Published June 7th 2011 by Berkley Hardcover (first published May 14th 2011)
ISBN
0425241149 (ISBN13: 9780425241141)
primary language
English
In the midst of the recession, Jennifer Stroud is having a tough time selling real estate in Fort Connor, Colorado. She is thrilled to find a new client; unfortunately, it's Fred Turner whose reputation as difficult is well known in the community. After Turner agrees to sell some river front property to one of Kelly Flynn's clients, another possible buyer tries to get in on the deal. Jenn and her friend Kelly, who runs her own CPA firm, travel up to see Turner to find out what's going on.
What they find is a dead body. Fred Turner's dead body! For a man with few friends and many enemies including a bitter soon-to-be-ex wife, the list of possible suspects could be extensive. Turner had a reputation for being a cheat so it's no surprise he is dead.
After having gone through a murder investigation the year before, Jenn wants no part in this mess but Kelly, being curious and having a history of being a bit of a "sleuth" wants to find out the truth about who murdered Fred. She is convinced it isn't her client, Arthur Housemann, even though he desperately wanted that piece of property. Between work, hanging out with her knitting friends at the Lambspun shop and getting over her heartbreak at the breakup with boyfriend Steve, will Kelly be able to unravel this mystery and find the true killer or is the murderer just too clever?
Unraveled is the 9th book in the Knitting Mystery Series. It's not necessary to have any knowledge of knitting nor to have read any previous books in the series. Each book stands well on it's own but you might want to start from the beginning just to see how the characters' relationships have developed. Sefton is very adept at making her characters come alive and making their real life relationships feel so real. Sefton has left a little bit of a romantic cliffhanger at the end of this story so it will be fun to find out what happens to Kelly and Steve in the next book.
The cast of characters at the beginning is most helpful. At the end of the book is a pattern for a knitted summer tee and a recipe for a chocolate cake. 4****
Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Berkley in exchange for my honest opinion.
To celebrate the release of Unraveled, Berkley is allowing me to give away 1 copy of the book. Open to US only. Deadline to enter is July 9th at 5 PM. Please be sure to leave an e mail address in your comment. Bonus entries available for this contest are as follows:
+2 for being a follower old or new. Just remind me how you follow and under what name. +3 for blogging or tweeting about the giveaway. Leave me a link, please.
Snapshot Saturday is hosted by Alyce of At Home with Books. To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
The sky was a little boring this day but the sunlight on the water just captured my attention.
Today it is my extreme pleasure to welcome Cathy Holton to Pudgy Penguin Perusals. Cathy's new book, Summer in the South, was a big hit with me. A 5* rating means I just couldn't put the book down. Check out my review. Sounds like a good summer read? Most definitely! After Cathy's post, be sure to enter the drawing for one copy of the book. See details below.
How did the idea for Summer in the South originate?
by Cathy Holton
Twenty-five years ago I went with a friend to visit her Great-Aunt Fanny in Franklin, Tennessee.Fanny lived in an imposing house filled with treasures; a large sterling silver collection, oil portraits of dead ancestors, a framed letter from Thomas Jefferson to Fanny’s great-great-great-grandfather.I was immediately entranced by Randal’s illustrious family history and their quietly understated, old-money wealth.
Fanny was a lovely woman, intelligent and funny and filled with a buoyant spirit.There were photographs of her and her deceased husband everywhere; standing in front of a sea plane, crouching beside a water buffalo, having cocktails in a Paris café.On the second day of our visit, we went with Fanny to the cemetery to visit the dead.Watching as she knelt to put flowers on a grave set apart from the others, I asked Randal, “Who’s buried there?”
“Her husband.”
“The one in all the photographs?”
“No, that’s the second husband.The one over there is her first husband, Charlie.”
“What happened to him?”
“He died.We don’t speak of him.”
I couldn’t get anything else out of her.Nothing inspires a writer’s imagination like curiosity, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Fanny and her first husband, whom she had obviously loved very much.And I couldn’t stop wondering what had happened between Fanny and Charlie that would keep her family from mentioning his name sixty years later.
Twenty-five years later, I wrote Summer in the South, the story of a Chicago writer trying to escape her troubled past who finds love, redemption, and a sixty-year-old murder mystery in a small Southern town.
