Review of Deborah Raney's The Face of the Earth

About The Face of the Earth:When Mitchell Brannon's beloved wife of twenty years kisses him goodbye one autumn morning, he has little idea that his life is about to change forever. Mitch returns from work early that evening, surprised Jill's car isn't in the garage. Her conference in Kansas City is only a few hours' drive from their little town of Sylvia, Missouri. But her voice on the answering machine makes him smile. "Hey, babe, I'm just now checking out of the hotel, but I'll stop and pick up something for dinner. Love you."

Mitch sets the table with their best china and lights some candles, looking forward to their first weekend as empty nesters.

But at eight o'clock, the candles have burned to stubs and Jill still hasn't shown up. Mitch tries her cell phone only to get her voice mail over and over again. Their two college kids haven't heard from their mom either.
At midnight, Mitch's irritation turns to dread. And later, when the police and Missouri Highway Patrol have turned up nothing, the Kansas City hotel calls to say they've found property belonging to Jill in a hotel maid's possession.

Mitch enlists the help of their next-door neighbor, Jill's best friend, Shelley, and together they search for clues to Jill's disappearance. As days turn into weeks and weeks into months, Mitch and Shelley's friendship grows ever closer--and decidedly complicated with Jill as the tie that binds them together. Just when Shelley decides to finally reveal her feelings for Mitch, a clue to Jill's whereabouts is uncovered. But every lead seems to be a dead end, and Mitch wonders how he can honor the vows he made to a woman who has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.

Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/kFdwM

My Review:

Wow, this was an amazing story.  I could not imagine what it would be like to expect your spouse to be home by a certain time and not show up and seemingly vanish off the Face of the Earth.  This was a very well written book that captured the emotions of a tragedy like this right on the money.  And then when Mitch and Shelley started having feelings for each other, I was so glad that they never acted on those feelings.  This is a story that is going to stay with me for a long time.  I found myself wiping tears and also smiling.  Through it all, GOD's love is evident.  Great book that I highly recommend, if I were giving this book stars, it would far surpass a five star review.  Thanks, Deborah Raney for such a wonderful read.

I received a complimenary copy of this book for my honest review. 

Meet Deb:Deborah Raney is the award-winning author of several novels, including "A Nest of Sparrows" and the RITA award winning "Beneath a Southern Sky" and its sequel, "After the Rains". Deborah's first novel, "A Vow to Cherish", was the inspiration for World Wide Pictures' highly acclaimed film of the same title, which in December 2004 aired on prime time network TV for the second time. Deb's novella, "Playing by Heart", was a National Readers Choice Award winner and a 2004 Christy Award finalist. Her novel for Howard/Simon & Schuster, "Yesterday's Embers", appeared on the ECPA Christian fiction bestseller list. Known for her sensitive portrayal of family struggles and relationships, Deb has also written nonfiction books and articles and often speaks at women's retreats and writers' conferences around the country. She and her husband, illustrator/author Ken Raney, have four children and make their home in Kansas.

Find out more at DeborahRaney.com

Landing page:

http://litfusegroup.com/author/draney

 

Review of Jim and Joyce Lavene's A Thyme to Die

About A Thyme to Die:
Peggy Lee and her gardening friends have managed to persuade the International Flower Show to move to Charlotte from Atlanta this year. Excited and enthusiastic, Peggy agrees to step into the role as director of the event, but on opening day, a good friend of hers is found dead in the middle of the show.
Dr. Aris Abbuto, an orchid grower from South Africa, has been shot and buried in a makeshift grave covered with pink thyme. Peggy is especially devastated since he came at her personal invitation. The presence of the pink thyme, a plant once used for ancient burial rites, tells her it’s possible one of the show’s growers may be involved in his death.
She plans to work with the Charlotte Police on this one, in her position of contract forensic botanist, and is surprised to learn of the Charlotte FBI’s interest in the case—which means her husband, Steve is involved too.
Peggy is focused on finding her friend’s killer and running the flower show with hundreds of sometimes disgruntled vendors. Her questions will find a devious plot with her friend and his young daughter, unwittingly, at the heart of it.
Asking the wrong questions can be dangerous, however, as Peggy knows so well. If she isn’t careful, finding her friend’s killer might also lead to a flower-covered grave for her.


