Search

Search only in certain items:

Dead In The Shop (Grasmere Cottage Mystery #3)
Dead In The Shop (Grasmere Cottage Mystery #3)
Dahlia Donovan | 2018 | Contemporary, Crime, LGBTQ+
10
9.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
a very fitting end!!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 3 in the trilogy, and you MUST read book one, Dead In The Garden, and book two, Dead In The Pond, before you read this one. They are NOT stand alone books and need to be read in order!

With Bishan in the hospital, Valor has to dig deep within himself to keep it together. When there is another murder, the police finally decide that they need to draw the murderer out. And Valor finds himself not only fighting for Bish, but for his life.

I have LOVED these three books, I really have! But I think you would get a better enjoyment if you read them back to back, not with several other books between each one, like I did! Just my personal opinion, though!

Again, only Valor has his say and I did miss Bishan and his off-on-tangents thing, so it would have been nice if they both had their say here, but it doesn't affect my rating , I'm just bloody greedy and always want more!

As always, with Ms Donovan's work, lots of giggles among the drama and murders and lots of lovely ways that show that Bishan and Valor really are perfect for each other.

Some surprises too, with that murder being front and centre, but some budding romances within the supporting cast!

The way it all went down with the murderer was a fitting end, and one I didn't see coming, so that's always good, being kept on your toes!

I shall miss these guys, along with all their friends and family, I really shall!

A very fitting . . . .

5 stars!

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**
  
Murder at the Mushroom Festival
Murder at the Mushroom Festival
Janet Finsilver | 2018 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Murder is Mushrooming
The community of Redwood Cove is getting ready for the annual mushroom festival. It includes a mushroom hunting contest that is bring out the worst in some of the residence. Kelly Jackson witnesses several fights, including between the people attending a mushroom class she is hosting at her bed and breakfast. However, she is still surprised when a dead body is found. As she and the Silver Sentinels, a group that works to solve problems in the community, start to investigate, they find motives beyond the mushroom festival. Can they figure out what is happening?

It was nice to get to reconnect with Kelly and her friends. They make a great group of characters, and I love seeing their relationships grow in this book. It was also interesting to watch the suspects evolve as the book progressed. The book managed to surprise me as to who the victim was going to be, something that doesn’t often happen. It kept me guessing on the killer until Kelly figured it out, too. If you are looking for a light cozy, this is the book for you.
  
40x40

ClareR (5674 KP) rated Hamnet in Books

Sep 26, 2020  
Hamnet
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.4 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
I think this has probably made it to the top of my favourite books of the year. How can this possibly be topped by anything else?

Hamnet is an imagining of what could have happened to Shakespeare’s son - even in the parish records it doesn’t say what his cause of death was. Maggie O’Farrell makes this version completely plausible though: plague should have been a real threat at this time. It killed indiscriminately: young and old, rich and poor, weak and strong. They were all vulnerable to illnesses with no cures. I’m something of an emotional reader at the best of times, but as Agnes, Hamnet’s mother, was preparing her son for burial, I was crying in to my breakfast. My 16 year old son looked at me over the top of his bacon butty and said:”Another sad bookthen, Mum?”, and shook his head. To read of a mother and her dead son, and see my 13 and 16 year old sons merrily tucking in to their bacon sandwiches, may not have been the ideal time to be reading this.

This is the kind of book that makes you really look at how precarious life was in those times, and how lucky we are today to have so few worries on this scale (Covid-19 aside!).

The writing is so beautiful, so descriptive and emotive: it picks you up and sets you down squarely in Elizabethan Stratford, making you feel exactly how Agnes must have felt. Honestly, it broke my heart to read of her pain.

If you haven’t read this yet, you’re in for a treat. This deserves ALL the awards.