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Sweet Tea and Secrets–a web of lies
Sweet Tea and Secrets
by Joy Avon
Like the main character, Callie Aspen, the plot of Sweet Tea and Secrets seems to exist in limbo in Joy Avon’s latest cozy mystery. Callie has quit a job she loves as an international tour guide and moved back to Heart’s Harbor to help her Aunt Iphy run Book Tea, the local tea shop. She is waiting for a local rental to be restored to livable condition. She doesn’t actually contribute much help to the tea room in this book. To top it off, Deputy Falk, an additional enticement when she decided to move, seems less than enthusiastic about Callie’s return to town.
The plot follows the same erratic pacing and intensity as we see in Callie’s personal life. Callie gets pulled into the investigation of a cold murder case that revolves around a web of lies. It is hard for Callie and the reader to know which characters are reliable. My interest would ramp up, and then I would find myself wondering when the book would end. The ending was a surprise in regards to the mystery, and the author didn’t leave any loose ends. There were a number of subplots that were interesting but sometimes too distracting when acting as red herrings. I was glad Callie’s personal relationship with Falk showed forward progress. I would read another book in the series, but I hope it will have more of a focus on the tea room like the first books in the series do.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #2 in the Book Tea Shop Mystery Series
Publication: June 11, 2019—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
But nothing happened. Just those lights teasing her from the darkness. Telling her she wasn’t alone.
“So far everybody seems to have been lying about everything.”
In Peppermint Peril–tea and mysteries
In Peppermint Peril
by Joy Avon
We’ve got a new cozy mystery series for Christmas and to start out the new year. Joy Avon brings her heroine, Callie Aspen, back from a busy career as a tour guide traveling the world to her hometown of Heart’s Harbor where her Aunt Iphy runs the Book Tea Shop, a delightful place for a cup of something hot and an edible treat containing a book related clue.
Although there are lots of interesting characters, the plot’s the thing as this mystery evolves from a tea party hosted by ninety-three year old Dorothea Finster, mistress at Haywood Hall. Everyone who attends has different expectations and some result in criminal mayhem. There are romances and friendships old and new, a cake with several layers of mystery, a cute rescue dog, and political and financial shenanigans.
Usually I can take or leave recipes at the end of a cozy mystery. In Peppermint Peril doesn’t have any, but in this case I would have enjoyed a recipe for a creation that Aunt Iphy calls “The Duel” because it has “two pastries vying to be the tastiest” on the same plate. Both feature chocolate! One has a light brown base and a beige mousse that incorporates salted caramel. It is topped with a chocolate chip cookie and roasted nuts; is is soft and crispy at the same time. The other has a dark chocolate foundation and fresh raspberries topped with white chocolate. It sounds like a delicious masterpiece of culinary creativity just made for the person who wants a taste of more than one dessert on the menu.
Callie does a lot of talking to ferret out the criminal, and she works in conjunction with local Deputy Falk. He shares more about the case than he should to try to deter her from the dangerous investigation, but Callie just becomes more determined to solve the mystery and refuses to stay out of harm’s way.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #1 in the Book Tea Shop Mystery Series
Publication: November 23, 2018—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
The world around her looked like it had come straight out of a fairy tale illustration; trees laced with frost; every stem of grass, every branch and bramble powdered with the snow that had fallen last night and had been scattered by the strong wind.
Still single herself and uncertain whether she’d ever have a family, Callie could relate to the feeling. At times she felt perfectly happy with her life, and then suddenly she felt something missing and wanted to change everything.
Tick-tock. The relentless rhythm of time. Reminding them of a lot of years that had slipped away and all the time that had not been spent with people it could have been spent with.
Burning Ridge–searching for family
Burning Ridge
by Margaret Mizushima
The action starts in Burning Ridge in the first chapter where readers also get filled in on the series background and meet some of the characters. From a rough and tumble bar fight, this novel moves on to a bright and sunny horseback ride for Cole, the local veterinarian, and his daughters in the Colorado mountains. The family ride turns dark and the mystery begins.
Margaret Mizushima has written a K-9 police procedural. No cozy mystery, this work of fiction looks at an evil-plotting mind plagued by excesses of greed. Main characters Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo find themselves in danger as she tries to solve a horrific crime that turns personal. Many are involved in finding the murderer, and there are a variety of suspects. Get ready for a surprise ending. In the process of the investigation, Mattie discovers parts of her past that she never knew as well as secrets buried deep in her psyche. She learns to accept help and to expand her ideas of what constitutes a family.
Burning Ridge is a page turner as are the other books in this fast moving series. It contains lots of information about K-9 officers shared in a non-didactic fashion.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery, Thriller
Notes: 1. This is #4 in the Timber Creek K-9 Mystery Series. It is good as a standalone, but be aware that each book reveals a little more about Mattie’s past as she comes to grips with it.
2. This contains more upsetting violence than I usually read, but it is within the acceptable boundary for me. Everyone is different so be aware that it contains some torture.
Publication: September 11, 2018—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
An occasional clump of young aspen shot up toward the cloudless blue sky. Spring leaves, bright green and as yet unblemished by summer dryness, quivered at the ends of branches, their spade-like shape seeming to catch even the slightest of breezes. “Look at the aspen leaves, girls. They’re dancing.”
Robo lay on his cushion, his eyes pinned on her every move. She’d learned from experience that her emotions went straight to her dog.
“Life can be full of regrets if you focus on them. We make decisions for whatever reasons we have in the moment, not because we have some superhuman vision of what will happen in the future.”
education pathways 