My Review:

I really enjoyed this book, as I have all of Jim and Joyce's books that I have read.  It flowed really well and was a really fast read.  It kept me guessing till the very end, just like a great cozy should.  The killer ends up being someone that you wouldn't even suspect.  I really liked Peggy Lee, she really knows her gardening stuff.  I liked learning about different plants in each chapter also, I like flowers and plants, so that was another reason this book appealed to me so much.  I also liked the other characters in this series.  This is the first Peggy Lee book that I have read, but I wasn't lost,  I was able to follow along with each character.  If you are looking for a fast read with a lot of mystery, then this is the book for you.  Great job Jim and Joyce.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for my honest review.



About Jim & Joyce Lavene:

Joyce Lavene and Jim Lavene are a wife and husband team who have written and published more than 60 books since 1999. They live in North Carolina with their family and enjoy cooking, photography and ghost hunting.
Connect with Joyce & Jim Lavene:  Website | Twitter | Facebook

 

Review of Cynthia Ruchti's When the Morning Glory Blooms

About the Book:

Becky rocks a baby that rocked her world. Sixty years earlier, with her fiancé Drew in the middle of the Korean Conflict, Ivy throws herself into her work at a nursing home to keep her sanity and provide for the child Drew doesn’t know is coming. Ivy cares for Anna, an elderly patient who taxes Ivy’s listening ear until the day she suspects Anna’s tall tales are not just idle ramblings. They’re Anna’s disjointed memories of a remarkable life.

Finding a faint thread of hope she can’t resist tugging, Ivy records Anna’s memoir, scribbling furiously after hours to keep up with the woman’s emotion-packed, grace-hemmed stories. Is Ivy’s answer buried in Anna’s past? And what connects them to Becky?

Becky, Ivy, Anna—three women fight a tangled vine of deception in search of the blossoming simplicity of truth.

Purchase your copy:

AMAZON| BARNES& NOBLE

My Review:

I really enjoyed this story.  It is a story about three different women who are not seemingly related in any way.  It tells the story of Anna from the 1890's, Ivy from 1951, and Becky and Lauren from the present day.  And all three stories have something to do with babies.  There is a lot of hardship and heartbreak in this story, but through it all, GOD is there and brings all three women through.  It will make you smile through the heartbreak.  I really liked how at the end, it finally intertwined all three women, just wish it would have told a little more after they are all connected.  This is one of those stories that will stay with you long after you put the book down.  Great job Cynthia. 

I received a complimentary copy of this book for my honest review.

About the Author:

Cynthia Ruchti is an author and speaker who tells stories of Hope-that-glows-in-the-dark through her novels, nonfiction, women’s events, and outlets related to the Heartbeat of the Home radio broadcast she wrote and produced for thirty-three years. She and her plot-tweaking husband live in the heart of Wisconsin, not far from their three children and five joy-giving grandchildren.

Her latest book is the Christian fiction, When the Morning Glory Blooms.

You can learn more about Cynthia and her writing and speaking at www.cynthiaruchti.com.

Connect with Cynthia:

TWITTER | FACEBOOK

Review of Helen Smith's Invitation to Die

 

Synopsis:
Twenty-six-year-old Emily Castles is out of work… again. So when famous romance author Morgana Blakely offers her a job helping out at a conference in London, Emily accepts. Just as eagerly, American blogger Winnie Kraster accepts an invitation from Morgana to attend as a guest, not realizing she has, in effect, accepted an invitation to die.

As a cast of oddball characters assembles at the conference hotel, grievances, differences, and secrets begin to emerge. When Winnie goes missing, and then is found murdered nearby, Emily begins to suspect that someone involved with the conference is responsible. Could it be one of the organizers, one of the authors, a member of the hotel staff, or even the supplier of the chocolates for the conference gift bags? Emily teams up with guest speaker and eccentric philosophy professor Dr. Muriel to find out.

