Tag: Netgalley Reviews

Dangerous Pursuits by Jo Bannister

Dangerous Pursuits

A Hazel Best and Gabriel Ash Mystery #7

When Gabriel Ash comes across a terrified young woman fleeing a brutal attacker, he and Hazel Best are drawn into a complex and baffling investigation. 

When Rachel Somers comes running out of the wood Gabriel and Patience, his dog, are the first thing she sees. Obviously upset and scraped up, Gabriel gets her safely home while she explains that someone attacked her in the wood outside her gate.

When her mother’s partner turns up dead in the same spot, suspicions are cast on Ash. While Hazel tries to protect him and find answers on the Somer’s family, she is also digging her own grave at the police station. Following orders isn’t her strong suit.

I have read all of this series. This was not my favorite. By now I would have liked to see more of Ash with his boys and get some kind of grip on himself. I have to say I did figure this one out from Chapter One.

I’m hoping for another one soon!

July 2nd, 2020 by Severn House Publishers/NetGalley Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Fatal Fiction by Kaitlyn Dunnett

A Fatal Fiction (Deadly Edits #3)
Deadly Edits #3
A retired teacher, Mikki, has added editing services to supplement her retirement income since moving back to her childhood home.
Lenape Hollow is a small place where everyone knows your name and your past.
Mikki is helping Sunny Feldman with her memoirs of growing up in Felman’s Catskill Resort, a once thriving and successful vacation destination. With famous stars, singers, and hanky panky.
 Sunny sold the crumbling resort long ago and there seems to be some seriously bad blood between the new owner and pretty much everyone in town.
When his body is found on the property the day after he verbally attacks Mikki in public, she is going to have to find out who did the deed before she gets arrested!
I enjoyed Mikki, an older, mature woman who has no problem speaking her mind.
I didn’t care for either of her relatives and I even thought Nick may be suspect!
When you spend your life swindling people there is a long list of suspects.
I enjoyed the older main character a lot.
Give this one a try!
 NetGalley/June 30th, 2020 by Kensington

A Sprinkling of Murder by Daryl Wood Gerber

A Sprinkling of Murder (A Fairy Garden Mystery #1)

A Fairy Garden Mystery #1

Fairy garden store owner Courtney Kelly believes in inviting magic into your life. But when uninvited trouble enters her shop, she’ll need more than a sprinkling of her imagination to solve a murder . . .

The first book in a new series. With fairies and fairy gardens and magical things happening all over Courtney’s shop. Courtney loves fairies. At least she did until her mother died when she was only ten, after that she lost her connection. Now she has left her dad’s landscaping business to follow her own dreams. Running a fairy garden business along with a tea shop. 

Situated in lovely Carmel, Open Your Imagination, sells any and everything one would need to entice fairies into their gardens. She is even teaching classes and at 29 she has found her passion.

Until the dog groomer from across the street is found dead in her space. Courtney is now a suspect! With a little help from a friend or two, she is going to have to clear her own name!

What an enchanting new series! The characters are interesting and the pixie dust has some of them acting oddly. Grab a copy of this one.

NetGalley/June 30th, 2020 by Kensington

 

 

NOTHING BUNDT TROUBLE by ELLIE ALEXANDER *A BAKESHOP MYSTERY*

Nothing Bundt Trouble (A Bakeshop Mystery Book 11)

BAKESHOP MYSTERY #12

It is Springtime in Ashland, Oregon, and we are back at Torte with Jules and gang.

Juliet and staff are preparing for the Shakespeare Festival, Jules is moving back home and things are hectic in a good way.

But when Jules finds an old journal written by her father, she is suddenly thrust into an old murder from the ’80s and wondering what in the world her father was working on something called The Pastry Case?

With the help of the Professor, she learns more than she ever knew about her parents and her town. While the entire crew jumps in to try and solve the old case, they had better keep an eye out for the people who don’t want to dredge up old business.

Between the food and the hilarious antics of the characters, the author has skillfully put together a series that I am pretty sure will keep going.

This is one series I can not pass up because the characters are so great. I want to hang out with them.

NetGalley/ June 30th, 2020 by St. Martin’s Paperbacks

 

 

SAVING RUBY KING by Catherine Adel West

Saving Ruby King

Family. Faith. Secrets. Everything in this world comes full circle.
Ruby King lives on Chicago’s South Side. Her best friend is Layla, daughter of the Pastor. Her mother and Ruby’s are life long friends.
Everyone in the church knows that Alice’s husband beats her so it isn’t shocking when she is murdered in her own home.
The police dismiss it as just more violence in this area. But Ruby has lost her mother and now her father takes his frustrations out on her.
Her father has dirt on the pastor so he isn’t helping Ruby. Everyone has secrets. Everyone is assuming a lot. There are awful secrets and in the end, no one can save Ruby but Ruby.

