Fancy Friday Finds!

Welcome Friday, I have been looking forward to you all week.  Welcome to my Fancy Friday Finds! This week I have been thinking about and trying to wear my own brooches, since the Duchess of Cambridge has been wearing them with her outfits I thought I should pull mine out and well take a page from her book... I found this spectacular brooch on KindHeartsEmporium Etsy shop site and quickly fell in love. This is so something I would wear and may just have to purchase, unless you beat me too it. Check out this listing and shop by clicking here.

Teacup shapes are important to me. Royal Albert is the brand of bone china I have most of and it is largely due to the shape and colors of patterns offered. I do not have but would love this blue and yellow stunner! Aprils Luxuries Etsy shop has this Glamis Royal Albert Set from the Merrie England Series you should check out. Click here for shop and listing. 

I realize we are 6 months away but I love these vintage napkin rings I found on Tistheseasonboutique 

I was surprised to see that they are also offering the serving plate! Click here for this hidden gem of a shop! 

Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and today's fancy Friday finds, I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Witch Way To Mintwood by Addison Creek

Yesterday I felt very much that I needed a paranormal cozy read, thanks to my friend Lisa K I found Witch Way to Mintwood by Addison Creek. It was just what I needed. This book was the perfect cozy witch story. This was an unexpected wonderful read. Sometimes you can just tell by the cover, and I was drawn to this one! The story is a great one and the mystery pretty good too! The main character is a reluctant town witch, who returns to her childhood home after her grandmother dies. Living with her best friends in a rambling and falling down house would be drama enough for any cozy but this witch can see and talk to ghosts! I simply loved this. I would and will read this series. A fantastic find and I am thankful to Lisa K for pointing me in this books direction. Currently offered at 99 cents on Amazon and worth every penny and more!

House falling down? Check. Pet sitting job with annoying clients? Check. Ability to speak to ghosts, which has the unfortunate side effect of having to listen to what they say back? Double check! Hot high school crush still in town being all successful and stuff while you protest his building projects? All kinds of checks! Did anyone say Witch of Mintwood? Yup! Just add murder and this will be a week to remember!

You can find this one 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

Leave It To Cleaver by Victoria Hamilton

I was very pleased to be asked to read and review Victoria Hamilton's Leave it To Cleaver, a Vintage Kitchen Mystery that is out later this month by Beyond The Page Publishing.  This is the first book in the series I have read. Even though Victoria Hamilton is one of my most favorite cozy mystery authors this series I had not read. This one has so much emotion in it. I did not realize what a great sister cozy this would be. The drama and the reflection of the past tied with the present day made for a very full and all encompassing read. I love the cover and the cozy feeling you get at the end of this book. Spoiler Alert!  It is a bitter sweet but happy ending as cozies go!  

Vintage cookware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton has agreed to help her sister clear out the house of a deceased older neighbor, and she’s thrilled at the prospect of discovering antique kitchenware and other treasures—until she opens a vintage trunk in the cellar and finds the remains of a teenage girl with a cleaver buried in her skull. When the body of a second girl is found just days later in a nearby river, the clues all indicate that the crimes are connected—and that the culprit’s motives are hidden in the past.Jaymie just wants to cut and run, but the victims were both high school classmates of her sister when they disappeared, and that makes Jaymie the perfect person to help the local police investigate the killings. As she dredges up old memories and even older rivalries and jealousies, her list of suspects grows. But Jaymie knows she’ll have to whittle it down to just one, and fast, because someone has decided to cut their ties to Jaymie—in the most fatal of ways . . .

You can pre order Leave it to Cleaver on Amazon.com by clicking here.

Visit Author Victoria Hamilton's 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 

You Are Invited To Join Us This Summer For The Three Amigos Summer Reading Club!

                           Over the weekend, my friends and fellow bloggers,  Mary of https://mjbreviewers.wordpress.com/ and Lisa  of Lisa K's Book Reviews and I got together and brainstormed what we hope you will think is a fun summer reading club! After all why should the kids have all the fun?  We have made ourselves Bitmoji Icon's in keeping with the whimsical feelings summer is supposed to make us all feel and we have come up with an 11 week simple reading club that we hope you love. All you have to do to join is pop by each of our blogs Mondays from June 19th right through to the end of August on the 28th!

We have each put a list of summer reading suggestions based on weekly themes that we hope you will want to read, treasure, take with you on holiday, make you think you are on holiday or simply take you away for an arm chair traveler retreat. Read one, read all, create a to be read pile from our suggestions the choice is up to you!

