Hooking For Trouble by Betty Hechtman

Sunday was a rainy and blustery day at my place so I spent much of the day with Betty Hechtman's Hooking For Trouble.  Out November 1st this crochet mystery has a fantastic title an I love the cover. Hooking for trouble is book 11 and was actually my favorite book in the series so far. I loved being back with the gang and seeing what they were all up to. I love that main character Molly Pink turns 50 in this book and that she only improves with age, gives a girl something to look forward to! 

This was a great mystery and I did not figure out the killer until it was revealed. It was a fun story line as murder mysteries go and I know that others who enjoy this series will be thrilled with it.

The Tarzana Hookers’ Yarn University has been a big success, and the classes have drawn in a slew of new crochet devotees. A less welcome arrival is the boxy monstrosity in the yard behind Molly’s house. She hasn’t met her new neighbors, but when she sees a couple struggling on the balcony and later spies what looks like someone lying on the ground, Molly wastes no time calling in her ex, homicide detective Barry Greenberg.  To Molly’s shock, Barry reports that nothing is amiss with her neighbors and asks her to lay off with the amateur detecting. Molly knows she wasn’t just seeing things, but with no body to prove her case she’ll have to unravel the evidence on her own—because someone in Tarzana is tangled up in murder...

To learn more about Betty Hechtman and this series please click here.
To order your own copy of Hooking For Trouble from Amazon please click here.

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

Casket Cache by Janice J. Richardson

Friday night I started Casket Cache, sometime after 8:30, I wished I had started it earlier because by 11 I hated putting it down. Casket Cache written by Janice J Richardson is a truly wonderful cozy. I have to admit that the thought of a cozy mystery centered around a funeral home director could lend it's self to being silly and awkward, I was pleasantly surprised that I found this to be one of the most serene and easy flowing cozy mystery books I have ever had the pleasure of reading.  The way that Janice writes, quickly and all at once put my inquisitive readers mind at ease. I felt like I was emotionally involved from the first sentence and left wanting more at the end of the book. Clearly there was thought, research, personal experience and insight that Janice had for her character that made her feel like a real live and breathing person. Someone you would love to know and be friends with.  This cozy was respectful, this cozy was compassionate,  insightful and it was a reading experience I will treasure. Casket Cache is book one of three with book two coming out in November and I will anxiously await it's release. There is so much I want to say and tell you about from this book and the connections I made with it and my own life but I don't want to give it away. This is a book I think you should add to your TBR pile for sure. A very authentic and brilliant cozy.

Funeral homes are supposed to be quiet ...Jennifer Spencer inherits her uncle’s funeral home. Her move to the Niagara Region into the apartment above the Home went well, but in the first week alone, someone breaks into the funeral home. Then, Jennifer finds cash in a casket, a lot of cash. Certain it has something to do with the break-in, she’s unable to convince the police and winds up on their list of suspects! But Jennifer has families to serve and funerals to arrange; that is her number-one priority. Someone sinister and dangerous wants the cash back; that’s their number-one priority and Jennifer Spencer, funeral director, is in the way.A cozy mystery with heart, compassion, and humour.“CASKET CACHE presents us with the perfect balance of light and dark: a delightful small town with a local murder. It does this and also takes a step further by setting the action in and around Spencer Funeral Home, blending compassionate descriptions of care families receive in their time of need with the inside scoop on coroner’s calls, casket selection rooms and funeral processions. Mystery twists in like a chocolate fudge ripple in luscious vanilla ice-cream.”—Cynthia St-Pierre, co-author of A Killer Necklace.

*please note that Casket Cache is in the midst of a cover change, new cover shown in the first few photos.
To order your own copy of Janice J. Richardson's Casket Cache from Amazon like I did please click here.
Find her on Facebook by clicking here
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

All The Little Liars by Charlaine Harris

I was sent Charlaine Harris Oct 4th release All the Little Liars to review and finished it Thursday night. I found this to be a very well written and easy to read. I read the entire book in one sitting. The characters are easy to like and understand and the author did a great job of balancing the good news with the bad. This book reads like a cozy mystery and for most intensive purposes it is a cozy, except that it breaks the unwritten rule that children are not the ones put directly in harms way. This is however is a very relevant and very plausible mystery. It feels as though it was ripped from the headlines of CNN. The setting, time of year and emotional turmoil of this mystery played well into the story line and kept me turning page after page. 

