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Easy. At the ripe young age of fourteen Jessica has discovered that getting the attention she wants...
Kerry Cohen Easy Young Adult Sexual Awakening Photography
The Marriage Bureau for Rich People
9.0
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Alexander McCall Smith meets Jane Austen in this delightfully charming Indian novel about finding...
On Bone Bridge
10.0
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"The sins of the past will not stay buried. But who are the innocent and who are the guilty?" ...
mystery thriller suspense fiction Ireland Maria Hoey
Insidious (Tales from the Dark Side, #1)
8.0
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Dark desires…Deadly secrets…Devious deceptions…Nothing is exactly as it seems in INSIDIOUS,...
The High Tide Club
7.0
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When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons Brooke Trappnell to Talisa...
Bake Offed
9.0
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In the new installment of beloved author Maya Corrigan’s Five-Ingredient Mystery series, join Val...
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2434 KP) rated Christmas Dessert Murder in Books
Dec 9, 2023
In the first, Christmas Caramel Murder, Hannah gets involved when her business partner is accused of killing her husband’s new secretary, who just happened to be playing Mrs. Claus to Herb’s Santa in the community theater. This book borrows a bit from A Christmas Carol, and that makes it a little weird for fans of the series, but it is still enjoyable, with a good wrap up and cameos if not large parts for the regular characters.
The second story is Christmas Cake Murder, which flashes back to Hannah’s first Christmas after her father passed away. In an effort to get her mother out of her grief, Hannah agrees to help put on a Christmas ball filled with cakes. The mystery doesn’t really kick in until late in the story, although there are bread crumbs early on. What is most fun for fans of the series is watching Hannah build the life we are already familiar with.
Between the two stories, there are lots of recipes for you to try at Christmas.
Obviously, if you already have the two books, you’ll be fine skipping this collection. But if you’ve missed them, you might want to consider this way to get the stories.
Forbidden City
9.0
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In this third installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James...
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2434 KP) rated Kaleidoscope in Books
May 11, 2024 (Updated May 11, 2024)
Fans of the first book will be happy to hear that the format of the plot didn’t change much. Sadly, for me, that means it didn’t work as well as I would have liked. The way the stories wander around and in and out of each other without any clear beginning or climax frustrates me. One of them ends very anticlimactically. On the other hand, I do enjoy the charming characters and I liked spending time with them again. As with the author’s Mrs. Pollifax series, the characters haven’t really aged even thought it was roundly 25 years between books and both take place in their present. As a fan of the author, I’m not sorry I read this book, but I won’t be reading this series again any time soon.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2434 KP) rated Fondue or Die in Books
Dec 12, 2024 (Updated Dec 12, 2024)
I’d forgotten just how much I love this series until I picked up this book, but I was soon under the spell of the characters again. We aren’t in the usual locations as much, but that’s a minor complaint. The characters’ relationships continue to draw me in, and I liked the new characters we met as well. At least the ones who weren’t acting suspicious. One relationship gets some wonderful development. The mystery is fantastic. I kept second guessing myself until we reached the climax. I did have a niggle with the ending, but it was minor overall. As usual, these books will make you crave cheese, so you’ll be happy with the three recipes at the end. Fans new and old will find themselves savoring this entry.
