{I've Been Reading} Nameless Things

 Nameless Things by Ernest Jensen

A meteor strike triggers a landslide, blocking the trails leading into a volcanic caldera and trapping everyone who was hiking in the park at the time...but that's just the beginning. This is an entertaining creature feature that explores what might happen when a bunch of strangers are isolated with an unknown threat and limited supplies.  I did find myself losing track of which characters were still alive (the numerous dream sequences didn't help with that.)

The Socialite's Guide to Sleuthing and Secrets by S. K. Golden

After some initial confusion about what decade the book was set in (that cover looks Art Deco to me and there was a diamond tiara, so I jumped to a wrong conclusion until a couple of references had me check the book's description) I really enjoyed this book. Evelyn is an intriguing protagonist and even though I haven't yet read the first two books in the series there's just enough backstory for me not to feel completely lost. The Pinnacle Hotel is an fun setting and the mystery itself invovles an early multi level marketing company. 

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

{I've Been Reading} White Line Fever

 

White Line Fever by K C Jones

County Road 951, a fifteen mile stretch of scenic curves responsible for more deaths than any other road in Oregon, has been gated off at both ends for years. But sometimes GPS suggests unsuitable detours and someone else had already cut the gate before Liva and her friends turned off the main road to get away from a threatening tow truck. I was hooked by this one, maybe because I live in the area and can picture exactly the stretch of mountain range that the road must cut across. I'm used to hearing sirens on the way to accidents. It's far too easy to imagine The Devil's Driveweay and what it would be like to be trapped there by supernatural forces. The plot alternates between Olivia's traumatic childhood and what's happening on the road and it does start to bog down at a few points, but for the most part I aboslutely loved it. 

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

{I've Been Reading} Claire, Darling

 Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi

In one moment, Claire's life has been turned upside down. She took lunch to her fiancé only to be told that he doesn't work for the company. He's not returning her calls or texts, he doesn't return to their shared apartment, and she's reeling from the shock of the whole thing. What happened? Why did he leave her? It's the structure of this thriller that made it work so well for me. We only know what Claire knows, when she knows it. There are a few brief scenes from her childhood and diary entries from the early days of her relationship with Noah, but the plot goes in a straight line from beginning to end and I kept trying to make sense of it. The pieces just weren't fitting together no matter how badly I wanted them to. I genuinely liked Claire as a character and wanted her to be okay, but I couldn't see how that was going to be possible. I love this one from beginning to end. 

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

{I've Been Reading} The Night Shift

 The Night Shift by Gemma Rogers

Nina has the perfect job, working overnight alone at Storage Queen. All she has to do is keep track of a few customers as they enter and leave and do an occasional walk through to make sure that none of the units were left unlocked. The rest of the night, she has free to concentrate on her studies. Until a man drags in a bulky suitcase and deposits it in an otherwise empty unit and her boring job becomes a fight for survival. This one is fast paced and suspenseful and I love the way the author kept coming up with ways to up the stakes. Not that I think any of it could actually happen...but for a work of thriller fiction most of it felt plausible enough. By the very end, it was starting to feel a bit repetitive, but for the most part it's a fast paced and engaging read. 

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment by Delilah S. Dawson

This is an absolutely fantastic, disturbing nightmare of a book. A secluded artists' colony holds dark secrets in the abandoned hotel on the property and Sarah has nowhere else to go. This was her escape, her first step towards a new future. She never expected to find a dead animal rotting in her bed or an absolutely horrible misogynist sharing the pottery studio or a long buried coffin at the site where she's digging a pit kiln. She never expected the other residents to be descending into madness or to unearth awful secrets from a past century. By the last chapter, I was completely rattled, something that rarely happens. This one hit me HARD. 

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

{I've Been Reading} Something in the Walls

 Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce

An inexperienced child psychologist travels to an isolated village to assess a girl whose family and  community believe is possessed by a witch. The first thing she notices upon her arrival are odd stones hanging from every building. Hagstones, she's told. That's her first sign that she's stepped into a place that's far different from the world she's accustomed to. This folk horror is a slow, slow burn and at first it felt similar to other books I've read with similar premises. But this one finally gets going and when it does, it's something else entirely.  I don't want to risk spoilers, but if you enjoyed Midsommar or The Lottery, this is in that vein. 

