Category: Families

Death and Daisies (A Magic Garden Mystery) by AMANDA FLOWER

Death and Daisies (A Magic Garden Mystery #2)

Florist Fiona Knox left behind her gloomy life for a magical garden in Scotland, but a murder on her shop’s opening day spells doom.

Fiona has inherited her godfather’s cottage in Duncreigan,Scotland. She has fond memories of the place and the magical garden hidden from view with high walls.

It seems like a good idea to open her flower shop there while she gets over a bad break up and a failed business. Until she finds a dead person among the blooms.

On the plus side she did meet the hunky Chief Inspector Neil Craig and her life seems to be headed in the right direction. But when her sister Isla, fresh from college, appears on her doorstep to help her out, things start going wrong.

The local minister wants her out of town and even kicked her out of church! And when the minister’s body is found on the beach there are more suspects than she can keep up with! And what is with Isla? Sneaking off, not coming home? Is she in trouble?

This time Fi may end up knowing more than she wanted to about any of it.

This is a really good series. All of Amanda’s books are good. I especially like the descriptions of the area and all of the characters are solid.

Well Done!

Netgalley/November 13th 2018 by Crooked Lane Books

 

 

THE SISTERS by KATE FORSTER

The Sisters

This one had everything! Spoiled rotten and filthy rich, the de Santoval triplets are a handful.

Grace is interested in nothing or no one except art. Violetta has just signed up for a reality show based on her love of partying and making the papers. Carlotta just wants to work with her horses and she’ll do anything to get what she wants.

When they receive a call saying their mother is in a coma and their father is on the lam with millions, their lives are turned inside out. All of them have dirty little secrets as well as some tragic ones.

We watch them go from very unlikable girls to strong adult women who have to learn to run their mother’s company, and in doing so they discover who they really are and what they really want.

I really loved this one. It had everything. Fashion, Art, Horses and women who take their destiny into their own hands, sleazy businessmen and cheating husbands as well as a man claiming to be their brother.

I loved their mother Birdie most of all. And I’m still not sure she didn’t know what was going on. Well Done!

Netgalley/ November 20th 2018 by Aria

Cuckoo by Sophie Draper

There’s a stranger in your home…

Or is there?

Coming back to her childhood home in Derbyshire for her step-mother, Elizabeth’s funeral, Caro is happy to see her sister who has been out of touch for a long time.

When she is told that the house and everything her father had was left to her and her sister. When her sister tells her she has no interest in any of it and wants Caro to have it all. Coming off a bad break up it seems perfect for her to live in the house and have a new start.

But as Caro begins to go through and sort out all of Elizabeth’s belongings, things start getting weird. Is there a ghost in the house or is someone trying to harm her? The trouble is Caro can’t remember a lot of her childhood and what she is about to find out will shock her to her core!

This was one twisty, wicked good tale! Even I wasn’t sure who the bad people were.

Well Done! 5*

Netgalley/November 29th 2018 by Avon UK

Let me say that this has been one of the hardest secrets I’ve had to keep! When a publisher emails you that you can’t show the title, the story and that you can not even talk about it until Halloween! Oh how happy I was to hear from her today! So here it is!

Song of the Damned (A Phineas Fox Mystery) by SARAH RAYNE

Song of the Damned: A Musically-Inspired Mystery

A macabre liturgy. A mysterious carving. An intriguing 200-year-old mystery for music researcher Phineas Fox to solve. 

Phineas Fox is one of my favorite characters, as is the lovely Arabella. When Phin is asked to authenticate an opera by the head of Cresacre Abbey School, Arabella is excited as she was once a student there and has heard all of the theories of the missing nuns.

The more Phin digs into the opera and the men who wrote it, he finds that the events that happened centuries ago may still be deadly today.

As Arabella tries to visit one of her old classmates, Olivia Tolliver, she feels something is off. Why has Olivia become reclusive and maybe a bit nuts? Does it have anything to do with what is hidden in the basement?

This was told in present time as well as the 1790’s through the diaries of a Sister Cecilia, one of the nuns who supposedly disappeared and a man who is a mystery to all of them.

Historical Mystery Fiction or whatever genre you would like to put on this one, this author never disappoints. I would highly recommend this one!

Netgalley Reviews/ November 1st 2018 by Severn House Publishers

THE SAVAGE SHORE by DAVID HEWSON

The Savage Shore

A Nick Costa Italian Mystery

Detective Nic Costa finds himself a stranger in a strange land when he’s sent to infiltrate the mob in a remote part of southern Italy. 

Nic Costa is one of my favorite detectives. Now he has been sent undercover to the Calabrian coast to pose as a long-lost family member of the ‘Ndrangheta, or the Mob. One of the biggest leaders wants to retire. He wants to flip and give them an even bigger fish, The Butcher of Palermo.

While his team impatiently waits Nic jumps in and becomes a mobster. The team is suspicious of the entire operation and each other. Some things just aren’t adding up and when the time comes to carry out their plan will they be walking into an ambush?

The descriptions of the country are so detailed and beautiful I wanted to go there myself. And even though you think you know what’s going on, in the end you don’t.

I can’t wait for the next Nic Costa book. So happy to have read this one that kept me captivated. It was like the Mafia meets the Illuminati!

Well Done!

Netgalley/ November 01, 2018 Severn House/Creme de la Creme

 

Dear Santa by Nancy Naigle

Dear Santa

A holiday retelling of You’ve Got Mail that will make you fall in love with the Christmas Season!

Angela Carson inherited her lighthouse turned holiday store, Heart of Christmas as well as her Grandmother’s beach home.

The business has been run by three generations of women trying to support their family and being a part of the small town of Pleasant Sands, North Carolina.

But since a new chain store has come to town, this may be the last generation to have a store.

As Angela struggles to make a decision, her niece suggests she write to Santa on her app. To get her sister off of her back, she does. And finds a pen pal with good advice and maybe a chance at love.

This was such a sweet Christmas miracle story. I hope we see more of Angela and Pleasant Sands. There are quite a few really good characters here. It wasn’t sappy but it was uplifting and made me smile a lot!

Well Done!

Netgalley/October 16th 2018 by St. Martin’s Griffin

The Coordinates of Loss by Amanda Prowse * Release Day *

The Coordinates of Loss by [Prowse, Amanda]

From bestselling author Amanda Prowse comes a tale of a blissful life, a happy marriage, a beloved son…and a tragedy that destroys it all.

The Crofts are living their best lives on Bermuda. Until one day Rachel wakes up on their boat to find their son missing. What follows is a look at how we all handle the grief of the loss of a loved one.

James wants to face this with Rachel, a team, getting through this together but Rachel runs. To Bristol immersing herself in grief and her own confusion. Until she receives a letter from her housekeeper in Bermuda, Cee-Cee.

Cee-Cee has seen her own tragedy and reaches out to Rachel. In this exchange they both learn some things.

The story is told from Rachel’s point of view and Cee-Cee’s point of view, alternating between the two.

A beautiful story and very well written. There are a lot of characters and it is interesting to see just how each of them handles the loss. Some tip toe around it, some are staunch supporters and some just don’t know what to say. Much like a lot of us.

Well Done! This one I will read again!

Netgalley/ Amazon UK/ Lake Union

September 25, 2018