It is hard to believe this is a debut novel! We hear the viewpoints of all the main characters and their heartbreaking secrets. This one of the most honest and touching books I have read.
NetGalley/June 16th, 2020 by Park Row

STAKE by KEVIN J.ANDERSON

Stake by [Kevin J. Anderson]

Vampire hunter or serial killer? That depends on whether vampires exist . . .

Simon Helsing (not his real name) does believe. He has proof. And one by one he is staking them out. Literally.

Since a near-death experience in Bosnia years ago, he has tried to warn people about the dreaded lampir. Not many people believe him, but he keeps on killing them. They all work at night. That seems to be his main piece of evidence. He is also a contributor to the online chatroom HideTruth.

HideTruth is the brainchild of Lexi Tarada. She wants to believe and is looking for proof of the unexplained. There are some nutjobs on there, but Simon reaches out to her with proof that vampires are real.

The police have bodies and no belief in vampires. Detective Carrow is sure Simon is a serial killer. When the Vampire King (in Simon’s mind) throws his annual gala, it seems a good time for Lexi, Carrow, and Simon to come together. But not all of them are coming out alive.

This felt rushed to me and the ending was abrupt and left me with a lot of questions.

 

NetGalley/ Severn House

 

 

THE WIFE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by MICHELE CAMPBELL

The Wife Who Knew Too Much

From Michele Campbell, the bestselling author of It’s Always the Husband comes a new blockbuster thriller in The Wife Who Knew Too Much.

 

At first, I thought I was reading A Stranger on the Beach again. Nora, a very wealthy woman with a huge house on the beach has discovered a secret. And after her huge party tonight she is planning on confronting her cheating husband and his love.

But Nora is smart. She has a diary and records it all. Including the bit about her husband planning to kill her.

Meanwhile, for some reason, her cheating hubby, Connor, is in a small town his family used to come to on vacation. It’s there that he met and had a summer fling with a local girl, Tabitha. He was the one who got away for her. And when he walks into her diner, she falls hook, line, and sinker for his bull.

When she comes up pregnant and shows up at the big party at Nina’s house, Hoping to find Connor and give him the good news. But Conner is playing a different game with someone else hoping to get his hands on Nina’s money.

Tabitha is in her mid-thirties and should know better but she acts like a simple-minded child and it’s not a good look. Who is Connor? Does he care about her or anyone but himself? It’s not looking like it.

Honestly, I didn’t care for a single character. Not even Nina. In my own opinion, I felt like it was the same book as the last one with name changes.

Give it a try and see what you think.

NetGalley/ June 9th, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press

 

Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman

Paris Never Leaves You

A story with Paris, a book shop, a publishing house and set in the past and present sounds like a great idea.

Charlotte was a difficult character to know. I didn’t feel as if I knew any more of her story than what we knew at the beginning.

What was her sin? We know people who did whatever they had to do to survive the Nazi regime. They lied, they took food from the enemy, some even informed on their own people. But Charlotte wasn’t one of them. And where this war is concerned, people aren’t so forgiving of those who did what she did.

The entire thing felt disjointed and shallow. Not my cup of tea.

NetGalley/ June 2nd, 2020 by St. Martin’s Griffin

 

 

In the LION’S DEN by BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

 

In the Lion's Den (House of Falconer #2)

 

The House of Falconer #2

James and his Uncle are back in the second House of Falconer book. While his uncle is busy with the newspaper, James has gone from working in the shop of Henry Malvern to being Malverns managing director.

From 1889 to 1892 we watch as James goes through the good, the bad, and the jaw-dropping with all of the poise we love him for, as his feelings toward Alexis go from disapproval to romance. But James has recently been in touch with Georgina Ward and she has a secret to share.

All at once his carefully plotted life plan is turned upside down. The question is will he be the better for it or not.

I would recommend reading book one first, so you know the backstory.  Has there ever been a bad BTB book? NO.

I hope we will see more of this character!

Well Done!

NetGalley/October 6th, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press

 

 

 

A Study in Murder by Callie Hutton

 

A Study in Murder (A Victorian Book Club Mystery #1)

Book One of A Victorian Book Club Mystery

Lady Amy Lovell writes mysteries. In England. In the 1890s. Her father isn’t happy about that and wishes she would use a different name at least.

The tale begins in Bath, England where Amy has received a letter from a mystery person telling her that her fiance’, Ronald St. Vincent, has been engaging in some disturbing and illegal activities. She immediately breaks off the engagement.

A  few days later as Amy is awaiting the arrival of a fellow book club member, Lord William, who should show up at her door but the recently ex-fiance’. She has him sent to the library but when she enters all she sees is his dead body with a knife in it.

As Lord William arrives to find a screaming Amy, the police also arrive and promptly suspect her of murder.

Now she and her friend will have to try and find out who did the deed before Amy goes to the gallows!

I enjoyed this first book in what I hope will be a series. It started slow but was soon going well. The characters were well done. Historical Fiction Cozy Mysteries are the best! You learn so much while you try and solve the mystery.

NetGalley/ May 12th, 2020 by Crooked Lane Books