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Murder on Tour–plot within a plot
Murder on Tour
By V.M. Burns
Samantha Washington is an independent bookstore owner in North Harbor, Michigan. As a local author with her first book, a cozy mystery, to her credit, she is invited to be on panels at the North Harbor Book Festival hosted by Michigan Southwestern University.
When a publicist is murdered, Samantha (Sam) recruits her Nana Jo and her friends from Shady Acres Retirement Village to join her in solving the crime. It turns out to be more difficult than one would imagine as Sam uncovers among the authors multiple layers of affairs and treachery that could rival a soap opera.
This series is unusual in that Sam is writing historical fiction. We witness the process in spurts as Sam turns to her laptop frequently when she is blocked or needs a break in her investigations. The occurrences in the book she is writing with a setting of 1939 mirror in some ways the current crime. The first time I read a book in this series I found the technique somewhat distracting. In Murder on Tour, however, I thought it played well. Either the author has become more skillful or I have incorporated this style into my reading mindset.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #9 in the Mystery Bookshop Mystery Series, but could be read as a standalone
Publication: November 28,2023—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
“But don’t discount the importance of escapist fiction. Books are subjective, and people read books for different reasons. Given everything that’s happened in the world, many of us need to escape to maintain our sanity.”
These women didn’t know a lot about mysteries, but they would defend me to the death if anyone said an unkind word about my book. Some days, you need people like that in your corner.
He stared at me for several beats…I didn’t flinch. I taught English to high school students who could smell fear a mile away. Woe to the teacher stupid enough to blink during a stare-down. But he was good. Really good.
The Good Luck Cafe
The Good Luck Cafe
by Annie Rains
Moira has been hurt—badly. So devastatingly, that she has never shared what happened to her and how she reacted with anyone. Even Gil, who rescued her, only knows part of the story. Now he is town mayor and one of the nicest people in town. Except he has not stopped the town council’s plans to demolish her mother’s coffee shop on the main street through town and replace it with a parking lot. Everyone agrees that it will be sad to lose Sweetie’s Bakeshop, but the driving and parking situation in town has become dangerous.
Gil has always been attracted to Moira, but she pushes him away because of her secret and her concern that her mother will lose the business she loves. Moira is a dispatcher for the town’s 911 emergency services, works from home, and loves her job. Gil has done a good job as mayor. He is also a great big brother to his brother Doug who has Down syndrome. Goldie, Gil’s golden retriever, adds fun to the story.
Around this basic plot, Annie Rains creates and develops some great characters in The Good Luck Cafe. There is a lot of tension over the parking lot controversy, the upcoming mayoral election, and the relationship of Moira and Gil. Denise, Gil’s high school nemesis, decides to stir up trouble. Also, Doug wants to move out on his own and solicits Gil’s help in persuading their parents to allow it while his mother wants Gil to convince Doug to continue to live at home.
All through the book you will find a heartwarming story and a clean romance. Both Moira and Gil have a support group of friends. Moira meets with her Book Club on Thursday nights and the associated men meet at the local tavern to enjoy each other’s company along with some friendly teasing. Most of them go way back as friends.
This is my second book in the Somerset Lake Series. If the next book were available, I would have followed up with an immediate read of it after The Good Luck Cafe. I will just have to be satisfied that there are two more books in the series that I can go back and pick up.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance
Notes: 1. #4 in the Somerset Lake Series, but can definitely be read as a standalone.
2. Although it is a clean and fun romance, it does address a few serious topics which I will not list because they would be spoilers.
3. I was simultaneously reading a book for my book club, but I read several chapters of this every day to keep the story going.
Publication: March 14, 2023—Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Memorable Lines:
When Doug was growing up, it had seemed like acquiring every new skill was a challenge. Doug never gave up though. He wasn’t a quitter. Gil had learned everything he knew about perseverance from his brother.
“Trust me, when you feel like you want to be alone you really need to be with the people who love you.”
“Relationships are hard, and they can be messy, but sometimes the things that complicate our lives are the things that make life worth living.”