Killing Me Soufflé by Ellie Alexander 

I'm not sure if I've read any of the other  twenty Bakeshop mysteries  by Ellie Alexander, but after reading this one I can't wait to track them down. It was a fun read with a fantastic setting and interesting mystery. Jules and her family travel to the Oregon coast where two employees from her Ashland bakery have been hired to run the restaurant at a an aging resort. Opening night is a wild success, but then the resort's manager is found dead at the foot of a rocky cliff. I love the coast and this book does an amazing job of capturing the atmosphere. There's lots of focus on the delicious sounding food, which never slows the plot because they're preparing it while talking over elements of the murder mystery. 

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

{I've Been Reading} Tell Me You Trust Me

 Tell Me You Trust Me by Elle Owens 

This thriller had me immediately hooked. "Tell me you trust me" was the last thing Marissa's husband said to her before leaving that morning. He didn't take his car, didn't go to work, is nowhere to be found. Her loving family is absolutely everywhere, determined to take care of her. They're in the security business, after all, and they want to help her. What they won't give her is a moment to herself, a moment she desperately needs to figure out the message her husband seems to have sent her through a song title that's just appeared on their shared playlist. 

I read this through one one sitting. Marissa's desperation to figure things out kept me turning pages and the author tells the story of their marriages through the messages they're leaving one another. It's a suspenseful read that had me on the edge of my seat and trying to figure things out until the very end.

Sick Houses - Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread by Leila Taylor

Haunted houses, the homes of notorious series killers, those places you pass and just wonder about because they're a little odd -- that's what this book is about. And I LOVED it. The author delves into well known properties, both fictional and real, and also several that I'd never heard of. I came away from it with a fairly long list of movies I want to watch (surprising, because I love haunted house movies and have watched so many) and some new insight into movies I'd already watched. There are plenty of spoilers in the detailed plot discissions, but I don't really mind because I probably wouldn't have watched them if I hadn't read about them here. A few, I'll watch anyway. Another I'll go out of my way to avoid. The book sent me down quite a few interesting rabbit trails and I'm glad I picked it up.  

 

Fondue or Die by Korina Moss

Willa Bauer and her friends are always fun to spend some time with. In this mystery, they're running a  booth at the local Dairy Days festival, selling carefully curated snack boxes of different cheeses.  And, after the woman running the annual bauty pageant is found dead under a pile of milk jugs, they're investigating whether it was an accident or a murder. While this isn't my favorite book in the series so far, it was an enjoyable read.

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

{I've Been Reading} Listen to Your Sister

 Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel

If you've ever wondered how characters wind up in those isolated horror movie cabins, and why on earth they stay once they see the place, this book makes sense of it. Things went wrong for Calla and her brothers long before they booked the reservation. By the time they reach the cabin, they have nowhere else to turn. Between the sibling dynamics, their real world problems, and whaetever the supernatural nightmare is that surrounds them, this horror novel is a LOT. At times I felt like the nightmare scenes were all dragging on for a bit too long, but it all does come together....and I've never read anything quite like it. There's a lot of strong language and intense imagry here, but it works with this book. (And I'm feeling way too old because I have no idea which Sponge Bob scene they keep referring to...) 

Her Hiding Place by Shannon Hollinger

This fast paced thriller kept me turning pages until the very end. It's not bad enough that Charlotte is in the path of a hurricane, unable to leave her job at a luxury island resort. She's got to survive while keeping the prescence of a three year old girl hidden. Bits of backstory are woven in, just enough to hint at how she got herself into such dire straits, but the bulk of the plot is set in the days leading up to the storm. I got quickly caught up in the plot and writing style and I look forward to tracking down the author's other books. 

Dead Air by William Elliott Hazelgrove

I was more familiar with Orson Welles's radio show The Shadow than his notorious War of the Worlds broadcast (and I've somehow never seen Citizen Kane at all.) Dead Air: The Night that Orson Welles Terrified America tells the story of the program and its aftermath and, while it's a bit dry at time, it's also absolutely fascinating. I know what I've heard over the years, but I'd never stopped to really thnk of what was going on in the world at the time the show aired. It's easy to imagine those radio listeners as foolish -- but we're part of a generation that fell for The Blair Witch Project and that documentary about real mermaids. If you like historical non-fiction, this is worth a read. 

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

{I've Been Reading} An Insidious Inherirtance

Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson 

Poe Webb's podcast is made up of confessions. She gives her guest fifteen minutes to talk, then questions them about what they've just revealed.  Whatever the police or her listeners will do with those revelations is out of her hands. The format has made her famous -- but now she's got a man on the other end of her internet connection claiming to have impossible information about her mother's murder. The first confession in the book had me on the edge of my seat. After that, it took a little while for me to figure out the format, but once I did I was hooked and the book held my attention until the last few chapters. I'd recommend this one if you're intrigued by the world of true crime podcasts. 

The Family Inside by Katie Garner 

Iris's husband was murdered, then she lost her house to forclosure, then she lost her job. She's about to become homeless with her eighteen-year-old daughter...then her new love interest suggests that they move in with him. And his mother. He's making repairs to her dilapidated old mansion and there's plenty of extra room. There are also plenty of other family members living there. The old house is creepy and Hugh's siblings are weird and unpleasant. And the plot is a fast paced roller coaster of crazy that just keeps speeding up and finding new ways to twist. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing. None of it is plausible, but it was oddly entertaining once I figured out what was actually going on.  

An Insidious Inheritance by Amelie West

This mystery, set in 1930s New York State, conjures up imagery of old black and white movies and Nancy Drew books. When Clara Dawson inherits a dilapidated inn from her estranged father it could be the solution to her problems, or just another source of debt. It was a fun read, but I found myself wishing for a little more detail (did the inn not have electricity because it was an isolated building in 1933....or because it had been shut off?) Clara is smart and self sufficient and I look forward to reading more about her in future books. 

Devil's Island by Midge Raymond and John Yunker

By far the best part of this thriller is the setting. I wish the characters had been as interesting as the wildlife. With an inexperienced guide who has already proven that she's not quite up to the job, dangerous weather, and a missing camper, I expected this to be a lot more suspenseful than it actually was. 

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

{I've Been Reading} Murder in Bloom

 Murder in Bloom by Rosie Sandler 

Steph and her dog, Mouse, are back in the garden, this time as part of a prestigious competition. I loved the first two books in the series, but this one didn't hold my interest in the same way. I found myself missing Steph's previous jobs which had her restoring historic gardens to their former glory. Building a temporary garden from scratch wasn't nearly as interesting. Mouse is always fun to read about and Steph's relationship with her family is explored further so there's plenty to enjoy. 

Pretty Dead Things by Lilian West 

A jar of sparkly baubles that Cora bought for five bucks from an estate sale reveals what appears to be a family heirloom and she decides to return it to the family because she's sure they'll want it back. Sure enough that she won't take no for an answer and insists on contacting several different family members and dredging up unwanted memories. I didn't love this one. The mystery isn't that compelling and it has  which had a small town, Hallmark Movie sort of fee to it, without the fun. Cora is insensitive to anyone else's feelings and feels like a two dimennsional character. 

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

{I've Been Reading} The Business Trip

 The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia 

Stephanie and Jasmine share a brief encounter on a flight to San Diego. The two women have nothing in common, but before long both have vanished after sending eerily similiar text messages about a man named Trent, alarming their friends at home. I absolutely loved this thriller with its unique, fast paced structure. It switches frequently between characters so you absolutely have to read the name at the top of each chapter, but it's absolutely worth keeping track of who is talking. I couldn't put it down and definitely didn't guess at what had happened to the two women. 

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

{I've Been Reading} Missing in Flight

 Missing in Flight by Audrey J Cole

Makayla left her infant son sleeping alone in the bassinet just long enough to dash to the airplane's restroom, afraid that if she took him with her he'd take ages to settle back down. She asked the girl in the pink headphones to keep an eye on him and was as quick as she could possibly be, but when she returned  to her seat Liam was gone. I wasn't sure how this one was going to work -- how long could it take to search a plane? The author manages to stretch the concept into a full length thriller, partially by switching point of view back and forth between every possible character including Makayla, her husband, the pilot, and the officers investigating the case.  At first the premise made sense, but things got less and less plausible as the book progressed.

Death Among the Stitches by Betty Hechtman

I can see a lot of potential in this new mystery series, but it took time for this first book to get going. Annie Hart is a very young protagonist who works in a Los Angeles boutique as assistant to a movie star's daughter. When she inherits a building from her uncle, she's excited to have something of her own and immediately flies across the country to see it, not realizing that the old schoolhouse was actually a yarn shop. (It's an amazing coincidence that the building her uncle bought to convert to a restaurant just happens to be full of supplies for Annie's favorite hobby.) The local knitters are delighted  that the shop has a new owner, but Annie plans to sell the building and its contents and head back to California as soon as she can. It's a fun read if you don't worry about things like whether Annie owns the business or just the building, or how the bugs that destroyed half othe yarn in the shop left the rest in good enough condition to sell. The mystery behind the death of the original shop owner is great and I really enjoyed trying to piece together the clues, but a lot of the plot is focused on Annie's determination to sell the shop -- which doesn't leave a whole lot of suspense if this is the first book in the series. 

The Apartment Across the Hall by Jack Dane 

Affordable apartments are hard to find in New York, so Salem Ripley takes what she can get, especially after potential landlords see her background check. The place has a lot of problems, but she needs a place to live, as unpleasant as the building is. One neighbor plays deafeningly loud cop shows all night long. The guy across the hall brings new women to his apartment one after another -- and no matter how closely she watches his door, she never sees a single one of them leave. This short, fast paced thiller is absolutely wild. I found Salem hard to like, but it was an interesting read. 

The Book of Witching by C. J. Cooke

This book is an atmospheric slow burn that weaves together two stories -- a nineteen year old girl suffers in a burn unit after a hiking trip with friends went horribly wrong and the a woman is accused of witchcraft four hundred years earlier. It took a while for me to get into this one and I definitely found the historical scenes more interesting than the contemporary ones even if I didn't know enough about the daily life of the Orkneys in the sixteenth century to fully understand what was going on. (The author's note at the end cleared a lot of things up for me.) 

The Perfect Home by Daniel Kenitz

This domestic thriller immediately caught my attention and held it the whole way through. Dawn Decker is the less beloved half of the celebrity couple behind the reality show A Perfect Home. Everyone adores Wyatt and his easy smile and charming personality. She's less comfortable in the spotlight, less adept at manipulating public opinion. When she finds handwritten notes outlining his plans to exploid a family tragedy - one that hasn't actually happened yet - she packs up their newborn twins and runs, knowing that she's instantly recognizable and that the public will be firmly on Wyatt's side. I loved this book. The plot might not be plausible, but it was definitely entertaining. 

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

{I've Been Reading} Porcelain

Porcelain by Jesse Sprague 

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It starts with the protagonist, Gabrielle, in an extremely uneasy situation, stuck alone with a guy she really shouldn't have gone home with. Then he's dead and her childhood doll is there soaked in blood and she can't remember what happened. It's a repeat of how her parents died, and her foster father. The book reminds me of a slumber party story we used to tell back in the early 80s and it had a lot of promise, but I don't feel like it quite delivered. 

The Beauty Queen by Sally-Anne Martyn

Forty years after her sister's diseappearance, Zoe Kincade has returned to the seaside town of Sunshine Sands. Officially, she's there to report on this year's beauty pageant, but what she really wants is to find out what happened to Jane after she was crowned the winner. I loved the setting, with its aging buildings and faded attractions. Even in the flashbacks to the 80s, the place is far past its prime. The locals are determined to protect their secrets and Zoe and her prying questions aren't welcome. Unfortunately, I felt like by the end the plot was slowly dragging along to a less than satisfying conclusion. 

