Guest Review of French Pastry Murder by Leslie Meier

Publisher: Kensington
Series: Lucy Stone #21
Format Read: hardcover
Source: PR firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 30, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit* | Barnes & Noble |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Tinker's Cove is abuzz with excitement when Norah, the queen of daytime TV, comes to town and selects Lucy and her pals to be featured in her "Women Who Make a Difference" episode. In recognition for their charitable work, the ladies and their husbands are awarded a dream vacation in Paris, complete with classes at Le Cooking School with renowned pastry chef Larry Bruneau. But their bon voyage is cut short when Lucy discovers the chef in a pool of blood on the second day of class... If she's going to enjoy her vacation, she'll have to unpack her sleuthing skills and clear her name. But will she be able to track down a killer more elusive than the perfect macaron?

Blog Ahead Challenge!

Why yes, that is another challenge picture; why yes, I'm doing another challenge; why yes, I'm nuts. You should know that by now.  :P

This one is practical - get ahead on blogging  by writing and scheduling posts ahead of time. I'm much better at that these these days. A year ago, I rarely scheduled posts ahead, waiting until the last minute. When I first started blogging, it took me months to figure out how to schedule a post. While I still procrastinate on many posts, I do it less often as life is just too busy these days. So this challenge is perfect while not too easy - getting 30 posts done will keep me busy but the end result will be well worth it. At the moment I have 8 posts scheduled and about 5 in drafts (not including some that are permanently in drafts such as templates). :D

Bea Reviews Seeing the Light by E.C. Bell

Publisher: Tyche Books
Series: Marie Jenner #1
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: October 29, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords*
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Marie Jenner has never had much luck. Her job sucks. Her apartment — the one with the unbreakable lease — has a ghost. And worst of all, her mother won’t let up about her joining the “family business.” Since that business is moving the spirits of the dead on to the next plane of existence and doesn’t pay at all, Marie’s not interested. She wants a normal job — a normal life. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Apparently, it is. Even when she applies for the job of her dreams, Marie doesn’t get what she wants. Well, not entirely. She does get the job — but she also gets another ghost. Farley Hewitt, the newly dead caretaker of the building, wants her to prove his death is not an accident, and she’s pretty sure he’s going to haunt her until she does.

All she wants is normal. She isn’t going to get it.

Quote-Tastic #60 You Have No Shame or Guile

Join us every Monday and share a favorite quote that's grabbed you for one reason or another. Everyone's welcome to join in - authors, bloggers, readers. The more the merrier! Just grab the button and put up your post :) Don't have a blog? No worries, just leave your favorites in the comment section.  Quote-tastic is hosted by Herding Cats & Burning Soup.

Another month, another J.D. Robb quote. :D I do love her In Death books. While this one wasn't my favorite, it had some good quotes. Eve is a sneaky, clever woman who understands how people think. In this scene, she is telling her police partner, Peabody, how to get her grandmother to mail her some homemade chicken soup. 

"I'm totally charged up again. Maybe I should go buy a gallon of that soup. No! I'll e-mail my granny, and I'll sweet-talk her into sending me some."
 "You have no shame, or guile." Eve led the way out, still sipping her soup. "You e-mail her and tell her you just had some soup that's as good as hers - subtext, maybe better - and it made you think about her, blah blah. How good it was, on a cold, crappy day in New York, yadda, yadda. She'll cook up a batch and ship it out to prove hers is better."
Peabody slid into the car, stared at Eve. "Have you met my granny, because that exactly what she'd do. That's brilliant."

Related articles

• Quote-Tastic #58 If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O
• ARC Review + Quote-tastic(6): Sturdy poles and hairless peaches - Slow Hand by Victoria Vane
• Recommend JD Robb's Festive In Death

Bea Reviews Stirring Up Trouble by Kimberly Kincaid

Publisher: Zebra
Series: Pine Mountain #3
Format Read: eGalley
Source: from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: October 7, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe* | Barnes & Noble| 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Looking for inspiration...

Sloane Russo's turned a decade of crazy jobs and whimsical travel into a career writing steamy novels set in exotic places. Trouble is, Sloane's flat broke now—and she can't channel sun-drenched beaches in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The only fast cash in town comes with some seriously distracting temptation: Gavin Carmichael, hot, handsome and oh-so-hard-headed.

Gavin isn't the impulsive Don Juan of Sloane's novels. He's raising his thirteen-year-old half-sister, and he's pretty sure he's supposed to act like he's never heard of fun. Sloane is way too sexy and irresponsible to be his idea of a good tutor for Bree, but the unpredictable anti-nanny may be irresistible as well...

Sunday Book Share #111

 

 I'm participating in The Sunday Post, hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer; Showcase Sunday hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea; Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Tynga's Reviews; Bought Borrowed and Bagged, hosted by TalkSupe; and Library Loot co-hosted by The Captive Reader and Silly Little Mischief. All of these memes are about sharing the print and digital books received and/or posts and events on the blog.

I had orientation for my new job last week. Now I'm in a holding pattern while I wait for some medical records, required by the state, from my doctor. I can't start in the classroom until I have that documentation, so frustrating. I did have another great week with books and a friend and I are hitting up the library used book sale this afternoon. A new editing project came in so that's my focus right now. Weather-wise, we had so much rain that it felt like March and not October.

The Friday 56 #59 Seeing the Light by Eileen Bell

This is a fun meme to do hosted by Freda's Voice. If you'd like to join in the fun go to The Friday 56.

Rules:
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.
*Find any sentence that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Link it here.

I'm reading an urban fantasy mystery, "Seeing the Light", by Eileen Bell. The quote is from 56% in the ebook.

By the time he did come down to talk to me, I wasn't in the mood for any foolishness. But that's what I was going to get.

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