Andi’s step-mother is a real piece of work! But is Ruby a murderer?
Andi Anna Jones, so-so travel agent/amateur sleuth, puts aside her resentment of her father’s widow and books a 60th birthday cruise to Cancun for Ruby and three friends. Never does Andi imagine the cruise will lead to the murder of a has-been lounge singer—or that Ruby will be the main suspect.
Flirting with more than danger after arriving in Mexico, Andi connects with the charming local sheriff, Manuel Rodriquez. After an embarrassing night involving the sheriff, too many margaritas, and a Mariachi band, a chance to check out an eyewitness to the murder leads her to Las Vegas.
In Vegas, a mysterious meeting in the Bodies Exhibition, a body preserving in the prep-room, and an evasive owner of a dance studio, give Andi clues to help Ruby. But when Andi is mercilessly drugged and locked in a storage room, she realizes dear old step-mom isn’t the only one in jeopardy. (Summary via Goodreads)
This is a great start to a new series. We get to know some very interesting characters that I fell in love with immediately. Who would think a step-mom, three of her friends, and a travel agent named Andi Anna Jones would get into so much trouble. LOL.
Andi Anna is trying to get her job as a travel agent in check and satisfy a promise she made to her father. In comes Ruby, her step-mom who is the promise to her father to make sure she stays safe. Let’s just say they don’t have the best relationship due to resentment Andi holds against Ruby. Even through all of this Andi plans a 60th birthday cruise for Ruby. As you will read Ruby is a “bit” of a handful.
The cruise doesn’t quite go as planned and ends up with a lounge singer dead and you guessed it, Ruby right in the middle. Uuuugggghhhhh!
At least Andi Anna gets to meet a handsome man Manuel Rodriquez. Crazy as it may seem they end up in Las Vegas of all places following a lead but ends up realizing Ruby isn’t the only one in trouble.
This book was jam packed with excitement and adventure to keep you guessing till the very end. It is a quick read full of twists and turns you won’t be able to put down. Heck, you may even grab a Margarita or two while reading.
Review by Penny M.
From author Erin Huss comes an "uproariously funny" (InD'Tale Magazine) new mystery...
When Cambria Clyne—klutzy, twenty-something single mom—takes the job of an apartment manager at an LA complex, she hopes her run of bad luck is finally coming to an end. She's got a nice home for her daughter, a steady source of income, and the cute maintenance guy is certainly a nice perk! But her luck takes a bad turn again when a dead body turns up, a crime spree takes over the community, and Cambria finds her complex squarely at the center of it all!
With her dream job suddenly on the line, Cambria dons her detective hat to get to the truth—after all, she's watched enough crime shows on TV to know how to catch a perp! Or so she hopes as she wades through a streaker in apartment 40, an ex-con with a shady agenda, an overly frisky retired couple, and the suspiciously sneaky dealings of the dentist in apartment 36. But will Cambria be able to catch a killer... or will she get caught up in his game and lose it all? (Summary via Goodreads)
Note: A previous edition of this book was released under the title "For Rent."
Cambria Clyne Mysteries:
Strawberry Swirl & Suspicion (prequel short story)
French Vanilla & Felonies (book #1)
Rocky Road & Revenge (book #2)
In French Vanilla and Felonies by Erin Huss, everything takes place in one spot.....and that is awesome !!
You have Cambria Clyne getting a new job as apartment manager for a 39 unit , no make that 40, unit apartment complex and on her first day, she stubbles across a dead body. And the dead body just happens to be a tenant !!
So before Cambria is even unpacked and settled in her new apartment that came with the job, everyone in the apartment complex is already leary of her and wondering if she had anything to do with the dead tenant.
You cannot help but fall in love with Cambria and feel sorry for her. All she wants to do is have a good job, safe place to live and be able to take care of herself and her three year old daughter.....is that too much to ask for ?
Well no is not in her vocabulary and neither is keeping quiet and to herself.....so....
As she tries to learn her new job, unpack her belongings and try to seetle in, she finds herself caught up in a lot more than collecting rent and trying to keep the tenants happy. Even though everyone did tell her to stay out of it, she cannot. After all , this is where she is going to live and raise her daughter...she has to make sure its safe !!!
You will love how Cambria runs to ice cream to help with every situation. You will love the colorful and assorted tenants that live in the apartment complex. You will love her best friend, Amy, and her "baby daddy" Tom. And you cannot help but like Chase the maintenance guy even if he sucks at the job. But I think the best thing you will like is that the majority of the story keeps you front and center at the apartment complex. You don't have to travel very far for a good story. So grab a drink, a snack and hang out with Cambria.....just don't go into courtyard three......
Review by Missi S.
