{I've Been Reading} Love You to Death

 It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest

The mansion of silent film star Venita Rost has sat empty since the last man who attempted to fix it up died in an upstairs bedroom and literally rotted through the hardwood floors. Ronnie Mitchell isn't going to let the house's condition, or the fact that she knows darn well it has ghosts, intimidate her. Despite the weird smells and sketchy wiring, she's moved in with an inflatable mattress and plans to restore it to its former glory.  I don't think I'd describe it as scary, but I absolutely loved this book. It's got a different tone from most of the haunted house novels I've read and goes in some unique directions. 

A Deadly Deception by Amelia West

I absolutely adore this series! Set in 1930s, it evokes Nancy Drew Mysteries if they were written for grown ups. The book touches on some serious themes, but it also has plenty of those nostalgic black and white movies vibes that I loved so much in the first one. Clara and her friends have gathered to celebrate New Year's Eve at an elegant hotel. There's a murder, and a ghost walking the halls, and the developing relationship between Clara and Tuck, which is complicated by a few pesky details from her past. I can't wait to see what's next for these characters!

Love You to Death by Christina Dotson

Kayla and Zorie are best friends, linked tightly together by their past mistakes. They owe each other and nothing is going to pull them apart. Crashing an antebellum-themed wedding to steal gifts, even knowing that they'll stick out and draw unwanted attention, isn't the worst decision they've made. Not until things go terribly wrong and what started out as a bad idea fueled by desperation quickly descends into a nightmare. This is a wild, fast-paced read that barely slows down for a moment. Imagine a bleaker version of Thelma and Louise with a lot more blood and violence (but they're nowhere near the rim of the Grand Canyon, so at least there's that!)  The girls aren't particularly likeable and keep doing the stupidest things,  but I kept turning pages just to see what was going to happen next. 

{I've Been Reading} Die, Die Birdie

 Die, Die Birdie by Joanna Campbell Slan 

This is the nineteenth book in the Kiki Lowenstein series and it's absolutely everything I love about crafty cozy mysteries. I've been reading these since almost the beginning (I jumped in with the third book and read the first two that same week) and I'm always happy for a chance to spend time with Kiki and her friends and family. This book has plenty of updates about everyone, combined with a mystery that had me just stressed enough about what was going to happen. Kiki's older son adopts a lovebird from a pet store after its mate is eaten by an escaped boa constrictor that got into their cage. Then the family learn that the bird's previous owner died during a robbery and that their new pet may have swallowed the diamonds the theives were after. This is one of my favorite books in a series where I've got a LOT of favorites.  (If you've been reading the blog for a while, you probably know I'm friends with Joanna. And if one of my friends creates a wonderful thing, I'm DEFINITELY going to tell you about it!)

Our Last Resort by Clémence Michallon

This thriller is a slow burn with a great setting. As I was reading, I could feel the heat of the desert radiating off of the stone patios.  Frida and Gabriel are sharing a room at a luxury resort in the desert in an attempt to reconnect after years apart, but they're both realizing that they aren't nearly as close as they once were. The plot moves back and forth in time between a murder at the resort and the past, where Frida and Gabriel made their way out of an isolated cult and struggled to manage the outside world. I was intrigued by the whole thing until, gradually, I found myself not caring anymore. 

The Unkillable Frank Lightning by Josh Rountree

I don't know quite how to describe this one. Take a gritty Western advenure where a woman is travelling with a pair of hired killers, determined to destroy her husband. Add in the fact that she's the one who pieced him together and resurrected him after he died in battle twenty-five years earlier and that he's performing with a Wild West Show, shot full of arrows at every performance to prove he's "unkillable." It's fast paced and bloody and absolutely entertaining and if you like horror movies and Westerns it's probably for you. 

Eerie Exhibits by Victoria Williamson

The stories in this collection creep up on you and pack more impact than I expected when I started reading them. I never would have imagined a mounted butterfly specimen or a seashell as disturbing...but after these stories, I'm feeling a bit unsettled by both. If you're in the mood for something old fashioned and wonderfully unsettling, this is the read for you. 

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

{I've Been Reading} There'll be Shell to Pay

 There'll be Shell to Pay by Molly MacRae

The Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries are filled with absolutely everything I adore about the cozy mystery genre -- a picturesque location, a protagonist who is involved in something I'd like to learn more about, entertaining characters, a pirate ghost... By the time I finished this book, I was ready to buy figs for my next grilled cheese sandwich and start researching antique carved conch shells. The book opens with Maureen's arrival back at Ocracoke Island and her inherirted shell shop, but things aren't as she expected to find them. Half of her customers are whispering about murder and showing more interest in the walls of the shop than the shells she has for sale. That's before a tourist is found dead on the island. It's the second book in the series and the author makes just enough references to previous events to remind readers what happened in the first book (or fill in readers who are jumping in with this one) without giving away any important spoilers. 

Runner 13 by Amy McCulloch

The Amerpersands are a series of extreme marathons, coordinated by a man who delights in making his courses as brutal as possible.  Adri left the world of competitive runnings years ago, her reputation in tatters, but she's been lured back in with a promise that if she wins she'll learn the truth about what happened during her last marathon. If that means risking her life on a 250 mile run through the Sahara Desert, she's willing. I really enjoyed this thriller, which gave me a chance to vicariously experience something I'd never get near in real life.

A Catered Bake-Off by Isis Crawford

Before filming even begins, a baking competition inspired by a popular television show is plagued by suspicious accidents. I've got really mixed feelings about this one. It's the eighteenth book in the series, so I'm missing a LOT of backstory (I did read the previous book when it came out and had managed to completely forget it until I went back and checked my notes.) The plot is extremely fast paced, with more time spent on the investigation than the cooking competition. That's probably a good thing, but it was the detailed descriptions of the cooking that I found myself enjoying most. 

A Whale of a Crime by Mona Marple 

The first in a new series, this book has a great setting. The decriptions of the seaside bookshop and the smell of old books pulled me right in. Chapters alternate between several characters with an occasional long string of social media messages.... and that's where I found myself a bit lost. Either I missed a detail early on, or I was supposed to piece it together  from the online messages.