Month: February 2016

Top Ten Tuesday / Playlist Shuffle Tag

~ Erika K ~ 25 Comments

          

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list prompt. This week it’s about music and books. I’ve decided to combine this week’s top ten list with a recent tag, since it was also music related. The Orang-utan Librarian tagged me to do the Playlist Shuffle Tag. (The tag requires putting my music player on random, and listing the first 15 songs to come up, no skipping! I’m cheating a bit by doing only 10.) Here are my songs, and the books whose soundtracks I think the songs would belong on, if books had soundtracks. Wish me luck… 🙂

Continue reading →

Gone by Midnight – Tour and Giveaway

~ Erika K ~ 5 Comments

Be sure to visit the blog tour page for a chance to win your own copy in the Rafflecopter giveaway!

gone by midnighr large banner640
Gone by Midnight

Fans of Joyce and Jim Lavene will thrill at this collection of thirteen short stories—many are set in the worlds of their national bestselling mystery series, including the Missing Pieces Mysteries, the Renaissance Faire Mysteries, the Retired Witches Mysteries, and an upcoming mystery novel!

These stories contain the elements of mystery and fantasy the Lavenes are famous for, as well as some new things their readers have never seen. Several stories feature characters interacting with ghosts, magic, and the supernatural—the healing woman in “Courtship;” the Civil War widow in “One with the Darkness;” the city girl who summons a wizard from the past in “The Magician and the Sorceress/Accountant;” and the young introvert in “Aunt Edna” who finds her calling with help from a ghostly visitor.

Poignant, charming, and captivating, Joyce and Jim Lavene bring their characteristic wit and heart to these stories and introduce each one with a passage about its origin or how it ties into the universe they’ve created. Gone by Midnight is a treasury of tales that will delight the mind and touch the heart from one of the most prolific writing duos of our time.

My Review:
4 of 5 stars (****)
Genre: Short stories / SciFi / Fantasy / Paranormal

Gone by Midnight is an entertaining and eclectic collection of stories. From the opening sweet ghost story “Aunt Edna”, to sci-fi, fantasy, and everything in between, I enjoyed them all. My favorites were the fantasy tale within a tale, “Inn of Many Pleasures  “, and the futuristic “Assasin!”.

About The Authors
joycejim

Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant. They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, Amazon, and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family.

www.joyceandjimlavene.com

www.facebook.com/joyceandjimlavene

http://amazon.com/author/jlavene

https://twitter.com/AuthorJLavene

Purchase link: http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Midnight-Joyce-Lavene-ebook/dp/B019AJC1XU

Be sure to visit the blog tour page for a chance to win your own copy in the Rafflecopter giveaway

NOTE: I received a free digital copy in exchange fr an honest review.

 

 

 

What Are You Reading Wednesdays – M.C. Beaton

~ Erika K ~ 2 Comments

whatareyoureadingwed

What Are You Reading Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by It’s A Reading Thing. To participate, open the book you are currently reading to page 34 (or 34% in your ebook) and answer these three questions.

The Questions are:
1. What’s the name of your current read?

2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a complete sentence. (or two!)

3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?

Now for my answers this week…

1. I actually just finished the short story Knock, Knock, You’re Dead by M.C. Beaton this morning, and am about to start my review copy of Death of a Nurse, also by M.C. Beaton. It’s Hamish Macbeth #31.
 Death of a Nurse (Hamish Macbeth, #31)
(short review of the short story – it is very short, and you will be able to figure out who did what right away, but it’s so typically Hamish that I enjoyed it, and recommend giving it a read if you are a fan.)

2. “The suspects seem to be building up,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of research unless Hamish gets one of his flashes of intuition.”

3. I would definitely like to visit the Scottish Highlands. I wouldn’t even mind living there for a while, but I think I’d miss home too much to stay permanently.

So what are you reading this Wednesday?

 

Drawing Blood – Blog Tour Spotlight & Giveaway

~ Erika K ~ 3 Comments

DRAWING BLOOD large banner640

Be sure to visit the tour page for more info and a chance to win a copy of Drawing Blood!

Synopsis:

CeCe Prentice returns with her band of Dumpster-diving pals in this fast-paced mystery that puts the eco-friendly heroine back on top—of a pile of trash.

When Big Bob, manager of the town dump, goes missing, CeCe is worried about more than where she’ll score her next salvaged car. First at the scene when Bob’s body is recovered from under the weekly recycling haul, CeCe is quick to identify potential witnesses and provide crucial scene sketches. But when CeCe is uncharacteristically startled by an unidentified woman at Bob’s abandoned house, her artistic talents are challenged, and her drawings, much to her frustration, come up short.

