Review

The Money Club. Fiona Lowe

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Published: Harlequing Australia
Date: 3rd May
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Izzy Harrington’s fiance is a successful entrepreneur and everyone’s friend, but today she’s waiting for him to get home so she can tell him they’re over. Except Brad never arrives.
Instead, three angry men knock on the door and insist on talking to Brad. When the police arrive asking difficult questions and demanding to see his passport, Izzy’s packed suitcases suddenly take on a whole new meaning. Brad’s disappearance sends ripples through their small town and a furious mob camps on Izzy’s lawn desperate to recover their losses. They have Izzy in their crosshairs, determined to make her pay for Brad’s audacious con. As the search intensifies, conflicting clues emerge. Clues that suggest no one really knew Brad – least of all Izzy …

The Money Club is  another thought provoking book from Fiona Lowe. To some extent we all like money, but how far would we go to grow our money, how much risk would we take. And what about if it looks too good to be true! Some of the people in this book find out.

Izzy is a wonderful character, taken for a ride by her fiancé Brad who has red lights flashing all around him. He is promoting a scheme for lots of local people to invest with him, but what happens when it all goes pear shaped? It brings a lot of distress and questioning from those who were involved in giving their money to Brad.  And of course the police are knocking on Izzy’s door, because Brad has disappeared.

There are characters I didn’t like at the beginning but as they began to re assess their values and what they really wanted out of life, I began to think differently of them. I liked the small town feel, the relationships that built and the ones that broke.

I was engrossed in the story and found it well paced and engaging. I was happy with most of the book but had questions about the those who had engineered the scam. I wanted more about the ugly goings on in the background that stayed in the background.

However ultimately I felt this was a book about victims standing up for themselves and getting on with their lives rather than wallowing in the bad things that happened to them.

Review

Paper Cuts. Ellery Adams

Paper Cuts

Published: Kensington
Date:  25th April
Source: Publisher via Netgalley

Nora escaped her past a decade ago. So it feels like a visit from another world when Kelly Walsh—the woman her ex-husband left her for—walks through the door of Miracle Books along with her son, a sweet, serious boy with a talent for origami. Kelly hasn’t come to gloat, though. As it turns out, she’s been dumped too. She’s also terribly ill, and all she wants from Nora is forgiveness.

Shockingly, however, this woman who’s been the victim of so much misfortune is about to become a murder victim. Who would do such a thing? Certainly not Nora, but that doesn’t stop the gossip and suspicion—especially after Kelly’s brother claims that he saw the two women arguing.

In seeking justice for Kelly, The Secret, Book, and Scone Society joins forces with the sheriff’s department, but they’ve barely begun their probe when life throws another wrench. After serving a twenty-year sentence, Estella’s father returns to Miracle Springs. And when his past comes back to haunt him, it might be more than the four friends can handle.

Paper Cuts  by Ellery Adams – #6 in the Secret, Book and Scone Society. This is probably my favorite cozy mystery series, and it was just so good catching up with Nora, Hester, Estella and June. They are such a good bunch, there for each other and the community.

This time Nora is in the firing line and Nora is initially blamed for a murder of a woman she had an argument with. This means that McCabb ( the sherrif and romantic partner of Nora) has to stay a little back. But at least those friends of hers are watching over her.

We meet Tucker who is neurodivergent and when his mother is murdered it really upsets him. However his aunt and uncle are out to watch over his interests, and as it turns out those interests are at the root of the murders and all the other suspicious goings on.  I liked these newcomers to Miracle Springs and hope we meet them some more in the future.

The story moves along some of the side stories for people like Estella and Hester, so again that makes me wait impatiently for the next book in this series.

I would like to mention too that this book has lots of talk about books and there are plenty of recommendations, my TBR grew a little. I think Ellery Adams must have a lot of fun writing these books with the witty sayings and all this book talk.

I highly recommend this book and the whole series.

Review, Top Ten Tuesday

Some Favourite Audiobook Narrators

April 25: Favorite Audiobook Narrators (or, if you don’t listen to audiobooks, name people—celebrities or otherwise—who might make you reconsider.)

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Linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl.

I love a good audiobook and always have one on the go. The narrator makes all the difference to a book. I have also noticed that a narrator that might leave me happy, annoys another. However here are some I love. Just ten, but there are others I love too.

Rosalyn Landor. Usually narrates historical romance and I enjoy her books. that she has narrated for Mary Balogh and Courtney Milan

Karen White.  Narrates a wide range of genre and I have just finished listening to her narrate a book by Jill Shalvis.  She has also narrated some of Emilie Richards and Diane Chamberlains books and many others.