Offbeat and engaging, this entertaining comic mystery is the first full-length novel featuring amateur British sleuth Emily Castles.

Amazon Purchase Link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BCLBHSA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BCLBHSA&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwabibli-20

My Review:

This is the first book I've read by Helen Smith and even though this is a serial,  and I hadn't read any of the other stories, I didn't feel lost.  From the start the story tells who is going to be the person that is killed, so that wasn't a surprise, but then there are lots of quirky characters introduced, but who is the killer.  I was kind of surprised by who the killer really was.  Great job Helen Smith

I received a complimentary copy of this book for my honest review.

Helen Smith is a member of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain, the Crime Writers Association and English PEN. She traveled the world when her daughter was small, doing all sorts of strange jobs to support them both--from cleaning motels to working as a magician's assistant--before returning to live in London where she wrote her first novel. Her work has been reviewed in The Times, the Guardian, The Independent, Time Out and the Times Literary Supplement. Her books have reached number one in the bestseller lists in the Kindle store on both sides of the Atlantic.

Invitation to Die, the debut novel in her Emily Castles mystery series, is published by Thomas & Mercer.

She blogs at: http://www.emperorsclothes.co.uk. Sign up here to receive an email alert when a new book is published: http://bit.ly/U5KAF0

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Review of Grannies, Guns, and Ghosts by Madison Johns and Giveaway

 

 

 

Synopsis:
Senior snoop, Agnes Barton, has taken up residence in a Winnebago at a campground in East Tawas, Michigan. It’s not the ideal place for a woman of seventy-two to live, but she’s making do. She had planned to start a detective agency with partner in crime, Eleanor Mason, but a snag with the license has them free wheeling it, not that it matters because they are the ones folks call when dead bodies turn up.

A frantic phone call has Agnes and Eleanor racing to the scene of yet another crime scene. Herman Butler has fallen to his death from a third story window, and the widow, Betty Lou, is beside herself with either grief or competing for the Oscars, and it’s up to Agnes and Eleanor to unravel the mystery, which gets more interesting when a ghost is listed as a possible suspect.

This time around, Agnes and Sheriff Peterson can agree, the widow is nuts, but wait, a few days later the ghost ship, Erie Board of Trades, was spotted off the shores of Lake Huron. Ghost hunters, G.A.S.P., hightail it into town, and East Tawas is overrun with ghost sightings.

Agnes and Eleanor must sort fact from fantasy before another body is found or a curse is realized.

 



Amazon Purchase Link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BVR73P6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BVR73P6&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwabibli-20

 

 

My Review:

 

This book was a hoot.  It was great.  It had humor, mystery, and even a little romance, a great cozy.  Agnes and Eleanor show you that just because you are a senior citzen, it doesn't mean your life is over.  They are an unbeatable duo that make you laugh, they aren't like your average  "granny",  and they are also wonderful sleuths.  This book was also filled with other quirky characters and you can't help but love Agnes and Eleanor.   I definitely can't wait to read more about this dynamic duo.  If you are looking for a lite read that will make you laugh, then this is the book for you.  Great job Madison.

 

 I received a complimentary copy of this book for my honest review.

 





 

 

 

Author Bio:
As a child, Madison Johns preferred to distance herself from other children her age, and had been described as a dreamer. Even as a small child, she remembers staying awake many a night fighting dragons, whisked away to foreign lands, or meeting the man of her dreams.

She was a voracious reader of historical romance in her teen years and has always wished to one day journey to England, France, Ireland, and Scotland.

The writing bug bit her at the age of 44 and she pounded out three books since that time. As the publishing climate changed she took a risk and decided to self publish, first a collection of two horror short stories geared for YA, Coffin Tales Season of Death.

Madison's caring nature had led her to work in the healthcare field, where she was employed as a nursing care assistant at a nursing home, and it was there that she was inspired to write her first mystery, Armed and Outrageous, introducing amateur detective Agnes Barton. The book depicts two elderly ladies digging up clues with enough laugh out loud antics to make James Bond blush.