Did the love story between Fanny and Charlie happen as I imagined it?Are the things that happened to Ava there in that old house in Woodburn real?
The answers to both questions, I suppose, lie clearly in the realm of fiction.
Cathy, thank you so much for visiting with us today.
Thanks to Cathy's generosity, I have one copy of Summer in the Southto give away to one of my followers. Open to US and Canada. Deadline to enter is July 1st. Since this is a followers (old or new) only giveaway the 3 bonus entries this month will be for blogging about or tweeting about the giveaway. Be sure to include your e mail address in the comment box. Please, please, please do not leave three comments that you tweeted. One box is sufficient.
Ava Dabrowski is still mourning the death of her mother, reeling from the breakup with her married lover and disenchanted with her job. So when Will Fraser, an old college acquaintance, asks her one more time to visit him in Woodburn, Tennessee, she quits her job in Chicago and accepts even though she has some not too flattering preconceived notions of "The South". He lures her with the idea that she can stay with his two great-aunts, Josephine and Fanny Woodburn, in the family home for the entire summer and finally work on that novel she keeps wanting to write.
Unfortunately, Ava seems to have a bad case of writer's block and she doesn't make too much progress on her book but she is fascinated by the Woodburn's family history as her own family history is sketchy at best and staying in one location was not one of her free-spirited mother's strengths. She is amazed that one family could live in a town named after them for so long and in the same house. To the Woodburns living in the South means no one is "crazy" just eccentric, manners are an ingrained way of life and knowledge of one's family tree is almost de riguer.
What seems like genteel family living turns out to have some deep buried secrets and dark undertones. After Ava starts hearing snippets of Will's Aunt Fanny and her first husband Charlie's past, the mystery of his death begins to intrigue her and her writer's block is at an end. It's almost as if the story writes itself; she spends night after night penning Charlie and Fanny's story at a frenzied pace even though she knows the Woodburns will be livid at any hint of exposure. They sure aren't willing to say too much about this time in their lives.
I don't want to give away too much more of the story. This book has it all; southern setting with a gothic atmosphere, love, hate, jealousy, passion, family dynamics, black sheep and skeletons, estrangement, revenge, repentence, surprise twists, history, murder, self-discovery and even a little paranormal thrown in. Phew! I think I got it all.
Cathy Holton grabbed me from the beginning with her tale, her fantastic characters and sense of place that never let me go until the last word. I loved it. Loved! It !! All of it; beginning, middle, end. There wasn't a lag anywhere in the book. This is the first 5* book I've read in months. A perfect beach read or any other place for that matter! Just read it.
One lucky follower of this blog will have a chance to win a copy when Cathy visits here soon. Her guest post will be where you can enter.
Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Ballantine Books through the early reviewer program at LT.
Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme begun by Marcia at The Printed Page where we share what arrived in our mailboxes for the past week. MM is currently on tour. Caveat: MM can cause your TBR list to explode exponentially. Here's what showed up chez moi last weekMailbox Monday is hosted in June by The Bluestocking Guide .
This was a win from Tutu's Two Cents. Thanks again, Tina!
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published April 12th 2011 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN
0385532393 (ISBN13: 9780385532396)
From Goodreads: Twenty-nine-year-old Anna Viktorovna lives in Moscow with her young son and her father, a once popular and respected poet who has fallen into disgrace because of his dissident views. Her husband, a junior officer in the Red Army, is on active duty and living seven time zones away. Anna struggles gamely through her difficult existence, doing the best she can amidst the long lines, bureaucratic inferno, and corruption and incompetence of the police state. When she meets and makes an impression on a powerful Soviet official—Alexey Bulgyakov—her life begins to look a little brighter. Alexey is married and nearly twice her age, but he turns out to be a man of infinite patience and forbearance, and gradually a strange but solid bond grows between them. Though Anna still loves her mostly absent husband and harbors no illusions about the future, she and Alexey become lovers.
Soon Anna and Alexey’s burgeoning romance is irrevocably threatened when a KGB colonel forces Anna to spy on Alexey, who is suspected of disloyalty to the state. Though Anna loathes the notion of double-crossing the man she has come to love, when her family is threatened she must comply. But Anna isn’t the only character playing a double game.
With bravura storytelling, stunning authenticity, and complex yet sympathetic characterizations, The Russian Affair depicts a love that struggles to survive against all odds and despite its many-layered deceptions.
