Tartan, Treasures and Troubles

Dotty Sayers Antiques Mystery, #12

by

Victoria Tait

Dotty’s return to the Cotswolds is marred by murder!

Tartan, Treasures and Troubles is the 12^th book in veteran author Victoria Tait’s awesome cozy Dotty Sayers Antiques Mystery series and picks up with Dotty’s return to the Cotswolds and her home at Meadowbank Farm and job at Akeman’s antiques business. She and her best friend, Sergeant Keya Varma, have teamed up to host a traditional Burns night dinner at the Waterwheel Café at the auction house, but the sudden death of one of the attendees was very much NOT on the menu. 

Dotty has become a serious and settled young woman, and she’s dealing with some very big issues during this story. Her father’s cancer has progressed, and the doctors have judged it to be inoperable, so every time she visits with him may be her last. The anguish when she learns of his prognosis is palpable. Dotty is also still uncertain about her relationship with Zach, and he is having a difficult time grappling with his findings of this family’s history. Still, there is a treasure to be found. 

The plot is well-paced, incorporating multiple storylines with Dotty’s and Keya’s plans for their Burns night celebration, which is fast approaching. As Dotty picks up her life in the Cotswolds again, the story blooms with the names and appearances of many characters from the previous books in the series. It promises to become quite a reunion with people coming out for the Burns night dinner. Having read the earlier books may make sorting all these characters out somewhat easier. hen a character close to those central to the series dies suspiciously in front of everyone at the dinner, other familiar faces make their way onto the suspects’ list, so there are plenty of red herrings to cross off on the way to a surprising resolution. Sharp-eyed armchair detectives may be able to settle on the correct perpetrator in advance as the clues are there. 

I recommend TARTAN, TREASURES AND TROUBLE to cozy mystery readers, especially those who have enjoyed the previous books in the series.

For this and other reviews as well as giveaway opportunities, go to Boys' Mom Reads!

The Doll from Dunedin

Genealogy Mystery, #2*

by

M.L. Condike

A fantastic new adventure in this fascinating genealogical mystery series.

The Doll from Dunedin is the second book in M.L. Condike’s wonderful Genealogy Mystery series featuring forensic genealogist RaeJean Hunter and the search for the missing heir of a wealthy New York woman she’s met while working on a previous assignment. Jill Harriet Hamilton had died earlier in the year. Per her will and the trust guiding her fortune, her attorneys had one year to locate her sole blood relation, purportedly living in New Zealand, before her considerable assets were bequeathed to Columbia University. With six months gone and no closer to locating the man, the firm turns to RaeJean for answers. 

RaeJean is back, and this puzzling new case has a startling personal connection for her; she met the deceased client shortly before her death and subsequently rescued her beloved corgi, Eli, from an uncertain future. I love that her corgis have such a fun place in this series. Sam and RaeJean are anxious to start a family, and the timing of the case is a deciding factor on whether or not she even takes it on, especially considering the dangers she encountered on her last one. 

The plot is intriguing, with secrecy and litigation-prone members of the deceased extended (and adoptive family) making RaeJean’s work tougher. Still, the high-risk case does offer an incredible payday should she find success. Besides the search into the adopted woman’s bloodline, another cold case from the distant past is wound throughout, and the questions about her runaway father are a recurring factor in the series. As in the series debut, an unusual antique with a mysterious effect on RaeJean embellishes the story. 

I recommend THE DOLL FROM DUNEDIN to readers of historical mysteries, especially those with an interest in genealogical research and enjoy a touch of the paranormal in their stories. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through a Lone Star Literary Life Book Campaign.

*Read my review for Book One of the series, The Desk from Hoboken, HERE!

Will’s Race for Home

by

Jewell Parker Rhodes

An exciting and inspirational historical middle-grade adventure story.

Will’s Race for Home is a new historical middle-grade adventure story from author Jewell Parker Rhodes centered around the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. Twelve-year-old William Samuels and his father, George, set out for Oklahoma from their home in Texas, where they are sharecroppers on another man’s cotton farm, to participate in the upcoming land rush. At stake is a 160-acre piece of farmland they can call their own. Along the way, they face danger from many directions: rattlesnakes, a treacherous river crossing, and, worst of all, from their fellow man. However, Will also comes to know and understand his emotionally distant father, a man of few words and agonizing secrets buried in his past. 

I absolutely fell in love with this book and its young protagonist from the first page. Will Samuels easily mirrors the thoughts and feelings of any boy, as does his yearning to gain his father’s approval and love. Not only does the journey allow him to connect with his reserved father, but it also opens his eyes to a world from which he’s been mostly sheltered his entire life, living in deeply rural southwest Texas. Young readers will identify with Will, his hopes and dreams, and his love for his family and the mule, Belle. 

The author features the historic Oklahoma Land Rush, which occurred on April 22, 1889, and the descriptions of the Samuels’s journey, the time, and settings are vivid and evocative, putting the reader smack on the trail with Will, George, and their new friend and former Union soldier, Caesar. The story gives readers an idea of what it meant to be a sharecropper and the difficulty of ever getting ahead under the system. 

Occurring a little over 20 years after the end of the Civil War, the story relates the tensions still in existence between those who supported opposite sides of the conflict: for many, the war was never over. Will’s mother, Anna, his father, George, and their friend, Caesar, put names and faces to the men and women who had been enslaved from birth, only gaining freedom after the start of the war, and illustrates realistically what that meant for them going forward. 

