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Special Feature: Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman
This is author, Ella Burman’s, second novel and at first glance it looked like it was going to be more women’s fiction. The cover implied a carefree summer with friends. But then upon reading the summary I was like—-oh—-not that. This book promises some fun carefree summer of innocence but it also promises to have that illusion dispelled with a mystery! This book will follow three friends who have a life changing experience on a Greek island in their teens. The tragedy will follow them into adulthood and readers will get to explore what kind of impact that tragedy has on them. I loved the sound of this one. It…
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Review: Murder in PostScript (A Lady of Letters Mystery #1) by Mary Winters
When I see books with any mention of “Bridgerton-like’ in the summary or taglines, I am at once skeptical and yet can’t pass up on said book based on hope of finding another wonderful series that is indeed like Bridgerton! I often get asked what books would I recommend for Bridgerton fans, and that is such a hard question because there are so many historical romances out there that have a Bridgerton feel but aren’t necessaitly Bridgerton like if that makes sense. So sometimes when I see this statement on books, I become skeptical because there is nothing like Bridgerton but yet like so many others I can’t resist finding…
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Special Feature: How I’ll Kill You by Ren DeStefano
I love when I see a thriller come out that sounds different from the rest. There is kind of this theme in the thriller genre where many have ‘surprising’ femme fatale or it’s billed as a ‘psychological’ thriller—but I have yet to see where it’s a group of women killers on the hunt for their next mark. This book sounded really interesting, plus it had a strong romance angle which is often unheard of in the thriller genre as a focal point. I thought this book sounded really different and like it would stand out from a crowd. It screamed unconventional to me so naturally I want to get it…
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Special Feature: Death and Croissants (Follet Valley Mysteries #1) by Ian Moore
So many cozy mysteries are written by women and about women with a woman protagonist, which is why this one caught my eye. It’s written by a man with a male protagonist at the helm! You don’t see that too much in the cozy genre so I was eager to check this one out. This book is billed as a quirky, British style comedy, cozy mystery. There is a lot happening in that description and I think for the right reader, it will garner attention! I love quirky British humor and of course I love cozy mysteries so naturally this one stood out to me. Although that might not be…
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Review: A Tempest at Sea (Lady Sherlock #7) by Sherry Thomas
This series started out as a DNF for me. I couldn’t get into the first book when I picked it up the first time so I put it down as a DNF and almost wrote the series off all together. But it bugged me so bad that I didn’t like this series! So many of my friends around the blog-o-sphere loved it and honestly it SHOULD be a series that I love. So after some consideration, I picked up the first book and decided to try again. I am so glad I did because I loved it and binge read all the books that had some out at that point…
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Review: Girl with the Dragonfruit Tattoo (Trouble in Paradise #3) by Carrie Doyle
Right about now is the time where I start getting really tired of the Oregon rain and cold weather. I start to randomly look for tropical vacations that are anywhere with sun and warmth. Sadly, my budget doesn’t allow for tropical travel every year so I have to make do with what I have on hand which is usually a book set in a sunny location. Sometimes tropical book setting can be hard to find, but when I do find one, I am usually game to check them out. When I saw this book come up for review, I was like HECK YES, tropical cozy murder mystery sounds like just…
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Special Feature: Bright and Deadly Things by Lexie Elliott
Murder in the French Alps? YES PLEASE! That was the first thing that caught my eye about this book. I didn’t need to read much more into the summary to know that this would be a book for my TBR list! This book is set in a remote area of the French Alps and I couldn’t think of a more tantalizing location to set a murder mystery. As we move into what I like to call the longest shortest month of the year (February), I think this is just the book that I need to read! February is always cold, dreary and depressing in the PacNW. It rains, it’s cold…
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Review: Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo
When this book came out, I jumped at it! I have read the Grisha books, specifically the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and while I didn’t love every book, I remember feeling like they had a lot of imagination with ambitious characters and for a YA series, there was a lot to enjoy. But I never really read anything else from Leigh Bardugo after that trilogy. But naturally her books are quite popular and can be found on many shelves around the blog-o-sphere. When I saw this one was coming out, I wasn’t exactly ready to buy it or even put it on my TBR—-until I started seeing all these posts…
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Review: The Devil You Know (Detective Margaret Nolan #3) by P. J. Tracy
A couple of years ago, I picked up one of P. J. Nolan’s books that was part of the Monkeewrench series which I thought was pretty good. I liked Nolan’s writing style and thought the series was fast paced with a to to enjoy. I hadn’t read any of the other books in the series before and I felt mostly orientated in the series and that it could have been read as a standalone novel without issue. P. J. Nolan is a pseudonym for a mother-daughter writing duo and while sometimes it can be hard with two writers, writing one book, I think in this case it was seamless. Nolan…
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Review: The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
When I was first pitched this book, one thing stood out that made me not pass on it—-Guatemala. My husband is Guatemalan and there really aren’t books out there that feature his culture. Trust me I am always on the look out too! So when I saw that this book would have a Central American theme in it, I was totally on board to not only feature it but also review it! I have been really loving thrillers and mysteries lately, and I have a special place in my heart for psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators. I featured this one back in early January and couldn’t wait to start reading…