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Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun Audiobook By Lois Winston cover art

Feisty NJ woman recovers from husband's death

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-11-22

While the first in this humorous craft-related cozy mystery series was first published in 2010, the audiobook was first published in 2022. With a New Jersey-accented narrator making this completely authentic, we learn that Anastasia Pollack has just been informed of her husband’s death in Las Vegas. Problem is, Anastasia had no idea her husband was in Las Vegas nor that he had a gambling problem. He had plowed through their nest egg, ravaged their home equity, cancelled the kids’ college funds, maxed out the credit cards, and borrowed from a loan shark who now wants to collect. Anastasia’s grumpy, Communist mother-in-law Lucille and her growling dog were currently living with her since her apartment and life savings hidden there had recently burned down. To make matters worse, Anastasia’s mother and her cat arrive on her doorstep, newly widowed herself with nowhere to live.

With Janet Evanovich’s character Stephanie Plum as a role model, and no one to rely on but herself, Anastasia returns to work as crafts editor at the New Jersey offices of American Woman magazine. There were plenty of shenanigans going on there as well with the fashion editor considering herself way out of anyone’s league. On this particular day, she breezed in several hours late and dressed to kill, including diamonds on loan from a New York jeweler.

Anastasia is called home to rent the apartment over the garage to a well-known photographer happy to find a place close to the city yet far enough away that neighbors don’t accuse him of running a meth lab rather than a dark room. Returning to work to prepare for the morning’s photo shoot, Anastasia finds the fashion editor sitting at her desk with hot glue dripping from her body and minus the diamonds.

Since the glue gun was hers and she found the body, Anastasia is high on the list of suspects and rallies her co-workers to help her investigate. Meanwhile at home she’s just trying to get her mothers and their pets to do more than growl at each other and help with her two teenage boys. She’s called home, again, to find the house ransacked by Ricardo, the loan shark, looking for his 50 G’s. Now the police were involved, just what she was told not to do.

Anastasia’s efforts to get out of this pickle had me laughing out loud. But her situation got worse, much worse, before she found relief. The author managed to keep the sarcasm light enough to be funny and the consequences livable. I enjoyed this tale very much and will await the second in the series to come out on audio. The narrator has agreed to read the entire series, always a plus in my book. In the meantime, I hope Anastasia’s family stops squabbling!

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Honey Roasted Audiobook By Cleo Coyle cover art

Delightful, busy, intriguing contemporary mystery

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-18-22

Clare Cosi is introducing her barista staff from the Village Blend, the coffee house owned by her ex-mother-in-law Madame DuBois, with a new blend of coffee full of flower and honey notes. Suddenly they notice a few bees in the room. They trace them down to the warm roasting room in the basement where even more have gathered. From there they trace them to a vent on the roof where swarms are surrounding the warm vents. When Matt Allegro, Clare’s ex-husband and co-manager of The Blend, gathers a few dead bees, they smell like lavender, and Clare knows where they came from.

Madame’s best friend, Bea Hastings, has a prize-winning rooftop solarium where she raises this particular bee and has a huge crop of lavender for them. After calling Bea to no avail, despite the late hour, Clare and Matt go to her penthouse home only to find it vandalized and Bea unconscious. With the honey these bees make in high demand in the culinary world, Clare is certain someone attacked Bea and her hives despite the police saying it was a suicide attempt.

Meanwhile, Clare’s fiancé, Lieutenant Mike Quinn of the New York Police Department’s special unit that tracks drug overdose deaths, is too wrapped up in his own case load to pay much attention to Clare. She is trying to plan a honeymoon when she wonders if there should even be a wedding. While she’s sure of her love for him, she’s not so sure she should be a policeman’s wife.

Clare begins several searches. She’s looking for Bea’s niece, Susan, who may have been with her the night she was attacked and is next of kin who should be notified of Bea’s comatose state. This gets her mixed up in looking for Susan’s boyfriend, a chef who works in a ghost kitchen. She needs to find out why a man in white was rooting through the trash behind the Village Blend only to leave with a bag of dead bees. And just where is Franco, one of Mike’s squad who went undercover but hasn’t checked in? Clare’s many efforts cross Mike Quinn’s case load in strange and unusual ways. But it is her ultimatum that finally gets his attention.