Aurora Teagarden is basking in the news of her pregnancy when disaster strikes her small Georgia town: four kids vanish from the school soccer field in an afternoon. Aurora’s 15-year-old brother Phillip is one of them. Also gone are two of his friends, and an 11-year-old girl who was just hoping to get a ride home from soccer practice. And then there’s an even worse discovery―at the kids’ last known destination, a dead body.

While the local police and sheriff’s department comb the county for the missing kids and interview everyone even remotely involved, Aurora and her new husband, true crime writer Robin Crusoe, begin their own investigation. Could the death and kidnappings have anything to do with a group of bullies at the middle school? Is Phillip’s disappearance related to Aurora’s father’s gambling debts? Or is Phillip himself, new to town and an unknown quantity, responsible for taking the other children? But regardless of the reason, as the days go by, the most important questions remain. Are the kids still alive? Who could be concealing them? Where could they be?

With Christmas approaching, Aurora is determined to find her brother…if he’s still alive.

I was very pleased to have had this book on my table, to learn more about Charlaine Harris please click here.
To order a copy of All the Little Liars from Amazon please click here. 
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

On My Table And In My Cup October 8th-15th

It is Saturday again and the start of hockey season for me, this year both my boys are playing on the same team. This is truly an emotional and exciting time, says the mother who is just having her tea and has yet to dress them or load the mini van this morning. Above is my very pleasant late Friday delivery, some of November's finest books!

 On my table this week I am very pleased to have been asked to read and review Canadian Author Janice J. Richardson's Casket Cache, newly arrived on my kindle app and a review I hope to have for you early next week.

I have a review coming up for you tomorrow on Charlaine Harris' All the Little Liars, I hope you will stop back over to read my review.

My library stocks the best cozy series and I was so delighted to be able to read the series and Chance of a Ghost was such a great book! I can not wait for the next one!

Magicless in Nevermore was a good fairy tale for grown ups, a fun book to read!

Sunday's Death on Windmill Way was a great escape mystery this week as well.

The winner of Kathy Aarons Behind Chocolate Bars is, Kathleen Costa! Thank you to all who entered!

The Murchies Vanilla Black tea has been a lovely addition to my daily tea pot this week. I have not made a decision yet on what kettle I will be going with, looks like either Santa or a new year purchase. I got news that we will have to find a new home to rent very soon and for now my travel kettle will have to do. The idea of moving is both exciting and terrifying all at the same time.
I hope in the next three months to discover myself and my family in a comfortable and new location, we shall miss where we live now and have lived for 8 years terribly, I think it will be hardest on the boys. Our goal is to stay in the same area so as not to disrupt their lives too much.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy week in review. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Chance Of A Ghost by E.J. Copperman

To say I finished Chance of a Ghost with a dry eye would be an outright lie. This book, oh my gosh, one of the best I have read. Funny, emotional, fantastic, heartwarming, mysterious and paranormal cozy I absolutely loved. E.J. Copperman writes a fantastic series about a single mom, who is amazing with tools, has a victorian guest house at the beach, which is haunted and fantastic. In this the fourth book in the series, main character Alison is hard at work solving a mysterious death of one of her mothers neighbors. Alison is a full time mom, guest house operator/owner and sometimes PI who with the help of a few friendly ghosts solves some pretty fantastic mysteries! I love this series and my library for stocking it! 

Even with a blizzard bearing down on New Jersey, Alison can count on at least two guests—Paul and Maxie, the stubborn ghosts who share her shore town inn. Then there’s her widowed mother, who hasn’t just been seeing ghosts, she’s been secretly dating one: Alison’s father. But when he stands her up three times in a row, something’s wrong. Is he a lost soul…or a missing apparition? Their only lead is an overdramatic spirit—stage name Lawrence Laurentz—who doesn’t take direction well and won’t talk until they find his killer. Alison will reluctantly play the part of PI, but when the clues take a sinister turn, the writing is on the wall: If Alison can’t keep a level head, this will be her father’s final act—and maybe her own.

