Please Join Me For August 31st Buy A Friend A Book Day!

One of my most favorite days is coming up this summer and I wanted to let you know about it. This year is the 4th annual Buy A Friend A Book Day on August 31st. This is very simple to participate in, you just purchase a book for a friend on August 31st and give or send it to them.

I have participated for the last three years and I love sending books to friends. I have used The Book Depository for the last few Buy A Friend A Book Day's and I plan to do the same this year. If you are new to my blog, I live in Canada and the free world wide shipping on all books from The Book Depository makes gift giving that much easier!

If you are part of the Save Our Cozies movement this is a great time to purchase cozy mystery books for friends. You can purchase and send any book to any friend. Don't have a friend? Make one by buying and donating books to those in need:

Send a book to a Soldier- http://booksforsoldiers.com (USA)

The Children's Book Bank of Toronto

First Book Canada 

In your own communities you could also find seniors centers, daycare centers, shelters and so many more!
I hope you will join the cozy community in supporting Buy A Friend A Book Day on August 31st! Mark your calender's and join in the fun!

Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Purl Up and Die by Maggie Sefton

I read Purl Up and Die by Maggie Sefton on Sunday. This was a very interesting read that had me thinking. The subject matter was more serious in this usually more light cozy series. I very much enjoyed this very relevant mystery and found I could not put it down. It had me struggling to find the killer and my own emotions regarding what I could have done or would have chosen to do if placed in this mystery situation. On the lighter note I love and appreciate the amount of time spent at the baseball field in this baseball season based story. Maggie did a great job of balancing a mystery that could have been ripped from the headlines and the essence of what makes a long running cozy series cozy!

Kelly’s summer in Fort Connor, Colorado, is off to a great start with knitting classes taught by her friend Barb. But while the advanced stitches are giving Kelly the slip, a more deadly problem soon has her friend coming apart at the seams. A young woman has accused Barb’s son, Tommy—a young doctor doing his residency—of assaulting her. The yarns spun by the local rumor mill are bad enough, but when the woman is found dead in her ransacked apartment, Tommy becomes the number one suspect.  With the police ready to close the case, it’s up to Kelly to knit together the clues to uncover a killer who doesn’t seem to drop a stitch...

Purl Up and Die is available now you can find it on Amazon by clicking here.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy review. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

A Dark And Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley, Treat Your Self To This Exceptional Summer Read!

I just finished A Dark and Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley Saturday night, not only did I not want to put it down, I did not want it to end. This was one of the best books I have ever read. When I put the book on my table Saturday morning I had no idea what I was in for! The cover art perfectly captures the feel of the book and I so love it when that happens! The title is also a perfect fit, if ever there was a book that called to me based on sight alone it was this one. The double mysteries, setting, characters and working relationship between the characters is truly special and envelopes you from page one! This is a book I hope you will treat yourself to when it releases July 5th.  If you are in Canada like me (or anywhere else in the world and you do not like to have to pay shipping click here for The Book Depository, where I order all my books from) if you prefer to read on your kindle app please click here.

An aspiring suspense novelist lands in the middle of a real crime, in the first in a captivating new series by the author of the Undercover Dish Mysteries. "Lena London's literary dreams are coming true as long as she can avoid any real-life villains..." Camilla Graham s bestselling suspense novels inspired Lena London to become a writer, so when she lands a job as Camilla s new assistant, she can t believe her luck. Not only will she help her idol craft an enchanting new mystery, she ll get to live rent-free in Camilla s gorgeous Victorian home in the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana. But Lena s fortune soon changes for the worse. First, she lands in the center of small town gossip for befriending the local recluse. Then, she stumbles across one thing that a Camilla Graham novel is never without a dead body, found on her new boss s lakefront property. Now Lena must take a page out of one of Camilla s books to hunt down clues in a real crime that seems to be connected to the novelist s mysterious estate before the killer writes them both out of the story for good..."

