Natural Thorn Killer by Kate Dyer-Seeley

I had the pleasure of reading Natural Thorn Killer a new book by Kate Dyer-Seeley yesterday. This upcoming Kensington release slated for March 27th, centers around Britta who leaves a loveless marriage and returns home to her aunt's flower shop just in time for her aunt's flower cottage opening. Just days before the big event, Britta discovers the body of a local developer at odds with Britta's aunt has been murdered inside the cottage. Britta is desperate to help her aunt open on time and will do anything she can to help assist the local police... I feel like author Kate Dyer-Seeley does a great job of capturing the vibe and true feel of Portland Oregon. It is one of my most favorite places to visit and only about 8 hours drive from where I live. Portland has a rich and exciting small town in a big city feel and you really do get that feeling when you read Natural Thorn Killer. I liked the mystery, loved the setting, characters and I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Britta Johnston might be a late bloomer, but after leaving her deadbeat husband and dead-end job, she’s finally pursuing her artistic passion at her aunt Elin’s floral boutique, Blooma, in Portland, Oregon. It’s on the banks of the Willamette, in a quaint district of cobblestone paths and cherry trees. The wine bar featuring Pacific Northwest vintages is a tasty bonus, offering another kind of bouquet to enjoy. But things aren’t as peaceful as they look. For one thing, someone’s been leaving dead roses around—and a sleazy real estate developer who wants the waterfront property has put a big-money offer on the table. Then, after a contentious meeting of local business owners, he’s found on the floor of the shop, with Elin’s garden shears planted in his chest. And before the police decide to pin the crime on her beloved aunt, Britta will have to find out who arranged this murder . . .

You can find Natural Thorn Killer on Amazon 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

On My Table and In My Cup October 29th- November 5th

Saturday morning and another week has flown by, still a tiny amount of Halloween candy left not bad in a house of three boys, I can not be held responsible for the candy left un attended. Actually we had about 78 trick or treators on Halloween, not a busy night!  Currently on my table is the second book in Janice Richardson's Spencer Funeral Home Niagara Cozy Mystery, Winter's Mourning. I am very excited to have this to read. I can not wait to share my review.

I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing the November 15th release Cat Got Your Diamonds! This is a must read cozy and new series to love!

A guilty pleasure to read about someone training for a big run, while eating Halloween candy! Kate Dyer-Seeley has a fantastic  4th book coming out this month that I think you will love. I enjoy the fact that this cozy is set on the West Coast and look forward to reading this Oregon based series.

Deck The Hallways by Kate Carlisle gave me all the wonderful holiday feels you expect a Hallmark movie channel to do on a snowy December night. Don't miss this one!

In my cup this week, I was lucky enough to have a friend who knows how to fill up my bucket! She brought me the new Davids Tea Holiday tin and their Coffee Cake Tea which I simply adore! This has happily filled my cup since Thursday and these lovely little spoons came from a swap I did on Elfster that made my day! Though my almost 2 year old niece Phoebe grabbed them and stuck them in her purse, carting them around for the last two days everywhere we went. They are so darling and a great addition to my tea table.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a week in review. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

First Degree Mudder by Kate Dyer-Seeley

I will be absolutely honest,  I feel completely guilty having read this amazing adventure themed west coast cozy, while consuming a large amount of Halloween Candy and muffins. First Degree Mudder by Kate Dyer-Seeley was absolutely fantastic. Out November 29th this is one not to miss! The idea of doing a running race, through the mud does not at this time interest me, however it was such a fun book to read and go through the process of training for the run with main character Meg. Mystery and suspense await you my dear readers in this fantastic cozy, along with some really good story lines that have nothing to do with running. I felt like Meg has really come into her own in this book, new haircut, new attitude and new approach to life make Meg an even more well rounded and fun character. Her love of Pink, Journalism and Oregon are contagious. Kate Dyer-Seeley has done such great research on the area and does a superb job of making you really feel like you are in Oregon. From the graphic t-shirts, baristas and bartenders to the weather and the descriptions of the pine trees, there is so much to love about this cozy series.

