Deadly Eclair by Daryl Wood Gerber - #review #recipe #giveaways

It’s always been Mimi Rousseau’s dream to open her own bistro, but it seems beyond her grasp since she’s been chased back home to Nouvelle Vie in Napa Valley by her late husband’s tremendous debt. Until her best friend Jorianne James introduces her to entrepreneur Bryan Baker who invests in promising prospects. Now, working the bistro and inn until she’s able to pay it off and call it her own, Mimi is throwing the inn’s first wedding ever.

Grilling the Subject by Daryl Wood Gerber - #review #recipe #giveaways

Things heat up for bookstore owner Jenna Hart in the latest Cookbook Nook mystery from the Agatha Award-winning author of Fudging the Books.

As the Wild West Extravaganza rides into Crystal Cove, California, Cookbook Nook store owner Jenna Hart is ready to indulge her appetite for grilled and barbecued treats and maybe even try the Texas skip. But when the body of one of her father’s neighbors is found the next morning smoldering in a bonfire, the rodeo revelry is extinguished.

Sylvia Gump had acquired plenty of enemies with her practice of illegally encroaching on her neighbors’ properties—including Jenna’s dad, who was off fishing by himself and has no alibi for the murder. Now it’s up to Cary Hart’s dutiful daughter to clear his name before the real killer turns up the heat and rakes someone else over the coals…

Friday Bookish Post - July 1, 2016

    

Thanks to Freda from "Freda's Voice" and Gilion at "Rose City Reader" for hosting these bookish link-ups!  Click one of the buttons to go to the link-up page.

SHORT SYNOPSIS

Jennie Bateman has again fallen in love with Thomas, her former husband, but Tasha, one of his children, is determined to destroy their relationship.

Jennie had done that herself a number of years earlier. In the midst of a manic episode, she had deserted Thomas and their two daughters, choosing, instead, a life of shameless debauchery.

Perhaps she was shocked when Thomas filed for a divorce. Perhaps it was the influence of a preacher who took an interest in her. Perhaps she simply cycled back toward normal.

Whatever the cause, years later, when she again made contact with her family, she was a different person. Even so, they wanted nothing to do with her.

But time moves on. Circumstances change...

~~~oOo~~~

BOOK BEGINNINGS

"Hump day, hump day," Jennie Bateman sang as she sauntered down the hall.  It was Wednesday afternoon, halfway through the week, two more days before she slid into the weekend and a mother-daughters dinner in Atlanta.

Lunch had just ended, and her third-grade class was with the music teacher.  Because of a quirk in this week's schedule, they would go from music class directly to art, and, as a result, Jennie had almost an hour to herself.  She was headed to the school's office for coffee.

Can I get an 'amen' from the teachers? :D  This book will be reviewed tomorrow on the blog, so be sure to stop back by!

~~~oOo~~~

FRIDAY 56

SHORT SYNOPSIS

In Henry Adams, Kansas, you can't start over without stirring things up ...

Many a good woman has had to leave a no-good man, but how many of them took a backseat to his six-hundred-pound hog?  On her own for the first time, Genevieve Gibbs is ecstatic, even if certain people preferred the doormat version of Ms. Gibbs./  Finding someone who appreciates the "new" her has only just hit Gen's to-do-list when TC Barbour appears in her life.

~~~oOo~~~

I did my Friday 56 from a different book, because my Kindle is under the weather, and I have a print copy of the above title.

As always, class began with the pledge and the Negro National Anthem.  It was Zoey's day to accompany the singing on the piano.  Eli had been in Henry Adams going on three years now and knew the words by heart.  When he had his dad first arrived it had been weird being one of only two White kids in town and he'd been pretty sure he wasn't going to like it, but nobody made a big deal about it and he'd done a lot of growing up since then.  He'd also learned a ton of Black history and realized people were people.  As Amari once pointed out, Eli was now bicultural and personall he thought there was a lot of cred in that.

(I had no idea there was even such a thing as the "Negro" National Anthem.  Now I've also seen it described as the Black National Anthem.  It is a wonderfully spiritual song, alluding both to past and present blessings as well as degredations.  Here is a link to the sons on YouTube for anyone who is interested.)

I'll review this book on the blog here a week from Monday (July 11, 2016).  Y'all come back now ... er, then.

