Book Review and Giveaway - Born to Bead Wild: A Humorous Cozy Mystery (Glass Bead Mystery Series) by Janice Peacock

My Review

Bead artist Jax O'Connell goes to a beading camp in the Pacific Northwest with her friends Tessa, who will be teaching at the arts camp, and Val, who will be the camp cook for a week. They are accompanied by Val's Basset Hound Stanley.  When a murder occurs, Jax and her friends set out to solve the mystery.

I wanted to read this book because I love cozy mysteries, I've always loved Basset Hounds (the cover art is so appealing!), and am interested in beading.

This is the fifth book in the Glass Bead Mystery series but I had no problem jumping in and getting to know the characters. It worked well as a standalone mystery.

Born to Bead Wild is a fun cozy mystery.  It is fast moving and told with humor (especially involving newbie chef Val's attempts at learning how to do all natural, plant based cooking for an entire camp). As an animal lover, of course I loved all scenes with Stanley the Basset Hound!

The beading details in this book were fascinating!  I have enjoyed making some beaded jewelry but have never actually made beads, so the glass bead process was especially interesting to me.

The mystery aspect of this story was especially well done.  The friends are at a camp out in the middle of the woods, in a cabin with no locks on the doors, no cell phones, and working to solve a mystery. Jax and Tessa took some big safety risks in their detecting but of course they ultimately found the killer.

I really enjoyed Born to Bead Wild. I have the author's earlier eBooks on my Kindle and now I want to go back and read them to catch up with the rest of the series. I recommend this book for cozy mystery fans, and especially for anyone who has an interest in beading or crafting.

Book Synopsis  

Something is strange at Full Moon Farms—and it isn’t just Val’s Eggplant Surprise for dinner.

Jax, Tessa, and the rest of the arts and crafts retreat attendees are shocked when they find charred bones in a glass kiln. Are the remains human or animal?

The camp owners insist the bones in the coffin-sized kiln are from a deer, but Jax finds a clue that leads her to believe the owners are lying. After Tessa’s least favorite person turns up dead, there is no doubt that a killer lurks somewhere in the deep forest of the Olympic Peninsula. As clues lead Jax and Tessa down mysterious paths, they hope they live long enough to find the culprit and make it out alive.

Author Bio

Janice Peacock is a cozy mystery author who specializes in craft and hobby mysteries. She loves to write about artists who find new ways to live their lives and perhaps catch a criminal or two in the process. While working in a glass studio with several colorful and quirky artists, she was inspired to write the Glass Bead Mystery Series. The Ruby Shaw Mysteries, which are set in a small hillside mining town, were inspired by her trips to Jerome, Arizona, and Jacksonville, Oregon. 

When Janice isn’t writing about amateur detectives, she wields a 2,500-degree torch to melt glass and create one-of-kind beads and jewelry. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, an enormous white dog, and an undisclosed number of cats. Visit Janice online at www.janicepeacock.com.

Author Links

• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/janpeac/
• Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/janpeac/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JanPeac
• GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8389583.Janice_Peacock

Purchase Link – Amazon

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Book Review and Giveaway - Wined and Died in New Orleans (A Vintage Cookbook) by Ellen Byron

My Review

Wined and Died in New Orleans is the second book in the Vintage Cookbook mystery series. Ricki James-Dias is happily managing her vintage cookbook/kitchenware shop in the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum when another murder takes place at the museum. After some very valuable old French wine is found on the premises, distant relatives of the house's builder start arriving to stake their claim. One of them, a particularly unpleasant claimant from France, is discovered murdered. With the head of the museum board, Eugenia Charbonnet, under suspicion, Ricki works to solve the mystery.

I wanted to read this novel because I enjoyed the first book in the series so much. I love vintage cookware and cookbooks, so that is a huge plus for me with this series.

Ricki is a fun amateur detective, quirky and smart and brave. I enjoyed watching her detecting process.  I like her friends, her romantic interest, and the pair of dogs she co-owns with her crush.

My favorite features of this series, though, are the food history and vintage cookbook details, and the New Orleans atmosphere. There are great descriptions like:

"They reached the carriage house and climbed the stairs to the second floor, where Ricki found the box waiting for her. She borrowed the office box cutter to slice open the top and extracted the tureen from its nest of protection. Sleek and crème-colored, decorated with a design of raised ceramic leaves painted in warm fall tones, the tureen was stunning. The women admired it. “This may the nicest item in your shop,” Cookie said. “It’s gorgeous.” 

“I know.” Ricki examined the tureen and matching ladle with a practiced eye. “And in perfect condition. The date on this is 1958. Tureens weren’t as popular by then, so it’s pretty rare, especially in this pattern. It’s called Autumn Days. The maker is Sunbaked, a ceramics company in California that went out of business in 1959. The person I bought this from didn’t know what they had.” (eBook position 556).