A review copy was received from Berkley.
ISBN
0425242218 (ISBN13: 9780425242216)
primary language
English
From Goodreads:
Della Carmichael's sweetie pie Nicholas drops a bomb-he has a teenage daughter, now living with him. When the daughter's friend is found murdered, the protective Nicholas is a suspect, and Della must find the real killer before they all get burned.
Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
Expected publication: July 5th 2011 by Penguin Group (USA)
A reveiw copy was received from Berkley.
Paperback, 240 pages
Expected publication: July 5th 2011 by Berkley Pub Group
From Goodreads: Lindsey is getting into her groove as the director of the Briar Creek Public Library when a New York editor visits town, creating quite a buzz. Lindsey's friend Beth wants to sell the editor her children's book, but Beth's boyfriend, a famous author, gets in the way. When they go to confront him, he's found murdered-and Beth is the prime suspect. Lindsey has to act fast before they throw the book at the wrong person.
Look for giveaways in July for both of these Berkley books!
A big guy and rocks, what more could any woman want?
Happy Father's day, big guy! Hope you enjoy your seafood dinner! To all the other Dads and soon-to-be Dads out there, I hope you have a wonderful day and that you know you are loved.
Snapshot Saturday is hosted by Alyce of At Home with Books. To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
Published May 1st 2011 by McBooks Press (first published April 19th 2011)
ISBN1590135725 (
ISBN13: 9781590135723)
primary languageEnglish
From Goodreads:
The German war machine is in retreat as the Russians advance. In Warsaw, Resistance fighters rise up against their Nazi occupiers, but the Germans retaliate, ruthlessly leveling the once-beautiful city. American Adam Nowak has been dropped into Poland by British intelligence as an assassin and Resistance fighter. During the Warsaw Uprising he meets Natalia, a covert operative who has lost everything—just as he has. Amid the Allied power struggle left by Germany’s defeat, Adam and Natalia join in a desperate hunt for the 1940 Soviet order authorizing the murders of 20,000 Polish army officers and civilians. If they can find the Katyn Order before the Russians do, they just might change the fate of Poland.
Sounds like another compelling and emotional read from Douglas W. Jacobson. In October of '09 I read and reviewed his book, Night of Flames, and just loved it. If you have an interest in books set during WWII this book will definitely captivate you.
Douglas W. Jacobson is an engineer, business owner and World War Two history enthusiast. Doug has traveled extensively in Europe researching stories of the courage of common people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. His debut novel, Night of Flames: A Novel of World War Two was published in 2007 by McBooks Press, and was released in paperback in 2008. Night of Flames won the “2008 Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Wisconsin Library Association. Doug writes a monthly column on Poland’s contribution during WW2, and has published articles on Belgium’s WW2 escape organization, the Comet Line and other European Resistance organizations. Doug’s second historical novel, The Katyn Order, which will be released in May, 2011 focuses on one of history’s most notorious war crimes, the Katyn massacre.
Pump Up Your Book is currently touring The Katyn Order until June 30th. For more sites on the tour please visit here. There you will find the dates of reviews, spotlights, interviews and giveaways.
Snapshot Saturday is hosted by Alyce of At Home with Books. To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.
I snapped this pic at Southcape Resorts in Mashpee, MA on Easter Sunday. I didn't even notice the flag reflection until I put the photos in the computer. One of my daughters thought it was a cool pic. Too bad the "pond" is so small. The koi hardly have any room to swim around at all.
Today it is my privilege and pleasure to introduce Katharine Britton to Pudgy Penguin Perusals. I really enjoyed Her Sister's Shadow and was so immersed in the lives of the sisters that the pages just flew by. At times I was annoyed with Bea and Lilli and at other times I felt so sorry for them for all the wasted years they were estranged. What I found really intriguing is how they each perceived their self imposed role in the family from childhood , how that shaped their destinies and how they felt about that role so many years later. Her Sister's Shadow resonated with me long after the last page was turned. It's hard to believe this exquisitely written story is a debut novel. I hope Katharine has many more stories to tell!
Unexpected Stories by Katharine Britton
Thanks, Kaye, for inviting me to guest blog on Pudgy Penguin Perusals!
