I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Mums and Mayhem is the third book in Amanda Flower's Magical Garden cozy mystery series. I have not read any previous books in this series. The premise is that Fiona has moved to her uncles place to care for his magic garden after he dies and poor Fiona seems to have been stumbling into corpses ever since. Also, there's a secret involving the details of her parentage that she and her parents have to work out. Oh, and her irritating sister is irritating. Fiona is a florist dating the handsome police chief and tending her magical garden when a famous fiddler comes to their sleepy little town. Then the man is murdered and Fiona's dad may be a suspect! Fiona must battle through a cast of zany characters: septuagenarian fangirls, the fiddler's ex, and some angry band members. Plus, there's the bitter historian who really wants to know more about the garden. I lov

I adored this book so much. It shows perfectly how the gaming community can be wonderful and horrifying at the same time. I've known people very much like the VP in this book and dealt with the harassment (Not on the level that Divya does but it was still pretty awful.) I really appreciated that Aaron's savior complex was called out as not a good thing. There was so much I identified with in this book and I got the feeling that Smith really understands why we game and the lovely communities we build despite the gatekeepers. This book is greatly appreciated.

This was a pretty solid mystery. I had read the previous entry, "Past Due for Murder" and enjoyed it very much. When the skeleton of a struggling nusician hippie is found the secrets of an old commune are at risk of being exposed and when the members start dying in mysterious circumstances, it's up to Amy to figure out what's going on. I really like Amy's relationship with Richard. It's very sweet.

This is the fourth book in the delightful Magical Bookshop series by Amanda Flower. Violet Waverly is in a bike race for a fundraiser set up by her grandmother, the mayor. (Daisy) and a man is murdered right in the middle of the race! The man was douchey snooper Joel Redding, who Violet is convinced knows the magical secret of the bookshop. Violet's friend Jo has also been acting strangely and as more clues pop up it seems there are a lot who wanted Joel dead. And the bookstore won't stop pushing Leaves of Grass on her for some reason! Cascade Falls is always a fun place to book visit and the mystery is well-plotted.

This book was a creepy thrill ride and a half. It features a therapist name Heather who killed her best friend when they were children and now has sent her something from the night of the murder. The atmosphere of this book is so creepy and the way it's written left me unsure as to whether Heather actually did kill Becca throughout most of the book. The parts with the Dead Girls Club were so well-written. Honestly, they were my favorite parts of the book.

Fair warning, this book starts off incredibly slowly but is definitely well worth the read. The main character is Lena, the oldest daughter and next in line for leadership. Her sister, Fressa wants to marry her love Amal but can't because custom dictates that Lena must be first married. I feel I'd be doing this book a great disservice if I didn't mention that grief may well be a main character. It permeates Lena's every action and insinuates itself in her life, driving her to do things that if she weren't traumatized and grieving, cause me to label her  "too stupid too live" Why the grief? Well, Fressa dies. (Oh, I'm not spoiling anything! It's on the book blurb!) There's not a mark on her body and Lena knows something's up. So, she makes a deal with the goddess of death to switch out her sister's soulf for another of equal weight. What do we say to the goddess of death? Apparently, "Sure I'll kill people!" Well,

Wow, this book was a doozy! Can I just say that Sara Shepard writes terrible people brilliantly? So the email hack is a really interesting concept for a mystery as someone who never deletes their email. But the scandal! The secrets! The mystery is twofold: who was responsible for the hack and who killed Greg Strasser (which for some reason I kept reading as Greg Sestero.) Welp, gotta be honest here. Ole Greggo was a wretched sack of compost and there was a point where I wished I had murdered him! I don't want to write too much because the twists are wild and wooly. This book was an amazingly enjoyable read, filled with heart and horrible human beings.

I'll be honest. I don't generally care for Christian fiction because a lot of what I read seemed really preachy and judgmental to me (although to be fair back in the day I was over the moon about Lurlene McDaniel) so a friend gave a rec for Melanie Dickerson and three days or something later, this book popped up on Netgalley. I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. So Kat and Steffan both obviously have PTSD and Stef is a recovering alcoholic. They are far from perfect in terms of mental health and they join together to figure out what the deal is with the Beast, a malevolent entity that has lured the children away from Hamlin. They have to put up with Kat's dastardly (is there a word stronger than dastardly? Diabolical, maybe?) stepfather Hennek and his gross henchman. I really liked the way this one ended and am very interested in checking out the other books in this series.

This book is an absolute smorgasbord of holiday cheer. Fifteen short pieces by John Scalzi including an interview with Santaslawyer, a list of nefarious Christmas specials (if you wouldn't pay to see "A Canadian Christmas with David Cronenberg", we cannot be friends), and a great story about Christmas in July are among the goodies in this delightful book. It's a treasure!

I adored this book! Sam is a great character and the secondary characters are great, too! When a man is murdered on a retirement home bus trip to Chicago, Sam and her grandmother are shocked. Sam has a few murder solves under her belt and thinks she has a shot at it, due to the ineffective police. It turns out there are some people with pretty good reasons for wanting this man dead. The mystery is solid and I appreciated the solve.

