December Cloak and Dagger Link-Up

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 of money or flexibile schedules that so many cozy mystery leads do.
• The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older – This was good, but the mix of sci-fi and mystery is what made it stand out for me, as well as the relationship between our sleuth and sidekick.

Disliked:

• Invitation to a Killer by G. M. Malliet – The main character was just rather bland and the story had one twist too many.
• Board to Death by CJ Connor – I think my expectations were just too high for this one. The board game theme is what grabbed my attention, but I felt like the author either doesn’t play many board games or doesn’t expect the reader to.

Great settings:

• Death of a Messenger by Robert McCaw – Hawaii
• A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh – New Zealand

Great characters:

• Lavender House by Lev A.C. Rosen
• The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong

Great audiobook narrators:

• Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

Best baked goods:

• Against the Currant by Olivia Matthews
• A Good Day to Pie by Misha Popp

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