Carries Book Reviews

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If You Loved Me
Brianna Remus
Publication date: April 26th 2024
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

My parents would lose their minds if they found out their precious daughter lost her virginity to the town’s notorious bad boy and ex-convict.

Ranger Adams might have been a dangerous pariah after he was released from prison, but he was the only man I wanted. And after I convinced him to take me on a date, I got exactly what my body…and heart desired.

I spent my entire life trying to get away from my parents ’overbearing grasp. They’ve tried to control every part of my life, even down to the man I was supposed to marry. That was the price of being born into one of the South’s richest families.

The second I had a chance to get away, I did. Ten years of pissing them off and making my dreams come true was worth the sacrifice. No fun. No relationships. And no sex.

My life had been all work until Ranger came back into town. Everyone whispered about what he’d done to land in prison. But I didn’t care.

He was rough around the edges, wild, and free.

And I wanted every bit of what he was willing to give me.

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

“Ranger,” she breathed, my name was a prayer on her lips.

I let her wrist go and reached down to pick her up. My heartbeat pounded in my ears as she kissed me, opening up fully and dipping her tongue into my mouth. She was so warm and sweet. Her little moans vibrated against my tongue making me want her mouth on another part of me.

I settled us on the couch and watched as she leaned back, threading her fingers through my hair. “I love that you have long hair.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked before bringing my thumb to her lower lip wondering what it might feel like to run the head of my cock over it.

Her tongue darted out between her lips and she took my thumb in her mouth, her cheeks hollowed as she sucked. “Mmhmm,” she mused. “It’ll make it easier to keep your head in place when it’s between my legs.”

My cock jolted. I yanked my thumb from her mouth and snagged her bottom lip between my teeth, suckling it with my tongue and lips before letting it go with a pop. When I

smacked her ass, she ground her hips into me, another moan slipping out of her mouth. “You won’t have to keep me anywhere, babe. I’ll gladly feast on your sweetness for the rest of my fucking life.”

Her lids fluttered, eyes dazed with lust. “But what if I want to be the one to taste you?”

Fuck. Me.

Grabbing the back of her neck, I brought her closer so I could whisper in her ear, “You wanna taste me?”

Tendrils of her hair tickled my cheek as she nodded.

“Then let me give my girl what she wants.” I lifted her off me and stood before her. The fear I’d seen in her eyes before was gone. Erased with the heady need we felt for one another and I was thankful for it. This I could do. Watching her eyes trace my body as I unbuckled my belt and undid my jeans. Seeing her in pain had been too much for me to bear. My chest had felt like it was caving in.

But this. Just the two of us together. This I could do all fucking night. Hell. All day and night.

Her breathing quickened as her eyes darted to where my fingers slid under the edge of my boxers. “You’re sure?” I asked.

Those molten eyes looked back up at me. “Yes, I’m sure.”

With her permission, I hooked my thumbs into the band of my boxers and pulled them down. My cock was heavy, pulsing upward as she took me in.

She swallowed. “I’ve never done this before, Ranger.” Those beautiful eyes I loved so much were wary like I might flee from her admission. What she didn’t know was that I didn’t give a shit about her being experienced. I only wanted her.

“We’ll take it slow. Whatever you don’t want to do, just tell me, okay?”

She nodded again as I grabbed her hand and sat back down on the couch.

“Kneel,” I commanded and I watched as she lowered herself to her knees.

“Good girl.” Seeing her kneel between my legs nearly had me seeing stars from how much my dick throbbed. Dark eyelashes fanned over her cheekbones when she looked down at my length.

 

Author Bio:

Brianna Remus is a Florida-based author who lives with her husband, three pups, and terrorizing cat. She started her writing journey in 2016 to ward off the woes of graduate school. The light-hearted hobby quickly turned into a passion filled dream that consistently distracts her from the real world.

When Brianna isn’t working as a psychology resident or writing books, you can find her getting lost in the worlds created by others (through writing and movies), spending a day at the ocean, or taking a walk in the forest. She loves to spend her days outdoors surrounded by the beauties of nature.

A true Tolkien nerd, she also spends a lot of her time immersed in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as well as praying that Amazon doesn’t completely fuck up the new LOTR series.

