I started my morning with the latest addition of Tea Time Magazine. I love this publication and am so excited and inspired with each issue. I love the Pink Teacups on the front and was inspired to pull my Aynsley one down off the shelf for this mornings me moment and tea.
I was thrilled to see that Author Sarah Fox's new book Wine and Punishment was mentioned in the magazine! This is on my TBR pile right now! Click here to learn more.
Tuesdays in the tea shop for me is tea tin filling day and boy is it one of my most favorite things about working here. Filling the tea tins and the store with the most amazing aromas, this one is our Spa Blend and it tastes as beautiful as it looks. I even brought in my sewing scissors for our ribbons which I was pre cutting for our products today, I thought it was fun to tie some left over on the end of my scissors, just a touch of whimsy...
One of my favorite authors Lorna Barrett, shared that today is National Bubble Bath Day, now that is a day I can get behind for sure! I know what I am going to do later today, I will stop and pick some up on my way home from visiting my dad in hospital tonight.
Thank you for joining me today for a quick cup of tea and a great way to celebrate and include tea in your everyday life. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com
I have been a huge fan of Lorna Barrett's Book Town Mystery Series since I first spun the rack at my library and her book fell into my hands. I have bought and read every single one and I am so thrilled to have been approved to read an ARC of Poisoned Pages. This one like so many in this series are more about the relationships and the community feeling, rather than the mystery, but boy are the mysteries and twists in this story spectacular. What is revealed will pleasantly shock and amaze long time fans of the series and leave you with the most cozy of feelings. I love this book, this series and this author. Poisoned Pages was fantastic. This one is out July 10th and is not to miss.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery review I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com
Welcome to our first Monday of our Five Amigos Fall-O-Ween Fun! On my page you will get "A Double Double" here in Canada that is a term for extra special! With my friend Karen reporting in from the Province of Ontario and me over here on the West Coast! Two Karen's means twice the fun and twice the book selections!
Up first is Karen K's first fall selection... I absolutely adore this series. Talia is a strong and interesting character and the setting of a fish n chip restaurant is unique to the cozy genre. The characters and surrounding businesses are written in such a way that you wish you could visit.
You will want to take a bite out of this series!
NOW WE HAVE A SURPRISE ! KAREN K has arranged a giveaway with author Linda Reilly, so if you would like a chance to win, comment in the comment section below today until September 14th and we will choose an entry at random to win a copy from Author Linda Reilly on September 15th.
We are so grateful to have you join us here today for our selections. We would love you to leave us a comment and let us know what you think of our choices! Don't forget pop over and visit our other Amigos as well!
Saturday morning and I am reading my way through Carol Novis' Long In The Sleuth. Love this book so far can not wait to share with you more in my review. I have had another crazy week, not just the normal crazy but the crazy where you have 4 firemen trying to get a 2 year old out of the bathroom because the door strike jammed when she slammed it, when the puppy stole her monkey.... Man my life is truly funny sometimes in hindsight that is. I am now walking without crutches and while my ankle is very sore and swollen by the end of the day it is now mostly managed.
I have started something new and I have now got a Youtube Channel I hope that you will subscribe to! I have two videos currently posted and am working on some channel art hoping to have you stop over and subscribe! I hope this becomes a fun and easy way to share my love of books I have read and books I am reading with you in a short and personal way.
I also got quite a bit of reading done this week and was thrilled to share quite a few reviews this week. Murder at the Lighthouse by Frances Evesham was a delightful British Cozy mystery read this week and should still be a free book at time of publishing, you may want to pick this one up too!
While still on crutches I managed to hobble over to a little French Cafe near by and enjoy a Rosemary Savory Scone, some Marco Polo Tea and read a few chapters of Kylie Logan's French Fried before the school called and I had to pick up my son who had a fever. Good news is I had just taken my last bite and my last sip of this very delicious tea and was fortified for the afternoon that followed.
