The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove

Title: The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove
Author: Karen Hawkins
Published: August 15, 2023 by Gallery Books
Format: Kindle, Paperback 352 Pages
Genre: Magical Realism
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Dove Pond #3

First Sentence: It’s a sad fact of life that in very large, very noisy families filled with big personalities, it’s possible for a quieter, more solitary child to get lost.

Blurb: Ella Dove is an acclaimed baker whose desserts spark vivid, cherished memories in those who taste them. A restless soul, Ella goes wherever the wind takes her—but driven by a haunting dream, she’s coming home to Dove Pond. Years ago, her mentor, Angela Stewart Harrington, falsely accused Ella of stealing her beloved family recipe book, known as the Book of Cakes. Now, Ella believes it’s time for them to reconcile.

Angela has her own share of amends to make. Her daughter Jules has never forgiven her for divorcing her father, and they’ve been estranged ever since. But just as Angela begins to hope that she and Jules might mend their tattered relationship, a miscommunication turns into a lie that could destroy everything.

Meanwhile, Jules’s son Gray is shocked that Ella, his first love and his first heartbreak, has returned to Dove Pond. But even though he knows Ella is a wanderer and will soon leave, he’s unable to stop himself from falling for her once again. Can Gray find a way to convince Ella to give him, and their town, a serious chance? Or is he once again on the road to a broken heart? (GoodReads)

With so much at stake, Ella, Angela, and Gray must learn to accept each other—flaws and all—forgive the many mistakes of their pasts, and trust that love can, and will, always find a way.

My Opinion: This is one of those series where I wish new releases would be more frequent since I tend to forget which sister has which ability and the reasons for their unease with each other. Karen Hawkins does a good job of reminding readers of each person, but there are still a few tidbits floating in the back of my mind that aren’t coming to the surface.

Like other readers, I didn’t think this book had as much of a magical twist as the previous books. The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove was more of a slow-burning book of infatuation and then realizing the right person has been in front of you the whole time.

I have no idea what the next sister’s story will be, but I hope the author will get back to the magical realism that originally brought me to this series.

Murder in the Book Lover's Loft

Title: Murder in the Book Lover's Loft
Author: Ellery Adams
Published: July 25, 2023 by Kensington Cozies
Format: Kindle, 304 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Book Retreat Mysteries #9

First Sentence: Jane Steward stood in a small, secret room in the attic turret of a sprawling manor house called Storyton Hall, a world-famous resort catering to readers, and tried to come to a decision.

Blurb: Jane and her fiancé, Edwin, are headed to the North Carolina coast for a much-needed vacation. Their harborside loft has floor-to-ceiling bookcases and breathtaking views, but Jane’s hopes of exploring the town with her man are stymied when Edwin steps on a stingray. Things take an even less romantic turn when Jane stumbles across a dead body.

Instead of taking leisurely beach strolls, Jane is suddenly on a literary chase through time, unearthing a dark secret in her family tree that threatens all she holds dear back in Storyton. And it’ll take a whole village to help her make amends for the past—and stop a madman bent on exacting justice in the present. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: I really thought it was another person who had committed the murder. So much so, that I think I tuned out other possibilities.

As the book was winding down, it appears to be the end, or possibly close to the end, of this series. There are ways to branch off, especially with Jane’s Uncle Aloysius and his little secret, but that might have to wait until Hem and Fitz grow up. We will have to see since no one ends a series with book #9? Or do they? Maybe there is another secret that we haven’t yet been privy to. Wondering minds what to know.

Dead Mountain

Title: Dead Mountain
Author: Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Published: August 22, 2023 by Grand Central Publishing
Format: Hardcover, 388 Pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Series: Nora Kelly #4

First Sentence: Brandon Purdue and his frat buddy Mike Kottke sat on a rock underneath a big fir tree, near where their Jeep had skidded of a Forrest Service road into a ditch and run over a sapling.