Website / Goodreads / Instagram / TikTok / Bookbub

 

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Title: Summers at the Saint

Author:  Mary Kay Andrews

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Publication Date: May 7, 2024

Page Count:  443

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

Book your summer escape with a “mesmerizing mix of mystery and romance” (Publishers Weekly, starred) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Homewreckers and The Newcomer.


Welcome to the St. Cecelia, a landmark hotel on the coast of Georgia, where traditions run deep and scandals run even deeper. . . .

Everyone refers to the St. Cecelia as “the Saint.” If you grew up coming here, you were “a Saint.” If you came from the wrong side of the river, you were “an Ain’t.” Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn’t rich enough or connected enough to vacation here. But she could work here. One fateful summer she did, and married the boss’s son. Now, she’s the widowed owner of the hotel, determined to see it return to its glory days, even as staff shortages and financial troubles threaten to ruin it. Plus, her greedy and unscrupulous brother-in-law wants to make sure she fails. Enlisting a motley crew of recently hired summer help—including the daughter of her estranged best friend—Traci has one summer season to turn it around. But new information about a long-ago drowning at the hotel threatens to come to light, and the tragic death of one of their own brings Traci to the brink of despair.

Traci Eddings has her back against the pink-painted wall of this beloved institution. And it will take all the wits and guts she has to see wrongs put to right, to see guilty parties put in their place, and maybe even to find a new romance along the way. Told with Mary Kay Andrew’s warmth, humor, knack for twists, and eye for delicious detail about human nature, Summers at the Saint is a beach read with depth and heart.

Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews is a women’s fiction novel that mixes a bit of romance with a murder mystery. The story in Summers at the Saint is one that is told by changing the point of view between the characters and also by a bit of flashing back to the past.

Traci Eddings grew up along the coast of Georgia where she came from a modest background and was one of the locals who’s family couldn’t afford the luxury St. Cecelia, a landmark hotel, also know as the Saint. It was known in town that the rich came from all over to stay at the Saint and others were simply known as the Ain’ts. One summer Traci and her best friend from town got jobs at the Saint and that is where Traci met her husband, the son of the wealthy owners of the Saint.

Now twenty years later Traci is running the Saint herself after he husband passed unexpectedly. Looking to fill the staff Traci tries some new ideas to recruit staff and make it a profitable summer including getting her neice to stay and help despite her brother in law’s objections. Things definitely don’t go as planned however when a murder takes place on the secured grounds of the hotel and Traci’s father in law passes leaving her ownership of the Saint in question.

Mary Kay Andrews is one of those authors that if I get in a slump or find myself muddling through some sub par books I can also count on one of her books to bring my spirits back. Summers at the Saint was no exception to that fact when I immediately found myself transported to this old resort and watching as the summer staff took over. Just as I had images of Baby’s time at Dirty Dancing lodge popping into my head we get murder and mayhem to dive into making this story fly by! Definitely one I’d recommend and an author I’ll always return to reading.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

MARY KAY ANDREWS is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 30 novels (including Bright Lights, Big Christmas; The Homewreckers; The Santa Suit; The Newcomer; Hello, Summer; Sunset Beach; The High Tide Club; The Weekenders; Beach Town; Save the Date; Christmas Bliss; Ladies’ Night; Spring Fever; and Summer Rental, all from St. Martin’s Press, as well as The Fixer Upper; Deep Dish; Savannah Breeze; Blue Christmas; Hissy Fit; Little Bitty Lies; and Savannah Blues, all Harper Collins), and one cookbook, The Beach House Cookbook.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia (go Dawgs!). After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction.

Her first novel, Every Crooked Nanny, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries, including the Callahan Garrity mystery series, under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of Savannah Blues. In 2006, Hissy Fit became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by dozens more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese.

She and her family divide their time between Atlanta and Tybee Island, GA, where they cook up new recipes in their restored beach homes, The Breeze Inn and Ebbtide—both named after fictional places in Mary Kay’s novels, and both available to rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals. In between cooking, spoiling her grandkids, and plotting her next novel, Mary Kay is an intrepid treasure hunter whose favorite pastime is junking and fixing up old houses.

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

Title: Murder Spills the Tea

Author:  Vicki Delany

Publisher: Kensington Cozies

Publication Date: July 26, 2022

Page Count:  305

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

Lily Roberts pores over the clues in a piping hot new case when a confrontational celebrity chef is murdered at her Cape Cod tearoom during the filming of a popular baking show in the latest Tea by the Sea mystery from national bestselling author Vicki Delany . . .
 
