Thursday, October 18, 2012

Corpse in the Crystal Ball (A Fortune Teller Mystery)

After clearing her name as the prime suspect in a murder, Sunny Meadows hopes she can finally enjoy some serenity in the idyllic town of Divinity in upstate New York. She'd also like a second chance with Detective Mitch Stone. But when Mitch's gorgeous ex-girlfriend Isabel Gonzales shows up, Sunny's not sure she can compete. Then Isabel mysteriously disappears. 

When the police turn to Sunny for help, her visions lead to the discovery of Isabel's corpse in the woods. Before she died, Isabel scrawled a message in the dirt implicating Mitch in her murder. Now Sunny must help the man she's falling in love with as she sets out to find the real killer. But this time Sunny's clairvoyant abilities might not save her- as what she doesn't see can hurt her...

YES! We are back in business in Divinity and Sunny's fortune telling industry is booming! I really loved this follow up to Kari Townsend's first edition (Tempest in the Tea Leaves) in her series of fortune telling mysteries! I think this is going to turn out to be a great series and I hope she writes tons more! I love Sunny's character and have grown and loved the people and town of divinity... even Detective grumpy pants aka. Mitch Stone... aka Sunny's some day boyfriend. I get it... it's complicated but "It's a start!"

There are some new characters that were introduced into this book as well and there is one granny in particular that I am glad to see that will be sticking around for a while! Sunny's granny comes to stay for a bit with her and oddly enough finds divinity and Sunny's house "Vickie" to be a perfect fit! She is spunky just like Sunny and has developed quite a bond with Morty who can usually hardly tolerate anyone besides Sunny. This story had a great plot and had a lot of leads which led me to think quite a bit, but in the end I must say I was totally blown away with the twisted ending!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

A Spoonful of Murder (A Soup Lovers Mystery)





 Winter is big business in small town Snowflake, Vermont. Tourists arrive to hit the ski slopes and what could be more satisfying after a chilly day of carving powder than a steaming bowl of soup?

When Lucky Jamieson inherits her parents soup shop. By the Spoonful, she realizes it's time to take stock of her life. Should she sell her parents house or move in herself? Does she really want to run a restaurant business? And what about her grandfather Jack, who seems to be showing signs of Alzheimer's? 

But her life decisions are moved to the back burner after an icy blonde tourist is found frozen to death behind the soup shop. And Lucky is bowled over when her soup chef, Sage DuBois, is led out of the kitchen by the police. As suspicion and speculations snowball, Lucky decides that the only way to save her employee and her business is to find out herself who iced the tourist and landed her chef in the soup...

 A charming little mystery and not bad for a first edition. I loved reading about the charming town of Snowflake, it really had me wanting to visit Vermont (although maybe in the summer time instead lol!). I also quickly fell in love with the the "By the Spoonful Soup Shop" and the cast of great characters surrounding the story. The book was a little slow in the beginning but I think that might be because it's a new series and the author took time to introduce you to the characters, but once the story got going... it had my full attention and it was hard to put it down!  Unlike a lot of other first in a series mysteries I've ready, this one really had me guessing who did it all the way to the end and what a terrific twist! I would have never had guessed! All in all it was a nice cozy and I am looking forward to reading Connie Archers second book in this series; "Broth of Betrayal".