chez_jae

Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


View all my reviews

Finished my current book before lunch today. It was Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins. It’s the second in her “Chatty Corgi” series of cozy mysteries, featuring baker/accountant Emma Reed and her talking corgi, Oliver.

Emma’s baking has taken off, and she couldn’t be prouder. When she and some friends are asked to step in at the last minute to cater the annual Daphne du Maurier festival at a local estate, all of them are anxious and ecstatic. It will be a huge feather in their caps, but they’re working with a tight time frame. Emma puts the finishing touches on a proposal for the festival committee, but when she and her friend Pearl go to deliver it, they find Marcie, the festival organizer, dead in her driveway. At first, everyone suspects an accident or suicide, but it soon becomes apparent that Marcie was murdered. Emma plans to let the police handle it, until Marcie’s niece asks her to poke around and see what she can discover. As a result, Emma finds herself embroiled in family squabbles, missing money, and a clandestine relationship. It’s a good thing she has Oliver who can help sniff out clues and a killer.

This mystery was baffling. Several people had a motive to harm Marcie, and it was difficult to pin any one of them down. Characterizations were very good, including Oliver. I like how he relays information to Emma from a canine perspective. The plot was fast-paced, although we did see Emma at work and spending some time with a potential romantic interest.

Favorite lines:
♦ “I’m a bit of a—what do they call it?--fangirl.”
♦ “So what are you going to do next?” // “Go home and hide under the bed for a bit and wonder what got into me?”
♦ “People talk to you when you give them cake.”
♦ “No Marpleing after nine p.m.”

A case where a book deserves 4.5 stars. It was enjoyable, and because our intrepid heroine didn’t wind up in mortal peril at the end, I’ll bump it up to 5

( Cozy Clichés )

A Time to Dream by Sherry Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


View all my reviews

I had half a chapter + the epilogue to read in my “work” book, so I brought it home and finished it this evening. The book was A Time to Dream by Sherry Lewis. It’s a time-travel romance from the “Time Passages” line. Main characters are Shelby Miller and Zacharias Logan.

As the caretaker of the twin, historic houses of Summervale and Winterhill, Shelby is dismayed to learn that Summervale may be torn down. That was the home where Agatha Logan lived out her life, after becoming estranged from her husband, Zacharias. Desperate to find something to convince the powers that be to save the house, Shelby searches the attic of Summervale for Agatha’s journals. Instead, she ends up getting swept back to the past, into Agatha’s body. Shelby realizes that if she can put things right between Agatha and Zacharias, perhaps that will change history and save Summervale. She must feign a loss of memory, but no one will tell her why Agatha and Zacharias will have nothing to do with one another. It’s up to Shelby to seek Zacharias out to set things right between them. She must also deal with Zacharias’ harridan of a mother, as well as his mistress. The more time she spends with Agatha’s husband, however, the more Shelby begins to fall for Zacharias herself. Can she change history without breaking her own heart?

I liked this story. Shelby is engaging and determined. It was interesting to see how other characters initially treated her or acted around her before gradually warming up to the new “Agatha”. I do take exception, however, to the fact that Shelby ended up in Agatha’s body. I’ve read a lot of time-travel romances, and that never really makes sense to me. When a character is whisked through time, body AND soul, it seems more conceivable. Otherwise, we must wonder what became of the other person’s soul. In this particular case, Agatha and Shelby switched, but that brings about its own dilemma. While one character can muddle along in the past, I can’t help but think that the poor soul who got transplanted in the future must be utterly floundering. How can you go from horse-and-buggy, no electricity, conservative attire, etc to cars and planes and microwaves and mobile phones and bikinis? It would break your brain! I have to remind myself at times to just let it go.

Favorite line: “Only a fool refuses to allow himself to walk toward the warmth.”

Good story overall—four stars.

A Rose from the Dead by Kate Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


View all my reviews

I stayed up a bit past midnight to finish my ‘spare’ book--A Rose from the Dead by Kate Collins. This is the 6th “Flower Shop” mystery book, starring florist Abigail “Abby” Knight.

In an effort to increase business for her flower shop, Bloomers, Abby is spending the weekend at a funeral convention. Instead of a somber occasion, she encounters twin pranksters, a Goth girl, a protester who’s advocating for ‘green burials’, and Sybil Blount, the sophisticated cougar who organized the convention. Sybil seemed to make enemies wherever she went, so it’s not a big surprise when she ends up dead in a casket. Abby plans to steer clear of the investigation until she learns her friend Delilah is a prime suspect. Determined to get Delilah off the hook, Abby teams up with her PI boyfriend, Marco, to dig up the real killer before anyone else ends up six feet under.

Abby has a tendency to go off half-cocked, even when Marco is around to try reining her in. This book was no exception. Characterizations were good. The plot tended to bog down a bit, as the entirety of the story took place over a long weekend at a hotel/convention center. It was enjoyable, however, and I was zeroing in on the killer about halfway through. Woo!

Favorite lines:
♦ I was all about free food.
♦ “She’s not jealous of me. She’s jealous of my hats.”
♦ “Life’s a whole lot simpler when you plow around the stump.”
♦ “The only way I can describe it is goth.” // “Make that goth-awful.”
♦ “Do you have any idea how upsetting it is to hear that my only daughter is at the scene of a murder?” // Would it have been less upsetting if she’d had two daughters?

A fun read, four stars

( Cozy Clichés )