Playing With Bonbon Fire (A Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery #2) by Dorothy St. James

Chocoholic Charity Penn must smoke out the killer to stop her newly inherited beachside chocolate shop from going up in flames in Dorothy St. James’ decadent follow-up to Asking for Truffle.

Chocolate shop owner Charity Penn is finally settling into life in the quirky South Carolina seaside town of Camellia Beach cooking up chocolate treats. She’s even helped organize the town’s lively beach music festival which has brought rollicking crowds eager to dance the Carolina shag. That is, until one of the band’s lead singers is found dead beside a beach bonfire.

While also trying to balance the amorous attention of music star Bixby Lewis, in town for the festival, and her quest to perfect a new hot flavored bonbon, Charity dives into the investigation. Though it’s more spice than sugar when she discovers a threatening note, comes across decades of age-old secrets, and Bixby comes into the line of fire when a gas grill explodes on the deck of a beachfront house.

Now Charity must turn up the heat and catch the killer before her chance melts away in Playing With Bonbon Fire, the delightful second Chocolate Shop mystery served up just right for fans of JoAnna Carl and Joanne Fluke.  (Summary via Goodreads)


Even though Playing with Bonbon Fire is only the second book in Dorothy St. James' Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery serier, I am a diehard fan !!  I fell in love with the series with her first installment, Asking for Truffles, and know that with every new book, I will continue to fall in love with them.

How can you not fall in love with a series of books centered in a beachtown ? Centered around a chocolate shop ??  And the main character Charity Penn is someone you know that if you met her in real life you would want to be her friend ?  

Now we know that the first book in any series usually sets the groundwork for the reader to get to know the area and the main characters involved.  And that is exactly what Asking for Truffles does when you start reading Playing with Bonbon Fire, you are already comfortable and fall right back into things with Penn.

And boy is Playing with BonBon Fire a catcher !!!  As the town is gearing up for a weekend long beach music festival, things for Penn are anything but smooth sailing !!!  (Which as you know from the first book, is par for the course in her life....)  As the first night of the festival is winding down, Penn witnesses a bonfire on the beach and finds a dead body in the fire !!  As she trys to figure out why someone would kill a member of a band that hasn't performed in 30 years, it seems someone is trying to kill Penn as well.  But why ???  

We also get to meet Penn's sister, Tina.  Tina sent her music star ex-boyfriend Bixby to help out with the music festival but seems to be in the middle of a lot of "mishaps" that endanger his life and those around him.  As with Penn though, we cannot help but fall in love with Tina and all her spunk !!!

There is a lot going on in Playing with BonBon Fire but it is nothing that the devoted reader cannot handle !!  The only problem will be when you get to the end of the book and have to wait patiently for the next installment.  But that's okay because we are left with a lot to ponder and keep our imagination sparked.....

Review by Missi S.

Plum Tea Crazy (A Tea Shop Mystery #19) by Laura Childs

Theodosia Browning investigates a Charleston steeped in tradition and treachery in the latest Tea Shop Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs.

While viewing the harbor's Gaslights and Galleons Parade from the widow's walk of Timothy Neville's Charleston mansion, local banker Carson Lanier seemingly tumbles over a narrow railing, then plunges three stories to his death. But a tragic accident becomes something much more sinister when it's discovered that the victim was first shot with a bolt from a crossbow.

At the request of the mansion owner, Theodosia investigates the tragedy and is soon neck deep in suspects. An almost ex-wife, a coworker, a real estate partner--all had motives for killing the luckless banker, but one resorted to murder to settle accounts.

INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES AND TEA TIME TIPS!  (Summary via Goodreads)



One of the many reasons that I love the Tea Shop Mystery series by Laura Childs is the confidence that Theodosia Browning, the main character, has.  Halfway into the story you have this tidbit of a conversation .....

"And you'll call your friend, Detective Riley?  Tell him that it would be so great if the police could kind of keep an eye on my house and my shop?"

