Carries Book Reviews

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Title: Battered and Buried

Author:  Lena Gregory

Publisher: Beyond the Page

Publication Date: March 19, 2024

Page Count:  241

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

The best-laid plans may go awry, but the best-laid clues could frame a man for murder . . .

Never one to let a day off work go to waste, café owner Gia Morelli and a friend head out for a blissful kayaking trip through the local national forest. But the peacefulness of the day is soon shattered when they come across Cole, her head cook, standing over a dead body. Worse still, the victim was a lifelong enemy of Cole’s, and clues found on the body point to the cook as the culprit. When the police take Cole in and subject him to an intense grilling, Gia vows to do everything she can to prove his innocence.

As even more incriminating evidence surfaces—including when the murder weapon itself is found hidden at the café—Gia knows she’s up against someone brutal enough to kill and devious enough to frame Cole for the deed. With the police ready to make an official arrest and wrap up what they consider an open-and-shut case, Gia turns for help to an old friend who’s not above breaking the law himself. Because if she can’t find the killer, Cole may go from serving up hot dishes to serving a life sentence . . .

Battered and Buried by Lena Gregory is the seventh book in the cozy All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series. Each book in the series centers around it’s own mystery that will be fully solved within the book so they could be read and enjoyed as a standalone or in any order if choosing to do so. However, there will be some continuing character development that carries over from book to book for those that follow the series from the beginning.

The All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series features Gia Morelli who is a New Yorker at heart but after going through a messy divorce Gia decided to follow her best friend down to central Florida. The small town of Boggy Creek is certainly the exact opposite of what Gia was used to but she was determined to make a success out of her new diner she’d opened, the All-Day Breakfast Café.

Somehow Gia’s life in the small town has been balanced between running her cafe, taking care of her puppy Thor and solving murders. This time around Gia thought she was going to have a relaxing time going out kayaking with her friend but of course comes across yet another dead body on the trip. The worst part of finding another murder victim is that Gia’s own cook, Cole, is standing over the body and the two have quite the history together making Cole suspect number one in the case and Gia knows she needs to clear his name.

The All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series is another cozy series I have been following from the beginning and really do enjoy returning to time and again. The series has all of that fun quirkiness that I enjoy, a cute critter companion to the lead and fun characters to follow along with. Seeing this one set in Florida I also jumped to thinking tourist trap but no, this is small town, off the beaten path Florida so it also gets that small town charm nod. With another fun mystery here in book seven I will definitely return If there is any more additions to the series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Lena Gregory is the author of the Bay Island Psychic Mysteries, which take place on a small island between the north and south forks of Long Island, New York, and the All-Day Breakfast Café Mysteries, which are set on the outskirts of Florida’s Ocala National Forest.

Lena grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island. She recently relocated to Florida with her husband, three kids, son-in-law, and four dogs. Her hobbies include spending time with family, reading, jigsaw puzzles, and walking. Her love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn’t sleep through the night. She works full time as a writer and a freelance editor and is a member of Sisters in Crime.

To learn more about Lena and her latest writing endeavors, visit her website at http://www.lenagregory.com/ and be sure to sign up for her newsletter http://lenagregory.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9765d0711ed4fab4fa31b16ac&id=49d42335d1.

**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.**

Keepers of Time
M. N. Kinch
(The Keepers of Time Trilogy, #1)
Publication date: May 7th 2024
Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Paranormal

A forgotten life.

A secret passed through generations.

A dangerous immortal with nothing to lose.

Joan Sanders is on track for a bright future at NASA, but a strange accident and even stranger dreams draw her to the Cardozas, three mysterious siblings with a charming coffee shop, a dark past, and an uncanny knack for knowing things they shouldn’t.

As Joan grows closer to the Cardozas (especially the grumpy, yet charming, older brother), she’s thrown into a world of secrets and magic that challenge everything she believes. And she realizes she may have more in common with them than she thought.

While Joan and the Cardozas race to unravel a centuries-old secret that could destroy time itself, an ancient, heartbroken drifter lurks on the edges of their lives, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

And he may know more about Joan’s past than she does.

In this funny and mesmerizing first installment of the Keepers of Time trilogy, M. N. Kinch weaves a magical story of romance and found family, with unforgettable characters you’ll love from the very first page.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

Typing sentence by labored sentence, I nibble at my scone as I flip through my notes. I startle slightly when a pair of hands places a mug of steaming tea on my table, a woman’s hands with the same olive skin as the two people behind the counter. I assume it was the girl who was making my tea.

