A Knit Before Dying

In Sadie Hartwell's A Knit Before Dying, the second installment in the Tangled Web Cozy Mystery series, this newest cozy would leave you tied up in knots at the end. When Josie Blair had settled into her new business and home in Dorset Falls, she had met her newest tenant, Lyndon Bailey, who owned the antique shop next there. After she had heard an argument between the owner of the general store with someone else, it had piqued her interest. But later when she wanted to discuss the matter of the new lease agreement, she had discovered Lyndon's dead body. Now it was up to figure out and solve this mystery, when his business partner Harry had arrived on the scene and later arrested for his murder. But while she had run-ins with her arch-nemesis, she had a blog to update, a business to run in the yarn shop, and tried to figure out how to deal with her great-uncle Eben Lloyd.  If that wasn't enough, she had dealt with Lyndon's niece Taylor and the reality show to shoot in the vicinity along the way. Besides all that, she discovered a couple of doilies with one of them that intrigued her.  That small town had a cold case of a disappearance of Bea Ryder, who once owned one of the shops. While she tried to pick up the pieces to piece it together, she had thought she had it all figured out, until one of her friends goes missing. And that leaves Josie to find her and then later straighten out the facts to fight for her life.

This was another great cozy mystery set in the small town of Dorset Falls. I continued to care for Josie and how she multi-tasked her personal and private life. She's becoming her own person and taking care of business. I also adored her friends like Evelyn and Helen and Lorna, though I've found Taylor a nuisance and found Mitch quite charming. I do love how Dorset Falls comes to life with vivid imagery for the locations around the small town and the scenic settings. This would make you want to learn a stitch of two with a skein of yarn and to bond together with friends and fellow knitters. This has drama, non-stop action, intrigue and a spark of suspense from start to finish.

Will you pick up a copy of A Knit Before Dying tonight?

Too Wild To Tame

In Tessa Bailey's Too Wild to Tame, the 2nd installment in the Romancing the Clarksons contemporary romance series, this novel would make you fan yourself from the hot and steamy love scenes. After the Clarksons left New Mexico, they stopped in Iowa. For Aaron, he stopped at a campaign fundraiser for the Pendletons and ran into a thief who stole the money. Aaron and his dog, Old Man followed the culprit and kept their secret. Little did he know that she was Senator Pendelton's youngest daughter Grace, a bit of a wild child who had lost her way. For Grace, she had been kept a secret from her father and stayed away from family dinners and outings. She had a bit of a experience at a camp and wanted to set it right. When she met Aaron, the chemistry between them was palpable when they made love. In order to impress her father, he came up with a plan to raise points for his campaign to voters and championed Grace's cause to rebuilt YouthAspire to shake its shaky past. Grace had lost her five friends and survived from the fire that day. When things tend to get heated between them with a slow burn, Aaron was given a choice to leave for New York without Grace or listen to his heart to follow his dreams.

This was another great contemporary romance love story from Tessa Bailey. I really cared for Grace who had been sheltered from an overprotective father. I loved how she finally stuck to her guns and told him how she felt. I also liked how Aaron handled his side of things for her father and how she kept the secret between him and Grace low key. They do see to make a perfect couple to heat up the windows with their romance. You would need a tall glass of ice water to cool yourself down. I loved the winter season in Iowa and how it showcased the bitter side of politics and how idyllic the Midwest states could be with the cornfield. The scenery was vivid with splendid descriptions and mesmerizing locations. This would make you want to sigh, swoon and sway and douse yourself with a water hose with plenty of romance, lots of drama, some intrigue and action.


Will you be too wild to tame your heart today?