Author Cleo Coyle (husband and wife team Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini) have brought us a delightful mystery in Honey Roasted, the 19th in the series. All our favorite characters appear, including Clare’s two cats. Each has a role to play in the many facets of this intriguing tale. The narrator of this audiobook, Rebecca Gibel, does an excellent job in voicing each character in differing, subtle ways. With numerous subplots, this story was busy and kept my interest flowing all the way to its outstanding conclusion.

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A Bride's Guide to Marriage and Murder Audiobook By Dianne Freeman cover art

Fun, clever and light historical mystery

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-18-22

Countess of Harleigh, Frances Wynn is due to marry George Hazelton and wedding plans are well underway. Frances’s father and brother Alonzo have arrived in the February, 1900 snow in London. Alonzo asks Frances to invite the Connors since he has his eye on their daughter Madeline. In the meantime, Frances’s mother, who has been living with her for months (!) has invited the Bainbridge family. Unfortunately these two families have been feuding for years, and Frances fears a spillover into her wedding celebration.

While the wedding went well, minus Mr. Connor attending in favor of some business, the reception was held at the Earl of Harleigh’s residence, where Frances once resided, which was next door to the Connor residence. What Frances should have feared was her brother Alonzo arguing with Viscount Daniel Fitzwalter, the heir to the Marquis of Sudley, a powerful and influential member of the House of Lords. Fitzwalter swore he had a marriage contract for Madeline Connor yet Alonzo wanted the opportunity to court her. Rumor had it that Fitzwalter had rung up a large amount of gambling debts that Connor would pay off with the marriage. Through the course of the luncheon and afternoon, several wedding guests went next door to the Connor household. When Fitzwalter swore he already had a contract, Alonzo and Madeline rushed next door to talk to her father. The butler walked in just as Alonzo had his hand on the knife in Connor’s body!

Promptly arrested and taken to jail, it was clear that George Hazelton would be Alonzo’s counsel and that George and Frances had a new case to investigate. Their wedding trip to Cannes would have to wait. Wedding guests were detained and statements taken. George and Frances had had their photos taken in the study where they had full view of the comings and goings at the Connor’s home, of which there were many. Now they needed to uncover more secrets than just murder but that of illicit affairs and friendships. And they needed to learn more about the lucrative business dealings of Mr. Connor, not always above board and often in direct conflict with Bainbridge.

It is always interesting to watch George and Frances investigate within the confines of Victorian English society. Large amounts of tea were consumed gathering clues and answers to the many riddles presented. The keen observations and sardonic wit of Dianne Freeman keep this historical mystery clever and light. I do hope the Hazeltons eventually get their wedding trip.

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Book Lovers Audiobook By Emily Henry cover art

Delightfully dynamic novel

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-18-22

Nora Stephens’s life revolves around books. Ever since she was a little girl growing up with her younger sister Libby and her mother living over a bookstore, she’d been immersed in them. It was her mother’s obsession with romance novels that got her started, but it was business that kept her going. She was a literary book agent and sometimes editor, nudging her clients into writing their best, cajoling them into award-winning contracts, holding their hands and answering their e-mails at all hours. She has little social life outside of work. She was dumped last in a four-minute conversation before meeting Charlie Lastra who was equally intense in his editor’s job.

It's two years later and Libby is pregnant and wants to get away for Nora’s supposedly slow month of August for a sisters retreat to a small town where they can accomplish those things the heroines of romances did in small towns, like meeting and falling in love with someone new and saving a failing business. They even come up with a list that includes skinny-dipping and sleeping under the stars. All the while Nora is holding the hand of a nervous writer whose book was to be edited by yet another pregnant woman who has her baby early, leaving the job open. The first few pages of the novel appear on Nora’s phone, and she is shocked to be reading what seems to be her own biography! Her character portrayal as a shark suits her, though she only secretly admits it.

