Month: May 2021

PICTURE PERFECT FRAME by LYNN CAHOON

Picture Perfect Frame (Tourist Trap Mystery #12)

A Tourist Trap Mystery #12

Always a treat to pop over to South Cove and visit with Jill at Coffee, Books, and More. Jill and other businesses on Main Street celebrate any and every event. This time it’s a new business in town hosting a paint-and sip-event. Jill has never claimed to be an artist. But spending time with her guy and her friends sipping and chatting in between slapping paint on her canvas, makes her happy. Our detective isn’t the only one wondering about the couple drinking and fighting in front of God and everyone.

They are drunk and one of the other participants offers to take them back to their B and B. Problem solved.

Until the next morning when the woman is found dead in the painting studio. She isn’t from here and neither is her husband, so why kill her? And why the art studio? And at the same time Esmerelda is acting odd. Even for her.

What is up with her neighbor? Also, Jill is working on her BFF’s wedding and working at her busy store. Thinking Esmerelda must know something, Jill goes to work to figure out who killed the victim and why so she can get Esmerelda back to work at the police station and finish the wedding details.

Some of these business friends are beginning to look sketchy. And they are!

Always a fun time in South Cove. Ms. Cahoon knows what she is doing.

NetGalley/ March 16th, 2021 by Lyrical Press

Deadly Ever After by EVA GATES

Deadly Ever After (Lighthouse Library Mystery, #8)

A Lighthouse Library Mystery #8

This is the 8th book in the Lighthouse Library Series. Lucy the Librarian and Conner the Mayor are finally getting married!

The book begins with their friends throwing them a party at the beach, close to the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library where Lucy lives and works.

But just as things are winding down and they are packing up with Josie, Lucy’s almost-fiance’ Richard Lewiston the third and his bull of a mother arrive. Mother makes no apologies for coming uninvited to Lucy’s party. She does however, state her intentions to have Lucy marry her son. Almost desperately so.

Lucy and Richard aren’t interested in the least. As they agree to have dinner with the two, after all Lucy’s father and Richard’s father are law partners back in Boston. The dinner is awkward and they all head in different directions. Until a dead body is found at the back door of Jake’s Seafood Bar. The body of Richard the 2nd. What in the world is he doing here?

Lucy knows she will need to put on her detective hat in order to clear up the death and get rid of the grieving widow and her son before she can even think about walking down the aisle.

As for Charles, let’s just say he isn’t very happy with what she brings home. Charles is one of my favorite characters. Very discerning cat.

I enjoy this series so much. It’s a library. In a Lighthouse. Living in a lighthouse, be still my heart! So ready for the next book!

NetGalley Reviews/ Crooked Lane Books Out Now





the summer of lost and found by Mary Alice Monroe

The Summer of Lost and Found

From the Queen of the Beach Reads comes Ms. Monroe’s latest.

I love this Beach series. Maybe because Charleston is my ancestral home as well. All the names and places are familiar to me and I feel like I’m reading a letter from home.

The Rutledge family has always been a part of Charleston. The family has seen hard times and wonderful times. They have found love and lost it. But the one place they have always come to heal is the beach house from Grandma Lovie. It’s the one sure thing. So when Linnea needs a place to stay after Covid forces layoffs at the marine center, it’s to the cottage she goes.

Across the street Cara waits for David to return from London with little Hope by her side. When he returns he is already sick and must quarantine himself in his room while Hope goes to stay with Linnea. And who should also be in quarantine but John right next door.

Everyone is worried and afraid for their loved ones. Linnea’s boyfriend Gorden finally arrives from London and again goes into quarantine. Now both men she cares for are right next door. What’s a girl to do?

This book was written during Covid. We can all sympathize with the family as we are living it along with them.

But never fear, the ending had me in a puddle on the floor and yet feeling hopeful.

NetGalley Review/ May 11th, 2021 by Gallery Books

No, I’m not okay. But I will be.

It’s been a wild May and it is only week one!

OU Boy and I had decided I would take the Moderna vaccine and if I didn’t die then he would take it. I was so anxious the day before I almost chickened out but I need to leave the country soon and I have to have proof that I have had the shots.

Obviously the universe had other plans. We got there and I had my shot. Then Jennifer, our pharmacist told OU Boy she had one dose left as someone had chickened out. So he got stuck too.

For all the people in my life who told me how good they slept after the first shot and how painless it was? Screw you all.

From Saturday evening until Tuesday evening we couldn’t even move our arms. I was so glad I had mine in the left arm or I couldn’t have gone to the bathroom alone! We had fever, chills, PAIN. At one point I would have chopped the arm off. I had Covid last year. There was no PAIN. Granted it was six weeks of hell, but I recovered.

Wednesday dawned sunny and I had no more pain. Physical pain. As most of you know my mother left this earth on December 5th. May 5th is my birthday. This was the first time in my life I didn’t receive a card from my Momma. Plus that 5 a.m. text. So that set off the sobbing jag that lasted all day and night. I was already on the edge of a full-blown anxiety attack. As most of you already know it’s been almost five years since the great eye debacle (corneal transplant) and Monday my surgeon released me to a corneal specialist. I am finally stable. And what did I do? Pick up the phone to tell Momma.

It’s all these firsts that are gutting me. I am lucky I have three sisters and a brother who buoyed me up through texts, and lots of love. And OU Boy who took me to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant where they thought we were celebrating Cinco de Mayo. I’m French. We lost that minor battle, so no, it was Cinco de Patricia.

But we made it through. But that second shot on the 29th I am already ancy about!