~~~oOo~~~

   

Thanks to Billy B at the "Coffee Addicted Writer" for hosting this link-up!  Click on the buttons above to go to his blog.

This week's question comes from Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews:

Name an author or authors that you have read most of his or her books and would recommend to others.

I really can't claim to have read most of an author's work, but there are three I've read several of there books, and to whom I'd like to give a shout-out:

Joyce and Jim Lavene

Sadly, both these wonderful authors (and people) have passed in the last year:  Joyce in October 2015, and Jim in May of this year.  This is really a devastating to the cozy mystery genre - last time I heard a count on the number of books they had published it was like over 70.  SEVENTY!!!  Their son and daughter, Christopher and Jeni, have taken over the reins of "Team Lavene", as I took to calling them after Joyce passed.  I loved how the family pulled together to continue the legacy of this fine writing duo.  I've read maybe 7-10 of their books...give or take, well, actually only the one that means (maybe more than that).

Daryl Woods Gerber

One of Daryl's "Cheese Shop Mysteries" (written under her Avery Aames pseudonym) was actually my introduction to cozy mysteries.  And I won the book in an online drawing at Great Escapes Virtual Blog Tours.  Now I have read I think all but the lastest in that series.  I've also read several of the "Cookbook Nook" mysteries and her suspense/thriller "Girl on the Run".  I'm fixin' to read the newest Cookbook Nook Mystery ("Grilling the Subject"-to be published August 2016!).

NLB Horton

The first book in NLB's "Parched Series", When Camels Fly, is on my semi-official "Top Ten Books I've Read" list!.  The sequel, The Brothers' Keepers, only increased my appetite for Archaelogist Grace Madison's thrilling adventures!  Luckily I won't have to wait too long, because the third installment is due this fall.

~~~oOo~~~

        

Thanks to Ramona at Create With Joy, Janice at Mostly Blogging, and Tina at Mommynificent for these fun link-ups!  Click on the button to visit the sites to join in!  The more the merrier...really! :O)

Girl on the Run by Daryl Wood Gerber - #review

When a fairytale fantasy night becomes a nightmare, Chessa Paxton must run for her life...but will the truth set her free?

Chessa Paxton, an event planner in Lake Tahoe, celebrates a successful night at the Happily Ever After Ball, but her dream quickly becomes a nightmare when she wakes up beside the body of her dead husband. Nauseous and confused, feeling as if she's been drugged, she can't explain to the sheriff why her princess costume is bloodied. With her father already a convicted murderer, she feels invisible shackles ratcheting onto her wrists and ankles. She runs! But she can't escape vivid flashes of memory: a massacre in a meadow; men and women in fairy tale costumes; Snow White’s dead body shielding her from bullets.

Though Chessa is a former costumer and a master of disguise, she quickly learns that hiding while trying to prove herself innocent is the most difficult task imaginable. Especially when the sheriff wants to throw her in jail and the real killer wants to silence her forever.

REVIEW/INTERVIEW: Stirring the Plot by Daryl Wood Gerber

  

SYNOPSIS

Halloween in Crystal Cove, California, is a big deal, involving a spooky soiree where the Winsome Witches, a fund-raising group, gather to open up their purse strings and trade superstitions. But party magicians, fortune-tellers, and herbalists are only the beginning of this recipe for disaster…

Jenna Hart has packed The Cookbook Nook chock-full of everything from ghostly texts to witchy potions in anticipation of the annual fund-raiser luncheon. But there’s one unexpected addition to the menu: murder.

When the Head Priestess of the Winsome Witches is found dead under mysterious circumstances, there’s no logical answer and plenty of blame to go around. With her aunt, Vera, unable to call on her ability to foresee the future, Jenna will have to use more than just sleight of hand and a few magic tricks to conjure up the truth…