Learn more about E.J. Copperman by clicking here. 
Order your own copy from Amazon by clicking here.
Thank you for joining me today 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

Magicless in Nevermore by Violet Merriweather

Over the weekend I read Magicless in Nevermore by Violet Merriweather. This is a paranormal fantasy cozy, and reads like a fairy tale for grown ups. I think it was a good witches story. It was fable like and cautionary tale as much as it was a cozy. I enjoyed the writing of main character Cassandra Holly and her best friends. I think this cozy was also funny and easy to picture even though it was more on the fantasy then I normally read, I enjoyed the story and it was a great release! I can recommend this story to those like me who enjoy a fun witch story! I liked the spin on this one!

Cassandra Holly is just your average witch living in Nevermore. Except for the witch part. To be a witch, to stay in Nevermore—and in enchanting distance of her family—she needs to find her magic.Now.Against all odds, she does.Sort of.FINDING HER MAGIC IS WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG.Coming into her magic is a dream come true. Stumbling onto a crime scene where the most powerful—and crankiest—witch in Nevermore’s history has been murdered? Not so much. Being hired by the witch’s ghost to find the killer? Verging into nightmare territory.Ordinarily Cassie would have left the crime solving to the experts. But it turns out the ghost is not only well-versed in cranky, but coercion as well, and she isn’t going to take no for an answer.GHOSTLY DESPOT ASIDE, WHAT IF THE MURDER WAS SIMPLY A RED-HERRING?The more Cassie learns about the murder, the more she realizes something more nefarious is afoot. And if she doesn’t figure out the true mystery in time, she’ll lose her magic, her family, her home.And quite possibly herself.

To order your own copy of Magicless in Nevermore please click here for the Amazon listing.
To learn more about Violet Merriweather and this series please click here.

A Cup of Tea and A Chat with Kathy Arrons and A Cozy Mystery Giveaway, Behind Chocolate Bars

Today is the day I get to share a give away with my readers in the USA, I am sorry I can not include everyone but I am thrilled with the ability to have these giveaways. Behind Chocolate Bars is a great cozy, third book in the Chocolate Covered Mystery series and a really great for Halloween. I love the community feel I get when I read this series and I hope you will too.  This mystery was particularly well written and the cover is fantastic! I reviewed this book in September and I loved it, you can read my review by clicking here.

Kathy kindly stopped by for a quick up and and a chat about Behind Chocolate Bars her new release in the Chocolate Covered Mystery Series.
KMOT: When you are writing what sustains you? Tea, Coffee, or perhaps liquid chocolate?
KA:Lots of coffee! I love strong coffee -- I use a French press and my favorite beans are from Philz Coffee. The first book took one year and the other two took 9 months.

KMOT: Be honest how much chocolate though did you consume while writing this book?
KA: Way too much! But it was all in the name of research.

KMOT: Can you share something about yourself with us that we may not know about you?
KA: Something readers might not know about me is that I'm a huge supporter of arts education for youth. I'm president of the board for Playwrights Project, which teaches playwriting and literacy to students, seniors and the incarcerated. I advise and teach for the CCA Writers' Conference (only free writing conference for high school students in US) and the San Diego Middle School Writing Workshop series.

Best friends and business partners Michelle and Erica have a monstrous to-do list as they prepare for the annual West Riverdale Halloween Festival. Their shop, Chocolates and Chapters, will have a booth at the event, where Michelle will serve spooky delights while Erica displays an assortment of spine-chilling books. Thank goodness the teenagers from Erica’s comic-book club are chipping in to help. But one of their volunteers winds up in trouble after a woman’s body is found in an abandoned house—with the teen’s superhero key ring close by. The teen swears he didn’t do it, but he’s obviously hiding something—leaving Michelle and Erica with a witch’s cauldron of questions. Soon they discover that the dead woman was tricking a whole bunch of people out of more than just treats. Now these two friends must go door-to-door if they hope to unmask a killer…

Now it is your chance to get a copy of Kathy's book on your table! To enter to win please email me at karenmowen@gmail.com and write CHOCOLATE BAR in the subject line. Please include your USA mailing address so that when the random draw is done I can forward the winners information to the publisher. Contest is open from today October 12th to Friday 14th at noon PST. Winner will be chosen at random from number of entries received and announced on my week and review on Saturday the 15th of October 2016.
To order your own copy of Behind Chocolate Bars from Amazon please click here.
Good luck and thank you Kathy and you lovely reader for taking time to join me today for a cup of tea and a cozy giveaway.
As with all my posts I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com