the past is that sometimes you might not like what you find.

Let me start by saying this isn’t a ‘pretty’ story. It’s real and raw and ugly. The characters are all liars in some way, except maybe Parnell and Steele. Cat herself is a liar and a cop. She has some bad habits and has seen some bad things.

For too many years she has believed her father may have killed someone. She knows he hung around a bad crowd and she saw the girl threaten him with blackmail. As an adult she has distanced herself from all of her family over her hatred for her father.

How one small, seemingly insignificant lie can lead to the unraveling of so many lives was very evident in this work.

The ending was a shocker! Didn’t see that coming, but it seemed slow in the beginning and middle and then all of a sudden, case solved.

I would have liked to have felt like I knew the main characters better however.

The Tell-Tale Tarte by Maya Corrigan

Part of the A Five Ingredient Mystery Series

The Tell-Tale TarteIt’s a cold January in the Chesapeake Bay area, but Cool Down Cafe manager Val Deniston has plenty to sweat over–like catering a book club event, testing recipes for her Granddad’s cookbook, and catching the author of a deadly tale of murder. . .

The last thing Val needs in her life is an unsolved murder, especially when the victim, an actor famed for impersonating Edgar Allan Poe, happens to be dressed exactly like her Granddad. To keep an eye on Granddad, whose latest job takes him to the home of Rick Usher, a local author inspired by Poe, Val gets herself hired as a cook in Rick’s House of Usher. When she discovers the actor wasn’t the only one doing an impersonation, separating the innocent from the murderous becomes a real-life horror story. But Val must decipher a killer’s M.O. sooner rather than later . . . or she can forget about finding poetic justice.

When Val’s Grandfather suddenly changes his appearance and starts acting suspicious, Val knows he is up to something. And when she spies a man who looks just like him near the mall, she watches as he suddenly keels over dead.

When Val and her grandfather finally join forces to find out who wants who dead they make a pretty good team of investigators. The book is full of Poe facts and myths. Very interesting reading.

For a cozy mystery, her characters are not at all cliched! This is one series I’ll keep up with!

Getting Ready For a Mini-Vacation!

Happy Sunday! Today will be spent getting ready for Monday. Everything is packed except the firewood. I had everything laid out and organized when OU boy shows up with a box of balls and new sets of golf clubs for all of us! Although I declined mine as I just got the Nike set and I love it, so what we don’t need we will donate to one of the local high schools who are always happy to have some golf supplies.

The kids at 4 and 6 are getting too tall for their smaller clubs and bags so now they can pass those down to a cousin. In our family everyone golfs. I remember we gave one of them a golf cart for her 4th birthday so she could accompany her daddy to the course.

We are also fiercely competitive. Fiercely. Obviously golf had nothing to do with our mini vacation but OU boy says we can practice driving at the lake. He was so excited I didn’t have the heart to tell him no, so add another pile to the truck.

I’ll be gone for a few days to parts unknown. Camping and Golfing….and Cupcakes! Voila! Packed.

 

The Community by S C Richmond

The Community (Alex Price Book 1) by [Richmond, S C]

A mystery and a love story that spans fifty years.

Jack still mourns his lost love but now he has more to worry about. His friend has died and Charmsbury’s local journalist, Alexandra Price, is getting closer to discovering The Community.

Alex has no idea as to the identity of the woman’s body that has been found in the park, but it leads her on a journey of discovering more about her home town than she could ever have imagined.

What connection could an unknown body, an abandoned baby, missing people and a triquetra have? She sets out to find some answers, unaware of how it will affect the people she loves the most.

Like having a long leisurely conversation with your grandfather who is a great story-teller, that is the feeling I got from this book.

Jack is an amazing character. A good man. And when his family costs him the love of his life, he leaves. But he is living in plain sight, only no one is looking. He creates a life that is his, that comforts him. And one that the outside world is starting to get whispers of.

Alex is a reporter looking for a story and when a body shows up in town, she is bound and determined to get to the bottom of this mystery which somehow connects her and her grandmother to Jack and the mysterious symbols she finds.

Everyone knows secrets in this story. I enjoyed it immensely and am so sorry it took me so long to read it!  I love Jack and Mary. Everything about this story just felt right.

Check it out  Here

In The End We All Become Stories..

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Thank you for the pity party support yesterday. Turns out they gave me the wrong date and time, so I didn’t have to go to the meeting until next week.

Then my Bestest Friend, OU Boy, took me for some retail therapy. Turns out I just needed a new swimsuit, running shoes and a hat. Who Knew?

I have a ton of reading to do over the next few days, plus finishing up a Human Resource Manual so I got up super early, I’m talking like 6 a.m. and did 6 loads of laundry and folded it and put it away. I have dinner in the crock pot. I’ve made two pitchers of Tea. One good old sweet tea and iced Tazo Sweet Orange. And the biggest thing of all…I ran a mile. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but when you have wonky vision from the corneal transplant still  and wear a cup over one eye, it was a lot. I may have looked like a drunk, since I do still have the depth perception and balance issues, but it felt good. I’ll be back to 5 miles in no time I’m sure.

Back to The Wilding Sisters….ooooh good!  What’s your story today?

xx Patricia  salad

The Mermaid Life or Why I Live in the Bathtub..

I am quite sure there is not much that can not be fixed by being in the ocean. As someone who grew up on the ocean and lived by an ocean until nasty Katrina came to call like there was going to be a prize for ruining the most lives that year. Snarky, I know, but today is just one of those snarky days.

