My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

He had a dimple in his left cheek, and the lopsidedness of his mouth made it appear that he was holding half a smile in reserve rather than fully committing to the expression.

Teagan is not a horny mistake. I am not going to lay his pipe, even though I totally could, and that would probably fix all his substance abuse issues, add five years to his life, and show him the very face of God. No. I’m helping him. Therapeutically.

She should have said something, Darcy decided. Next time she’d make a scene. She didn’t really mind making a scene, and she sensed that the women at this event would consider it a tragedy if the entire evening passed and nobody made a scene. It might as well be Darcy.

So she twined her arms around his neck and turned her face up to his. “If this is talking, I can’t wait to see you argue,” she said.

You’re that first cup of coffee that gets me out of bed in the morning. You’re the song on my playlist for the drive home. You’re every good thing that I promise myself to get through the day.

My Review:

I enjoyed this tale, the characters were all of the total mess variety, yet authentically complicated while tickling my gray matter to know more about them. The storylines and writing style were lively and humorous with perceptive descriptions and situations that put vivid images behind my eyes and a frequent grin on my face.

Cairo. December 1917.

Following a tip-off from notorious spy Fredrick Fredricks, Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane of British Intelligence find themselves in the hustle and bustle of Egypt. But ancient mummies aren’t the only bodies buried in the tombs of Cairo.

When a young French archeologist is found dead in a tomb in the desert with his head bashed in, and an undercover British agent goes missing, the threat moves closer to home.

As they dig deeper, soon Fiona and Kitty uncover a treasure trove of suspects, including competing excavators, jealous husbands, secret lovers, and belligerent spies! Fiona wonders if the notorious Fredrick Fredricks could be behind the murders? Or is the plot even more sinister?

One thing is clear – If Fiona and Kitty can’t catch the killer, they might end up sharing a sarcophagus with Nefertiti.

With humor as dry as the Arabian desert, and pacing as fast as a spitting camel, Fiona and Kitty are back in another sparkling adventure, this time in WW1 Egypt.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Clifford fancied himself a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Sir Lancelot.

I’d learned from experience that mustache and trousers opened many doors closed to corsets and skirts— although sometimes skirts had advantages too. If novelist Robert Hichens was to be believed, the real secrets of Egypt lay behind the closed harem doors, accessible only to women and eunuchs.

Clifford could talk a donkey into giving up its tail.

My Review:

This has been a fun yet brain-teasing series to follow as the mysteries and clues are well-plotted, active, and adventurous. The main character is a highly determined and cynical file clerk who is itching to become a full-fledged spy although she is tethered to an unlikely team consisting of a gentlemanly and rather gullible agent who is rather adorable, and a spiky young woman who presents as a giggly school girl with a cute dog but underneath is a steely young woman who can kick butt and “foot fight.” Their current assignment has them on a cruise ship then traipsing through Egypt, riding camels and donkeys, and meeting up with Laurence of Arabia and other notable archaeologists who are plundering the desert. I enjoyed their amusing adventures and was kept guessing as to which of several villains was behind the murders they kept stumbling upon.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

It was weird that we were joking around a minute ago, and now we were witnesses to this loss of life and serious moment. My moral compass was pointing a big guilty arrow at my chest, and I felt ashamed for staring.

Axle was shy with girls and a nine on the one-to-ten immature scale.

I was facing another sleepless night. I had yet to climb down from stress mountain.

My Review:

I’m late to the party as this is book number three for Delaney, the designer heels shoe obsessed tow truck driver, but it was my introduction to the series and its crafty creator Karen C. Whalen. I enjoyed her writing style, it was breezy, easy to follow, and laced together with humorous yet insightful observations and inner musings. There was more than one mystery to solve and I wasn’t anywhere close in my personal attempts at sleuthing, looks like I’ll have to stick to reading about such adventures, wearing flats, and driving my Prius.

