Month: October 2024

Book Tour and Review–The Missing Heirloom Mystery

BonnieReadsAndWrites6 Comments

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Finders keepers, losers . . . Dead?

Checkout girl Bea Jordan has a knack for stumbling into trouble. Even so, nothing can ruin her picnic in the allotment with her best friend, green-thumbed Ant.

With the annual Kingsleigh Flower and Produce Show approaching, she feels he’s had little time for her. Especially with the drama of a prize-winning tomato thief on the loose.

But a grizzly discovery is waiting for them by the pumpkin patch . . .

The body of Dylan Bradley, their old history teacher. Someone stuck a trowel in his head and left him for dead.

But who would want to hurt Dylan? Bea has a feeling it has something to do with the ruby ring he dug up in the allotment.

Then the discovery of a second body throws the townsfolk into full-blown turmoil. Now Bea must juggle small-town secrets, rivalries and murder with her growing feelings for Ant.

Can she dig up the truth before the killer strikes again, or has Bea finally planted the seed for her own demise?

AN ABSOLUTELY GRIPPING COZY MYSTERY FULL OF TWISTS AND TURNS AND LOVEABLE CHARACTERS.

Meet the workers of Kingsleigh Costsave. There’s Bea, a maths whizz with a heart of gold. Ant, a hapless high-school drop-out. And wisecracking Dot, in her late fifties and always beautifully coiffed.

BOOK REVIEW

Although this is Book #5 of The Supermarket Mysteries series, this was my first introduction to Bea and the crew at the Kingsleigh Costsave. It was wonderful to meet these characters and solve a mystery with them. Dot is a complete favorite of mine as we are in the same age group, and I love that our sleuths work together at a supermarket. I definitely want to go back and read the first four books. Set during the town’s annual garden show, this cozy was enjoyable and will keep mystery lovers guessing. Recommend!

I received a free copy of this book from Zooloo’s Book Tours. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Ward

I’m a fiftysomething author of psych thrillers and cosy crime books for adults and thrillers for young for adults. I live in Bath, England, and have a husband, two grown up children and two dogs. I’ve been a full-time writer for 10 years, before which I had ‘sensible’ jobs.

I’m now writing crime for adults. My cozy crime series, The Supermarket Mysteries, is now published as ebooks with Joffe Books. The first novel in the series is The Missing Checkout Girl Mystery.

My debut psychological thriller, Safe With You, is published by HQ Digital and is out now.

For young adults, I have published the Numbers trilogy, The Drowning and Water Born with Chicken House UK. The first book came out in the UK in 2009 and the USA in 2010. My Numbers books explore the gift of being able to see death dates. If you looked in somebody’s eyes and saw the date of their death, would it change the way you felt about people? They’ve been published in 26 countries and optioned for film.

RACHEL’S SOCIAL MEDIA

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JOFFE BOOKS SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Website

BOOK LINKS

Goodreads | Purchase Link

Top Ten Tuesday: How My Reading Habits Have Changed Over Time

BonnieReadsAndWrites31 Comments

*Thank you to That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting Top Ten Tuesday.

What an interesting topic! I went all the way back to childhood and thought about my reading habits, and what has changed. Starting with number one, my first favorite book series, I noticed something interesting. Starting with favorite books I read as a kid and working foward, I see a distinct pattern.

  1. Encyclopedia Brown: I loved reading this series about the boy detective when I was a kid. I liked it much better than Nancy Drew.
  2. Johnny Tremain: Fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain, after an accident, eventually becomes a messenger for The Sons of Liberty and is involved in the events leading up to the American Revolution.
  3. The Chronicles of Narnia: In this series, Lucy Pevensie walks through a magic wardrobe and finds a land of talking animals and a special Lion, Aslan.
  4. Little House on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls recalls what it was like to grow up as a pioneer girl in the 19th Century.
  5. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle: Meg Murray and her brother Charles Wallace search through time for their father, who disappeared while experimenting with time travel.
  6. The Door Into Summer: Dan B. Davis loses everything, but finds a way to get it all back by going to the future.
  7. The Ring by Danielle Steel: Historical romance set mostly during WWII. I loved this book in my twenties, but it is too simplistic for me now.
  8. Harry Potter: I don’t need to describe this one. It’s fantasy at its finest with some of the best world-building I have ever seen.
  9. and 10. The Chronicles of St. Mary’s and The Time Police: About ten years ago, I bought Jodi Taylor’s first book in the Chronicles of St. Mary’s series because it was about time travel and it was 99 cents. She had self-published at the time. Fast forward to the present, and Jodi is now a best-selling author with Headline books and has just published Book 15 of The Chronicles of St. Mary’s. I loved this series from the beginning and now I realize it’s because Taylor took time travel and combined it with historical fiction, both of which have been my favorites for a long time. She provides a history lesson in every book. She also adds a heavy dose of humor. The Time Police is a spinoff of the Chronicles, and Taylor continues her hilarious trips along the timeline.