The True Love Bookshop–a Marine of honor
The True Love Bookshop
by Annie Rains
With themes of forgiveness and second chances, The True Love Bookshop invites you into the small town of Somerset Lake. The setting is predominantly Tess’ dream come true: her bookshop which she is trying to put her own stamp on by expanding the collection of books on offer and inviting authors for book signings. Unfortunately, she is still dealing with grief three years after her husband passed away.
The drama in Tess’ life ratchets up when River Harrison stumbles into the bookshop having suffered a knife wound. He is the man who ruined her wedding day nine years prior. Although she has never forgiven him for trying to break up the event, she agrees to take care of his dog Buddy while he is in the hospital. This simple act of kindness results in Tess and River teaming up to find out what her deceased husband Jared was doing in the neighboring town of Morrisville when he had the fatal car accident.
This romance has its share of ups and downs. Tess and River both deal with pains from the past. River was adopted as a two year old, but has done little to search for his birth parents. He is viewed as a loner, but he enjoys nature and is happy. There are devastating revelations in store for Tess. Both characters learn to redefine family and friendship.
I liked Tess and River; watching them reach out and grow emotionally and relationally was a pleasurable benefit of this romance. There were plot complications both for the couple and for the town whose festival had been ruined for the last two years by mischief. As a PI, River was hired to discover who was behind the problems.
This was my introduction to author Annie Rains, and I would definitely like to read more of her books. I appreciated that the author included multi-cultural friends and marriages and treated them as the norm.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Notes: 1. #3 in the Somerset Lake Series, but it worked fine for me as a standalone.
2. Includes excellent discussion questions.
Publication: July 7, 2022—Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Memorable Lines:
…the point of Tess’s book club…was friendship, food, and fiction. The best three f-words in the dictionary, if you asked Tess.
River believed in loyalty and honor, not just in the military, but in everything. And Jared believed in loyalty and honor only when someone else was watching.
…River had never believed in luck. He believed in right and wrong, in keeping your word, and helping others as much as possible. He couldn’t imagine ever falling into a pattern where he did the wrong thing and needed to search out lawyers to hide his secrets.
A Bookshop Christmas–recovering from grief
A Bookshop Christmas
by Rachel Burton
Although Christmas is an important part of the setting for A Bookshop Christmas, the story focuses on Megan, a young widow. When she loses her husband Joe to cancer, she retreats back to the bookshop where she grew up. She’s been hanging on emotionally for over three years with support from her mom and two friends, but the bookshop is floundering and her heart is just not in it. Is it time to reenter the world of publishing, to leave behind the security of York and her bookshop?
Xander, a swoon-worthy author, as emotionally damaged as Megan, is scheduled to introduce his newest book at her bookshop. He is rude and arrogant, but maybe those characteristics are just a coverup for his pain and shyness.
One of my favorite characters is Philomena Bloom, Xander’s agent. She is bigger than life and seems to have connections with everyone in the publishing world. My other favorite character is Gus, a dachshund, whose sweetness is woven all through the book.
Megan and Xander have deep, painful secrets that make it difficult for them to open up to others. All is not sweetness and light in this romance. Although you will want a happily ever after for these two, the road is rocky and there is sadness and misunderstanding as they struggle to get over the past and find a hopeful future.
I enjoyed A Bookshop Christmas for the way the characters support each other. They make mistakes but learn to recognize and admit their mistakes and apologize for them. There is humor sprinkled in the book that helps lighten the tough times Megan and Xander go through. It is a thought provoking book and I recommend it.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Publication: September 2, 2021—Aria
Memorable Lines:
“Reading is completely subjective and most readers read all kinds of different books. Being a snob about genre is like pretending that reading on e-readers or listening to audiobooks is somehow not proper reading. It’s ridiculous.”
Philomena Bloom burst into the bookshop at exactly three o’clock the next afternoon, leaving a wave of expensive perfume in her wake. The handful of customers browsing the shelves all looked up at the same time like meerkats.
