Dearly, Departed

Dearly, Departed
Lia Habel
382 pages
Publisher: Random House
Source: NetGalley
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I first became aware of this book through a Goodreads giveaway, which I sadly did not win.  I tried to procure a hardcopy ARC and failed so when I saw it on NetGalley I jumped at the chance.  It looked like such an amazing book, and I wasn't disappointed... too much.

In 2195 in New Victoria, a group of zombies is emerging.  Just as their semester ends, Nora and Pamela are separated by a zombie attack and Nora is captured by a group of them.  There, Nora learns that her father is one of the undead, trying to create a vaccine to prevent the disease from spreading.  Meanwhile, Pamela is back in New Victoria, trying to convince her family that something much more serious than they think is going on.

Dearly, Departed is a steampunk zombie apocalypse novel with a side of girl-power.  That might sound like a lot, but it was very cohesive and drew me in right away.  My favorite part of the book was Pamela - I loved her character!  She stood up for what she believed in and was one step ahead of the general public.  I loved that she was able to overcome her prejudices and help her enemy in a time of crisis.

I did think there were a few too many viewpoints in the novel and maybe limiting it to Pamela, Nora, and Nora's father would have been more effective.  More importantly, though, I would have liked to have seen more steampunk-y goodness in the way of tech, gadgets, and transportation.  Most of the steampunk genre was demonstrated though clothing choices and might give readers unaccustomed to genre the wrong idea.

Finally, I just want to add that I hope this human and zombie falling in love thing doesn't catch on.  There really is nothing sexy about a zombie.

Dearly, Departed is out now!  Check it out if you'd like to see what Twilight with zombies would look like.

New feature: Cheesy Romance Monday (1)

Welcome to my new feature: Cheesy Romance Monday.   As many Mondays as I can, I will be briefly reviewing a romance novel that otherwise would not make an appearance on my blog.   These romances are generally considered "cheesy" - things like Harlequin series romances that are mass produced in paperback and sold in drug stores.  That kind of thing.  Yes, they are cheesy (and I say that with affection, I don't mean it as negative) but they can also be great fun!  Who doesn't want to curl up with a dashing hero once in a while?   I admit they are a guilty pleasure of mine, which is one of the reasons I decided to start this feature.  So without further ado, my first Cheesy Romance Monday!

Bewitching Kittens
Janice Bennett, Patricia Bray, Cathleen Clare
Sub genre: Regency
Goodreads link

I got to this romance just in time for Halloween today!  Bewitching Kittens contains three regency romance short stories that feature kittens who, though various acts of micheviousness, are able to help their owners find love. What I really enjoyed about the stories were the active roles the cats had; they weren't mere bystanders like in some romances with animals, they were actually very much part of the plot lines. And adorable! My favorite story was the first, "Sanctuary," wherein the animal-loving heroine falls in love again with an old suitor she had previously rejected due to his penchance for hunting.

In My Mailbox (7)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

For Review:

Sourcebooks sent If I Tell by Janet Gurtler

Sadie Hayes sent her two novellas, The Start-Up and its sequel, The Anti-Social Network

 

Acquired: 

Spellbound: The Awakening of Aislin Collins by Margeaux Laurent.  You can get the book for free, too, by visiting Good Choice Reading before midnight November 1st.

Total TBR: 120 - same number in this week as out

Blood Drive Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to...

DEBRA TYSER!

The winner has already been notified.  Please stay tuned for future giveaways.

Bossypants

Bossypants
Tina Fey
275 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown
Source: library
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Sarcastic and awesome.  Those are the words I would use to describe my husband, but also the memoir Bossypants.  Written by Tina Fey, Bossypants takes a look at her life from awkward child years, all the way through her portrayal of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.

This book had a great balance - the reader gets some insights into Tina Fey's work as a comedienne, but also insights into her personal life; what shaped her as a child that helped her become the adults she is today, and also her thoughts on parenting and her daughter.

Bossypants definitely had me laughing out loud on several occasions, which makes it a good book for me.  If you know of Tina Fey or if you enjoyed her work on SNL in particular, I would definitely recommend this book.  Very funny and worth a read, though I have heard it's extra funny to hear the audio book version, which Fey narrates herself.

