It's a fact of life that if you enjoy reading cozy mysteries, you have to put aside some expectations of reality, or else you're going to be continually disappointed.

And, for the most part, I can do that. Amateur sleuth finding one dead body after another? Ok, I'll swallow that. Amateur sleuth better at solving murders than the local cop? Sure, it could happen. Local copper divulges sensitive information important to the investigation just between them? Whatever.

But once in awhile, I find a book pushes those limits just a little to far.

And then you have Murder on the Village Green. As if the third person voice wasn't bad enough ("Diane decided she would go to the store and then make brownies." "Diane felt she should do a fingertip search of the murder scene because the local constabulary couldn't possibly handle that." Paraphrasing, of course, but not far from it.) But no, it didn't stop there. The main character, the widow of a Scotland Yard detective, imperiously believes that the local cops can't possibly sort this out on their own, and then is scandalously outraged when the local copper brushes her off. She promptly marches back to her cottage to have a good sulk while typing up a 4 page statement that describes how she came to find the corpse and all the busybody things she did to make herself feel important.

The main character, Diane, is apparently an aspiring author and regularly has a friend come over to read what she has written, an event they have named Mead and Mystery, because they sip wine and eat brownies.. Ugh. Between the ego stroking and the presumption that she is better at solving murders because she was married to a Scotland Yard detective, she comes off as a tiresome old shrew. By the time she was kidnapped by the suspect, I was hoping she'd be dumped in a ditch somewhere.

All that aside, the plot is the only reason I gave this a star. Had it been developed more (and the pomposity toned down) this would've been a great book. The main theme, organ trafficking, hold a lot of fascination, if urban legends are anything to go by.

Overall, the biggest disappointment was how good this book could've been.

A great resource, The Gut Health Diet Plan offers information, solutions and hope to people suffering from gut problems like IBS, celiac disease, gluten sensitivity and other digestive problems.

I was interested to read this because I have minor stomach problems from time to time and I was looking for ideas on how to improve my digestion. The information is laid out in an easy to understand and precise way. No scientific jargon to confuse you, just plain English. I especially liked the information about probiotic supplements and leaky gut, I've done a little reading on both subjects and the information in the book backed up a lot of what I read and even gave new information that I didn't know.

The book also has an easy to follow meal plan with plenty of recipes that are dairy-free, grain free and a lot of them are Paleo. I don't know that I'll be able to do the whole program, but I intend to implement a lot of things in my diet (like fermented foods and Kefir) and see if that helps my overall digestive help.

I definitely recommend this book for anyone with tummy troubles, whether you take the plunge and follow the program or if you just want to learn more about how to heal your gut.

4.5 Stars

Tori Miracle was an aspiring crime reporter in New York City when, after being shunted to the unwanted role of fashion reporter, quit her job to become a novelist. After penning her first novel, The Mark Twain Horror House, she waits in her tiny, rundown apartment to hit it big. After an invitation from her best friend, Alice-Ann, to visit her in rural Pennsylvania, Tori packs up her clothes, her cats and her typewriter and jumps on a bus. Soon after arriving, she learns her friend is having marital issues with her husband, Richard. Not long after, Richard is found dead and Alice-Ann is the prime suspect.

I really enjoyed this book, from the easy style of writing to the characters to the rich plot. It was easy to sink into and I really liked the off-beat but likeable characters. The only issue I had with the story is that Tori makes several references to prior events, making it sound as though there was an earlier book in the series. It's too bad there isn't, because it sounds like it would make an even better book than this one. Just a touch of the supernatural in this story, and also caves. I like caves. I would love to be exploring all those paths under the town!

I have to say, I did figure out who the bad guy was because they were constantly ignored on the list of suspects. Just a bit obvious, but like I said, the rich plot was so great that I couldn't stop reading.

I deducted half a star because of all the Edison idolizing. I'm not a fan of Edison, he was less a brilliant inventor and more a fraud who took credit for the discoveries of many of his employees, like Nicola Tesla for example. Ugh. Stop the idolizing, please!

Overall, a really great start to a series and recommended for anyone looking for a light read and a great mystery.

