Santa

 He wasn't a bit shy, and Santa was just perfect!!  Next year might be different!

Books 37-44

The Secrets We Keep by Nolon King

He thought what happened in London would stay in London. He was wrong.
John Treadwell should be happy. He’s a successful author with a wife and two daughters that he loves. But while an ocean away from his family, he drunkenly hooks up with one of his biggest fans to chase away the loneliness.
After his one-night stand, John is sure he’ll be able to hide this moment of weakness from his wife and daughters. After all, the woman he slept with lives in London, and there’s no way they’ll ever see each other again. He’ll be able to pretend it never happened.
But John isn’t about to get away so easy. His biggest fan has much bigger plans than a single drunken night..

I read 12 by this author and really enjoyed it but it's like another person wrote it !  This is very much a 'Fatal Attraction' story.  A one night stand between a married author and an obsessed fan who turns out to be his worst nightmare.  Pretty raunchy in parts. Lots of twists and turns, fairly predictable, but it does keep you guessing at times.

Secret Seal Isle Mysteries by Lucy Quinn

Book 1:  New Corpse In Town

FBI agent Cookie James is enjoying her extended leave from the agency on Secret Seal Isle, managing her quaint inn and flirting with the oh-so sexy-handyman, Dylan Creed…until her sixty-year-old mother goes skinny dipping and is almost drowned by a corpse.
A phone call to the sheriff should mean the end of Cookie’s involvement, but when it’s clear the sheriff has no interest in the investigation, Cookie calls in reinforcements…her ex-partner Hunter O’Neil. Suddenly it’s like old times while the pair questions the residents of Secret Seal Isle. Except it’s not. Now she has both Hunter and Dylan vying for her attention, a wayward hippy mother, and a potential killer on the loose.
With her love life heating up, her mother lighting up, and all signs pointing to the most unlikely suspect, Cookie does the only thing she knows to do—focus on solving the case.

Cookie and her mother Rain have moved to this island because of Cookie's past involvement with the FBI and the mob.  She isn't on the right side of the mob so she is trying to lie low and protect herself. However, those FBI instincts kick in with the dead body and the lack of interest from the deputy on the island. Cookie calls in her ex-partner Hunter, and life gets interesting for them and the town. This is just a light, fluff summer type read.

Book 2:  Life In The Dead Lane

All Cookie James, FBI agent and Innkeeper extraordinaire, wants is a romantic date with her hot handy man… but what she gets is a corpse presented with a big red bow.
When she and Dylan discover a boat with a dead body, not only is her picnic ruined, but a woman from Dylan’s past returns to the island. The famous rock star appears to want a comeback tour with her former bodyguard. But Cookie doesn’t have time to worry about that, because her oh-so-sexy ex-FBI partner has arrived, too. And he’s ready to make a little music of his own.
With an entangled love life, too much manscaping, and a songbird in trouble, it’s once again Cookie’s job to wrap up another murder.

The local sheriff calls in Hunter, Cookie's former FBI partner to assist in the investigation as her department does not have that much experience with murders.Cookie and Hunter are at it once again to solve another mystery. Rain continues to be quirky and amusing with her outrageous behavior, I still don't find her Mom funny - just annoying. Completely did not see the reason for the drama in the story until the end.

 The body winds up being the brother of a famous singer who is being forced to do some things to keep her secret secret.
The local sheriff calls in Hunter, Cookie's former FBI partner to assist in the investigation as her department does not have that much experience with murders. The love triangle continues.

Book 3: A Walk On The Dead Side

All Cookie James wanted was a romantic island picnic with her sexy handyman, Dylan Creed. What she got was a lobster trap full of drugs. As an ex-FBI agent, Cookie's determined to hand the evidence off to local authorities and stay out of the fray. But when a package arrives with a gory warning, she has no choice but to call in her former partner, Hunter O'Neil and investigate the case.
Hunter’s arrival brings more than crime fighting expertise. He'd like his connection to Cookie to finally be more than professional. There's no denying the sparks between them. Except with Dylan in the picture, Cookie's realizing someone else might be lighting her fire. Unfortunately, her love life is going to have to wait. Between kidnappings, attempted murder, and stolen kisses, Cookie James has a case to solve.

