{I've Been Reading} Kindle Unlimited

For the past two months or so, I've been trying Kindle Unlimited. An ad had showed up in my Facebook feed offering three months for (I think) $2.99 and I'd been tempted for quite a while. It seemed like a perfect time to jump in and see if it was worth it.

My first disappointment was that the books that were formerly on Kindle Unlimited, the ones that made me want to try it in the first place, were no longer part of the program. I really should have checked that before I signed up.

In the first month, I read an absolutely awful horror novel. The problem with that one wasn't that it was "extreme," it was that was badly written and boring. I also read a not very useful book about boosting your writing productivity. And half of Harold the Haunted Doll: The Terrifying True Story of the World's Most Sinister Doll.  That one was entertaining, but I sure wouldn't pay the regular price for it.



I started the second month with Real Actors, Not People by Karen Musser Nortman. It's one of the Frannie Shoemaker Campground Mysteries and my first reaction to the book was that I don't enjoy camping nearly enough to want to experience it vicariously through my cozy mystery reading.  I thought that I did, but when it came to campground showers and the configuration of hooks for hanging your clothes on I quickly changed my mind. The book does pick up its pace once all of the RVs are set up and everyone in the group has eaten and near the end it I got so caught up in the story that I wound up crying. (And it was real life camping experiences that made me aware of how scary the situation was...so there's that.)

With eighteen days left to go, I plan to cancel once my trial is up. I have so many other things to read, either library books or free Kindle titles or review copies from NetGalley, that this isn't working out for me. I found it hard to find Kindle Unlimited books while browsing on Amazon's site. Most of the titles I'm excited about reading are the ones I've found through the author's own self promotion and there are some I'm definitely excited about, but I haven't carved out time to read them. As few books as I've actually read so far, I think I'd be better off just paying for the ones I really want to read and maybe subscribing for a month at a time if there's a particular series I want to binge.

Are you a Kindle Unlimited subscriber? Do you find that it works well for you?

{I've Been Reading} Joanna Campbell Slan's Second Chance Series

If you read Joanna's guest post a couple of weeks ago, you already know that she has a new book out. Before I could read that one myself, I had to catch up on the third book in the series. I'd purchased it when it was first released and then somehow managed not to read it. It's easy to lose track of Kindle purchases, especially if you download as many free titles as I do. I definitely need a better system! Anyone have suggestions?




I've built a very short list of vacation dreams based on the cozy mysteries I read and this series has me almost convinced I want to see the Treasure Coast of Florida. We travel by car and it's about as far from home as I could get without leaving the country....but Joanna makes it sound like such an incredible place I could almost be tempted to get on a plane.

As fantastic as the setting is, the mystery is even better. On an early morning walk, Cara discovers what she first thinks is a sand sculpture of a mermaid. To her horror, she realizes that it's a woman there at the water's edge, barely clinging to life. That's the first in a chain of events that I don't want to spoil for you so I'll keep my mouth shut. It's a great book that will keep you turning pages.

I loved the mystery, but I also loved the stuff going on in Cara's personal life. Her friends are people I'd like to spend more time with...I might've put off reading this book because I liked the Kiki Lowenstein mystery series better, but that was a dumb decision.



Second Chance at Faith picks up not long after the previous book left off. You'll miss out on a lot of the emotional impact if you don't read these two in order. The big mystery in this one is a missing coral and gold artifact from the Spanish Armada, which was stolen from a highly secured charity auction. Cara  can't imagine how anyone made off with the piece and, as one of last people who was in the room, she's under suspicion herself. There's also a lot going on with Cara and her friends. I just read these two books back to back and I'm already anxious for the next one.  I want to find out what's going to happen with the characters and I want to read more about the Treasure Coast.

{Kindle Freebie} Soup...Er Myrtle!

Just a quick post to let you know that Soup...Er...Myrtle!, the fourth book in the Myrtle Crumb series of cozy mysteries by Gayle Trent, is available on Amazon as a free download right now. I haven't read this one in the two days since it came out, but  since I've already blogged about the other three books in the series, I wanted to let you know that there's a new one.

Free Mysteries for Kindle

It's a good day for free mysteries on the Kindle!  Check out what I found and downloaded...

All of the descriptions are from Amazon. Prices change quickly, so check before you click that purchase button.




Dying to Get Published by Judy Fitzwater

Jennifer Marsh is a mystery writer with a stack of eight unpublished manuscripts and rejection letters to match filling her closet. She's sure that if she can just get famous for something, someone will have to publish her books. Why not murder?

