So was King Arthur real or not? That is the real question in this book.

Title: Death in an Ivory Tower by Maria Hudgins (A Dotsy Lamb Travel Mystery #5)
Checked out from public library.
Why I chose this book:  I have loved this series and always catch the newest one when it comes out.
About the book: Dotsy Lamb, an ancient and medieval history teacher from VA, is attending a conference at Oxford UK, with her professor Larry Roberts, on "The Lingering Effects of the King Arthur Tales on Life in Elizabethan England". Her contribution to the conference would be "Shakespeare's Historical Sources and References to Arthurian Legend in his Plays" which comes from her dissertation she is currently writing.  After getting settled in at the dorm rooms at one of the colleges the first night, one of the presenters dies mysteriously after dinner.  Dotsy thinks right off the bat that something simply does not add up right.  Along with her best friend, Lettie, who is staying in the same dorm but not attending the conference but assisting her doctor daughter who is participating in a doctor trade program, she sifts through the animosity between all the speakers to determine if there was foul play.  She gets really confused when Lettie's daughter gets shot right outside her rental house.  Where do the two incidents related?  When the killer tries to do her in also, Dotsy waits up to see who shows up and catches them in a trap of sorts. 
Tidbit of info from the book: Learned lots of little tidbits on theories of topics of this conference. 
My rating: Good read
Check out the author's website for other books: http://mariahudgins.com/

Book 6 in the Cat in the Stacks Series

Title: Arsenic and Old Books by Miranda James (A Cat in the Stacks Mystery #6)
Checked out from public library.
Why I chose this book:  I have loved this series and always catch the newest one when it comes out.
About the book: Charlie Harris is an archivist for a library in Athena MS, along with his trusted companion Diesel, a Maine Coon cat, who goes everywhere with him.  So when the local mayor finds some hidden diaries, in her attic, of her husband's great-great grandmother, Rachel Afton Long, and wants them preserved for everyone to read, Charlie is the man to see.  But what the mayor does not anticipate is so many people wanting to read them right off the bat.  Wanting to read them so bad, they would steal and murder for them. The diaries prove to be enlightening of the trials and tribulations about the time of the Civil War but could one volume damage a family legacy? When one of the most eager readers dies from a hit and run, Charlie wants to know what's up.   Lots of library research for him to figure out what is going on and who the killer is. 
Tidbit of info from the book: "The standard ink used at the time was iron gall, or oak gall, ink made from a combination of iron salts, tannic acids and vegetable matter.  The latter tended to be the galls, formed by wasps that infested oak trees and caused the plant tissue to swell,  The resulting ink is acidic and sometimes caused so-called ghost writing on the obverse side of the writing surface, usually vellum or paper."
My rating: Must read
Check out the author's website for other books: http://www.catinthestacks.com/

Loved this first book in a new series!!

Title: Well Read, Then Dead by Terrie Farley Moran (A Read 'Em and Eat Mystery)
Checked out from public library.
Why I chose this book:  The setting of a book store inside a restaurant.
About the book: Read 'Em and Eat Café and Book Corner is run by Mary "Sassy" Cabot and Bridget Mayfield, in Fort Myers Beach, FLA.  A cozy café that has tables honoring authors, a menu that has literary specials and that is host to many book clubs meetings.  Older cousins Augusta and Delia like to attend one of those book club and when Delia was found dead the next morning after one meeting, Augusta declares Sassy must find out who killed her.  When not staring into the blue eyes of the new Police Lieutenant, Sassy is crossing off suspects on her list of possible murders.  This was quite a entertaining read and I will look forward to many more in this series.
Great laugh from the book:  "If we weren't in Southern Florida, I would have thought we were mid-snowstorm in Brooklyn, that's how white the kitchen was - the floor, both work counters, the stove, even a swath of wall. My first thought was food fight.  But no.  A food fight would require cooked food,  This mess looked like someone took bags of flour, slit the sides, held then at arm's length and shook."
Tidbit of info: "Ten Thousand Islands... no one's ever counted them, of course.  The are so many types of landmasses down there....right here on the south bank of the Chatham River, Possum Key is a large island, while on the north bank is a smaller body, originally a shell mount, which provided fertile farmland for the likes of Edgar Watson and other settlers arriving either side of 1900."
My rating: Should read
Check out the author's website for other books: http://terriefarleymoran.com/

Another new cozy series.

The next book I am going to review is a first book in a new series. 
Title: A First Date with Death by Diana Orgain (A Love or Money Mystery)
Checked out from public library.
Why I chose this book:  The concept of this book to me was so outrageous, I just had to read it. And sort of set in San Francisco.
About the book: Georgia Thorton is a ex-cop that was left at the altar by her cop fiancé.  So she gets roped into doing a reality show called Love or Money by her best friend, her best friend thinking Georgia will meet the right guy.  So 10 guys compete for her, 5 wanting love and to split the winnings with her and 5 who want her to pick them and they get all the money.  But a murderer is eliminating the competition right off the bat.  It was a playful read with little bios interspersed through the book on which guy wants what.  So hard not to read ahead and know ahead of time which guy to root for. 
My rating: Must read.
Check out the author's website for future books:  http://dianaorgain.com/

First review is a cozy...of course.

My first book I am going to review is a first book in a new series. 
Title: Assault and Pepper by Leslie Budewitz (A Spice Shop Mystery)
Checked out from public library.
Great line from the book:  Too bad "He had it coming" is no defense to premeditated murder.
Tidbit of info: The beginning of every chapter is a tidbit of info on spices.  Very informative and fun!!
Why I chose this book:  It is set in Seattle's Pike's Place Market area.  I used to live on Whidbey Island and went down there many times.  It was such an interesting place to shop.
About the book: Pepper Reece has bought out an existing spice shop in Seattle 1 year ago, after leaving a cheating husband and losing a job with a failing corporation.  While she is in the process of putting her personal touch on the Seattle Spice Shop, a seemingly homeless man dies on her shop stoop.  One of her employees is accused of the murder and Pepper vows to find the real killer while Detectives Spenser and Tracy are making her life miserable.  While Pepper finds out who the victim is, all her questioning makes the killer nervous.
My rating: Should read
Side note:  Recipes in the back of the book!!!
Check out the author's website for other books:  http://www.lesliebudewitz.com/

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Okay I am going to try this again. I have missed it.

I have thought about this blog and have decided to start it up again. And I hope to get peeps to like it and follow it.   I format the blog a way to focus on why I picked the book, where I got it, a paragraph that caught my attention, a tidbit I learned and of course what I thought about it and my rating.  My ratings are in order of how good I think a book is:

Absolutely have to read,
Must read,
Should read,
Good read,
Nice read,
Don't really bother.