Even though it was obvious to figure out the outcome it didn't take away from the book at all.  It did leave off in a sort of cliffhanger. Cookie has found more trouble and requires the help of Hunter yet again. With all the excitement she's always getting into, in this addition we find Cookie facing the fact that she isn't quite over being in the FBI. This takes a toll on her love life, and we finally see her forced to make a decision between the men in her life.

Secrets of Willow House by Susanne O'Leary

Maeve McKenna is on the verge of a breakdown. Having worked herself into the ground as a sought-after interior designer in London, she’s in desperate need of a vacation.
Philomena Duffy is a little lonely. After losing her husband, their crumbling mansion, Willow House, feels awfully empty.
With the rugged shores of Ireland calling, Maeve visits her aunt Philomena in Sandy Cove, where she once, as a teenager, kissed a wild, mysterious boy – a kiss she has never been able to forget. The beautiful night’s sky is dotted with stars as far as the eye can see, and Maeve is worlds away from her chaotic life in the city.
As Maeve throws herself into restoring Willow House to its former glory, a deep friendship with Philomena begins to blossom. Surrounded by the faded walls and peeling carpets of the old mansion, together they stumble across a secret that turns their family upside down.
All the while, she can’t stop thinking about the enigmatic boy from her past, and that magical kiss… Is he still in Sandy Cove?
Just as she’s beginning to feel at home, reality calls. Part of Maeve can’t bear to leave Willow House and its rocky beach. Does she have the courage to leave the security of her old life behind, and put down new roots in Sandy Cove, or is that just a daydream?

I quite enjoyed this book.  The secret was pretty obvious from the beginning but what they did with it solved a lot of problems.

Dead Man's Money by K.J. North

Private Investigators Troy and Eva Winters are thrilled when Troy’s sister, Sadie, announces that she and her family are moving to Elk River, only a twenty-five-mile drive from New Haven, where Troy and Eva live. Now, Sadie will be close to her family, and with their support, they can try to help her overcome her debilitating panic disorder of agoraphobia.
Troy’s joyful Christmas holiday is suddenly shattered when he receives a cryptic message from his ten-year-old niece, Willow. Her cry for help and the startling message that says, ‘the bad guys are here,’ sends Troy’s distress alarm into overdrive. It doesn’t take him long to realize the deadly consequences that lie ahead.
With Eva out of town, Troy sets out for Elk River on his own with no idea of the danger he’ll soon be facing. He’s close enough to Willow to know the threat is real, and the urgency in her voice confirms it. Just when a flicker of hope appears, Eva goes missing. Time is not on Troy’s side and the clock is quickly ticking down.

Lots of twists and turns as the story unfolds  Keept my interest throughout the story.  I would recommend.

Dare Game by Melinda Colt

One dead body, one ace of spades… Is the playing card an oversight—or a trademark?
Detective John O’Sullivan needs to find out if the murder was a one-off, or if the killer plans to work his way through a whole deck of cards. The plot thickens as his team discovers more unsolved murders with the same modus operandi—worldwide.
Amber Reed stumbles into the middle of the investigation when she discovers her teenage daughter is a key-player in the Dublin murder case. Determined to do the right thing, Amber and her daughter help John, even though doing so puts their lives in danger.
Pressed by time and duty, John has to protect them and crack the case before the killer strikes again. 

A move across the ocean, a murder across the street from her new home and a game on the dark web. This story was intriguing and had interesting twists and turns. Mystery, crime, police, teenage angst with a bit of romance. This was a page turning thriller worth reading.

Summer with a Star by Em Farmer

All Tasha Pike has wanted for the past twenty years is to rent Sand Dollar Point for a summer. The grand Victorian on the beach of Summerbury, Maine was the object of her childhood fantasy and her standard of romance—and it was finally happening.
Her dream summer is ruined, however, when she arrives in Summerbury to find that Hollywood superstar Spencer Ellis has muscled his way into the house instead. His offer that they share Sand Dollar Point is not only infuriating—it’s insulting.
He’s a celebrity—and one she’s determined to hate.
Spencer’s summer in Maine was supposed to help him get his head screwed on straight. One look at Tasha, however, made that impossible. She’s beautiful. She’s angry. She doesn’t care who he is. She doesn’t care about his fame. In fact, she doesn’t even like him.
She’s irresistible.
He’s only got the summer. She’s only got her heart. They’ve only got each other.

It’s the sort of book that once you start, you can work out what is going to happen and where it’s going to go after a few chapters, but in the main it is an easy to read piece.

Halloween!

 

His mommy titled this picture 'Bad to the Bone'🎃❤️😊

We had 24 little 'trick or treaters' last night.  We haven't had that many for many years.  I think it had a lot to do with the time change doesn't happen until next week.  They started coming at 5:00 and we had the last one at 6:45 when it was getting dark!! All age about 10 and under.  No teenagers coming ringing the bell at 8 or 9pm.  

It's snowing right now and we are under a snow warning.  It's good it held off until today.

Snow!!

 Well, it had to happen! 29cm of snow last weekend. The wet heavy stuff. Neighbours shovelled the front for us and we left the driveway to melt for a few days.  That's a first for DH as he usually wants to get it shovelled immediately! There is so much on the front lawn, that faces north, it will probably be there until spring.                                                               Kelsey and her hubby both had covid last week.  Kelsey has asthma and bronchial problems so she was in pretty rough shape and had a terrible cough.  Her hubby was asymptomatic. The baby seems to have come through all this with flying colours.  They wore a mask all the time around the baby.                                                                                            Not much else happening around here. Will be doing another books post soon as I have three of them in drafts.

Time flies!!

Three months old already!  

Books 27-36

 The Favourite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry

Ten years ago, Lena Donohue experienced a wedding-day betrayal so painful that she fled the small town of Watersend, South Carolina, and reinvented herself in New York City. Though now a freelance travel writer, the one place she rarely goes is home--until she learns of her dad's failing health.
Returning to Watersend means seeing the sister she has avoided for a decade and the brother who runs the family's Irish pub and has borne the burden of his sisters' rift. While Alzheimer's slowly steals their father's memories, the siblings rush to preserve his life in stories and in photographs. As his secret past brings Lena's own childhood into focus, it sends her on a journey to discover the true meaning of home. 

Lena and her siblings – Hallie and Shane – band together to plan a birthday party and create a memory book for their father. The book is filled with old photos and stories written by Lena and Hallie. Some surprising family secrets are unearthed putting the book together and the family must grapple with the truth over that as well as the betrayal from ten years ago. Even though both sisters could be very annoying I did enjoy this book.

An Invitation to Murder by A.G.Barnett

Mary Blake had it all.
Actress, icon and darling of the nation, she was the queen of TV crime drama.
Then she turned fifty.
When replaced on the show by a younger woman, she thinks her days in the limelight are over when an invitation to a murder mystery party from an old friend throws her back into the public eye. This time as a murder suspect.
After playing a detective for years, Mary must now become one as she tries to prove her innocence with the help of her puppy-like brother and her surprisingly useful friend and assistant, Dot. 

There were enough characters who had an excellent motive for committing the murder that I gave up trying to work out who was who and who it was. 

 Bizarre collection of people and unclear motives or too many motives so you were kept guessing to the end.