When a mud marathon champion bites the dust, Meg Reed has to go the distance to make sure a killer comes clean . . . Back home in Portland, Oregon, Meg is ready to take her career as an outdoor writer for Extreme magazine to the next level. Lesser journalists sling mud—Meg plans to run through it. To train hard for Mud, Sweat & Beers, an extreme 5K mud run, she’s signed on with the Mind Over Mudder team, run by ten-time mud marathon champ—and former drill sergeant—Billy the Tank. But when Meg finds her tenacious trainer dead in the locker room, she has a sinking feeling someone may have been pushed too far. Digging through the hidden secrets at Mind Over Mudder is a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. Meg will have to tread carefully, though—or she may soon be running for her life . . .

Learn more about this series by Kate Dyer-Seeley by clicking here
Order your own copy of First Degree Mudder 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 here at karenmowen@gmail.com

On My Table And In My Cup August 20th-27th

Saturday and what a week it has been, I have actually been home now since Monday, what a great time I had! I love to go away but there is something about being home I think is fantastic and that I truly miss. My cat Squirrel seems to be the most put out by my leaving, though I hope she has mostly forgiven me now. We were in the State of Oregon, my husband and I. It was a great get away.  We left the boys and the cats at home and headed for the eclectic and fun bookstores, fresh air of the Pacific North West and even got to fulfill a life long dream of visiting and being inside a lighthouse.

 A dream trip for sure and only about 6 hours from my home. Quite a delight for sure. I also had the great fortune to visit the Stash Tea Store and now I am wishing I bought way more then I did. I can order on line but the shipping will kill me! The Portland loose leaf Stash Blend was way beyond my expectations and perfectly reflects the state. You can taste the culture and the communities, the quirkiness and the sweetness of great outdoors in each sip. Click here to see how you can order your own from the Stash Tea Website.

Monday we arrived home and waiting for me was Jessica Estevao's Whispers Beyond The Veil.  I am looking forward to reading this one.

Also waiting for me when I got home but on my Kindle App was Warren Adler's cozy mystery Flanagan's Dolls. This book is out now and as a Doll lover this book appeals to me.

Tuesday's mail brought some lovely treasures from my friend Lisa! I love the napkins and watching my TBR pile grow!

Wednesday the mail man dropped off 8 more lovelies to my pile. Not hard to dive into this bunch. I am so excited to read some familiar series and some that are totally new to me. So hard to know where to start! Great problem to have!

Thursday brought me my friend Lisa's suggestion of Susan Bernhardt's The Ginseng Conspiracy! Good friends, tea, pastries and set at Halloween this one looks really good! I hear it is also out in paperback now too!
Friday no mail came but that is just as well. I have a very full and thankful table at the moment. 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

Meet Your Baker By Ellie Alexander, A Fantastic Book And Series!

I have been home now a few days and the second book I read while on vacation was Ellie Alexander (Kare Dyer-Seeley's) Meet Your Baker. If you read yesterday's post you know that I searched 6 book stores to find it and boy was it worth the search! This book first came out in 2014 and there are 4 current books in this series, one more coming out later this year.

I am so glad that my friends recommended this series to me and it was such a delight to track them down and read them. I am also thrilled that my trip coincided with meeting the author Ellie Alexander. Hearing her speak about her series was a truly special and unique experience for me.

The book it's self was absolutely charming. The realization that this series is based on a real place you can actually visit (though I was assured that the characters are purely fiction and that the lay out of the town differs slightly from the real Ashland Oregon) made this series just that much more real for me. Being in the state that the book was written about made it even more special. I loved the characters in this book, they are so well established, the back grounds, the history and the Shakespeare, along with the mouth watering food suggestions and recipes is more then endearing, it is exciting. Discovering this well written and well thought out series was a highlight of my summer. 

