Carol's Notebook

Cruisin’ thru the Cozies 2024

December 14, 2023November 26, 2024 by CarolNo Comments

I’m joining the Cruisin’ thru the Cozies Reading Challenge hosted by Yvonne at Socrates’ Book Reviews for 2024. I’m aiming at being an investigator, reading 20 cozy mysteries of my choice hopefully including one from each of the categories below. One from culinary - Cheddar Off Dead by Korina Moss One from animal-related - Between a Flock and a Hard Place by Donna Andrews One from craft related - In the Wick of Time by Valona Jones One from paranormal - Thanksgiving Dinner Death by Leighann Dobbs One from cozy mysteries based outside the US - Once Upon a Murder by Samantha Larsen One career-based cozy mystery - The Sign of Four Spirits by Vicki Delany One holiday based - A Killer Romance by Maggie Blackburn (Valentine's Day) One travel mystery - Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack One historical mystery - Deadly Summer Nights by Vicki Delany One is your choice! - The Manatee Did It by Kay Dew Shostak Books read:...

Coconut Drop Dead by Olivia Matthews

December 13, 2023December 14, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

Coconut Drop Dead is the third in the series. I've read them all in order, which I think gives a fuller picture of Lyndsay, her family, and their community. I do think this would work as a stand alone though, and to be honest it might be the best so far. Lyndsay Murray and her family are busy with the Caribbean American Heritage Festival when Camille Abbey falls to her death down a flight of stairs. Camille is the lead singer of DratonFlyZ an up-and-coming reggae band and seemed like an honestly nice woman. Lyndsay's cousin, Manny, certainly thought so. He is devastated by Camille's death and sure it was murder, so Lyndsay and the rest of the family decide to look into it. Lyndsay is a great main character and is becoming more confident as the series continues. I like how the author incorporates the food and culture of the West Indies. Their heritage is important to the people in Little...

Baking Spirits Bright by Sarah Fox

December 11, 2023December 11, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

Baking Spirits Bright is a pretty typical cozy mystery, which I mean in a good way - I enjoy the formula. We have a cute small town setting, a culinary theme, a cop as the potential love interest, two mischievous cats, and this time around it's Christmas. I did not read the first in the series, but I didn't feel like I missed much. Becca has moved back to her hometown and is busy preparing holiday sweets for the family chocolate shop. Her best friend and sidekick, Dizzy Bautista, convinces her to enter the annual Baking Spirits Bright competition, but the excitement of the contest is dampened when one of the bakers is murdered. Even though her friend, Sawyer Maguire, who is on the local police force, tells Becca to stay out of it for her own safety, Becca can’t help but launch her own investigation into the death. The dead woman was not a nice person, so we have plenty...

December Cloak and Dagger Link-Up

December 1, 2023November 27, 2023 by Carol2 Comments

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, 2023December 14, 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, 2023January 21, 2025 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...