Joshilyn Jackson  An author and also a narrator and she is very good at both. She narrates her own books, but sometimes does so for other authors as well.

Julia Whelan Is an author but she has tried her hand at writing too and did a great job of it. She narrates a wide range of genre. I am about to start listening to My Oxford Year, written by herself and then narrated as well.

Eilidh Beaton Narrates a wide range too. I’ve only listened to her narrate a couple of Jenny Colgan books but loved her doing so.

Juliet Stevenson. A British narrator who does really well with Jane Austen books and I have enjoyed a couple with her narrating books by Natalie Jenner.

Justine Eyre  Mostly does historical romance and I’ve enjoyed listening to her reading Josi S. Kilpatrick, Sarah MacLean and Nalini Singh

Susan Eriksen Anybody who listens to the In Death series will know this narrator. To me she is the voice of those characters. When I read a book in the series I hear her voices in my head.

January LaVoy. I really enjoy her narrating quite a few of the Nora Roberts books that I have listened to over the years.

Davina Porter. Such a great narrator. Her narration of the Diana Gabaldon books is superb.  I also listened to her narrate an Eva Ibbotson book and loved her doing that one too.

I am looking forward to noting some other great narrators as I visit around various posts.

Review

Strawberry Lane. Jodi Thomas

strawberry Lane

Published: Kensington
Date:  25th April 2023
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Starri Knight is a big believer in fate. How else to explain the compelling connection she feels to the stranger she pulls out of a wrecked car on the very same road where her parents died twenty years earlier? Alongside Auntie Ona-May, the only mother she’s ever known, Starri saves Rusty O’Sullivan’s life—just as Ona-May once did when Starri was an orphaned babe. But convincing Rusty he has something to live for is going to take all of Starri’s faith in miracles . . .

Like a wish he hadn’t even known to make, Starri landed in Rusty’s life, filling him with a longing for a family. . . . Then Jackson Landry, a new lawyer, turns up to present a surprise that will change the direction of his life: An inheritance from the father Rusty never knew—and the promise of the family he’d never had. It’s a lot for the hard-bitten loner to accept as love rushes into his life . . .

A sense of duty has Rusty heading to Honey Creek to deal with his father’s estate—and find his lost siblings. But having family is one thing, learning to love them is another. Good thing new friends are by his side to help him along the way.

Strawberry Lane is just plain delightful. It begins with a crusty old man leaving instructions to will his four offspring – who he has never met – all his worldly goods. Whatever they might be!

Jackson sets out to carry out the dying wishes and firstly meets up with son one – Rusty. A builder and a real good guy with lots of surprising things to find out about him, once he recovers from rolling his vehicle down a hill.  It’s not long before the second son turns up and then the fun really begins.

This book is full of wonderful characters, who might not seem to know what they are doing, but really are the very best.

Strawberry Summer is full of humor, friendship and love. As well as Rusty beginning to find some family, it is full of found family and good spirit. I enjoyed the development of the various relationships and as well the story moves along with something always happening around the corner.

This is a real feel good story and if you are in need of some straight out feel good reading head off for Strawberry Lane. 

And… I am hoping that we will hear more of the missing members of Rusty’s family.

Review, Top Ten Tuesday

Books I Loved but Never Reviewed Here.

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Linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl

We could choose any back listed topic from Top Ten Tuesday so this is mine, books I have loved but never reviewed here on my blog.

The Reading List.  Sara Nisha Adams..  2022. This was a very good read, it is more character driven than plot driven but … things do happen. There is inter-generational friendship, family difficulty, loneliness, mental health problems, grief and loss, and best of all books and a library. I came to love and care about the characters and cheer them on. Set in Wembley, London.  4.25 stars. Debut book. Author has another book coming out this year and I’ll want to read it.

The Winners. Fredrik Backman. 2022. What an amazing read. So sad and yet so heart warming. I almost want to go and live in Beartown or even Hed! My heart bled for the inhabitants of these towns and my heart cheered for them. Backman really completed the end to this trilogy in such a wonderful way. I read it as slow read over about a month or so. I found just a small visit each day meant I really lived in this book, and deeply cared about all that happened. It’s tough but rewarding reading. Only read it though after the first two.  5 stars +

Someone Else’s Shoes.  Jojo Moyes.  2023. A throughly entertaining read that kept me up at night reading on to find out what these women would get up to next.  Two women mix up their gym bags and there is huge complications for both of them. It’s entertaining and light, yet explores values, women standing up for themselves and “boys’ club”. workplaces.  I know of one author I follow that read this and it took her out of a book slump.  5 stars.

