Waiting on Wednesday #62 - Once Upon a Grind by Cleo Coyle

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating.

Expected publication: December 2nd 2014
by Berkley Hardcover

I've not read anything by Cleo Coyle before, but apparently this is part of a series where the amateur sleuth owns a coffee shop. What piqued my interest about this one was the fairy tale themes that appear to be throughout the story. Once Upon a Grind is #14 in the Coffeehouse mystery series. 

The blurb from Goodreads: 

Fairy tale fever has descended on New York City. Broadway fans are flocking to Red Riding Hood: The Musical; museums are exhibiting art inspired by the Brothers Grimm; and Clare Cosi gives her coffee truck a "Jack and the Beanstalk” makeover for a Central Park festival.

Clare’s coffee hunter ex-husband contributes a bag of African beans with alleged magical properties. His octogenarian mother entertains customers with readings of the grinds, but Clare remains skeptical—until she receives a vision that helps her find a young model’s body in the park’s woods.

The police dismiss "sleeping beauty” as the victim of a drug overdose. Then Clare uncovers evidence that points to a roster of suspects, from a wolf of Wall Street to a New York Giant and a wicked witch of the West Side.

Now Clare is really in the woods—with a dangerous predator on her heels and an investigation that leads from a secret Prince Charming club right back to her own NYPD detective boyfriend. If she doesn’t solve this mystery, those magic beans predict an unhappy ending.

Includes wicked good recipes!

So, what book are you waiting on this week? Share it in the comments or a link to your post.

Thanks for coming by!

Teaser Tuesday: Solomon's Whisper by Sandra Brannan

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading.

Anyone can participate. just do the following.

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t  give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

My teasers come from Solomon's Whisper by Sandra Brannan. It's the fifth book in the Liv Bergen series, released in September of 2014.

"Everyone else has knocked off for the day, except you." He paused for a second before adding, "You know how to eat an elephant don't you?"

I answered with obvious frustration,  "Yes. You've told me.  One bite at a time."

"He" is Streeter, Liv's boss. And the "I" is Liv Bergen an FBI agent. Liv is a bit of a workaholic. She is working 2 cases at this point in the book (40% in on my Kindle). One is a cold case, the murder of her niece Brianna. The other is the murder of a young girl much like JonBenet Ramsey. The teaser comes from 41% through.

So, what's your teaser this week? Leave a link or the teaser in the comments so we can check it out. Happy Reading!

Review: Silent Murders by Mary Miley

In the The Impersonator, Leah Randall aka Jessie Beckett, took on the biggest role of her life impersonating a dead cousin and working to solve the mystery of her disappearance. The novel was filled with bits of information about what it was like to be in Vaudeville and compared it to the lifestyle her cousin would have had as a young heiress.

Silent Murders by Mary Miley is book two in her Roaring Twenties mystery series. Leah has now officially taken on the name Jessie Beckett and is working in Hollywood as an assistant script girl on the set of a Douglas Fairbanks movie, "Don Q: Son of Zorro."

The differences between Vaudeville and Hollywood are brought up occasionally, but mostly the plot sticks to Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and as a minor character, Myrna Loy and of course the murders. This is the end of the era of the Silent Movies and Talkies are just around the bend.

Mary comes to Douglas Fairbanks attention while she's working on the set of his movie and he asks her to become his personal assistant while his usual one is in Texas comforting her dying father. So it is in this role that Mary first becomes friends with him and Mary Pickford. Jessie ends up investigating a murder at Douglas Fairbanks request and becomes good friends with a policeman named Carl in the process.

From Goodreads: Jessie’s thrilled when Bruno Heilmann, a movie studio bigwig, invites her to a party. She’s even more delighted to run into a face from her past at that party. But the following day, Jessie learns that sometime in the wee hours of the morning both her old friend and Bruno Heilmann were brutally murdered. She’s devastated, but with her skill as an actress, access to the wardrobes and resources of a film studio, and a face not yet famous enough to be recognized, Jessie is uniquely positioned to dig into the circumstances surrounding these deaths. But will doing so put her own life directly in the path of a murderer?

Jessie is indeed put in the path of a murderer and danger will touch her more than once as the number of murders mounts.

The Roaring 20s is a fun time to read about. And the film industry with some of the big names in Hollywood as characters just makes it more alluring. She works for Douglas Fairbanks who is married to Mary Pickford. Her best friend and roommate is Myrna Loy whose close acquaintance happens to be Gary Cooper.

David from The Impersonator also makes an appearance as Jessie tries to solve the mysteries before someone else gets hurt. It's not necessary to read book one to enjoy his appearance. Enough is explained to make it interesting.

While Silent Murders is second in a series, it can be read as a stand alone book. The mysteries were intriguing. Since it is told mostly from Jessie's point of view, we find out everything as she does and it allows the reader to guess along with her as to who is the murderer.

If you like novels set in the 1920s or in Silent Movie era Hollywood, then you will probably enjoy this mystery. I am already looking forward to a third novel in the series. I love the character of Jessie and that her complexities and ties to both Vaudeville and the movies help her to solve the mystery.

I give this novel 4 stars out of 5 for the quality of writing and for the quality of the mystery.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Teaser Tuesday: Solomon's Whisper by Sandra Brannan

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading.

Anyone can participate. just do the following.

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t  give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

Published September 2014
by Greenleaf Book Group

This week's teaser comes from about 7% through the kindle version of the book. 

Tilton dragged her eyes to Sewell's. "Two murders? How could that have been missed?"

"Not a murder from twenty-six years ago. Recently. The neighbor already identified him. This is far from being case closed until I find out who killed Carl Halbrook."

Solomon's Whisper is book #5 in the Liv Bergen series by Sandra Brannan.  More can be found about her books at http://sandrabrannan.com/book/.

So, what was  your teaser this week? Leave a link or the teaser in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you.

Review: Tomes of Terror by Mark Leslie

Published September 27th 2014
by Dundurn Group 

Do you like ghost stories? What about ghost stories that are supposed to be true? I do. Tomes of Terror: Haunted Bookstores and Libraries by Mark Leslie is full of such reported hauntings. Many of the stories have first person accounts of encounters.

I can easily believe that a library or bookstore could be haunted. I worked in one bookstore where the general consensus was that we had a resident ghost with no idea who or why it was there. Many of the occurrences attributed to ghosts in this volume are similar to what we experienced: books that fall onto the floor for no reason, alarms that go off when they shouldn't, doors that swing open or shut with no one there. Others have more intricate hauntings including footsteps and even apparitions. One haunting even seemed to be specifically for a particular book.

Mark Leslie covered bookstores and libraries in both Canada, the United States and a few abroad. There are footnotes and appendices backing  his information. In particular I enjoyed the Further Reading and Additional Resources for the Bookish at Heart.

If you enjoy reading about things that go bump in the night, then this book might be for you. The only thing I might have changed in the book would be to group the hauntings further by geography. For example, all the hauntings that take place in a particular city or state grouped together instead of just by country. That way it would be useful for people who might want to visit the spots close to where they will be.

Otherwise I think that Tomes of Terror is an excellent book on accounts of hauntings in bookstores and libraries. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. I like it very much and would share it with my fellow bookish people.

Have you ever been in a bookstore or library that was supposed to be haunted? Have you ever experienced a haunting at all? Feel free to share in the comments.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in order to give my honest opinion.

Waiting on Wednesday #61 - Quicksand by Gigi Pandian

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating.

This week I am waiting on Quicksand by Gigi Pandian. This is the third Jaya Jones mystery from Henery Press. It's due to come out March 10, 2015. 

The Jaya Jones mysteries are a little bit historical, but also part Indiana Jones-ish. She has a mystery to solve in the present day, but it is always affected by some sort of history that is often crucial to her solving the mystery. This mystery takes place in France. Settings include places like The Louvre and Mont Saint-Michel.

From the publisher: 

A thousand-year-old secret room. A sultan’s stolen treasure. A missing French priest. And an invitation to Paris to rekindle an old flame....

Historian Jaya Jones finds herself on the wrong side of the law during an art heist at the Louvre. To redeem herself, she follows clues from an illuminated manuscript that lead from the cobblestone streets of Paris to the quicksand-surrounded fortress of Mont Saint-Michel. With the help of enigmatic Lane Peters and a 90-year-old stage magician, Jaya delves into France's colonial past in India to clear her name and catch a killer.

I am looking forward to it because I enjoyed the first two Jaya Jones mysteries. And because I like the Indiana Jones-ish quality to these mysteries.

What book are you waiting on this Wednesday? Tell me in the comments or share a link. I look forward to hearing from you!

Quickie Review: Black Swan, White Raven edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

I read this first in hardcover several years ago. I just read it again in Kindle format. It was just as good the second time through. I liked some stories better than others, which is par for the course in an anthology, but I did like it overall. Even the stories I didn't like so much were interesting to read for their take on the retelling of the tale in question.