Have you ever watched Cutthroat Kitchen and wished that the show could just be a teensy bit more cutthroat? Well, have I got the book for you! Courtney Archer is a woman with a secret. She's not actually the down home country girl her legions of fans think she is. This probably wouldn't be such a big deal if she wasn't the host of a very popular cooking show. Courtney is chosen to host a baking battle with her reputation as a country girl. Unfortunately one of the contestants is fatalky beaned in the head with cast iron filled with dessert. More precisely, a dessert poor Courtney had left to cool. Everyone is a suspect, including Courtney. Trying to keep her secret and unmask the murderer keeps Courtney on her toes. I really enjoyed this one and was honestly surprised by how much I liked Courtney. (Look, she's lying for fame. Not very nice) but Ross manages to make her very relatable and sympathetic. First in the series.

This was a really fun read featuring likable characters and an engaging mystery. It has three pov's: Megan, a police officer Brigit, Megan's k9 partner The poacher, a man who commits crimes to keep his family together. This book was incredibly sympathetic to The Poacher while not letting him off the hook. For instance, he stole the toys from the toy shop to give his kids a good Christmas. Megan starts off investigating a rich woman's missing ring and then is alerted to the birdnapping of two macaws. I figured out what was happening with the rings pretty early on but the plot is written really well and it didn't interrupt the flow of the zoo abductions storyline.

Catfishing on CatNet was amazing and I most definitely will recommend it to fans of YA fiction. So, what I'd like to talk about is the joy in community found on the internet. Yes, it can certainly be a hive of scum and villainy but I have often found my family online. Care to talk about your online family? -Sarah

Welcome back to the world of Jill Gardner, Greg, and the awesome pupperino Emma. This time, Jill is super concerned about her Aunt Jackie who has suddenly called off her engagement. It turns out poor Jackie may have been contacted by her supposed husband. To make matters worse a man has been shot. (I would like to say that while I was typing this, I mistyped "shot" and started laughing because considering Ben's character, it seemed pretty apt.) All the clues seem to point to his doormat girlfriend, Paula. Jill can't believe that Paula would be capable of doing such a thing and decides to investigate. The Tourist Trap Mysteries are excellent stand-alone books. I've read two in the series and while I want back ground on the characters, I don't feel I've missed out on anything.

So, this book deals quite bluntly with themes of suicide and depression. If these are issues you have difficulty with please be careful when reading this book. It's wonderful but very intense at points. Oh, this book. Would you believe I almost didn't finish it? I'm so glad that I did. Here's what's happening in this book. Coral is a young mermaid whose culture considers emotions a disease. Her older sister fell in love with a human and is now waiting to die of the horrific Red Tide Brooke is staying at an inpatient care facility for her depression and is struggling over painful memories. Merrick is struggling with his domineering father, his depressed kid sister, and his mother leaving.

This is a phenomenal addition to Arthurian legend. I've always thought that Guinevere was done dirty by legend. This Guinevere is not actually born as Guinevere and that's such an interesting thought in the "What's in a name?" line of thinking. Our Guinevere is sent by Merlin to marry King Arthur to protect him since magic has been banished in Camelot. The writing is wonderful and there are some twists that are absolute delights. I'll not spoil it but it was an absolute delight to read! I am here for this and you should be too!

This book was so good! It's almost like two books in one. The beginning is very gothic horror, like VC Andrews but focused on a creepy Manor instead of...you know. The story is told through the alternating viewpoints of Zuhra and Inara. Inara seems to have extreme sensory issues and has attacks where she can barely speak due to being do overwhelmed. The girls live with their mother and servant in an old musty citadel protected by a sentient hedge. Yes, a sentient hedge that only let's Sami (the servant) out if there's an emergency. One day, a man somehow gets by the hedge and the adventure begins. This was a fascinating tale of loyalty and well, abuse. Yes, I understand that Cinnia felt deserted but did she have to treat her daughters so cruelly just for having questions? Honestly, I just wanted her to die! I really liked Halvor. His enthusiasm for knowledge of the Paladins was charming.

Previously... This book has great fun with flashbacks and doesn't get to the present until about 75% in (much like the first one) the difference is this one takes us back 25 years ago. I'll admit that while the twist is fun, I saw it coming from the first book and I don't think this is a knock against Barnes but more due to the fact that I grew up watching really weird soap operas. More info about the Taft family is given and I really enjoyed that. I really want to talk more but I don't want to soil the book. While not as laugh out loud as the other one (c'mon, Campbell's kidnapping was comedy gold) I actually believe this is an improvement on the first.

It struck me after reading this that this book could be a continuation of a Romeo and Juliet story.  What happened in the decade after if nobody had learned their lesson? The situation Valerie finds herself in is a difficult one until she literally has the choice taken away from her at gunpoint. So she adapts. This is a very sad story, the premise being founded on a child's murder but it's also a celebration of life. Valerie finds happiness and a sense if community with the Stags as they attempt to fight gentrification. And I've got to say, having lived in Seattle, Shannon Price is on point about this.