Ghost of a Chance by Cate Dean

Welcome to Holmestead, England ~ where an American ex-pat, an archaeologist, and murder turn this small, picture postcard village upside down.
Maggie Mulgrew runs The Ash Leaf, an antique shop in the quaint village of Holmestead, England ~ which has nothing to do with Sherlock, thank you very much.
She sells her goods to tourists, and locals who appreciate her eclectic taste.
Professor Pembroke Martin is hunting down an artifact that had been stolen by a former assistant ~ a hand-blown apothecary jar that is the center of an old ghost story. His search leads him to Holmestead, and a stubborn, fascinating American who has acquired the box that once contained the rare jar.
When the missing jar turns up, clutched in the hand of the very dead local historian, Martin becomes the prime suspect. He and that dead historian were bitter rivals.
With his future on the line, Martin turns to Maggie for help, and they join forces to find the real killer.

This story was pretty simplistic and unrealistic. It seemed like the ghost was thrown in at the end to justify the title of the story!

Death in the English Countryside by Sara Rosett

Location scout and Jane Austen aficionado, Kate Sharp, is thrilled when the company she works for lands the job of finding locations for a new film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, but then her boss, Kevin, fails to return from a scouting trip to England. Afraid that Kevin has slipped back into some destructive personal habits he struggles with, Kate travels to England to salvage Kevin’s and the company’s reputation before word gets out that he is missing.
Things go from bad to worse when Kate arrives in Nether Woodsmoor, a quaint village of golden stone cottages and rolling green hills, only to find no trace of Kevin except his abandoned luggage. Even the rumpled, easygoing local scout they consulted, Alex, doesn’t know where Kevin might be.
Increasingly worried about Kevin and with an antsy director waiting for updates about the preproduction details, Kate embarks on a search that includes a pub-crawl and cozy cottages as well as stately country manors. But Kevin remains missing, and she begins to suspect that the picturesque village and beautiful countryside may not be as idyllic as they seem.

There was nothing too exciting in this book and took a while to get into the story.

Ash Mountain by Helen Fitzgerald

Fran hates Ash Mountain, and she thought she’d escaped. But her father is ill, and needs care. Her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway.
She returns to her hometown to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time, and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer.
As old friendships and rivalries are renewed, and new ones forged, Fran’s tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants…
Simultaneously a warm, darkly funny portrait of small-town life – and a woman and a land in crisis – and a shocking and truly distressing account of a catastrophic event that changes things forever, Ash Mountain is a heart-breaking slice of domestic noir, and a disturbing disaster thriller that you will never forget…

The time travel in this story became confusing at times. Parts of this story are very emotional and intense.

Bloombay Beginning by Lilly Beckett

Welcome to Bloombay, a small island off Seattle’s coast with stunning ocean views, picturesque vineyards, and a tight-knit community.

Sisters Emily, Donna, and Olivia Abernathy miss each other dearly. Residing in different cities, they only see each other a few times a year. But when Emily, the eldest sister, is forced to move to Bloombay, Donna and Olivia immediately visit her to make sure she’s okay. They find themselves at crossroads in their own lives too, and the island charms them in unexpected ways.
Emily Abernathy has dedicated the past twenty years to raising her children. When her husband leaves her for a younger woman, she’s forced to move out of their house. Living in LA is expensive, and at forty-five, she knows she’ll have a tough time on the job market, but she’s lucky to find a job at a small hotel on a small island she’d never heard of before: Bloombay. Once Emily moves to the island she finds out her new job isn’t as secure as she thought.
Olivia Abernathy’s friends all think her boyfriend, Noah, is definitely going to propose, but she isn’t so sure. As a surgeon in Seattle, he works longer hours than she does as a graphic designer, but Olivia wonders if there’s more to his recent late nights out and sudden cool behavior. When she confronts him with her worries, she gets an unexpected response that makes her want to rethink everything in her life. Spending time with her sisters is just what she needs. And the handsome architect who insists on joining her on her morning runs seems to have more than friendship on his mind.
Donna Abernathy is a successful doctor in San Francisco. She works tirelessly and takes great pride in what she does. Her laid-back relationship with a lawyer who thrives on a busy schedule is just what she needs. Except Donna has always wanted to be a mother, and as time passes, that wish only grows. But when things don’t work out as expected, she desperately wants a change of scenery and pays a visit to her eldest sister, Emily, in Bloombay. 