The country’s hottest TV cooking show is coming to Cape Cod. And against her better judgment, Lily Roberts is entering America Bakes! with her charming tearoom, Tea by the Sea! Filming is already proving disruptive, closing the tearoom during Lily’s busiest season. But tensions really bubble over when infamous bad-boy chef and celebrity judge, Tommy Greene, loses his temper with Lily’s staff, resulting in an on-camera blowout with Cheryl Wainwright. Just as Lily thinks the competition can’t get more bitter, Tommy is found dead in Tea by the Sea’s kitchen . . . murdered with Cheryl’s rolling pin.
 
Suspicion immediately falls on Cheryl, but the temperamental star has racked up plenty of culinary clashes in the past, both on- and off-screen. And nearly anyone associated with Tommy or the show could be the killer: be it one of Lily’s fierce competitors, a member of the beleaguered film crew, or even one of Tommy’s fellow judges—struggling cookbook maven, Claudia D’Angelo or beauty contest winner, Scarlet McIntosh. Now, while she’s baking up a storm for the show, Lily must also whip up an impromptu investigation . . . before the murderer rolls someone else away.

Murder Spills the Tea by Vicki Delany is the third book in the cozy Tea by the Sea Mysteries series. As with most cozy mysteries each book of this series will contain a new mystery that will fully solved so this could be read as a standalone or in any order if choosing to do so. Of course there will be character development that carries over from book to book for those that read the series from the beginning.

Some days Lily Roberts doesn’t know what keeps her busier, running her own business, Tea by the Sea, a traditional English tearoom, or keeping up with her feisty grandmother. Thankfully for Lily her tearoom is right by her grandmother Rose’s bed and breakfast so most days she can do both and now has even solved a murder or two in between.

Now this time around Lily really has her hands full as she has decided to enter a cooking contest held by America Bakes, tv’s hottest cooking show. What better way to get attention for the tea room, right? Wrong! Things take a huge turn for the worst when the infamous bad-boy chef and celebrity judge, Tommy Greene, ends up murdered in Lily’s kitchen at Tea by the Sea leaving her searching for yet another murderer.

I have actually follow the Tea by the Sea Mysteries series from the beginning with this one having a lot of what I enjoy in a cozy mystery. There’s of course some quirky characters and a whole lot of laughs that come with those along with a decent mystery in every new addition to the series with this third installment not being an exception. Book three left me wanting nothing more than to return to the sea yet again in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Year Round Christmas books for Crooked Lane, the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.

Vicki is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards.

Vicki is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Running From the AIs
Kevin Coleman
(A Gaia’s World Novel)
Publication date: April 25th 2024
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Where do you run when technology and humans are determined to find and silence you?

In a world where artificial intelligence governs the flow of life, Rafael and Ellie uncover a chilling secret—one that a malevolent AI is determined to conceal. Their accidental discovery leaves them with a stark choice: face certain death or become fugitives.

Forced to flee with only the things they can carry, they leave behind their family, friends, and the false security of a world watched over by digital eyes. After witnessing a horrendous act by the things that go bump in the night, they find they are now on the run more than ever. Desperate to hide in a society where anonymity is extinct, they must navigate a treacherous path lined with danger and deception.

As they travel, their only allies are their wits and the unexpected kindness of strangers. With each step, they forge a new existence, one where trust is a luxury and every moment is a test of their resolve.

“Running from the AIs” is a tale of survival where the omnipresent AI watches every move and the humans they meet cannot be trusted.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

EXCERPT:

The lightweight blanket over the dry grass provided only a thin, scratchy protection from the hard rocks as Rafael and Ellie lay on their stomachs side by side, looking over the cliff edge at the road below. Rafael could feel the heat leaching from his body into the cold rock beneath him.

There was little traffic on the road, making it easy for his mind to wander to the life they left behind. They had seen three pairs of security bots passing on foot, wielding chip detection wands. As they trotted along, the bots scanned both sides of the road and the adjacent shrubbery. When the third pair of bots disappeared around the next bend, Rafael rolled over onto his back. Above, the sun shone in a cloudless blue sky. The leaves on nearby bushes fluttered in the cool breeze.

“That’s the third pair in an hour, about 20 minutes apart. It means we can easily cross the road when we’re ready to get further down.”