The Reckoning

The Reckoning
Beverly Lewis
281 pages
Publisher: Bethany House
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

The Reckoning is the third and final book in the Heritage of Lancaster series and follows The Shunning and The Confession.  In this installment, we find Katherine the lady of the house after her biological mother has passed away and she is enjoying her time dating a local Englisher painter.  But when her Amish ex-boyfriend Dan "comes back from the dead" it causes her to start thinking about what she really wants.

As with The Confession, I really enjoyed the "Englisher" side of the story, but I was really intrigued as Katherine started taking on more Amish ways of life and introducing them to her friends and staff.  I thought the volunteer work she did was fantastic and I loved the way she started a quilting group and even invited some Amish neighbors to join in.

The characters were great in this book, though I did think it had a few too many subplots.  I was happy to see Katherine's friend Mary finally get married but other than that, I didn't care about any of the other character's plots.

All in all, I thought this was a good conclusion to the series, though The Confession remains my favorite book of all three.  What I wanted to have happen didn't, but I think the ending was a good compromise for the entire series.  I should also add that this is probably my favorite series I've read so far by Beverly Lewis.

Only TWO DAYS left to enter!

Blood Drive
Traci Houston
228 pages
Publisher: Writers of the Round Table Press
Source: Once Upon A Twilight Blog Tours
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Fill out this really easy FORM for a 

chance to win a copy of Blood Drive by Traci Houston.

You must be a follower to win.  US only.  Giveaway ends 11:59pm EST 10/27.

And for more chances to win, you can check out the other stops on the tour by clicking the banner below.

A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches
Deborah Harkness
579 pages
Publisher: Viking
Source: Target
★★★★★

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

I loved this book!  I first contemplated reading it back when it became popular, but it was all the comparisons to Twilight that made me finally take the plunge and order it.  (Well, that and the sale Target was having at the time.)

There are some obvious comparisons one can make with Twilight, but I think A Discovery of Witches had more depth.  It wasn't just about falling in love and defeating an enemy, instead A Discovery of Witches focused a lot less on the romance and more on the science behind the featured creatures.  I loved reading about the similarities/differences/DNA work with witches, vampires, and daemons.  Who would have ever thought to include DNA research in their paranormal novel?  It was a stroke of brilliance.  I also enjoyed reading about Diana's research and the general history in the novel was fantastic, too.

Although, I did enjoy the romance, I won't lie.  Diana and Matthew definitely have the same great chemistry Bella and Edward have and they handle it better.  They fell irrevocably in love and never looked back and I think it's that love that's going to carry them through the final two books in the trilogy.

Five stars!  If you loved Twilight, you're going to love a Discovery of Witches for sure, but even if you're one of those people who mercilessly mocks Twilight (for no reason, I might add) then you might enjoy this novel, too, because of its added depth and character.

Parable of the Sower

Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler
329 pages
Publisher: Grand Central
Source: library
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Part of the current book challenge I'm working on asked me to get a recommendation from a librarian and, after much talking in circles, this is what I left the library with.  It sounded really interesting when the librarian mentioned it and I was glad to see it was dystopian - a genre I enjoy.  Although, what I had mentioned I liked when she asked was vampires.  There are no vampires in Parable of the Sower.  There aren't even any zombies. (Oh my gosh, what does that say about my reading habits!)

Instead, the book takes place in the future where the environment and economy has collapsed to such an extent that stealing and murder are on the docket for most people's average day.  The book focuses on a gated community trying to survive and is narrated by fifteen-year-old Lauren (note: this book is not YA).

I really liked the concept of the book.  The back cover's description really sold me on it, but the execution didn't stand up to my hopes.  Perhaps I'm overly used to the fast-paced plot lines of YA, but the plot in this book moved excruciatingly slow.  For awhile, I wasn't even sure what the plot was.  Lauren and her family lived in this community and were trying to survive daily life, but so what?  The actual plot didn't start until halfway through when Lauren loses her family and decides to finally leave the community and head north to start her new religion.  Even after that development, there wasn't a lot of action for such a supposedly violent world.  I wasn't not too well attached to the characters, though they were all unique and played a valuable role in the plot.

I couldn't decide whether to give this two stars ("it was okay") or three ("I liked it.")  I wasn't enthralled with this book, but it wasn't just okay.  Two stars just doesn't seem like quite enough, so it's getting three from me.  Worth a look if you like dystopians and want to read a non-YA version, or if you want to see what the dystopian world of 2024 looked like from 1993, when it was written.  2024 is only about twelve years off, after all.  The scary part is, I could see this happening.

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

For review:

Random House sent Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Bloomsbury sent Little Women and Me by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Sourcebooks sent Darker Still by Leanna Marie Hieber (What a gorgeous cover!)

The author sent Fading Into Magic by Vone Savan

Purchased:

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

The Summer of Firsts and Lasts by Terra Elan McVoy 

Envy by Anna Godbersen (3rd in a series that I still haven't started yet; I buy them because the dresses are to die for)

Dark Flame and Night Star by Alyson Noel

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Gifted to me (Saturday was my birthday!):

Envy by Gregg Olsen (I was really drawn to the utter creepiness of this cover)

The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond (I was flipping through this at my MILs, there are so many recipes I can't wait to try!)

From the library:

Bossypants by Tina Fey

TBR Current Total: 120

Before I Fall

Before I Fall
Lauren Oliver
470 pages
Publisher: Harper
Source: library
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

For Samantha, Cupid Day at school starts like any other day.  She gets a ride to school with her best friends and then collects roses throughout the day, gloating at how many she has since everyone knows the more roses you are the more popular you are.  But then something goes seriously wrong when she attends a party that night, and soon she finds herself in a "Groundhog Day" kind of a situation, living the same Friday over and over again, until she can finally figure out how to get out of the endless loop.

That might sound kind of paranormal or cheesy from the description I just gave, but it really isn't.  This book wasn't cheesy at all.

I read Oliver's Delirium earlier this year and really liked it, so when I found out she had written this book I added it to my "I need to read this!" list and I finally got it from the library a couple weeks ago.  After the first few chapters, I wasn't sure I was going to end up liking it.  The main character, Samantha, really is a bitch and her and her clique didn't have too many endearing qualities.

But I ending up really liking the book.  It was great to watch Sam transform slowly over the course of the book from merely looking for way out of her predicament, to really chaining as a person and finding a way out that way.  I just really wish her three BFFs could have made the change with her.  I was very happy with the way the book ended.

Check it out!

Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key
Tatiana de Rosnay
326 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Source: Purchased NookBook
★★★★★

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

In July 1942 thousands of Jews were rounded in in Paris and sent to Vel d'Hiv, an indoor arena where they suffered for days without food, water, or bathroom facilities, before they were sent by train onto concentrations camps.  In 2002, journalist Julia Jarmond is assigned to write a piece for the 60th anniversary of the event.  At first she finds it difficult; the people of Paris would prefer to forget about it completely, but Julia soon stumbles across the story of a little girl and her family and they inspire her to learn more.

I had heard of Vel d'Hiv before I read this novel, though I chalk that up to my degree in history.  Before Sarah's Key was written, I suspect most people had never heard of the event.  What Sarah's Key has done is make the historical event more humanized.  By reading about one family affected by the tragedy, the reader realizes that there were thousands more people who went through the same thing.  It hurts, as a human being, to know that this happened.

It's hard to know what to else say about Sarah's Key.  Most of the novel was heartbreaking, filled me with despair, made me heart cringe for the thousands of people who suffered as a result of the Vel d'Hiv.  But at the same time, I loved this novel.  The switching points of view really help the novel rather than hinder it, and the subplot of Julia's own personal tribulations provide some relief from the terrible events.  Sarah's Key is incredibly well written and I will definitely be looking out for other things written by de Rosnay.

I wish I could tell you more, but instead I'm going to tell you to read this novel.  It's just so significant.

Stardust

Stardust
Neil Gaiman
333 pages
Publisher: Harper
Source: B&N
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Tristran is in love with Victoria and will do anything to even get a kiss from, let alone marrying here.  So when he suggests catching a falling star for Victoria, she agrees that if he is able to catch it she will do anything for him in return.

This was my first Neil Gaiman novel.  I've heard so much about him, about how he's amazing and can do no wrong, that when I needed to read a book by a British author for the reading challenge I'm working on, I choose Stardust.  Sadly, I must say, I don't get it.

It's not Gaiman's writing, which is very lyrical.  I think it's the genre.  Fantasy just isn't the genre for me and no matter how times I read it, I rediscover that.  However, I do think that if you're a big fan of fantasy writing you would love this book.  Like I said, the writing is very lyrical and the world Gaiman creates is definitely fantastical.  I enjoyed the plot a lot, actually, though I could have done without the subplots, which I admit just confused me.  Fantasy usually confuses me.

For now, I'll stick with the movie The Princess Bride as about as much fantasy as I can handle.  For those of you who love the genre, however, I think you'll really love this book also.

Blood Drive + GIVEAWAY! CLOSED

Blood Drive
Traci Houston
228 pages
Publisher: Writers of the Round Table Press
Source: Once Upon A Twilight Blog Tours
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Blood Drive is a paranormal police drama in which Cara finds her life turned upside down after her partner's murder.  She is soon thrown into a world of paranormal where she, along with her new group of friends, must hunt down her partner's murderer, an elusive vampire by the name of Christian who lures people into his way of life by convincing them he's the messiah.

If you like the paranormal, this is the book for you.  It's got everything: vampires, witches, gargoyles, gremlins, and the list goes on.  I'd never read a book with gargoyles or gremlins before, so that was an interesting turn in the plot that I enjoyed.  I also enjoyed the pace of the book - the short chapters led to a quick moving plot that left me turning the pages, eager to see what would happen next.

I thought the first chapter started out slow and was a little redundant, but as soon as Jonathan was introduced as Cara's love interest, the the book quickly got immensely more interesting.  The chemistry between Cara and Jonathan is great and I loved watching their romance develop through the novel.  (Just a note to my YA followers- this book is not YA, it has a few sex scenes.)

Four stars!  Minus one star for the redundant start and lack of character development, but other than that I thought this was a really good read.  The ending was something!  I don't want to ruin it, but let me just say I didn't know a vampire could do that!  Ha, now I've got you interested.  If you like paranormal books, you're definitely going to want to give this a read.  And lucky for you, I'm giving a copy of the book away!

Fill out this really easy FORM for a 

chance to win a copy of Blood Drive by Traci Houston.

You must be a follower to win.  US only.  Giveaway ends 11:59pm EST 10/27.

And for more chances to win, you can check out the other stops on the tour by clicking the banner below.

Saving June

Saving June
Hannah Harrington
330 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Source: NetGalley
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

When Harper discovers her older sister June's body after her suicide she's confused and hurt.  She's fed up with the way people are treating her and she's disgusted that her divorced parents are splitting up the ashes.  Then, after finding a postcard for California in June's desk, she steals the ashes and sets off on a road trip with her best friend and June's friend, Jake, to scatter the ashes there.

This book was so powerful and there were so many things to like about.  First of all, it's very realistic.  The emotions all three of the main characters feel on their road trip is realistic, as is their dialogue- they sound like real teenagers.  The book deals with a heavy topic, but it also has humorous moments that made me giggle out loud.  And of course there was the developing relationship between Harper and Jake to like.  They had a real sexual tension that definitely kept me clicking through the pages late last night.

Harper, Jake, and Laney take several detours during their trip, which really added to the plot.  They stopped at everything from "Fridgehenge" (it's exactly what you think it is) to an anti-war protest, to a hardcore concert complete with mosh pit.

Music played a huge rule in this book, which I liked since so many teenagers look to music as a life source.  It was nice to see Jake not just like whatever was playing on the radio, he had a very definitive kind of music he liked and related to.  When I was in high school I knew a guy just like that.  There are even some "soundtracks" listed at the end of the book so you can look it up for yourself, which I thought was great.

If you're into realistic, contemporary YA then this is definitely a book for you.  I highly recommend it, it was raw and real.  Saving June comes out November 22nd, so add it to your holiday wish list or pre-order it today.

Haunted on Bourbon Street

Haunted on Bourbon Street (Jade Calhoun #1)
Deanna Chase
247 pages
Publisher: Bayou Moon Publishing
Source: the author via a LibraryThing win
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Yay!  This is the third self-published novel this month that I've really enjoyed.  I love that I'm breaking my own stereotypes here!

Haunted on Bourbon Street takes place in New Orleans, where Jade has just moved into a haunted apartment above a strip club.  She works at the cafe next door and soon befriends the owners of the strip club/cafe.  But there's a couple problems: one, her apartment is being haunted by a strange man she dubs Mr. Sexy.  Two, her new BFF Pyper is being haunted by a much, much darker force and Jade will do anything she can to keep Pyper from being tormented by Mr. Evil.

This was a great book!  And a great time to read it considering Halloween is rapidly approaching.  This book definitely has some chills in it - Mr. Evil is a very dark force who is haunting Pyper; he likes to beat her up while she's sleeping.  He's definitely not a friendly ghost.

But this book was also sexy.  Mr. Sexy likes to creep up on Jade while she's sleeping and play the role of incubus, though he's not a demon, he's a ghost who seems to have followed her home.

The cast of characters in this book was diverse and made the plot fun to read.  I definitely recommend this ebook for your Halloween reading pleasure.  Chilling and sexy, Haunted on Bourbon Street is a win-win in adult fiction.  Four stars!

The Scorpio Races

The Scorpio Races
Maggie Steifvater
407 pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Source: ARC sent by publisher
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.


Every year in the island town of Thisby there is a water horse race.  A race in which several may die and only one can win.  Desperate to save her family home and to prevent her brother from leaving for the mainland, Puck becomes the first female to enter the race.  She soon befriends Sean, a regular in the races who also has something important riding on his winning.


What a fantastic novel.  The story was based on a myth but I want to state for the record that there is nothing paranormal about this book, contrary to the way some people are classifying it on Goodreads.  It's a solid story with realistic characters and the plot line is not at all sullied by magic or vampires or anything cliche like that.  There is nothing cliche about The Scorpio Races.  In fact, I found it to be refreshingly unique in the YA genre.


I will admit that the plot started out a little slow (hence my four stars instead of five).  There is a plot and a definite movement to it, but there isn't a lot of action until the end of the book.  Despite that, it was a page turner and I devoured most of it this afternoon while tackling my laundry. 


Really, the whole book lead up to the very end and it was the ending that was the absolute best part of the book.  I really liked the whole thing, but I fell in love with it because of the last forty pages.  The last few chapters that take place after the race really made my heart swell with happiness.  The Scorpio Races is about so much more than a race.  It's about family, friends, connections, and knowing what's important in life.  It's about knowing who you are and how that can make you a better person.  


I love Puck so much.


Not to beat the dead horse of YA comparisons (pun intended) but The Scorpio Races really did evoke some of the same feelings in me that The Hunger Games novels did.  The element of suspense was huge and and the ending climax of the book was amazing.  I can see The Scorpio Races becoming a classic in the future. And I would just like to add that I want to see this made into a movie.  I want to see those horses stampede across the beach on the big screen and I want to see a dainty red-head play Puck and I want to see (don't judge) Taylor Lautner play Sean.  The Scorpio Races would make such an amazing movie.


The Scorpio Races comes out Tuesday.  Read this book!  Read it!!

In My Mailbox (5)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren.

From the library:
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

"Won" on LibraryThing:
Effie at the Wedding: A Short Story by Tracy Marchini

I'm trying to be better at acquiring books because my TBR pile is so large.  I didn't do too bad this week, I didn't spend any money on books!

Happy Birthday To Me and Happy Birthday To Me Again

Happy Birthday To Me and Happy Birthday To Me Again
Brian Rowe
175 and 174 pages respectively
Publisher: the author
Source: the author
★★★★☆ and ★★★★★

You can read the Goodreads summaries here and here.

So these books hit my inbox at a pretty good time, considering my own birthday is coming up in just over a week.  These books were great, but oh boy, I hope I never have a birthday like those Cameron has in these books.

In the first book, Cameron is just your typical high school senior who likes to play a little trick when he goes out to eat - in his quest to get as many free desserts as possible, it's always his birthday.  He's pretty sure the waitstaff, particularly waitress Liesel, is catching on but he continues.  Suddenly he's again way too fast, about a year a day and he's rapidly becoming an old man, befuddling his friends and his doctors.

In the second book, Cameron seems to have the opposite problem.  Things are back to normal and he's in love with Liesel, in fact he just proposed!  But then, suddenly he's aging backwards, losing a year a day.  With significantly less time to figure this out than the last time he had this problem, he's got to figure out what to do and fast.

These books were great!  They were fast, light reads that really entertained.  The characters were all unique and well developed - my favorite character from the first book is probably Mrs. Gordon - the mean, horny librarian at the high school; she was such a hoot!  I hesitate to say Hannah was my favorite character in the second book because she was so evil, but I think she is.  A lot of imagination went into her and I think it's her character that's going to drive the rest of this series.

Happy Birthday to Me was great, but I thought Happy Birthday to Me Again really took it up a notch, which is why I gave it five stars.  We see more of the paranormal stuff in the second book and it ends on a cliffhanger/twist of events that really sets the reader up for the third novel, which I suspect will be even better than the second.

