A TRACE OF POISON (A Phyllida Bright Mystery Book #2) by Colleen Cambridge is the second entertaining cozy mystery featuring Phyllida Bright, housekeeper and best friend to Agatha Christie at Mallowan Hall. While Agatha may write clever mysteries, Phyllida solves real life murders.
For the benefit of a local orphanage, the Village of Listleigh is sponsoring Murder Fete. Agatha invites the Detection Club which consists of other famous mystery authors to give lectures, sign and sell their books, meet with their fans, and judge an amateur mystery writing contest over a weekend. The Fete is giving a grand prize of not just a local, but an international writing contract.
The first evening’s cocktail party is going well until Father Tooley, the parish priest set to tabulate the scores for the contest, falls dead. Phyllida immediately begins to collect clues, but every person at the party is an expert in murder and how to get away with it.
I enjoyed this second book even more than the first. I felt a stronger connection to the characters in this mystery as they are becoming more fully fleshed and I have become more invested. I really liked the back and forth between Phyllida and Bradford. Bradford still has a mysterious past, but you get the impression there is much more to him than has yet been revealed and I am looking forward to discovering it in future books. The plot was well paced, had many red herrings, surprises, and a climactic twist that led to Phyllida being able to give an old-fashioned denouement.
I love Phyllida and cannot wait for more cozy mysteries with the cast of characters at Mallowan Hall.
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Author Bio
Colleen Cambridge is the pen name of an award-winning USA Today and New York Times bestselling author.
Under several pseudonyms, she has written more than 36 books in a variety of genres and is always plotting her next murder—er, book.
Today I am sharing My Feature Post and Book Review for THE SECRET SOCIETY OF SALZBURG by Renee Ryan from Harlequin Love Inspired Trade.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Inspired by true events, comes a gripping and heart-wrenching story of two very different women united to bring light to the darkest days of World War II.
London, 1933
At first glance, Austrian opera singer Elsa Mayer-Braun has little in common with the young English typist she encounters on tour. Yet she and Hattie Featherstone forge an instant connection—and strike a dangerous alliance. Using their friendship as a cover, they form a secret society with a daring goal: to rescue as many Jews as possible from Nazi persecution.
Though the war’s outbreak threatens Elsa and Hattie’s network, their efforts attract the covert attention of the British government, offering more opportunities to thwart the Germans. But Elsa’s growing fame as Hitler’s favorite opera singer, coupled with her secret Jewish ancestry, make her both a weapon and a target—until her future, too, hangs in the balance.
From the glamorous stages of Covent Garden and Salzburg to the horrors of Bergen-Belsen, two ordinary women swept up by the tide of war discover an extraordinary friendship—and the courage to save countless lives.
THE SECRET SOCIETY OF SALZBURG by Renee Ryan is an emotionally riveting historical fiction story primarily set in WWII Salzburg and London featuring two talented artists who risk everything to save as many Jewish lives as possible from persecution. Loosely based on a true story, I was unable to put this book down. Make sure you have some tissues handy.
Hattie and Vera Featherstone are sisters who have been working clerical jobs to survive, but they both have bigger dreams. Vera, being the oldest has also been a mother figure to the younger Hattie since their mother’s death. Even as she does everything in her power to encourage Hattie’s dream of being an accomplished artist, she works on her own dream behind closed doors. Hattie’s art is good, but there is still an emotional depth missing until she and Vera are introduced to a young opera singer’s work.
Elsa Mayer-Braun has worked her entire young life in Salzburg to reach operatic recognition and fame. As her fame rises, so does the threat from the new Nazi party. When Elsa meets the two sisters Featherstone on tour, she forms an instant bond with Hattie. Elsa and Hattie refuse to ignore the threat to the Jewish population and set up network to help as many as possible escape to England.
This dangerous alliance will test both women’s courage and bond of friendship forged in a time of danger with spies, traitors, and informers around every corner.
This is an inspirational historical fiction story beautifully written with memorable characters, acts of bravery and of human depravity and treachery which kept me on an emotional roller coaster. Hattie and Elsa displayed courage, bravery, and an unbreakable bond of friendship. All the secondary characters are as realistic and fully fleshed as the main characters. The plot is divided between two timelines that merge into an uplifting and triumphant ending.
I highly recommend this inspirational historical fiction!
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About the Author
Multi-published, award-winning author Renee Ryan grew up in Florida. She’s written nearly thirty books in several genres, including historical fiction, historical romance and contemporary romance. She currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband and a large cat many have mistaken for a small bear.
HIGH IMPACT (High Mountain Trackers Book #4) by Freya Barker is another exciting romantic suspense in the High Mountain Tracker series. This is Lucy and Bo’s story that faithful readers of the series have been waiting for. This book can be read as a standalone, but the characters are all evolving in their relationships throughout the series.
Bo Rivera has been a member of the High Mountain Trackers since his discharge from the service. Unlike the other members of the team, Bo lives in town so that he can keep an eye on his elderly and feisty mother. Bo is a flirt with all the ladies, but he is really interested in Lucy, the prickly assistant to his boss’s wife at the animal rescue down the road. But he feels she is too young, so he keeps his distance. When he discovers her age and realizes she just looks young, he is ready to change their status.
Lucy Lenoir finds more comfort and trust with animals than humans. She has never let anyone know about her true background even her best friend and boss. She is independent and sometimes wishes for the type of relationships she sees happening around her, but she is also afraid to jeopardize anyone else’s safety. After Lucy rescued some abused goats, strange incidents have been happening at the rescue and she begins to feel she is being watched and set up for the murder of the goats’ abusive owner. Bo believes in her innocence and is determined to protect her even as she fights his attention.
Lucy slowly begins to allow Bo into her life and when she tells him about her past, he feels even more protective. But Lucy’s past is closer than anyone knows, and it may destroy her future.
I have been looking forward to this pair coming together after the brief glimpses of their attraction in previous books. Even though I knew Lucy’s past was bad, it was much worse than I expected and broke my heart. Bo had secrets of his own which could have broken up this pair even before they started, but Lucy understood about not being believed. Lucy and Bo’s romance proceeded at a believable pace with honest discussion of triggers during sex scenes. It is great to catch up with the crossover characters from the previous books, also. The suspense plot continues to ramp up the tension at an ever-increasing rate until the climactic confrontation and rescue. This story has everything I was hoping for and more.
I highly recommend this romantic suspense and the entire High Mountain Trackers series!
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Author Bio
USA Today bestselling author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; she creates characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills in their lives.
Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We’ve Read All Year Award for “Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, and Finalist for the 2020 Kindle Book Award with “When Hope Ends”, Freya continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!
Holly Hayward is shocked when she learns that her great-uncle is planning to marry Jonah Drake’s grandmother. Have they forgotten about the bitter generations-old Hayward-Drake feud? Now Holly is determined to thwart the disastrous Christmas wedding—even if it means teaming up with her nemesis, handsome and way-too-perfect Jonah. But crashing one forbidden romance might just be the beginning of a completely new one…
From Harlequin Heartwarming: Wholesome stories of love, compassion and belonging.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Christmas Wedding Crashers by Amy Vastine is a great holiday read. People should refererence to the McCoy-Hatfield feud that involved two rural families.
In this story two elderly people, Randall Hayward and Clarissa Drake announce their intention to get married. The problem is that the Haywards and Drakes have a major family feud. The Drakes come off as superior, the haves, while the Haywards are the have nots who have struggled to succeed. When the families hear about the Christmas wedding, they decide to do all in their power to break up the couple.
Great niece Holly Hayward is enlisted along with grandson Jonah Drake to have the wedding canceled. They first try to show the elders how incompatible they are with each other. After all, Randall likes rodeo stuff, being rough and tumble, while Clarissa likes to volunteer at all the Christmas trimmings. But, instead of seeing each other as mismatched they realize each is willing to do a give and take.
Instead of succeeding at their plan, Holly and Jonah realize that they also have a lot in common and their assumptions from the high school years are unfounded. Holly begins to see that Jonah is caring, kind, and funny, while Jonah sees that Holly is spirited, intelligent, and daring.
Although there are some scenes that are heartbreaking, most of the story will put a smile on readers’ faces. The banter is fabulous, allowing people to take the journey with the characters.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Did the McCoys and Hatfields influence the story?
Amy Vastine: Right. I like the idea of family rivals. This is the second to last book in the “Stop the Wedding series.”This one had an older generation getting married, somebody’s grandma with the family not happy about it. The rival family had an elder who was an uncle.
EC: The rivalry?
AV: The Haywards are considered vandals and thieves, while the Drakes were arrogant, liars, and rescinded a land plot. The Drakes are the wealthy rancher family, and the Haywards are the workers. It stemmed from the Drake great-great-grandfather who promised land for work to the Haywards. After he died the family did not follow through to give the land, making the Haywards feeling cheated. This created hard feelings throughout generations. Oliver Drake is the epitome of the arrogance who had a cushy upbringing.
