When autumn arrives... it's a wonderous season for cozy reading nooks, great Holiday reads, and wonderfully delicious goodness... enjoy your discovery of these titles...
ISBN: 9781496726445
Publisher's Synopsis:
While January snow falls outside in Miracle Springs, North Carolina, Nora Pennington is encouraging customers to cozy up indoors with a good book. Even though the shop and her bibliotherapy sessions keep Nora busy during the day, her nights are a little too quiet—until Deputy Andrews pulls Nora into the sci-fi section and asks her to help him plan a wedding proposal.
His bride-to-be, Hester, loves Little Women, and Nora sets to work arranging a special screening at the town’s new movie theater. But right before the deputy pops the question, Nora makes an unsettling discovery—someone has mutilated all her store’s copies of The Scarlet Letter, slicing angrily into the pages wherever Hester Prynne’s name is mentioned.
The coincidence disturbs Nora, who’s one of the few in Miracle Springs who knows that Hester gave up a baby for adoption many years ago. Her family heaped shame on her, and Hester still feels so guilty that she hasn’t even told her future husband. But when a dead man is found on a hiking trail just outside town, carrying a rare book, the members of the Secret, Book, and Scone Society unearth a connection to Hester’s past. Someone is intent on bringing the past to light, and it’s not just Hester’s relationship at stake, but her life…
"The secret lies in the reading and the writing.
You are able to read.
Every day you must read one page from some good book to your child.
Every day this must be until the child learns to read.
Then she must read every day.
I know this is the secret."
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
MrsK's Review:
Don't you love book titles that call out to you? The Vanishing Type, I wonder what would this book be about? Could it be a book in which certain codes might need your attention? Could it be, I wonder... that part of the content vanishes on the page? Opening the cover of this book invites you with that quest to make a warm cup of chocolate... a dash for your favorite quilt... and a fire's glow with calming classical music. Now that your reading "cove" is set... it's time to snuggle down "into" this book.
Once again Nora will inspire her patrons to snuggle up with a delightful warm cup of cheer and that perfect "uniquely" chosen book. This winter, Nora will be asked to help plan a special occasion for her closest friend, a friend who cherishes and rereads "Little Women" every year. She will discover a mysterious death along her hiking trail, seriously... what would you do if you're enjoying a crisp winter jaunt in the glorious wilderness... and there it is... an unknown lifeless body. How would you react if you had just locked up your bookstore, after reading a winter extravaganza, only to discover that your friend is lying completely still in the rain?
Reading books about books is always a delight. So many new titles to be discovered... so many wonderful bookshop adventures... and a murder mystery... is there any other way to spend an evening? Yes, there is! I spent the evening in search of book snacks that would match the wonderfully delicious scones and meals that are discussed throughout this novel. Let me tell you... nothing in my pantry came close to the delicacies in this novel! *Read this novel with a pencil and journal... I wonder... is there a limit to a "To Be Read" pile?
MrsK
"May we all be people ahead of our time!"
Meet the Author:
USA Today and New York Times bestseller author Ellery Adams has written over forty novels and can’t imagine spending a day away from the keyboard. Ms. Adams, a Native New Yorker, has had a lifelong love affair with stories, food, rescue animals, and large bodies of water. When not working on her next novel, she bakes, gardens, drinks vats of coffee, spoils her three cats and searches for snacks. She lives with her husband and two children (aka the Trolls) in North Carolina. Ellery's Series Include: Secret, Book, & Scone Society (Kensington) Book Retreat Mysteries (Kensington) Books By the Bay Mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime), Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries ((Berkley Prime Crime), Molly Appleby Antiques & Collectibles Mysteries (Beyond the Page), and Hope Street Mysteries (Beyond the Page).
ISBN: 9780310366652
Publisher's Synopsis:
Salina Petersheim runs her own booth at the Amish market, where she’s known for having the freshest and most delicious produce in the area. Her father is the bishop of her church district, and her brother is a deacon. They are a very close family, yet sometimes she tires of being compared to her older brother, Neil, who is married and has two children. She also feels the pressure of having to be the perfect daughter for her parents.Salina has been dating Josiah for almost a year now, but he feels more like a friend than a boyfriend. Her parents approve of Josiah, who is a hardworking roofer. He’s handsome and easy to talk to, but he just doesn’t warm her heart the way she feels a boyfriend and future husband should. She secretly longs for more.