She is in downtown Sunshine Falls in search of a wifi connection when the pages come in. As she scopes out the local coffee shop, she sees a familiar man, none other than Charlie Lastra! Could it really be him? Even Nora’s life couldn’t be so cruel. Yet there he is, in his home town, handling his family’s failing business, and working at editing books remotely when he tells Nora he wants to edit her writer’s new book.

The sparks fly between the two even as they throw barbs at each other. It is impossible for them to not see each other in this small town. The tropes fly as the novel speeds onward. This book is not to be taken as literally as Nora or Libby might and certainly Charlie would edit so much out. The beginning of the book was rooted in New York City slowly switching gears to Sunshine Falls where Nora and Libby were vacationing. As the focus shifted, emotions became more real as well. The sisters finally began to break down the invisible divide between them. Nora and Charlie slowed down on the barbs and started to get to know each other. Charlie’s family became three dimensional.

Most of all I loved how descriptive the author was. Her narrative was full of adjectives that gave depth and meaning and dimension to what she was saying. For example, her descriptions of how one feels when overcome with emotions was uncanny and satisfying and made this book so much fuller and more meaningful.

Julia Whelan as narrator was exceptionally good. Her voice was clear and distinct so I could understand every individual word. She created unique voices for each character. She portrayed the wide range of emotions very realistically both creating tension and respite as appropriate.

Anyone who would enjoy a modern-day romance centered in the business and pleasure of books would enjoy this delightfully dynamic novel.

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Ordinary Grace Audiobook By William Kent Krueger cover art

You will experience your own miracle reading this

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-18-22

It was summer in New Bremen, Minnesota in 1961. There was a new, young President in the White House. Frank Drum was on the cusp of manhood yet still very much a young teenager when death visited him in many forms. We open following the accidental death of a boy on the railroad tracks which had the town of New Bremen talking. Frank’s father Nathan is a Methodist minister who managed three congregations, and he presided over the funeral. Frank’s mother Ruth often lead the choir while his sister, Ariel, bound for Julliard, played the organ. Frank’s little brother Jake stuttered terribly. And Gus was a sort of big brother who lived in a room in the basement of the church next door; he wasn’t family but had fought next to Nathan Drum in World War II. The Drums live in the less affluent section of town down near the Minnesota River although Ruth’s father lived in The Heights.

The second time Frank faced death, he and Jake were on the railroad tracks by the river, just where they’re not supposed to be, when they saw a man who appeared to be sleeping. Another man, an Indian, approached and declared him dead. The boys ran all the way to tell Gus who was drinking with a local cop that Saturday afternoon. The next day the story became greatly embellished after retelling at three church services.

Frank and Jake knew their sister was their mother’s favorite. Ariel was going to fulfill her mother’s passion and continue in music. Her fingers could coax gorgeous music from the keyboard. The boys didn’t fault Ariel since they liked her so much. Ariel studied music with Emil Brandt, a man Ruth had briefly been engaged to before the war, who was a piano virtuoso and composer. He’d returned after the war blind and disfigured. He currently lived with his deaf and autistic sister Lise. One day Lise finds her friend Jake and is distraught and insistent. She conveyed that Emil had tried to kill himself, and the Drum family rushed to his aid.

By the fourth of July a piece of music written by Ariel was to be performed for the town just before the fireworks. Emil Brandt would make a rare appearance and accompany the choir while Ruth conducted. It was a smashing success. But the world fell apart that night. Nothing would ever be the same.

Nathan preaches to his congregation the day after a profound loss: “When we feel abandoned, alone, and lost, what’s left to us? What do any of us have left except the overpowering temptation to rail against God and to blame him for the dark night into which he’d led us…”

“I will tell you what’s left, three profound blessings: faith, hope, and love. …And whether you believe in miracles or not, I can guarantee that you will experience one: … you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day. For each of us, the sun sets and the sun also rises and through the grace of our Lord we can endure our own dark night and rise to the dawning of a new day and rejoice.”

And through the grace of God, the Drums and the town of New Bremen begin to heal gaping wounds, not all of which were yet revealed, for the worst was still to come.

