267 pages Publisher Kensington Cozies publication date September 24, 2024
ABOUT THE BOOK
New York Times bestselling author Lynn Cahoon continues her enchanting Kitchen Witch Mystery series featuring everyone’s favorite, spellbinding kitchen witch Mia Malone.In a triumph for Mia’s catering business and cooking school, Mia’s Morsels is chosen to host a fall festival event in their Idaho mountain town—which means managing a bunch of stage moms and their social-media obsessed daughters as they get ready for the big beauty contest. There’s a lot riding on the results of the Harvest Moon Festival—it’s where the local coven leader is chosen for the following year.But after one contestant is found in a compromising position with a judge, and another drops out when her mother is killed in a freak hiking accident, the coven suspects magical meddling. With a week to go before the coronation of the new queen, Mia must draw on her sleuthing powers to find out what’s going on—and whether this competition has gotten a little too cutthroat . . .
MY THOUGHTS
I’ve really enjoyed the author’s cozies, and this is part of the Kitchen Witch series, #6 and I’m glad to see not the end of the series.
Mia, a kitchen witch lives in Magic Springs, Idaho. She’s excited to be catering the Miss Magic Springs Harvest Pageant with her catering business and cooking school, Mia’s Morsels.
When a pageant mom is found dead, and another is hospitalized she must try to solve this mystery in time for a new queen to be chosen. Is magic in use here and can the coven solve this in time before another disaster strikes? Lots of twists and turns that had me guessing right til the end.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
THE AUTHOR
Award-winning New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Lynn Cahoon, pens several cozy mystery series including The Tourist Trap Mysteries, The Kitchen Witch Mysteries, Survivors’ Book Club Mysteries, The Farm to Fork Mysteries, The Haunted Life Mysteries, and The Cat Latimer Mysteries. The Bainbridge Island Mysteries will be released in 2025. No matter where the mystery is set, readers can expect a fun ride. She lives in a small town in Eastern Tennessee like the towns she loves to write about with her husband and two fur babies.
Thank you for visiting today. Are you ready for Fall, I sure am.
332 pages St. Martin’s Paperbacks publisher August 22,2023 publish date
ABOUT THE BOOK
In Nine Lives and Alibis, the seventh in Cate Conte’s Cat Café beloved cozy mystery series, Daybreak Island is gearing up for Halloween—but this year it seems like it’ll be all tricks and no treats.
It’s October in Daybreak Harbor, which means everything Halloween. The town is going all out for the holiday, hoping to one-up the festivities in neighboring Salem, Massachusetts, and Maddie James is delighted to be part of the planning for the annual happenings.
But trouble brews when Maddie’s youngest sister, Sam, books a famous medium, Balfour Dempsey, to come to town for the celebrations and stay in the local haunted inn—along with his equally famous black cat. The town busybody books a secret reading with Balfour and doesn’t want anyone to know why. Maddie’s best friend Becky is hell-bent on getting Balfour to help her solve two 40-year-old mysteries—a murder and a missing maid. And the psychic has a stalker who’s followed him here to the island, demanding he connect with her dead husband.
When Balfour is pushed off the cliffs behind the inn to his death and his beloved cat goes missing, it throws the whole town into a frenzy. And Maddie and her family find themselves in the middle of a murder mystery straight out of a Halloween movie.
MY THOUGHTS
Nine Lives and Alabis finds us in Daybreak Island, Mass. The little island town is hoping to one up its neighbors in Salem, Mass who everyone goes to see for all their Halloween scares.
This year Daybreak Island is hosting a Halloween Festival better than any of the previous years. A famous medium, Balfour Dempsey has come to stay at the reportedly haunted hotel. While there he is being asked to try to solve two cold cases from forty years ago, a murder and a missing maid.
I enjoyed the New England setting, as we spent time there this Fall including Salem, Mass.
When another murder occurs, the whole town is in an uproar and Halloween festivities are the last thing on their minds. Past and present come to mingle in the case being solved.
Maddie runs a cat cafe and takes in strays and gives them the best care. She and her cat JJ also solve cases together and she’s on the job here finding the murderer and discovering what happened to his cat.
Surprising twists and turns I sure didn’t see coming. I enjoyed all the Halloween descriptions from the decorations and foods to the pet costume parade to all the festivities at the haunted hotel This is a series I’ll continue reading.
Pub Date: 22 Aug 2023 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
First Line Friday is hosted at Reading Is My Super Power. It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. Today I’m featuring the first line of A Corpse at the Witching Hour by Debra Sennefelder.
And the first line is………
Hope Early blew out a breath as she started at the plans spread across her kitchen table. She’d been studying them for days. At this point, she wasn’t sure what she was looking for.
Yesterday I featured a Christmas cozy, today a Halloween one. Maybe I should get to the Halloween one before the end of the month, hopefully I can fit it in.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Hope Early has to contend with ghosts, a fatal curse, and a decades-old family secret to catch a killer in the new Food Blogger Mystery . . .
When her best friend’s Aunt Issy falls ill, food blogger Hope Early agrees to help him hand out Halloween candy at his aunt’s house, which is rumored to be cursed. A murder-suicide took place there a century ago, and legend has it that a woman has died there every twenty years since—on Halloween. Hope doesn’t really believe in curses or ghosts, but when all the trick-or-treaters are gone and she discovers a woman’s dead body on the front lawn, she wonders if the curse might be real after all.
Then Hope and her friend discover a cache of love letters linking the dead woman to Aunt Issy’s husband years ago, and Hope is certain they’ve uncovered the motive for murder—and the police are certain Aunt Issy is their main suspect. Determined to prove Issy’s innocence and nab the real culprit, Hope starts shaking other branches of the family tree. But she forgets that Halloween isn’t the only day people hide behind masks, and if she’s not careful, Hope will come face-to-face with a ghoulish fiend who’s not afraid to kill again . . .
276 pages October 5,2023 publication date Beyond the Page publisher
Do you like Halloween books? I know some don’t. I have a few Halloween/Fall books I still need to read for this year but seem to keep getting sidetracked by other books I need to read on a deadline. Here’s to reading Halloween books in February 🙂
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks. Hosted by Carole’s Random Life.
THIS WEEK’S NEGLECTED BOOK
Pub Date 27 Sep 2022
Description
It’s holiday season in the picturesque, coastal town of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts! But in USA Today bestselling author Sally Goldenbaum’s latest Seaside Knitters Society mystery, the knitting club sleuths will have to take a break from crafting cozy Christmas gifts to investigate a murder at the Mayor’s holiday party.
Winter in Sea Harbor is a feast for the senses—crackling bonfires, the scent of snow in the salty air, carols ringing out on the village green. This year, the Seaside Knitters have a sackful of obligations in addition to their usual Christmas preparations. Izzy is so overloaded with knitting classes that she hires an extra salesperson, but the new addition has trouble fitting into the yarn shop’s holiday spirit. Cass, juggling the stresses of running her lobster fishery, has finally found a nanny for her active toddler. Molly Flanigan seems practically perfect in every way—until she suddenly disappears, taking Cass’s beloved rescue mutt with her…
Meanwhile, the holidays are kicking off in style at Mayor Beatrice Scaglia’s holiday party, where a well-dressed crowd admires the mayor’s sumptuous new home and the celebrity chef catering the event. An additional treat for Ben and Nell Endicott at the festive affair is reconnecting with a dear college friend, Oliver Bishop. But it’s not just reunions and the appetizers that are to-die-for. Before the party-goers can toast the beginning of Sea Harbor’s festive season, the chef—and young wife of the Endicott’s old Harvard friend—is found dead beneath the mistletoe.
Izzy, Birdie, Nell, and Cass must uncover the pattern to these mysteries to remove suspicion from those they love, bring a murderer to justice—and keep Sea Harbor’s holiday magic from vanishing into the chill winter air…
I am drawn to holiday cozies, what about you? I’m not sure why I haven’t read this one yet. Too many books, too little time as they say. I actually have a tattoo with that on it 🙂
Have you read this author yet? Will you be reading this one?
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted here, at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they’re books that have yet to be released.
I am really looking forward to reading………….
I just love Fall covers and this one is a beauty.
About The Book
It’s spooky season, and gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are preparing some pranks for Cape May, New Jersey’s annual Mischief Night at their B&B. But jokes and games are pushed aside when a killer strikes…
Poppy is none too pleased when her B&B is coerced into participating in the Cape May Haunted Dinners Tour during Halloween season. Though her knack for finding dead bodies has given the place a spooky reputation, the Murder House is a completely undeserved nickname. At least it used to be . . .
While Poppy wrangles with some guests who can’t stop squabbling with each other—including a paranormal researcher, a very quirky pet psychic who freaks out her portly Persian, and an undercover tabloid reporter eager to catch her staff in a lie—one of them winds up facedown in a plate of tiramisu. And now she has bigger worries than getting her house TP’d . . .
Is this one on your to be read list? Would you read it?
Give an extra smile or two today, you’ll make the world a little kinder.
Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping in today.
With the cold weather upon us drinking hot tea and reading cozies is the perfect combination in my opinion. Add in a cat for your lap, chocolate and a baked good or two and you’re set. My feature today are those cozies with oh so delightful and relaxing tea. Enjoy!
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Agony of the Leaves, Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning may always be a bridesmaid, never a bride, but this groom is never going to make it to the altar…
Theodosia Browning’s dear friend, Delaine Dish, has asked her to be a bridesmaid for her wedding. But when the big day arrives, everything seems to be going wrong. First, a massive storm is brewing over Charleston. A bad omen? Second, Delaine’s maid of honor is late for the ceremony. And finally, the groom not only has cold feet—his whole body is cold. A murderer has crashed the wedding.
n bestselling author Karen Rose Smith’s sixth delightfully devious Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery, Pennsylvania Amish country’s favorite tea house proprietor, Daisy Swanson, finds herself going back to school expecting to serve tea–only to get a crash course in criminal justice! The faculty of Willow Creek High School are having a get-together after the spring concert with refreshments provided, courtesy of Daisy’s Tea Garden. Oolong tea and chocolate biscuits are just what the staff needs to help them unwind from Althea Higgins’ demanding curriculum. Her lessons on such controversial subjects as school uniforms and under qualified substitute teachers are earning her an F from her colleagues. But a failing grade was preferable to Althea falling victim to foul play. Daisy was there when her body was discovered in the school swimming pool, murdered by strangulation. Althea was certainly a strict, opinionated taskmaster, unliked by both teachers and students, but would any of them actually want to kill her? As Daisy starts asking questions, she gets a real education in Althea’s history, discovering more than enough enemies with more than enough motives to cancel her classes permanently…
In national bestselling author Vicki Delany’s delightful Tea by the Sea mystery series, Lily Roberts—Cape Cod tearoom proprietress and part-time sleuth—stirs up trouble when she unwittingly serves one of her grandmother’s B&B guests a deadly cup of tea . . . Lily has her work cut out for her when a visit from her grandmother Rose’s dear friend, Sandra McHenry, turns into an unexpected—and unpleasant—McHenry family reunion. The squabbling boils over and soon Tea by the Sea’s serene afternoon service resembles the proverbial tempest in a teapot. Somehow, Lily and her tearoom survive the storm, and Sandra’s bickering brethren finally retreat to Rose’s B & B. But later that evening, a member of their party—harmless Ed French—dies from an apparent poisoning and suddenly Tea by the Sea is both scene and suspect in a murder investigation!
A book club meeting turns murderous in this mystery in the national bestselling series…
Mystery lovers have descended on Pine Hills for this year’s book club competition, to be held at Krissy Hancock’s bookstore café. But the killer in their midst seems determined to outwit all the armchair sleuths—and send Krissy to the remainder bin forever.
Just before two dueling book clubs are set to square off, one of the competitors turns up dead—bludgeoned with the silver teapot that was to serve as the prize. Suspicion immediately falls on Krissy, who was seen skulking around town in dark clothes on the night of the murder.
A possible serial killer on the loose sends tea maven Theodosia Browning into a whirlwind of investigation in this latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series.
It was a dark and stormy night, but that was the least of Theodosia Browning’s troubles. As she approaches St. Philips Graveyard, Theodosia sees two figures locked in a strange embrace. Wiping rain from her eyes, Theodosia realizes she has just witnessed a brutal murder and sees a dark-hooded figure slip away into the fog.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Diva Steals a Chocolate Kiss serves up a new mystery steeped in murder…
When The Parlour opens up in town, domestic diva Sophie Winston finally has a place to satisfy her cravings for all things tea and crumpet related. And the shop serves as the perfect place for the ladies of the town to gather and gossip, especially since it’s conveniently located right across the street from the new antique store run by the handsome and charming Robert Johnson.
But speculation around Robert really boils over when he’s found dead—a victim of poisoning after attending a literacy fundraiser at The Parlour the night before. What Sophie learns about the man leaves a bitter taste in her mouth, and she’ll have to strain out a killer from a strange brew of suspects…
Includes delicious recipes and entertaining tips!
n the second book of the popular Seaside Café Mysteries, No Good Tea Goes Unpunished, Everly Swan caters a high-profile beach wedding where the groom doesn’t make it to the altar before the wedding bells ring.
Hitting All the sweet-tea spots, this series is:
A delightful Tea Shop and Café Culinary Mystery
The ideal cozy beach read
Perfect for fans of Laura Childs and Kate Carlisle
Catering her childhood friend’s beachfront wedding was a dream come true for Sun, Sand and Tea Shop and Café owner Everly Swan—and the hundreds of guests in attendance would be great exposure for her new business. But when the well-to-do groom is found floating facedown in the surf, the coastal vibes of a beach wedding disappear and the locals of Charm, North Carolina turn their suspicions to his new bride. Could she have been so desperate to lay her hands on his fortune that she arranged for his murder before they even set off on their honeymoon?
This is no boring librarian shushing people from behind a desk. This librarian corrals rogue magic. But more importantly, she has a frog and a cat, and she’s not afraid to use them!
A new life complete with tea, scones, and… murder?
On a whim, April May buys a huge Victorian home in the cozy seaside town of Serenity Cove. She plans to open a tearoom featuring lace tablecloths, exotic teas, and dainty sandwiches.
No one told her the house came with a cat in the attic who might just be guarding a treasure. How else to explain people breaking into her house?
From the moment she moves in, nothing goes right, but her problems seem minor when a dead body turns up in her home. Accused of murder, April teams up with a cantankerous bar owner and a feisty, young antique expert to solve the crime.
And what about the handsome, arrogant chef in her kitchen no one else can see? She plans to get medical help for what must be a hallucination, but in the meantime, he’s putting a tasty French twist on her menu.
If you’ve ever wished someone would remake The Ghost and Mrs. Muir as a culinary murder mystery, this book is for you!
Get the first Haunted Tearoom Cozy Mystery now—complete with delicious recipes!
With the grand relaunch of Victoria Square’s tea shop, Tealicious, just days away, Nona Fiske decides it’s time to sabotage it and its owner, Katie Bonner. With gossip, innuendo, and outright lies, Nona tries to turn the other merchants on the Square against Katie. But Katie has learned how to deal with people like Nona. Can she kill with kindness?
This story takes place between the Victoria Square mystery novels Yule Be Dead and Killer Ink.
A film crew enters San Bastion Bay, and the movie turns deadly when a starlet who hailed from the small town is killed on set. Olivia Darrow must investigate the murder of the former prom queen turned movie star before the police arrest an innocent man. Unfortunately, the film crew and the town are full of potential suspects and dangerous secrets. In a race against time, can Olivia uncover the real killer before she becomes the next target? A feel-good cozy mystery about a quirky teashop owner and her side-kick little sister solving mysteries in a small town on the California coast. This book does not contain any cliffhangers, gore, graphic scenes, or foul language.
Are you a tea drinker? Would you read any of these teatime cozies?
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