"Of course I'll ask him," said Theodosia.  "And I'm sure he'll be happy to extend a little extra protection.  After all, he's been working on this case for several days now.  It's a tangle, but I'm confident he'll get it sorted out."

Because if he doesn't, I'll have to figure it out myself.

And it's that last sentence that grabs you...because you know that that is exact what will happen !!  

Theo has this way about her that people are drawn too.  Maybe because she owns the Indigo Tea Shop and tea is seen as a relaxing and enjoyable drink, or maybe because she has a way of seeing people differently than others view them, or maybe it's because she's done it in previous books.  But whatever the reason, even if you are just reading Plum Tea Crazy as your first Laura Child's novel or it's your first Tea Shop Mystery series book, you will draw the same conclusion...... Theo is someone you want on your side and in your corner.

And Laura Childs is a no-nonsense author just like Theo is a no-nonsense main character.  Within the first chapter of Plum Tea Crazy the stage is set !!  The murder has occurred and the list of suspects is already growing !!!  And Theo and her dapper side-kick, Drayton, are first on the scene....well they are at the party because they are catering the event but still..... 

And the story stays strong throughout the entire book.  From just hanging around with Theo and gang at the Tea Shop preparing teas, you never know who will interrupt or what will occur to Theo trying to obtain information from her boyfriend, Detective Riley without tipping her hand in the knowledge that she has learned and other little thing in between.

You will love Theo, Drayton and the Indigo Tea Shop as well as the circumstances surrounding the murder and I believe that you will be just as shocked as I was when you find out who the actual murderer is and why !!!  Childs and Theo have you so focused on certain people that when Theo finally does revel the actual guilty person, you will be stopping to catch up !!!

And don't stop there....make sure you read the recipes and the helpful tea time tips at the end of the story.  I, for one, plan to try some of the yummy recipes !!!

Review by Missi S.

Murder Between the Covers (A Dead-End Job Mystery #2) by Elaine Viets

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author Elaine Viets—the thrilling mystery series about one woman trying to make a living... while other people are making a killing.

Helen Hawthorne is still on the run because of her refusal to pay her worthless ex-husband alimony. But a girl’s gotta eat…and pay rent, utilities, etc. So she’s taken a cash-paying job at Fort Lauderdale’s own Page Turners bookstore. And while the job is decent enough, the owner of the store is anything but.

Page Turner III is a boor with more money than brains: he’s cheating on his wife while running his family business into the ground and has a list of enemies longer than any bestseller. So when he turns up dead, no one is too surprised. What is surprising is where—in the bed of Helen’s glamorous gal pal Peggy, whose usual bedmates are more cultured, refined…and still breathing.

Worse still, it turns out that Peggy once had a tryst with the late Mr. Turner that ended quite badly, with a scorned Peggy promising the lothario payback—and someone is making it look like she finally collected. With Peggy as the prime suspect in a murder, it’s up to Helen to prove her friend innocent before the police throw the book at her…

Praise for the Dead-End Job Mysteries by Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author Elaine Viets

“A stubborn and intelligent heroine, a wonderful South Florida setting, and a cast of more-or-less lethal bimbos...I loved this book.”—Charlaine Harris
“Brave Viets preps by actually working the jobs she describes in loving and hilarious detail, giving her offbeat series a healthy balance between the banal and the bizarre.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Laugh-out-loud comedy with enough twists and turns to make it to the top of the mystery bestseller charts.” —Florida Today
“Fans of Janet Evanovich and Parnell Hall will appreciate Viets’s humor.”—South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Wit, murder, and sunshine . . . it must be Florida. I love this new series.”—Nancy Pickard
“A heroine with a sense of humor and a gift for snappy dialogue.”—Jane Heller  (Summary via Amazon)


I just love the Dead-End Job Mystery series by Elaine Viets and am very happy that JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc. are giving them new life.  This series was written years ago but I have only recently been introduced to it.  I read and reviewed the first book in this series, Shop Till You Drop, and knew that I wanted to read every single book in this series.

I fell in love with the main character, Helen Hawthorne.  Helen is on the run from her past.  A past where she was married, had a great job, and she thought a solid marriage.  All of that changed one day when she returned home early from work and caught her low-life husband cheating !!!  When they went to court for divorce and the judge awarded her ex a percentage of her future earnings, she vowed that he would never receive another penny from her.  So she packed up and moved to Florida where she has her own apartment, a few people she can call friends, and a cat.  The only bad thing is that in order to keep her vow to not givr her ex another cent, she has to find employers who are willing to pay her cash. 

In Murder Between the Covers, Helen is working at a bookstore called Page Turners, after its founder the original Page Turner.  She is working for the grandson who is a very sleazy, cheap and creepy drunk.  Page Turner III has a hobby of bedding women in his office and taping the sessions.  When he is found murdered, the list of suspects is quite long, unfortunately the police only look at one person.  That person is Helen's friend, Peggy, and the main reason she is the only suspect is because he is found dead in her bed .......

Helen knows that there is no way that Peggy would have killed Page and will stop at nothing to prove that.  With the help of her landlady, Margery, they lead their own investigation.  

There is so much to fall in love with in this series !!!!  As soon as I finished reading the first book I was looking forward to this next one. And now that I am done with Murder Betweent the Covers, I cannot wait to pick up the next book to see where Helen is going to work next and what craziness will follow her....  

Review by Missi S.

A Cold Day in Hell (Cold Case Investigation #1) by Lissa Marie Redmond

Lauren Riley is an accomplished detective who has always been on the opposite side of the courtroom from her nemesis, slick defense attorney Frank Violanti. But now he's begging to hire her as a private investigator to help clear his client of murder. At first Lauren refuses, wanting nothing to do with the media circus surrounding that case—until she meets the eighteen-year-old suspect.

To keep an innocent teen from life in prison, Lauren must unravel the conflicting evidence and changing stories to get at the buried facts. But the more she digs, the more she discovers that nothing is what it first appears to be. As Lauren puts her career and life in danger, doubt starts to lurk on every corner . . . and so does her stalker.   (Summary via Goodreads)


A Cold Day in Hell by Lissa Marie Redmond will suck you in from the very beginning and you won't be able to stop reading until you read the very last word.  And when you do, you will feel like your head will explode !!!  A Cold Day in Hell is the first book in the Cold Case Investigation mystery series .... and for me, cold cases are very interesting but this series is more than just cold cases.  

A Cold Day in Hell has you riding along with Lauren Riley who works in the Cold Case Department but she also gets hires as a private investigator for a current murder case.  And what makes it better is that she does not get along with Frank Violanti, the defense attorney who hires her.   But being great at her job and always wanting justice served, Lauren takes on the case, putting her differences with Violanti aside.  

While Lauren is still working cold cases, she has a lot of things she is trying to juggle....her ex-husband is back in the picture but not in the way that she would like him to be, she has a stalker that she is handling until the time is right to blow that all to pieces, she misses her daughters who are away at college, and she is working the private investigator angle on the case trying not to burn all the bridges with the people that help her with her cold cases.......

A Cold Day in Hell will grab you as soon as you open the book and you will blow through the chapters very quickly..... I love reading books with small chapters and even though some of the chapters are very small, they are still filled with intense entertainment !!!!

I was hooked on this first book in this series and will be trying to patiently wait for the second book.  I know from the ending of A Cold Day in Hell that it can only get better.......


Review by Missi S.

A Grave Issue (A Funeral Parlor Mystery #1) by Lillian Bell

After an on-air gaffe goes viral and jeopardizes her career, journalist Desiree Turner retreats home to Verbena, California for some peace and quiet. She begins working one of the quietest jobs around: presiding over funerals for her great-grandfather’s funeral parlor. But the action seems to follow her as a fistfight breaks out between neighbors Rosemarie Brewer and Lola Hansen at one of the first funerals she’s in charge of running. It exposes a nasty dispute and Rosemarie’s husband, Alan, is found murdered shortly after.

