{I've Been Reading} Sleep in Heavenly Pizza

 

Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigly

If you're looking for a holiday mystery, this one fits the bill perfectly. Delilah and her friends are always fun to spend time with and the book opens with her staff catering a Chrismukkah house party that ends with a death (but at least they're not snowed in with a killer the way they were in the previous book!) It's an enjoyable read with an ending that I never would have expected. Be sure not to skip the recipes at the end -- they're written by the characters and full of personality! 

Shear Terror by Dorothy Howell 

Her custom embroidered tote bag business isn't the success she'd hoped for, so Abbey is working part time at the Hideaway Cover visitor's center. That's where she discovers a body in the huge boxes of stuff they've collected for the annual lost and found sale. What she doesn't immediately notice is that the silver object embedded in the dead woman's chest is a pair of engraved sewing shears with Abbey's name on them. Her favorite pair of jeans has become too difficult to button, which led to the travel cup of tomato juice, which could help confirm her story...if she hadn't pitched it into the dumpster. This mystery is fast paced and fun with lots of small town gossip and Abbey continually getting in her own way as she tries to solve the murder and clear her own name. I'm going to keep wondering how someone with so few sewing skills decided to open a sewing studio and I'm going to keep happily reading this series. 

The Other Couple by Triona Walsh 

The first chapter was full of promise. A couple is set to spend a romantic weekend in a converted lighthouse. The setting, the relationship the author quickly establishes between the characters...it's all perfect. Then another couple shows up claiming to have reserved the property for the same night and it goes downhill from there. Every person in that lighthouse is hiding secrets and/or plotting against someone else. The book drags from that point on and the characters are hard to emphathize with. Why would a woman who is unwillingly sharing a rental with complete strangers leave her purse unattended in the kitchen -- and then be shocked when things turn up missing? 

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. 

(I've Been Reading) Red River Road by Anna Downes

 My Missing Daughter by Ellery A Kane 

Ever since Gone Girl, thrillers have to end with a twist. One of the characters in My Missing Daughter actually says that and, for this book at least, it's pretty obvious that there's going to be some kind of crazy unexpected ending. Willow and her best friend are on a road trip to finish the last set of edits on the book they've written together and promote their project on their social media channels. But the converted school bus shows up in Willow's mother's driveway without either girl. Scenes of the girls on the bus alternate with Willow's mother's search for her daughter. I couldn't put this one down. The plot isn't believable, but it's a lot of fun leading up to a less than perfect ending. 

Red River Road by Anna Downes 

Vanlife intrigues me to begin with, but add in a young woman driving the Big Lap, following her missing sister's social media posts and trying to figure out what happened to her on the isolated roads of Australia, and I found myself totally immersed in this book. Some of Phoebe's posts are included between the chapters and the comments give chilling hints about what might have gone wrong. Chapters alternate between characters who seem unrelated at first but the author sets up a suspenseful collision course that had me holding my breath by the end. 

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. 

{I've Been Reading} The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel

 The House on the Covr of a Horror Novel by EV Knight

This short horror novel had me absolutely enraged at times. Miles is a clueless husband who buys a dilapidated old house after seeing his wife's many sketches of it. He thinks she's in love with the property, while in reality she's been comissioned to paint a cover for a horror novel. I couldn't stand Miles and over the course of the book began to realize that he's a very realistic description of a personality type I wouldn't get along with. The childless couple unexpectedly find themselves with a baby on the way. They're  absolutely horrible at communicating with each other, which makes every situation worse than it has to be. 

What's really going on in the old house surpasses anything that Emily dreamed up while she was painting it. There are graves in the swamp at the edge of the property, a horrific family history, and creepy old toys that keep turning up in the worst places. It's standard haunted house stuff...until it's not. Every plot element I hated while I was reading the book actually had a reason for being there and comes together in a very effective ending. I'm honestly not sure if I likes this one or not. 

French Quarter Fright Night by Ellen Byron

This is an absolutely delightful Halloween themed cozy that provides readers with a vicarious chance to enjoy the spooky holiday fun in New Orleans and also to find out more about Ricki's life before she opened her vintage cookbook shop in the historic Bon Vee museum. I can't decide if this was my favorite book in the series so far -- all three have been great reads! The setting and characters are fantastic and so is the mystery.

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with advance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} We Came to Welcome You

 

We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado

Sol and Alice feel lucky to have found a house in Maneless Grove, a perfect gated community. All of the houses are a little too similar, but membership in the HOA is voluntary and in the current housing market, they were having trouble finding anything at all within their budget. I loved this book. It reminded me of The Stepford Wives, but went in a completely different direction. Sol was already struggling, suspended from her university job amid accusations of plagarism.  She wants nothing to do with her overbearing neighbors. Alice is losing patience and doesn't see any of the things that raise Sol's suspicions.  Instead, the blames Sol's drinking. Watching the two of them forced apart by their circumstances was one of the most horrifying parts of the book.  

A Swarm of Butterflies by Sarah Yarwood-Lovett

A summer fete at a historic estate quickly turns fatal and a popular online personality realizes that the situation with his stalker is much more serious than he ever thought. It took me a while to warm up to this one. Rav and Nell are partners, rewilding the Finchmere estate. The book begins with Nell escaping a housefire, so the plot jumps into action with very little backstory about the characters or their rewilding efforts. If you're not already familiar with the concept, or the names of some of the small animals in their region, you may be just as lost as I was. (I imagine that if I'd started the series with the first book, I would've learned as I read, but I jumped in mid-series.) There are a lot of characters, with a lot of conflict between them. It's far more complex than your average cozy mystery plot. I'm definitely curious about what's going to happen with these characters, so I'll be watching for the next book. 

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy.