A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons

Author: Kate Khavari

Publication: 7 June 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via NetGalley & Crooked Lane Books

Amazon Description

Debut author Kate Khavari deftly entwines a pulse-pounding mystery with the struggles of a woman in a male-dominated field in 1923 London.

Newly minted research assistant Saffron Everleigh is determined to blaze a new trail at the University College London, but with her colleagues’ beliefs about women’s academic inabilities and not so subtle hints that her deceased father’s reputation paved her way into the botany department, she feels stymied at every turn.
 
When she attends a dinner party for the school, she expects to engage in conversations about the university's large expedition to the Amazon. What she doesn’t expect is for Mrs. Henry, one of the professors’ wives, to drop to the floor, poisoned by an unknown toxin. 

Dr. Maxwell, Saffron’s mentor, is the main suspect and evidence quickly mounts. Joined by fellow researcher -- and potential romantic interest -- Alexander Ashton, Saffron uses her knowledge of botany as she explores steamy greenhouses, dark gardens, and deadly poisons to clear Maxwell's name.
 
Will she be able to uncover the truth or will her investigation land her on the murderer’s list, in this entertaining examination of society’s expectations.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

This was absolutely a cover/title grab when I first requested it on NetGalley oh so many months ago. I love a good cover ... and a good poison. Parties? I'm more the wallflower type after the planning of the party is all said and done. Heck, I'm not even really the wallflower type. I'm more the "just let me know how it went after the fact" type ... but I still had high hopes for the book. I was most definitely not disappointed. 

 

All of the basics, of course, are covered in the description. What it fails to mention is how enthralling Saffron is. The girl definitely has chutzpah -- much to the delight of some and the dismay of many. No one expects her to be as, well, "balls to the wall" as she is. Even her flatmate, Elizabeth, whom has known her pretty much forever is taken aback by the lengths Saff is willing to go to in order to solve the mystery at hand when the police seem determined to believe that it's as clear cut as the poisonous plant they believe was used by her mentor to do the dastardly deed. She even goes so far as to poison herself with the same plant! Minor minor spoiler ... but it's just too cool not to mention and what happens is something you'll want to read for yourself ... and then thank me for later.

 

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

Mint Chocolate Murder by Meri Allen (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 

Title: Mint Chocolate Murder

Author: Meri Allen

Publication: 26 July 2022

Format: Kindle eARC via NetGalley & St Martin's Press

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I did not read the description for this before I requested it on NetGalley, or before I started to read it, beyond finding out that it was the second in a series, following The Rocky Road to Ruin (which I teased on Friday). I'm opting to not include the usual Amazon Description because I discovered that I kind of liked not knowing ahead of time who the victim was going to be. I wasn't surprised but, really, it could have gone in a number of ways and I kept thinking to myself "ooooh maybe it's going to be her/him/whomever."  If you really want that bit spoiled, go ahead and read the description by clicking on the cover or the teaser collage and going to Amazon ... but I'm not going to be the one to spill the beans.

This story still takes place in Riley's hometown of Penniman, Connecticut, but we see very little of the ice cream shop and farmstead and spend most of our time at Moy Mull -- the castle-turned-artist colony. It's a reproduction Scottish castle with all sorts of history and outbuildings and a dungeon-turned-conference room and I have loved reading about all of it (especially the potential hauntings). It does kind of make me sad because I'm at 60% right now and we have yet to see two of the side characters from Rocky Road who had been staying there, but there's enough going on that I'm only kind of sad -- not completely devastated. Besides, there's still 40% left for them to suddenly appear and there's still a little matter of who killed ....... someone.

 

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"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen (Book Beginnings & Friday56)

Title: The Rocky Road to Ruin

Author: Meri Allen

Publication: 27 August 2021

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description

Riley Rhodes, travel food blogger and librarian at the CIA, makes a bittersweet return to her childhood home of Penniman, Connecticut – land of dairy farms and covered bridges - for a funeral. Despite the circumstances, Riley’s trip home is sprinkled with reunions with old friends, visits to her father’s cozy bookshop on the town green, and joyful hours behind the counter at the beloved Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop. It feels like a time to help her friend Caroline rebuild after her mother’s death, and for Riley to do a bit of her own reflecting after a botched undercover mission in Italy. After all, it’s always good to be home.