Silenced

In Allison Brennan's Silenced, the 4th installment in the Lucy Kincaid romantic suspense series, this storyline was so intense and twisted from start to finish. It all started for Lucy as a analyst for the FBI, when she came to the crime scene of the dead body of Wendy James, the alleged mistress of a well-known politician. But as they work the case, her supervisor gives Lucy a hard time of her position in the case, while she works with her colleague and friend Noah Armstrong. For Ivy Harris, aka Hannah Edmunds, she had escaped the clutches from her evil father and took her younger sister Sara with her to Washington D.C. Someone's out there looking out for her and wants her dead. Then when another dead body turns up with another grisly message on the corpse, Lucy and the FBI believes it might be connected in one way or another. While she helps the DC Police, they try to connect the dots on who's hunting down these young prostitutes. And at the next crime scene, the people closest to Ivy were also killed in the line of fire. That's when Sean Rogan, Lucy's boyfriend and Noah probe the case to find people connected to them and also to Lucy with Senator Paxton, someone from Lucy's past.  When they made a remote connection from Wendy to Ivy to put the pieces together, things get heated when they tried to help Ivy in a car crash. Later on, things turn dicey into an intense standoff with an explosive ending of a life-and-death situation you would never believe.

This was another gripping and intense romantic suspense in the Lucy Kincaid series. I did care for Lucy and how she wanted to fit into the field work as an analyst for the FBI. I also cared for Ivy/Hannah, who wanted to escape from a monster who would control and mastermind his own children. An older sister who would do the same thing as she did to protect her younger sister or brother.  I do see a potential love triangle between Lucy, Sean, and Noah, though I think Sean would be a better fit for Lucy for right. I did like the great scenic settings and lush locations for the Washington D.C. area for the storyline that put us right there, front and center. This would take you a real-fast emotional roller coaster ride for you to buckle your seat belt and hang on tight with non-stop action, some sparks of romance, plenty of intense drama and lots of intrigue. 

What would you do to prevent yourself from being silenced today?

The Sugarhouse Blues

In Mariah Stewart's The Sugarhouse Blues, the 2nd installment in the Hudson Sisters woman's fiction series, this novel is about family and the ties that bind them together and finding a new start somewhere. For Desdemona "Des" Hudson, she joined her sister Allie and her half-sister Cara on a monstrous project to restore the Sugarhouse theater. It was reported on their late father's will. That theater have been in their family for centuries and now needs a major restoration to fix the leaking ceiling. They all had something that brought them there, when they've gotten to know each other better. Both Allie and Cara are divorced, while Des looks for her own Mr. Right. Between the three of them, they researched the history of the theater and learned more about their own father's hidden secrets. As the days go by, they worked hard to put the theater into place and talked about life and love, shared laughter, secrets, and memories, before the restoration could be completed in their new home.

This was a lovely woman's fiction novel that was heartfelt, emotionally-packed, and moving. I cared about Des and her two sisters and what they did to get there and bond together. They all had their own journeys and paths that took them there. This was mainly Des's story from her POV and how she cared for her Aunt Bonnie and experienced a chance for love and finding the right guy. I loved the Hidden Falls background location in Pennsylvania and the settings inside and outside of the theater. I also cared about Seth and how was a stand-out guy. This would make you appreciate what you have with family and friendship with non-stop drama, some sparks of love, some action and mystery.

Will you be there to help the Hudson sisters out in The Sugarhouse Blues?

Wicked River

In Jenny Milchman's Wicked River, this thriller will take you on a wild non-stop ride on a river, so you'll better hang on tight. For Natalie Abbott, she had just gotten married to her husband Doug Larson. But things aren't what they seem to be for her. It all started with a huge argument with his friends and then things took off from them on a wild start. For their honeymoon, they decided to canoe along the Adirondacks and explored the river. From there, the rapids aren't the only thing that were rocky---tempers are high, when Natalie learns some hidden truths about Doug's past and the hidden stash of coke in the canoe. And that was only the start of their troubles, when a lone stranger used the woods as his private land and kills animals for his prey. When they get lost, they landed in the deep crevasses of the forest and tried to survive, while they fight for their lives with injuries, starving and dehydrated. But when they fought they had died, Kurt Pierson saves their lives with homemade medicines from Mother Nature. But this savior is just an act, when they wants them to stay on his land. While their family is frantic with worry for them, they sent out the police and search and rescue volunteers to look for them. For Natalie and Doug, they would do anything to fight for their lives and escape when given the chance to be safe.


