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It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder
Maria DiRico | 2021 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Enjoy Christmas with The Family
The Belle View Catering Hall is busy with events as Christmas approaches, but Mia Carina gets distracted when the Boldano family asks for her help. Someone has shown up claiming to be Jamie’s long-lost brother. That’s a shock since Jamie didn’t even know he was adopted. Things get even more heated when Mia finds a dead body in her neighborhood. Can she figure out what is going on?

Those new to the series are in for a treat. Yes, this is a different cozy series since we have mobsters as characters and it is set in Queens. Yet these elements don’t overwhelm, and this feels like a cozy series. That’s mostly thanks to the characters, who come across as very real and likeable. In addition to the puzzling mystery, there are multiple sub-plots, which keep things hopping as we read the book. I did feel the climax didn’t quite work. Our questions are answered, but it was just a bit much. There’s plenty of Christmas spirit in this book, including a hilarious sub-plot about a Christmas light display contest. We get seven recipes and a couple of event tips at the end of the book. Fans new and old will enjoy spending this Christmas with Mia.
  
40x40

Merissa (12051 KP) rated Fall for You in Books

Oct 23, 2023  
Fall for You
Fall for You
Felice Stevens | 2023 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
FALL FOR YOU is a sweet and steamy standalone where, sometimes, you find the job you need and the person you love in the most unusual ways.

Davis hasn't found the work he needs in the time since he left his hometown, running away from a very bad situation. Instead, he finds himself working in a diner. Carson has come back home to rescue the family firm from bankruptcy after his father and brother drove it into the ground. It's hard for him to find an assistant who is prepared to work as hard as he does.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Their relationship grew and changed in a completely natural way. And I loved how Carson knew he'd found a gem with Davis, even before they acted on the attraction between them.

I enjoyed the scenes with the mums, but I did find it easier with Carson's mum. Davis' mum, Jenny, was a bit high maintenance but also funny. It all worked out in the end.

Low angst in all the best ways, this was a great read that I can definitely recommend.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Oct 19, 2023
  
TN
The Night Shift
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
131 of 235
Kindle
The Night Shift
By Alex Finlay
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in New Jersey, four teenagers working late at the store are attacked. Only one inexplicably survives. Police quickly identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again.

Fifteen years later, more teenage employees are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive.

In the aftermath of the latest crime, three lives intersect: the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive the horrors of her tragedy; the brother of the fugitive accused, who’s convinced the police have the wrong suspect; and FBI agent Sarah Keller who must delve into the secrets of both nights—stirring up memories of teen love and lies—to uncover the truth about murders on the night shift.

I read this in one sitting and thought it was just brilliant. It kept me totally engaged and constantly guessing. It had some pretty nasty characters too which always makes for good reading. Really enjoyed it.
  
173 of 230
Kindle
Absorb ( The Forgotten Affinities book 1)
By Analeigh Ford
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Earth. Psychic. Ritual. The three magical affinities. No mage has ever been chosen by all three…until now.

My name is Octavia Hadley, and I am the mage who broke the affinity ritual. I have been at the New York Academy of Mages for less than one day and the school board already wants to strip me of my powers.

It would be a whole lot simpler if it didn’t also mean giving up on them—the four mages that I got paired up with: Kendall, my best friend’s twin brother, Draven, the leather-clad ritual mage, Cedric, the principal’s son, and Flynn, the only other mage who also has more than one affinity.

The school board tells me I am mistake, but I know that isn’t right. This magic is mine, and I will find a way to keep it. My paired mages will fight beside me even if it means losing everything—so long as it means they don’t have to lose me too.

It was an ok book it needed some improvements in world building but the premise was good. I got slightly bored with the teenage love tryst especially in such a short space of time and not a very long book. But it was ok for YA.
  
Journeyman (Raven Series #2) [Audiobook]
Journeyman (Raven Series #2) [Audiobook]
Heather Atkinson | 2022 | Crime, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Having listened to and thoroughly enjoyed the first in the series, Raven, I was intrigued to see what further escapades the assassin/bounty hunter was going to get mixed up in.

Now Raven was good but Journeyman is better!

Damien, Raven's brother, receives a coded message from their father One-Eye (aka Nik) that means he is in trouble. Unable to contact him and with only a vague idea of where he was going, they set out to try and track him down somewhere in Scotland.

One-Eye is being tracked by a killer from his past who he thought was dead. He is injured and has to 'hide out' in a small Scottish village on the Isle of Skye. Whilst recovering, One-Eye is getting to know the eclectic residents of the village when one of them is found murdered but who did it and why?

With good, strong characters, loads of action, a great and unexpected twist and quite a few laugh-out-loud moments, this was a really enjoyable listen and I look forward to the next in the series.

The narrator does a great job with all the different characters; she really had her work cut out with this one and did it well.

Thank you to W.F. Howes Ltd and NetGalley for enabling me to listen to Journeyman and share my thoughts.