This is not the first book I’ve read from this author, and her stories and writing continue to be an immersive experience, no matter the topic. Her writing style is warm and easy to read, and the chapter lengths are perfect for younger readers. With its exciting and suspenseful story and engaging, relatable characters, I recommend WILL’S RACE FOR HOME to middle-grade readers and for use as a read-aloud book in the classroom, in an afterschool program, or at home. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy through TBR and Beyond Book Tours.

He.

by

Gregory Pakis

This waking nightmare of erotic horror delivers as promised!

He. is a short erotic horror novel by Gregory Pakis featuring married couple Val and Lester, who have recently moved into a new apartment building and begun attending a series of swingers parties held in a private home nearby. Although they have yet to join in the “play” there, they are intrigued but just not comfortable or titillated enough to participate yet. But then, Val receives a cryptic cellphone text directing her to a particular spot in their apartment’s garden, where she discovers a note with a single-word command on it: “Initiate.” 

The narrative is mostly from Val’s perspective. It allows the reader access to her intimate thoughts of curiosity, confusion, and desire as she follows later messages and experiences several dream-like sexual experiences at the hands of the seductive mystery man who sent them. As she leans into the pleasures he provides, she yearns for his approval of her reactions to his ministrations, all with the support of her husband Lester, who is slowly edged out of the action and into a spectator’s role. Adding to the mystery is a detective looking into the disappearance of a young man, who is somehow linked to a local underground sex club called “Stealth X,” which Val believes has relocated to the apartment next door to her and Lester. 

The story is definitely adult material (NSFW), the action is vividly and graphically portrayed, and the demarcation line separating Val’s reality and dream life quickly disintegrates. The denouement is tense, and it is immediately followed by an ending that left much unexplained. I was left needing to understand better. Trigger warnings for all of the sexual situations and body horror.

 I recommend HE. to readers of erotic horror.  

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tours.

The Last Bookstore on Earth

by

Lily Braun-Arnold

YA dystopian tale with a twist!

The Last Bookstore on Earth is a new YA dystopian/speculative fiction novel from Lily Braun-Arnold, and it offers a fresh twist on the plethora of end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it tales. While Liz, the main character, has suffered the loss of her family, friends, and the life she knew (like everyone else in the story), she retreats to the only place of safety she knows left standing (the local bookstore where she had an afterschool part-time job). She creates a little beacon of “normal” for others as she continues to open the store daily, offering book recommendations and a place to leave messages. However, as a repeat of The Storm looms on the horizon, the bookstore faces a much more imminent threat. A small group of organized survivors are out for revenge against her new partner, and they’ve tracked their prey to the bookstore’s doorstep. 

Liz Flannery is the unusual protagonist of the story. She and her twin, Thea, were only a few weeks away from heading off for their first year of college when The Storm arrived, changing everything. Liz was the only one in her small family to live through it and suffered the burden of survivor’s guilt and more. When circumstances allowed, she fled to the familiar safety of her workplace and the comfort and companionship of another coworker who apparently had the same idea. 

Liz, escaping her grief and guilt, is content with the setup and begins to feel a responsibility to maintain the facsimile of normal operations for the occasional survivor who happens upon the open store. Eva, though, chafes to escape the claustrophobia of the routine and her feelings of responsibility for Liz, and she abruptly abandons her. Locals and transients alike express their gratitude and appreciation for the continued existence of the story and their ability to leave messages there for friends and loved ones and trade supplies for what they need, which keeps Liz from ever having to forage through the rubble and death of her New Jersey hometown. Their generous offerings, though, isolate her further and keep her from understanding just how much the world outside the bookstore has changed for the desperate. 

The plot just gets established when rumors that another storm is headed their way. Customers leave messages for those coming behind them and urge Liz to evacuate; the store was greatly damaged in the first storm and is unlikely to withstand another. But Liz sees a solution to leaving her safe place in the appearance of Maeve, a drifter about her age, who breaks in one night looking for shelter and salvage and claiming to be able to make the necessary repairs to the building. Maeve, having started her journey in New York City, knows how much life has devolved and has had her run-ins with some of the more organized survivors. She’s tougher and more aggressive than the passive, polite Liz, but they eventually form an attachment and help each other work through the past year of trauma and scramble to prepare for the coming storm. 

The author can certainly tell a mesmerizing tale! I read this in one enjoyable evening with no regrets after staying up way past what was prudent in order to reach the finish. The story’s pacing kept me engaged, and I needed to see what happened next. The vivid descriptions of the settings created strong visuals, placing me in the scenes firsthand. Characters are well-developed, and I felt sympathy for even those I didn’t particularly care for or agreed with their actions. I was delighted by the premise, a bookstore all to oneself, but in a Twilight Zone-style twist, staying open for business as usual as the society around it collapses, creating a little island of “normal” and a haven of familiarity, comfort, and even, safety for those left behind. Liz’s collecting the stories of the survivors willing to share them with her was an absolute bonus. 

I recommend THE LAST BOOKSTORE ON EARTH to readers of young adult post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, especially those who enjoy a positive LGBT, however low-key, representation. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy through TBR and Beyond Book Tours.