Lola’s husband, Kyle, is immediately arrested. Desiree, whose own father’s death was devastating, has always viewed Kyle as a second father. Determined to clear his name, Desiree jumps head first into the investigation and quickly discovers that Alan had several unsavory habits at his job and in his personal life, including putting assets into his mistress’s account to hide them from Rosemarie. People murder for money and love all the time, and there’s no telling who he offended just enough to push them over the edge.

Desiree is looking in all the right places, but she better catch the killer fast before they come for her next in A Grave Issue, the clever series debut by Lillian Bell.   (Summary via Goodreads)


Five words..... the last five words in A Grave Issue by Lillian Bell will have you wanting more !!!  But that's getting ahead of myself.....

A Grave Issue is the debut novel in the Funeral Parlor Mystery series by Lillian Bell and it is out of this world !!  You may think that a book centered around a funeral parlor will be dark and depressing but that is not the case with this book.  A Grave Issue is centered around Desiree Turner and her family funeral parlor.  She moved back home after a career ending mishap and her father doesn't return from a surfing outing.  Desiree takes over as assistant funeral director along side her pregnant sister, Donna, who does all the paperwork and her Uncle Joey who makes the deceased look beautiful.  

The story begins with a dead bird, barking dogs and two long-time neighbors feuding.....with one of them being shot to death by the others gun !!  Kyle and Lola are close friends of the family, especially Kyle who was like a second father to Desiree and Donna.  Desiree is determined to prove his innocence even if no one else believes it.

This determination leads Desiree all around town uncovering things that you would never believe in a small town where you know everyone.....or at least she did before she left town.

A Grave Issue is full of so much you will want to read it slowly to savor every twist and turn but it will be hard to control your mind and eyes.  At least we know that there will be another Funeral Parlor Mystery book in the near future......there has to be - the last sentence says so !!!  And I for one am holding on to that fact !!!

Review by Missi S.

Pre-Meditated Murder (Downward Dog Mystery #5) by Tracy Weber

"Weber's yoga-inspired series regulars (A Fatal Twist, 2017, etc.) hit the road...light on yoga and heavy on complex relationship dynamics." --Kirkus

"Lots of red herrings and potential motives eventually lead Kate to a surprising killer. Cozy fans will cheer her every step of the way."--Publishers Weekly

If Kate Doesn't Act Fast, the Only "I Do" in Michael's Future Will Be at His Trial

Yoga instructor Kate Davidson is ready to marry her boyfriend Michael, so she's disappointed when a special dinner doesn't end with a proposal. But disappointment turns to dismay and outrage as she learns the real problem: Michael is already married and his estranged wife is blackmailing him.

When his wife's body is found--by Kate and her dog, no less--Michael is strangely unable to remember where he was the night she died. Since Michael has no alibi, Kate steps up to uncover what happened. What she walks into is a tangled web of deceit, obsession, and immigration fraud . . . with Michael trapped in the middle.  (Summary via Goodreads)


It is quoted that Pre-Meditated Murder by Tracy Weber is "A wonderful story for dog lovers." by Suspense Magazine.  And I have no doubt that it is, however, it is a wonderful story for everyone.  Whether you are a dog lover or not, The Downward Dog Mystery series has a lot to offer any reader.

And as you read the books in the series, Pre-Meditated Murder is the fifth series, you cannot help but fall in love with the main character Kate.  There are also her best friends, Rene and Sam (husband and wife), Kate's boyfriend, Michael, and of course, Bella.  Bella is a huge lovable german sheperd that goes every where with Kate.  Me being a cat lover cannot help but love and appreciate Bella and her devotion to Kate and the group.

Now I am a STRONG believer of not reading ahead !!  I will NOT read the end of a book until I get to the end of the book.  I read every since word on the page and I do everything in my power to not even skip to the bottom of the page or the end of the chapter.  With all of this said...... I HAD THE HARDEST TIME NOT READING AHEAD !!!

Weber has such a talent of writing a story that it flows so well and captures the reader.... It is like you are right there in the middle of everything....you can see everything, smell the smells, feel all of the emotions....and you are INVESTED !!!  And in Pre-Meditated Murder Weber takes you to a place you will love and hate.  

The story starts off with Kate and Michael celebrating Kate's birthday where Kate gets her hopes up that Michael is going to propose to her.  And then when he doesn't and says he can't get married because he is already married....well that doesn't go well as you can foresee.  Fast forward where Kate, Michael, Rene, Sam, the twins, Bella and 2 puppies load up and go to Michael's hometown of Cannon Beach.  It just so happens that there is a huge Sandcastle Festival going on so they figure they can try to vacate while Michael asks his "wife" Gabriella for a divorce......  I put wife in quotes because the marriage was just to help Gabriella obtain citizenship......  Well as you can imagine, things don't go smoothly at all.  Gabby is found by Kate dead on the beach and Michael is the prime suspect.......

I could continue telling you all about what happens next and boy is there a lot that happens but you really need to read it for yourself.......  I will forward you though that when you are reading the last chapter, you may cuss a few times because you are very emotionally invested and Weber may have you reading it and thinking it is going to go one way when she tricks you......  (Thank you for that small heart attack Tracy )


Review by Missi S.

   

Shop Till You Drop (A Dead-End Job Mystery #1) by Elaine Viets

Once on the fast track to success, Helen Hawthorne is now going nowhere fast.  She traded in her chic life for a shabby one.  And now she's on the fun, jumping from city to city and dead-end job to dead-end job, trying to stay one step ahead of her past...After two weeks as the new salesclerk at Juliana's, Fort Lauderdale's ultra-exclusive clothing boutique, Helen still feels out of fashion.  And since the only crime likely to be committed around here is being old-or worse, looking old-Helen figures she is safe.  Until she discovers the manager has been embezzling money and selling designer drugs along with the designer clothes.  Add murder to the mix-and Helen's dead-end job is downright deadly.  (Summary via Goodreads)


The Dead-End Job Mystery series by Elaine Viets has been around since 2003 and there are 15 books in this series to date.  I may be getting around to them late but I can assure you that I will be reading ALL of them !!

Shop Till You Drop is the first book in this series and it was so fun and easy to read.  You will instantly love Helen Hawthorne, the main character, as well as feel sorry for her.  She had a great life in St. Louis...she had a husband, a nice house and a 6 figure paying job.  Until she caught her husband cheating on her and she went crazy.  And to make matters worse, the judge sided with her lazy, cheating husband and wanted her to continue to pay the man a percentage of her future earnings.... So she up and leaves and ends up in Fort Lauderdale working under the table, just making ends meet and staying under the radar so her ex will never get another dime from her !!!  

Well the job she has seems to be a pretty good job.  She's working at a high-end clothing store .... where customers have to ring a doorbell to obtain access into the store !!!  Helen's boss Christina is the manager and she knows the in's and out's of all the "popular" girls.  Not only does she know the in's and out's but she knows some pretty heavy secrets.....secrets that get her killed !!  Leaving Helen to fend for herself and try to figure things out.  

How can you not like a story where the main character is "running from the law", living in a little apartment complex with some interesting tenants, working with the police while trying to keep her past a secret, and trying to find out how Christina could afford the lifestyle she was living on the salary she was receiving as well as solve her murder.

Oh and Helen knows that she can't work at Juliana's for much longer and trying to find another job where she can get paid under the table is not that easy.  You cannot help but love her determination to keep her whereabouts from her ex-husband and the courts but feel sorry for her for having to live the way she is.

I fell in love with Shop Till You Drop for so many reasons and cannot wait to read the next book in this series......Murder Between the Covers.  I know that it will be just as great because I know where her next dead-end job is going to be and I LOVE IT !!!!

Review by Missi S.