Lady Swift has been cordially invited to a huge royal celebration in Little Buckford to toast the King’s birthday… but wait, is that a body in the village hall?

Lady Eleanor Swift and her loyal butler Clifford are busy lending a hand with preparations for the big day. The grand dining room at Henley Hall is overflowing with home-sewn flags, paint, and royal rosettes. Even Gladstone the bulldog and his new friend Tomkins the ginger cat are invited!

But just days before the event Mr. Prestwick-Peterson, the chairman of the celebrations committee, is found dead in the village hall: strangled with handmade red, white, and royal blue bunting.

With the village hall in total disarray and a key part of the decorations missing, Eleanor wonders if someone dastardly is sabotaging the King’s birthday celebrations. Teaming up with her handsome beau Detective Hugh Seldon to question the local butcher, baker, and pub landlord it becomes clear that the meddlesome busybody Mr Prestwick-Peterson was not universally liked in charming Little Buckford. Indeed, the only mystery is why he wasn’t murdered before…

Searching Mr. Prestwick-Peterson’s pristinely organized rooms, Eleanor is surprised to find a faded photograph of a beautiful young woman hidden within the pages of a novel. Could this be the key to untangling this very village murder? And can Eleanor catch the killer before the party is over for her, too?

A totally charming, unputdownable Golden Age murder mystery with characters readers will adore. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey, and Lee Strauss.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Aye, even at the worst of times, when he’d pulled on the devil’s own trousers, it don’t make it right for someone to have done for him like this… Not even if he’d pulled on the devil’s trousers and the jacket to match!

He were trouble with a head as twisted as the neck of a chicken on roastin’ day!

My Review:

 

This enjoyable and well-written series is always a fun read. I adore the characters and their progressing relationships and slowly evolving dynamics. The well-contrived mysteries are always confounding and unpredictable puzzlers to keep the little pea in my brain bouncing. This installment was busy and action-packed with peril for all involved, yet was easy to follow and kept my curiosity well-honed.

 

About the Author

 Misty Mornings at The Potting Shed
(The Potting Shed #3)
by Jenny Kane

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Tristan groaned. ‘I think that must be a record.’ ‘A record?’ ‘Offending you within ten minutes of being with you.’ ‘Don’t be silly, you’d offended me much quicker than that.’ Sara rolled her eyes.

… it occurred to me that if someone doesn’t put you straight on how to treat women, you’re either going to die alone after a string of disastrous relationships, or you’ll be locked up on a sexual harassment charge, sitting in a cell bewildered at your situation.

I’d rather we lived on toast and fish fingers for the rest of our lives than you be unhappy every day.’

I can’t even pronounce the coffee she has. And oat milk! I mean, whoever milked an oat? The world’s gone mad.

Billy is the perfect example of how to grow old disgracefully, but with style.

My Review:

This was a gentle and realistic installment that continued on from the previous installments with the storylines and a few additional characters and read much like a television serial. There were multiple story threads with real-world issues, thorough and colorful descriptions, and amusing observations tucked into each page. The characters were knowable, likable, and so well-detailed that I would recognize them if I passed them on the street.

The Summer of Second Chances
(Seashell Harbor #3)
by Miranda Liasson

In this heartwarming romance, summertime in a small seaside town brings one woman an unexpected second chance with the first man to melt her heart.

After spending the last few years beating cancer, author Darla Manning is ready for a fresh start—she’s already got a new teaching position in California for the fall. But first, she has some loose ends to tie up over the summer, like finishing her latest novel and selling her oceanfront home. Darla doesn’t expect her ex-husband, contractor Nick Cammareri, to top her list of unfinished business. He was only supposed to do a few quick renovation jobs around the house, not temporarily move in and stir up feelings she thought were long gone.

​While Darla tries to focus on making the most of her last Seashell Harbor summer, she can’t help noticing how much Nick has changed. Her immature-but-seriously-cute high school sweetheart is now a motivated-and-seriously-sexy man who’s earning his MBA and running the family business. Plus, he seems determined to make her remember how—and why—they first fell in love. Darla believed moving on meant moving away, but could her hometown hold the key to a new beginning for her . . . with Nick?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

What ifs were as plentiful as dandelion seeds. It was best to blow them away to the wind and be done with them for good.