Looking back, I can see that even from childhood I loved historical fiction and time travel, as well as fantasy, and I have continued that as an adult. I still read mysteries, but mostly historical mysteries. Not much has changed in my reading choices, except for the complexity of the books.

How about you? How have your reading habits changed over time?

Book Review: Salt of the Earth

BonnieReadsAndWrites8 Comments

Switzerland, 1916. Seraphine spends her days taking care of her two half-brothers, who were born with a condition called cretinism, known today as congenital hypothyroidism. Their father is a hard man who wishes both boys were dead, and says so. Seraphine has never known her own father, who was not married to her mother. She dreams of a different life, where she can study, work, and make a difference, but it seems so out of reach. She also is developing a goiter on her throat, like so many of her fellow townspeople, and tries very hard to hide it. Then Bastian Favre comes to town. He is an assistant to Dr. Eggenberger, who is working on a cure for cretinism and goiters. Can it be as simple as salt?

This compelling novel explores the history of iodized salt and the pursuit of a cure for hypothyroidism in Switzerland by adding iodine to the diet. The author portrays the skepticism and superstitions of the people affected so well. Seraphine’s mother is used to express the doubt and fear, and to show the extreme effects of a lack of iodine on mothers and their babies. The refusal of some of the townspeople to accept such a simple cure is indicative of the time. The slow-burn romance is captivating, as Bastian’s instant attraction to Seraphine meets many challenges along the way. There is epistolary work in the form of letters and news articles. The news articles are an excellent way of following the story of how Switzerland’s Goiter Commission made the decision to recommend iodized salt to the people in 1922. Fans of romance and medical history will enjoy this book. Highly recommended.

My review is 4.5 stars, rounded up to five on sites with no half-star option.

I received a free copy via The Historical Novel Society and reviewed it for their quarterly magazine, The Historical Novels Review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JJ Marsh is the author of The Beatrice Stubbs series, featured in The Guardian Readers’ Recommend and The Bookseller’s Editor’s Choice. Jill is a founder member of Triskele Books, an award-winning author collective founded in 2011. In addition, she is the Swiss Ambassador for The Alliance of Independent Authors, and Co-editor of The Woolf, Zürich’s literary ezine and writers’ workshop. She lives in Switzerland with her husband and three pugs, and in an attic overlooking a cemetery, she writes.

PURCHASE LINK (Click on the cover to buy on Amazon)

**Kindle Unlimited Subscribers can read this for free.

Sunday Post: An Apple Adventure

BonnieReadsAndWrites14 Comments

Thank you to The Caffeinated Book Reviewer for hosting Sunday Post.

This was a pretty relaxing week. I got to do some reading and since I’m retired now, I forgot what day it was A LOT. Yesterday Doug and I went to the Apple Festival in Ellijay, Georgia with my Cousins Gil and Laurie. I liked it overall, but it could be improved. I got a new bread knife and bought some apples and fried apple pies, but there weren’t very many apple-themed booths, which I would think would be the point of an apple festival. I did have a good time. I bought a Georgia Apple Festival t-shirt from a guy who turned out to be from Fort Worth, TX. So there’s that.

Afterwards, we ate at the Pink Pig in Cherry Log, GA, which was pretty good.

Last week I didn’t post as much as I would have liked, so I’m making up for it this week. Hang on to your hat. I’m posting a bunch of reviews today and tomorrow.

NEW BOOK HAUL

Three Days in June Publisher Blurb: Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband-to-be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree Publisher Blurb: Genevieve Charbonneau talks to ghosts and has a special relationship with rattlesnakes. In her travels, she’s wandered throughout the South, escaping a mental hospital in Alabama, working for a Louisiana circus, and dancing at a hoochy-kootch in Texas. Now for the first time in a decade, she’s allowed her winding path to bring her to the site of her grandmother’s Arkansas farmhouse, a place hallowed in her memory. She intends only to visit briefly – to pay respects to her buried loved ones and leave. But a chance meeting with a haunted young Vietnam vet reconnects her with the remnants of a family she thought long gone, and their union becomes a catalyst for change and salvation. Written by a naturalist and set on the land where her family roots stretch back two centuries, The Song of the Blue Bottle Tree is a haunting story about letting go and the things we leave behind, the power of names, and the ties that bind. It is both harrowing and triumphant, a visceral Southern debut as otherworldly and beautiful as it is unflinching and wry.