William Kent Krueger has found a way to convey the ordinary grace of God by telling a story of a boy in a small town the summer he turns into a man. There was mystery, there was loss, there was death, but there was also forgiveness, discovery, and courage. Most of all, there was faith, hope, and love.

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The Break-Up Book Club Audiobook By Wendy Wax cover art

Charming, engrossing book

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-03-22

This is a charming, engrossing book about friendships and how life doesn’t always turn out as you plan. We follow the lives of four members of a book club that meets at the Between the Covers Bookstore located in a historic carriage house in Atlanta. The members of the club are of all ages and both sexes and of varying backgrounds yet through a year of sharing and caring, they find they have more in common than they bargained for.

Judith is the wife of Nathan, a successful franchise owner. When he travels to Europe without her and mistakenly dials her on his cell phone, she discovers that he thinks she’s a “good egg,” not quite the description Judith would give their many years of marriage. She is determined that when he returns home, they need to find the spark in their relationship again.

Jasmine is a successful sports agent who has fought her way to the top. Once on her way to tennis greatness, she now has a daughter who shows great promise in the sport. Still single, her sister constantly tries to set her up on dates but Jazz just doesn’t have time especially since Rich Hanson left his lofty position in an LA firm to join her own agency.

Sarah is Mitchell’s wife but he is living in Birmingham where his job has taken him, leaving his elderly mother Dorothy living in his home. Dorothy never felt Sarah was good enough, and her relationship with her daughter-in-law is strained, at best. Mitchell was traveling home on the weekends, and when he stopped, Sarah goes to him, only to make a shocking discovery as to why he no longer seems interested in either his wife or his mother.

Erin is the youngest and was to marry Josh on New Year’s Day. Josh and Erin had been together since they were kids, and he was on the verge of his dream of becoming a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves when he develops cold feet. Erin had filled in for Jasmine’s assistant over the holidays, and the two women hit it off. The promise of permanent employment brings Erin out of her slump over Josh.

Seemingly different in so many ways, all four women end up at book club. Through their sharing their views of their recent books and their choices of the next books to read, they learn more about each other and become friends. As each goes through a break up, with Erin going first, they share their lives and support one another. They discover a scam that affects them, and the entire club pulls together in a fabulous scene to get the scammer.

Wendy Wax had a way of making me care about each one of these four women plus the other members of the club. I wanted to read more about them all, and I cared what happened to them. The audiobook was narrated by four different women which made the story so much more realistic and dramatic. I never lost track of each woman’s journey or how they were dealing with the cards they’d been dealt. Just when they had begun dealing with their own hands, they pulled together to help one another. And life goes on.

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The Last Curtain Call Audiobook By Juliet Blackwell cover art

Ghost busting in haunted Art Deco theatre

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-11-21

Mel Turner may be head of Turner Construction, a leading historical renovation firm in San Francisco, but she is on the other side of her own home renovation. This time she is doing her best to balance her taste with that of her fiancé. She needn’t wonder long about when and where her ghost busting skills will be needed, when she and her foreman pry open an attic closet door to find the ghost of starlet Hilde Hildacott waiting to don one of her gorgeous, now vintage, dresses to go to the picture palace.

Mel can’t resist the opportunity to renovate the Crockett Theater, a once elegant Art Deco movie palace complete with Wurlitzer organ that rose from the floor. Despite some irregularities with the previous renovation company and permits, Mel wants to see the architectural treasures inside. On her first tour of the theater, Mel meets the many human squatters living in the huge space. Part of her work is to remove them from the grand palace. First she must confront the ghostly audience waiting for the show to begin. This time as the organ rose, it carried the body of one of the squatters.

Despite the ghostly usher wanting to help her to her seat, Mel needs to figure out what treasure might be hidden in the theater to warrant killing someone. The squatters include a widely diverse set of characters. As Mel moves between home and theater, we learn more San Francisco history, well researched and presented. We even get to meet Juliet Blackwell’s character Lily Ivory from another of her series. Lily owns a vintage clothing store and helps Mel interpret her vision of Hilde in the dress she now owns with a knife dripping in blood. This leads Mel to begin speculation on whether Hilde is connected to the Crockett Theater.