Lessons in Chemistry.  Bonnie Garmus. I loved this audiobook version of Lessons in Chemistry. It was so well narrated. Loved so many of the characters, it had me chuckling out loud, a few times my heart was touched by sadness and always engaged. It highlights how difficult it was for women not so long ago, and let’s be honest it hasn’t all gone away. I loved Mads the daughter and her ability to cut through all the garbage and say it like it is. I just didn’t want to say good bye to these characters.  I’ll read it at some point. This won best Debut novel on Goodreads 2022.  5 stars.

Thank You for Listening. Julia Whelan. 2022.  Absolutely delightful listening. The story is great, loved the characters and the variety therein. It’s a Rom Com that I really recommend, but its more than that. It has wisdom and growth of character and things to think about. This is about a book narrator who has had a tough time and now is no longer going to narrate romance  – except for one last time for a special narrator.  Julia Whelan is a fabulous narrator. Oh my I want more where this comes from. Another entertaining easy listen.  5 stars.

I’m Watching You.  Karen Rose. 2004 Well I dislike the crime parts, I might skip a little here and there! But it is so fast paced and the characters are so likeable. I love the Reagan family. Part of what I like about these books is the family aspect and the friendships. And often we get ongoing updates as other members of the family or friends get a book of their own. The crimes escalate and its more than one perp. Creepy deaths, maybe they deserve it but… Points to the corruptness of the system really. Romantic aspect – top notch.  The book is part of a series but can be read as stand alone. 5 stars

A Mother’s Heart. Carmel Harrington  2022 A Mother’s Heart is a beautiful bittersweet yet heartwarming read. My heart ached for the ever gracious Rachel, who was an excellent mother to 5 year old Dylan and 8 year old Olivia. The three of them have been through the wringer with Lorcan’s death. And now one set of grandparents seem determined to take Rachel on and challenge her for the children’s care and loyalty. Set in Ireland and New Zealand.  5 stars

In The Middle of Hickory Lane.  Heather Webber. 2022 A really delightful story, with great characters. Friendship and family are strong themes. A little bit of magical realism thrown in. I listened to the audio and it was really well done. True justice was done to the characters and the story just sprung alive.  5 stars

A Gentleman in Moscow. Amor Towles. 2016 What an unusual book. I read it over a month as a slow and steady read and it did deserve that. So I was reading to appreciate rather than gobble down. What a character the Count is. A man who takes his circumstances and chooses what he does with it. I think I will need to read it again to fully appreciate it.  “A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.”  5 stars

An Island Wedding Jenny Colgan.  2022. I really loved another visit to Mure and wedding planning that goes awry but finally sorts itself out. One storyline in particular is heartbreaking – please let there be another book in this series. The way to read this book is via audiobook. The narrator is excellent, with consistent voices for all the characters. If this is the first book in this series you are reading drop it and begin with the first one, you will miss out on so much otherwise. There are five in the series, the first being The Café by the Sea.  Set in Scotland on an island, full of quirky characters and heart warming and heart breaking scenarios. Every book in the series earned 5 stars from me.  5 stars

Review

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

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Welcome in to another Monday. Don’t they come around so fast!

I had a good reading week and am about to start a couple of new books.

I had a normal week for me, all the usual stuff. Time with a good friend and time with family. Time to quilt and time to read.

My lawn mowing man retired so today I have to start ringing around to see if I can find someone else – not my favourite thing to do!

What I read last week:

Really loved all three of these.

What I am reading now:

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Listening to (an a reread)

The Color of Light

Up next:

The London Girls

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Review

Johanna Porter is Not Sorry. Sara Read

Blog Tour Banner_JOHANNA PORTER IS NOT SORRY

Published: Graydon House
Date:  7th. March 2023
Source: Publicist via NetGalley

Twenty years ago, Johanna Porter was a rising star in the art world. Now she’s an unknown soccer mom. When an invitation arrives for an elite gallery opening for her former lover, the great Nestor Pinedo, Johanna wants to throw it in the trash where it belongs. But with some styling help from her daughter, she makes an appearance and comes face-to-face with the woman she was before the powerful and jealous Nestor ruined her.

La Rosa Blanca is a portrait of Johanna herself, young and fierce and fearless—a masterwork with a price tag to match. When she cuts it out of its frame, rolls it up and walks out, Johanna is only taking back what was stolen from her.

Hiding out with La Rosa Blanca in a shack on the Chesapeake Bay, Johanna digs into the raw work of reviving her own skills while battling novice-thief paranoia, impostor syndrome and mom guilt. But Johanna doesn’t just want the painting—she wants to paint again. To harness her powerful talent, she must defy everyone’s expectations—most of all her own—for what a woman like her should be.