“Oh,” I gasp. “Thank you…” I look up and forget what I was about to say. It’s a different girl, mid-twenties maybe, perhaps a year or two younger than me, dripping wet, with silvery hair that falls just past her shoulders. She wears a soaked blue apron over a sleeveless flowered dress that’s thin and faded. How is she not freezing? Her lips part slightly, giving her a dazed look. My breath catches in my throat. She has the lightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen, almost the pale silver color of her hair. They stand out like shining stars against her olive skin. At first I wonder if she’s blind, but her eyes focus on me for a split second and she smiles softly before her pupils slide

away from mine, looking right past me. Through me. Without a word, the girl turns and drifts away, arms limp at her sides, dripping a trail of water behind her.

This must be Luna, the girl the guy was so grumpy about. I shrug it off and get back to work, taking my time with the tea and scone. The scone is amazing. I look up at the guy in the kitchen, who’s wiping down the counters, wondering if he bakes all the cafe’s pastries and if they’re all as good as this. I could eat here every day.

Gabby, the girl from the register, carries a stack of trays past him and says something that makes him roll his eyes, but he smiles. The corners of his dark eyes crinkle. He hasn’t had a shave in a while and his nose is a little pointy, but the effect isn’t at all unpleasant.

Stop getting distracted, Joan. Work. NASA. Move it.

I drop my eyes back to my screen and drag out another sentence. My silver charm bracelet clinks on the keyboard, the tiny sun, moon, star, and rocket charms tinkling as I type. Eventually, I’m the only one left in the cafe. I’m not sure what time they close, but I get the feeling I should pack up. I finish the last sip of now-cold tea, leaving the dregs in the bottom, before closing my laptop and slipping it into my bag.

When I straighten, my heart jumps into my throat. The silver-haired girl stands by my table, holding my plate and empty mug.

“Holy sh—” I exclaim, then stop myself. I hadn’t even heard her coming. This girl has a gift for sneaking up on people. “Um, thank you,” I mumble, shrugging into my coat and swinging my computer bag over my shoulder. She doesn’t answer, but stares down into my mug, frowning. Suddenly, I’m very uncomfortable.

“Thanks,” I say again. I stand and move around her to get to the door. I look back just before I step outside. This time, she looks straight at me, eyes wide, gripping the mug so hard her knuckles are white. My stomach churns. I yank on my hood and step into the rain.

Shivering in my coat, I stride down the street to the bus stop, wishing I’d brought gloves. It’s almost May. Shouldn’t it be warming up soon? I reach into my pocket for my bus pass when I hear the screech of car tires behind me.

I don’t have time to turn or scream.

Then, someone slams into me from behind, knocking the wind out of me. We fall to the pavement. Sharp pain shears up my arm, palms, knee, and the side of my face as the sidewalk shaves off my skin. My left wrist snaps and I cry out. Behind me, I hear a crash, the crunch of metal on stone. Rubble rains down on us.

Then, the world is still.

 

 

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Title: Don’t Forget Me

Author:  Rea Frey

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer 

Publication Date: March 1, 2024

Page Count:  266

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

When a body is presumed to be her missing husband’s, a woman must unravel the secrets of her own past to clear her name, find the truth, and put her conscience to rest once and for all.

All Ruby wanted was a fresh start. But after an early retirement and a relocation to a tight-knit community with her husband, Tom, and her daughter, Lily, her new beginning takes a turn.

First her troubled daughter and then her husband disappear without a trace. Unsure how to cope, grief-ridden Ruby turns to her neighborhood friends to find a way forward with new hobbies, including a murder club where they try to solve cold cases.

But just as unexpectedly as her family vanished, a body floats to the surface of the nearby lake.

And everyone is sure the body belongs to Tom…everyone except Ruby.

Determined to find out what happened to her family once and for all, Ruby digs into her neighbors’ lives, and her own, only to uncover secrets that raise more questions than they answer. And the biggest question of all—why doesn’t she recognize the body?

Don’t Forget Me by Rea Frey is a domestic thriller novel. The story in Don’t Forget Me is told by changing the timeline back and forth between a current time and one from the past. This is also one with an unreliable narrator but has small updates from a neighborhood chat involved too.