EC: How would you describe the grandson, Jonah Drake?
AV: Scholarly, book smart, but not totally relationship smart. He is not aware of how he came across. He is very black and white. If someone said something incorrect, he would correct them. He did not think about how that person called out would feel. He is a rule follower, compassionate, protective, honest, and patient.
EC: How would you describe Holly?
AV: She is street smart, sassy, and sarcastic. She is loyal to her family to a fault. She is funny, interesting, a hard worker, creative, and savvy. Holly is also direct, competitive, tough, and confident.
EC: What about the relationship?
AV: In high school, Holly felt Jonah intentionally made her feel stupid. She assumed it was because Jonah always felt superior. The family feud gets in the way. Initially, they think they are so different, but when they spend time together their assumptions go out the door. Both think oil and water will never mix but end up as a delicious salad dressing. They realize they have more in common than they thought. As they work together, they drop their guard. The older couple noticed that there was a connection between Holly and Jonah, before the younger couple did.
EC: What about the older couple Clarissa and Randall?
AV: They met at the little local diner. Both lived long lives and found someone who made them happy. They realize it is causing some drama, but they do not let it get in the way of something good. Clarissa is very kind, gentle, and accepting. Randall makes her feel like a Queen. He is a charmer. They enjoyed the fact that they were not the only crossovers who could see that there does not have to be this forever long family feud.
EC: What about Holly’s sister Maisey?
AV: She did not even know what the family drama was, living her own life. She did not realize who is mad at who and why. She is not burdened by other people’s old hang-ups. She was left out of the nonsense. Maisey does not live in the past and only cares about what is happening in her world.
EC: Why those events?
AV: I spent one whole day brainstorming as many Christmas activities as I could, writing my own Hallmark Christmas movie. There had to be a Christmas Tree Lighting, a gingerbread contest, an ice-skating rink, and the Frontier Freeze based on the Polar Bear Plunge in Chicago. I thought of events that strongly represented Randall and other events that strongly represented Clarissa.
EC: Next book?
AV: It is the last one in my “Stop the Wedding series,” titled Texas Runaway Bride coming out in August. The heroine is a people pleaser. After canceling her wedding day, she decides to visit this little town in Texas that her grandmother talked about. She runs into a widowed Sherriff with a four-year-old boy. She is offered the job of live-in nanny.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Today is my turn to share my Feature Post and Book Review for A WINGMAN FOR CHRISTMAS: A Sweet Water Novella by Barbara Barth on this WOW (Women on Writing) Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
The annual Sweet Water, Georgia, Christmas parade is nearing but relationships are fractured on Wild Rose Lane. Antique dealer Cheryl Calloway’s holiday spirit has tanked. It’s been a horrible year with her divorce, her ex marrying younger and perkier Miriam across the street, and Mama moving into Cheryl’s Victorian cottage with her Amazon parrot right before Thanksgiving. A party girl in her eighties, Mama smokes up a storm, likes her nightly vodka, has a hankering for men, and now a wingman named Nigel. If that isn’t enough, the Historical Society wants Cheryl to clean up all the projects on her porch waiting to go to Spivey’s Antique Mall for their Christmas Open House. Her desire to work her booth is as dead as her marriage. Miriam, President of the Historical Society, chastises her, “If it ain’t pretty don’t put it on the porch.” Then there’s Alice, her strange neighbor with the six-foot fluorescent light bulb cross nailed to the huge Magnolia tree in the middle of her rose garden. Alice watches all the neighbors too closely. Just when Cheryl thinks things can’t get worse, an incident shakes her to the core, and a mystery follows revealing family secrets long forgotten. Cheryl wants to believe in miracles and love again, and Dr. James may just be the man of her dreams as he helps her and Mama sort things out.
Filled with quirky characters, mystery, family secrets, and sweet love, all set in a hot Georgia small town.
A WINGMAN FOR CHRISTMAS: A Sweet Water Novella by Barbara Barth is a perfect holiday quick read novella from a new to me author. I almost never give a novella five stars, but this story is a heartfelt, charming, quirky, and funny mash-up of small-town holiday fiction/Southern women’s fiction/cozy mystery and romance with memorable characters all packed beautifully into a small package.