In this small town bakeshop, the sweets are to die for...Welcome to Torte-a friendly, small-town family bake shop where the treats are so good that, sometimes, it's criminal...After graduating from culinary school, Juliet Capshaw returns to her quaint hometown of Ashland, Oregon, to heal a broken heart and help her mom at the family bakery. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is bringing in lots of tourists looking for some crumpets to go with their heroic couplets. But when one of Torte's customers turns up dead, there's much ado about murder...The victim is Nancy Hudson, the festival's newest board member. A modern-day Lady Macbeth, Nancy has given more than a few actors and artists enough reasons to kill her...but still. The silver lining? Jules' high school sweetheart, Thomas, is the investigator on the case. His flirtations are as delicious as ever, and Jules can't help but want to have her cake and eat it too. But will she have her just desserts? Murder might be bad for business, but love is the sweetest treat of all...

I am so looking forward to reading and reviewing more of this series, I hope you will join me in read it as well! When I was in Oregon, I stopped by the Stash Tea store and picked up their special loose leaf Portland Oregon Blend. I wish I bought a case. This tea is fantastic and will always taste to me like a cup of vacation.
You can order your own copy of  Meet Your Baker from The Book Depository with Free shipping by clicking here.
Learn more about Ellie Alexander and her Bake Shop Mystery Series 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

A Trip To Oregon and A Review Of Kate Dyer-Seeley's Pacific Northwest Mystery Series!

For the last week I have been traveling, a bit of a cozy adventure get away with my husband, to Portland Oregon. This week long get away was a delight and I am thrilled to say it was full of trips to the book store and lots of time reading in the hotel room to beat the 40 degree (80's for my American readers).

Oregon has some amazing book stores and on our first night here I went to the Book Bin in Salem (South of Portland) to meet and listen to author Kate Dyer-Seeley (AKA- Ellie Alexander). While my cozy best friends have all read her work for me this adventure was brand new and I tracked down her books at the book stores down here to read on our trip.

 I had intended to read the Bake Shop Mystery series but it was the way that Kate talked about both her series that endeared me to the Scene of the Climb her first book in the Pacific Northwest Mystery Series.  This is the first book in a three book series with the 4th book coming out in December. I finally tracked a copy down at my 6th book store and second Powell's books location.

Portland, Oregon, is the perfect fit for someone like Meg Reed. It's a city with a small town feel, where she can crash on the couch of her best friend Jill, now that she's graduated from journalism school. . . But a girl needs a job, so Meg bluffs her way into writing for Northwest Extreme magazine, passing herself off to editor-in-chief Greg Dixon as an outdoor adventure enthusiast. Never mind that Meg's idea of sport is climbing onto the couch without spilling her latte. So when she finds herself clawing to the top of Angel's Rest--a two-thousand-foot peak--to cover the latest challenge in a reality TV adventure show, she can't imagine feeling more terrified. Until she witnesses a body plummet off the side of the cliff. Now Meg has a murder to investigate. And if the climbing doesn't kill her, a murderer just might.

You can order your own copy of Scene of the Climb from The Book Depository with free shipping by clicking here.

I truly enjoyed reading this on my trip. Being in the state it was written about made the book even more alive. The characters are well developed the setting, theme and mysteries are so good and so well researched that you can tell that this story is written by someone who truly loves and grasps the feel and energy of this state. I was very impressed to meet Kate and delighted by her humor, talent and energy. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the great outdoors, and to anyone who loves the great outdoors from the comfort of their reading chair like I do! I really enjoyed main character Meg and her friends, I can relate to her less then athletic abilities and her clumsiness. I believe that this is a series I will happily read and enjoy for many books to come.
To learn more about this series please click here for Kate Dyer-Seeley's Website. 

On a tea note, Stash tea is located in this area and I may have filled my bag with lovely teas to enjoy, shown here is one of the new to me varieties I chose while in store. Lavender Tulsi was a lovely herbal tea, refreshing and invigorating this tea is made with Tulsi (Holy Basil) and lavender like its name and it does taste like heaven!

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