Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery

I am a scrapbooker in my heart and have horded thousands of photographs and materials for scrapbooking but I just have not gotten fully into it. So consequently I was drawn to these books out of maybe guilt? This book, Cut, Crop & Die, is the second in a series starting with Paper, Scissors, Death the first. Joanna Campbell-Slan created a really warm cozy about a scrapbooker designer who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time situations. Kiki is helping out at a special cropping event when one of the attendees has a severe allergic reaction to something she ate. When the women goes to inject herself with her epi pen, she discovers the pen is empty and doesn't make it. All in all a suspicious death but not surprising when Kiki finds out what a menace the victim was. With the tying in of wonderful scrapbooking info and the obsession of her mother in law to get rid of her moles, these are wonderful cozies. And little interesting romances thrown in. These are should reads and I will continue to seek them for inspiration as they come out. Photo, Snap, Shot in the next book which I will be looking forward to. http://www.joannacampbellslan.com/

St Just Mysteries

Sorry I got a little behind on my reviews so I will be playing catchup now. I just got done reading the first two books in the St Just series by G.M. Malliet, Death of a Cozy Writer and Death of a Lit Chick. Our mystery solver in this series is a DCI Arthur St Just, a likable widower who seems like an easy going guy. In Death of a Cozy Writer, Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk is the guy who gets stabbed, preceded by his son who got whacked, and really no one is sorry to see the man dead. He was a vengeful writer of Agatha Christie like mysteries and toyed mercifully with his family for rights to his fortune when he dies. And so he does. There unfortunately are too many suspects available at the time of death, including his new trophy wife. In Death of a Lit Chick, St Just finds himself sent off to attend a writers conference, staying at Edinburgh's Dalmorton Castle, to talk about police procedures. The victim in this one is a chick lit writer newbie who had taken the writing world by storm and left many upset people in her wake. Not a nice person outwardly and again with many suspects around to pick from. St just evens meets a writer who leaves him breathless and we will see where that leads. I thoroughly enjoyed both books and will seek out the next, Death at the Alma Mater. These are should reads and will written. http://gmmalliet.weebly.com/

Caroline Burnes Familiar series

Okay, I have to admit once I found out about these books about a year ago, I absolutely devoured this entertaining series. These books are about a black cat detective named Familiar. Familiar has a girlfriend, Clotilde, and a place to call home with Eleanor but he pretty much does what he wants and goes where he wants to help anybody out. This is one smart cat that has a very interesting way of getting his point across and humans believe it all. It seems in every book and adventure, and he has many, it only takes one or two astonishing acts upon Familiar's part, for humans to be convinced this is one intelligent cat and one to be obeyed. He is a swift, sly, crafty, matchmaking cat, (I could keep going with the adjectives), that always get his man. There are 19 Fear Familiar books written by Caroline Burnes, a pseudonym used by Carolyn Haines. I just completed Familiar Vows, #18, and again I chuckled out loud many times at the dynamics of this cat. In this one, a photographer accidentally takes a picture of a person in witness protection and that picture is unfortunately broadcast on the news from a gallery display. The photographer then becomes the hunted and needs Familiar's help, and the hunky ex Us Marshall named Lucas, to stay alive while trying to help the person in the witness protection program stay alive. http://www.carolynhaines.com/ Unfortunately, there really is not a Familiar website. Library book. You really should read these.

Avian cozy mysteries

I totally enjoy the avian cozy mystery series by Donna Andrews. Every book has a different type of bird in it and you learn little tidbits of info about those birds. Her newest one, Swan for the Money, is a hoot. By the way, the swans in this one are black and very intimidating as they are big birds and actually able to do some serious damage when provoked. But the part that was the hoot was the black and white, fainting goats ( supposedly there is such a thing). Just the thought has me snickering imagining them being startled and falling over in a faint. I know, I'm bad. In this book, Meg's parents have developed a new hobby: growing and showing champion roses. Who would of thought the whole business was so complicated. Meg gets roped into being the organizer for the rose show to be held on the grounds of a very strange, monochromatic woman's estate. Everything on the property is black and/or white, inside the house and out, to the point of being truly and obscenely obsessive. So we have a delightfully funny story about a rose show, a dog napping, attempts on the strange woman's' life with one fatality (case of mistaken identity?), guys showing up in the middle of the night to take animals and Meg wondering if she is pregnant but afraid to buy a pregnancy kit from the local drug store because the word would hit the town and she would be deluged with calls. These are should reads, people. http://www.donnaandrews.com/ Library book

Witchy good read

I backtracked on a series that I read the third book in a few weeks ago. The light, witchy fun chic-lit book called Sorcery and the Single Girl by Mindy Klasky is the second. In this one, Jane the librarian, newly developed witch, has to prove her metal to the area coven. She will have to prove herself to them that she is worthy of joining their ranks, by completing a task thought up by the coven. Jane brings a valuable copy of the Illustrated History of Witches, specific to that area, with a citrine stone binding it to the Coven Mother as a gift. It is then she learns she will be given the honor of setting the cornerstone for their new building to protect the coven. She practices and practices with her familiar and her warder, even with a distraction of a hunky british guy and some supposed help from one of the coven members. She quickly learns who is actually helping her and who is hindering her, which proves to be suspenseful and funny. At the end when she does her thing and finds out if she is in or not, is entertaining and surprising. This was another good read and I am now in search of the first! http://www.mindyklasky.com/ Library book

Another smart one

Oh, you think I am so smart, don't you? I have been reading books about smart girls, that's why. Another one involving sisters called The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire Lazebnick. What's interesting is that you start reading this story about two sisters, Ava is a lawyer and dresses frumpy and Lauren is a fashion diva and works as a clothes buyer. At the end, you have to really start wondering which one is classified as the smart one and which is the pretty one because it is sort of like they switch roles. So the facts are, Lauren is a over the top spender, on clothes, of course. Their mother has to do chemo for a small breast lump. Lauren is the one that takes the mom to chemo and meets a guy there that is also taking his mother for chemo. Humm, kind of a morbid relationship and probably is doomed. The next fact is Lauren finds a contract that had been signed by her parents about Ava, when she was a young girl, supposedly bonding her to a friends son for marriage. She calls the son and sets her sister up with her intended, which I think was a hilarious relationship from the start. So with all the matchmaking going on, it is with wonder that you find out how they end up happy. This was a good read. http://clairelazebnik.com/ Library book

Smart girls think twice

Or in this case, the smart girl got the hunk. And what a hunk. A ex-extreme sport junkie. Another opposites attract. In this book, Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz, Emma decides to make good use of her time back in Rock Creek, due to her two sisters getting married two weeks apart, and publish a sociology study pertaining to why people are congregating to small towns. One of the first people she decides to interview is Jake, who is bar tending at Nick's while trying to find his birth mother. Secretly. Jake had had a epiphany when he was seriously hurt in a rock climbing accident in which his best friend dies. He disappears off the extreme sport scene to show up in Rock creek, supposedly looking for a place to put a resort in. So sets the story of Emma wanting yummy Jake and Jake finding it hot that a smart girl wants him. Good love scenes. A good hot read.