I am supposed to be getting ready for a meeting, but instead all I want to do is sit in a tub of warm salt water and read about someone else’s problems. All this to say I’m in a really bad mood. There has been a lot of foot stomping, deep sighing, and yelling at people for no obvious reason.

I’m so nervous about this meeting and my nemesis Anxiety knows it’s about him ( yes, him, no self-respecting lady would be so nasty and clingy) so I believe he thinks he can make me cancel at the last-minute. Which to be honest I’m really feeling like doing right now.

What I should do is go to my happy place, my safe place. The bathtub where I spend hours reading and ignoring the world. But I’m already dressed and I really don’t want to have to do that again. So I’m going all Southern and taking to the bed. My Momma took to the bed most of my childhood. It’s basically a southern way of saying we don’t want to deal with your ass today. And Anxiety I really don’t have time for you today so if you could just run on over to my sister’s house I’d be much appreciative.

Enjoy your day and sorry for the bitchin’ and moanin’ as my Momma said.

xx  P

Try A Little Kindness..Please…

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You know how much it costs to be kind? Zip, Zero, Nada, Not a Cent! Lately I’ve been reading about bloggers being harassed by indie authors. Not Kind. Some advice? Do. Not. Engage. With. Trolls. Ever. I do not. I am busy, I don’t have time to re-live junior high.

It is possible to just read something and move on. I don’t eat meat, but I follow a lot of bloggers that do. Why? Because they have great ideas and I love creative people.

So let’s try a little harder to be grown ups and be kind to one another, if you must respond to some snarky teenager, a Thank you for your opinion, Bless your heart! is the Southern girls F*** you.  It’s a secret, so don’t go blabbing it all over the blogosphere.

I’m heading to the lake to read and take a nap!

xx Patricia

BEACH HOUSE FOR RENT (#4) BY MARY ALICE MONROE *RELEASE DATE *

Beach House for Rent

New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe returns to her beloved Isle of Palms to tell the poignant, charming story of two women, one summer, and one very special beach house.

When Cara Rutledge rents out her quaint beach house on Isle of Palms to Heather Wyatt for the entire summer, it’s a win-win by any standard: Cara’s generating income necessary to keep husband Brett’s ecotourism boat business afloat, and anxiety-prone Heather, a young artist who’s been given a commission to paint birds on postage stamps, has a quiet space in which to work and tend to her pet canaries uninterrupted.

It isn’t long, however, before both women’s idyllic summers are altered irrevocably: the alluring shorebirds—and the man who rescues them—begin to draw Heather out of the shell she’s cultivated toward a world of adventure, and maybe even love; at the same time, Cara’s life reels with sudden tragedy, and she wishes only to return to the beach house that had once been her port amidst life’s storms. When Heather refuses to budge from her newfound sanctuary, so begins the unlikeliest of rooming situations. While they start out as strangers, as everything around the women falls apart they learn that the only thing they can really rely on is each other.

And, like the migrating shorebirds that come to the island for the summer, these two women of different generations must rediscover their unique strengths so by summer’s end they, too, can take flight in ways they never imagined possible.

I love Monroe’s Beach House books. Stories of love, loss, understanding and the strength of female friendships over generations.

Heather was a lovely character. Suffering from almost crippling anxiety issues, she is uncomfortable around just about everyone except her birds. A lot of us today can identify with Heather and I like that Monroe touched on the subject of Anxiety and Depression.

Cara is happily wed to her soulmate but is floundering in her own search for a passion, a purpose on the Isle of Palms.

Sometimes change is a planned and thought out adventure and sometimes change is thrust upon us without our consent and can leave us broken and afraid. With the second one, only you can tell yourself how to get back up and make a different life. And if you are really lucky, you’ll find your own group of strong women to pick you up and help you along.

Great Read! Books,BooksandMoreBooks.wordpress.com  Thank you to Netgalley/GalleyBooks/Simon&Schuster

 

THE FOURTH MONKEY BY J.D.BARKER

The Fourth Monkey

For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorized the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realize he was on his way to deliver one final message, one which proves he has taken another victim who may still be alive.

As the lead investigator on the 4MK task force, Detective Sam Porter knows even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter finds himself caught up in the mind of a psychopath, unraveling a twisted history in hopes of finding one last girl, all while struggling with personal demons of his own.

With only a handful of clues, the elusive killer’s identity remains a mystery. Time is running out and the Four Monkey Killer taunts from beyond the grave in this masterfully written fast-paced thriller.

This book was troubling,terrifying, and just horrific. And I highly recommend it!  As I was looking over the Library Journal some time ago I saw this and immediately thought of the movie Seven. I knew I had to get my hands on it! I was trying so hard not to read it though as I had several others that were due before this one. But then I read a review by fellow blogger Shalini and I had to bump it up!

Sam Porter receives a text from another detective on his team telling him he needs to get to a crime scene now. When he arrives, he finds a man who apparently jumped in front of a bus, killing him instantly. When they check his pockets they find a diary and a few seemingly random things, change, receipts and a box. A white box tied in black string, and the team believes they have finally found the 4MK killer. Now they must find a missing girl before she becomes his final victim.

Sam feels that the answers they need are in the diary somewhere, if he can believe what the killer has written.  This killer is all about games. Leaving clues that come together in the end. Or is it the end? Is this guy really the 4MK?

It really is hard not to give anything away with this review. There really were a couple of stories inside the main one and there wasn’t a moment that didn’t have me saying What??  Because just when you think you have it figured out…you do not.

Fans of the movie Seven will love this book. It really is horribly good! It has already been optioned for film/television.

Well done, Mr. Barker, well done!  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (June 27, 2017) through Netgalley.