The five stages of grief aren’t linear either—they all seem to exist together in one fiery hell ball of emotion that feels as though it will last forever. People will tell you that time heals but, in my experience, time just takes away the intensity.
Bookshop by the Sea–second chance romance
Bookshop by the Sea
by Denise Hunter
Sophie Lawson knows about abandonment and the pain it leaves in its trail. Her father left her family to fend for itself in the midst of her mother’s fatal illness on the very same day her boyfriend Aiden Maddox pulled up stakes and moved five hours away to start a new life. Aiden knows abandonment too. His mother left him sitting on the porch steps as a little boy and never looked back.
Sophie and Aiden loved each other or thought they did. Seven years later, just as Sophie’s dream to open her own bookshop is about to come true, Sophie and Aiden are thrown together once more—by a wedding and a hurricane. Can love revitalize and conquer bitterness, hurt, confusion, family obligations, and distance?
In Bookshop by the Sea, Denise Hunter paints an emotional in-depth picture of Sophie and Aiden, their pasts and the possibilities for their futures. Disaster keeps striking for Sophie who really deserves a break, but it’s hard to see how she’ll get one in time for her grand opening and book signing event. Those stressors are the backdrop for their relationship drama as the threads weave together, breaking in places only to be retied to push the characters towards growth and healing.
Bookshop by the Sea is a clean book with Christian undertones as the characters mention praying over situations. I enjoyed reading it, not really knowing if it would have a happily ever after ending, but hoping so. The characters definitely have baggage to work through—even the more minor characters as found in Sophie’s family. There is a lot of realism as no one’s life is presented as a fairy tale. There is also a lot of hope, kindness, and community spirit.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Romance
Publication: April 13, 2021—Thomas Nelson
Memorable Lines:
He’d forgotten how easily words of affirmation rolled off her tongue. She’d always made him feel like he could do anything. Be anything. He let the admiration in her eyes wash over him like a cool wave on a hot summer day.
“Don’t borrow trouble. ‘Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?’ ’’ She gave him a wry look. “Did you just quote Scripture at me?” “Hey, there’s a reason I have it memorized. If I’ve learned anything it’s that worrying does nothing but stress you out.”
I guess somewhere along the line I started believing that when the going gets tough…people leave.” Sophie’s heart went soft and squishy at his words, his vulnerability. At the little boy who watched his mother drive away from him and never return.
A Tourist’s Guide to Murder–Sam and “the girls” invade Britain
A Tourist’s Guide to Murder
by V.M. Burns
Samantha Washington (Sam) is the owner of a mystery bookshop in North Harbor and has just landed a three book deal with a publishing house. She will spend the next week in England doing research for the British historic cozy mystery she is writing. She is slated for a mystery tour accompanied by her Nana Jo and Nana’s three best friends from the Shady Acres Retirement Village. Of the four senior citizens, not a one meets the stereotype of frail, little old ladies. They have a reputation for helping Sam solve mysteries that come her way through interviews, eavesdropping, feminine wiles, deduction, and the occasional use of martial arts as two of them have blackbelts. They keep the plot moving and the reader laughing.
There are complications just in reaching London with jet lag and no luggage, but that’s only the beginning of their troubles. The owner of the tour company is murdered, but the police, oddly, are not investigating. Unfortunately, there is another murder, and one of the assigned detectives is “as bright as a burned-out light bulb” and “a few sandwiches short of a picnic.” It’s time for Sam, Nana Jo, and “the girls” to join forces to discover the truth.
In order to free up her conscious mind when stymied in her investigations, Sam spends time when she can’t sleep or between tour stops writing her own mystery. Although the book she is writing takes place in 1939, Sam is able to use elements in the murders she is currently investigating and apply the principles to her own mystery with great success. When the flow of the contemporary mystery was first interrupted with this secondary story, I was a little miffed because I wanted the action to continue in the primary story. By the time I reached the next transition to 1939, however, I was anxious to read about the progress made in Sam’s own whodunit. The character Sam’s writing seems a little stilted at first, compared to the rest of the book, but that is perhaps due to the titles of “Lord” and “Lady” still being used along with formalities involved with a household of servants and adherence to etiquette rules. It is quite a contrast to our contemporary society.
I enjoyed Sam’s eagerness in visiting The Grand Hotel in Torquay where Agatha Christie honeymooned in 1914 and the Torquay Museum that displays the famous author’s memorabilia and items from movies based on her books. Next they went to Greenway, Christie’s home in Devon where she wrote many of her books. Sam “fangirled” on the tour of the house taking many pictures and drooling over first editions. Because of the two murders, the itinerary for the trip had to be revised several times, but most of the highlights are still included, and the group is able to visit several places that were alleged to be the settings or inspiration of mysteries by authors like Dorothy L. Sayers and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
If you like cozy mysteries, you can’t get any more “bookish” than V.M. Burns’ A Tourist’s Guide to Murder. It has two plots within the same book, a tour of significant literary locations, a writer-sleuth, and a mystery bookstore. It’s not heaven, but it’s pretty close. The tour intentionally lays on some misdirection, and there are red herrings in both plots to keep you guessing. The retirement home group is anything but retiring: they bring to minds phrases like “more fun than a barrel of monkeys” and “herding cats.” I want to read more from this series.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #6 in the Mystery Bookshop Mystery series. This was my first book in this series and I had no problem reading it as a standalone.
2. There are many reasons to read this book, but one of them should not be the two cute toy poodles on the cover. They belong to Sam, but she doesn’t take them with her to England, so they are only briefly mentioned in the book.
Publication: January 26, 2021—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
Lady Clara’s cheeks flamed and her eyes flashed. After a split second, she gave the captain a smile and then stomped down hard on his foot. “Oooph.” Captain Jessup bent over in pain. “Dear me, was that your foot?” Lady Clara said in a voice that oozed sweetness.
Nana Jo glanced at Hannah. “I don’t know about your national health care system, but in the United States, the pharmaceutical companies are running the whole country, and they’ve got a pill for everything.”
“Let’s face it, Stinky Pitt couldn’t find a killer who was standing naked in the middle of the street with a neon sign over his head.” Nana Jo and the girls nodded. Hannah looked confused. “Stinky Pitt?” Ruby Mae looks up from her knitting. “He’s the local detective in North Harbor, Michigan.” “Not the sharpest knife in the drawer?” “I’ve got sharper spoons.”
Murder by the Book–rare books
Murder by the Book
by Lauren Elliott
If you are looking for an interesting cozy mystery with lots of crimes and suspects, you will find it in Lauren Elliott’s Murder by the Book. Addison Greyborne, with a background as a researcher of rare books, inherits her aunt’s huge house and large collection of books. Some of the residents of the small town where she decides to open a bookshop are not particularly welcoming, but she finds a friend in Serena who owns the tea shop next to Addie’s bookstore and in Serena’s brother Marc, the police chief.
Addie believes her research skills are similar to those needed for a murder investigation, so when Selena is arrested for murder, Addie decides to get involved. Although I enjoyed the story, there are parts of it that just don’t seem plausible. Addie personally, her shop, and her home are targeted numerous times without anyone being able to identify the mischief makers or their motives—although mysterious vehicles are seen many times. There are also several deaths tied into the plot and a number of suspicious newcomers to the small town that no one suspects until it is too late. The storyline contains too many characters dealing in rare books one way or another for that not to be the motive. Secret compartments, a fun device, abound. Unfortunately that device is overused as is the irritating tendency for other characters to tuck a strand of hair behind Addie’s ear. Serena also overplays her interest in Addie and Marc’s relationship while she is still under suspicion for murder. In addition, I have to wonder at the number of customers the bookstore maintains day after day and at the ease with which both Addie and Selena can leave their shops unattended or closed any time they feel like it. On the positive side, there are gems of information about rare books tucked into the pages of this cozy. So, recommended? Yes. A terrific cozy? No, but since this is the first in the series, I am willing to give it another try when the next one is published.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #1 in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery Series
Publication: October 30, 2018—Kensington Press
education pathways 