Such a divine treat to get an advanced reading copy of Lorna Barrett's A Just Clause. when I read the last line I was so thrilled and sad at the same time knowing I would have to wait just that much longer to read the next one. Advanced reading copies can be a double edged sword!
Such a treat this one is out next Tuesday and should be on your TBR pile for sure!
Monday morning our visitors from Japan went back home. It was an adventure having 5 boys in the house this weekend and fun playing tourist in our own town. I can not wait to do this again next year. I hope that we have made long lasting friendships and that we can build on it for many years to come. The school gave us a beautiful box containing some sugar cookies perfect reminder of the sweet boys we got to spend the weekend with and it pairs beautifully with my tea. Special thanks to Jack and Janie my dear friends for the beautiful "Welcome to the Ankle Club" flowers they gave me after my accident with my ankle. Mine is not broken but Janie's is, for all the pain in endured she suffered 100% worse, we are forever Left Ankle Twins!
I can not thank you enough for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery week in review. I hope you like some of the new changes I have made with the addition of the Youtube Channel and the Fancy Friday Finds. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com
A Just Clause by Lorna Barrett 's 11th book in what is admittedly my most favorite long running cozy mystery series, is out one week from today on June 13th. There is something so captivating in this cozy series characters whom have become like a second family to me. The characters in this series from main characters Tricia and her sister Angelica, to their friends and employees, and even the new generation of Stoneham, feel so real and so relatable. This series chronicles so much of their lives, struggles, revelations and relations that I often find myself thinking of these characters long after the story is done. I was truly surprised with the direction that Author Lorna Barrett took with A Just Clause, the struggle for Tricia and Angelica was more balanced in this one, I found that where I had felt horrible for Tricia all these years, I also found myself having sympathetic feelings for Angelica for even more deep reasons then I had ever considered in previous books. Lorna created the most wonderful family out of some extraordinary characters for Tricia and Angelica and only in the last few books have we gotten to know their blood relatives. I love the theme in the book of family being who you love and surround yourself with, and I even loved it more when Tricia and Angelica's dysfunctional parents join in the circle....okay it's more of a Venn Diagram but it sure does make for a great story!
When I finished reading it last night, on the last word, out loud I said "Oh no!" Not because of how it ended but because it ended and now I wait in earnest for another visit to Stoneham and a visit with my friends in the Booktown Mystery series.
Greetings this morning from my table to yours. I am so thrilled to have Lorna Barrett's book on my table this week, ahead of its June 13th release. I have read every book in this series and it is my favorite long running series. I can not wait to share this one with you all soon but for now I am savoring it!
With the arrival of June's Berkley reads I find that I am ahead of the game with only two left to read from this lovely selection.
Kate Carlisle's Once Upon A Spine was a lifesaver this week as I read it while at the doctor and X-Ray for what I now now is a sprained ankle. I am recovering very well.
Maggie Sefton's Only Skein Deep was such a comfortable read. I loved reading this one, made it feel like a nice visit with friends. This one is a must read for sure.
CeeCee James has a great book number 2 with Deadly Reservations. Great Mother/Daughter relationship story, as well as a great mystery.
A very sophisticated and proper mystery in The Curious Affair of The Somnambulist and The Psychic Thief by Lisa Tuttle, I very much enjoyed this period mystery.
This week I enjoyed David's Tea's Long Life Oolong, as well as my blissful Murchies Vanilla Black and Tazo's Calm Tea. Even as the weather turns warmer I still enjoy all my hot favorite teas!
Thank you for joining me this week for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery week in review. I would love to hear form you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com
August 31st is fast approaching and I have some cozy suggestions for you of books you can purchase and give to friends! I love this new-ish holiday. I have participated the last three years and I have joined a swap with friends this year on Elfster which lets the friends create a wish list of books. When you have friends like I do who read constantly it is often hard to choose a book for them that they may not have already read so this year Elftster is a God Send!
For those of you who may not be familiar with Buy A Friend A Book Day this is a fun day where you simply buy a book you think a friend would like on August 31st and give or send it to them. This holiday event is meant as a fun way to share a love of books and reading with others. You can purchase on line (with free shipping) from The Book Depository to send to friends far away or you can purchase a book at a small independent book store (Which is also a very good idea!) and then give it to your friends.
If you are stuck on ideas of great cozy mysteries to purchase for friends I have more then a few suggestions here on my blog and you can find reviews and photos of all the books I have read and reviewed in the tabs at the top of my blog!
I hope you enjoyed just some of my favorite books and series suggestions and that you may consider joining me in celebrating Buy A Friend A Book Day this August 31st!
Thank you for joining me here for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery suggestion for buy a friend a book day! I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com
Next week Title Wave, the latest installment in the Booktown Mystery Series comes out. I was extremely lucky to have gotten this book to read early. I want to point out that I also ordered this hard cover book from The Book Depository and I still have it on order, having pre ordered it months ago. This is my most favorite series. It is pretty much how I found my way into a cozy world I never knew nor could I have imagined existed. Lorna's series opened doors and windows to a very large part of life I now love, enjoy and experience daily.
No one writes like she does. Her series is
the standard to which I hold all cozy mysteries to. This well established series celebrates and awakens something, in my soul. Her books helped me to come to terms with and understand the changes that were happening in my own life. At the time I found her first book Murder is Binding, (which came out two years before it made it to my tea table), my mother had just passed away and I was looking for a good book to take me away. I found hers by spinning the cozy mystery racks at my local library and thus finding myself on a wonderful journey.
The theme of finding yourself, making a life for yourself after changes in your relationships, work, and finding not only yourself but discovering who you are and what you are meant to be really spoke to me. The series is about that journey, about never giving up, about finding joy in your life in the most unlikely of places. It is also about learning to let go. One of the things I like most about this series and Title Wave is that main character Tricia doesn't have a charmed life, nothing really comes easy to her, she works hard, she struggles. She is very easy to relate too, she feels real, her relationships feel like true relationships. Her life is like a surfer riding an epic tidal wave, and though she tries to ride that wave, every now and again she gets knocked of the board. Even when she doesn't feel like surfing or swimming anymore, she keeps getting up to face the wave. We all need a little Tricia in our own lives, perhaps that is why she is so endearing.
Thank you for joining me here for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery review. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com
It has been a really busy week and I have had only a few books on my table this week I read Kathi Daley's Kitten Kaboodle this week always a treat to have her books on my table,
I was extremely delighted to find Alice Loweencey's Changing Habits, short story for my kindle app after no mail from the mail man (no books or packages for me in more then a week!) on Tuesday and my review will be posted here tomorrow.
I was thrilled to have Lorna Barrett stop by for a visit, her work is truly amazing and having her books in hardback is a real thrill for me, I splurge on them not wanting to wait for the paperback versions to come out.
Also arrived this Wednesday, books to keep me busy through the weekend and into the next week or two. I finished Nikki Leclair's Haunting Me and will share my review in the next week as well. Some fabulous reads on this table!
Thursday my pre ordered paper back book called Witchy Mama by Melanie Marquis and Emily A. Francis arrived, this one I have so been looking forward to having in my hands! Great reference book, parenting guide and overall cool book!
This week I read 5 books which is a very good week of reading for me, having some June titles on my table early and now in my heart!
This morning I have woken up to the rain Vancouver is famous for, damp cold, grey, pounding huge drops of liquid sunshine. All of that can not dampen my enthusiasm for the book on my table this morning. I sat down to read Title Wave by Lorna Barrett last night and read a tad past my bed time until it was done. So many reasons this series is my most favorite. I can not wait to share some of them with you in my up coming review. Title Wave is out June 14th, I have it on order from The Book Depository as well, so to find it in a shipment this week for review was completely a surprise and delight! Looks like no baseball this morning but a long list of yard sales! Good thing I am not made of sugar, it is a batten down the hatches kind of morning. Enjoy your day!
I feel truly blessed to have had this week of reading and guests here on my blog. Thank you all for joining me here for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery week in review. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com