Ruby’s husband, Tom, had thought it was time for their little family to get out of the city and finally into their dream home. Ruby agreed and before long Tom, Ruby and their daughter, Lily, moved to Cottage Grove.

Not long after moving to this new peaceful neighborhood though Lily goes missing then shortly after so does Tom. Ruby being left alone in the new home joins a true crime group as a distraction to her own troubles but trouble shows up very close to home when a body is found in the lake nearby.

Rea Frey is an author that I continue to return to time and time again and have yet to find a book in her catalog that I didn’t like. Don’t Forget Me had that same pull that I’ve found in the author’s books before that I pick them up and simply do not want to put them down. This was yet again another twisty ride that while you may need to suspend disbelief a bit it certainly kept me guessing until the very end.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Rea Frey is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of several nonfiction books and suspense, thriller, and contemporary fiction novels. Known as The Book Doula, Rea helps other writers birth their stories into the world.

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Title: The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone

Author:  Audrey Burges

Publisher: Berkley  

Publication Date: January 24, 2023

Page Count:  348

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

A woman learns to expand the boundaries of her small world and let love inside it in this sparkling and unforgettable novel by Audrey Burges.

From her attic in the Arizona mountains, thirty-four-year-old Myra Malone blogs about a dollhouse mansion that captivates thousands of readers worldwide. Myra’s stories have created legions of fans who breathlessly await every blog post, trade photographs of Mansion-modeled rooms, and swap theories about the enigmatic and reclusive author. Myra herself is tethered to the Mansion by mysteries she can’t understand—rooms that appear and disappear overnight, music that plays in its corridors.

Across the country, Alex Rakes, the scion of a custom furniture business, encounters two Mansion fans trying to recreate a room. The pair show him the Minuscule Mansion, and Alex is shocked to recognize a reflection of his own life mirrored back to him in minute scale. The room is his own bedroom, and the Mansion is his family’s home, handed down from the grandmother who disappeared mysteriously when Alex was a child. Searching for answers, Alex begins corresponding with Myra. Together, the two unwind the lonely paths of their twin worlds—big and small—and trace the stories that entwine them, setting the stage for a meeting rooted in loss, but defined by love.

The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges is a magical realism fantasy novel with a touch of romance to the story. The story in The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone is also one that is told by changing the point of view between the characters.

For years now Myra Malone has cared for the dollhouse mansion in her attic carefully curating new rooms nightly. Myra’s best friend found a way for Myra to make money on her activities with the mansion by setting Myra up online where she can share photos and the stories of each new room she creates and now has a whole community interested in the mansion’s progress.

Meanwhile across the country Alex Rakes works daily in his custom furniture business when Alex is approached by fans of the miniscule mansion website. When the customers show Alex what they are wanting to duplicate from Myra’s site Alex is shocked when he recognizes the rooms in the photographs. Everything Alex is seeing in a miniture version of his one life and he knows she needs to track down the owner of the website.

The Minuscule Mansion of Myra Malone is the first book I’d read from author Audrey Burges so of course I had no idea what to expect going into the story. For me the book became one of those that I deeply appreciate the creativity of the story as this was definitely something I hadn’t read before and that can be hard to come by. However, on the flip side I found this one to also be a slow mover and that often leaves me wanting more as I go along in the story. So with my feelings flip flopping along the way between interest and disinterest with the pacing I finished this one rating it at three and a half stars but would return to this author again.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Audrey writes novels, humor, short fiction, and essays in Richmond, Virginia. Her presence is tolerated by her two rambunctious children and very patient husband, all of whom have become practiced at making supportive faces when she shouts “listen to this sentence!” She is a frequent contributor to numerous humor outlets, including McSweeney’s, and her stories and essays have appeared in Pithead Chapel, Cease, Cows, and lengthy diatribes in the Notes app on her phone. Audrey was born and raised in Arizona by her linguist parents, which is a lot like being raised by wolves, but with better grammar. She moved to Virginia as an adult but still carries mountains and canyons in her heart, and sometimes, when she closes her eyes, she can still smell ponderosa pines in the sun. You can read more of her writing at audreyburges.com and by following her on Twitter at @audrey_burges, on Instagram at @audreyburges, or on Facebook at @aburgeswrites.

**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.**

Another Side of the Heart
C.H. Lazarovich
Publication date: September 29th 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary

One summer. One dog. One chance encounter.

When Mary Devere encounters a young woman the same age as her dead daughter, Mary connects with her, only to discover that the young woman’s father is Antonio, Mary’s first love. Mary finds herself questioning the sacrifices she made to live the life she thought she should, and the difficult choice she made as a teenager that changed her life’s course.

Easy to read. Easy to love.

In a touching, emotional and moving account of a woman in midlife, Mary finds herself navigating her grief surrounding the loss of her only child, questioning her sacrifices to live a life she thought she should, and confronting the memories of the choice she made as a teenager that changed her life’s course, all while placing her back in the arms of Antonio.

From Readers ’Favorite 5-Star author C. H. Lazarovich comes the moving story of a woman’s awakening.

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

Outside a mourning dove cries in its new nest in the birch tree, at the same time a small fishing boat on the bay glides by. Before washing my hands, I remove my wedding band, put it on a saucer, and think of Mark, wondering where he is. Though I’m a little lonely, I don’t want him here. I think of the other night and seeing Antonio at his house. I know I’ve never felt the same feelings with Mark that I had with Antonio. I don’t remember feelings of wanting him badly to be with me. Did I trade true love for comfort?

Being with Mark has meant there’d always be safety, certainty, and security for me. But as Patsy said, Mark himself has not been a constant for me. He’s a man prone toward selfishness, a man not understanding of his partner’s essential nature. He has tried, but what that’s meant is giving me more things to replace the intangible cravings I’ve had: to be seen, heard, listened to.

I can’t say for sure what my life with Antonio might have been. But I can remember like yesterday the yearnings I had for him, those of both purity and lust.

Someone knocks at the door. “Carmen, the door’s open. Come in.”

Karma, wagging her tail, runs from the kitchen to our visitor, whining happily.

“Carmen?” I yell from the kitchen while chopping a banana. “I’m in the kitchen making a fruit salad. The hammer’s on the table. And thank you for the string beans.” The footsteps come closer, then stop.

“It’s not Carmen.”

I turn, see the dark-and-silver-hair. The square jaw. The unmistakable dimples.

It’s Antonio.

He wears faded jean, a black cotton T-shirt, scuffed black work boots. “I heard you say to come in … I hope you don’t mind.” Karma sniffs his boots, licks his fingertips. He smiles broadly, points at the knife I’m holding. “Or maybe I shouldn’t have. You’re not going to rush at me with that, are you?”

I look down. My knife is aimed at him. “No, no. I was making a … I thought you were my neighbor …” The words fade. I lay the knife on the cutting board, wipe my hands with the dish towel.

His eyes melt my being. He takes an easy step toward me and nods in a familiar way, a primitive way, pulling me in like the moon pulls the sea. He studies me, missing little and holds up a clipboard. He wears a watch with a black complex face and black leather band. “I told you I’d send someone over to take a look at your house.” In one swoop, he examines the cottage.

“My house?” I ask.

He bites his lip. “You said you need some repairs?”

“Oh right,” I say, heat rising in my neck.

“My crews are all over town,” he says. “So you get the boss today. Wanna show me around?”

“Sure.”

He follows me to the front door. I hold it open, giving him unsaid permission to exit first.When he steps over the threshold, the skin of his forearm skims my shoulder.

His movements, even and fluid, arouse me. I watch the braid of back muscles tighten when he descends under the house searching for the cause of a water stain.

Later, I walk him to the door, and i can tell that he, too, is feeling unsure what to do next. He follows up with a half hug, and then, “Are you going to the Fourth of July bonfire at the vineyard?”

I feel flutters. “I saw their flier, but haven’t thought about it, but yes, I’ll go.”

“Good. See you there. And I’ll be in touch about your house.”

I satay at the door and watch him step into his truck. My heart races as he leaves.

 

Author Bio:

C. H. Lazarovich is the author of “Another Side of the Heart.” The debut novel is sparking excitement with early readers: The story “is so much about marriage, motherhood, abortion, resurrecting an old love, decisions a woman makes about childbearing, youth choices … ” and “The novel owes more to literary fiction with its beautifully nuanced and multi-layered narrative … ” Lazarovich, who lives in southern New Jersey, has been a freelance journalist under her real name Catherine Laughlin for magazines and newspapers, and teaches writing at Temple University Klein College of Media and Communication. Lazarovich has said that she gravitates to stories that chronicle the experiences of midlife women, and that there’s a

complexity to the lives of older women that’s often underplayed in the arts. She hopes “Another Side of the Heart” fulfills some of that void.

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