A to Z April: K Reviews - The Kachina Doll Mystery by Carolyn Keene/Killer Pancake by Diane Mott Davidson

To start off this week I've got a couple books to share that are part of a series. Neither of my choices are the first in that series. But one is one of my favorites from the series, and the other is my way from the few K books I've read to fit this series in during the month.

First is The Kachina Doll Myster (Nancy Drew #62) by Carolyn Keene.  I always credit the Nancy Drew series for being a part of my love of reading.  I remember exactly the time when my family was shopping at the local Sears Outlet store, and they had a bunch of the Nancy Drew books there to buy for very reasonable prices.  My mom let me pick up several, and from the minute I started reading them, I was hooked.  I know we had several trips to the bookstores throughout the next few years as I had to buy more and more.  This one was always one of my favorite ones, I think I read it many, many times.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
When Nancy arrives at the McGuire's fitness ranch in Arizona, she discovers that the future of the ranch is being threatened by unexplained accidents. Teaming up with a ghost, Nancy begins her search for a precious collection of ancient Kachina dolls and hunts for her elusive adversary, who is determined to prevent the ranch from operating.

Second is Killer Pancake (A Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery #5) by Diane Mott Davidson.  I first discovered this series when I started working at the B. Dalton bookstore at our local shopping mall.  I have never been a big mystery reader, not like these anyway. But as I paged through one and saw the yummy looking recipes, I decided to take one when it was a stripped book and I could try it for free. From that point on I had to buy them.  I'm ashamed to admit that I was lucky enough to get an ARC of the latest book this past year, and then I never got around to reading it.  My reading of adult books sadly gets pushed to the side for all the awesome YA books there are these days.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads for this title:
When Goldy, owner of Goldilocks' Catering, faces the challenge of whipping up a sumptuous lowfat feast for the Mignon Cosmetics' company banquet, she rises to the occasion brilliantly...only to discover just how ugly the beauty biz can be!

On the day of the banquet Goldy finds herself confronting an angry mob of demonstrators--"Spare the Hares"--who object to Mignon Cosmetics' animal-testing policies. As she struggles to carry forty pounds of lowfat fare from her van to the mall where the banquet is being held, she hears an ominous
squeal of tires and a horrifying thump. Seconds later, a Mignon employee lies dead on the pavement. And soon the police discover that this hit-and-run was no
accident.

Now Goldy is enmeshed up to her saute pans in a homicide investigation.  Could the murder have had something to do with Spare the Hares--or with the exotic flower found near the dead body? Though busy serving up Hoisin Turkey and Grand Marnier Cranberry Muffins, Goldy decides to start digging at Mignon's
million-dollar cosmetics counter. But when another murder takes place and Goldy herself is attacked, the caterer turned sleuth knows she must step up her
search for a gruesome killer. For this time was only a warning. Next time she'll be dead--and it won't be pretty.

Those are my two reviews for today.  Have you read either of these series?  Are you a mystery fan?  I guess without realizing it I featured two mystery series today.

And while you're here, enter my giveaway below!

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A to Z April - M: Mysteries

Today I'm going to talk about another genre of books, mysteries.  They are not my top type of books, but I do enjoy a good one.  I'm finding more YA ones that I'm even starting to become more interested in mysteries.  I'll share my top 5 mystery books/series below.


1. 

This is probably my favorite series, although the latest one is still sitting on my TBR shelf.  Must get to that!  The main character Goldy Bear is a caterer, and of course seems to come across murders all the time by accident.  I just love the characters, they're pretty funny/realistic seeming to me.  What is really neat is all the recipes that are shared, and though they sound delicious, I'm too lazy to possibly ever make them. But if you're a chef, and you like mysteries, you should definitely give these books a try.

2. 

  

Now this is a brand new, hot off the presses title.  It actually comes out today!  It is my first book by this author, and I was extremely impressed with it.  It is a YA mystery title, but a great one!

3.  

  

This is another YA mystery that is newer.  It is what I'd call a medical mystery.  I really enjoyed it.  I know that the author writes adult medical mystery/thrillers as well.

4.  

 

 

Another author that does great YA mystery.  This one is supposed to be based on the classic story Ten Little Indians by Agatha Christie.

5. 

 

Now this is one that could be considered maybe more of a romance, but it has a bit of a mystery to it so I'm going to list it.  While it is an older book, not YA really, it is one that is a favorite of mine.  As I said before, I'm not really a mystery fan, so I had a little trouble coming up with 5 top books for sure, and I didn't want to go through my whole list of all I've read on Goodreads, so I decided to list this last.

So, are you a big mystery fan?  And if you have time, I'd love for you to go back to my J post and help me think of some questions to ask some authors I'll be meeting next month.

Cover Characteristics - February 21st, 2014

Cover Characteristics is hosted at  Sugar and Snark.  Here are the guidelines for how it works if you want to join in:


Each week we will post a characteristic and choose 5 of our favorite covers with that characteristic. If you want to join in and share your 5 favorite covers with the weeks particular characteristic, then just make a post, grab the meme picture (or make your own) and leave your URL in Linky (so we can visit).
You don’t even need to participate, just stopping by and saying hi would be great! Don’t forget to stop by the other participants!

This week's characteristic is:  Fruit

So this was a no-brainer for me to do this week, and when I get to my #1 cover, I'll explain why.  Although other than my #1, it took a bit of research to pick the other 4.  Although going through all 80-some pages in my Goodreads list of books I've read, I found only5 exactly.  Perfect.

5.     

4.

3.

2.  

1.  And my favorite fruit cover of all (probably because I have it tattooed on my back) is:

Can you come up with some other covers with fruit?  That was all I could find in the books I'd already read on Goodreads.  

Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson

Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I ended up waiting longer than normal to read this next book in one of my favorite series, and really the only mystery series that I read. Normally I would check it out when it first came out, but I was so busy reading other things, that I ended up waiting till it was in paperback and then buying it. And even then, I didn't have the money when it first came out, so it was a month or two after it was released in paperback before I got to read it. And it was kind of nice to get back into this world that the author has created. I like Goldy Bear and her family. I love the relationship she has with her husband Tom who works for the Sheriff's department. They're so cute! I want a husband who will love me just like he loves her the way she is.
As usual though, there has been a murder of someone that Goldy knows, and she has a friend in trouble that she needs to help, but also doesn't know if this person could have anything to do with what is going on. In fact, this is a really complicated mystery, as I might have guessed by the length of the book. Lots of stuff going on. As I saw another reviewer, this was a bit convoluted, but that's okay. I kind of liked how it all tied together at the end. I didn't really guess at first, which you can't, you don't actually know who one of the suspects is until towards the end, and even then, he is just a connection to the main murderer, or not even murderer, but mastermind behind a lot of what was happening. We don't get a lot of time with Arch in this book, he seems to be away at friends a lot. But that has happened more in each passing book.  The recipes, as always, sound wonderful, but also much more difficult than anything I would ever attempt to cook.  I don't mind cooking, but only pretty simple recipes.
Now, here's what shocked me. Goldy says she's 37 in this book. I am wondering, how old was she when the series started back in 1990? Because I remember her being older than me I thought, and now I'm 2, almost 3 years older than her! Makes me feel really old! The ending leaves off that Goldy and Tom of course solve the mystery, after Goldy once again puts herself in danger trying to do it all on her own, and now Tom is thinking he'd like them to have a baby. So, that should be a big part of the next book. Which I hope there is one, although maybe a bit shorter and less convoluted with the mystery next time. All in all, a good read, and a nice visit back in Aspen Meadow with Goldy and her friends and family.

View all my reviews

In My Mailbox (2)

Okay, second time I'm doing this meme.  In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at the Story Siren.  This is a way to share the books you got during the week.  This week the only books I actually got were 2 that I bought.  I'm trying really hard to limit how many books I actually buy since I have such a huge TBR pile sitting taking up one whole bookshelf in my office.  So, I got paid from my teaching job, my once a month paycheck, this past week.  So I decided to let myself spend about $15 at my bookstore where I work part time, and with my discount that was two books.  One of them I've been talking about a lot lately, I got to read one part of it for free in a stripped cover book from the store where I work, and wanted this compilation volume since I saw it:

The 2nd book is one in an adult mystery series that I really like.  Unfortunately I've had to stop buying them in hardcover and buy them in paperback, so I had to wait on that, and now, well, I intend to read it as soon as I'm done with my current book, because I feel like I haven't read anything but YA!  (Not that there's anything wrong with that, just feel I should pull out some adult books once in a while too.)

What did you get in your "mailbox" this week?

Waiting on Wednesday: Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I haven't done this in a while, for two reasons. One, I've been pretty busy with the new online class I'm teaching. And two, I haven't been quite sure what books I'm waiting on. But I decided to see when the next book by Diane Mott Davidson was going to be out. I'm not a huge mystery genre fan. But for some reason I just love these books. I do love reading the recipes, and I think occasionally of trying to make them. But seeing as how our main character, Goldie, is a caterer, these are really complicated recipes. One day, though, I will try them.

Right now I can't find a synopsis on the book, so I'll give you a little more background on the series. Goldie is our heroine, when we first meet her, she has divorced her abusive husband and is trying to raise her son Archie on her own with her catering career. She calls her ex-husband "The Jerk" along with another of his ex-wives, Marla, her best friend. It never fails, Goldie tends to find dead bodies wherever she goes to cater. She then wants to solve the mysteries herself, and she does this despite the wishes of detective Tom Schultz. Later in the books Goldie and Tom get married, and of course her sleuthing continues. One other main character is Julian, a young man she mentors in cooking, and he is also a genius in cooking.

I don't know why, but I just love these books, and cannot wait for the next to come out. While I'm glad she takes the time to make each one really good, sometimes I wish she was one of those authors who puts out a book every year so I wouldn't have to wait for my mystery fix. Unfortunately I'll be waiting until April 2011 for this release.