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Meri's Corner

~ A Writer's Thoughts and Reviews

Tag Archives: cozy mystery

Book Review: Fried Chicken & Fangs by Bella Falls

30 Wednesday Mar 2022

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

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amreading, Bella Falls, cozy mystery, Fried Chicken & Fangs, review, reviews, Southern Charms Mystery

Author: Bella Falls
Publisher: Evermore Press
Series: Southern Charms Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars
Medium: Audio Book

I fell easily into book two of this series straight after finishing the first. It was great to continue Charli’s story as she settles back into her home in Honeysuckle Hollow. Just like the first one the characters are engaging, the plot is thick with a wanting to get into it enticement, and the mystery of it is well paced throughout the book so it doesn’t feel like we’re stalling with a bunch of fluff to tied us to the end of the book itself.

Potential spoilers from here on.

We’re still having Charli pulled between Mason and Dash, though for a good part of the beginning of the book it seems like Dash is definitely winning. Meanwhile, while he’s interested in her and she’s definitely interested in him, Mason’s started to be snippy, sharp, and pushing her away. There are a few teasing hints at an event that went down, the full actions of which were fully revealed in this book. I was able to get enough that I knew some kind of event happened and Mason was embarrassed about how he acted at the event, figuring that it completely changed and potentially hurt his relationship with Charli.

Full disclosure, I’m listening to the audio book and I purchased the books 1-3 bundle so I hadn’t looked at the series list to see that there is, in fact, a short story that falls between the first two books about a singles mixer – which I’m assuming is the referenced event. However, I haven’t purchased or read it at the time of writing this review. And while I do love shorts and novellas that fall between books and explain events we might not have focused on in the full series, this one was a little jarring because it directly affected Mason’s relationship with Charli – to the point that I was honestly really confused as to why he was being such a giant ass to her when the last I had left off with the pair, all she’d done since was dance with Dash – something he allowed to happen by letting the Shifter cut in – and then Dash licked some frosting off her fingers at a town event. So relationship wise, that definitely threw me a little bit to try and figure out what had happened or was happening.

Mystery wise, I love the play of having one of Charli’s friends fall for the vampire who was visiting town and turning the two friends against each other a little because Charli didn’t like the guy but her friend was definitely at the point of wanting to date him. It’s definitely a relatable situation. And while I do love how the mystery played out, including some of the red herrings that we were given because they were set up, I’m hoping that the over all person at the center of the whodunit doesn’t continuously be the same in being the one person from out of town. It’s going to make the who extremely obvious if the series continues that pattern.

All in all, definitely going to be continuing book three. And definitely going to be checking out that short I apparently missed.

Book Review: Caffeinated Calamity by Amanda M. Lee

08 Wednesday Dec 2021

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

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A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery, Amanda M. Lee, amblogging, amreading, amreviewing, books, Caffeinated Calamity, cozy mystery, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, online presence, Paranormal Fantasy, paranormal romance, ramblings, review, reviews, Sinfully Delicious, thoughts, Urban Fantasy

Author: Amanda M. Lee
Publisher: Amanda M. Lee
Series: A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars

Can you tell that I’m enjoying the series already since we’re now on book two?

Yes, we’re back with Stormy Morgan, new witch in the small town of Shadow Hills, Michigan. Well, technically, make that only witch in Shadow Hills since her great-grandmother moved away to Florida years back. Which means that she’s navigating this new power all on her own, while she tries to keep it fairly quiet from her family, the town and her not-quite boyfriend, Hunter.

Overall, the writing is cute and I’m enjoying the characters and continuation of the story and what’s going on with Stormy. Book two actually opens up with a Prologue set in Hemlock Cove, a town over from Shadow Hills with Bay and Thistle Winchester. From reading other reviews, of the first book and this book I had already picked up that this was a series set in a much bigger universe from her other series. This prologue, for those who haven’t read any of her other series, pretty much confirms it. I did a little digging to link that the Winchesters are from her ‘Wicked Witches of the Midwest’ books, of which there are currently nineteen out. Something I might tackle later because I can’t say I’m not interested in reading Bay’s story from the beginning.

Spoilers weaved in and out of my review ahead, so read at your discretion.

I did like this book a little more than the first, though I think part of it is because while it’s frustrating Stormy, Hunter is trying to actually do the right thing by not just jumping into a relationship with Stormy so soon after his breakup with Monica. Stormy as a whole is worried that it’s because she’s not sure if it’s due to Hunter having second thoughts, but he does confirm it’s because he knows he was in the wrong with how he treated Monica and wanted to give it some time before the relationship was more or less rubbed into Monica’s face.

While the town might still be gossiping about them, I actually appreciate him trying to do the right thing and not give the town MORE to gossip about or throw in her face.

As well, Stormy is starting to come to terms with her being a witch, with her friend Sebastian dragging her off to Hemlock Cove to the Winchester’s store in an effort to get her to kind of feel out the family because it’s a well-known not-secret that they are in fact witches.

The speed at which the murders are happening in town since Stormy came back is a little concerning though. We’re only a few weeks after the conclusion of the first book, where someone was murdered behind the family restaurant when one drops dead as she’s leaving from breakfast – the ultimate conclusion for death being poisoned. So again, another murder. (And I’m already partway into book three, which takes place only a few weeks after this one, and again, a new murder) So we’re talking like, three murders in the span of like a month and a half – two months? That’s a LOT, especially for a small town. It asks for a lot of suspension of disbelief – it’s easier to believe the speed of murders were it in a larger town, because more people, but in a town where everyone knows everyone and the largest gossip outside of the murders is that Hunter’s truck was parked behind the restaurant so everyone knows he spent the night at Stormy’s apartment – it takes a decent amount of disbelief for ‘reading reasons’ to wonder why people haven’t fleed this town ages ago if this is how fast people are dropping.

The book had a similar feel of book one, where we’re focusing on Stormy and her magic, or Stormy and Hunter a lot and sometimes it does feel like the murder and the mystery of it get pushed back a little for the other things. I like that magic is starting to take a bigger roll in the books as Stormy is learning about it and of it, though I also feel like if there was a little more time between each book (and murder) there’s some hand waving, Stormy has been learning and so we can speed up the rate at which she’s learning to use it a little more. However, I do feel like we had a little more sleuthing about the murder and into why it happened than the first book, so the conclusion of the who, how, and why came a little more in flow with the rest of the book.

I’d definitely still recommend it if you’re looking for a cute, cozy mystery to read with a hint of paranormal/witchy flare. And I will say with the cameos from the Winchester family, I am curious to read their story from their perspective – or well, Bay’s perspective mostly. Their appearance makes me wish I knew of them before picking up this book, and you can tell there’s a large family dynamic going on among them, but at the same time, I think they were handled well in that I don’t feel that I was missing anything from not reading their books that affected how they interacted with Stormy and her story as a whole.

Book Review: Sinfully Delicious by Amanda M. Lee

03 Friday Dec 2021

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

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A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery, Amanda M. Lee, amblogging, amreading, amreviewing, books, cozy mystery, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, online presence, Paranormal Fantasy, paranormal romance, ramblings, review, reviews, Sinfully Delicious, thoughts, Urban Fantasy

Author: Amanda M. Lee
Publisher: Amanda M. Lee
Series: A Two Broomsticks Gas & Grill Witch Cozy Mystery
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 Stars

Sinfully Delicious is a Cozy Mystery that follows our main character, Stormy Morgan, as she tries to settle back into her hometown of Shadow Hills, Michigan after having left it for several years. We learn quickly that she left Shadow Hills for college and to become a writer, which she was successful with for the first book.

With the failure of her second book, her publisher canceled her contract and with no prospects at the moment, and little to her name or cash in her bank account, she finds herself back in her hometown.

Overall, Sinfully Delicious was a cute start to a new series. I haven’t read any of Amanda Lee’s books before now, so this is my entrance into her as an author as well and overall I do like what I see. I can confirm I’m already eight chapters into the second book for this series, because I liked it enough to want to continue and see where this story goes with the main character Stormy, as well as her grandfather and her ex.

Spoilers weaved in and out of my review ahead, so read at your discretion.

Stormy is an interesting character, and while she does come off a little whiny at life and her lot in it with having to find herself back in her hometown, living above her family’s restaurant by the grace of her grandfather’s working with her on the rent to lease the place, if you really think about it wouldn’t you be a little whiny if you were in her shoes too? No one expects to make it, break it, and find themselves back at home after college. I will say, I would have liked to see her pull her bootstraps up a little bit more than she did as a whole with being an adult that’s almost thirty, but to be fair and realistic, I’ve seen this attitude first hand so I can’t say it’s not wrong or inaccurate with how people are sometimes either.

Her grandfather is possibly one of my favorite characters in the book. Especially with his disappearing acts whenever Hunter, local cop and Stormy’s ex-boyfriend, comes around to try and talk to him. Especially when he pops back up after Hunter leaves like he’d been at the counter cooking the entire time she’d been looking for him and Hunter was there.

I do have to say I wasn’t thrilled with Hunter as a whole, more with how he was using his current girlfriend throughout the book. It’s both said about him from a friend, as well as he does more or less outright say he knew that it was never going to work with Monica, but he kept her around because he wanted to have a wall or shield against having Stormy come back so he could have a super easy way of keeping Stormy at arm’s length. Which is 100% not fair to Monica to be strung along for almost a month just because he was scared of how it might go between him and his ex-girlfriend. While I didn’t like Monica, I do sympathize with her a little because she was, in effect, a pawn to Hunter when she thought he actually cared about her.

Sinfully Delicious is sold as a Witch Cozy Mystery, and while like I did say I’m into book 2 already, the first book doesn’t do a lot for bringing in the paranormal to the book to tag the first book a witch book. We slowly learn, with Stormy, that she has powers that she accidentally unlocked one night while playing with a Ouija board. By the end of the book it’s clear she has powers and comes from a witch line on her grandfather’s side – and honestly with the way her grandfather seems to be able to pop in and out of sight at the drop of a hat I wouldn’t be surprised if later on in the series we find out that he does have at least a small bit of magic he keeps to himself. But as a whole I wish for a WITCH cozy mystery there’d been a little more WITCH to it.

As well, while there is a death and a mystery, I did find myself feeling like the mystery aspect of it took a large backseat to the romance aspect with the push and pull of Stormy and Hunter as they tried to navigate their feelings for each other.

Maybe I’m just used to the cozy mysteries where the main character has her nose in EVERYTHING when it comes to trying to sniff out the who dun it, with the story focusing on the mystery and the romance being the secondary plot so having it almost flipped left me a little disappointed with the mystery as a whole. But it felt like the wrap-up of the mystery was a little rushed in this book. As a whole, the mystery was wrapped up decently well and it all made sense to the story and plot, it just felt a little like we realized we had gotten to the end of the book and needed to wrap it up so let’s get on that, kind of ending.

But at the end of the day, it’s also a cozy mystery, and it was a cute and cozy read.

Book Review: Sprinkle with Murder by Jenn McKinlay

10 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

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amreading, cozy mystery, jenn mckinlay, review, reviews, sprinkle with murder, thoughts

Author: Jenn McKinlay
Publisher: Berkely
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating:  4 Stars

Melanie and Angie are two friends that, with a third friend who more of a silent investor, opened their dream shop. Fairy Tale Cupcakes. Despite the stress of a local bakery owner not liking the competition everything seems to be going will. They even have their first big customer – a bride-to-be who wants 500 cupcakes for her wedding.

But when Melanie finds the bride-to-be dead, she becomes the main suspect in a murder that could not only put her in jail but sink her new business. Determined to find the real killer, Melanie starts digging herself.

Overall, I really enjoyed this cozy mystery. I ended up starting it at 7pm one night and every time I tried to put it down to go to sleep my brain refused and I found myself continuing. I finished it about three hours later, and I’m already planning to pick up the next book in the series.

Now, I know, this book is far from new. It was originally published in 2010 and I purchased my copy through a used bookstore. But that’s really not the point, is it? What is the point is that it’s a quick read, as most cozy mysteries are, and it keeps you hooked and wanting to know more.

I enjoyed exploring the whodunit with Melanie to race against time to figure out the culprit before her shop took the brunt of the problems with the murder.

As well, I am in love with the cupcake recipes in the back of the book and can’t wait to try my had at making them. The cupcake recipes are for ones that were mentioned in the story that the shop itself sells and I think that putting them in the back like that is just a beautiful touch that a lot of cozy mysteries these days are missing.

Over all, while it’s not new, I highly recommend reading this cute book if you’re looking for something and enjoy a cozy mystery.

 

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