Book Reviews – Page 140 – Carol's Notebook

The Matter of the Crown by Linda Ferreri

January 18, 2018January 29, 2018 by Carol8 Comments

First I have to mention that the Crown of the Andes is real. It's currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The rest of The Matter of the Crown is entirely fiction, but I really liked having the image of the Crown in my head as I read about it's fictional theft and about the murder, kidnapping, intrigues surrounding it. I tend to love books combining art and mysteries and this one full of twists and turns and interesting characters was as good as I was hoping. I also like the bits of religious history that were thrown in. The book started out a little tough for me. There are several characters that are introduced and it's tough to see how it's all going to pull together. Eventually, though, once I got into, I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Baldo, a retired Italian policeman who along with an American art lawyer, Claire determined to get to the bottom of the...

Christmas Bliss by Mary Kay Andrews

January 9, 2018 by Carol9 Comments

Christmas Bliss was the last of my Christmas reads for the year. I have read two others in the series and really like Weezie and BeBe. This time around, Weezie's getting ready to marry her chef boyfriend, Daniel, but he's off in New York on a temporary gig at a very swanky restaurant. BeBe's pregnant and refuses to marry her live-in boyfriend Harry, but she also might still be married to one of her exes. It's complicated. It's a sweet story. There's not much conflict and the couple of "issues" that crop up are quickly resolved. Weezie and BeBe are great characters, fun, quirky, but I don't know that this would work as well as a stand-alone. It was nice to already know them and appreciate that they were getting their "happily ever afters." I would love to visit Savannah some time, which is Weezie and BeBe's hometown. Books like this just make it seem so charming. Weezie even makes it seem...

Murder on New Year’s Eve by P. Creeden

January 5, 2018 by Carol8 Comments

Murder on New Year's Eve was a fun, short mystery, perfect to start the year with. If you read the blurb above, you know it was murder, of course. Emily's youngish, 20, but her dad, who she has lived with since her parent's divorced when she was about 11, is the local sheriff, so she's been around crime scenes and cops most of her life. When she's helping solve the case, she's intelligent and observant. When she's working with her foster dog, a St. Bernard, she's patient and caring. When she's thinking about her crush, Colby, she seems like she's 13 and I want to roll my eyes, but maybe that's part of being 20 in a small town, shelter by a sheriff father. Given that it's only about 40 pages, I though the mystery was well done. There were enough clues and it was pretty clever. It wrapped a little quickly, but it had to. The characters were well-developed, we...

The Body in the Casket by Katherine Hall Page

December 30, 2017January 2, 2018 by Carol13 Comments

The Body in the Casket is the first in the Faith Fairchild mystery I've read. On the one hand that doesn't matter because it stands on its own well. On the other hand, it means I didn't care as much about Faith's family and friends as I might have if I had started the series at the beginning. I enjoyed the mystery portion of the book a lot. I'm a sucker for a good old-fashioned manor house mystery, which this was at heart, although with a New England touch. I love the addition of the theater folk and the whole Heaven and Hell theme of the weekend. I was not entirely surprised by the who dunnit, partly because it was reminiscent of a mystery I read earlier last month. Faith didn't really shine as a detective here though. I don't know I that's standard for this series or not, but she never really put any clues together or seemed to have...

Christmas Picture Books

December 27, 2017 by Carol4 Comments

I read a few books with my niece and nephew over Christmas. The Snowy Day is a sweet, simple little story about enjoying the snow. The illustrations are warm and inviting and go along with the text well. It's never been one of my favorites, but is still a classic worth reading. I like that The Biggest Snowman Ever encourages teamwork. It also encourages creativity, no two snowmen are alike, they can be traditional or a princess or a martian and they're all good. The Littlest Christmas Tree makes me tear up a little in the middle, when the tree is sad and lonely and afraid it will never get to be a Christmas tree. Thankfully it has a happy ending and the tree gets to go to the perfect home. ...

‘Twas the Nightcap Before Christmas by Katie Blackburn

December 21, 2017December 21, 2017 by Carol5 Comments

"'Twas the nightcap before Christmas That caused mischief and mayhem and Mom wearing stockings when she should have been filling them..." Cute, little alcohol-soaked adult take on 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Mom and dad drink way too much and have a lot of fun on Christmas eve, but get very little actually done. Happily Santa shows up after they're out for the night and saves the day. Definitely for adults, but fun. It would be a nice Christmas gift for parents with a sense of humor. I received it in a Secret Santa gift and had to read it almost immediately. The bright colors, the fact that it's a take on a familiar poem, make it pretty irresistible....