This book was a true delight to have on my table and one I can highly recommend for your summer reading.
To learn more about Julia Buckley please visit her website by clicking here.
To order a copy of A Dark and Stormy Murder from The Book Depository please click here.
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

Knit To Be Tied by Maggie Sefton

 Knit To Be Tied by Maggie Sefton  came out June 7th and it was a great summer read. With perfect timing and having in the end of summer this is a great story with a lot of heart. This series has a great group of characters readers like I have gotten to know and love over the years, this was a read that felt more like a visit with friends then a mystery book. I enjoyed the story, the community feeling and the family themes in this story. I know that others who enjoy this series are going to find this one one of their favorites. Maggie's book had me itching to get back to knitting too, I would love a knitting circle like the Lambspun Knitting shop!

In Fort Connor, Colorado, the friends at the House of Lambspun knitting shop are welcoming a new face into the fold. Shy, sweet, and pregnant Nancy Marsted would like to knit a baby hat, and the Lambspun ladies are more than happy to show her the ropes. They share their own pregnancy yarns and soon learn the father of Nancy’s baby isn’t quite the man she dreamed he was. He’s a cad. Then one dark night a speeding car fatally mows down the dad-to-be and strikes a cyclist, spinning the town into a frenzy. Everyone worries that a crazed killer is on the loose. Now it’s up to Kelly and the gang to put down their needles and cut to the chase before the culprit is driven to kill again

I made 4 hats while reading Knit to Be Tied, not bad at all I think. To learn more about this great knitting series by Maggie Sefton please click here for her author website. 

To order your own copy of Knit To Be Tied please click here from Amazon.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Read To Death, A July 5th Release Not To Miss!

My paper copy of Read to Death arrived on Friday to my delight. On Thursday I had a craving for the "Drunken Raisin" scones that you will find the recipe for in the back of the book. I was very thrilled to lend my recipe to Terrie Farley Moran for the Third book in the Read 'Em and Eat Series.

With book in my hand and cat on my lap I dove into Read To Death, quickly reacquainting myself with the characters, setting, culture and history provided in the first few chapters. The entire time I was thinking about Florida and easily picturing in my mind the places that Terrie describes. I love a healthy dose of true history in my cozy series as it makes them feel so real! The mystery was fun to unravel with Sassy and I enjoyed getting to the bottom or this mystery! I could not put it down and read it cover to cover Friday night! Time well spent!

"Welcome back to Fort Myers Beach, Florida, where the proprietors of a local bookstore cafe occasionally take a stab at solving murder... At their seaside Read Em and Eat bookstore cafe, Sassy Cabot and Bridgy Mayfield offer fresh scones, great books, and excellent detective work With their book club season wrapping up with "The Florida Life of Thomas Edison," Sassy and Bridgy decide to take their group on a day trip to the beautiful Edison and Ford Winter Estates. Hiring driver Oscar Frieland, who s known for his colorful stories and love of the cafe s Robert Frost fruit tartlets, the bibliophiles set off for a day of sunshine and history. After a lovely excursion, the club returns to the cafe for lunch and a book discussion, but the group falls silent after Oscar is found dead in his van. The sheriff s deputies have some questions of their own for the group, and if the ladies don t find some answers soon, the next book they read might be from a prison library."

I was so thrilled to read Read To Death early with my advanced reading copy and I still have the copy I ordered coming from The Book Depository as well! I hope that you enjoy this series as much as I do and if you have yet to discover it I invite you to give it a try this summer! Three books will keep you very busy and as a bonus, two of my recipes can be found in the books! 

Learn more about Terrie Farley Moran and the Read 'Em and Eat Series please click here.

To order your own copy of Read to Death from The Book Depository (with free shipping) please click here.

Prefer to read on your kindle app? Please click here for Amazon's listing

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 June 18-25th

Thanks to the UPS man I have been delivered safely 12 of the summers most anticipated reads and I am so thrilled! I have started on Terrie Farley Moran's Read To Death the third book in the Read 'Em and Eat Series. 

I am so thrilled and excited to have so many wonderful books to read! It is hard to choose which to read first through 12th! I can not wait to read them all.

This week I read Laurie Cass' Cat With A Clue, such a great series! Book five is sure to delight!

Book two of Kathi' Daley's A Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery was a great escape. I really enjoy this Island based cozy series and can not wait for the next one.