But Caroline and her brother Mike have to decide what to do with the assets they’ve inherited – the ice cream shop as well as the farm they grew up on – and they’ve never seen eye to eye. Trouble begins to swirl as Riley is spooked by reports of a stranger camping behind the farm and by the odd behavior of the shop’s mascot, Caroline’s snooty Persian, Sprinkles. When Mike turns up dead in the barn the morning after the funeral, the peace and quiet of Penniman seems upended for good. Can Riley find the killer before another body gets scooped?

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

The second book in this series is due out next month and has been sitting on my NetGalley shelf for a while now so I figured now would be a good time to finally read the first. I am so ridiculously behind on my NetGalley reads and I hate that ... but I'm working on it and will eventually catch up. Or not. Whatever.

When I first read the description for this and saw that the main character, Riley, was a librarian for the CIA, my brain immediately went to Culinary Institute of America. Nope. Not that CIA. The other CIA. It gives an added oomph of suspiciousness and paranoia and angst to the character that made this cozy a bit less predictable than I was originally expecting. 

It's full of delightful (and not so delightful) characters and descriptions and sooooo much food ... and ice cream! It has kept me guessing from the get-go which is a rare treat from a cozy. Almost as rare as sunflower ice cream (which I really really would like to get my hands on).

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

The Change by Kirsten Miller (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: The Change

Author: Kirsten Miller

Publication: 3 May 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via NetGalley & William Morrow

Amazon Description

Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick—a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp feminist revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers—putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town. 

In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment…

After Nessa James’s husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she’s left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn’t take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead—a gift she’s inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.

On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn’t left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriett’s life is far from over—in fact, she’s undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis.

Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw—until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.

Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl’s murder leads to more bodies, and to the town’s most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don’t apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriett will take matters into their own hands…

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

No, I'm still not done with The Vine Witch .... and this is one of the reasons why. 

I've been trying to read both and I don't multitask books well. Especially not when I'm also trying to deal with every thing else going on. But ... oh my gosh ... THIS BOOK. 

I'm getting to be at "that age." 

I rarely need the heat on when it's freezing out. 

I almost always need a fan or ice-cold drink within arms reach. 

Estroven is one of my new best friends. 

Nothing I have ever done before to lose weight works anymore.

Yes, boys and girls, your resident Pirate Queen is well and truly in the midst of peri-menopause on top of everything else. Thanks to Kirsten Miller, now I'm just waiting for my own special super powers to take hold like Jo, Nessa, and Harriett. I would especially be happy with Harriett's. She ranks right up there with Robert Thorogood's Judith for "I want to be like her when I grow up" characters. Although, being able to scald horrible people with my hot flashes like Jo can wouldn't be so bad, either. Not sure I could handle Nessa's without freaking out completely.

You'll just have to read the book yourself to know.

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

The Vine Witch by Luanne G Smith (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: The Vine Witch

Author: Luanne G Smith

Publication: 1 October 2019

Format: paperback

Amazon Description

For centuries, the vineyards at Château Renard have depended on the talent of their vine witches, whose spells help create the world-renowned wine of the Chanceaux Valley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger.

Vigneron Jean-Paul Martel naively favors science over superstition, and he certainly doesn’t endorse the locals’ belief in witches. But Elena knows a hex when she sees one, and the vineyard is covered in them. To stay on and help the vines recover, she’ll have to hide her true identity, along with her plans for revenge against whoever stole seven winters of her life. And she won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

Thank you life upheaval for once again making reading not a thing that happens easily or often. I feel like I've been reading this book -- or trying to -- for ages or at least several weeks. 

Change of job, routine, exhaustion level, blah blah blah. 

It's a good book from what I've read so far. I'm determined to get it done this weekend.

 

[Edited on 5/19 to add : and it's still not done .... but it is still excellent!]

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader