Knit, Purl, Die (Black Sheep Knitting Mystery, Book 2)
by Anne Canadeo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Knit, Purl, Die is the second book in the Black Sheep Knitting series....
First off, a pet peeve - the proofreading was lacking on this book! Don't know if it was a rush to get the second book out or what but there were are number of storyline errors. First off was the synopsis on the back cover, Gloria is listed as being on husband number four when throughout the story, he is actually husband number three. On the back cover her husband is identified as Daniel Wexler and where that comes from is anyone's guess because in the book he is Jamie. Now inside the story itself, early in the book Suzanne's daughter is called Natalie, but in book one and again later in this story she is Alexis. Also early in the book Brian is mentioned as either Suzanne or Dana's husband, when we know from book one and the rest of book two that Dana's husband is jack and Suzanne's is Kevin. Names need to be consistent throughout the series, and this is something that is easy to check and keep straight. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, it makes you question what you are reading.
On to the story itself - we add new character into the Black Sheep Knitting Club in the person of Gloria, but she is not to stay around too long. Again, Lucy seems to take the lead in questioning things with Maggie dragging her feet the most. We see more of Dana and Suzanne in this story than in Book one.
The story itself is well written and easy to follow, but I got caught up in the errors and couldn't enjoy it the way I wanted.
View all my reviews
Whisper: A Lakeview Novel (Lakeview Academy Series, Book 1)
by Stacey R. Campbell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Lakeview Academy is a centuries old boarding school on 300 mountain acres in Canada, that started out for boys and now admits girls and boys for 8th thru 12th grades. It also holds its own secrets and resident ghosts, or so the stories go. Leigh is in her senior year, but her best friend Blakely's, who graduated last year, younger sister Halle is starting this year and Leigh is going to be her "big sister". Halle is overjoyed about the ghosts, the mysteries and secrets of the school and she can't wait to find out more. It helps that the original building that housed the founder's family is being renovated this year. The seniors are tapped to clean the attic since they are the only ones on campus at the time. Halle tags along with Leigh, and in the process finds an old diary. Whisper is the story of the adventure that follows as Halle entrusts a few seniors, Leigh and her roommate Christi, her boyfriend David and his best friend Callum, who just happens to be a descent of the founding family; to help find a lost treasure mentioned in the diary. Author Stacey R. Campbell creates an engaging and compelling story that make you want to keep reading and find out what happens.
Whisper is actually the second book in the Lakeview Academy series, but it stands on its own quite well. I did not read the first book, and was able to follow along without problem, although now I do want to go back and read the first. Enough key information was relayed in this book that you are not lost. Not only do you have this treasure hunt going on, but you have this tension between Callum and Leigh, which has been going on since their first year. Author Stacey R. Campbell does a wonderful job writing characters that you want to know, you want to read, and you find yourself rooting for and wanting to see them find what they are looking for, among other things. This book is a great read for middle school on up readers. It is clean, there is no sex, although there are references to it, it's not actually seen or described, and there is no violence at all. I would be willing to let my 6th grader read this book. Enjoy readers!
View all my reviews
Dark Waters (Elementals, Book 1)
by Rain Oxford
My rating: 4.3 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
As a private investigator, Devon Sanders is good, not just good but extremely good, he seems to have a real touch for the job. Never mention it might be magic in his presence though because he has stayed as far away from magic as possible as long as he can remember. Problem is, the best paying job ever means he has to go undercover at the Magic School. Devon must find the killer of five students, then murders start happening at the school, and there is more of a rush to figure who is behind it. Dark Waters is part magic, part vampire, part shifter, part fae story mixed with a huge murder mystery, topped with some repressed memories that start coming out now at the school. Author +Rain Oxford takes so many different parts and seamlessly puts them together into a story that works. The reader feels part of the world of the book.
The magic school in Dark Waters immediately makes me think of Hogwarts from Harry Potter, and although there are some similarities, there are differences too. This school includes not just magic, but shifters and fae, including Devon's two roommates. Mixing all these groups, magic, vampires, shifters, and fae together is usually hard and something doesn't sound right, but this book is written well and it feels right. Author +Rain Oxford does well to take a major murder mystery and add in the whole paranormal, supernatural element. There are a few times when you might get confused, mostly because Devon and his roommate Darwin's names are so similar, you find yourself re-reading parts to make sure you read that right. Although Devon is in his thirties, his roommates are in their twenties, and with the school aspect, this could really even be considered as a young adult novel. This is definitely a good read.
View all my reviews
Hidden Agenda
by Peter Berman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book reviewed by Michelle Randall for +Readers' Favorite .
A year after his wife's death, Jeremy Hart, from the DA's office, is attending a fund raising gala at the advice of his therapist. She wants him to talk to at least two single women, when he spots Claire Carlton, he is smitten, after an innocent dance he finds she is married and she will later pay the price at the hands of her husband for the dance. Hidden Agenda follows Claire and Jeremy as they talk, becoming friends and then lovers. Claire wants to leave her husband, but Peter is not a man you walk away from, so they talk about it but you can tell it will never happen. One night Peter is shot in his driveway, and Jeremy is arrested for the murder, but did he do it? Or is he being framed? Author Peter S. Berman introduces us then to Ulysses and Jennifer, the Detectives on the case and what they find or don't find. All the while, there are side vignettes of a stranger that is attacking women. How does that tie into this investigation?
Peter S. Berman does a wonderful job, breaking the book in three main sections, one about each duo of characters as it might be, and telling what is happening from their perspectives. The beginning of the story is all about Claire and Jeremy, the middle is all about Ulysses and Jennifer and the last about another. Hidden Agenda is aptly named in more that one way, as there is more than one hidden agenda going on in the book! As you go through reading you find so many people doing things, just under the surface to right a wrong that the system failed them on in the past. Now that is not an endorsement of doling out justice, but it makes an amazing and captivating story for all readers.
View all my reviews
Guardian
by A.L. Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
As a child Alex was in the car when her parents were killed, saved only by a voice and vision that only she could see. She ran from her small town home and the memory of that vision, but fate has brought her back home now, at age twenty-five. Her original goal was to get in and out of town as fast as she could, but once there, and in her old home, the vision from the past returns. Memories of the murder also return, and to keep herself alive, Alex must learn to have faith and trust in something that she cannot see. Guardian is a warming tale of the idea that there can be someone out there watching over us, loving us and keeping us safe, even if we can't see or hear them. A.L. Crouch does a wonderful job mixing faith and paranormal together to come to this unique blend in this story of seeing a vision that is not really there yet is.
Guardian is unlike any other story about a guardian angel that I have ever read. It is not that there is a heaven that sends those to watch over you, but is something entirely different, and it takes just the faith to believe in the unseen to see them. A.L. Crouch has written a story that gives you adventure, romance, suspense, mystery and intrigue along with faith and the paranormal, all wrapped into one amazing tale. It is something to read, and one that you will be hard pressed o put down before you finish it.
View all my reviews
The Collector
by Mathias G. B. Colwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
Phillip was born into the Guild, and for the past twenty-five years he has been a Collector. It is his job to keep everyone on earth safe from the creatures they don't even know exist. The Collector is set in the old-world, the image of the 1800's comes to mind, at a time when the creatures of myths: vampires, werewolves, fairies, trolls and such are true. Most of the world has no idea, but the Guild has existed to keep the creatures that start causing problems in the human world in line. Phillip and his partner James are just about to leave New York for England with a load of prisoners, when a high ranking Guild member sends Phillip on a collection, alone. Something doesn't feel right, and it only gt worse from there. Phillip finds that things are not ass they seem, and someone is trying to start another Great Transformation. He must team up with an unlikely source to hunt done the person and put a stop to it before the world is thrown into turmoil. Mathias G. B. Colwell does a wonderful job of combining adventure, mystery and fantasy into a wonderful tale.
From the title alone, The Collector sounds to be a dark mystery, but in reality it is a much more friendly and enjoyable story. Phillip is a Collector, it's a job, to collect those who are harming society. At the same time, Phillip has some struggles with his job, he is starting to wonder if it is all for the best. He struggles with coming to terms with the mission of the Guild and what it has become, and what he wants to really be. Mathias G. B. Colwell takes the fantasy of the creatures, adds them to old world society, throws in a mystery and some soul-searching and comes up with a wonderful little book that would appeal to all ages and genders.
View all my reviews
A Deeper Cut
by Sheri Wren Haymore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
Every summer Hunter spends it with Granny Jen in Beaufort. This year he has brought Mikki with him, thinking it might be a good thing for them. This summer though, a murderer has decided to visit Beaufort also, and frame Hunter for at least one of the killings. A Deeper Cut mixes drug dealers and sweet, southern charm into a realistic tale of a summer on the shoreline. Hunter is tasked with figuring out who he really is, and whether to continue to let his father's disappearance and failures define him or not. +Sheri Wren Haymore writes a wonderful mystery, thriller that you want to know who did it, but at the same time keeps the beauty and charm of life is a small southern town.
A Deeper Cut follows Hunter, and more than just the cuts of the killer are needing to be healed this summer. Hunter has always felt that everyone, except maybe Granny Jen expected him to fail and turn out like his father. This summer he will have to face his father, and the demons he carries and figure out who he really is. +Sheri Wren Haymore mixes this soul-searching with the mystery of who if offing drug dealers and sets it all in a sweet, charming southern town. You will feel for Hunter, want to hold the boy and help him through his struggles. At the same time you will enjoy the intrigue of discovering who the real killer is and just why the killer might have it out for the Kittrell family.
View all my reviews
Author Webpage
Publisher Page
Room of Fire
by Jenn Rekka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Room of Fire starts off gentle enough at an East Coast University with a Professor, Carlos Sheldon and his Assistant Laura Gates going through the mail, and even though there is interesting mail, some plates and a cryptic message that ends up sending them to Europe, it all seems so pleasurable and relaxing. A gentlemen of the county, Duke to some, Gustav to others wants to sell off his antiques before his scoundrel of a nephew inherites the manor, what better place to acquire items for the University. There are just some items that the Duke will only let a few in on that exist. Luckily our Professor Sheldon and Laura are among those, and what he has hidden is family crypt could blow the art world away.
After acquiring the pieces they were after for the University, Laura and Prof Sheldon get permission from the University to stay and investigate the secret the Duke has told them about. This is where it get's a bit dicey, they are not the only ones looking into, but probably the only ones that are doing it legally.
Laura and Carlos will travel all over Europe following leads, sometimes in front of the bad guys and sometimes behind them. When it comes to bad guys, you have the bad,bad guys and the good, bad guys and yet which are which and are they working together or who are they all working for in the first place.
Mystery, intrigue, sabotage and kidnapping along with out and out theft all come into play as they volley for the same limited pieces for different reasons. Toss in an attractive good guy and a handsome bad boy and you have even more to struggle with. It is a dynamic read, and took me the morning of a snow day to read it, it was just interesting and I didn't want to put it down. There is also some history and antiques information slightly sprinkled in there that is neat too.
View all my reviews
The Heir to the Amulet
by S.P. Meijer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
The Heir to the Amulet mixes the ideas of Knights and old world, medieval places and areas or countries with futuristic, high-tech places and areas or countries and blends them into a story of mystery and intrigue, kidnapping and sabotage. Raith was success in her attempt to take over the country of Cymnosa, but the Queen and her children managed to escape. Years later, Queen Sarah has vanished in a plan crash, and the heir, Lora is living under a false identity in another country, while Richie is under the control of an evil Uncle. When Raith makes a bid to get the remaining two nations fighting, Lora undertakes the adventure of a lifetime to save her brother, her best friend and new friend, along with the rest of the world, in +S. P. Meijer's fantasy epic adventure.
Lost heir's are a dime a dozen, but Lora is different, she is 16 but packs a powerfulful determination into that body to right the wrongs of the world. You like her from the beginning. Her best friend Stephen is the son of the King of Magoria, although the King doesn't quite like her.+S.P. Meijer focuses on the kids, they are the heros of the book, they are the ones who get out there and make things happen. It's not the King or The Queen or any adult, although at times they help a bit, but it is mainly a group of 16 to 10 year old kids. That is what makes The Heir to The Amulet so good for kids to read. It gives them a sense of empowerment and encouragement, that they aren't too small and their voice matters.
BookGoodies
View all my reviews
The Whitechapel Secret: Who Was Jack the Ripper?
by Martin Loughlin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Who really was Jack the Ripper? Even after 125 years theories abound but no one really knows.
This novel takes a new perspective on the Ripper slayings, leading the reader on a scavanger hunt to find clues left by someone who was there at the time of the killings, some information that will finally reveal who Jack the Ripper was.
The story starts in the modern day, Ian is a freelance writer and he also gives guided walking tours of famous Jack the Ripper locations. Some have even said that he is the best of the Ripper tor guides. This night should have been like any other, but one lady on the tour is determined to talk to Ian. Ruth Walker has a interesting family history that has been passed down for generations. She truly believes that her ancestor knew who Jack the Ripper was, and left clues to solve the mystery.
Ian listens to her tale, and although it would be wonderful if it was true, he just isn't sure. At the train station on his way home, he is stabbed and almost killed. After talking to the police and getting stitches he arrives home only to find a message on his machine from Ruth's daughter. It seems Ruth had been killed by a hit and run driver earlier in the evening
Well, the death of Ruth and the attempt on Ian's life is just too much to be chance, so Ian and Ruth's daughter Lindsey set out to find and follow the clues, all across Europe.
This story gives a whole new perspective on Jack the Ripper and is filled with travel and adventure. I found it was so easy and quick to read because it made for a compelling story. No matter how many stories about Jack the Ripper you have read, you must read this one.
View all my reviews