With CeCe’s observational talents on the fritz, Detective Frank DeRosa, CeCe, and her network of Freegans are forced to recreate Big Bob’s life from the garbage up. The team is soon thrust into the underworld of recycling where what appears to be junk could actually be the clue that saves a life.

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance to win your own copy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

deidre

 

About This Author

Deirdre Verne (Scarsdale, NY) is a college professor and an active college blogger. A writer for the millennium crowd, Deirdre’s interest in green living inspired her to create an off-the-grid character who Dumpster dives her way though a suspense-filled mystery series. A member of Sisters in Crime, Deirdre’s short stories appear in all three New York chapter anthologies –Murder New York Style, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slicesand Family Matters.

 

Author Links

www.deirdreverne.com (Web Page)

www.deirdreverne.com/blog/ (Blog)

@deirdreverne (Twitter)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8276614.Deirdre_Verne (GoodReads)

Murder on Wheels Blog Tour & Guest Post from Author Lynn Cahoon

~ Erika K ~ 9 Comments

MURDER ON WHEELS large banner640

Be sure to visit the Murder on Wheels blog tour page where you can enter to win an ebook copy of the mystery, and you’ll find a list of participating blogs to visit if you are interested.

Please join me in welcoming Lynn Cahoon, author of the Tourist Trap Mystery series, to the blog today. Lynn’s latest book in the series, Murder on Wheels, is available now, and she’s stopped by to tell us why the Book’s always been The Thing for Lynn Cahoon! scroll

Thanks for having me over to The Book’s The Thing. I have to say, my life has always been about the book. I’m in a Lean In circle and we were led through an imagery session. When I looked back at my childhood and the focus of my teen years, books and storytelling were important. No, that’s not quite right—books saved my life.

As a kid, reading gave me other worlds to live in besides the rural country farm where we lived. A Wrinkle in Time is one of my all-time favorites still.

In middle school, I hid in the library with a few kindred souls during lunch, setting up new books on the shelves and in the card catalog. I think this is where I fell in love with mystery series. Nancy Drew, (The Secret of the Old Clock) Hardy Boys, I loved checking in with my favorite characters on their new adventures.

As a teen, I learned about love by reading Gone with the Wind and developed my affection for bad boys with a heart of gold. Which was only more entrenched with my band geek friends and their love for the Tolkien books. Lord of the Rings kept us sane in a world of teenage angst and football frenzy.

As a young mother, I fell in love with Stephen King and the way his bad guys always get their due in the end. The Stand was my go to read for more summers than I’ll admit here. I still love his ability to build new worlds that seem to be just on the other side of the invisible wall.

Finally, I learned to love cozies when I was going through breast cancer treatment in 2007. We’d moved 1600 miles away from my home state of Idaho and all my support peeps when I was diagnosed. The library was my favorite place to visit. During a weekend shot visit at the hospital, the nurse noticed I was reading a cozy. She asked if I’d read Susan McBride’s Debutante Dropout mystery series. Susan is a St Louis resident and a breast cancer survivor. When I said I hadn’t, the nurse brought me Blue Blood and her entire collection that next day when I arrived for my daily shot.

I realized then that there are many people who want to support you during your walk through hell, you just have to be open to the opportunities.

I started writing cozies after that and Murder on Wheels is part of the Tourist Trap mystery series that started with Guidebook to Murder releasing in 2014. And as I write the books, I find I’m as in love with the characters as I was when I read other series.

Writing the Tourist Trap books is like going home and seeing my peeps. I hope reading the series feels the same to my readers.

Lynn

CahoonBio

Lynn Cahoon is the author of the NYT and USA Today bestselling Tourist Trap cozy mystery series. Guidebook to Murder, book 1 of the series won the Reader’s Crown for Mystery Fiction in 2015. She’s also the author of the soon to be released, Cat Latimer series, with the first book, A STORY TO KILL, releasing in mass market paperback September 2016.She lives in a small town like the ones she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies. Sign up for her newsletter at www.lynncahoon.com

Links

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Wheels-Tourist-Trap-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00XSVSCHQ/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1445392851&sr=1-4&keywords=Lynn+Cahoon

Nook –    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-on-wheels-lynn-cahoon/1121955305?ean=9781601834195

iBooks – https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/murder-on-wheels/id1018633392?mt=11

Goodreads –http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5857424.Lynn_Cahoon

Twitter – https://twitter.com/LynnCahoon

Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/LynnCahoonAuthor

Website – http://lynncahoon.com/

Amazon author page – http://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Cahoon/e/B0082PWOAO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

scroll

Thanks Lynn! And here’s my Review….