Stone Certainty Publisher Blurb: There are stories about the dilapidated stone circle at Chipping Amesbury, going back centuries. Of people going missing, never to be seen again. Of people found dead inside the circle. Of monsters, and of demons. The villagers may tell the tales with relish to visiting tourists, but a careful observer will notice that there is no transport to the stones, no tours on offer, and the locals stay well away. Alistair Kincaid, the youngest-ever bishop of All Souls Hollow, is an expert in Britain’s ancient stone circles. That’s why, when landowner Sir Neville Chumley announces his plans to restore the circle to its ancient glory, he agrees to take part in a documentary about the project. Well – that, plus talented actress Diana Hunt is on board. Ever since their last encounter, when the pair of them hunted ghosts and solved a murder, the tabloids have dubbed them the Holy Terrors, and Alistair can’t wait to see her again. But soon after filming begins, Alistair and Diana are plunged into a terrifying mystery. For the repositioning of the final stone unleashes a series of blood-chilling events that threaten to make them both believe in demons – if, that is, they make it out of the stone circle alive.

Question of the Day: What did you do for fun last week?

Indie Weekend – That Day and What Came After

BonnieReadsAndWrites6 Comments

Indie Weekend is back! For those who don’t know, this is my effort to share Indie Books with as many readers as possible. I had to pause it for a while in June due to major life events, but I’m ready to start it up again. Below is a review, book description, and buy links for THAT DAY AND WHAT CAME AFTER, Rebecca Daniels’ memoir about her life with her husband Skip.

BOOK DESCRIPTION (FROM AMAZON)

What if you came home one day and found your husband dead in his favorite chair? This grief memoir explores the author’s experience of the unexpected death of her husband from sudden cardiac arrest a mere three months after his doctors had pronounced him hale and healthy. The author shares her experiences in the immediate aftermath of the abrupt shock of discovery, reminisces about the details of the couple’s late-in-life courtship and marriage, and imparts other experiences she has had along the grieving road in the years since becoming a widow.

In our society, we often don’t want to talk or even think about death, so stereotypes about widows exist. However, each person’s grief journey is unique, and sharing tales of those experiences can be helpful and useful for those who find themselves in a similar situation. Though not a self-help book, this memoir is the story of a widow who defied the stereotype that widows are expected to “get over it” and move on with their quiet lives. Instead, this widow “got through it” and is now sharing her journey in hopes of helping others in comparable circumstances.

BOOK REVIEW

In this touching memoir, Rebecca Daniels begins with the terrible day that she lost her husband, Skip. She also takes the reader on a journey back to their first meeting and allows us a window into their courtship, commitment ceremony, and marriage. She tells us about her grief journey and building a new life without her beloved husband by her side.

This is a moving story of a terrible loss and how the author found the ways of coping that worked the best for her. She shares parts of her journal and essays she wrote on being a widow, which I’m sure will be helpful for others. She also opens up about her fears, such as worrying that her stepdaughter wouldn’t want her around anymore. The book includes warm and loving stories about Skip that really give the reader a picture of who he was, and also who the author is. This is an open and honest memoir that may help others who have lost someone. Highly recommend.

I downloaded this book on Amazon via Kindle Unlimited, where subscribers can read it for free.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE

BEFORE YOU GO

*If you read the book(s), please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.

*Please click on the WordPress “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter (X), Facebook, and/or WordPress followers. A little bit of assistance from all of us will help Indie authors go a long way!

Sunday Post: After the Storm

BonnieReadsAndWrites19 Comments

Thank you to @CaffeinatedReviewer for hosting Sunday Post.

Hurricane Helene hit on September 27th, so it’s been 9 days. We did not get the worst of it. We just got a lot of rain, and while there was flooding in town, we were not flooded at our house, which is about a 10-minute drive from town. Since we are in Western NC, we are very fortunate. Other towns to the east of us were decimated and still do not have power, cell service, or internet. I’ve been blessed to see so many people in this area volunteering and donating to help the other towns, and I’ve seen a lot of churches step up. Our church and many other churches have donated to relief efforts with time and money.

