Cleo Coyle's Roast Mortem

Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery series has been one of my absolute favorite set of "cozies." Coffee, New York City, baking, murder. What's not to love? Well, besides the occasional steamy moments I skim over in any book. And I'm not talking about the steam from an espresso machine ... although there's a lot of detailed info about coffee brewing and equipment and whatnot that, to be honest, I tend to skim over as well. After reading as many in the series as I have it gets a little "eh."

Roast Mortem is the ninth book in the series and, if you're going to read them at all, I highly suggest that they be read in order. I actually went against my usual rule about these things this past Christmas and skipped ahead to the twelfth for a book club read ... and it about killed me because so much had obviously happened between # 8 and # 12 that I was in the dark about. Never again!!!

It was a nice change of pace to have so much of the focus on Queens (which is highly under-represented in books that I've read) and to highlight the NYFD (although why equipment was invented for them for the book instead of just writing about what really gets used is totally beyond my comprehension).

BUT

Clare Cosi (the main character) has always had traits that I've found annoying and those remain ... as has my questioning of her choices when it comes to men ... and the not-so-occasional shake of my head at how she tends to respond to life in general ... and how if I met the character in real life we probably wouldn't hit it off (although I'd gladly become besties with some of the supporting cast!).

Hrmph.

I can't help but wonder if maybe that skip ahead back in December was why I just wasn't "feeling" Roast Mortem the way that I have others in the series. I kept thinking to myself "yeah, yeah, yeah ... I know where this is going" with side-stories and character developments. Maybe I'll skip ahead to # 13 the next time I feel like continuing with the series. I did quite enjoy # 12. Well, except for being annoyed by Clare ... and skimming the coffee industry TMI ... and .......

Hrmph.

Teaser Tuesday # 8

The Meme

The Tease

(I love the decaf espresso name!)

The Book

Roast Mortem by Cleo Coyle
It's # 9 in the Coffeehouse Mystery Series.
If you love cozy mysteries and coffee you'd probably love this series!

Top Ten Tuesday : Characters I Wish I Could Check In With

Another TTT thanks to The Broke and the Bookish! This one wasn't real easy for me but, luckily, some books had multiple characters I wonder about so that helps to stretch it out some ;)

1 & 2 -- Rabbit & Alice Hatmaker from Kate Racculia's Bellweather Rhapsody

3 -- Sharyn McCrumb's Elizabeth MacPherson from one of my favorite series that is no longer being continued but had great titles like If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him...

4 -- Milo Gordon also from the Elizabeth MacPherson series

5 -- Jay Omega from Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun & Zombies of the Gene Pool

6 -- Harriet M Welsch from Harriet The Spy

7 -- Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently

8, 9 & 10 -- Rhyllan, Wren & Detective Crombie from Julia Hughes' Celtic Cousins' Adventures (which I wish was so much more than a trilogy!)

Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle

I just couldn't get into Alias Hook and when I lamented as such on the Facebook page a friend recommended Diana Wynne Jones as my replacement "J" for my A to Z. Years and years ago I had read some of Jones' standalones but realized that I had never read Howl's Moving Castle!

That is no longer the case.

Oh my gosh what a wonderful book! Witches and wizards and demons and curses and love and magic and .... and I'm really quite glad that it took me until now to read it because I'm not quite sure I would have appreciated it enough if I had read it when I was younger and it first came out. In fact, now I'm wondering if I should go and re-read the books of hers that I HAD read when I was young to see if they're entirely new to me with some decades of life added. Funny how that can happen, isn't it?

My April TBR

For the photo challenge I'm doing this month on Instagram today's prompt was April TBR (To Be Read). I figured I would share it here, too, in case you don't do Instagram ... and to give myself an extra reminder of what I want to try and read this month!

Five is typically a lot for me, but I'm about a third of the way through Howl's Moving Castle (and loving it), and from past experience I know I typically fly through the other authors at a pretty good clip.

We'll see how it goes!

What are YOU planning on reading this month?