Panty Raid! A Great Start To A New New Mystery Series by Lorraine Bartlett

Today I woke up to find that my husband kindly downloaded Lorraine Bartlett's new Mini Mystery Panty Raid to my Kobo. Now that is love. I was so excited to read this outside today under my tree with my tea. This Prequel of an up coming Mystery series about two best friends was so enjoyable.  Two friends at a cross roads in life, one drops everything to help out her best friend in need, Tori's underwear has been going missing and together Kathy and Tori sleuth out the "perve". I laughed out loud with this story and really enjoyed it. I am truly looking forward to purchasing this series when the first book is released in the fall.

As an added bonus at the end of the short story Lorraine includes a wonderful recipe for Oatmeal cookies, of which I had to bake right away! I have eaten about a 1/2 dozen already! The recipe and the new series get my thumbs up! Order your own E book version on Kobo of Lorraine Bartlett's Panty Raid by clicking here.
Kindle by clicking here
Nook by clicking here
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

A Vision In Velvet. Juliet Blackwell Tells A Great Story!

Well I just got back from a trip to Las Vegas. My husband had this birthday trip planned for a while and we were not able to cancel and rebook our trip and our family insisted that we go as planned despite my brothers recent and sudden passing. I am glad we did go. I think my brother would have wanted that too.
for the trip I did not do as much reading as I would have liked but I did start A Vision In Velvet while waiting for our flight from Bellingham to Las Vegas.

I have read Juliet Blackwell's Wishcraft Mysteries for a few years now and always enjoy the relationships that main character Lily builds with her adopted city and friends. Her familiar Oscar, (Part time Potbellied Pig) features prominently in this book and his back story slightly more revealed. The community comes together and Lily's circle expands in this great addition to the series. I look forward to reading this series for what I hope will be years to come.
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

Bran New Death by Victoria Hamilton A Marvelous New To Me Series

Marvelous Muffins. Yes one of my most favorite things to make and on Canada Day (July 1, 2014) I found out through my friend Lisa about Victoria Hamilton's Merry Muffin Series. I quickly ordered the first two books from The Book Depository, The second book in the series, Muffin But Murder,  had just been released and actually arrived in the mail first.

I actually get nervous when I start a new series and if I am going to start a new series I usually check it out of the library first to make sure it is one I am going to like. But With Victoria Hamilton I knew it was a leap of faith worth taking and jumped in with my ordering of the first two books from The Book Depository. I choose the Book Depository as the Shipping is FREE and as I live in Canada this is a huge deal, shipping is very expensive. I also love getting mail, snail or email and packages are like the icing on the cake.

I actually found this book to be fairly relaxing to read. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and loved the dynamic of the relationships. I was impressed that the characters that could have easily been pitted against each other, actually worked together and soiled friendships formed for what I hope will be continuous through out the series. I love all the different ages of the characters and how they all fit together.

Reading about these muffins that Merry was making made me inspired so on my last morning of reading Bran New Death, I made my boy's favorite Chocolate Chip Banana muffins and enjoyed them outside while I finished the book.

 I am really excited to read Muffin But Murder and have added it to my To Be Read Pile for this summer. I look forward to sharing my review of it with you and more muffins when I am through!
You can find out more about the wonderful series that Victoria Hamilton has written by clicking here.

Heirs and Graces A Read I Could Not Put Down

I finally got around to reading Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen, I have loved this Her Royal Spyness Series since discovering it on one of my spin the mystery rack excursions at my library last summer. I read all of them except this one last summer as I was on the wait list for this one for what seemed like a lifetime I actually forgot about it until about three weeks ago, when I was spinning the racks again at the library.

I found the previous book in the series The Twelve Clues of Christmas (An excellent read also) and picked it up thinking I had not read it yet. Such a wonderful book, I realized quickly that I had read it and went on line and requested Heirs and Graces, which I was able to pick up the next day and well, once I opened it, I could not put it down. I read the entire thing in one night.

I actually found this book to be incredibly well written, even better then the previous in this series. I loved the plot the new characters and the adventures that Lady Georgiana finds her self in. If you are looking for a wonderful series set in the UK, travel back in time to visit with Lady Georgiana you wont regret it.
You can find out more about The Royal Spyness Series by clicking here.
As with all my posts I would love to here from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Book Yourself In to Book Clubbed by Lorna Barrett

The Booktown Mysteries by Lorna Barrett are one of my most, if not my most favorite of the Cozy Mysteries. I have all of these books and hers is the only book I allow myself to order in Hardcover. I honestly can not wait to read each new one in the series and pre ordered this book from The Book Depository as soon as it became available.

 I was so thrilled when this book arrived last Friday and I could not wait to start it, Saturday morning.

Sunday night I was reading this wonderful book when I got some very sad news, my younger brother passed away in his sleep. We are devastated by his death and a bit lost at the moment.

I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many wonderful friends in the last few days and I am very thankful that in the stolen moments of grief, I had a tiny town with wonderful Characters to escape too. The wonderful group of Characters I have been reading about for the last few years was very comforting. It was wonderful to get caught up in the lives of the Stoneham Residents and loose myself for a few minutes.

I don't want to give too much away about this book but I will say how very much I appreciate this series and how it has evolved. I love how Lorna Barrett writes.  I find I get to know each Character better with each book, have come to consider them some of my most favorites. Lorna had me guessing until the end who the killer was and shocked and amazed at how wonderfully this story ended.
I also love the recipes in the back of this book a wonderful added bonus!
So if you have the opportunity and desire to loose yourself in a wonderful series I highly recommend Lorna Barret and The Booktown Mysteries. I am so grateful for the day I stood in front of the cozy rack at my library spun it and by chance the book that stopped in front of me was one of Lorna Barrett's. I took that chance on a book based on it's cover, and I am so very glad that I did. You can find out more about Lorna Barrett and her Booktown Mystery Series by clicking here.
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

Becareful What You Witch For Exactly What I Needed!

 

I just finished Dawn Eastman's book Be Careful What You Witch For. I belong to a Facebook group called Chatting About Cozies  which is where I found out about this book and series. I am always up for a cozy that has some paranormal aspects to it and as I have admitted in the past I do judge books by their cover. I was simply drawn to this one. Fall and a beautiful old house with two lovely dogs on the front...hook, line and sinker...

I pre ordered a bunch of cozies that all seem to be released this July so the last few weeks I had to rely on my spin the book shelf at my local library until they arrived, this book was exactly what I needed. Some of the books I checked out were great others just not my style. This one however was different.
Small town, perfect fall setting and characters I could really get behind and route for. I love it when I can still fall for a cozy series even when I do not start with book one. I was hooked by the end of the first paragraph and read this book in under 24 hours....which as a busy mother of three is no small feat, throw in my Dyslexia and the fact that I spent two prime reading hours watching Dr Who last night is very impressive. At least to me.

 As I am Canadian living in Canada today was not a holiday for us here so when the mail man delivered 4 of my other pre ordered titles from The Book Depository today I was even more determined to finish Be Careful What You Witch For.  In case any of you are wondering, I don't work for The Book Depository (they ship world wide for free this is why I am sharing this info) and I ordered all my own books, these have not been sent to me to review. My opinions of these books I review are truly my own. I am thankful to Chatting about Cozies for recommending this book and series to me and I look forward to reading more of them.
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