Hope everyone is well and doing their best to stay healthy.

xx P

THE GLORIOUS GUINNESS GIRLS by EMILY HOURICAN

Everyone has hear of the Guinness family but I’ve never known much about the girls. This clears all of that up and very well.

This was a book of truths and an imagined tale. The author has done her research and this was a joy to read.

These girls seemed to have it all. The money, the name, and all the tight restrictions of the time. Fliss isn’t one of them and yet she is. It is her story most of all and it was an emotional one.

With their mother indisposed with some vague ailment, Fliss is charged with chaperoning the girls. She sleeps with them and eats with them but she knows she is not one of them.

The girls led very interesting and tragic lives and it is all here in this captivating book.

The author writes beautifully and the energy jumps off the page. Very Well Done!

May 4. 2021 Grand Central Publishing

the newcomer by mary kay andrews

The Newcomer

In trouble and on the run…



Letty Carnahan is looking over her shoulder in a panic as she and her niece, Maya, run from New York to Florida. Things have gone terribly wrong and the worst- case scenario is now happening.

Letty’s sister, Tanya, is not exactly a paragon of truth and virtue. Hooking up with the slimiest of men. This time she chose the wrong guy. Oh, he looks good on paper, but is as scummy as they come. Tanya tells Letty that if anything happens to her, look at the husband. And then take this shoe of money and Maya and run.

When Letty turns up for her standard Sunday with Maya, what she finds is a body and a screaming child. What does she do? She runs. With no idea why she is going to some old motel in an old Southern Living article her sister included with the go-bag, she pushes forward until she finally reaches Treasure Island and The Murmuring Surf Motel.

Why is she here? What does this place have to do with Tanya? And why, oh why, does the motel manager’s son have to be a cop?

Ms. Andrews is the queen of the beach reads. This is one that had a bit of everything in it. Much like real life. The characters are so real and the story so compelling you may want to hit the road to find Treasure Island yourself.

Always a pleasure!

NetGalley/ May 4th, 2021 St. Martin’s Press



THE CURSE OF THE CHERRY PIE by AMY PATRICIA MEADE

The Curse of the Cherry Pie

A Tish Tarragon Mystery

We are back at Cookin’ the Books Cafe’ with literary caterer Tish Tarragon and Celestine, her baker of the most heavenly foods.

Celestine has entered the very uppity Virginia Commonwealth Bake-Off but at the last minute is unable to attend. Although Tish isn’t sure she can measure up to her baker, she will jump in and try and at least win the prize money to help her friend.

Her entries sound lovely. And her final entry will be a Frangipane Cherry Pie. Keeping her fingers crossed, she shows up on the first day only to find out the last two contestants who baked a cherry pie died.

The rivalries in the baking world are legendary and even though this isn’t the Great British Bake-Off, one of the contestants is acting like a Royal. The winner of last year is about the most out of touch and ridiculous baker ever. Looking more like June Cleaver than Julia Child, she has a facade that is about to crack like an egg.

And it looks as if someone is out to shut down Tish’s chances on day one. As the shenanlgans progress Tish may not live to see who wins!

Always a good tale with Tish!

NetGalley/ May 4, 2021 Severn House

FLAT WHITE by SANDRA BALZO (A Maggy Thorson Mystery)

Flat White

Coffee and romance – the perfect way to warm a freezing winter at Uncommon Grounds! Until Maggy Thorsen’s new barista’s beau turns up on the doorstep, bringing a deadly chill with him…

We are back in Wisconsin with Maggy and her partner Sarah at their coffee shop, Uncommon Grounds. Amy is taking a vacation so the ladies have asked their neighbor, Christy to fill in as barista. Between her cleaning obsession and her talking about her new beau, Barry, they could have probably done the job themselves.

Christy is an odd duck. Her last beau was in prison but this time she jumped into the online dating scene. And she believes her love life is about to improve vastly. The girls are skeptical at best until she lets them know that Barry is coming to town! To bring her a gift.

On the day he is due to show up, there is an awful snowstorm (remember this is Wisconsin) and while they may not have many customers, Harold has parked the snowplow at the top of the street and is in need of not coffee, but the bathroom. STAT!

Alas, the love of Christy’s life is about to be as dead as a doorknob. As Barry crosses over to the coffee shop, the snowplow suddenly roars to life, or is that the storm? Before you can breathe, Barry is flat and white. And Christy is in shock.

As Maggy tries to help Christy, things just get worse. A wife, a lying friend and secrets come out of the storm.

I love this series. Mainly because of Sarah! I tell you that woman has the smartest mouth, and I adore her! I went around telling everyone I knew about Flat White, just so I could tell them how the man died. Clever language and mysterious characters abound in this new mystery at Uncommon Grounds.

NetGalley/ May 4th, 2021 by Severn House Publishers



HAPPY MAY DAY!

Can you believe it’s May again? Things are so different everywhere. Here the mask mandates have expired.

The Governor signed into law that no one can get an abortion. Ever. He says he is pro-life. Aren’t we all? Next up should be Viagra taken down so those men couldn’t knock anyone up.

He also said we are now a Second Amendment Sanctuary State. What?? Does that mean if you can’t use a gun in your own state you can come here?

OU Boy and I discussed the Moderna vaccine and decided I would get it and if I didn’t die, he would get it.

Poor thing. We went this morning for mine and they had a cancellation so she gave him one too. He’s been throwing up since. My arm is really sore but I am alive.

It’s been good weather so I have been outside walking or running my 5 miles a day. Other than that it’s just been reading and reviewing.

I am reading The Glorious Guinness Girls right now. Interesting read.

Have a good weekend and welcome to May~