For twenty-year-old Li Johnson, a job as a cruise ship waiter was supposed to be a way to get over his father's death and earn enough money to go back to college. Instead, Li is struggling to maintain his sanity while coping with the demands of a sadistic maitre d' and a boatload of entitled rich jerk passengers. Li just wants to keep his head down and survive his job from hell, but when he finds a passenger sunburned to a crisp on the Sunbathing Deck, something about the scene just doesn't add up. Before he knows it, Li is on the track of a murderer and if Li doesn't find the real killer soon, he might just get framed for the crime -- or worse, lose his crappy job.
A brand-new classic in the amateur detective genre, Sunny Side Up is a traditional murder mystery for the 21st century, with a glamorous setting, a gallery of suspects, clues that will keep readers guessing to the last page, and a delightful new hero in Li Johnson, the millennial minimum wage manhunter, who brings sleuthing to the service economy. (Summary via Amazon)
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Sunny Side Up by Daniel Stallings !!
First it is a cozy mystery written by a MALE.....not something you see very often. Second the storyline takes place on a cruise ship. Thirdly the person who dies is famous. Fourthly the main character is someone you can totally relate to....his name is Liam and he's mourning the loss of his dad while trying to just keep himself afloat financially even though no matter what he does it seems that he is sinking.....(see what I did there ? hee hee) Not to mention that no matter what Liam does, he cannot catch a break, everyone hates him.
I also have to say that when reading a mystery book, whether it is a cozy or not, the reader is always trying to figure out who did it. Sometimes the reader will just enjoy the story and let the author take them away which is what I would suggest when reading Sunny Side Up. No matter how hard you try to figure out who did it, you are going to be BLOWN away when it is finally revealed !!!
Sometimes you don't realize how close the main character actually is to the killer and with Sunny Side Up, even though they are all pretty close seeing as it is on a cruise ship, no matter how big the boat is, Liam cannot get any closer to the killer !!
I love how Stallings links some of the people together on the cruise.....you have a tightknit group of fashion world people.....from Charlegne, Queen of Fashion, who ends up dead from sunstroke, to her two very loyal assistants, to the sister of her deceased fiance, Rosemary.......and there are a few other guests on the ship that you have to pay attention too.
I thoroughly loved Sunny Side Up and reading the story through the eyes of a male main character for a change. It was nice to see that men actually think just as hard as women do .... especially when it comes to murder and clearing their name......
Review by Missi S.
Retiree and cat shelter volunteer, Lynley Cannon, finds herself tangled up with a cat counterfeiting ring and a series of grisly murders in this 2nd Crazy Cat Lady mystery.
From the back cover: If your cat told you there was murder afoot, would you believe him?
When cat-lady Lynley Cannon attends a workshop on animal communication– the psychic kind– she never guesses it could lead to a scheme both conniving and deadly. Someone is counterfeiting show cats, but that’s not the worst of it. Their techniques are savage and abusive, and Lynley must find the culprits before they do more harm. To compound matters, there’s a serial killer loose in Portland, mangling his victims with a gruesome cat-like claw. The crimes are connected, taking crazy to a whole new level. (summary via Goodreads)
Painting fur and inserting contact lenses into the eyes of cats in order to pull them off as purebreds....the things criminals will do in order to make money. Add to that a person on a killing spree using a "claw" as the weapon of choice and you have a GREAT story..... And Mollie Hunt knows that because she is the author of the .....wait for it.... Crazy Cat Lady Mystery series !!!
Copy Cats is the second book in this series and BOY is it a HOOT !!! You cannot help but fall in love with the main character, Lynley Cannon, and everything that she stands for. Here is a 59 year old lady who has a clowder of cats that she loves (more than humans for sure !!) and she volunteers at a cat shelter. Everything about her screams cats and not in a crazy, crazy kind of way. Yes she does seem to get herself in some hot water in which she may come out with a few bruises but she solves the case or resolves the issues and the world is much better for it .... and her !!
I also love that in the beginning of every chapter Hunt gives the reader some cat knowledge wether it is something regarding Siamese cats and their purebred status to the fininicky way a tortoise cat acts......it is always interesting information. And myself being a cat lover my entire life can appreciate the newly learned knowledge. You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks but a cat lover can always learn more about the fluffy, purring kitties they share their lives with.
So grab your copy of Copy Cats, a cup of coffee or tea, a snack, your favorite blanket and your furry sidekick and get lost in the world of Lynley and the counterfeit cat case......you will be glad you took the time out of your (hopefully) cat crazy life .........
Review by Missi S.
When her father is fingered for murder, it’s up to Sally Solari to serve up the real killer before their new restaurant’s reputation goes up in smoke in the delectable third Sally Solari mystery.
