Carol's Notebook

December Cloak and Dagger Link-Up

December 1, 2023November 27, 2023 by Carol1 Comment

Happy December! As we wrap up the year, feel free to link wrap up posts below along with book reviews. Also, all the way at the bottom, we've got a giveaway. Make sure to enter! And sign-ups for next year were posted a couple of days ago: 2024 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge I did make my goal this year - 73 total as I'm writing this. I was looking through the list to see which ones stuck out as ones I loved/hated/found special in some way. Loved: Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia - I don't usually like children, even teenagers, as main characters, but this book was so quirky and musical and thoroughly enjoyable. The Last Drop of Hemlock by Katharine Schellman - The setting, New York City in the 1920s, was brought vividly to life - the sights, smells, people. Viv, our amateur sleuth, has to live her life and do her jobs while solving the mystery. She doesn't have the luxury...

The Twelve Books of Christmas by Kate Carlisle

November 30, 2023November 30, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

I've read a couple of the previous Bibliophile Mysteries and enjoyed them well enough, so since I'm a sucker for Christmas cozy, I picked up The Twelve Books of Christmas. This time around Brooklyn gets a call on Christmas Eve from her good friend Claire, who is in Scotland. Claire is preparing to marry Cameron, a castle laird, on New Year's Day and wants Brooklyn and Derek to be there. So the couple, along with Brooklyn's parents, fly to Scotland. Claire also hopes that while she's there Brooklyn will help solve a mystery- a dozen Christmas-related books, some quite valuable, have gone missing from the castle library. Of course, there's trouble. Most of the women in town, including the castle's new librarian, seem to be anti-Claire. Then, Brooklyn and Derek find a dead body in one of the castle's closets. They, of course, have to investigate the murder in addition to the missing books - which may or may not be...

The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong

November 29, 2023November 29, 2023 by Carol2 Comments

The Curse of Penryth Hall is engrossing. Ruby, our protagonist, is a disgraced heiress living in exile in Exter. There she works for her landlord, Mr. Owen, who sells rare books. Ruby is jaded, drinks too much, and is rather reckless. She's also generous and stubborn. As the book opens, Mr. Owen sends her with a box of books to a small village in Cornwall. The books, it turns out, are for Ruan Kivell, the town's Pellar, a wise man/witch/folk healer character. After making her delivery she stops a Penryth Hall to visit Tamsyn, an old friend with whom she has a complicated history. It's clear at dinner that Tamsyn's husband is not a good man. The reader is not surprised when he ends up dead the next morning, a victim of "the curse" according to the locals. Ruby doesn't believe in curses, but she does believe in protecting her friend and uncovering the truth. Cornwall is a superstitious, suspicious place still...

2024 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge

November 27, 2023November 27, 2023 by Carol2 Comments

I’m thrilled to be hosting the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge again. I love mystery and crime novels! Challenge Rules: You can read any book that is from the mystery/suspense/thriller/crime/true crime genres. Any sub-genres are welcome as long as they incorporate one of these genres. You don’t need a blog to participate but you do need a place to post your reviews to link up. (blog, Goodreads, Instagram, etc.) Make a goal post and link it back here with your goal for this challenge. Books need to be at least 100 pages long. Please no short stories. Crossovers with other challenges are fine. The Challenge will run from Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st. (Sign up ends March 15th) We still have our facebook group so if you haven’t joined we would love for you to! Here’s the group’s link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/350512171977943/. It’s a closed group so just ask to join and we’ll let you in. There will be a monthly link-up so we can see what everyone’s reading – and probably add some...

Turkeys and Thanksgiving by Leena Clover

November 21, 2023November 21, 2023 by Carol2 Comments

Turkeys and Thanksgiving was my first visit to Pelican Cove, but it was a cute story. Mr. Harrison's prize turkey is missing and he asks Jenny, our amateur sleuth, to find it after the police don't take him seriously. Jenny and her friends, the Magnolias, seem fun and like the type to get into predicaments. I like how the town seems to pull together, like for a Thanksgiving potluck. The mystery itself wasn't terribly complicated, but this is a novella so I wouldn't expect it to be. It was a good holiday read and a nice introduction to the series for me. ...

Enchanted Hill by Emily Bain Murphy

November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

Brimming with Old Hollywood glitz and mystery, Enchanted Hill follows two outsiders, an aspiring private investigator and an alleged thief/murderer, as they infiltrate the estate of Truman Byrd, newspaper owner and Hollywood producer. The story takes place during a week-long house party with a group of movie stars, political figures, and powerful "friends" all vying for fortune, prestige, and power. The estate is lovely and exotic and filled with hidden spaces and secret doors. The atmosphere is both sparkling and privileged and claustrophobic. Cora, our PI, is runing out of time to gather the evidence she needs when the last person she ever imagined seeing again shows up with a new name and dyed hair - Jack. Their history is complicated and the author does a good job dealing with the tensions and attractions between them. I went into the book expecting a historical mystery, which it is, but for me it felt more like a romance or romantic suspense....