When Serena is kicked out of her flat, an offer from her friend, Taylor, to house-sit for her while she and her husband go traveling could not be better timing. But unfortunately for Serena, she’s not the only one to have received this offer…

Enter Ziggy: arrogant, messy (and annoyingly handsome) musician, and friend of Taylor’s husband. Living with him is far from ideal, especially when he claims the best room, has loud parties – and the least said about his kitchen manner the better…

There’s just one solution for Serena – drive him out of the house by being twice as difficult to live with as he is! But Ziggy knows Serena’s game and as war ensues between them, being forced together under one roof may result in some unexpected consequences…

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

Agatha… looks just like her mum. Well, a version of Diana that had been run through a machine that creates Disney villains. Her facial features are tight– almost as though she begrudges using the muscles (well, that plus the Botox she’s using to try to suspend her looks in time, but they’re really just suspending her face in the miserable state it must have been in when they injected her).

My Review:

This was a lively and breezy read laced together with smirk-worthy snark and clever wit. I always enjoy Ms. MacIntosh’s wry humor. Her colorful and observant character descriptions never fail to draw keen visuals to my mind’s eye and an amused smile to my lips. There were multiple storylines that eventually merged, it was game on in all directions. Each thread was busy and eventful yet easy to follow and equally entertaining and humorous.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

… he looked disgruntled to the point that his gruntle might be waving farewell forever. I smiled at him… He turned a look on me that was so sour I could feel my tongue dry out.

I watched Kanga stare at his muscles. They were improbably large; he looked as though someone had taken an ordinary man and inflated him with a bike pump in strategic areas.

Mutinously and showing all the team-working ability of a bunch of cats, we each set off on our allocated tasks.

How come you’ve got such unusual names? Dax and MacKinley? It sounds as though your parents thought they were having Labradors.

It had been so long since I’d had a proper wash of any parts of me that didn’t see daylight that I was beginning to think I might be eroding. If I got fully undressed, I might discover that I was nothing more than a flaky shadow and a strange smell.

I could almost feel the cash registers in our heads start to click as we all mentally spent £ 250,000, and then reality asserted itself once more.

My Review:

This was an active and busy tale with keenly detailed scenarios and colorful descriptions that placed me in the thick of it. Despite living in the tropics and reading under a ceiling fan, Ms. Lovering often had me feeling cold and achy along with the shivering characters who were stuck on a freezing moor in nylon tents while being filmed for a reality program. And what an odd, uncomfortable, and annoying to be around collection of people they were. While the storylines often had a tense edge to them with a sense of impending doom and fear of discovery, they were also amusing as well as observant, and thoughtfully contrived.

Ruth the librarian fears she’s too old to find love, but a discussion about Lady Chatterley’s Lover makes her think again.

Aurora doesn’t feel seventy-two and longs to relive the excitement of her youth, while Verity is getting increasingly tired of her husband Mark’s grumpiness and wonders if their son’s imminent flight from the nest might be just the moment for her to fly too. And Danielle is fed up with her cheating husband. Surely life has more in store for her than to settle for second best?

The glue that holds Combe Pomeroy together is Jeannie. Doyenne of the local cider farm and heartbeat of her family and community, no one has noticed that Jeannie needs some looking after too. Has the moment for her to retire finally arrived, and if so, what does her future hold?

From a book club French exchange trip to many celebrations at the farm, this is the year that everything changes, that lifelong friendships are tested, and for some of the women, they finally get the love they deserve.

My Rating:

My Review:

This tale was packed with teeth-grinding and ire-producing family drama in all directions as well as tense plot lines of suspense including a hideous child kidnapping under peculiar circumstances. The details were intricate and I began to feel the tediousness and fatigue of the oppressive heat and the smell of polluted air from the nearby out-of-control wildfire that essentially became a secondary character in the story. The human characters were complicated, well-textured, and not always likable yet realistically flawed and authentic. I despised most of them except for the hapless yet well-meaning Jay, he was more of a victim than the kidnapped child.