A Cute Little Murder

Ms. Harper weaves quite mystery. 

There's more than one murder to solve on this solitary island in a fading hotel, and all for the sake of money. 

I felt quite a bit of sympathy for our heroine and the way she's chosen to live her life. 

All of the characters are complex, excpet maybe the game designers...

It's always a fun game to see if the reader can figure out "whodunnit" before the reveal. 

This story took lots of expected and unexpected turns. 

You'll cheer for Lainey the whole time and hope for Harley's comeuppance. 

Excellent narration. 

When did you figure out who the real culprit was and how?

AMAZON

She used to be the sidekick. Now she might be the only one who can survive.

As teens, Harlow Drake and Lainey Piper built an online fandom solving small-town crimes. Harlow was the star, Lainey the behind-the-scenes genius (and often, Harlow’s scapegoat). Years later, Harlow’s hosting a hit true crime tv show. Lainey? She’s working in forensics. Well, forensic accounting . . . from home. In pajamas. With her cat.

But when Harlow faces significant backlash over fumbling a case, she needs a quick win—like a special investigation into the decades-old disappearance of a starlet from a once-glamorous, now decrepit island hotel. The catch? It’s bankrolled by Deke and Bryce of DBag Games, who are looking to shed their “frat bro” reputations. As long-time fans, they have one requirement for their funding: Lainey has to play the sidekick again.

Lainey is wary, but the offer is a lifeline in a sea of unpaid student loans. After reaching the Crossings Hotel, she realizes she’s not content to be Harlow’s helper anymore. As the cold case heats up, a crew member falls over dead, presenting Harlow and Lainey with a more modern mystery: what secrets does this hotel hide within its walls?

With sabotage, hidden staircases, and a killer in their midst, Lainey steps into the spotlight and takes charge of the investigation. It’s up to her to crack the case—as long as she can stay alive.

Southern Souls

This is my first read by the author, and it was well done from start to finish. 

This book spans centuries and takes place in one location, the plantation. The author did a clear job of getting the historical facts and culture correct to build a tragic tale over time. 

You'll be rooting for Jamie from page one. And by the end, you may have some questions about who the real villain is in the story. As events unfold, each character gains sympathy for their situation. 

Enjoyed the romantic thread, though this is a little spicier than my normal read, but it wasn't graphic and intimate scenese were carefully handled. 

Excellent narration by Ms. McCauley, shifting through accents and characters while maintaining emotional grip on the story without being intrusice. Brilliant. 

An excellent read for the Halloween season. 

Do you believe places can by haunted?

AMAZON

Seeking a fresh start, Jamie, a newly widowed mother of two, moves her family from a busy metropolis to a small Southern town. Their temporary accommodation is a colonial mansion in the heart of the Lowcountry. Formerly a rice plantation, this home is now a den of suspended souls, the darkest of which resides in the attic.

Through her work in a medical office, Jamie meets Derek, a handsome, hard-bodied local farmer. As their attraction grows, the paranormal activity in the house unfolds. She hears voices and sees figures in the shadows. Worst of all, her innocent, young son has become fast friends with the damned soul in the attic.

With the aid of a local psychic-and with Derek at her side-Jamie is determined to eradicate the evil from the property as the spectral grasp on her son tightens. This malevolent spirit has crossed time and space, causing the disappearance of children from the plantation for over two hundred years, and now has its claws in her family. Will she be able to defeat the sinister pull of this poltergeist?

Derek may be Jamie's second chance at love ... if they can make it out alive.

The Unselected Journals of Emma. M. Lion Vol 2.

Thus continue the ins and outs of Emma's life. This time with a tennant in the accompanying garrett through whom she forms a correspondence of the Pyramus and Thisbee type. 

It's fun to watch Emma's associations grow, and how she continues to outmaneuver Cousin Archibald. More of the Roman makes an appearance, and Emma acquires a pseudo tennant who wanders where he wills. 

Wonderful narration of the first person letters. 

On to the next installment. 

Do you prefer first person or third person for novels?

AMAZON 

“I was sitting at my desk reading, with a cup of tea, my windows flung open, when I heard The Tenant enter his garret, just on the other side of the wall from myself.”

THE YEAR IS 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian’s. But Emma’s plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian’s.

Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be, which comprise a series of volumes. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House.

Manslaughter Park

This is the third installment in the murder driven Jane Austen retellings, and it's got a twist the first two didn't. 

We assemble the cast of usual characters, and then kill off Fanny's uncle. Now Fanny must solve the crime, which no one wants to believe is a crime and all have motives for offing him. 