Crime and Poetry is the first book in the new Magical Bookshop series. Violet Waverly gets an urgent call that her grandmother is dying and needs her to return home to Cascade Springs, near Niagara Falls, NY. . When she arrives, she finds her grandmother, Daisy, is just fine and lured her back home to take over the family business, a bookshop called Charming Books.

Haunted by the death of a friend 12 years ago, Violet intends to return to Chicago to continue getting her degree, but when Daisy’s friend Benedict Raisin turns up dead in her driveway, and Daisy is under suspicion for his murder. Violet feels she has to stay until the real murderer is caught. Attracted to the town’s police chief, pursued by her childhood sweetheart, and stunned by a family secret, can Violet unravel a mystery and solve a murder with the help of books?

I really enjoyed this book. Having grown up in WNY, just an hour away from the Falls, I was instantly comfortable with the setting. The little town of Cascade Springs sounds just like many of the picturesque small towns that dot the landscape around Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a bookshop with a birch tree growing inside (bonus points for a talking crow!) but I’d love to visit one someday!

The plot was very well done, lots of suspects and motives and surprising plot twist at the end. I liked that although there’s a paranormal element – it is a magical bookshop, after all – the murder was solved mostly by old-fashioned sleuthing.

The characters were charming and a little eccentric, from retro Sadie to Grandma Daisy to little furry cat sidekick Emerson, they added color and dimension to the little town of Cascade Springs.

I do have to say, that any backstory/traumatic past event in the main character’s past would be best included in the first few chapters. In Violet’s case the death of her friend was alluded to several times, but wasn’t until nearly 3/4 of the way through the book that the whole story was revealed. That was way too long; disclosing it sooner might have helped to build some empathy for Violet.

Also, the burgeoning love triangle kind of detracted from it. The police chief makes her all tingly, why bother with the childhood sweetheart? Unnecessary plot device.

Overall, a great first in a new series and I look forward to visiting the magical bookshop again.

The Skeleton Garden, book 4 in the Potting Shed Mystery series, has Pru Parke and new husband Christopher living at Greenoaks for a year and investigating the discovery of a skeleton buried next to a downed WWII German plane and another body found at the site days later.

I loved the historical mystery; I read a book with a similar storyline last year and I like mixing the past and present in one story. While I figured out the old mystery pretty quickly, the second, more recent murder of who killed prodigal son, Jack, at the site of the plane burial was much more intricate.

Introduced into the story is Christopher's 17 year old nephew, who is sent by his parents to stay at Greenoaks as punishment for hacking into someone's email. At first, Orlando is a typical surly teen, but quickly grows to enjoy the gardening work Pru and brother Simon set him to do. Although the character wasn't given a lot of dimension, it was still easy to relate to him (who doesn't know a surly teen?) and he turned into a likable kid.

All in all, an enjoyable plot with several dimensions and easy to settle in to. I thought it moved slower than the other books, but the relationships between the characters made up for it.

Fully enjoyable, it was a great read and definitely a great addition to an already great series.

I had a bit of trouble getting through this one.

I think a big part of the issue for me is, having read the author's other series, The Penny Brannigan series, I expected a solid read. It's not like this is the first time the author has written a mystery, so I was more than a little disgruntled with how shoddy this book was. Perhaps it's an unfair to compare it to the other series, but it's so well written, I can't help but wonder what went wrong with this.

The plot was okay, but barely. It was largely buried in a lot of filler that I'm guessing was meant to add dimension to the story, but it didn't. The characters were not very easy to relate to and one-dimensional. The main character and a few of the other characters were English but spoke as if they were poorly trained actors putting on an English accent.

Overall, I'm very disappointed with this. Perhaps someone who is unfamiliar with the Penny Brannigan series would enjoy it, but I won't recommend it.

Book 3 of the Potting Shed Mystery has Pru heading to Edinburgh, Scotland for a temporary job authenticating a newly discovered journal by Archibald Menzies, a noted 18th century botanist. Trouble starts with her colleague, Iain, whose disapproval and snide comments about how she got her job lead to tension and arguments between the two. When Iain is found dead, Pru finds herself under suspicion and begins investigating to clear her name.