Blurb: In 2008, nine mountaineers failed to return from a winter backpacking trip in the New Mexico mountains. At their final campsite, searchers found a bizarre scene: something had appeared at the door of their tent so terrifying that it impelled them to slash their way out and flee barefoot to certain death in a blizzard. Despite a diligent search, only six bodies were found, two violently crushed and inexplicably missing their eyes. The case, given the code name “Dead Mountain” by the FBI, was never solved.

Now, two more bodies from the lost expedition are unexpectedly discovered in a cave, one a grisly suicide. Young FBI Agent Corrie Swanson teams up with archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate what really happened on that fateful trip fifteen years ago—and to find the ninth victim. But their search awakens a long-slumbering evil, which pursues Corrie and Nora with a vengeance, determined to prevent the final missing corpse from ever coming to light.(GoodReads)

My Opinion: The writing team of Preston and Childs does an excellent job of keeping the multiple storylines in this book distinct and engaging. The reader is bouncing around, in a good way, from one plot to the next, then back again, then on to something else, yet everything meshes. At no time do you feel that the authors are throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. That type of plotting is too typical of many other writers.

I’m unsure if you need to read the previous books to get on board with this 4th book in the series, but I would suggest it to understand how Nora and Corrie came to be and how Sheriff Watt came on board. Or the impact of Corrie’s previous training officer, but it is necessary to know and understand where the team came from and where it is going.

This series is a step above most police procedurals since it combines history, culture, geography, and stimulating plotting.

Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant

Title: Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant
Author: Darci Hannah
Published: July 25, 2023 by Kensington Cozies
Format: Kindle, 300 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Beacon Bakeshop #4

First Sentence: Time to make the donuts!

Blurb: Lindsey prefers to keep her bakeshop’s Halloween decor light and autumnal, rather than gruesome and ghoulish. But everyone knows her lighthouse home is haunted. Some intrepid teens have even tried to break in to witness the resident ghost themselves. Dreading Halloween night, Lindsey reluctantly allows her influencer and podcaster best friend, Kennedy, to host a live ghost hunting investigation in the lighthouse, conducted by a professional team. Protective of her ghost, Lyndsey is understandably nervous about what they might uncover.

The segment is uneventful—until things take a terrifying turn. The team freaks out. As Kennedy joins the mad dash outside, she bumps into what looks like the prankster teens’ creepy clown costume hanging from a tree. But when Lindsey’s dog, Wellington, begins to whine, they make a grim the clown is no dummy. It’s a corpse.

Now Lindsey and company will need to keep their cool if they want a ghost of a chance to solve the murder—and see another Halloween. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: This is one of those series that caught me off guard. I thought it would be the usual run-of-the-mill cozy mysteries that were easy to guess the culprits and left me with the feeling that there should have been more. Not so with this series.

I enjoy all the characters that Darci Hannah introduced. The atmosphere and the dialog fit without being overdrawn or talking down to the reader, and the newest creations out of the Beacon Bakeshop make you wonder where you can pop out to find a pumpkin scone.

My only issue was the title. Is a pumpkin pageant the same as a pumpkin carving contest? Is a parade a pageant? With that little matter aside, The Beacon Bakeshop series is still one that I keep on my radar.

The Lady from Burma

Title: The Lady from Burma
Author: Allison Montclair
Published: July 25, 2023 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 336 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #5

First Sentence: He sat on the edge of the narrow bed, reaching for the black wool socks he had stuffed into his shoes.

Blurb: In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture - The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous - and never discussed - past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.

Shortly thereafter, she's found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn't make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets - perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case.

My Opinion: I think I have narrowed down why I enjoy this series so much. It’s the humor. The things that come out of Gwen’s and Iris’s mouths make me laugh out loud and shake my head. The humor is spot-on, snarky, and insightful, all at the same time.

The book begins with a conversation between two unidentified people, and the reader spends the best part of the book matching up pairs in hopes of getting the puzzle right. I did not have it right. That didn’t bother me. There was so much going on in the book that it was easy to put the puzzle aside to readjust my focus to the next quandary facing the ladies. Whether it was their business, legal, relationships, family, or something else, there were so many distractions that by the time the book ended, somehow Allison Montclair tied enough up that the only parts left would work as fodder for the next book in the series.