Steeped in history and San Francisco lore, this ghostly tale is grounded in Mel’s steadfast home life with her dad, stepson, and even Dog providing support and concern. Mel’s renovation skills are evident, but this tale focuses more on her ghost-busting efforts to bring normalcy back to the theater and to her home in the making. Journals from her mother give her even more insight into those abilities and circumstances.

Narrator Xe Sands keeps the story moving at a steady pace with her empathic reading. She would be perfect to tell ghost stories around a campfire. I was equally frightened and then grounded by her dulcet tones. Definitely an excellent entry in this approachable series.

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French Pressed Audiobook By Cleo Coyle cover art

Fabulous narration of great mystery

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-11-21

It’s a good thing Village Blend manager Clare Cosi and her ex-mother-in-law Madame visit Solange, a hot New York French restaurant. Clare’s daughter Joy is interning there. But on this particular night when Clare goes back to the kitchen to see Joy, she stops one of the chefs wielding a knife at her co-workers. Joy had been loving her job as well as loving executive chef Tommy Keitel, a married man whose restaurant just might be owned by the Russian mob. Clare and her ex, Joy’s father Matteo Allegro, disapprove of the romance but do their best to let Joy make her own choices.

Clare returns to the Village Blend where her current beau, New York City detective Mike Quinn is waiting. Things are heating up when Matt turns up on her doorstep. Initially angry, Clare is glad Matt is with her when Joy calls from a friend’s place where she has found his dead body killed by a chef’s knife. The NYPD considers Joy a prime suspect, so Clare is determined to clear her name. First she finds a way into Solange by convincing Chef Keitel to try her coffee services. As always, Clare impresses with her knowledge of fine coffees and the growing and brewing processes. While at Solange, Joy catches a glimpse of her mother and Tommy Keitel and misunderstands, fleeing from the restaurant mid-service. Joy must return later to clean up her station, but there is more of a mess than she imagined. Chef Tommy Keitel is dead with one of her knives in his neck!

The police arrive at Solange along with Clare, briefly questioning them both. Their decision is quick and decisive: Joy is their prime suspect, and she is arrested and charged with both murders. It is now up to Clare to investigate with some help from Detective Mike Quinn. Clare journeys around New York from the drug-ridden slum lived in by the knife-wielding chef to a Russian restaurant with her barista and her rapping Russian boyfriend. She plays decoy for Mike when she catches his perp’s eye at a fancy new club. She follows the blackmail trail. She attend’s Tommy’s wake and a dinner in his honor, gathering crucial clues.

This was a delightful sixth entry in the Coffeehouse mystery series. As usual with a book by Cleo Coyle (husband and wife team Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini), we are given a trip around New York you’ll never find in a tourist guide. They challenged the notion of the person finding a dead body is the killer. The ubiquitous talk of coffee had me brewing my own, just to keep up.

Special mention must be given to the narrator, Rebecca Gibel. Her various voices were fabulous. The Russian rapper, rapping in both English and Russian, detectives from various boroughs of New York, and especially the elderly Madame were among the fantastic voices of the many characters she brought to life.

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Espresso Shot Audiobook By Cleo Coyle cover art

Excellent coffeehouse mystery with superb narratio

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-11-21

Village Blend co-managers Clare Cosi and Matteo Allegro are happy to be spending some time together before his upcoming nuptials to Breanne Summour, beautiful, savvy editor of Trend magazine. When they stroll to a nearby tavern, they are greeted by a crowd of men from around the globe ready to celebrate Matt’s bachelorhood. A Breanne lookalike has even been hired. When the stripper is hit on before leaving, Matt and Clare walk her back toward the Blend. Suddenly a shot rings out, killing the lookalike.