Judy Volhart's first and fabulous Whine & Cheese Cozy Mystery  Asiago and the Accomplice was really well written a great and inspiring read, I challenge you all to order and read this one this summer! Click here to find it on Amazon

In my cup all week this week I have been enjoying the new Twinings 90th Celebration tea. This afternoon tea is a blend of three commonwealth black teas and reminds me of a very high quality Darjeeling tea.  My sister in law purchased this for me and I am so grateful!
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a week in review! I have a delightful amount of reading to do. I hope you find time to read some of these fantastic cozies too! As always I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

3 Fun Summer Cozy Crafts And Activities To Try

I have not sewn in months but I came across this truly adorable pillow and thought, oh my goodness I need to make these!  This fun pillow could be made in many sizes and make fun holiday gifts or even take home party favors. I really  think these are going to be top of my summer craft list! I could not find a link to a pattern but I think from pin cushion to couch throw these will be fun to make!

I know that some people cringe at the idea but I have always wanted to go to a murder mystery party, I found this fun website for party planing called www.craftgossip.com this might be fun to explore with my kids and friends this summer. Click here for the link to the photo ideas above.

Now if only someone could do these for me/ with me I so want one of these Teapot book marks you can find the fun free pattern here (message me for my address! LOL) I found these on www.allfreecrochet.com

While I wait for a huge pile of books to be delivered ( I mean huge!) I will promote Read To Death by Terrie Farley Moran, which is out July 5th and ready for pre order! I am so excited as my scone recipe is featured in the back of this wonderful series! I can not wait to read the book! I ordered mine from The Book Depository 
I am back to stalking the mail man and the UPS driver while I wait on more then a dozen books to arrive!
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and some summer tea, mystery and book crafts!
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

Cat With A Clue, A Great Bookmobile Cat Mystery!

Tuesday night I finished reading Cat With A Clue, A Bookmobile Cat mystery by Laurie Cass. I had read the first two, a few years back and I loved the concept. The idea of an independent and vertically challenged librarian who lived on a house boat, brought the concept of the bookmobile to life for her library and surrounding areas and who had a cat that stowed away really appealed to me. In this the 5th book in the series I was very pleased with how the characters have grown and that all of the charm and magic of the bookmobile remains. The mystery was a good one and one that made me think. I like it when that happens! This is perhaps my favorite of the series so far! I truly hope that there is a book 6 in the works!

Early one morning while shelving books in the library, Minnie stumbles upon a dead body. Authorities identify the woman as an out-of-towner visiting Chilson for her great-aunt’s funeral. What she was doing in the library after hours is anyone’s guess . . . but Minnie and Eddie are determined to save the library’s reputation and catch a killer.  As rumors about the victim circulate through Chilson, the police are in a bind over a streak of baffling break-ins. Luckily, Minnie and Eddie are traveling the county in their bookmobile, and they'll stop at nothing to find the spineless killer before the final page is turned on someone else.

Cat with a Clue is out this August 2nd and is available for pre order on Amazon by clicking here.
To learn more about this series please visit Laurie Cass at her website 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

Island Weekend Get Away Book #2 Murder At Sunrise

I was very blessed to get away to Vancouver Island this weekend for a baseball tournament and while I was not on the tropical island of Hawaii it was wonderful to pretend as I read Kathi Daley's second in the Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery series, Murder at Sunrise. I love the way Kathi writes and I really feel she captures the essence of the Hawaiian feel in her writing. Getting to know the characters a bit better in this second book and learning more about them made the book feel so real. I appreciate the different dynamics between the characters and love the age difference. I think that having so many characters that are of different ages adds so much dimension to this story.

In my hotel room this weekend reading and writing early morning with tea, it felt wonderful to be back in "Hawaii" with this cozy read!

Hilarity ensues when a group of seniors decide to investigate after one of their own ends up dead. Luke and Lani join the effort only to discover that they may have bitten off more than they can chew when the murder mystery becomes a lot more complicated, and a lot more dangerous, than anyone could have anticipated.

If you can not make it to Hawaii for a vacation take a virtual one and go on an adventure with Kathi's great cast of characters! Order your own copy of Murder at Sunrise 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 

Cozy About Wine and Cheese, Set in A Cozy Canadian Town! You have to try this new series!

I had the pleasure of reading and finishing Judy Volhart's Asiago and the Accomplice  while taking a ferry boat from Vancouver to Vancouver Island over the weekend. This is a fantastic new cozy series set in Canada that I absolutely loved. This series has a great concept and I really enjoyed reading this feel good cozy, great friends, crazy relatives, horrible crime and a dream realized. I had no trouble picturing the setting, characters and amazing food and wine pairings!

