Happy Publication Day to The Library Murders by Merryn Allingham!
This book was a fast and fun read, but I definitely had some more problems with it than I would have wanted!
I liked the concept of having a murder take place during a crime book conference.
I did not like Jack as a person or as Flora’s significant other. I felt that he was condescending towards her and wasn’t always thinking about their relationship. But also, Flora also wasn’t the best with keeping things hidden. I wish that they weren’t love interests but instead were just partners in crime, I think I would’ve liked that dynamic better.
The time period was a great choice for this book. I felt that it added to some of the mystery since there is no social media and no cell phones to make communication easier. It is also just a fun time period to read about, and it definitely added some layers and helped the reader understand why some of the characters are thinking the way that they are.
I feel that some of the investigation fell flat for me. I liked most of the main suspects that there were, but I felt that the investigation into Basil fell short for me.
I hated Ridley as a character, but he did further the plot with letting Flora and Jack investigate by themselves and he did bring in some fun to some of the scenes. Lastly, I felt that the money that Flora gets didn’t need to be in the book. It felt like a forgotten plot line in some places, especially since it didn’t actually make anyone question Flora at all and what she was doing. I think this could have really added a bunch into the plot if people started to second guess Flora.
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me this ARC to read and review!
Happy Valentine’s Day! I am here to bring you another romance book from the Bellbird Bay series. For those of you who recently followed, this series can be read all together, or as standalone books. Scroll down to the bottom to see the other reviews I did for other books in this series!
Book Blurb:
It’s been over twenty years since Cass Marshall’s relationship fell apart, and she returned home to Bellbird Bay. Now, although happy with the success of her beachwear business, Cass often longs for someone special to share her life.
Nursing the wounds of a failed marriage, Mick Roberts has finally accepted his ex has moved on with her life. Determined to avoid his daughter’s attempts at matchmaking, he immerses himself in his whale-watching business.
When family sickness brings the two together, Cass wonders if her life is about to take a turn for the better. But with Mick’s ex-wife also being Cass’s best friend, a seed of doubt emerges.
This doubt intensifies when Cass’s recently widowed ex arrives in town, determined to use any means to drive a wedge between Cass and Mick as he fights for a second chance.
Can Bellbird Bay work its magic again and provide a happy ever after for Cass and Mick, or are they destined to spend the rest of their lives alone?
My Review:
This is not my first book in the Bellbird Bay series, and I have actually reviewed a few of them! I am putting the links to my other reviews below, make sure to check them out!
Although this isn’t my first book in the series, I have not read all of them and I did not read them in order, but this is a series that does not need to be read one after the other and all stand alone very well.
Even though I haven’t read all the books, and they can stand alone, wow did I love knowing some of the characters from previous books. This book by itself really brings you into the small town feel and really gets you up to speed with all the characters, but knowing the characters from before really made me feel like I was returning home in a sense.
Sadly this will be the last book in the series, which is really hard to believe! There is hope that a few of the locals will find a spot in some of Maggie Christensen’s new books, and I know I will be keeping an eye out for that!
Mick and Cass seem to be pulled together, but of course, there are also things–like life– pulling them away from each other. I enjoyed seeing both of them deal with the issues inside of themselves while trying to figure out what is best for themselves when looking at their budding relationship.
This series always has a mature way to look at relationships and one’s situations. This is an aspect that many romance books lack, so it is a breath of fresh air to see so many adults acting in a realistic way that makes me care for them more.
I have enjoyed every trip I took to Bellbird Bay, and still have a few more trips to go to round out the rest of the series. I highly recommend this book/series to someone that needs a light read, or a fun series that can pull them into the beautiful setting of Bellbird Bay.
After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing romantic women’s fiction, feel good stories of second chances. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Maggie has been called the queen of mature age fiction and her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.
From the small town in Scotland where she grew up, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call to ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!
Since Valentine’s Day is coming up I thought it would be a nice time to review The Fixer Upper, a book with some cute romance.
Book Blurb:
Finding a man is like buying a house: sometimes you have to look beyond the exterior to see the potential underneath.
As an estate agent, Alex’s job is to create happy-ever-afters. It’s just a shame she can’t work the same magic on her own life. Her long-term boyfriend Thomas still lives with his mother, and her hopes of them taking the next step are dashed when he announces he’s spending all his savings (savings she’d quite hoped he’d want to put towards their future home) on an ‘artist retreat’ in San Francisco.