Along comes William “Will” Zimmerman, a Mennonite chef who runs a restaurant located next door to the Amish market. He wants Salina to supply the produce for his restaurant, and as they forge a business relationship, they both feel themselves falling in love. Salina especially tries to deny her feelings for Will since her father wants her to marry within the community.
MrsK's Review:
Salina is a dedicated farmer. Her farm fresh vegetables and fruits are desired at her Amish market booth. Her heart is filled to overflowing when she is tending her garden. If you have ever been a gardener... you will understand the closeness to our Lord as you tend the fruits of your labor.
Will is a Mennonite chef who has opened his own restaurant across the street from the Amish market. In need of extra vegetables, Will ventures across the street to the market where he sees Salina's produce, he is thrilled with the discovery of fresh and local produce for his patrons.
Both characters have their own paths... their own perspective relationships... their own independent futures. Given the ease of their interests, the agreed agreed-upon standing business connection, and the joy of a friendship. Yet, they understand the difference and boundaries of their faith. A faith that leads them to a "fork in the road," choices that require personal surrender unto the will of the Lord.
The farm stand offers inspiration, friendships, heart, and joy in a season of thanksgiving...
MrsK
An Amish Marketplace Series
The Bake Shop (2019) The Farm Stand (2020)
The Coffee Corner (2020) The Jam and Jelly Nook (2021)
Meet the Author:
ISBN: 9781496731784
Publisher's Synopsis:
For the picturesque town of Oceanview on the Oregon Coast, May brings blossoming fruit trees and the annual UFO festival. As Aunt Eloise tries out alien costumes on their Havana brown cat Everett, Wren is off to meet with a bee wrangler, her go-to guy for local fruit tree honey.But when she arrives, Elias Brentwood is lying on the ground amidst destroyed hives and a swarm of angry bees. The bees didn’t kill him, a blow to the head did. As blue-eyed Officer Jim Hampton investigates and the town is invaded by its own swarm of conspiracy theorists and crackpots, Wren and Aunt Eloise decide the only way to catch the bee wrangler’s killer is to set up a sting . . .
MrsK's Review:
Wren owns a delightful honey shop, "Let It Bee," in a small coastal shop. Her customers enjoy bee candles, bee treats, bee specialty gifts... and of course an inside view of a bee colony actively at work through an outside bee hive cased in a glass window honeycomb. She has spent her time making honey products and learning how to care for bees. Did you know that the Pacific NW coast has "bee wranglers?"
Unfortunately, Wren discovers her friend, Elias, on the ground with angry bees flying all around him. After calling in professional bee wranglers, Wren learns that Elias is dead. His hives have been destroyed and Wren is not going to "bee" satisfied until the killer is arrested.
With a delightful assortment of friends, Wren will find plenty to make, do, and investigate. Everett, her feline consultant, help has his own thoughts about the killer. Her Aunt Eloise will remain loyal to Wren, her shop, and to her efforts in keeping Wren out of trouble.
For a quick "Beetective" read, this enjoyable mystery not only has numerous red-herrings, community involvement, crazy outings, as well as noteworthy "honey" recipes.
Mrs.K
Meet the Author:
USA Today Bestselling Author, Nancy J Parra AKA Nancy Coco AKA Nell Hampton is the author of over 30 published novels which include five mystery series: The Oregon Honey-comb Mystery Series (Kensington), The Candy-Coated Mysteries (Kensington), The Kensington Palace Mystery Series (Crooked Lane), The Wine Country Tours Mystery Series (Crooked Lane) The Gluten-free Baker’s Treat Mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime), and The Perfect Proposal Mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime). Her writing has been called witty and her protagonists plucky by reviewers around the world. Nancy is a member of Sisters in Crime, and loves to hear from readers. 
ISBN: 9781464215872
Publisher's Synopsis:
The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation, and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer."Open me carefully..."
Emily Dickinson
MrsK's Review:
Absolutely, you must open the covers of this book...carefully...very carefully. You must have time to discover this unfolding mystery. Time to decipher the taunts, the deceivers, and the trail of the killer.
Hannah is the author, and Leo is a friendly editor/author reading Hannah's latest transcript. You are the audience, the reader looking into their relationship as Hannah is writing her newest mystery.
In the Boston Public Library, Freddie has gone into the Reading Room to focus her writing. She's an author stuck in what she writes about. While "people-watching," as most writers will do, she begins taking notes and wondering about those sitting around her. That is how she thought her day, her life would proceed... until that piercing scream startles everyone. And so the story begins...
Within the covers of this book, you will discover inside perspectives of a writer's mind. You will meet four strangers as they move on from an "unforgettable" library journey. Most of all, you will try to tie together the murdering threads...
Time to read... time to re-read... time to ponder... and time enough to be led astray...
MrsK
Meet the Author:
Once upon a time, Sulari Gentill was a corporate lawyer serving as a director on public boards, with only a vague disquiet that there was something else she was meant to do. That feeling did not go away until she began to write. And so Sulari became the author of the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries: thus far, ten historical crime novels chronicling the life and adventures of her 1930s Australian gentleman artist, the Hero Trilogy, based on the myths and epics of the ancient world, and the Ned Kelly Award winning Crossing the Lines (published in the US as After She Wrote Hime). In 2014 she collaborated with National Gallery of Victoria to write a short story which was produced in audio to feature in the Fashion Detective Exhibition, and thereafter published by the NGV. IN 2019 Sulari was part of a 4-member delegation of Australian crime writers sponsored by the Australia Council to tour the US as ambassadors of Australian Crime Writing. Sulari lives with her husband, Michael, and their boys, Edmund and Atticus, on a small farm in Batlow where she grows French Black Truffles and refers to her writing as “work” so that no one will suggest she get a real job.
ISBN: 9780451492654
Publisher's Synopsis:
In the twelfth Cupcake Bakery Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay, the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew follows the clever crumb trail of a killer who's anything but cookie-cutter.Life is all sugar and spice for the Fairy Tale Cupcake bakers--Melanie Cooper is engaged to the delectable Joe DeLaura, Angie Harper and her husband Tate are savoring married life, and the bakery is bustling with happy customers. Until one of their most valued cupcake connoisseurs ends up dead.
Local glass artist and cupcake lover Rene Fischer-Klein has always suffered from a wide variety of health issues. In an effort to cheer her up, her doting husband, Peter, brings her a four-pack of her favorite cupcakes every week. But when the police discover that Rene has been poisoned, there's no sugarcoating the fact that the last things she ate were the bakery's signature pumpkin spice cupcakes! With their lives and bakery at stake, it's up to Mel and Angie to find out who poisoned their artist friend and why, before their future is frosted for good.
MrsK's Review:
Melanie (Mel) is a delightful cupcake baker, a steadfast friend, and quick-witted... especially when it comes to unexpected deaths. Joe is Mel's fiancé, her childhood sweetheart, who happens to be one of Angie's brothers. Angie is Mel's best friend, the clerk at Fairy Tale Cupcakes, and a soon-to-be mother (including 7 brothers as guardians). And then there's Uncle Stan, an inspector who happens to have been Mel's father's brother. The Uncle relationship has perks for Mel's inability to stay out of mysteries or murders. The Uncle relationship can get a bit dicey since her father's death, but Uncle Stan is now the steadfast rock for her mother.
One would think that having your own delectable cupcake bakery, a community of friends and businesses, excellent in-laws, and amazing staff would be enough to keep Mel away from her sleuthing personality. Yet, that would be a mistaken character analysis.
When Mel arrives for her meeting with Rene, a crime scene is underway. Which means that someone is hurt or dead. No matter what her intentions were for her cupcake orders, Mel just has to get into the "scene." Of course, once she finds out it's her friend Rene... well you know Mel will be involved.
Rene is a local glass artist who is consumed with her approaching exhibit, most important showing off her creations beyond her shop in the Desert Winds Gallery. She is also a big fan of Mel's cupcakes, which will be the only dessert for Rene's art gala-extravaganza. Rene's unpredictable behavior was causing concern for those around her. Could it be her lack of sleep, nourishment, stress about the exhibit, or maybe too much caffeine?
With wonderful twists, delightfully intriguing characters, and yum-inspired cupcake recipes... this book is a perfect Fall cozy read,
MrsK
Meet the Author:
