WWW Wednesday -- 1 December 2021

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

My Current Read : 

Title: How to Book a Murder

Author: Cynthia Kuhn

Publication: 07 December 2021 -- Crooked Lane Books

Format: Kindle eArc via NetGalley

This is one of only two NetGalley books on my shelf due for December publication. 

Crazy, right? 

I was hoping to have enough of it finished for it to be this week's Book Beginnings & Friday56 post... and then I couldn't sleep and I couldn't stop reading and had a quiet night at work... and... well... I'm just about at the 70% mark and it's already being added to my list of "must-read cozy mystery series."

To be fair, I was in love with the cover when I saw it on NetGalley and then completely hooked with the first line: 
    "To be surrounded by books is an exceptional joy," Lucy said.

The story is told by Emma Starrs -- sister of Lucy and recent PhD graduate who has moved back home to the small town of Silvercrest, Colorado to help her sister save the family bookstore, Starlit Bookshop. She and Lucy live with their aunt, Nora, in the family home. Nora is a mystery writer who is on the English faculty at the local college and will do whatever she can to help the girls save the store that has been in the family for three generations -- while also dealing with some upheaval going on with her department on campus.

Just as Emma is beginning to brainstorm ideas with Lucy about events they could hold in order to pull more people into the shop, her childhood nemesis walks in complaining about her event planner quitting right before an Edgar Allan Poe murder mystery dinner party. Her most recent husband, Tip, is a big fan -- and also the dean of Nora's department. In spite of Emma's life-long feud with Tabitha, she offers to take the job to help the store. The party goes off without too many hitches. That is, of course, until Emma finds Tip's dead body on the patio while cleaning up at the end. Emma and Nora both find themselves on the suspect list and the women are determined to find out what really happened -- while saving the bookstore and planning another Poe event for the super eccentric (and often hilarious) author Calliope Nightfall.

This book is just so much fun while still having the suspense of what really happened to the victims (yes, plural). I adore the main characters and how the three women work together to get everything done. They're so much alike and still so unique. I'm really hoping we get more in depth with Lucy and Nora -- and that we see more of some of the secondary characters as the series progresses as well. Someone else suggested Lucy gets a Jane Austen themed event in the future and I would absolutely be on board for that!

I am guessing that there will be another year or so before we find out what's next for Starlit Bookshop, but I'm more than okay with that -- especially since I've already acquired the first in Kuhn's Lila Maclean Academic Mystery Series.

And now back to reading the last 30% .... so, technically, it still fits into "Currently Reading."

Recently Finished :

I missed last week's WWW Wednesday so this is everything since then. Click on the book covers to get the teasers/rambles/whatever. 

 

What's Next :

Maybe this week will be the week that I finally knock this out ... after How To Book a Murder, of course. I'm thinking I'll try and get that one finished by Friday and then savor this over the weekend. That's the main reason I've been putting it off, I think. Hester Fox deserves the savoring.

THEN I'll get to the next Robert Bryndza -- which happens to be my second NetGalley book for December:

After that? Maybe some holiday fluff. I might need the fluff at that point. Of course, Darkness Falls is released on December 7th so perfect for Tuesday Intros and Teaser Tuesday ... and I go on vacation on December 9th ... so there may not be anything else until I get back 💕