Stories come to writers in unexpected ways. We spend a lot of time observing our surroundings, jotting down snippets of conversations, and noting unusual people and situations, and then we write a scene taken partially from these observations and dredged partially from our imaginations. We don’t know what we’ve written until we read the scene. When we read it, we sometimes (often) find that the words don’t express precisely what we’d intended to say. So we change one word, and then another, and, slowly, the scene takes shape. But, what’s this? The scene now leads the story in a whole new direction! The story we thought we were writing is not the one we’re now writing.
Sometimes a writer will adjust a setting to fit a new plot element, and this can also lead to wholly unexpected outcomes. Say we need our character to make a quilt to auction at the county fair. We add a sewing room onto the house. Quietly, a character suggests that the sewing room might once have been a nursery. "Is this true?" the writer asks (somewhat shocked, somewhat annoyed). "Yes," the character says. "I can’t believe you didn’t know that." The writer, then, must dutifully supply the character with a present and a future to address that hidden past. Our characters will let us know if we get it wrong. The stubborn ones remain silent for days, making us guess at the error. The outspoken ones talk so fast we have to race to keep up. Again, the story we thought we were writing is not the one we’re now writing.
My novel, Her Sister’s Shadow, is a story that took root in my heart many years ago. It took many revisions and many years to finish. My characters, Lilli and Bea, are loosely based on the relationship between my mother and her youngest sister. They endured a series of tragedies that, I think, signaled for them the end of childhood, as it does for my characters. It was my mother’s relationship with my aunt that got me wondering, what would it take to drive sisters apart, and what would it take to bring them back together? The events in Her Sister’s Shadow are fictional, presented to me, in part, by the characters, as I sat them in a room together and let them talk, and, in part, from my imagination, as I wandered the hallways of their childhood home, where my characters reunite after a forty-year estrangement. I invented doorways and opened them to see what lay behind; pictured a dressing table and started sifting through the clutter, surprised at what lay hidden.
I hope you enjoy reading Her Sister’s Shadow as much as I enjoyed the journey of writing it. And, please, let me hear from you!
Paperback, 336 pages
Published June 7th 2011 by Berkley Trade
ISBN0425241742
(ISBN13: 9780425241745)
primary languageEnglish
Thank you so much, Katarine, for your wonderful guest post. It's so interesting to see how a writer's talent and imagination lead to the finished scenes. I loved how you gave the characters dimension by shifting time frames giving the reader more insight into their feelings about the events taking place. The setting and sense of place is fantastic. It made me more homesick than ever.
I'm sure anyone who enjoys contemporary fiction about families and especially sisters will easily relate to this book. 4****
Expected publication: June 7th 2011 by Berkley Trade (ISBN13: 9780425241196)
It's pug night at the New York Metropolitan museum of art in honor of Daphne Markham, one of the museums largest donors and a celebrity socialite in her own right. Hope McNeill, one of the museum's restorers, is in attendance with Max, her boyfriend Ben's pug. She's dog-sitting Max while Ben is working out of the country.
When Hope discovers the painting, Pansies, on her work table and not on the wall, she knows something is very, very amiss. After speaking to the director, he cautions her not to tell anyone that the painting she found is a copy and the real one is missing. He insists that the department will look into it without involving the police. He does however hire a private investigator who was recommended to him.
Thinking the P.I. is inept, Hope worries that someone will think she had something to do with the heist so when a somewhat mysterious clue lands in her e mail box, she starts her own investigation. With a little helpful advice from the elderly Daphne Markham, Hope interprets each clue she finds but one just leads to more questions than answers. Max, in his own way, is instrumental in helping Hope look at the case in a new light. What ensues is a fun scavenger hunt type mystery with delightfully quirky and loveable characters. I liked the interactions between Hope and Max. It's amazing how Pace manages to imbue Max with almost a human personality.
This was my first reading experience with Alison Pace and I will definitely read anything else by her. While the ending was not a total surprise, it was still such a captivating and enjoyable read. A Pug's Tale is a light, delightful cozy mystery that is sure to be enjoyed by cozy fans or animal fans everywhere. 4*
Allison Pace is the author of numerous books and can be found on her website or on her Goodreads page.
Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Berkley in exchange for my honest opinion.
This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, a meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.