Genre: Cozy Mystery
My Rating : **** (4 of 5 stars)

murder on wheelsGoodreads Description:

The food truck craze has reached the charming coastal town of South Cove, California, but before Jill Gardner—owner of Coffee, Books, and More—can sample the eats, she has to shift gears and put the brakes on a killer . . .

Now that Kacey Austin has got her new gluten-free dessert truck up and running, there’s no curbing her enthusiasm—not even when someone vandalizes the vehicle and steals her recipes. But when Kacey turns up dead on the beach and Jill’s best friend Sadie becomes the prime suspect, Jill needs to step on it to serve the real killer some just desserts.

A Tourist Trap Mystery – #6

I love a protagonist who feels like someone I could be best friends with, and that’s exactly how I felt about Jill Gardner. She isn’t afraid to eat cheesecake, tacos, and fries, she reads everything from romance novels to stories about dragons, and she isn’t afraid to (or doesn’t know when not to) speak her mind. I’d also love to quit my day job and work at Coffee, Books, and More!

This is another new-to-me series that I enjoyed so much I will be going back to the beginning to get caught up. It was full of believable characters, a touch of romance, and just enough personal drama to keep Jill on her toes. The mystery kept me guessing, and the solution did not disappoint. If you enjoy cozies, be sure to check out Murder on Wheels!

NOTE: I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

 

To Be Read Thursdays – 2/4/16

~ Erika K ~ 3 Comments

TBR Thursdays

To Be Read Thursdays is a meme hosted by The Writer’s Inkwell. This is a way to feature the books you’ve added to your TBR list over the past week or a newly added book that you are excited about reading in the near future. Anyone is welcome to participate in this meme. Please just link back to the hosting page so she can read your posts.

Since I’ve signed up to participate in several cozy mystery book tours, most of my TBR right now is comprised of soon-to-be-released mystery novels, some of which I do not even have my hands on yet. Besides those cozies, here are a few I hope to get to soon….

The Dreadful Fate of Jonathan York: A Yarn for the Strange at HeartI won a copy of this graphic novel in a Shelf Awareness sweepstakes a couple of months ago, and I’ve been trying to get around to reading it ever since. I love the illustrations and the rather unique description (from Goodreads):

Discover the horrible fate of Jonathan York as he sets out on his journey through a spooky forest with an alarming party of travelmates!

Jonathan York has led a boring life — a pointless degree from the community college, a lackluster job at the General Store, and never any desire for something more exciting. But when fate leaves him stranded in a sinister land, he finds himself seeking an adventure of his own. Along the way he encounters ghoulish thieves, ravenous swamp monsters, a dastardly ice cream conspiracy, and a necromancer bent on human sacrifice.


What She Knew This one has been sitting on my bookshelf staring at me since November!

From Goodreads:

In a heartbeat, everything changes…

Rachel Jenner is walking in a Bristol park with her eight-year-old son, Ben, when he asks if he can run ahead. It’s an ordinary request on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and Rachel has no reason to worry—until Ben vanishes.  

Police are called, search parties go out, and Rachel, already insecure after her recent divorce, feels herself coming undone. As hours and then days pass without a sign of Ben, everyone who knew him is called into question, from Rachel’s newly married ex-husband to her mother-of-the-year sister. Inevitably, media attention focuses on Rachel too, and the public’s attitude toward her begins to shift from sympathy to suspicion.

As she desperately pieces together the threadbare clues, Rachel realizes that nothing is quite as she imagined it to be, not even her own judgment. And the greatest dangers may lie not in the anonymous strangers of every parent’s nightmares, but behind the familiar smiles of those she trusts the most.

Where is Ben? The clock is ticking…

Gone by Midnight by Joyce and Jim Lavene – WAYRW

~ Erika K ~ 10 Comments

whatareyoureadingwed

What Are You Reading Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by It’s A Reading Thing. To participate, open the book you are currently reading to page 34 (or 34% in your ebook) and answer these three questions.

The Questions are:
1. What’s the name of your current read?

2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a complete sentence. (or two!)

3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?

Now for my answers this week…

1. Gone by Midnight by Joyce and Jim Lavene
Gone by Midnight
A collection of 13 stories

2. “I wanted your death. Slow and painful. I wanted to hear you to beg.” Her weapon was just out of reach near the bed port under the light. If she could manage to stretch forward-

3. Too hard to say – with 13 different stories, I think I’ll just plan on staying home to read this week. 🙂

Don’t forgot to tell me what you’re reading this Wednesday, or leave a link to your own post if you have one.