The Valentine Dine or Die by J.B. Michaels

The Valentine Dine or Die by J.B. Michaels

by CarolNo Comments
I love a good holiday-themed cozy and The Valentine Dine or Die is only 99ยข for Kindle. I did read the first in the series last year, but this one could work fine as a standalone. Mac and Millie, our ex-cop and witch, are back in another fun mystery. What could be better than an interactive mystery dinner experience, especially for Valentine's Day? Mac can't pass up free tickets to the dinner, especially since he hasn't bought a present yet. Of course, since this is a cozy mystery, when the lights go out at dinner, someone ends up well and truly dead. Maybe it's a suicide, probably not. Mac and Millie make a good team, they have some cute banter and they actually trust each other. Vance, Mac's brother, is handling the case for the cops, but he's hitting some dead ends, and Mac doesn't have to follow the rules, which makes his help useful. The characters, even the secondary ones,...
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The Christmas Walk Caper by J.B. Michaels

The Christmas Walk Caper by J.B. Michaels

by CarolNo Comments
The Christmas Walk Caper features Mac O'Malley, a retired Chicago cop, who is attempting to write a memoir of his last big case. When Mac learns that Patricia, the owner of The Tiny Wanderer, has been found dead in her home on the morning of the annual Christmas Walk, his cop instincts are telling him she didn't just die of old age. If the local cops, including his brother Vince, don't agree, maybe he and his girlfriend, Millie, can do some investigating on their own. The small town at Christmas setting was charming. The Christmas Walk sounds like an event I'd love to participate in, touring people's decorated homes. For a novella, the mystery was well-done. We had a couple of suspects and clues but not so many that the conclusion felt rushed. I liked Mac, although he was pretty quick to discount the abilities of the local police. I found the fact that he started investigating as a way to put...
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Strange Frequencies by Peter Bebergal

Strange Frequencies by Peter Bebergal

by Carol3 Comments
I picked up Strange Frequencies for RIP's Peril of the Real. When it comes to fiction, I stay in the mystery aisles most of the time. Nonfiction, however, can be about anything. I can't say that I was really interested in the intersection of technology and the supernatural, but I can find most topics interesting and learn fascinating bits and pieces, especially when the writer/speaker presents it well. Bebergal covers a wide variety of topics, from golems to seances to electronic voice phenomena and he does it from the view of maybe a hopeful skeptic. He researches, but he also experiments. He talks about the history around certain devices or myths and contacts, when possible, experts. He also goes to the seance, tags along with the photographer, builds a Tesla radio, uses his dad's old tape recorder. My one complaint is that it jumps from topic to topic. I would have liked there to be more to it, not just...
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Magical Midlife Dating by K.F. Breene

by Carol2 Comments
I loved the first book in the series and picked up Magical Midlife Dating, #2, almost immediately following. Jessie has decided to stay in Ivy House and take up all the magic powers that includes. She's decided to settle into her new life and apparently dating is part of that. Granted, it makes for some funny moments, but I'm really not sure that's where her focus should be. And, really, we know who she should be dating. Learning new powers is not as easy as it sounds, and although I love Ivy's House's guardians, they are not always the best at helping. Jessie accidentally ends up summoning others for help, but she has no idea who will show up until they get there. These new folks, and another who shows up later in the book, are a good mix, some I liked, at least one was rather sleazy. Magical Midlife Dating had me smiling and laughing and rooting for Jessie....
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Magical Midlife Madness by K. F. Breene

Magical Midlife Madness by K. F. Breene

by Carol4 Comments
Why have I never read anything by Breene before? Magical Midlife Madness is funny and cute and I loved it. Alright, maybe Jessie being in her 40s helped too, even though I question 40s being middle-aged, I certainly don't feel middle-aged, but Jessie does seem to have more creaky joints than I do. But 40 is definitely not too old to start a new adventure and I love that Jessie goes for it. I also adore that her "team" is older too. Recently divorced and in need of a do-over, Jessie accepts a position as caretaker of Ivy House, an old mansion she visited as a teen. Between the strange butler, groundskeeper, and talkative next-door neighbor, things seem more than a little crazy. We've got plenty of paranormal characters, shifters, gargoyles, a vampire, an alicorn, and who knows what else. We've got a touch of romance that I assume will progress as the series continues. Best of all, we've got a...
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The Ghost of Christmas Past by Angie Fox

The Ghost of Christmas Past by Angie Fox

by CarolNo Comments
Small confession: I have the first of the Southern Ghost Hunter mysteries on my Kindle, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Then I saw this "between the books" holiday story and decided it was a perfect way to get a taste of the series. The Ghost of Christmas Past is not actually a mystery, but it works as a stand-alone and let me get to know Verity and some of her crew. As you can tell from the title, The Ghost of Christmas Past is a retelling of the Charles Dickens tale. A few ghosts decide Verity needs to learn a lesson. This is a feel-good story, a bit sentimental in a good way. Verity is sweet and caring and I love her pet skunk. We don't really get to see her solve a mystery, but she does have a problem or two that she solves. She's clearly brave and resourceful, and Frankie, her ghostly sidekick is interesting,...
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