With Thomas thousands of miles away, getting a little too friendly with his fellow artistes, Alex strikes up a friendship with her new neighbour, Callum. Taciturn, grumpy and nerdy, Callum couldn’t be more different to Alex’s bubbly personality…. So why is he the one she wakes up wanting to talk to?
As they get to know each other, Alex starts to wonder if the answer to all her problems might be closer to home than she thinks…
My Review:
This book was so cute! I wasn’t the biggest fan of Emma, Alex’s best friend and roommate, and in some of the scenes with her I found myself rolling my eyes. But as she isn’t the main character I was able to put her in the back of my mind.
This book was very predictable, from the rooming situation with Emma and Alex being hard, to what was going to happen with Thomas when he left, to Alex moving in and falling for Callum.
But as I have said many times, I love a good Hallmark movie, and that is exactly what this book felt like. I might have known what was going to happen, but that didn’t stop me form enjoying the book.
I read this book in basically one sitting, and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the comedic relief throughout, and I also love how Alex is able to stick up for herself, not only to Thomas but also to her friend Emma.
I love the growth we see between Alex and Callum as a couple but also as individuals. I had a great time reading this book, and would definitely recommend it to people that like hallmark movies!
Author Bio:
Phoebe MacLeod is the author of several popular laugh-out-loud romantic comedies. She mainly sets her books in her home county of Kent and her first new title for Boldwood will be published in November 2022. They will also be republishing her existing titles from August this year.
January seemed to last three months this year, but I did get a lot of good reading done. This month I read 27 books, some were on my 150-book list while others were ones I randomly added.
A perfect cosy crime for fans of M C Beaton’s Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series.
Change is coming to Wendlebury Barrow – and not everyone is happy about it…
When the local bus company announces it will be stopping its route through their quaint Cotswold village, the people of Wendlebury Barrow are up in arms. Not least Sophie Sayers, whose driving lessons with her boyfriend Hector get off to a bumpy start.
But the locals’ peaceful protests against the decision turn deadly when a body is discovered on the Number 27. No one can work out how Janice Boggins met her demise, let alone how the driver didn’t notice. While the police wait for the post mortem results, Sophie immediately suspects foul play, and launches her own investigation.
Can she solve the murder before another passenger is hurt?
My Review:
This was such a fun read! Driven to Murder is a very cozy read that I jumped right into, and is just what you might be needing during this dreary season!
This is the ninth book in this series, and I have not read the other eight, BUT I don’t think this pulled away from the book. Debbie Young was able to get me, a new reader, up to speed on all the characters and the town right off the bat. I really loved that I didn’t feel left behind coming late to the series, but also I didn’t feel that she was forcing too much information at me at the beginning. So in summary of that: You can read this book without reading the beginning of the series, but this book was so fun that you might as well just start from the beginning!
I wish it jumped into the action a little earlier than it did, since the mystery doesn’t occur until about halfway through the book and then seems to go very fast. I also enjoyed Sophie as a character during the investigation since it seemed like she didn’t necessarily want to be involved, but the clues just kept coming to her so she had no other choice but to solve the murder.
I really enjoyed this book, and will definitely need to go back and read the previous books! I liked Sophie as a character, and Hector took me a little bit to like but towards the end he grew on me as well. Who knows maybe I will like him better if I read the other books, we will just have to read and find out!
Author Bio:
Debbie Young is the much-loved author of the Sophie Sayers and St Brides cosy crime mysteries. She lives in a Cotswold village where she runs the local literary festival, and has worked at Westonbirt School, both of which provide inspiration for her writing. She is bringing both her series to Boldwood in a 13-book contract. They will be publishing several new titles in each series and republishing the backlist, starting in September 2022.
It’s a normal sunny day when Mia sees her ex-boyfriend on the street where she lives. But she knows that’s crazy. She knows it can’t possibly be him. She knows… because she killed him.
Mia and Carrie have been best friends since school. They share everything: clothes, shoes, a home… and their secrets.
Only Carrie knew what Mia did that night. Where everything went wrong and Mia’s boyfriend attacked her, so she attacked him right back.
Carrie made the problem go away. Like she always would for her best friend. They’ve got on with their lives. Mia’s even met someone new – a man she thinks she could be with forever.