Ms. Price does a wonderful job of keeping us guessing and giving Fanny red herrings to chase after. 

I did love the cameo of Lizzie and Darcy. 

Wonderful narration. 

I hope there will be a fourth book. Maybe Emma? Northanger Abbey?

What twisted Jane Austen tellings do you recommend?

AMAZON

Aspiring artist Fanny Price is an unwelcome guest at her uncle Sir Thomas Bertram’s estate. It’s his affection for Fanny that’s keeping her from being forced out by her cousins Tom and Maria and nasty Aunt Norris, back to a home to which she never wants to return. But then Sir Thomas dies in a tragic accident inside his art emporium, and Fanny finds evidence of foul play that, if revealed, could further jeopardize her already precarious position.

Edmund, her best friend and secret crush, urges Fanny to keep quiet about her discovery, but Fanny can’t ignore the truth: a murderer is among them.

Determined to find the killer, Fanny’s pursuit for justice has her wading into the Bertram family business, uncovering blackmail, and brushing with London’s high society when Henry and Mary Crawford arrive at Mansfield Park with an audacious business proposal. But a surprising twist of fate—and the help of local legends Lizzie Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy—brings Fanny more complications than she ever expected and a life-altering realization about herself she never saw coming.

When Breath Becomes Air

This was a book club pick. 

The text is short and poignant as the age old question in posed: what makes a valuable life? 

There's plenty of medical jargon in the book and it's explained well for a lay person to understand. 

This book will make you ponder on your own mortality and how you would repsond if you were suddenly slipped into his shoes. 

Well written and well narrated. 

Note: if you've lost a loved one to cancer, this book may be triggering. 

What non-fiction/memoir books have made you think? 

AMAZON

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

Love on Lexington Avenue

This is my first read by Ms. Layne. I didn't realize it was the second in the series. That said, there was plenty of context for me to understand the characters relationships to each other. 

It's a redemption story, but the one being redeemed or reclaimed is the MC - Claire. After learning ugly truths about her late husband, Claire must find a path forward, one that's all her own. She needs to rediscover herself. 

So naturally she decides to overhaul her home. Fresh start. 

Enter grumpy, hunky Scott. 

They turn each other's lives and perceptions upside down, and find that life and love are better that way. 

Note: this book isn't a completely clean and wholesome romance. There are fade to black scenes, and one very short on page sex scene, as well as discussions about sex from multiple characters. 

How would you forge a new path after a life change? 

AMAZON

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Layne comes the second delightfully charming installment in the Central Park Pact series, following a young widow whose newfound cynicism about love is challenged by a sexy, rough-around-the-edges contractor.

There are no good men left in New York City. At least that’s Claire Hayes’s conviction after finding out her late husband was not the man she thought he was. Determined to rid her home of anything that reminds her of her cheating husband, Claire sets out to redesign her boring, beige Upper East Side brownstone and make it something all her own. But what starts out as a simple renovation becomes a lot more complicated when she meets her bad-tempered contractor Scott Turner.

Scott bluntly makes it known to Claire that he only took on her house for a change of pace from the corporate offices and swanky hotels he’s been building lately, and he doesn’t hesitate to add that he has no patience for a pampered, damaged princess with a penchant for pink. But when long workdays turn into even longer nights, their mutual wariness morphs into something more complicated—a grudging respect, and maybe even attraction...

Sense & Second-Degree Murder

This series is so much fun. I love the fresh take on Jane Austen's beloved characters as sleuths. 

The characters maintain their trademake characteristics, but with the fresh plot, they seem like an updated version of themselves. 

The villians remain the same, though the circumstances vary. 

If you're an Austen fan who also likes a cozy mystery, then this is the book series for you. 

Do you like a little Nancy Drew in your Jane Austen tales? What would you recommend in this genre for my next read?

AMAZON

When eighteen-year-old aspiring scientist Elinor Dashwood discovers her beloved father slumped over the desk of his office study, she knows his death means dire straits for the Dashwood women. To make matters worse, an outdated will entails his estate—including Norland & Company, the private investigation firm where her younger sister Marianne worked as her father’s partner and protégé—to their half-brother and his haughty wife, who waste no time in forcing the Dashwoods out of their home and into a cramped apartment on London’s Barton Street.

But before they go, the Dashwood sisters make a startling discovery: a suspicious substance in their father’s teacup—one that can only be described as poison. And poison, as Marianne’s father taught her, always points to murder.

It could be dangerous; it could ruin their reputations; and most importantly, it won’t bring back their father. But if the Dashwood sisters can combine their talents and bring their father’s murderer to justice, it may bring them all some comfort—and it might even lead to love.