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

{I've Been Reading} The Getaway

 The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard

Capri Sanzio's tours of San Francisco focus on murder sites. People are fascinated by true crime and she's the granddaughter of "Overkill Bill," which gives her a unique perspective on the whole thing and just a bit of notoriety. When two copycat murders strike far too close to home, she uses her training as a journalist in an attempt to discover what's actually happening and to investigate her long held belief that her grandfather is innocent. I really enjoyed this one. Snippets of Capri's tour scripts are included, which provide an intriguing glimpse into the city's history. The character's background as a journalist helps the whole investigation to feel plausible and I appreciated her sensitivity when dealing with true crime. I'd love to read more about Capri and her world. 

Cabin by Patrick Hutchison

This memoir had me immediately planning a day trip to the Washington mountains and if I hadn't known the roads were almost definitely frozen, I would've been trying to talk the family into it. The author's descriptions make you feel like you're in the woods and at the same time make you want to head for the woods. (Granted, I'm practically in the woods already and a fifteen or twenty minute drive would get me into actual national forest...) As he's describing his impulsive purchase of the cabin as a fort or clubhouse, it just sounds so appealing. He's in over his head and knows it, but he learns from his mistakes and builds his skills. The enthusiasm that fills ever page of this memoir is contagious. 

The Perfect Ex-Wife by Winter K. Willis 

Even though she's constantly living in the shadow of Natasha, her husband's first wife who went missing more than a decade ago, Ramona is a fantastic spouse and stepmother. She's there for her new family, living in a basement bedroom without complaint while the house's original master suite sits as an empty shrine. Then the plot switches to Natasha and she seems to be an equally likeable character. What happened and how did things go so tragically wrong? I enjoyed this domestic thriller. The plot structure felt a little different than most and even though it's a slow burn, it kept me turning pages. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the ending. 

The Getaway by Mina Hardy

Every month, Claire leaves her husband and daughter to spend the weekend at an isolated cabin. It's her time to enjoy herself and recharge, but this time things won't go as she planned. The storm that strands her at the cabin is only the beginning. I didn't find Claire to be a sympathetic character, but the author immediately creates a feeling that something awful is about to happen.  I know...it's a thriller and OF COURSE something bad is going to happen, but I kept wanting to yell at the character not to do what she was doing. Whatever I was expecting based on the book's description, this wasn't it. Every new bit of information that the author reveals is wilder than the last. 

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

{I've Been Reading} You Feta Watch Out

 You Feta Watch Out by Linda Reilly 

The latest grilled cheese mystery has a recipe for grilled cheese fruitcake and I'm almost tempted to try it if some fruitcake finds its way to our house this holiday season. At a dress rehearsal of A Christmas Carol, one of the actors is found dead with Marley's heavy chains wrapped around his throat. The evidence points to Carly's best friend, but plenty of people could have wanted the unpleasant man dead. This is always a fun series, with lots of tasy sounding food and an entertaining group of characters. 

Silent Came the Monster by Amy Hill Hearth 

This fictionalized version of the shark attacks that inspired Jaws intrigued me. I'd half-watched some of the Shark Week documentaries years ago so I knew a little bit about the history, but was curious to read more. The descriptions of the attacks and the attempts to save the victims were gripping. The main characters musings about a current polio outbreak and the American public's repsonse to it and to the warnings about the shark dragged on and on and on and had me wishing I'd read a non-fiction account written several years earlier.  

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

{I've Been Reading} A Corpse Among the Carolers

 A Corpose Among the Carolers by Debra Sennefelder 

The annual Jingle Bell Stroll is a popular event, but this year it ended with the fatal stabbing of Santa Claus. Hope has blog posts to write and baking to do, but she plunges herself into the investigation, juggling it with the busy holiday season. I've been reading the Food Blogger mysteries since the beginning of the series and this book further develops the relationships between the characters. Pick this one up if you're looking for some holiday cheer and mystery. 

A Perilous Premiere by Gail Meath 

Set in 1930s Hollywood, this mystery feels like reading an old black and white movie. It's fast paced and fun and requires some suspension of disbelief, especially in the early chapters.  I don't know enough about Carole Lombard to tell you if her character is a convincing portrayal or not -- a fictional actress could have probably served the same purpose. 