She'll find a target so mean that she'd actually be doing the world a favor by bumping him or her off. And she knows just the person:
Penney Richmond, a high-powered literary agent who's made it her job to ruin people's lives. All Jennifer has to do is frame herself, do the deed, and come out with an iron-clad alibi, and she'll be well on her way to getting a three book deal. So what if she chickens out at the last minute? A vegetarian good girl who rescued a greyhound could never actually kill someone. But when Penney is found murdered and the police think Jennifer did it, she’d better find the real murderer before she goes away... for life.

Along with her eccentric writer's group, spunky old ladies with a nose for sleuthing, her neurotic greyhound, and a sexy, sarcastic reporter named Sam, Jennifer embarks on a journey filled with danger, deception, and disguises that could leave her Dying to Get Published...



New Math Is Murder by Jo-Ann Lamon Reccoppa

Reporter Colleen Caruso was never good at math.

A stingy ex-husband, a teenage daughter, and a rusted-out Ford Escort have multiplied her troubles. Tripping over a dead body while on her morning jog seems like another incident for the minus column.

But then her new editor at the newspaper gives her a regular column detailing the investigation. He's handsome, single, and just a bit mysterious. Suddenly, Colleen's life is on the plus side.

Unfortunately, 1 dead algebra teacher + 2 secret affairs + 4 suspicious suspects quickly adds up to 3 perilous "accidents" for Colleen




Dolled Up For Murder by Deb Baker

"Caroline Birch. Put her away." The message was clutched in the fist of a destitute former doll collector found dead at the bottom of a cliff with a valuable French doll’s parasol in her pocket. And the person seen fleeing the crime scene fits Caroline’s description. But Gretchen Birch knows her mother is innocent. The problem is, Caroline has disappeared – and she’s left an urgent warning that Gretchen is in danger, too. 






Death Comes to Town by K. J. Emrick

Darcy Sweet would like to think that she is just an ordinary woman, happy in her life running the Sweet Read bookstore. But she isn't ordinary. She has a connection to the other side that seems to draw her into mysterious situations more often than not. Add to the mix the antics of a rather naughty, slightly psychic cat and the eccentric ghost of her great-aunt Millie, and you have a recipe for anything but the ordinary.

When Darcy's neighbor is murdered she is drawn into the mystery against her will when she finds the body. She tries to leave the investigation to the police, one of which is her sister, but an overheard conversation and a small nudge from the other side has her investigating the murder. The stakes are raised when the murderer strikes again. Who was killing the people in her life?

Things are complicated even more by her building attraction to her sister's new cop partner, who makes it clear he does not appreciate Darcy's interference in the investigation. Sparks fly between the two of them as they get further into the mystery surrounding the deaths.

With a town full of suspects how will Darcy work out who the murderer is? None of the pieces to the puzzle fit. Things become more complicated and dangerous as Darcy's own life is threatened. Will she survive to see justice served?

Free Cozy Mysteries for your Kindle!

It's a good day for free cozy mysteries over at Amazon... I found several that are new to me, and downloaded them all. I haven't read any of these myself yet, but if I wait until I've found time to read them, they may or may not be free anymore. They may not be free by the time you read these (Amazon prices change quickly, especially on ebooks) so make sure to check the prices before clicking that order button!

Murder by Syllabub--
A ghost in Colonial dress has been wreaking havoc at an old plantation house in Virginia. The house is owned by Elizabeth Smithwood, the best friend of Ellen’s Aunt Mary. Mary is determined to fly to the rescue, and Ellen McKenzie has no choice but to leave her real estate business and new husband to accompany her. Who else will keep the old girl out of trouble? When Ellen and Aunt Mary arrive, they find that Elizabeth’s “house” comprises three sprawling buildings containing all manner of secret entrances and passages, not to mention slave cabins. But who owns what and who owned whom? After Monty—the so-called ghost and stepson of Elizabeth’s dead husband—turns up dead in Elizabeth’s house, suspicion falls on her. Especially when the cause of death is a poisoned glass of syllabub taken from a batch of the sweet, creamy after-dinner drink sitting in Elizabeth’s refrigerator. Monty had enemies to spare. Why was he roaming the old house? What was he searching for? To find the truth, Ellen and her Aunt Mary will have to do much more than rummage through stacks of old crates; they will have to expose two hundred years of grudges and vendettas. The spirits they disturb are far deadlier than the one who brought them to Virginia. Murder by Syllabub is the fifth book of the Ellen McKenzie Mystery series.

Murder Half Baked--
A dead man in the cemetery, another in the bakery. Ellen McKenzie has to find the killer soon ... before another death puts a stop to her wedding. The groom is Dan Dunham, Santa Louisa’s Chief of Police. The guest list is growing and Ellen’s dreams of a small, intimate candlelight ceremony are rapidly disappearing. A major distraction is Ellen’s quest to find a new building for Grace House, a halfway house for needy women. Then she finds old Dr Sadler dead in the cemetery, his head bashed in by the arm of a marble angel. Every suspect is connected to Grace House. After it goes up in flames, all the residents, including one new-born, move in with Ellen and Dan. Will Ellen and Dan ever solve the murders and get their lives back?