It’s Indian summer in Santa Cruz and restaurateur Sally Solari decides an open-air painting class is the perfect way for her to learn more about Paul Gaugin, the inspiration for her family’s newest restaurant. But the beauty of the Monterey Bay coastline is shattered when Sally’s dog Buster sniffs out a corpse tangled up in kelp.
The body is identified as Gino, a local fisherman and a regular at the Solaris’ restaurant until he disappeared after dining there a few nights before. Witnesses claim he left reeling drunk, but his waitress swears Gino only had two beers with his dinner. And then the fingers begin to point at Sally’s dad for negligently allowing an inebriated customer to walk home alone at night.
From a long menu of suspects that includes Anastasia, the mysterious woman who dined with Gino that fateful night, Gino’s deckhand Bobby, and bocce player Frank who accused Gino of cheating, Sally must serve up the tall order to clear her father’s name in Death al Fresco, Leslie Karst’s third culinary cozy perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke and Leslie Meier. (Summary via Goodreads)
When I read a book there are lots of times that I find one word best describes the book. And I have to say when reading Death al Fresco by Leslie Karst the word that pops in my mind throughout the entire book is HUNGRY.
In Death at Fresco, the third book in the Sally Solari Mystery series by Karst, you are hanging out with Sally who is going back and forth from her father's restaurant, Solari's to Gauguin's, the restaurant that Sally inherited from her aunt. As she just recently inherited Gauguin's she is trying to learn thr ropes of owning and running her own business but she is also getting pulled back to her father's restaurant to help him prepare for a huge dinner honoring the Mayor of their sister city.
As if that isn't enough a local fisherman, Gino, that frequented the Solari's is found washed up on the beach by Sally's dog. When Sally learns his approximate time of death happens to be right after he was in the restaurant appearing very intoxicating and he was kicked out by her father, Sally cannot help but try to figure out what happened and why he ended up dead.
While you read Death al Fresco you will notice that it is slightly different than most cozies in the way that Sally approaches the case. Usually the main character is butting heads with the police and getting themselves in hot water. However, with Death al Fresco as Sally goes about working at both restaurants, she witnesses things and just seems to talk to some of the locals.....without giving much away. Even though the underlying fact is that she is trying to find out who would hit Gino over the head and throw him into the ocean and why. He was just an old local fisherman....... Also she wants to prove that her father had nothing to do with his death even if there are some facts that say otherwise......
Make sure you have a yummy snack, maybe an antipasto or a nice dish of black cod with miso and sake, or a slice of panettone or something to keep your appetite in check because once you start reading it will be hard to put the book down.....
Review by Missi S.
From the bestselling cozy mystery writing team of Sally J. Smith & Jean Steffens comes the next to-die-for novel in the Aloha lagoon Mysteries series...
Travel agent Gabby LeClair, a divorced big-city transplant trying to find some aloha spirit in her soul, prides herself on working hard to give the Aloha Lagoon Resort guests a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But that turns out to be more than anyone bargained for when the body of a client is found dead during one of Gabby's island tours. The victim is a lawyer who's escorted a small group to Aloha Lagoon for distribution of a deceased billionaire's estate...but it looks like someone believes the only good lawyer is a dead lawyer. Between the bad press causing her phone to go silent and the police working on "island time," it's up to Gabby to find the killer before her business goes belly-up. With the help of her good friends, and a hot helicopter pilot with a flirtatious streak, Gabby turns sleuth to figure out just which member of the lawyer's party had it in for him. But before long it's clear there's way more at stake than her livelihood, and if Gabby isn't careful, she and her friends may find themselves on an island getaway to death.
About Aloha Lagoon:
There's trouble in paradise...
Welcome to Aloha Lagoon, one of Hawaii's hidden treasures. A little bit of tropical paradise nestled along the coast of Kauai, this resort town boasts luxurious accommodation, friendly island atmosphere...and only a slightly higher than normal murder rate. While mysterious circumstances may be the norm on our corner of the island, we're certain that our staff and Lagoon natives will make your stay in Aloha Lagoon one you will never forget! (Summary via Goodreads)
I love the Aloha Lagoon Mystery series by Gemma Halliday Publishing. If you are new to the series I highly recommend booking a room at the Aloha Lagoon Resort and grabbing your spot on the beach because you are going to want to stick around !!!
The Aloha Lagoon Mystery series is a series of books written around the Aloha Lagoon Resort. Each book is written by a very talented and creative author and centers around one aspect of the resort......it could be the Blue Hawaii Wedding Chapel or the Loco Moco Cafe or the Happy Hula Dress Boutique or Gabby's Island Adventures.....
And Gabby's Island Adventures by Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens is where we are hanging out in Murder on the Aloha Express which is the second book in the series. Gabby owns and runs Gabby's Island Adventures and she has just booked a huge group for a tour. The group is on the island honoring the last wishes of Thomas Wesley Senior. Real estate mogul Wesley Senior wanted his last will and testament to be handled where he and his wife spent their honeymoon. So his very devoted lawyer, David Sherwin Esq., is there with Thomas Wesley Junior, his wife, family and a few friends to honor those wishes.
Unfortunately before they can get down to business Sherwin is murdered while on the tour that Gabby set up. Not only does this put a damper on the family's plans but it puts a big black cloud over Gabby's business when news of the murder on her tour gets out and the cancellations start to pour in. Gabby has no other choice but to talk to the members of the family and try to put the pieces together on Sherwin's death.
With the help of her twin employees, Lana and Koma and business partner Rick, Gabby starts asking the family and friends questions. But with the help of the internet and one member of the party, Gabby gets herself a little too close to the murderer........
I LOVE these books and especially after reading a few I can really appreciate the hard work and dedication that goes into each of them. Within Murder on the Aloha Express, Smith and Steffens keep with the series and mention people that are in other books in this series. It doesn't matter what book you start with because they are all individuals of their own. I do, however, suggest you start with one of them and keep reading them...... You seriously will not want to leave Aloha Lagoon Resort even if murder seems the common denominator......
Review by Missi S.
Reagan Summerside returns in national bestselling author Duffy Brown’s fifth Consignment Shop mystery, now for the first time in hardcover.
There are two social functions in Savannah guaranteed to get people talking: weddings and funerals. And just as consignment shop owner Reagan Summerside agrees to marry the hunky Walker Boone, her neighbors, sisters Annie Fritz and Elsie Abbot, step up their business as professional mourners. They are so successful that the Sleepy Pines Retirement Center has hired them as a part of their retirement package. But the celebration over good business is cut short when the residents at Pines suddenly begin dying at an alarming rate. And the sisters are the first suspects.
Reagan has her doubts, however, and begins to look into the strange phenomenon. But then something even stranger happens: a body winds up in the sisters’ pink Caddy. The evidence begins to pile up and the suspicious case of Willie Fishbine, who swindled the sisters out of a fortune and coincidentally died prior to the Pines case, is reopened.
Not wanting Willie to be buried until they can find the killer responsible for the murders, Reagan must catch the culprit in time to walk down the aisle. Witty, fabulous, and full of charm, Lethal in Old Lace is perfect for fans of Ellery Adams and Jenn McKinlay. (Summary via Goodreads)
FUN !!! Fun, Fun, and More Fun !!!!
Lethal in Old Lace is the fifth book in the Consignment Shop Mystery series by Duffy Brown and the best word to describe it is FUN !!
I am new to the Consignment Shop Mystery series with Lethal in Old Lace being the first in the series that I have read. However, that didn't matter. As soon as I started reading Lethal in Old Lace, I felt right at home with Reagan and her crew in Savannah. I had no problem keeping up with Reagan as she walked, ran or scootered around town following dead people...... It seems that Reagan is a magnet for dead people and it also seems that that is kind of the norm around town. Even though she tries her hardest to stay clear of dead people and the problems that come with them, it doesn't matter. She ends up in the middle of things and everyone is looking at her to resolve and solve the issues.
Even though in Lethal in Old Lace all Reagan wants to do is enjoy her engagement to her sexy, lawyer boyfriend, Boone Walker, she cannot turn away from her neighbors and friends, the Fritzs' sisters when they are arrested for murder !! Everyone in town knows that the sisters are uncapable of hurting anyone but it's a hard case to prove when the body of Bonnie Sue McGrath is found poorly buried in the sisters' garden. And this is just after the passing of another resident, Willie Fishbine, of Sleepy Pines Retirement Center.
Things seem off with these two deaths so of course Reagan with the help of her Auntie KiKi does some investigating of her own. As she runs around town looking into these two deaths, she finds herself promising eveyone from the bus driver to the local cop to the coroner a place in her wedding party..... All this so she can marry the man of her dreams ??? Well that and solve the two murders !!!
From Reagan naming her oversized purse and wedding dress when she finally finds the time to shop for one, to the relationship she has with Boone and her Auntie KiKi, to the crazy way everyone acts and talks and back to Reagan running around town.....it all flows throughout the book and you cannot help but laugh and love this quirky little town...... I for one will be visiting whenever I get the chance.....
Review by Missi S.
![Sunny Side Up (Li Johnson Murder Mysteries) by [Stallings, Daniel]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51xgOxFIv8L.jpg)
