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Review: The Perfect Son by Lauren North
Full disclosure, I wanted to read this book because I loved the cover. It was eye catching and coupled with the title suggested and interesting and complex mystery that I was instantly dying to read. This book is also the author’s debut and I was even more excited to read it since her author bio sounded so relatable! Here’s the CliffNotes version—Lauren’s love of psychological suspense has grown since childhood and her dark imagination of always wondering what’s the worst thing that could happen in every situation—I felt like I found my person! Like many kids I had a huge imagination but unlike other kids who were dreaming of unicorns…
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Review: Relative Fortunes (Julia Kydd #1) by Marlowe Benn
I decided to read this book based purely on the cover art. The cover art suggests a fun historical mystery with a quirky and fashionable lady detective. Plus it was the first in a new series and I couldn’t help but get excited to be one of the first people to read Julia Kydd! The 1920s aren’t really my favorite era to read, but I love the art and fashion and have read a few historical mysteries that have been set in that period and loved them so I am typically open to reading more from that time period. I was excited to see that this was the authors first…
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Review: Chai Another Day (A Spice Shop Mystery #4) by Leslie Budewitz
This mystery series sounded like the perfect cozy book to read with a warm up of tea! I loved that it was set in a tea shop in Seattle’s famous Pike’s Place Market. A place that I have visited on a number of occasions. I thought that a book set in that quirky little market would be idyllic and something very ‘Pacific Northwest’. It was and easy yes for me and I was thrilled when it arrived. Even though it was the fourth book in a series, it sounded like it was going to be more mystery focused rather than focusing on the characters and their lives. So I didn’t…
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Review: The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
This was a book that I almost passed on for my review calendar. I was eager to do a feature and giveaway for it because I know that a lot of my readers are into the show Stranger Things and this book was recommended for fans of the show. But I wasn’t sure that this was going to be a book that I could fit into my summer reading. When the book arrived on my desk for review I looked at it and it was pretty short with fairly direct writing style and I thought about it a little bit but then casually set it aside. The days went on…
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Special Feature and Excerpt: The Escape Room
I know I have a lot of fans who love thrillers! I know that I love a great thriller especially on a lazy summer day. There is nothing like passing a couple of hours reading a truly captivating mystery with chilling or thrilling twists. This summer one of the latest thrillers to be released is The Escape Room by Megan Goldin and I am ecstatic to share this excerpt with you all today! Goldin has been highly praised by the well known thriller writer, Lee Childs, and her first novel won rave reviews from readers too. If you are looking for something new and fast paced to read then come…
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Special Feature: Someone We Know by Shari Lapena
I had the pleasure of discovering Shari Lapena’s books last summer with, The Unwanted Guest, and thought it was pretty good. I was definitely open to reading more books by her in the future. I know that a lot of people love her books and this book, Someone We Know, is her latest and sounds like it’s going to be a thrilling release that you will want to read this fall! I know that a lot of people love reading mysteries and thrillers in the fall and I am one of those people. This book is definitely going to be at the top of my reading list this fall. It’s…
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Re Post Review: The Prisoner in the Castle (Maggie Hope Mystery #8) by Susan Elia MacNeal
When I first discovered the Maggie Hope books back in 2012, I was overjoyed to find another new and exciting sleuth but this time with a new twist, she was more of a spy versus an amateur detective. As time has gone by, I have grown incredibly attached to Maggie Hope and her author, Susan Elia MacNeal. I was one of the first readers of this series and one of the first people to openly love and rave about Maggie to anyone who would listen. Since then, there have been eight books and each one so different from the other. Her character arc has gone in a number of different…
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Review: The Undertaker’s Assistant by Amanda Skenandore
The setting of this book instantly caught my eye and made me want to read it. It is set in Reconstruction Era Louisiana and features an undertakers assistant as the heroine. As many of you know, my Masters thesis was on women in Civil War nursing specifically Southern nurses through the Reconstruction era. So to say that this book caught my eye was an understatement—I was practically chomping at the bit to read it! I finished my Masters degree three years ago, and since then I have not read a ton of books set in the Civil War or Reconstruction eras mostly because I felt burnt out but every once…
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Review: A Family of Strangers by Emilie Richards
This is a book that I was looking forward to for quite some time. I was really interested in the family dynamics in this summary, especially since I am the oldest sister and my younger sister and I are in constant completion with each other. I thought this one would yield interesting family relationships and dynamics as well as present a fascinating mystery with lots of things to question and debate. Plus this author has written a number of books, most of which are women fiction or romance, sprinkled with a few mysteries. This one sounded like it was going to be a little darker and more complex than her…
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Review: Death in a Desert Land (Agatha Christie #3) by Andrew Wilson
I would venture to say that most people have heard of the great mystery writer Agatha Christie. She’s written so many classic mysteries and I would be hard pressed to meet someone who hasn’t heard of at least one of her books in one way or another. Because she is so recognizable and such a classic mystery writer, I was thrilled to see that someone had turned her into her own fictional sleuth. My first thought when I saw that someone had done this, was that it sounded hokey. Agatha Christie is such an icon and to mess with that and turn her into a fictionalized detective sounded trite…..but at…