Deadly Magic--
A night of magic turns into a night of murder.
It's Halloween night and the normally unhappy co-workers of the Straker Toy Company are eagerly looking forward to the celebration of their tyrannical boss' fiftieth birthday. None more so than Grace Holliday. After all, it's not every day she gets invited to the annual costumed bash at the Dragon's Lair, the premier magic theater in Manhattan.
What promises as a night of magic and mystery, quickly turns into a night of mayhem and murder when the boss' equally tyrannical wife dies on stage.
According to the police, it was an obvious suicide. Now it's up to Grace to discover which one of her co-workers pulled off the trick of the year before she becomes the killer's next victim.

Killer Cupcakes--
Things are going great for Lexy Baker. She's finally opened her dream bakery, gotten rid of her cheating boyfriend and settled into her grandmothers house with her perky dog Sprinkles at her side.
But her blissful life doesn't last long. When her ex boyfriend is found poisoned with cupcakes from her bakery, Lexy finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation headed up by her hunky neighbor detective Jack Perillo.
With the help of a gang of iPad toting, would-be detective grandmothers, Lexy decides to take it upon herself to find the real murderer in order to clear her name and get her bakery back in business.
As things heat up on the murder trail, in the kitchen and between Lexy and the hunky detective, it's a race against time to put the real murderer behind bars and get back to baking.
Will Lexy get her man?

Free Kindle Mysteries

A couple of times a week, I browse Amazon's mystery pages looking for freebies to download onto my Kindle. This morning, the pickings were good so I decided to share them with you. All italics are from the book's descriptions on Amazon.



Poison Pen by Sheila Lowe

Before her body is found in her Jacuzzi, publicist to the stars Lindsey Alexander had few friends, but plenty of enemies. Yet, police are willing to accept the words scrawled on crumpled piece of paper nearby as evidence of suicide.

When handwriting expert Claudia Rose is called onto the case, she has a different opinion. And when her instincts push her to investigate further, Claudia finds herself entangled in a far darker scenario than she could have imagined.



Darkness and the Devil Behind Me by Persia Walker

In December 1923, Esther Todd was a lovely young pianist, a rising star. One month later, she was on the Most Wanted List. She had vanished along the snowy streets of a stormy night in Harlem and thieves had hit the home of her society patron, pulling off a million- dollar heist.

Were the disappearance and the robbery coincidence or conspiracy? Somebody knew, but nobody was talking. Three years later, the puzzles remained unsolved.

As a crime reporter, Lanie Price covered the initial case. Now a frustrated society columnist, she's ready for a change. It comes in the form of Esther's sister, Ruth.

Desperate for closure, Ruth begs Lanie to dedicate her Christmas column to the case. Maybe someone, somewhere will remember something. Seeking fresh material, Lanie starts asking hard questions, dangerous questions, the kind just about guaranteed to get her killed.



Strong Spirits by Alice Duncan

It's the 1920s and Daisy Gumm Majesty is doing her part to support her family as a medium by holding séances and interpreting tarot cards for the rich and famous.

When the wealthy Mrs. Kincaid comes to Daisy to help solve her husband's disappearance, Detective Sam Rotondo isn't far behind.

Sam isn't fooled by Daisy's choice of "vocation" and blackmails her into spying on the Kincaids.

Then Daisy reads Sam's cards... and the tables turn.

Note -- All of these titles were listed as free when I wrote this post. The prices on Amazon change quickly, so please double-check the prices before you order them. You can find Amazon's currrent top 100 free mysteries here.

{Kindle Freebie} Group, Photo, Grave by

Where can I carve out a few more hours?

I have always got a stack of books I want to read.  Even if I'm not getting any reading done (and I swear there've been a few recent years where all I read where books written for children) I've got books ready and waiting. It's how I'm wired. Did I mention that I met my husband in the used bookstore where I worked, that I went to a library book sale when I was in labor with my second, and that the smell of old books makes me giddy? And somehow I'm raising kids who read more than I ever did.

These days, most of that stack of books I want to read comes from the library. About half of them get returned unread  because there's only so much time in a day and I do have to sleep at some point. I keep a list in my planner and I'll check them out again later. Reading is supposed to be fun, right?

This week, however, the stack of books is driving me nuts! I've got the new Stephen King novel, which I pre-ordered back in March. I've got the book that inspired a really weird but compelling movie Hubby found while he was flipping channels late on night on the trip. Because I really really want to read both of them right this second, I'm alternating between the two of them.