Elon Musk has also been personally flying in Starlink equipment to affected towns. It’s been gratifying to see, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

In our area, Darnell Farms, which is a popular tourist destination and a favorite place for family fun, was flooded and lost $50,000 worth of strawberry plants. They also had a lot of property/building damage and might have missed the Fall season if not for the generosity of others. Fall is their biggest season and losing the income from that would have been devastating. They started a GoFundMe, and there was a big response, so now they are using some of the money to help other towns.

Darnell Farms Facebook Page.

This is Darnell Farms right after Helene came through.

I’ve been watching people help each other, and I feel so proud of the people in this area.

My blogging should increase now. The retirement, moving, and storm delays are over for now. I have some reviews in process.

I have been working hard for The Historical Novel Society as a volunteer reviewer, was a temporary Indies Editor, and now I’m a permanent small press editor for them. I have a lot of reviews coming out in November and I will share them here.

THIS WEEK ON BONNIE READS AND WRITES

I’m doing reviews of the following books:

I’m excited about getting back to blogging more often! I’ve missed you all.

How was your week?

Book Blogger Hop: Creepy Novels

BonnieReadsAndWrites6 Comments

Thank you to Billy @coffeeaddictedwriter for hosting Book Blogger Hop.

I stay away from horror as it affects my dreams, so I may be more sensitive to this than other bloggers, but Nora Roberts’ The Mirror, the second book in The Lost Bride Trilogy, is a bit too creepy for me. It is billed as Romantic Suspense and Paranormal Romance, but there are too many elements of horror, at least for me. I will be reviewing it soon.

How about you? Any books turn out more “creepy” than you expected?

When We Could Not See The Moon

BonnieReadsAndWrites4 Comments

BOOK DESCRIPTION

THE MESSAGE CAME AT MIDNIGHT

Jon and Tracy Willems had been counting the hours since they had heard from their daughter Hanna after her plane touched down in Egypt. As every parent knows, a message at midnight is never the one you want to receive.

Mom, give me a call when you wake up in the morning.

Only the message wasn’t from Hanna. It was from her younger sister, the last person Hanna had visited with before embarking on her journey to Egypt. Tracy did not wait until morning to make the call. She would not sleep again that night. She would not sleep well for many more.

When Jon and Tracy Willems’ daughter Hanna ventured across the world for what was supposed to be an exciting year of working abroad in Egypt, things quickly took an unexpected turn, and the family found themselves in the middle of a waking nightmare.

Falsely apprehended at customs for suspected drug trafficking, Hanna was placed in an Egyptian jail under unthinkable conditions with no tether to the outside world. As Jon and Tracy struggled to put together the pieces of where their daughter had gone and what horrible fate might await her, Hanna sat thousands of miles away in a crowded and filthy cell. So began Jon and Tracy’s fight for their daughter’s freedom. But they were not alone.

What could have easily been a story of a family’s hardship and terror is instead a story of God’s grace during their most trying days. At its core, When We Could Not See the Moon is about a family cast in darkness in the midst of an unimaginable situation. It’s a story of how faith united people across the world and worked through them to provide a guiding light throughout the journey.

Though names, locations, and other key elements have been changed or fictionalized to protect those who worked so fiercely to bring Hanna home, the Willems’ story is otherwise entirely based in fact. Encompassing the perspectives of parents Jon and Tracy Willems, sister Taylor, and Hanna herself, this harrowing true story captures all the defining characteristics of humanity: despair, distrust, and suffering but also faith, hope, compassion, and community. Dynamic and engaging with excerpts from the journal Hanna kept throughout this unbelievable series of events, When We Could Not See the Moon will speak to parents, people of faith, warriors for justice—and anyone who finds themselves lost in the dark, desperately searching for the light.

BOOK REVIEW

This is a compelling story of a young woman who is falsely imprisoned, how she deals with her captivity, and how her family fights for her the whole time.

Told from the points of view of Hanna, her parents, and her sister, this book shows all sides of the fight to get her out of prison. Some entries from Hanna’s journal are also included. The book, in addition to highlighting the corrupt justice system of some countries, shows the faith of a family that leans on God in a dark time. Hanna’s experiences with the other prisoners and how they survived together are fascinating.

WHEN WE COULD NOT SEE THE MOON is well-written and conveys a strong message of faith through adversity. Recommend.

I received a free PDF of this book. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE