Review: A Ghostly Grave by Tonya Kappes

Goodreads Blurb

There’s a ghost on the loose—and a fox in the henhouseFour years ago, the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home put Chicken Teater in the ground. Now undertaker Emma Lee Raines is digging him back up. The whole scene is bad for business, especially with her granny running for mayor and a big festival setting up in town. But ever since Emma Lee started seeing ghosts, Chicken’s been pestering her to figure out who killed him.With her handsome boyfriend, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, busy getting new forensics on the old corpse, Emma Lee has time to look into her first suspect. Chicken’s widow may be a former Miss Kentucky, but the love of his life was another beauty Lady Cluckington, his prize-winning hen. Was Mrs. Teater the jealous type? Chicken seems to think so. Something’s definitely rotten in Sleepy Hollow—and Emma Lee just prays it’s not her luck.

My Review: Rated 5 out 5 stars

I love the second book in this series. Tonya thinks of the funniest names and settings. Can’t get over how entertaining her books are, and she is the perfect storyteller. I was laughing my socks off. She creates such amazing characters that create a story in which you feel you can live in. Emma Lee is always getting her nose stuck where she shouldn’t be in order to solve the mystery of the killing of Chicken Teater. Love the whole ghost talking to her and guiding her to the truth. Can’t wait to read the third book and see what Tonya comes up with next.

Author Biography

Beloved cozy mystery author Tonya Kappes is bringing her charming world to the screen!

The Hallmark Channel is thrilled to announce a television series in development based on Tonya’s wildly popular 40-book series, A Camper & Criminals Mystery.

A celebrated Amazon All-Star and USA Today bestselling author, Tonya has written over 180 southern cozy mysteries filled with heart, humor, and unforgettable small-town characters. Her novels, known for their southern charm and rich emotional storytelling, have been praised by readers and critics alike, earning her a coveted spot as a Woman’s World Book Club Pick six times.

Writing full-time from her camper, Tonya crafts worlds where mystery, friendship, and a little mischief collide — and now, her stories will come to life for cozy mystery lovers everywhere

Chelsea Conradt is on Tour!

I’m looking forward to meeting Chelsea Conradt in a few weeks. I can’t wait to read this horror novel, The Farm House.

Goodreads Blurb

Every woman who has lived on this farm has died. Emily just moved in.

When Emily Hauk’s mother dies, it’s time for her and her husband, Josh, to finally leave San Francisco. A farm in rural Nebraska is everything they want for a fresh start: clear skies, low costs, and distance from the grief back home.

They should have asked why the farm was for sale.

Three years ago a teenage girl went missing from the farm. Soon afterward, the girl’s mother mysteriously died. The deeper Emily digs the more stories she uncovers of women connected to her new home who’ve met their own dark ends.

With each passing day Emily’s sanctuary slips further away. The barn seems to move throughout her property as though chasing her. Her mother’s favorite music drifts across the cornfield. She swears she saw blood in one of the farmhand’s trucks. And the screams that wake her are not fox howls, no matter how many times her husband says they are. If she wants to claim this place as her own she’ll have to find out the truth before whatever watches from the cornfield takes her, too.

Author Biography

Chelsea Conradt (she/her) writes twisty speculative thrillers. Her books are packed with both murder and kindness because we can be more than one thing.

When not writing stories that make you question what’s real, she is likely watching a baking show or a true-crime documentary. She is nothing if not on brand. Chelsea lives in Texas with her husband, son, and two big dogs.

Currently Reading: The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

Here is Barnes & Noble current book club pick for June. The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater.

Goodreads Blurb

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.

Author Biography

New York Times bestselling author of The Shiver Trilogy, The Raven Cycle, and The Scorpio Races. Artist. Driver of things with wheels. Avid reader.

Maggie Stiefvater plays several musical instruments (most infamously, the bagpipes) and makes art in several media (most generally, colored pencils).

She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband, their two children, many dogs, a bunch of fainting goats, and a mating pair of growly tuner cars.

Ruth Ware on Tour!

Here is your opportunity to meet Ruth Ware. She will be on book tour next month for her new book release, The Woman in Suite 11. I have read several of her books and enjoyed these mystery thrillers.

Goodreads Blurb

When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.

The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests. When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.

What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?

Stephen King is Back!

Paramus Barnes and Noble has this awesome display of Stephen King’s books and the newly released book Never Flinch. The bookmarks are so fun.

Goodreads Blurb

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.

Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.

Featuring a riveting cast of characters both old and new, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, these twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion—a feat of storytelling only Stephen King could pull off.

Thrilling, wildly fun, and outrageously engrossing, Never Flinch is one of King’s richest and most propulsive novels.

Review: Anne Frank Exhibition

The Anne Frank Exhibition book is the perfect keepsake. It walks you through the life of the Frank family when they were young, what happened during the time they were hidden, and the terrible deaths of Anne Frank, her sister, and mother. It includes images of real artifacts that were also available at the exhibit and the reconstructed Annex. This book gives you a front row seat to the life of the Frank family and the horrors of the Holocaust. I recommend you see the Anne Frank Exhibition in NYC before it closed in October. You will receive an audio to provide feedback to everything you see in the exhibit.

Review: Dreaming in Moonlight by M. Stratton

Goodreads Blurb

Ghosts are real. They are all around us. Most of the time they are satisfied to watch us go by and not interact. When a couple was cursed to spend three hundred years in death searching for the one living couple that could release their bounds they search for centuries to find a love that will make time stand still. If they fail they will be sent to Hell to live out the rest of eternity.