Matt begins to worry about Breanne’s safety since this is the second time recently she has come close to her demise. Since the police can’t act on suspicion, Clare agrees to spend time with Breanne. She is there when Breanne screams at her bridal gown fitting. Someone sent an email with alterations to be done, but it was not Breanne. Clare goes back to Breanne’s office with her where she takes possession of one-of-a-kind wedding rings, to be held by a friend who takes Clare to an underground restaurant. However, when the diners are robbed, it becomes clear they are looking to knab those rings. Barely escaping with their lives, Clare turns to her boyfriend Mike Quinn, a detective with the NY police department for help.

The next day Mike and Clare visit Breanne’s workplace in order to question her assistant, but she is found dead, likely an overdose of the pills she kept in her drawer. They are not valid prescriptions, and they are traced to a man who just happens to be Breanne’s ex-husband, bitter over money he loaned her but never got back. He was overeager to try to get Clare to help him kill Breanne, so arresting him led Clare to believe the would-be killer was caught.

However, when Breanne is choked in the ladies room during a reception for the bride and groom, it is clear the killer is still out there. Clare again saves the day and softens Breanne’s bitter heart just a bit. Breanne has believed the worst of Clare but is beginning to see that they all really do need to get along. Could it possibly be that Breanne really does love Matt? Clare just needs to figure out who wants Breanne dead before the coffee hits the special cups for the bride and groom to toast.

Matt and Clare have come a long way from teenaged sweethearts who married too young to divorced adults genuinely in love with new partners. Will this hopefully open a new chapter in their relationship? Only time will tell. I did like watching Clare follow the clues from one suspect to another, falling into solving other crimes along the way. Will Mike be able to keep up with Clare? This is only the seventh entry in the Coffeehouse mystery series which has many more books to come, and I look forward to reading them all.

Special note goes to Rebecca Gibel as the narrator. We didn’t hear too much of it, but her portrayal of Madame is excellent plus her New York accents were spot on. She does a superb job.

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Isn't It Bromantic? Audiobook By Lyssa Kay Adams cover art

Loved the latest Bromance Book Club entry

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-11-21

The male movers and shakers and professional athletes of Nashville who are members of the Bromance Book Club are happily enjoying one of their own’s wedding when Elena Konnikova arrives to meet her husband Vlad aka The Russian. Having never seen her before, even though the couple has been married for six years, the group is in awe of her beauty, until they learn that the purpose of her visit is to tell Vlad she is done with journalism school, she wishes to return to Russia and needs a divorce. Vlad knows that their marriage has been one of convenience, that they have never really been husband and wife. He proposed to his childhood friend when she expressed her interest in following him to the United States to get her master’s degree.

It takes a nasty fall on the ice just before the NHL playoffs and Vlad’s broken leg to get Elena back into his home. He will need help recovering and rehabbing, and she has the time now to help. Elena is surprised to find a group of women in Vlad’s kitchen who claim to be the Loners Club, neighbors without mates, of whom Vlad is a key member. But when Vlad needs help bathing, he calls the men of the Bromance Book Club when he confesses the situation with Elena.

Elena feels obligated to pamper Vlad to pay him back for all he has done for her. In doing so, the feelings of attraction she once had resurface. Vlad has been equally attracted to her but felt romance was hopeless despite his love for her. Vlad has even been writing his own romance entitled The Promise, which he shares with the reader and his buddies. As they review the novel, much of their knowledge from reading romance novels surfaces, and they offer it to Vlad. They help him recreate a scene at his home, the one Vlad set when Elena first joined him in the US, so they could start over.

Still, Elena is determined to discover what happened to her father, many years ago, when he disappeared in Russia over an article he was writing. She is in grave danger since retracing her father’s investigation into human trafficking. She simply cannot vanish as he did. What would Vlad do?

I stopped everything I was doing to listen to the end of this fabulous novel. I was riveted to find out if Elena finally discovers what happened to her father. I was anxious to discover if Vlad and Elena could find their happily ever after. Narrator Andrew Eiden did an excellent job of animating the story even further than the words on the page. His accents for “The Russian” and Elena were authentic. I so very much enjoyed visiting this group of friends who have become family to one another, celebrating victories and helping with hardships in this fourth Bromance Club adventure. Mostly, I was cheering on Vlad and Elena in their romance to find each other, for the very first time.

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