Ellie wriggled to get closer and lay her head on Rafael’s chest. “We’re going to be okay, aren’t we?”

Rafael kissed her on the top of her head. “Of course, we haven’t done anything wrong. We just need to lie low until we figure out how to make them understand.”

“I’m scared, Raffi.”

Guilt washed through him as he thought of how his misplaced curiosity was now putting Ellie at risk. “So am I, but we can’t give in to that. Let’s get up and keep moving. We’ll make camp in a couple more hours and have the last sandwiches for dinner. Everything will seem better in the morning.”

They stood and took up their packs, then moved off along the old hiking trail that ran for several hundred kilometers around the island that was home. This far from the city, the trail was now little more than a rabbit track through the scrub bushes and sharp grasses. Peeling white blazes painted on the trees continued to guide them forward.

As the sun dipped lower, they made camp. With practiced hands, Rafael put up their hiking tent. There was not enough room to stand, so he knelt on the floor of the tent as he laid out their sleeping bags side by side. Outside, Ellie was preparing a meal of sandwiches, potato chips, and two flasks of water. There was no fire tonight. She laid the sandwiches on their wrappings and set them on a nearby rock serving as an ersatz table.

After dinner, they brushed their teeth with the last flask of water, then removed their shoes and jackets and crawled fully clothed into the light sleeping bags.

“I’ll be so glad when we can have a shower again,” said Ellie, sniffing her armpits. “I’m starting to stink.”

“You still smell lovely to me, but it might be good if you tried to sleep a little further away,” replied Rafael.

“You’re no prize either, but I’m too polite to mention it.”

“Let’s both agree that we’re overdue for washing and just go to sleep. With any luck, we’ll be able to get clean tomorrow.”

Ellie rolled away from him. Rafael lay facing her back and placed his hand on her hip. Lying there, waiting for sleep to come, Rafael retraced the events that had brought them to this point in time.

Author Bio:

Kevin Coleman is an emerging author of romantic science fiction and fantasy.

His novels portray a changed world, ravaged by viruses where a small island city of survivors develops a direct relationship with Gaia. As technology fails, humans develop plans to save human existence on our planet. Kevin’s stories incorporate metaphysical themes on life, love, and faith in the face of unimaginable change.

Kevin lives with his wife, Sue, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. In addition to being an author, he is an enthusiastic kite-maker and sailor.

Website / Facebook / Instagram

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Still hanging onto my streak of self control and just slipped in under my goal amount this week with nine new titles to add. So many shiny pretty new books I feel the fall from the wagon will come eventually but for now I’ll just enjoy another small win while walking the balance beam of behaviour.

As always clicking the covers will take you to the book on Amazon!**

New additions from Netgalley Apr 21st  – Apr 28th

A dream vacation turns deadly when secrets from the past catch up to a married couple in Paris in this new edge-of-your-seat thriller from USA Today bestselling author, Kimberly Belle.
 
When Stella met Adam, she thought she had finally found a nice, normal guy—a welcome change from her previous boyfriend and her precarious jetsetter lifestyle with him. But her secure world comes crashing down when Adam goes missing after an explosion in the city square. Unable to reach him, she panics. 
 
As the French police investigate, it’s revealed that Adam was on their radar as a dealer of rare and stolen antiquities with a long roster of criminal clients. Reeling from this news, Stella is determined not to leave Paris until she has the full story. Was Adam a random victim or the target of the explosion? And why is someone following her through the streets of Paris?
 
An irresistible, fast-paced read set in some of Europe’s most inviting locales, The Paris Widow explores how sinister secrets of the past stay with us—no matter how far we travel.

She left her hometown following a scandal—but family loyalty is dragging her back…

Despite their strained relationship, when Gia Rossi’s sister, Margot, begs her to come home to Wakefield, Iowa, to help with their ailing mother, Gia knows she has no choice. After her rebellious and at-times-tumultuous teen years, Gia left town with little reason to look back. But she knows Margot’s borne the brunt of their mother’s care and now it’s Gia’s turn to help, even if it means opening old wounds.

As expected, Gia’s homecoming is far from welcome. There’s the Banned Books Club she started after the PTA overzealously slashed the high school reading list, which is right where she left it. But there is also Mr. Hart, her former favorite teacher. The one who was fired after Gia publicly and painfully accused him of sexual misconduct. The one who prompted Gia to leave behind a very conflicted town the minute she turned eighteen. The one person she hoped never to see again.

When Margot leaves town without explanation, Gia sees the cracks in her sister’s “perfect” life for the first time and plans to offer support. But as the town, including members of the book club, takes sides between Gia and Mr. Hart, everything gets harder. Fortunately, she learns that there are people she can depend on. And by standing up for the truth, she finds love and a future in the town she thought had rejected her.

In this highly atmospheric thriller from the Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of The Violence, a young woman hopes to reinvent herself at an isolated artists’ colony . . . only to be drawn into its dark, twisted past.

Sarah Carpenter is starting over.

She’s on the run—leaving behind her unsupportive, narcissistic ex-boyfriend and alcoholic, abusive mother—and headed for a new beginning at Tranquil Falls, a secluded artists’ colony on the grounds of a closed hotel. There, with no cell signal or internet to distract her, she hopes to rediscover her love for pottery and put the broken pieces of her life back together.

But when Sarah uncovers the body of a young woman while digging a hole for a pit kiln, things start to fall apart. Her fellow artists begin to act in troubling ways. The eccentric fiber artist knits an endless scarf. The musician plays the same carousel song over and over until his fingers bleed. The calligrapher grins with ink-stained teeth. Not to mention the haunting dreams Sarah has night after night.

When she discovers glass shards in her clay, Sarah wonders if someone is out to get her—or if she’s losing her grip on reality out here in the wilds, where the pounding of the waterfall never, ever fades. As she investigates the beautiful valley and the crumbling resort looming over them all, she unearths a chilling past that refuses to remain buried . . .

From New York Times bestselling horror writer Stephen Graham Jones comes a classic slasher story with a twist—perfect for fans of Riley Sager and Grady Hendrix.

1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, the unfairness of being on the outside, through the slasher horror he lives but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.

When DNA results reveal a disturbing connection to the mysterious disappearance of a famous baby nearly three decades ago, a woman’s search for answers draws her to an ominous small town in Nevada and a dangerous web of corruption, power, and lies in this engrossing, propulsive new novel from the internationally bestselling author of Twenty Years Later.

For fans of Alice Feeney, Stacy Willingham, Riley Sager, and Megan Goldin.

THIRTY YEARS AGO, BABY CHARLOTTE VANISHED.
TODAY, SHE WANTS ANSWERS.
 
On the first day of an elite two-year fellowship under the renowned Chief Medical Officer Dr. Livia Cutty, Sloan Hastings receives a research assignment in the emerging field of forensic genealogy. It’s the exciting, rapidly evolving science behind the recent breaks in high-profile cold cases from the Golden State Killer to the Cameron Young murder, and Sloan enthusiastically begins her research by submitting her own DNA to an online genealogy site. Her goal is to better understand the treasure trove of genetic information contained on ancestry websites, but the results she receives are shocking.
 
Raised by loving, supportive parents, Sloan has always known she was adopted. But her DNA profile suggests her true identity is that of Charlotte Margolis, aka “Baby Charlotte,” who captured the nation’s attention when she and her affluent parents mysteriously vanished in July 1995. Despite a large-scale investigation and months of broad media coverage, there were never any suspects in the family’s disappearance and the case has been cold for decades.
 
Racing to stay ahead of the media and true crime junkies ravenous to know what really happened to Baby Charlotte, Sloan’s search for answers leads her to Cedar Creek, Nevada, a small town north of Lake Tahoe. There, the Margolis family’s power and influence permeate every corner of the county, and while Sloan’s birth relatives are initially welcoming, they’re also mysterious and tight-lipped. Not everyone seems happy about Sloan’s return, or the questions she’s asking.
 
The more she learns, the more apparent it becomes that the answers Sloan seeks are buried in a graveyard of Margolis family secrets. And someone will do anything to keep them hidden . . . 
 
Do YOU hold the secrets in your blood?
To find out, text “CHARLOTTE” to 775-239-0320.

Three people. One marriage. One murder.

YOU: My handsome husband Tom. You’ve given me everything – our beautiful son and our perfect new seaside home. I want to trust you, but I know you haven’t been honest about why you really wanted to move here. I haven’t been honest with you either…

ME: I make a secret promise as Tom kisses me and pours a glass of ice-cold wine to toast the first night in our dream house: I’m going to forget about his past. For the sake of our son, I’ll keep this family together, no matter what.

