Review: Fatal Fiction by Kym Roberts

Charli Rae Warren is a kindergarten teacher in Colorado. She left Hazel Rock, Texas years ago as a teen. Now she has been called home to Texas to sign papers to sell The Book Barn which she is part owner in with her Daddy.

Charli hasn't been in town 5 minutes when she becomes a suspect in the murder of her realtor whose body she finds in the Book Barn. What was supposed to be a quick trip becomes extended fast. And Daddy is nowhere in sight. No one seems to know where he's gotten to or why.

With help from Scarlet who has transformed from ugly duckling to swan, her old beau from high school, and an armadillo, Charli tries to solve the mystery of whodunnit before she or her Daddy end up in jail.

This cozy mystery is a quick, fun read. It reminds me a little of a high school reunion since it refers back frequently to her time as a teen in the town. And at first, the town reacts to her as if she was that same teen. I won't say how things change for better or worse. Scarlet becomes her partner in crime so to speak as they seek the killer and try and improve the Book Barn so it will sell or turn a profit of some kind.

I enjoyed the characters of Charli and Scarlet in particular. The plot moves along well. The reader is provided with the same clues as Charli and Scarlet. There are enough twists in the plot that I didn't guess the killer ahead of time,

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Fatal Fiction is worth a read if you enjoy cozies with a taste of the small town South and a touch of humor. This is the first in a new series called Book Barn mysteries. It was published December 6, 2016 by Lyrical Underground.

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

Waiting on Wednesday #167: She Stopped for Death by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli

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

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

Jenny Weston and her mother, Dora, have been receiving strange midnight visits. Bear Falls's own elusive and highly secretive poet, Emily Sutton, has lived her life cloistered away with her sister in a house at the edge of Pewee Swamp. But now, Emily's started leaving scraps of poetry in Dora's Little Library, and Dora makes it her mission to befriend the sheltered woman.

Meanwhile Zoe Zola, almost famous author, Little Person, and the Weston's quirky next-door neighbor, is hard at work on a new book, this one about the inner life of Emily Dickinson. And once again, Zoe's literary work starts making uncanny connections with the events in her own world as Emily Sutton reemerges into society. But Zoe begins to suspect things aren't anywhere near normal at Emily's swamp house or in the lives of the people she claims have abandoned her...until looking further into the poet's half-truths leads Zoe and Jenny to a horrible murder.

The chaos surrounding the ensuing investigation grows even more hectic with Emily’s increasingly erratic behavior, the arrival of a young woman searching for her missing poet uncle, and yet another betrayal in Jenny's love life. And only poetry can set the truth free in Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli's charming second Little Library mystery, She Stopped for Death.

She Stopped for Death is due out January 10, 2017 from Crooked Lane Books.

Why am I waiting on this book? I find the Emily Dickinson connection interesting. I've always been a little fascinated by her. And it sounds like a good mystery. 

What book are you waiting on this week? Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our TBR lists. Thanks for coming by and Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesday: Think Happy by Karen Salmansohn

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• 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 so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

When you're stressed, your brain enters into "fight or flight" - and it gets stuck in its less smart "reptilian brain" setting. This is why people under great stress feel tongue-tied and choked up... When you do something to de-stress, you exit "fight or flight" and tap back into your smarter-thinking neocortex and limbic system.

Almost everything works better if you unplug for a few minutes - including you.  ~ Ann Lamott

- quotations from #3 from the section "5 Things to Say When You Feel Stressed Out"

Not sure I agree with everything in this book of mini pep talks, but I liked this one. The idea of stepping back for a minute or more so that you can reboot your thinking makes sense. 

Think Happy - Instant Peptalks to Boost Positivity by Karen Salmansohn was released August 9, 2016 from Ten Speed Press.

What's your teaser this week? Share it or a link in the comments. Are you enjoying your book? Let us know! Happy Reading!

Waiting on Wednesday #166: My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith

"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 the book I am waiting on is My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith. It's a standalone novel that looks to be humorous in nature. It's due out April 4, 2017 from Abacus.

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When writer Paul Stewart heads to the idyllic Italian town of Montalcino to finish his already late book, it seems like the perfect escape from stressful city life. Upon landing, however, things quickly take a turn for the worse when he discovers his hired car is nowhere to be found. With no record of any reservation and no other cars available, it looks like Paul is stuck at the airport. That is, until an enterprising stranger offers him an unexpected alternative. While there may be no cars available there is something else on offer: a bulldozer.