Picking up a debut novel can be a little bit of a mystery and as a reader you can never be sure whether you will gel with it. As I started Johanna Porter is Not Sorry I noted the story is told in the first person which isn’t my favorite, but truthfully after awhile I didn’t notice.

I liked Johanna Porter despite of her strong use of language at times. She has had some very challenging experiences and it has brought her to a place where she is beginning to recognise how its all affected her and that making a choice is key. And yes committing a felony just might seem really beyond what you’d condone. However I can see where Johanna was coming from, and I thought she was daring and gutsy. And what she does a little later into the book really had me gasping.

She takes up her painting and allows her creativity to grow again. I think she was able to remain a good mother to her daughter Mel and I really liked her relationship with Mitchell, the guy next door to her retreat. In this relationship she is gutsy too.

The story is engaging, it had me turning the pages, and the ending was very satisfying.

Buy Links:

Bookshop
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
Books-a-Million

Sara Read Author PhotoSara Read Website.                Facebook

Instagram.                  Twitter

Goodreads.

Review

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

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Well the end of February. For me that means ordering wood for the fire in winter. Our weather seems to have cooled although I am not sure if that is actually autumn setting in or just a blip.

I finished my slow and steady read – The Winners – it was so good I think I need a day or so in-between before I start my next one.

What I read last week:

The first two of these had been ongoing and happened to finish this week.  No River Too Wide was my audiobook and a reread. Stood up to a reread and loved it.  The Winners. Totally great.  Sweet Laurel Falls was my warm and comfy read and Johanna Porter was a review book.

What I am reading now:

Just starting all these.

Carrie Soto is Back

My new audiobook via Audible Plus is

Someone to Hold

And my new Slow and Steady book is

In the Unlikely Event

Up next:

I think I’ll be ready for another cosy mystery and this one is sitting on my Kindle

By Book or by Crook 

Last Week’s Posts

Favourite Book Heroines

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Review

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

badge
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

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This week I’ve been wilting somewhat in our very humid heat.  It makes me heavy headed and sleeping at night is challenging! We are promised some cooler night temperatures though this week. And this is while so many in the US have icy weather. I notice the mornings and evenings are closing in as well.

We have a holiday weekend – Waitangi Day – our national holiday which commemorates the signing of the Treaty with the Maori and British government. It sometimes brings controversy but on the whole goes well.

What I read last week:

One lone book I finished this week. A worthwhile and entertaining read. Very informative as well about Jewish customs and the chronic disease ME.

The Matzah Ball

What I am reading now:

I think only a quilter would want to read this to be honest.

Birds in the Air

Also continue to read my slow reads and listen to Michelle Obama and The Light We Carry.

Up next:

Archangel's Resurrection 

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Review

Bookclubbed to Death. V. M. Burns

Bookclubbed to death

Published: Kensington
Date:  27th December 2022
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

After the local library in North Harbor, Michigan, is flooded in a storm, Sam offers her bookstore as a new venue for the Mystery Mavens Book Club. Unfortunately, she immediately runs afoul of the club leader, Delia Marshall, a book reviewer who can make or break careers—something Sam can ill afford with her debut historical mystery soon to be published. But the next morning, Sam opens her shop to find the unpleasant woman dead on the floor, bashed with a heavy—apparently lethal—tome: the Complete Works of Agatha Christie. While Sam is busy writing her latest British historical mystery in which the queen mother is suspected in the murder of a London Times correspondent, a pair of ambitious cops suspect Sam of the real-life crime. When she gathers Nano Jo and their friends from the Shady Acres Retirement Village to review the case, they discover every one of the Mavens had a motive. With her novel about to hit the stores, Sam must find out who clubbed Delia before a judge throws the book at her . . .

Bookclubbed to Death is #8 in the Mystery Bookshop series by V. M. Burns. I hadn’t read any of the previous books and found it easy to slip into the story because the author deftly brings the reader up to date with the various characters.

There is an eclectic mix of characters as there often is in a cozy mystery. Samantha as bookshop owner and more is the main character, along with her Nana Jo, and together they are a rather formidable team. And on to that they can add Jenna – Sam’s sister  who happens to be a lawyer.

When there is a murder in Sam’s bookshop the inept detectives make noises about putting it on Sam as the murderer. However they don’t take into account the wiles of Sam, Jenna, Nana Jo and the girls who have powerful links.

The person murdered was a horrible woman who was big into blackmailing so a number of people wanted her dead. Sam works away at the mystery, she is also a budding author and in writing her mystery set in the late 1930’s in England she unwinds and begins to notice clues. I have to say I didn’t really bond with that device of including it in the story but others may like it.

It was easy to read, engaging and often humorous.  I didn’t know who the murderer was to the end so that was good although really unsurprising in light of all the blackmail!