This is becoming one of my most anticipated cozy mystery series, and I already am looking forward to the next book in the series. I highly recommend Wined and Died in New Orleans (along with the first book, Bayou Book Thief) to fans of cozy mysteries, and especially for anyone who enjoys vintage cookbooks, food history, or New Orleans.  Lots of atmospheric fun here!

Book Synopsis

The second in a fantastic new cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award–winning author Ellen Byron.

It’s hurricane season in New Orleans and vintage cookbook fan Ricki James-Diaz is trying to shelve her weather-related fears and focus on her business, Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbook and Kitchenware Shop, housed in the magnificent Bon Vee Culinary House Museum.

Repairs on the property unearth crates of very old, very valuable French wine, buried by the home’s builder, Jean-Louis Charbonnet. Ricki, who’s been struggling to attract more customers to Miss Vee’s, is thrilled when her post about the discovery of this long-buried treasure goes viral. She’s less thrilled when the post brings distant Charbonnet family members out of the woodwork, all clamoring for a cut of the wine’s sale.

When a dead body turns up in Bon Vee’s cheery fall decorations, the NOPD zeroes in on Eugenia Charbonnet Felice as the prime suspect, figuring that as head of the Charbonnet family, she has the most to gain. Ricki is determined to uncover the real culprit, but she can’t help noticing that Eugenia is acting strangely. Ricki wonders what kind of secret her mentor has bottled up, and fears what might happen if she uncorks it.

In the second Vintage Cookbook Mystery, Ricki has to help solve a murder, untangle family secrets, and grow her business, all while living under the threat of a hurricane that could wipe out everything from her home to Bon Vee.

Author Bio

Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel and multiple Lefty Awards for Best Humorous Mystery. Bayou Book Thief will be the first book in her new Vintage Cookbook Mysteries. She also writes the Catering Hall Mystery series under the name Maria DiRico.

Ellen is an award-winning playwright, and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. She has written over two hundred articles for national magazines but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. An alum of New Orleans’ Tulane University, she blogs with Chicks on the Case, is a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America and will be the 2023 Left Coast Crime Toastmaster. Please visit her at https://www.ellenbyron.com/

Author Links

Newsletter: https://www.ellenbyron.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/ellenbyronauthor/

https://www.facebook.com/CateringHallMysteries/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/ellenbyronmariadirico/

Bookbub:

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ellen-byron

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/maria-dirico

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23234.Ellen_Byron

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19130966.Maria_DiRico

Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo –

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Book Review and Giveaway - Murder, She Wrote: Death on the Emerald Isle by Jessica Fletcher & Terrie Farley Moran

My Review

Jessica Fletcher goes to Ireland to speak at a writers' conference. While she is there, she has agreed to do a favor for her friend and neighbor, Maeve. She will deliver some paintings to her family in a small Irish village.

Jessica enjoys the conference and travels to the village. When she is out riding a bicycle, she discovers that Maeve's cousin Michael has been murdered, and she works to solve the mystery.

I wanted to read this novel because I love Murder She Wrote - both the TV series and the book series.  I have enjoyed previous books in this cozy mystery series, and also love Ireland as a locale.

This was a charming read! The Irish setting was lovely and the place descriptions made me want to travel to see them.  I loved the little details too, like Jessica's friend wearing shamrock cufflinks, and the food descriptions (which made me hungry!).  I have never had a scone with clotted cream, but now I think I must.

Jessica is the consummate amateur sleuth and it is fun to solve the mystery along with her. There were several likely suspects, and I enjoyed seeing her deductive process.  The cast of characters (both Cabot Cove early in the book, and Ireland later) added a lot to my reading enjoyment too.

I highly recommend Murder She Wrote: Death on the Emerald Isle for fans of Jessica Fletcher and for anyone who enjoys an Irish book setting.  This was a delightful read from start to finish!

Book Synopsis

A trip to Northern Ireland becomes unexpectedly grim for Jessica Fletcher in this new entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series. Jessica Fletcher is quick to accept an invitation to replace a speaker who couldn’t attend a Book Festival in Belfast, Ireland. When her Cabot Cove neighbor Maeve O’Bannon hears about the trip, she asks Jessica to deliver some paintings to her family in the village of Bushmills. Happy to extend her travels and see more of the Irish countryside, Jessica agrees. The festival goes off without a hitch, and it seems like Jessica is in for a relaxing vacation. But then Maeve’s cousin Michael is discovered dead under suspicious circumstances. Jessica finds herself once again in the midst of a murder investigation, and she’ll have to dig into the O’Bannon family’s secrets to unmask the killer.