Each week we will have three book selections for you to enjoy! That is 33 book suggestions we hope you will take to heart and perhaps book suggestions you can use for August 31st on Buy A Friend A Book Day, the most wonderful day of the year!

I hope you will join us for our Three Amigos Summer Reading Club and end our Summer of Reading with the Celebration of Buy A Friend A Book Day on August 31st!

Thank you for joining me here this morning for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery summer reading club announcement. 

I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

A Ghostly Light by Juliet Blackwell

Oh this book I could not put it down! Juliet Blackwell has a must read book you will want to read this summer! This book had everything this cozy mystery lover could want!  In A Ghostly Light, Juliet Blackwell took everything I love in a great cozy and surpassed my expectations of a great book. Wonderful read for a reader who loves light houses, ghost stories, mysteries and delightful endings! Take this book to the beach with you this summer or like me to a lighthouse. 

I have read one or two in this series and while I enjoyed them, this one stood out most for me as it hit on something I love so dearly which is preservation of lighthouses. This story was so inspiring, the mystery so captivating and the characters both alive and dead so relatable! This is a book I would buy for my friends just so we could talk about the story together! This series is a book clubs delight, this story a crown jewel.  This book is out June 27th! 

When her friend Alicia hires Turner Construction to renovate a historic lighthouse in the San Francisco Bay, Mel Turner can’t wait to get her hands dirty. Alicia plans to transform the island property into a welcoming inn, and while Mel has never attempted a project so ambitious—or so tall—before, she’s definitely up for the challenge. But trouble soon arises when Alicia’s abusive ex-husband shows up to threaten both her and Mel, and later turns up dead at the base of the lighthouse stairs. With no other suspects in sight, things start looking choppy for Alicia. Now, if Mel wants to clear her friend’s name, she’ll need the help of the lighthouse’s resident ghosts to shine a light on the real culprit...

You can pre order now on Amazon by clicking here. 
Learn more about Juliet Blackwell and all her amazing stories by clicking here.
Thank you for joining me here 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

Carol Novis' Long In The Sleuth, A Tension on a Pension Mystery.

Late last night I finished reading Long in the Sleuth by Carol Novis. This is the first book in what I hope will be a long running series! A tension on a Pension Mystery,  I love the way that rolls off the tongue!  I very much enjoyed this story. The characters are impossible not to love.  Carol does a wonderful job of not only writing believable characters, but capturing the spirit of  a true cozy mystery. Main character Ellie is north of the 30 something characters in most cozies but with all the gumption and panache of someone half her age. This book is funny and endearing. I learned a lot from the author about Jewish culture, history and food! Oh the food, you won't be able to read this book without longing for someone to eat! I am thrilled that the recipes are in the back!  Ellie is very relatable and her unlikely friend and helpers in the story make you feel like you are part of the team. I hope you will consider picking up a copy of  Long in The Sleuth, you won't be disappointed.

First in the "Tension on a Pension" cozy mystery series  "The cast of Jewish senior sleuths made me laugh out loud." Anne Kleinberg, best-selling author of "Menopause in Manhattan" "A brilliant setting for a wickedly funny book." Linda Matchan, journalist, "The Boston Globe" "This book kept me absorbed and entertained all the way through. The denouement really was a surprise." Judy Weidman, librarian "Long in the Sleuth" combines humor, romance and suspense with a unique angle--a quirky team of seniors trying to adjust to life in a retirement home, while people are dropping dead all around them.  Who killed Sam Levin with a poisoned knish? Could it be Ellie, who baked it? The yentas at the Menorah Retirement Home think that it just might be. Ellie Shapiro is a reluctant resident of the Minnie and Isaac Memorial Menorah Retirement home. Then Sam, a popular fellow resident, drops dead after eating a knish that Ellie's baked. Other murders follow. With her fellow sleuths and Sam's hapless teen-age grandson Noah, plus a dog, Ellie sets out to find the killer.  But will the disapproval of Ellie's hunky crush, Hal, stop the motley detection team before the killer gets her?  Over the course of the book, Ellie gains confidence, a friend, a new career and maybe even the guy, as the action takes her from the Menorah kitchens to an out-of-control fight at a mahjong game and a revelatory visit to gambling casino, culminating in a confrontation with a crazed murderer.  Ellie's recipes included. If you loved Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, the Golden Girls and Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small, you won't want to miss "Long in the Sleuth."

To order your own copy of  Long in the Sleuth by Carol Novis from Amazon.com 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 June 3rd-10th

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