But now it looks like her ex is back. Alive and well. So either Mia is losing her mind, or somebody very close to her has been lying…
My Review:
The description of this book really sold me on it! I was pulled in right from the beginning from the prologue that really just caught my attention.
The main character, Mia, is battling between a lot in her life. Between Carrie not liking her new boyfriend, and Owen, the man in her apartment, giving her problems, she is incredibly on edge. But when the man she killed comes back it sends Mia into a downward spiral (as it should).
Mia is not a likable character, but throughout the book she is slightly unreliable, and I love a good unreliable narrator.
The story did kind of lose me when it talked about the dark web and paying them off for covering the murder. This didn’t seem as feasible, and the fact that Carrie is involved kind of threw me as well. Especially since there is no tracing it, but with the method of how she paid there definitely would be ways to track that down.
Other than that! The book was a mix of fast and slow pace. There were some areas where I felt so much was happening and other parts that I felt that we were waiting for what was going to happen next. I don’t think that pulled me out of the book though as the parts that were fast-paced really made me keep reading. The ending wasn’t entirely predictable but I did have an inkling of what was going to happen.
With that all being said, I did enjoy this book and recommend it for any thriller-lover who needs a fast-paced book!
Author Bio:
Joanne Ryan is the author of several well-reviewed psychological thrillers. Previously published by Tamarillas Press, she lives in Wiltshire. Her first thriller for Boldwood is Keep Your Friends Close.
I am so excited to review Murder at Merewood Hospital! I could not put this book down and hope that you all will want to read it as well!
Book Blurb:
The patients survived the Great War only to face a new danger…
In 1916, Sister Helen Hopgood was sent with a team of nurses to care for wounded soldiers at Merewood Farm, a temporary military hospital in Hampshire.
Now the war is over, only five patients remain – and she is the only nurse. The last ward must close, and Helen is doing all she can to find new homes for the injured servicemen.
Joseph Wintringham has to sell the farm to keep Merewood Manor. But since the murder of Nurse Taplin, locals believe the place is cursed – perhaps by the doomed nurse or by the patients who perished from their war wounds.
Is the hospital haunted? Or is someone very real behind the unnatural deaths that begin on Midsummer’s Night 1919?
Can Helen discover the truth before it’s too late..?
My Review:
This was a book I was very excited for. I love this time period, and the concept was really intriguing. To say that this book lived up to my expectations would be an understatement. I truly enjoyed this book so much, and really enjoyed getting to know all the characters, as well as guessing who the killer was right from the beginning.
At the beginning, the characters were a little hard to nail down. Mostly because there are multiple men in the hospital as patients and it took me a little time to organize them in my head. The other reason is because of the doctor and Sister Hopgood. They are sometimes called by their title and sometimes by their first name, so this took me some time to remember who is who at the beginning. Once I got to know the characters better I did start to care for all of them, some more than others.
We jump into the drama pretty fast in the book. We hear about a murder that happened just a year prior that was never sold, and then we see a mean practical joke happen, and the reader is immediately trying to figure out the connection between the two things, and this is just the start. I enjoyed the tension, and the speed at what things were happening.
There seemed to be the perfect mix of mystery and just having dialogue and normal things with the characters. Everything blended together perfectly in a way that I really looked forward to not only getting to the bottom of the mystery but also looking forward to what was happening between the characters.
The different points of view are very interesting to me. We are seeing so many different points of view. We see them finding clues that would point to one person, or hearing a conversation that would point to another person. This was done masterfully as it kept me bouncing back and forth as to who I thought the guilty person was.
There are so many little backstories that make the reader second guess everything that they were thinking. I kept thinking I figured it out but then would get new information that would make me think it was someone else. I did have an inkling by the end of who it was, but that inkling wasn’t based on anything concrete so I wasn’t even sure of myself.
I really loved the ending. I love ending with a happy ending that is all about an empowered woman and her finding herself. That was honestly the best way to end the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its twists and turns. I loved getting to know the characters and getting to be at Merewood Hospital in its final days. I loved the characters and the intense mystery that I got to experience with them. I can’t wait to read more books from Michelle Salter. I highly recommend this book if you like historical fiction, mystery, or want something that you won’t be able to put down.
Ratings:
Characters: 9/10
Plot: 9.5/10
Writing Style: 9/10
Settings: 10/10
Overall: 9.375/10
Author Bio:
Michelle Salter writes historical cosy crime set in Hampshire, where she lives, and inspired by real-life events in 1920s Britain. The first book in her Iris Woodmore series, Death at Crookham Hall, draws on her interest in the aftermath of the Great War and the suffragette movement.
In 2023 I read a total of 139 books. For the year 2024, my goal is to read 150 books, which is a big step but I’m jumping all in!
I made a list of all the books I want to read in 2024, the list is probably going to change… it’s probably going to change a lot! But one can always hope to get through their list!
I’m hoping to do a recap in six months to see my progress and to see which books I’ve read, deleted off the list, and added to the list!
150 books in 2024:
The Age of Innocence
Infinite Jest
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Brothers Karamazov
The Grapes of Wrath
Confederacy of Dunces
The Color Purple
The Orphan Master’s Son
The Underground Railroad
The Remains of the Day
Life of Pi
The Sense of an Ending
Girl, Woman, Other
Nightmare in Manhattan
Gideon’s Fire
Let Me die in His Footsteps
The Catcher in the Rye
Ethan Frome
Great Expectations
My Sister’s Keeper
Pride and Prejudice
A Tale of Two Cities
Salem’s Lot
The Exorcist
Yellowface
Throne of Glass
The Never Heir
Murder at Merewood Hospital
What Waits in the Shadow
Keep Your Friends Close
Driven to Murder
The Fixer Upper
The Ex-List
Amidst the Unknown
The Girl in the Scarlet Chair
Can’t Hide What’s Inside
The Haunting of Whitehall Manor
Apartment 401
The Block Party
Tampa
The Girl in Cabin 13
The Surgeon
The Flatshare
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Tuscan Secret
Vampire in the Lemon Grove
Fates and Furies
Oscar and Lucinda
Journey in the Dark
Rites of Passage
Honey in the Horn
The Godfather
The Wager
The Castaways
The Rumor
A Home for Unloved Orphans
Elizabeth and Margaret
The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa
Happily Ever After
Women We Buried, Women We Burned
Fourth Wing
The Never Heir
Gone With The Wind
Scarlett
Finding Love in Positano
Murder Mansion
Into the Americas
The Hunt for Black Atlantis
Vistas, Vices, and Valentines
Murder by Numbers
The Murder Before Christmas
Legend of the Huntress
Weaver
A Throne of Shadows
The Hills be Shaken
Forty-Two Minutes
The Divine and the Cursed
The Bakery on the cove
The Stories We Keep
Spindle of Life
Queen of Roses
The Lighthouse Cafe
Kingdom of Flames and Flowers
Cottage at Bella Beach
War and Peace
The Candy House
Lincoln in the Bardo
The People in the Trees
David Copperfield
Nicholas Nickleby
Crown of Midnight
Heir of Fire
Assassin’s Blade
Queen of Shadows
Empire of Storms
Tower of Dawn
Kingdom of Ash
The Alchemyst
The Sorceress
The Magician
Foster
Small Things Like These
Sanctuary
Light in August
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Necromancer
The Warlock
The Enchantress
Letters to a Young Poet
Stories We Never Told
The Final Case
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Poisonwood Bible
Phantom of the Opera
The Sympathizer
March
Gilead
Ironweed
The Old Man and the Sea
The Yearling
The Secret Life of Bees
Five People You Meet in Heaven
SlaughterHouse Five
Misery
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wuthering Heights
The Fine Print
How to Bake a Murder
The Emigrants
Nine Stories
Satanic Verses
Disappearing Earth
My Dark Vanessa
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
The Lost Apothecary
Bear Town
Conversations with Friends
Station Eleven
Waiting for the Moon
Don’t Let Her Stay
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
The Moons of Jupiter
The Member of the Wedding
Something Rich and Strange
Lonesome Dove
A Summons to Memphis
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A Thousand Acres
Happily Ever After is a book that I am hoping to finish today as I am 64% into it, and still have a good bit of day left!
Merry day after Christmas everyone! I’m going back into the thriller/mystery vibes with No More Lies by Alan Brenham.
This book was very interesting as it had two points of view. It is told by a wife of a missing man, and the detective that is set on pinning her for murder.
The detective, Detective Hatchett, is fully set on incriminating the wife, Dani, no matter if she is innocent or not. The fun thing about this book is that Dani is a defense attorney, so she knows her rights and knows how the system works. Although she is a defense attorney she still has moments of freaking out, which I am sure anyone in that situation would do no matter who they are.