 

 

Cozy Mystery Book Reviews Giveaway:

The prize is a $25 Amazon.com or Paypal cash.

Here is the link to Cozy Mystery Book Reviews Giveaway, good luck:

 http://cozymysterymarketing.com/?p=315.

Review of Deeanne Gist's It Happened at the Fair

More about It Happened at the Fair: 

A transporting historical novel about a promising young inventor, his struggle with loss, and the attractive teacher who changes his life, all set against the razzle-dazzle of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

 

Gambling everything, including the family farm, Cullen McNamara travels to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with his most recent invention. But the noise in the Fair's Machinery Palace makes it impossible to communicate with potential buyers. In an act of desperation, he hires Della Wentworth, a teacher of the deaf, to tutor him in the art of lip-reading.

The young teacher is reluctant to participate, and Cullen has trouble keeping his mind on his lessons while intently watching her lips. Like the newly invented Ferris Wheel, he is caught in a whirl between his girl back home, his dreams as an inventor, and his unexpected attraction to his new tutor. Can he keep his feet on the ground, or will he be carried away?

Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/komrd

My Review:

I really enjoyed this book.  Deeanne Gist really did her research about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, from her descriptions, I thought I was there.  The story was also wonderful.  Cullen's father sent him to the fair to exhibit his automatic sprinkler system.  Cullen has a hard time hearing, so a potential customer suggests that he hire the services of one of the lip-reading teachers.  Little does he realize that the lady he saved on the first day would end up being his teacher.  Will they pursue a relationship other than that of teacher and student, and what will happen between Cullen and his "fiancé" back home.  This was a very well written book as are all of Deaanne's books.  I highly recommend it. 

I received a complimentary copy of this book for my honest review.

Meet Deeanne:

Deeanne Gist---known to her family, friends, and fans as Dee---has rocketed up bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere with her very fun, very original historicals. She has received numerous RITA nominations, two consecutive Christy Awards, and rave reviews. Deeanne has a background in education and journalism and a degree from Texas A&M. She has written for People, Parents, and Parenting. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and has four grown children. She has a very active online community on her website at IWantHerBook.com and at Facebook.com/DeesFriends. 

 

http://litfusegroup.com/author/dgist 

Review of Lucy Burdette's Topped Chef

 

 

 

Synopsis:
Hayley Snow loves her job as the food critic for Key Zest magazine, tasting the offerings from Key West’s most innovative restaurants. She’d rate her life four stars, until she’s forced into the spotlight…and another murder investigation.

Hoping for some good publicity, Hayley’s boss signs her up to help judge the Key West Topped Chef contest. Stakes are high as the winner could be the next cooking-show superstar. Hayley shows up for the filming nervous but excited, until she sees who’s on the judging panel with her: Sam Rizzoli, big shot businessman—and owner of the restaurant she just panned in her first negative review.

When Rizzoli turns up dead, the police assume his killer is one of his business rivals. But Hayley wonders whether someone is taking the contest a little too seriously. With the police following the wrong recipe, it’s up to Hayley to find the killer before she’s eliminated from the show…permanently.

Amazon Purchase Link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451239709/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0451239709&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwabibli-20


My Review:

I absolutely loved this book.  With all the craze of reality shows and cooking shows, I loved the idea of a reality cooking show based in Key West.  Hayley Snow is wonderful.  She just seems so real to me.  And this was a great cozy because it kept me guessing the whole way through.  I had no idea who the killer was, and Lucy did such a good job with the writing, that the killer was someone I never even suspected.  If you are looking for a great cozy mystery, then pick up a copy of Topped Chef.  You won't regret it, it is wonderful.  Great job Lucy, I can't wait for more!!!!!!!!!!!

I recieved a complimentary copy of this book for my honest review.

Author Bio:
Lucy Burdette is the author of the Key West food critic mysteries. As Roberta Isleib, she has also written the golf lovers mystery series and the advice column mysteries. Her books and stories have been nominated for Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards.

Check out this link for a great giveaway by Cozy Mystery Book Reviews and Marketing:   http://cozymysterymarketing.com/?p=223