Demons are real. They are all around us. Their one goal is make our lives a living hell. They will stop at nothing to destroy our minds and bodies. With the curse rapidly approaching its end the deepest darkest demon is summoned to make sure they don’t succeed.

Kate O’Malley fell in love with the old two story farm house in Maine at first sight. She had to live there. Spending all of her savings she was able to buy it and moved right in. The very first night strange things happened. Her dreams aren’t her own. Looking for answers she calls on a friend who puts her in contact with a ghost hunter, Sawyer Hamilton. Neither knew what was in their future, neither knows if they are going to survive it.

Dreaming in Moonlight when your sleep is filled with passion and your nightmares are real.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

What an amazing story. My mind was grasped the moment I opened this book. I love ghost stories, and this was written so smoothly together like the perfect storyteller. I get nightmares all the time, so I know what it feels like after you wake up from a dream and remember every detail. I loved both main characters and loved how the characters remembered each other, which was quite weird and would freak anyone out in those circumstances. It is a very short book but is built with a huge bang. Come and check it out.

Author Biography

M. Stratton is an International Amazon bestselling author in the romantic suspense and mystery suspense categories for her Storm Series and Bender. She lives in Arizona, which is a big change from where she grew up north of Chicago, Illinois. As an only child she learned to tell herself stories to make the long winters go by quicker while dreaming of summer vacations. Now as an adult she still makes up stories to pass the time, but now she writes them down to share with other people.
Stratton is a self-proclaimed dork who loves to make people laugh. Her inner rock star is always on stage performing to a sold out crowd, but she quiet and shy on the outside. She spends her days plotting new ways to surprise her readers.

Currently Reading: The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

Goodreads Blurb

Dan Garvie’s life has been haunted by the crime he witnessed as a child—narrowly escaping an encounter with a notorious serial killer. He has dedicated his life since to becoming a criminal profiler, eager to seek justice for innocent victims. So when his father passes away under suspicious circumstances, Dan revisits his small island community, determined to uncover the truth about his death. Is it possible that the monster he remembers from his childhood nightmares has returned after all these years?

With his signature shock and suspense, Alex North brings us The Man Made of Smoke. In turn emotional, introspective, and utterly terrifying, this is a story of fathers and sons, shadows and secrets, and the fight we all face to escape the trauma of the past.

Author Biography

Alex North was born in Leeds, England, where he now lives with his wife and son. The Whisper Man was inspired by North’s own little boy, who mentioned one day that he was playing with “the boy in the floor.” Alex North is a British crime writer who has previously published under another name.

Currently Reading: When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman

Goodreads Blurb

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired readers for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne’s journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius.

With the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Frank family’s life is turned inside out, blow by blow, restriction by restriction. Prejudice, loss, and terror run rampant, and Anne is forced to bear witness as ordinary people become monsters, and children and families are caught up in the inescapable tide of violence.

In the midst of impossible danger, Anne, audacious and creative and fearless, discovers who she truly is. With a wisdom far beyond her years, she becomes a writer who will go on to change the world as we know it.

Critically acclaimed author Alice Hoffman weaves a lyrical and heart-wrenching story of the way the world closes in on the Frank family from the moment the Nazis invade the Netherlands until they are forced into hiding, bringing Anne to bold, vivid life. Based on extensive research and published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, When We Flew Away is an extraordinary and moving tour de force.

“Adding new poignance to a story whose ending we already knew, Alice Hoffman has deftly recreated the child Anne Frank with all her wit, mischief, and uncertainties. This fictionalized account of the increasingly desperate years that preceded the famous diary breaks readers’ hearts one more time. But it reminds us of how important it is to remember and honor all that was lost.” — Lois Lowry, Newbery Award-winning author of Number the Stars

Author Biography

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The World That We Knew; The Marriage of Opposites; The Red Garden; The Museum of Extraordinary Things; The Dovekeepers; Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; and the Practical Magic series, including Practical
Magic; Magic Lessons; The Rules of Magic, a selection of Reese’s Book Club; and The Book of Magic. She lives near Boston.

Review: The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

Goodreads Blurb

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent.

My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Be careful what you wish for!! The grass is not always greener on the other side.

It is a story of a desperate woman yearning to be rich at whatever cause, a psycho abuser and a woman trapped with the most evil man. Who will have the upper hand?

Amber Patterson is desperate to marry a man with status and money. She makes friends with Daphne Parrish yearning to replace her in her marriage with Jackson Parrish. You will go down a rabbit hole with these characters and will be shocked at the real truth behind closed doors.

At the beginning of the story, I wasn’t very interested in this book. When the story moved to Daphne’s take on how her life with Jackson was far from perfect, I got hooked on the story. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to Jackson and Amber. They both belonged together. I was so happy at the turn of events. Revenge was perfection in this story. They both got what they deserved. This story gave you a front row seat at how abusers take control in every aspect of a woman’s life. They use verbal and sexual abuse and fear to take full control. This story, though fiction, told the story of many women who are in similar relationships.

Author Biography

Liv Constantine is the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine. Lynne and Valerie are New York Times and international bestselling authors with over two million copies sold worldwide. Their books have been translated into 29 languages, are available in 34 countries, and are in development for both television and film. Their books have been praised by The Washington Post, USA Today, The Sunday Times, People Magazine, and Good Morning America, among many others. Their debut novel, THE LAST MRS. PARRISH, is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection. Visit Liv at http://www.livconstantine.com