With little choice in the matter, Paul accepts and so begins a series of laugh out loud adventures through the Italian countryside, following in the wake of Paul and his Italian Bulldozer. A story of unexpected circumstance and lesson in making the best of what you have, My Italian Bulldozer is a warm holiday read guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

What book are you waiting on this week?  Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our TBR lists. Thanks for coming by and Happy Reading!

Waiting on Wednesday #165: There's a Mystery There: the Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak by Jonathan Cott

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

Synopsis from Goodreads:

An extraordinary, path-breaking, and penetrating book on the life and work and creative inspirations of the great children's book genius Maurice Sendak, who since his death in 2012 has only grown in his stature and recognition as a major American artist, period. 
Polymath and master interviewer Jonathan Cott first interviewed Maurice Sendak in 1976 for Rolling Stone, just at the time when Outside Over There, the concluding and by far the strangest volume of a trilogy that began with Where The Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, was gestating. Over the course of their wide-ranging and revelatory conversation about his life, work, and the fantasies and obsessions that drove his creative process, they focused on many of the themes and images that would appear in the new book five years later. Drawing on that interview, There's a Mystery There is a profound examination of the inner workings of a complicated genius's torments and inspirations that range over the entirety of his work and his formative life experiences, and uses Outside Over There, brilliantly and originally, as the key to understanding just what made this extravagantly talented man tick. To gain multiple perspectives on that intricate and multifaceted book, Cott also turns to four "companion guides": a Freudian analyst, a Jungian analyst, an art historian, and Sendak's great friend and admirer, the playwright Tony Kushner. The book is richly illustrated with examples from Sendak's work and other related images."


Why am I waiting on this one? I've long been a fan of Maurice Sendak. My all time favorite books by him are Where the Wild Things Are followed by the Nutshell Library boxed collection. I was lucky enough to see him speak when I was in college and even got to get his autograph. I am curious what this book has to say about him and his art and writing.

There's a Mystery There is due out May 16, 2017 from Doubleday Books.

What book are you waiting on this week? Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our TBR lists. Thanks for coming by and Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesday: Fatal Fiction by Kym Roberts

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• 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 so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"He nodded and jotted something down on his notepad. I hoped it said find another suspect. But I knew bad karma was stuck to me like the stank of an angry skunk."
~ 10% through on my Kindle

Fatal Fiction is the first book in the new Book Barn Mystery.series. It's due out December 6, 2016 from Lyrical Underground. The main character is kindergarten teacher Charli Rae Warren in Hazel Rock, Texas. The above teaser is from her point of view. She hadn't been in town five minutes before she became a suspect in a murder.

What's your teaser this week? Share it or a link in the comments. Are you enjoying your book? Let us know! Happy Reading!

Review: Nightmares edited by Ellen Datlow

Things that go bump in the night? Sure, but so much more than that. The stories are varied and run the gamut from horrifying to creepy to don't turn your lights off scary. There was even a retelling of sorts of Hansel and Gretel. And don't forget the zombies.

Ellen Datlow is an excellent editor. I believe she is a sort of expert in short story quality and in horror from her many years of editing the Best Horror of the Year series among other things. Authors included in the anthology are (in order of appearance): Mark Samuels, Gene Wolfe, Brian Hodge, Kaaron Warren, Lisa Tuttle, Gemma Files, Simon Bestwick, Nicholas Royle, Margo Lanagan, Steve Duffy, Laird Barron, Stephen Graham Jones, Reggie Oliver, Ray Cluely, M. Rickert, John Langan, Anna Taborska, Livia Llewellyn, Dan Chaon, Robert Shearman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Garth Nix, Nathan Ballingrud, and Richard Kadrey.

As with most anthologies, I didn't like all the stories equally. Some were better than others for me. A few I was puzzled as to why they were included. There was one story that used incest as an important part of the story. That one I could have done without entirely. It just wasn't for me.

My favorites were: How We Escaped Our Certain Fate by Don Chaon, and the last 3 stories in the anthology. It was almost as though the best were saved for last, but the stories were arranged chronologically in order of year of publication. Datlow says of the stories included: "Consider them a guide to some of the best short story writers currently working in the field of horror fiction. And in this volume specifically, a good representation of the excellent horror that was published between 2005 and 2015."

Overall, enough of the stories were satisfying for me to give the anthology a 4 out of 5 stars rating.

Nightmares: a New Decade of Modern Horror was released November 1, 2016 by Tachyon Publications.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.