In April we made the annual "big trek north" for 10 days and on our way home we stopped in Gray Court, South Carolina to visit our friends who had recently moved there from Florida. They had just heard about The Happy Cow Creamery from one of their neighbors so we decided to go for a visit.
Dinner time makes for some really happy cows!
One thing that impressed us was that the dairy does not add any artificial vitamins, the cows are not given any hormones nor is the milk homogenized. The milk was delicious! It's obvious that not adding all those extras makes such a difference in the taste. After tasting a buttermilk sample, we came to the conclusion that that is an acquired taste. My friend, Phyllis, was brought up on it and she loved it. Her hubby, Ken, TBG and I grimaced as we drank the sample.
It may be good for cooking but not straight out of the glass for this old Yankee!
Their little store had much more than milk; cheeses, cream, two pound rolls of butter, and a host of other goodies graced the shelves. I did pick up a bottle of apple cinnamon barbecue sauce and a bottle of Braswell's Select Praline Flavoring Mix. I thought the barbecue sauce would be great on pork but I have no clue what I'm going to do with the praline sauce. There are a few recipes (see below) on the tag that sound interesting. If anyone has any suggestions for other uses, please let me know.
Praline Harvest Crisp
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Cover bottom of prepared 8x8" baking pan with 24 crushed vanilla wafers. Cover crust with two peeled, diced apples and 4 c assorted fresh or frozen berries.
Combine 1/2 c. Praline mix 2 tbsp lemon juice 1/2 c. granulated sugar and drizzle over fruit and cookie crumbs.
Melt 1 stick of butter and combine with 1/2 c oatmeal flakes, 1 c. flour, 1 c. brown sugar and 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg until mix is crumbly. Evenly spread mix on top of the crisp. Bake for 50-60 minutes until browned and serve with Praline whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Doesn't that sound good? Sorry, I didn't bake it to test it but it sounds more like a fall or winter dessert. This is not the time of year in Florida to be having the oven on just for a dessert.
There's also a recipe for truffles and one for praline cheesecake which I may try at another time. You'll probably see that in another Weekend cooking post.
For some interesting history of the Happy Cow Creamery and other sites in SC where you can find their products, please visit their website.
Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Signet; Original edition (June 7, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 0451233808 ISBN-13: 978-0451233806
It's the Lantana County Fair day in Dalliance, Texas, when out of the blue, who strolls past the A-la-mode ice cream booth but Sonny Anders, Bree's ex husband, who she hasn't seen since he walked out on her and their daughter, Alice, fifteen years ago. He's walking with another woman looking very smug and successful. This really frosts Bree as she never saw one red cent of child support money from this loser. Now for the final insult; his lawyer, Kristen Ver Steeg has served her papers questioning Alice's paternity. If that isn't enough to make Bree, her cousin Tally and her 85 year old grandma, Peachy, madder than a wet hen, what is? Well, maybe being accused of murder would do it!
Tally Jones,owner of the A-la-mode ice cream shop, along with detective Cal McCormack are right on the spot when a shot rings out from the Haunted Rodeo ride. They find Bree cowering inside with gun in hand and Kristen dead. Bree insists there was a man with a gun in there but Detective McCormack is convinced Bree is the murderer as all the circumstantial evidence points straight in her direction. Now, how is Tally going to prove her cousin's innocence along with running her successful ice cream shop and dealing with the emotional bomb Bree drops on the family after her arrest. It's going to be one humdinger of a job but Tally keeps a cool head most of the time and vows to prove Bree's innocence.
This is a new to me series and I loved it! Complete with colorful and feisty characters ( I could just picture Peachy when someone got her dander up) that leap off the page, a great setting, fun dialogue and lots of family drama along with a good mystery set up; what more could a cozy fan want? 4****
A Parfait Murder is number 3 in the A-la-mode series following I Scream, You Scream and Scoop to Kill.
More about Wendy and her entertaining books can be found at her website or at her Goodreads page.
Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Signet in exchange for my honest opinion.
To celebrate this month's release, Signet is allowing me to give away 1 copy of the book. Open to US only. Deadline to enter is June 12th at 5 PM (est). As always, bonus entries available:
+2 for being a follower (old or new) just remind me how you follow and under what name +3 for posting about (sidebar is fine)or tweeting. Be sure to leave me a link and don't forget to leave an e mail contact in your comment.
