iiiiReader Book Reviews

I read the first book in this series and somehow missed that there was a second book released. It didn’t seem to matter, as I read this book, so it can be read fairly easily stand-alone.

I like that the plot is more important in this story than the introduction of characters which caused the first story to lag a bit in reading. In this book, the characters, while important, were certainly not the main part of the story.

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This is the first book I have read by Ruth Ware. I didn’t know what to expect but the book, in the end, was much more than I could have hoped for.

There is so much psychological twists and turns, it was hard to try to think ahead to what the possible ending could be. Good thing, too, as I would never have expected what happened.

Rowan Caine is writing her hoped-for lawyer from prison. In trying to explain how she is innocent, she starts from the beginning and gives detail so he can understand.

Rowan is the new live-in child minder for four girls. The girls range in age from very young to a teenager. The salary should have warned her that this job was far from easy but, for her own reasons, it still made complete sense to leave family and friends in England and move to Scotland and an isolated manor house.

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I have been a fan of this series from the beginning. Meg’s family grabbed my attention and would not let go. Then there was Michael-what-a-waste and the idea of a modern female blacksmith. How could you not want to read this series?

In this book, Meg and family (and extended family, of course), set cruise on an educational cruise ship. Grandfather is the guest speaker and is given a special discount price, which induces just about every member of the clan to sashay up the gangplank and set sail.

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Hildy Schneider is a social worker who was introduced in book 10 of the author’s Mattie Winston mystery series. While you can certain read this book as the beginning of a new series, I recommend reading book 10 to get an introduction into how Hildy became important in investigations.

Hildy gets involved in checking out a possible suspicious death when one of her group therapy members asks for the group to investigate. To stave off every member getting involved, she promises to look into it and to get her contact, Detective Bob Richmond, to do some research.

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This is the start of a series by the wife and husband writing duo known as J.C. Eaton. The series is about Sophie (aka Phee) Kimball, an accountant/bookkeeper who lives in colder climes and who works at a police station.

Phee’s mother, Harriet, lives in Sun City West, Arizona, which is close to Phoenix. Harriet calls Phee to come and investigate a book curse which is claiming the lives of her book club, Booked 4 Murder. The book is the book they are all reading that month and Harriet is hysterical that she will also end up dead.

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This is a thriller murder mystery told from two points of view. Caroline Stark and her one-time fling, Aiden, are the voices in this story.

Caroline is getting back into interior design. She has created a lavish show piece of a beach home. She is just getting ready to have the home officially opened and has a party set for the movers and shakers and magazines to come to.

Her husband isn’t quite as thrilled with what is going on. They have a very public disagreement and he starts pulling away from her and towards another woman. Caroline’s distraught and when she finds the money in their accounts is missing, she comes apart.

She turns to Aiden, a young bartender in the seaside town where she has built her new home. She has a revenge fling with Aiden and that’s where the strange twists of this story appear.

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I recently started reading the Amish Candy Shop mystery series. It has quickly become one of my favorite cozy mystery novels. I never knew that reading a book about the Amish countryside and small town could be so funny.

Bailey King is the granddaughter of an Amish family. Her grandmother is now alone in trying to run the family candy shop so Bailey, who is a world-class chocolatier has given up the big city to help her grandmother.

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This is the fifth book in this series which I have read. It is the story of Megan, a lawyer turned organic farmer who moved from the big city to a quieter life and who also owns a grocery/cafe in her small town.

This particular tale is a little darker and has a less humor than other books in the series. It involves a sadder tale and humor is not really easy to insert, though there are sparks of it here and there.

Megan’s boyfriend, veterinary Denver, has college friends visiting who are part of a group which is mentoring children with issues. When one of his friends turns up dead and a young man who is associated with Denver becomes the suspect, Megan becomes involved in solving the crime.

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The Kate Burkholder mysteries are one of my long-term favorites. Kate is the Chief of Police in Painters Mill. A murder occurs, per usual, and Kate is drawn into an investigation involving the Amish community.

Kate is former Amish and left the community and while not exactly shunned, she is not generally welcomed either. This causes issues when she is investigating and she has to work her way around more problems than the police ordinarily have (which is still a lot as the Amish do not like to involve the police in their community affairs.)

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