Cheryl has had a very rough year and is in no mood for Christmas. She caught her husband having phone sex with the younger woman across the street, divorced him and he immediately married the neighbor, and she must see them every day. Her elderly mother is having problems, so Mama moves in with Cheryl rather than her brothers of sister because Mama has become the proud owner of an Amazon parrot named Nigel and they do not want that bird in their homes.
When Mama’s boyfriend, Franklin passes out in Cheryl’s family room, the ambulance is called. When Cheryl and Mama rush to the Emergency Room, Cheryl is introduced to the handsome Dr. James. The holiday may be looking up for Cheryl, but then her home is broken into and Nigel is stolen.
With help from unlikely sources, a suspicious neighbor next door, and a handsome doctor, Cheryl just might find the holiday spirit and Nigel.
This is such a fun holiday novella, and I did not put it down until the end. The characters are believable and lovable. Cheryl is full of love even as she is exasperated with Mama and depressed about her failed marriage, but she learns forgiveness leads to unexpected friendships and romance. The small-town setting is perfect for all these quirky characters and the short, but sweet cozy mystery plot thread of Nigel’s theft.
This is a must read holiday mash-up novella that I highly recommend!
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About the Author
Barbara Barth turned to writing and adopting dogs to heal after her husband died fourteen years ago. Known as ‘Writer With Dogs’, Barth currently lives with four Chihuahuas in a charming town forty miles outside of Atlanta. She is Literary Arts Chair at a small art center where she promotes writing activities, author events, book launches, and hosts an online group Walton Writers. Inspired by the wonderful artists around her, Barth started painting and has won several awards with her whimsical art.
Today is my turn to share my Feature Post and Book Review for SHAT BRANCHES GROW by T.S. Beier on this Black Phoenix Book Tour.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
A boldly imagined, exhilarating quest through post-apocalyptic America, where human nature is torn between the violent desperation to survive and the desire to forge connection.
Thirty-five years ago, the world was ravaged by war. Delia, a tough-as-nails survivalist, travels north in search of a future. Gennero is tortured by his violent past and devotion to his hometown. Ordered to apprehend Delia, he follows her into the post-apocalyptic landscape. The wasteland is rife with dangers for those seeking to traverse it: homicidal raiders, dictatorial leaders, mutated humans, and increasingly violent and hungry wildlife.
What Branches Grow is an unflinching depiction of life after civilization, where, above all else, trust is the hardest thing to achieve and give. The survivors have an audacious dream of a better life, but their quest may end up being a fruitless endeavour in a world openly hostile to hope.
For fans of Fallout, Mad Max, and The Road. Action and adventure rounded off with a slow-burn romance, dark comedy, and a dog companion.
WHAT BRANCHES GROW by T.S. Beier is a post-apocalyptic dystopian character driven journey of two young protagonists through the wastelands of the United States thirty-five years after the Red War. This is a unique standalone novel which gives you action, adventure, quirky characters, humor, a slow burn romance and monsters.
Delia is hardened and trusts no one after surviving on her own in the wastelands. When she wonders into the wrong town for supplies and the leader of the town sends his second in command, Gennero to bring her to him. When his attempt to enslave her fails, Gennero follows her to not only join her on her search for the mythical city in the North, but to free himself from his past in his hometown.
This story is a hero’s journey through an apocalyptic landscape and all the emotional growth and changes that occur to Delia and Gennero. From hard, untrusting, and scarred, the main characters learn from other characters and trials and tribulations about trust, sacrifice and love. Their traveling companion for part of the story was an old Chinese hipster they called Perth, who lived through the war and with his pug companion was a great source of humor and flashes from the past in his irritating way of interacting with Delia and Gennero. The monsters were the usual post-apocalyptic genetic mutated animals and a few zombie-like creatures, but the real monsters were the humans who had lost their humanity just surviving without ethics or morals.
I highly recommend this dystopian story with action, adventure, and romance that is an engaging and entertaining read from start to finish.
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About the Author
T. S. (Tina) Beier is a science fiction aficionado. Her first novel, the award-winning post-apocalyptic What Branches Grow, is her love letter to the genre. Her space opera The Burnt Ship trilogy takes influence from classic sci-fi but adds a modern twist.
She has a B.A. in English, a graduate certificate in creative writing, a certificate in publishing, and a certificate in interior decorating. She’s an entrepreneur, a book reviewer, and a writer for PostApocalypticMedia.com. Tina lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband, shepherd-mastiff, cat, and two feral children.