This was a fantastic five-star novel from Jenny Milchman. It reminds me of The River Wild from a little over a decade ago with a twist. I did care for Natalie and Doug, while they had a rough start to their new lives together. But I loved how they put it aside and refreshed it in the end. I also cared for Mia, who just wants her parents to get along and be together, though she did help save Natalie's life at a precarious risk. I loved the New York locations for the locations and the river scenes were gripping and thrilling at the same time. This would make you want to appreciate life to the fullest and to enjoy nature while it could be dangerous and adventurous with plenty twists and turns. It has a lot of non-stop action, suspense, drama, and plenty of mystery straight to the end.

Will you take a canoe ride on the wicked river tonight?

Devil's Gate

In Clive Cussler's Devil's Gate, the 9th installment in the Kurt Austin NUMA Files action-adventure series, this captivating novel would have you hooked in no time. It all started for Kurt Austin and his crew with their latest assignment to salvage a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean. That's when the Russians sent Katarina, a fellow scientist to be a spy on the same ship. But low and be hold, that's when they team up and join forces to eliminate another threat. Someone had gotten hold of a secret weapon that's so powerful with superconductive energy to wipe out the people at the end of the earth. They call it Devil's Gate, which is much stronger than the legendary Bermuda Triangle. But Kurt's old nemesis, Andras, has worked with a Sierra Leone leader named Djemma Garand, who wants to destroy the USA. Before they could deal with that, during the same mission, it had knocked out Paul Trout and put him into a coma, when he and Gamay had worked to salvage the ship from a submersible. After Paul recovers, Kurt learns how Andras had kidnapped several people including Katerina, when he had been taken hostage with Joe. For them, it's a race to escape and to save the USA from massive destruction in a grueling life-and-death battle.

This was a gripping and intense action-adventure novel to leave you at the edge of your seat. I cared for Kurt and Joe and the Trouts as well. I also became fond of Katerina, who could be Kurt's newest main squeeze. I loved how it took front and center stage on the ships in the ocean near Africa and beyond for diverse scenic locations. This would make you want to hold your breath and join Kurt's team with non-stop action, drama, suspense and plenty of mystery from start to finish.

Will you be there to stop Devil's Gate from destroying human lives?

Purple Cane Road

In James Lee Burke's Purple Cane Road, the 11th installment in the Dave Robicheaux serial mystery series, this dark mystery will leave you chilled from start to finish. For Dave Robicheaux, all his life he wondered about what happened to his mother when she mysteriously died years ago. When a pimp had came to him and asked him if he was Mae Guillory's boy, he revealed a bombshell to Dave on what he knew about her strange death. And that had brought him back to the past when he revisited memories on Purple Cane Road where he lived there as a young boy. Now, while he searched for the truth for his mother's killer, he had dealt with the upcoming execution of Letty Labouche, someone who had killed a lawyer in cold blood, and how he attempted to get her off the hook to no avail. He also dealt with a former con stalking his daughter, crooked cops and politicians, and his partner's running into his fair share of trouble with the law. It was now up to Dave to set things right and pick up those stray pieces in his life to get some closure and justice with a shocking ending.

This was a real good mystery that's dark as noir fiction can be. I did care for Dave and how he dealt with a lot of things going at once for him. I did feel for Alafair for trying to get along for him and dealing with Johnny who's nothing about scum. I think Clete needs to clean up his act a tiny bit.  I loved the central New Orleans locations for the storyline and to the vivid settings that liven up the scenery. This would make you want to shake your head and whistle a few times with non-stop action, drama, suspense and a bucket load of mystery.

Will you go back to Purple Cane Road?