And then this morning I found out about this:


The new Kiki Lowenstein mystery, Group, Photo, Grave, is out and it's a free download for your Kindle Friday October 11 and Saturday October 12. The author, Joanna Campbell Slan, has a new series coming out later this month that I've been waiting to read...and then there's that stack of cozy mysteries from the library....

{Kindle Freebie} Ink Red Dead

It was Ink, Red, Dead that got me started reading the Kiki Lowenstein mysteries(you can read about that little obsession in this post) and it's always been my favorite of the short kindle titles that make up part of the series. It felt more like one of the full length books.

Now the author has expanded and revised the story to book length. The price has gone up along with the page count, to the same price as the full length Kiki Lowenstein books, but that's not a problem because through Monday she's offering it for free.

I'm off to download the new version of the book and reread it. And I'm very happy with the whole Kindle-cloud-thing that lets those of us who've already purchased books to easily update to updated versions without paying for them a second time.

There's a new short out, Kiki Lowenstein and Too Much Squash, so it looks like I'm going to do some book buying this morning, too.

Free Kindle Mysteries

I've been downloading freebies for my Kindle this morning, and thought some of these mysteries might interest you --



It’s just an ordinary day for octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover—until her yardman discovers a dead body planted in her backyard. This death isn’t cut and dried—the victim was bashed in the head with one of Myrtle’s garden gnomes.

Myrtle’s friend Miles recognizes the body and identifies him as Charles Clayborne… reluctantly admitting he’s a cousin. Charles wasn’t the sort of relative you bragged about—he was a garden variety sleaze, which is very likely why he ended up murdered. As Myrtle starts digging up dirt to nip the killings in the bud, someone’s focused on scaring her off the case. Myrtle vows to find the murderer…before she’s pushing up daisies, herself.



Elly Blair welcomes the chance to escape her ex-fiance and job from hell when Grandma Imelda, ready to retire to sunny Florida, calls for her to take over her little southern cafe.

Elly has no idea her grandmother has baked up magic for the unsuspecting townsfolk for thirty years–and now Grandma Imelda insists that Elly use her own hitherto unsuspected magical powers to carry on the family tradition.

But Elly’s new at this stuff. Her dishes don’t turn out as full of smidgens of enchantment and dashes of wishes come true as she’d hoped. When handsome customer Rory Covington takes a bite of the wrong burger, he ends up capturing the attention of every woman in town. Elly doesn’t know if her feelings for Rory are true or based on her magic gone awry.

Tom Owenton is an investigator the National Organization for Magic sent to look into the magical mishap. Unless Elly can reverse the spell, the cafe will be closed permanently. Tom is more than willing to help Elly out of this magical pickle, but she’s not sure she should accept his offer.

Elly only has forty-eight hours to find a way to reverse the spell, or she’ll lose the cafe and never discover if her feelings for Rory are real.



Even ‘death do us part’ couldn’t halt her march down the aisle…

Cash-strapped Maui wedding planner Pali Moon can’t believe her luck when a prospective bride flashing a five-carat dazzler pops into her shop, “Let’s Get Maui’d,” to request a glitzy beachside wedding. But then Pali learns the lavish wedding must take place on Valentine’s Day—only nine days away. Oh, and one other little hitch—the groom’s been missing at sea for more than a week. But no worries, the bride assures Pali, with or without the groom the wedding will take place. She’s struck a deal with the groom’s best friend to be the proxy groom, if necessary. Two days before the nuptials, a male corpse floats ashore on a South Maui beach. Looks like the groom’s finally shown up. So now what’s it gonna be—a wedding…or a funeral?



“On this nice July morning in Parkland, North Carolina, the office of Madeline Maclin Investigations might as well have been an Egyptian tomb: hot, dusty, and dead.” It doesn’t help that her landlord Reid Kent, does a brisk business…and briskly hits on Mac to rejoin his agency. He maintains no one will hire a former Miss Parkland as a serious PI.

Mac has been friends forever with Jerry Fairweather. Jerry claims to be psychic and is, unlike his two brothers, somewhat screwy. And he refuses to claim a share in the Fairweather fortune. But he shares some good news with Mac—his Uncle Val has died and left him a house. The two friends drive out to Celosia, a half hour away, where they discover a local beauty pageant in trouble and a house just perfect for setting up shop. A Psychic Shop. The arrival of lawyer Olivia, Jerry’s shark-like girlfriend, rouses both Mac’s interest in the mystery at the pageant and the one in her own heart.

And then comes the first murder….

All of the descriptions are from the Amazon website. I haven't had a chance to read any of these myself yet, but I don't know how long they'll be free, so I'm telling you about them before they're back to full price. If you get a chance to read the before I do, let me know what you think!