If only she could squish Nick Cammareri firmly in the friend box and shut the lid. Trouble was, he kept spilling out.

And let me tell you something, life isn’t something that you figure out once and you’re done. Like it or not, we have to keep on figuring things out.

My Review:

This was a lovely and engaging story to unwind with at the end of the day. The characters were realistically flawed yet endearing and witty. I can always count on Miranda Liasson for an enjoyable, well-paced, and perceptively written read.

Author Bio:

Miranda Liasson loves to write stories about everyday people who find love despite themselves because there’s nothing like a great love story. And if there are a few laughs along the way, even better! She’s a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart winner and an Amazon bestselling author whose heartwarming and humorous small-town romances have won accolades such as the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and have been Harlequin Junkie and Night Owl Reviews Top Picks.

 

Connect with Miranda: 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | Newsletter | Bookbub | Pinterest | Blog

The Devil Wears Prada meets The Assistants in this compulsively readable debut following a young woman who takes a job working for an enigmatic influencer and quickly discovers there’s an ugly side to being a #GirlBoss.

After a series of go-nowhere jobs in the New York publishing world, Harper Cruz is broke, lonely, and desperate for a salary that won’t leave her scrambling to make rent each month. So when she stumbles across a job posting from an influencer offering triple her last paycheck, she automatically submits her résumé.

Harper may not be familiar with self-help guru Charlotte Green, but her relentless optimism and charismatic can-do spirit has created a cult-like following of women across the country. When she selects Harper among thousands of other applicants in less than twenty-four hours, it’s obvious she sees something she likes. Despite the pressure to accept the offer just as quickly as she’s been given it, Harper decides to take a leap of faith and become the newest member of The Greenhouse.

Accepting the job means a move to Nashville, and Harper is quickly dazzled by the glamourous world Charlotte has built in Music City. The Greenhouse is more than a workplace–it’s a family–and Harper soon finds herself swept into its inner circle. At first, she loves working in such an inspirational environment, where mandatory dance parties, daily intentions, and group bonding activities make up for long hours and Charlotte’s persistent demands for loyalty. But the deeper Harper is pulled into Charlotte’s world, the more she realizes that having it all and being it all comes with a price.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Harper’s aunts were extra. Extra chatty, extra loud, extra judgmental, and often extra meddlesome.

And then there was the oldest sister, Bianca, a widow. Harper’s mom used to joke that her brother-in-law’s death was a choice, as it was the only to get away from his critical wife.

My Review:

Wryly written,  profoundly insightful, and wickedly perceptive.  This clever scribbler knows of what she writes as this felt real. I enjoyed the writing style which included generous sprinklings of humor and wit, as well as heady doses of alluring affirmations, encouragement, and empowerment. I would have loved the little powerhouse boss if she hadn’t been so vile beneath the skin.

When Izzy Astor gets on a plane to go home, she isn’t expecting much. It’s the usual holiday travel experience: busy, crowded, stressful.

Then she spots her seatmate, who is anything but ordinary. Nate Phelan sports dark hair, blue eyes, and a deliciously rugged charm that Izzy can’t resist. Their connection is undeniable. Izzy never believed in destiny before, but she does now.

Just ninety seconds after takeoff, their plane goes down in the Missouri River.

Their lives change. They change. Nate goes on to a career in the military while Izzy finds her way into politics. Despite a few chance encounters over the years, the timing never feels right.

Then comes a high-stakes reunion in Afghanistan, where Nate is tasked with protecting Izzy’s life.

He’ll do anything to keep her safe. And everything to win her heart.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I just hate to watch you living your life like a first-time driver with a stick shift, jolting forward and stalling over and over again.

If he cheated, then my guess would be that it wasn’t because you weren’t enough— it was because he wasn’t.

My Review:

This was an absorbing and engaging tale written in my favorite dual point-of-view with multiple timelines, yet it was easy to follow as well as smartly plotted with lashings of clever wit and sly banter.

I adored these characters, they were lovable, honorable, and well-meaning despite being stubborn and often in their own way. They were victims of bad timing and circumstances, yet they valiantly struggled forward, but never the same for having met. I was cheering for them from beginning to end.