I think that one of my favorite picks is "Godmother Death" by Jane Yolen. The language and rhythm go well with the story. It's short, but a pleasure to read and makes you think. Can Death be cheated? Also I liked that for a change Death was personified as a woman. 

I would recommend this book and the others in its series specifically for people who enjoy fantasy and retellings of fairy and folk tales. Datlow and Windling are great editors for this series of anthologies. 

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Teaser Tuesday - Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading.

Anyone can participate. just do the following.

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t  give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

Published January 14th 2014 by Quirk Books

This week's teaser comes from Hollow City - the Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children  by Ransom Riggs.

"We sat together and looked into the ice for a long while, at the forms trapped there, blurred and distorted in the darkening light, suspended like ancient eggs in blue amber. We sat, and I could tell from the silence collecting between us that this was going to be a hard conversation - one neither of us wanted to start." p.356

The book picks up where the first one left off. The children are still at sea and on their way to London where they hope to find the last free ymbryne, Miss Wren.  The quotation above is from a scene with Emma and Jacob close to the end of the book.

I'm liking the book. It keeps me turning pages and wondering what will happen to the children and just what will they face next. And the pictures in the book are as interesting as they were in the last one. There seem to be more of them as well.

What's your teaser this week? Tell me about it in the comments or leave a link so I can check it out.

Waiting on Wednesday #60 - A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating.

A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders is the first in a new series featuring Samantha Clair - book editor and amateur sleuth. The book is due out February 24, 2015 from Minotaur Books. 

The synopsis from the publisher: 

A witty, entertaining mystery featuring a hilarious, sharp as a tack new amateur sleuth from the critically acclaimed author of The Invention of Murder

It’s just another day at the office for book editor Samantha Clair. Checking jacket copy for howlers, wondering how to break it to her star novelist that her latest effort is utterly unpublishable, lunch scheduled with gossipy author Kit Lowell, whose new book will deliciously dish the dirt on the fashion industry. But little does she know how much trouble Kit’s book is about to cause. Before it even goes to print. When police inspector Field turns up at the venerable offices of Timmins & Ross, asking questions about an undelivered package that was addressed to Sam, she knows something is wrong. The messenger sent to deliver the package was murdered, and then Kit goes missing. Suddenly, Sam's nine-to-five life is turned upside down and she is propelled into a criminal investigation. Someone doesn't want Kit's scandalous manuscript published and unless Sam can put the pieces together in time, they'll do anything to stop it.

With her deliciously fun, cleverly written debut novel, acclaimed author Judith Flanders introduces readers to an enormously enjoyable, too-smart-for-her-own-good new amateur sleuth, as well as a colorful cast of characters including Sam's witty assistant, effortlessly glamorous mother, and the handsome inspector Field. A whip-smart, impeccably crafted mystery, this tremendously entertaining novel will have readers flying through the pages.

Why am I looking forward to it? It sounds like a funny mystery and the main character is in the publishing business. I love to read mysteries, but especially ones that have humor to them.

So, what book are you looking forward to this week? Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out. And thanks for stopping by!

Teaser Tuesday - Silent Murders by Mary Miley

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading.

Anyone can participate. just do the following.

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t  give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 

Published September 23rd 2014
by Minotaur Books

"Well Jessie Beckett, I'll tell you where you best fit in. If you agree, that is. My personal assistant was called home to Texas to comfort her dying father. And I need someone to fill her shoes for a while, Frank offered you up." 

(1% Douglas Fairbanks talking to main character Jessie Beckett.)

Synopsis from the publisher:

Vaudeville actress Leah Randall took on her most daring role ever when she impersonated missing heiress Jessie Carr in order to claim Jessie’s inheritance in The Impersonator. Now that the dust has settled around that tumultuous time in her life, Leah has adopted Jessie’s name as her own and moved to Hollywood, where she's taken a modest but steady job in the silent film industry.

Jessie’s thrilled when Bruno Heilmann, a movie studio bigwig, invites her to a party. She’s even more delighted to run into a face from her past at that party. But the following day, Jessie learns that sometime in the wee hours of the morning both her old friend and Bruno Heilmann were brutally murdered. She’s devastated, but with her skill as an actress, access to the wardrobes and resources of a film studio, and a face not yet famous enough to be recognized, Jessie is uniquely positioned to dig into the circumstances surrounding these deaths. But will doing so put her own life directly in the path of a murderer?

So, what's your teaser this week? Share it or a link in the comments. I'd love to hear from you.