I just want to take a second and say I really, really enjoyed these two novels.  They're probably the best self-published novels I ever read.  Thank you for sending them to me, Brian!  If you like YA, you should definitely check these out!  They're short so you can read both in one afternoon.  As for me, I will definitely be checking out the third book in the trilogy, Happy Birthday to You, when it comes out.

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis

A Slot Machine Ate My Midlife Crisis
Irene Woodbury
332 Nook pages
Publisher: SynergEbooks
Source: the author
★★☆☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Middle-aged Paula is dissatisfied with her newlywed life in Houston with her rich husband.  After losing her job she spends a long weekend in Vegas with her best friend, Paula.  But when the time comes to head back home to Houston, she can't bring herself to do it.  Instead she stays in Vegas and starts putting down roots, sans husband.

Where to start, where to start... I didn't like this book.  The first thing that struck me was the over-description of all things Vegas.  From the different hotels, places to visit, places to eat, the people, everything.  It was just too much filler.  I also loathed the characters of Wendy and Paula from the start.  The descriptions of their spending made me sick.  Wendy had just lost her job in a bad economy, yet she was spending like she owned seventy oil refineries in the Middle East and Paula was even worse!  Paula had zero redeeming characteristics.  There is absolutely nothing likable about Paula, so how she managed to get married three times is beyond me.

There were a couple things I liked about the book though, and that included Roger.  I felt so bad for him, that he was in love with Wendy who clearly is so self-centered she couldn't ever really love anyone.  I wanted Roger to finally face the facts and file divorce, but he just wouldn't.  Poor man couldn't catch a break.  I also liked the character of Paige, Paula's sister.  I really liked her.  She had a great outlook on life, refused to take money from Daddy, and made her own way.  I wish there had been a whole lot more of Paige in this book than Paula.

I'm normally pretty opposed to divorce except in extreme circumstances like abuse.  I prefer to see couples to go therapy and at least try to work it out, but this book had me on a whole different train.  I was just waiting for Wendy and Roger to divorce.  I was wishing one of their shouting matches would finally turn into papers served...

Two stars, because it was okay.  There was just so much about this book that grated on my nerves, including the formatting.  I had the ePub copy so it should have read perfectly on my Nook, but there were no paragraphs and instead of quotation marks there were question marks.  Statements kept reading in my head like questions, which was strange.

In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

For review:

Simon Pulse sent Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez

Multnomah Books via their Blogging for Books program sent Shadows on the Sand by Gayle Roper

Jenn McKinlay via a Goodreads win sent her latest book Death by the Dozen

Swapped for:

The Reckoning by Beverly Lewis

An equal number of books in and out this week.  Let's call that progress for now!

Death by the Dozen

Death by the Dozen
Jenn McKinlay
276 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Goodreads win!
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Mel and her baking partner, Angie, are entering a local bake off contest with the chance to win ten thousand dollars and a lot of publicity for their cupcakery.  But when one of the judges is found murdered and frozen in a trailer, Mel finds herself not just baking but also investigating the murder.  Hopefully she can catch the killer before s/he comes after her, too!

I loved this cozy!  The plot was fantastic as was the diverse cast of characters.  Early on the novel Mel gets an intern from the local high school, Oz, who really shakes up the bakeshop.  I thought he was a great character in the novel.

If there's one thing I love more than a cozy, it's a cozy with a cat, or in this case, a teeny tiny kitten named Captain Jack!  The cat the author described me reminded me a lot of my own cat, Mittens, who is now unfortunately two years old and no longer a baby kitten.

There was on problem I had with this book: the cupcakes!  I started the book last night and when I was running errands earlier today and accidentally stumbled upon a local cupcake bakery, I had to go in.  They even had cookie dough cupcakes, which were mentioned in the novel and I knew it was meant to be.  And it was delicious.  So basically, be warned that this book will make you crave all things sugary, not that there's anything wrong with that.

What was really great about this cozy was that even though it was the third in a series, it can definitely stand alone.  I haven't read the first two books in the series, but I had no problem following the plot or figuring out the different personalities of the characters.  I love that!  I think I'm going to have to go back and read the first two, though, just for fun.

PS: Even though I was provided this book free through a giveaway, that didn't affect my review.  It was really good, read it!