HER: Chloe is the only friend I’ve made since the move. I love our long lunches, even though she asks prying questions about my marriage. Tom hates me spending time with her, but I ignore his warning to stay away. I’ve seen the way he looks at her. It’s better to keep your enemies close…

You may think you know what’s going on in my marriage, but you’ll be wrong. Only three things are true: Someone is a liar. Someone is in danger. Someone is a killer.

Fans of The Housemaid, The Perfect Marriage and The Girl on the Train will love this absolutely jaw-dropping psychological thriller. With twist after twist, you won’t be able to put this book down!

Pamela Paterson and Bettina Fraser call their crafting group Knit and Nibble, in honor of its two main activities. But on a stormy Halloween night, their peaceful chat over spiced cider and cookies is interrupted by homicide . . .

With the houses of Arborville, New Jersey, decked out in festively frightening decorations, it’s easy to mistake a real dead body for a fake. But Pamela and Bettina are alerted by the screams of teenage trick-or-treaters to the corpse next door. Their neighbor Adrienne’s sister, visiting from New York City, is slumped on the porch, fatally stabbed. And with countless people traipsing around in costume, the killer might be as elusive as an apple in a bucket of water.

The victim was a charismatic college professor and fierce feminist, and soon the women are infiltrating her social and academic circles to collect clues. But some scandalous local gossip also suggests that Adrienne, not her sister, might have been the target. Now, Pamela and Bettina will need all their creative skills to solve this ghoulish crime . . .

While filming at a haunted English manor, chef Bunny MacBride’s big break on her first reality TV show may be cut short by an unscripted murder in Darci Hannah’s new Food & Spirits cozy mystery series . . .

It isn’t how chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride imagined her own cooking show unfolding. But, if preparing historic meals with a modern flair is what it takes to get her cooking on the air, she can deliver, even if her dinner guest is a ghost. That’s the premise of the new reality TV show Food & Spirits, where Chef Bunny teams up with ghost hunter Brett Bloom and psychic medium Giff McGrady to visit haunted locales around the world and tempt lingering spirits back to the table with a beloved meal. For their first episode, the Food & Spirits team sets off to investigate Bramsford Manor, a historic house turned famously haunted hotel, in picturesque Hampshire, England. The sprawling estate is said to be home to the Mistletoe Bride, a young woman who died in the 18th century, the victim of a tragic accident on her Christmas wedding night.

Disliking spooks but loving food, Bunny leaves the spectral search to the pros and focuses on the feast, creating a traditional English holiday wedding dinner, complete with a gorgeous prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and rustic apple tarts. It’s a sumptuous meal she hopes will entice the ghostly Mistletoe Bride to take a seat and join them while the cameras roll. But Bunny’s task is made more difficult when someone steals a boning knife from her custom kit. Alas, when the blade finally turns up again—in the chest of an all-too-human dinner guest—Bunny’s woes only grow as she is named a lead suspect in the case! Now, with a haunted house full of living residents, staff, and crew, Bunny will need the help of Brett, Giff, and her clairvoyant Grandma Mac, to solve this murder before the manor gains another ghost!

Lily Roberts’s Cape Cod tearoom is hosting a bridal shower—until a gruesome gift sends the guest of honor running in fear . . .

Members of the Reynolds and Hill families are staying at Lily’s grandmother’s bed and breakfast, and now they’ve gathered at Tea by the Sea to sip some delicious blends while they shower bride-to-be Hannah Hill with presents. But the last package Hannah unwraps contains a beheaded Raggedy Ann doll and triggers a bloodcurdling scream. A doll like this was the last gift from her father before he died long ago, and she’s chilled to the bone.

Lily senses that the shocking anonymous gift just might be related to other tensions she’s picking up on. The mothers-in-law have been sniping at each other—and then Lily, out walking her dog, overhears the groom’s father, Ralph, offering his son a very sizable bribe to call off the wedding. She’s relieved when Greg angrily turns him down, but with so many people steamed at each other, can this event possibly go smoothly?

The answer is no. It suddenly has to be postponed—when Ralph is found dead in his bed, a bottle of whiskey beside him. When tests indicate the booze was infused with a lethal substance, it becomes a murder case, and of course, accusations are flying wildly with the guests all too willing to believe the worst about each other. Now, to find out whether all this family drama led to a fatality, Lily will have to turn up the heat . . .