The bias that Hatchett has against defense attorney’s is incredibly strong. We see how horrible he talks about attorney’s and how he wants all of them dead, we see what a crooked detective he is and how he will do anything to make sure she gets a guilty verdict. I felt that in some places Hatchett goes a little too far, and some of the dialogue isn’t too believable. I found some of his sections harder to read.
I loved Dani’s sections. Seeing her brain process the little information she is getting and also seeing her make bad decisions is also an exciting part of the book. As Dani’s past unravels the reader starts to learn more about Dani and I started to question what was actually true of what we know about her.
I felt that the romance at the end was pushed. I find it hard to believe that someone has a job to do and within an hour of that job is already falling for the one person he is supposed to be against. I also don’t believe the love interest liking him back. I’m trying not to give too much away with the plot, but it felt like they needed to be on the same side and for that to happen it was just easier to make them fall for each other, which wasn’t my favorite aspect.
I enjoyed how active the book was. There didn’t seem to be any part of it that the reader was just sitting around. Every chapter was planned so that the reader had no downtime, and was only engulfed in the book. The chapters were about medium length. I never felt like one went on longer than it needed to, and some were very short and brought an exciting punch before going into another chapter.
One big issue I had was the issues Dani’s husband was facing. He might have done something he shouldn’t have done, but he’s married to a defense attorney. A good defense attorney that knows the law. If he would have told her what was happening and sucked up the consequences that she would have given him, she probably would have been able to find a way out of it for him. I felt that his reactions were too dramatic, and that his disappearance should have been caused by something else. Also, if he didn’t want to hurt her, why was the ending such a shocking one where other people were keeping a secret from her, it felt like overkill.
I rated this book a 3 star out of 5. It was entertaining, but I felt in some places I was questioning why things were happening, or having problems with the way certain characters are acting. It was a very fast read that pulled me in right from the start, and I enjoyed reading it.
I received a free copy of this book from netgalley to give an honest review.
So I found the perfect book to combine my feel-good Christmas book genre, and my mystery/thriller genre! Santa’s Secret by Michelle Cornish brought both the hallmark feel and the mystery of a disappearance plaguing a small town. Sound interesting? It definitely was.
Elise is a PI who is obsessed with her job but finds herself trying to enjoy the holiday season in the small town of Pine Bend. Once she is there it is clear to see that the town people are not over the death of their beloved Clara’s disappearance, so of course Elise had to get to the bottom of what happened to Clara.
The book has a small prologue that really jumps you right into the disappearance of Clara from her point of view, but it leaves more questions than anything. The reader gets a little hint into a mysterious, magical gem that Clara has. I had assumed that the gem would be more prominent in the story, but I am very glad that it was a smaller portion so it didn’t come off as fantasy-like.
All of the characters were phenomenally portrayed. There were some characters that welcomed her opening, some that were suspicious of a newcomer, and some that didn’t like how close she was getting to her love interest, Nicholas.
The relationship between Nicholas and Elise was super light and fun. Elise had also lost someone she was really close to, so understood the loss that Nicholas had felt around Clara. I feel that they were both able to lean on each other as they learned to let other people in. The relationship starts pretty early, and is definitely a slow-burn that once they start to open up it develops into more so subtly.
I loved the depth of these characters’ emotions and how the town is trying in itself to recover from something to heart wrenching as a disappearance. I really loved that Elise takes the lead to find out what happened to Clara in order to help the town heal even though it would do nothing for her. Elise was a truly amazing person the whole book, and it was very easy to fall in love with her.
I enjoyed that Elise did not just waltz into the town and solve the case either. She asked questions, was led astray multiple times, and in the end she didn’t exactly solve the case herself either which really was a fun twist. Also, the ending of what actually happened to Clara really threw me off. It was not anything that I would have ever guessed.
I liked the characters of this book, along with the setting. I felt that Christmas was not the main point of the book. I felt that the budding relationship, and Clara were the main parts. It made it more into a book about acceptance, growth, and openness. I loved the subtle lessons that were put throughout the whole book, and Elise falling in love with the small town, as all good hallmark like movies end.
If you are in need of a fast read, romance, mystery, and feel good book, then this book has all four and you need to look no further!
I received a free copy from NetGalley to leave an honest review.
Read It and Weep with MGD 