I did enjoy this book even though it was very predictable.

One Summer in Italy by Lilly Mirren

When the Summer sisters discover their grandmother's journals after her death, they unlock a mystery that shakes their family to the core. Who is Charlie Jackson? Is he their grandfather? And if so, what happened to him?
Reeda leaves the Waratah Inn and returns to Sydney, her husband, and her thriving interior design business, only to find her marriage in tatters. She's lost sight of what she wants in life and can't recognise the person she's become.
Instead of facing her problems, Reeda embarks on a journey to discover more about the grandfather she never knew, leaving her troubles behind her.
Her search takes her to Italy, where a trail of clues leads her across the country with few answers to satisfy her burning curiosity about the past. And instead of helping her to forget, her pilgrimage reminds her of everything she loves and what she's left behind.
Under the Italian sky, Reeda discovers that the joy she was searching for was hidden inside her all along. And instead of running from her problems, she embraces the healing she needs to face them.

This is the second book in a series.  I didn't read the first one but I don't think I missed out on any thing. Lots of twists and turns that kept this book interesting.

In a Jam by Cindy Dorminy

Andie Carson has to do three things to inherit her grandmother’s lottery winnings—sober up, spend a month running her grandmother’s Georgia coffee shop, and enter homemade jam in the county fair. If she can’t meet those terms, the money goes to the church, and Andie gets nothing. She figures her tasks will be easy enough, and once she completes them, Andie plans to sell the shop, take the money, and run back to Boston.
After a rough breakup from his crazy ex-fiancée, Officer Gunnar Wills decides to take a hiatus from women. All he wants is to help make his small town thrive the way it did when he was a kid. But when wild and beautiful Andie shows up, Gunnar’s hesitant heart begins to flutter.
Gunnar knows that Andie plans to leave, but he’s hoping to change her mind, fearful that if her coffee shop closes, Main Street will fold to the big-box corporations and forever change the landscape of his quaint community. But convincing her to stay means getting close enough to risk his heart in the process. Even though Gunnar makes small-town life seem a little sweeter, Andie has to decide if she’s ready to turn her world upside down and give up big-city life. One thing’s for sure—it’s a very sticky situation.

 This again was a very predictable read which I enjoyed.

Squall by Sean Costello

Bush pilot and family man Tom Stokes is about to face the worst day of his life. On a clear winter morning he sets out in his Cessna 180 to do some repairs on a remote hunt camp, leaving his five year old son and very pregnant wife snug in their beds.
On the return trip, a squall forces him into an emergency landing and he winds up—quite literally—in the lap of petty criminal Dale Knight. Dale, now a fugitive from the law—and worse, from a merciless drug lord who just happens to be his brother—draws Tom into a web of mayhem and treachery that puts not only his life at risk, but the lives of his wife, son…and unborn child.

Lots of twists and turns in this thriller involving an incident family and a drug deal that's gone very wrong.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

In the idyllic small town of Pagford, a councillor dies and leaves a 'casual vacancy'-an empty seat on the parish council.  

In the election for his successor that follows, it is clear that behind the pretty surface this is a town at war.  Rich at war with poor, wives at war with husbands, teachers at war with pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

I have to say I was quite disappointed in this book.  I have read every book that J.K.Rowling has written.  Loved all the Harry Potter books and also the Robert Galbraith. Cormoran Strike series.I was actually quite bored during parts of this book because the story dragged on so much.  

Finally some pictures

Walker Erin

5 days old

The next 3 pictures were taken by a professional photographer. They thought it would take about an hour.  Four hours later, nursing him twice and many pictures taken, they were done!

11 days old

3 weeks old

4 weeks old

5 weeks old

6 weeks old

7 weeks old

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