The plot was very good; lots of twists and turns and suspicious people. The whole wedding planning was a little over the top, I had a hard time believing that a 50 year old woman would have so much trouble picking out a dress that she had to have her friend take care of all of the details. And all the fawning over the details with the detective investigating the murder was also a bit weird. I don't know, I think subtracting the whole wedding planning and the wedding itself wouldn't detract from the story in the least. It was cute and all, but a little too much drama considering it was a pair of late-middle-agers getting married and not a blushing 20 year old virgin.

Overall, very good and enjoyable but not without its detractors.

Pru begins her new job at the Primrose House and is set with the gargantuan task of returning the gardens of a manor house back to the original landscaped designed by Humphrey Repton. As she begins work, she is beset by vandalism, and then the murder of one of her staff, the elderly Ned. Of course, Pru dives in to solve the murder, while trying to make her long-lost brother like her and mooning over her fellow, Christopher (because calling him her boyfriend is hysterically funny or something.)

This is the second book of the Pottery Shed series and while it was pretty much just as good as the first, there were a few tiny things that niggled at me. For one, it annoys me that Pru, while saying she's "not a police officer" and will "stay out of it" seems to go out of her way to keep information from everyone. What little information she does divulge, it's it's usually not to the right people. Oh, you have knowledge of someone's alibi? Just tell your boyfriend and not the cops who are investigating. Nah, it's cool. They don't need all the info.

The other niggling thing is all the mooning. Every other page was a mopey sigh how much Christopher and Pru were missing each other. Just a tiny bit too heavy on the romance, I think. I mean, it can be excused as a way to keep Christopher pertinent in the story but bleah....

The plot was really good, I enjoyed it. While the first book had a culprit who wasn't a part of the story, in this one it was more figuring out how they did it, rather than who did it. I also loved the letters from Pru's employer with more and more outlandish requests. It was just the kind of comedy relief that was needed to break up the book.

Overall, a great read and I'm really enjoying sinking into these stories.

4.5 Stars

A great start to a new series. There wasn't much I didn't like about it; likeable characters, a great plot that spanned the book without getting bogged down and a cat. A cat that can disappear. Oh and witches. I know, totally irresistible, right?

Annabelle Britton arrives in Portsmouth, NH for a 2 week visit with BFF Martine. Right after arriving, she encounters Alastair, a cat belonging to a recently deceased witch named Dorothy who died under mysterious circumstances, and Annabelle (Anna to her friends, A.B. when she's talking to herself) is drawn into solving the mystery

The plot was well written, it had a good balance between the paranormal and the mystery. Actually, now that I think about it, most of the sleuthing was done the old fashioned way, not by using spells and so on. But it was well-paced with a lot of twists and turns. And just the right number of characters to keep you guessing without being confusing.

The only thing I didn't like was that there were a few plot lines that were introduced and dropped. A little annoying, but not terrible.

A solid start and a great read. I'm looking forward to revisiting A.B. and her friends.

Pru breaks up with her life in Texas for the drizzly glamour of England with the hopes of securing a position as a head gardener at one of the many estates that dot the English countryside. After nearly a year, all she's been able to find are a few small jobs, including one at a townhouse in Chelsea where she's asked to create a garden space for a wealthy couple. She expects to clear up the ivy and prune the trees, but she doesn't expect to find a dead body in the potting shed.

Despite the slow start (at first, I thought this was going to be a DNF) it quickly engrossed me. In fact, I read it in about a day, over half yesterday evening and finished the rest this afternoon.. Couldn't put it down!

Of course, I loved the location and the characters. It was a very cozy cozy mystery. Lots of friendly folks, which I don't really associate with the English but my experience is only based on what I see on UK tv, so I could be wrong.

I loved the riveting plot, but it was one of those where the culprit, although mentioned in the book, was not a part of the story until the end. As if that wasn't bad enough, the bad guy had a gun. This irritates me no end. There's a ban on handguns in the UK, very, very few people have them and yet, if you read British crime novels, it's like the Wild West. One of those niggly, nit-picky things that always jars me from the story.



Also, I thought the romance between Pru and the Inspector moved a little fast. It wasn't forced, and it was sweet but it just seemed like one minute he's interrogating her about finding a dead body and the next, he's murmuring "my darling...." into her hair.

Or maybe things just move along faster when you're over 50. I dunno. I'll just think that, ok? Gives me something to look forward to in a few years.