Candy Corn Murder by Leslie Meier

by Carol2 Comments
Candy Corn Murder is the first Lucy Stone I've read, even though it's #22 in the series. The cover is just too cute to pass up. That being said, maybe if I had read earlier ones in the series, I would have enjoyed this one more. The author spent a lot of time introducing the characters and getting us involved in the town life. As this was my first time in Tinker's Cove I appreciated it, but I feel like if you had read the others, you might be thinking "get a move on." Of course, I can't tell which are recurring characters and which are new to the series, so maybe it was all necessary. The murder itself and the solution was interesting, as was the reason a certain somebody was against the Halloween festival. I liked seeing Lucy hunt down the clues and put it altogether, but it was a bit rushed. My main problem, though, was I didn't really like...
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The Visitant by Megan Chance

by Carol5 Comments
I don't usually read ghost stories, but this seemed like a perfect fit for RIP X and I do love Venice as a setting. To me, The Visitant had three parts: the setting, the ghost story, and the romance. The story is set in Venice but most of it takes place in the Basilio palazzo. It's the perfect setting: a crumbling old mansion, too cold and grey, in a city that, while romantic, is also decaying. The servants are hostile to Elena and the aunt is just flat out odd. There is a lot of time establishing the atmosphere. Elena is hoping to see Venice but seems trapped in this house. the setting is probably my favorite part of the story. The ghost story was not scary enough to keep me up at night, but progressed well. The ghost was clearly angry, and, unlike Elena, the reader knows it's a ghost from the beginning - the title tells us. It doesn't take...
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Pop Sonnets: Shakespearean Spins on Your Favorite Songs by Erik Didriksen

by Carol4 Comments
Pop Sonnets is a cute, quirky little book. Didriksen takes popular songs from over the years, oldies through today's hits, and Shakepereanizes them, with the appropriate vocabulary and meter. There are few books I read parts of out loud to my husband, but this was one of them. It's fun to see how he takes songs we know and transforms them. Here are the opening lines of a couple of my favorites: Guns 'n' Roses, "Sweet Child o' Mine" Her smile, it doth recall a simpler time - the bygone years when I was but a boy; each day held some discovery sublime, each exploration brought some newfound joy. Spin Doctors, "Two Princes" Two noblemen before thee genuflect, entreating thee in ernest for thy hand. The first, he garners riches and respect; the other's only flights of fancy plann'd. Hmm, showing my age there, aren't I? The Eagles' "Hotel California," is immediately recognizable. I drove my carriage o'er the darken'd road when faintly I observ'd a distant inn. When I arriv'd, their greeting did forbode the vile debauchery I...
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Once Upon a Scandal by Julie LeMense

by Carol2 Comments
In a lot of ways, Once Upon a Scandal is a typical romance. She's beautiful and spirited; he's sexy with secrets. She, however, is dirt poor and shunned by (most) of her previous friends due to a her father's scandal and death. He, while seemingly a rich playboy, is actually a domestic spy, keeping an eye on the rich and powerful and it's that bit of intrigue that makes the novel a step above ordinary for me. Benjamin enlists Jane's help, and she, feeling like she really has nothing to lose, agrees. Jane, with the help of Benjamin and an old friend, reinvents herself to help lure the person who stole secret documents relating to the war out into the open. I guess this is the second in the series, but I felt we were introduced to the characters and they're backgrounds well. I assume the first focused on a different couple and featured Jane and Benjamin as secondary characters. The attraction between them...
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Rungle in the Jungle by Robert Logan Rogers

by Carol3 Comments
It sounded like a cute book. The animals get together for a race, the snake tries to intimidate them, but positive thinking and creativity win the day - should be fun. Instead, it just wasn't very good, in my opinion. First, there is no punctuation, which always bothers me- yes, it's a kids book, yes, it rhymes, but please give me quotation marks. When reading books aloud, the quotation marks are great indicators that a change of voice is needed. I want to sound like a slithery snake during his boasts or big and bold when the ape states that he weighs more than a ton, and quotes would have given me the cue. I'm still not sure about the ape's assertion that he would lose weight before the race, though; it bothers me a bit. Second, many of the rhymes are forced or don't make a lot of sense and the pattern isn't consistent. Even rungle isn't a real word. I'm all for making...
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Murder at the Book Group by Maggie King

by Carol6 Comments
I wanted to like this mystery. The set-up is right up my alley, a mystery reading book group whose member dies during a meeting. Books and murder, a bunch of middle-age women who are readers and writers - perfect. But it was all too much, too many (confusing) characters, too many potential motives, too much marrying/having affairs with each others exes. Maybe that was my main problem. Everybody was hooking up with everybody all the time, or so it seemed, but not in a romantic way, in a trashy way. The author also had a bit of an annoying habit of pointing out themes - like wow, Nazis keep coming up or lots of mothers and sons. Gee, I wonder if the solution has something to do with those two things. I liked the people. I liked Hazel, even though I'm not sure why people thought it was okay that she was digging so much into everyone's backgrounds, not just Carlene,...
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