There’s something cheesy going on around here… Thirty-year-old Amalia Kis just opened a new bistro that specializes in selling mouth-watering platters of cheeses, salamis, artisan breads and wines with quirky names like Broke Ass, Well Hung and The Accomplice. But when she’s greeted by the body of the local town hoarder hanging from the coat hooks at her bistro, she finds herself in the midst of an unsavory murder investigation, and her plans for success are quickly thwarted. After a second body turns up in her stairway, the list of suspects steadily grows, as does Amalia’s desperation when her Hungarian parents decide to visit for a few days. To further complicate her life, Matt, an ex-cop who now owns his own private investigating firm, takes a sudden interest in her, but getting cozy with him proves to be difficult amidst concussions, break-ins, and her overprotective parents. Amalia’s savings are quickly dwindling, as are the customers at the bistro amidst all the scandal. Desperate not to lose her bistro, and since the police don’t seem to be making much headway, Amalia starts investigating on her own. Without a clue as to what she’s doing, will she end up pasteurized or live to Whine another day?

If you are looking for a fun new series in an all new cozy location outside of cozy town USA check out Asiago and the Accomplice on Amazon by clicking here.
Learn more about Judy and this series by visiting her website www.judyvolhart.com
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy review. I would love to hear from you so please leave us a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Summer Read-athon With Purpose

Summer is upon us and so is the summer reading programs for children. My local library does an Adult one which I think is brilliant. Today I am happy to share the news that there is a great summer read along program that you can join and make a difference in the cozy community in doing so. Many of you who love and read cozy mysteries regularly know that many fantastic series are in danger of not being renewed or canceled due to publishing culling at some of the major publishing houses.

How will reading books this summer help save our cozies? By purchasing, reading, reviewing and repeating with other books in the series you will help others discover these series and hopefully shed light on the demand for thoughtfully written and delightful cozy mysteries!

Shameless plug here but I love the Read Em and Eat Series by Terri Farley Moran,

 I have recipes in this book a Caught Read Handed and I have one in her new summer release as well  Read To Death! (Please note I don't receive any monitory benefit from my recipe contributions, I just love the series!) This is one of the series listed as in jeopardy!

You can order the books on line, in paper, or e format, borrow them from your library even, what is the most important thing is leaving a review, letting the publisher and the author know you care about the series, this makes a difference, the more people who read, review and repeat helps all of us sustain the cozy community!

So come join us, you don't have to have a blog to join, read one, read them all, just come help us make a difference this summer and have a lot of fun while doing it!

Click here to learn more and for the Save Our Cozies Readathon site. 

and Repeat!

Find out more and join the Facebook page Save Our Cozies by clicking here. 

Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery today. I would love to have you join me reading along this summer and to hear from you so please leave us a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Scared Witchelss A New Series By Amy Boyles

Monday of last week I read Scared Witchless by Amy Boyles, this first in series is a very interesting story of three southern sisters and their grandmothers and how they learn that they are from a long line of witches. This story had mystery and drama and lots of paranormal fantasy.

 Dylan Apel is having one heck of a summer. She knows her hand-made clothing is special, but magical? Discovering that she's a witch is bad enough, but when Dylan realizes there are folks who’ll kill to possess her witchy powers— that’s enough to make a girl want to hide out in the back of her boutique. Only problem is, Queen Witch is in town, itchin’ to make sure Dylan learns to cast spells, and this witch won’t take no for an answer. 
Dylan must learn fast—someone just killed her best client with a poisoned gown meant for Dylan. Was it the tall, mysterious hottie in black, who's suddenly everywhere she goes? After all, the first thing Roman Bane says is he doesn't like witches. Is he here to save her, or kill her? Dylan is barely getting a handle on her new powers when she finds herself surrounded by witches bossing her this way and that, local police nosing about, and wary clients—death by clothing is not good for business. And the solstice is coming … a time when witch powers are at their peak. Can Dylan survive the chaos long enough to figure out her new life? 

This was an interesting read and I found that it left me wanting to know more, always a good sign in a first in series. Check out Amy Boyles Scared Witchless by clicking here.
Learn more about Amy Boyles and the series by clicking here for her Facebook Fan Page.

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