Author Bio

Along with Jessica Fletcher, Terrie Farley Moran co-writes the Murder She Wrote mystery series including  Murder, She Wrote: Killer on the Court. She is the author of the Read ‘Em and Eat cozy mystery series and also co-writes the Scrapbooking Mysteries with Laura Childs. Recipient of both the Agatha and the Derringer Awards, Moran has published numerous mystery short stories. The only thing Terrie enjoys more than wrangling mystery plots into submission is hanging out with any or all of her seven grandchildren.

Author Links – Webpage   Facebook 

Purchase Links – Amazon – B&N – Kobo – IndieBound – Bookshop.org – PenguinRandomHouse –

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Daisy's Gotcha Day!

Hi friends!

It's been a year since Daisy came to live with me. Daisy is a two year old (could be a smidge younger) Corgi mix who was found as a stray and taken to the county shelter.  When I met her she immediately leaned up against me and sighed. It was a done deal - at that point I knew she was coming home with me!  The photo above is from Daisy's first night here.

Things were a bit overwhelming at first as Daisy learned to walk on a leash, potty outdoors, and to try to remember that the world is not her chew toy (she still needs occasional reminders about chewing!).  It was a difficult year for me personally, as my Mom passed away and there were many changes in my life.  But at the year went on, Daisy and I bonded more and more.

Daisy taught me the joy of long walks, the pleasure that can be found in stopping to explore nature, the happiness of making friends with animals and people as we are out exploring.   She is a loving little girl who loves to sit on my lap or right beside me, and who cuddles up in bed at night.

I am beyond grateful for her and hope we have many more happy years together!

Trish

(with much love to Daisy!)

Book Review and Giveaway - Dial M for Meow (Bookshop Kitties Mysteries) by Ruth J. Hartman

My Review

Children's book author Christy Bailey moves to a small town in Indiana to live with her aunt, who owns a bookstore. She is accompanied by her cats Milton and Pearl, who are the stars of her book series. When Christy arrives at the bookstore, she finds her aunt disoriented and upset, and a woman her aunt disliked dead. Christy is determined to solve the mystery and clear her aunt's name.

I wanted to read this book because I love cozy mysteries. I liked the idea of a bookstore setting, and love books that prominently feature pets.

I have to start by saying Milton and Pearl are stars not just of Christy's children's books, but also this mystery! They are an adorable bonded pair of sibling cats and they helped with the detecting, as well as providing lots of cuteness.

This is a charming mystery and a great start to a new series. I look forward to reading more books in the Bookshop Kitties Mysteries series.  Christy is a likable protagonist - a writer and book lover with a calm nature and a knack for detecting.  She is helped by her childhood friend Janie and a certain handsome ER doctor named Micah. (I hope this relationship develops more with future books!)

There are several plausible suspects, and I enjoyed solving the mystery right along with Christy. I was somewhat surprised by the murderer, but that is what makes mysteries fun.

I recommend Dial M for Meow for fans of cozy mysteries, for anyone who enjoys bookstores or small town settings, and especially for cat lovers.

Book Synopsis

When children’s book author, Christy Bailey, receives a call from her aunt Betty to help out at her bookshop, she drops everything to go. Christy packs up her two cats—Milton and Pearl, the stars of her children’s mystery books—and leaves busy Philadelphia for tiny Green Meadow, Indiana. The timing of the call is perfect, as Christy’s letch of an ex-boyfriend has just cleaned out her savings, leaving Christy with a pile of unpaid bills and a desire to start over. And what better place to do that than a charming small town in Middle America?

But when Christy reaches her aunt’s bookshop, instead of small town hospitality she finds a dead body! Even worse, her aunt is passed out in the corner, hands covered in blood. The dead woman is an old frenemy of her Aunt Betty, and while Christy knows her aunt is innocent, the local detective isn’t so sure. With Milton and Pearl prowling for clues, Christy is determined to find the real killer and clear her aunt’s name… before her story ends in tragedy!

Author Bio

Ruth J. Hartman spends her days herding cats and her nights spinning mysterious tales. She, her husband, and their cats love to spend time curled up in their recliners watching old Cary Grant movies. Well, the cats sit in the people’s recliners. Not that the cats couldn’t get their own furniture. They just choose to shed on someone else’s.

Ruth, a left-handed, cat-herding, farmhouse-dwelling writer uses her sense of humor as she writes tales of lovable, klutzy women who seem to find trouble without even trying.

Ruth’s husband and best friend, Garry, reads her manuscripts, rolls his eyes at her weird story ideas, and loves her despite her insistence all of her books have at least one cat in them. See updates about her cozy mysteries at Ruthjhartman.com.

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