Her Housekeeper by Samantha Hayes

I felt like the plot of this one kept meandering around in circles without actually getting anywhere until close to the end. After a fire destroys their home, Gina and her family accept an offer to stay in her vacationing friend's empty house. They don't realize that there's a housekeeper until the woman shows up and lets herself in one morning, but Annie assures them that Mary is trustworthy and when Mary suddenly needs a place to live she makes herself right at home. Of course she's not who she claims to be -- the author makes that immediately clear. Flashbacks and alternating points of view slowly reveal that it all goes back to their group of high school friends and something that happened after a party decades earlier. Some scenes near the end had me holding my breath, but it took a long time to get there. 

I'll be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong 

This one is a creepy, extrememly enjoyable ghost story with a likeable protagonist. Nicola has arranged a seance, trying to contact her dead husband. His last words at the site of the deadly car crash were that he would be waiting for her. She's already lived far longer than expected and the story of a terminally ill woman holding her dying husband immediately went viral, especially after onlookers claimed that it was his ghost who spoke the words. Nicole has a history with seances and knows exactly how to make it look like supernatural things are happening, but she also knows that real spirits exist. This isn't a particularly scary book, but it has all of the trappings of a good ghost story. 

Seances and spiritualist 

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

{I've Been Reading} The Woman in the Cabin

 The Woman in the Cabin by Becca Day 

Her name is Mary. She lives a simple life in an isolated cabin, spending each day tending  the garden, repairing leaks in the roof, making sure that dinner is hot on the table when her husband walks through the door. It's been ten years since she was anywhere else and her memories of life outside the cabin have faded. The world is dangerous and has nothing to offer her. Then she finds a bundle of letters tucked under a floorboard and realizes that she's not the first woman to have lived here with him. The writing kept me glued to the page even before the real plot twists started.  

Lonely Places by Kate Anderson 

After travelling the country for years in a converted school bus, a homeschooling family takes up residence at a fire lookout in Utah. The youngest daughter no longer speaks, traumatized by what happened in the woods That Night. After reading this book, I could go the rest of my life without hearing that phrase. which is repeated over and over in a slightly different font from the book's main text. There's also that thing that happened at the lookout that no one wants to talk about. The aspen grove is filled with creepy bones which the youngest daughter keeps picking up and bringing home. It's a young adult novel, so Chase, the older daughter, is extremely critical of her parents and looking forward to getting away from her family at the first possible opportunity. There's an intriguing story here and some really creepy imagery, but it takes a while to get there. 

Death at the Dinner Party by Ellie Alexander

The fund raising dinner at the historic farmhouse has barely started when one of the guests collapses. Curtis isn't one of the actors hired for that night's murder mystery, he's actually dead, and quite a few of his fellow attendees have reason to want him gone. I'm practically giddy about this new-to-me mystery series (I jumped in with the third book, which I don't recommend since I'm obviously missing some important back story -- I'll catch up on the first two titles as soon as I can.) It's atmospheric, the event is one that the characters are actually invested in, the protagonist is a trained crimonologist who knows what she's doing... and parts of it read like my favorite bits of the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books I loved as a kid. It's fun and fast paced and I read the whole thing in one delighted sitting. 

Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine

This book sat in my to-be-read pile for way too long and I don't know why. Pregnancy related horror and thrillers are right up my alley and reviews compared this one to Rosemary's Baby, a novel that I absolutely loved. Actress Anna Alcott is desperate to have a baby and realizes that time is running out, that she and her husband might have waited too long. When their latest round of IVF results in a pregnancy, she and her husband are thrilled. When she has a miscarriage, they're devastated. There was no heartbeat on the ultrasound. There was so much blood in the hospital room. But she can still feel her unborn child moving inside of her. Pregnancy leaves woman vulnerable and the author absolutely captures that. Anna has been missing appointments and making mistakes with her medication. She's being stalked and receiving warnings about a cult of baby stealing Satanists. And, despite what the medical professionals say, she's still pregnant. I loved this one. 

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

{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.