Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 281

Review: V IS FOR VIRGIN by Kelly Oram

Valerie is a virgin and plans to stay that way until marriage. Unfortunately, her boyfriend of 3 months didn’t understand it and took it badly. Couldn’t he understand that Val didn’t want to end up like her birth mother, who had to give her up for adoption after having her at 16?


The next day at school, the rumors spread how he dumped her because she was bad in bed, prompting Val to announce her virginity to the whole school, thus, committing social suicide. Heck, there was even a video of her embarrassing declaration on YouTube! From that point on, she was branded as Virgin Val, and the V around her neck was her Scarlett Letter. But perhaps she could use this media attention. Thus, begins her abstinence campaign. V is Virgin.


I love how Val stands up for herself, but she never expected things to go so far. Heck, she even gains notoriety from a recent high school drop-out-turned-rock-star, making her an instant celebrity.


Kyle was so infuriating, just goading Val to break her streak on this whole virginity thing. On top of Kyle’s incessant badgering, Val is torn apart between her campaign, her jewelry design, and overall celebrity status that they get in the way of her friendships. The whole thing turns into a world of crazy for Val.


Was Val’s thinking delusional? Was she waiting for Mr. Perfect, who might not even exist? Could there actually be something between Val and Kyle? Can Val change Mr. Playboy to change his philandering ways?


Her story is not about having sex; it’s about making choices for yourself. And Val was making her choice, which what I liked best about her.


Full of drama, tension, and big changes for everyone.


A great read! It just gets you hooked from the start.


My rating: 5 stars

Review: PUNCHLINE by P.A. Fenton

BOHICA: Bend Over, Here it Comes Again

It was time to “ditch the childish dream of making it as a writer and embrace the job that paid wages.” (LOC 28)


“Whether or not you like your job is immaterial—being fired is like being stamped defective.” (LOC 100)


The beginning definitely captured my attention. It was witty and smart. Story had a promising start, but really tapered off with the character’s constant BS. I didn’t even know who this character was. All I know was that he was whiny, sniveling, little b#tch.
DID. NOT. LIKE. IT.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: THE MAGIC SAPPHIRE by Alba Arango

An auction bid presents an old suitcase with cross-swords and a skull, so, naturally Steve bids on it. It turns out that there was an old map hidden in there of The Grim Reaper's Mine. Suddenly, the Decoders must configure the cryptic poem and seek the answers behind the mysterious papers.
Could there still be gold in that old mine?
Through research ,the kids find out the legend of The Magic Sapphire and the power it supposedly gives to whoever owns it. Interesting. Only a good person can find the stone. A real live treasure hunt!
Can they find the treasure before the jewel thief does?
This is another fun adventure book. It seems like these kids are always figuring out a code and going on a treasure hunt, making most of the books in the series pretty much the same. The bulk of the story is the actual decoding―going line by line, analyzing each lame text, to figure out the special meaning.
Still, these kids are smart and witty, and young readers will enjoy this little tale.
My rating: 3.5 stars

Blog Tour: 13 STEPS TO THE CELLAR by Teresa Mathews

MysteryDate Published: September 4, 2019Publisher: Tirgearr Publishing

Thirteen Steps to the Cellar. They were steep; they were narrow—but was a fall down them enough to have caused the twenty-seven deep lacerations to her aunt’s head? 
Callie Harris travels from her home in Alabama to her aunt’s former mansion in Maine to unravel the haunting forty-year-old mystery of Dr. Laverne Harris Doss’ brutal death.
Why wasn’t a murder weapon found? Was her uncle justly convicted of the killing? Was his mistress involved? Or was the murderer the bearded stranger rumored to have arrived by train that night?
In the charming town of Richmond, located on the banks of Maine’s historic Kennebec River, Callie uncovers the community’s darkest secrets—a botched police investigation, a betrayed widow’s lie, a dead woman’s blackmail, and a wealthy philanthropist’s shame. The web of intrigue extends far beyond her suspicions and its connection to her personal story pierces Callie to her core.



My review: Callie has always held a soft spot for the passing of her Aunt Laverne, her father’s sister. Now, both she and her father were gone, and, since the funeral, Callie has been having recurring nightmares. Newspaper clippings confirmed her aunt’s body was found in the cellar—a detail that certainly established the brutality of her death. However, no other details were shared. What’s even scarier was that Callie looked just like Laverne. So, naturally, she decides to visit the house in Richmond, Maine—where her aunt lived, worked, and died. Chilling!


Intent on learning more about her aunt’s murder, Callie seeks answers from a small town and historical records. But it certainly seems like the townspeople are hiding something. And who was the man in Callie’s dreams? Were these visions? Or memories of a past life?

Evidently many people in town had reason to leave the dead buried and certainly didn’t want the old story revived. Perhaps there were a few too many people in the story. I kind of wished that would’ve been narrowed down to a select few.
It’s an interesting mystery that sparks a curiosity in readers. What happened that night in the cellar? What secrets are these people hiding? And is there a killer still out there? Clues and speculation slowly drip into this old mystery like oil from a rag. Although not a fast-paced tale, it does lend eeriness into a dark quandary.
An okay read that mystery lovers would enjoy.
My rating: 3 stars


About the Author
TERESA MATHEWS is a graduate of The University of South Alabama.  She’s a member of the Mobile Writers Guild and serves on the Board of Directors for the Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association.
An avid gardener and artist, she has multiple book covers to her credit. Several years ago after visiting the site of her real-life aunt’s murder, Teresa discovered a third passion–storytelling. Although inspired by an actual tragedy, Thirteen Steps to the Cellar is fiction.
Raised on the Gulf Coast, Teresa, her husband, and son now live on a farm with a second home on the sparkling white sands of Fort Morgan, Alabama. This is her first novel.
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Review: RAINING MEN AND CORPSES by Anne Tan

Raina is up to her eyeballs in lawyer fees while begging her ex-boyfriend for money owed to her. All the while faking a pregnancy to boot!


Somehow the ex-boyfriend turns up dead.


I thought this was okay reading, witty and crafty at times, but it had such awkward phrasing like “inventoried the room.”  ???? Mmmm….


Author tries to be funny, but she might have been trying too hard as the whole thing was pretty slow for me. 

My rating: 2 stars

Review: GHOSTLY INTERESTS by Lily Harper Hart

At the age of 7, Harper Harlow said goodbye to her grandfather. Actually, she said goodbye to his ghost.


20 years later, she runs a ghost hunter business, sending ghosts on their way to the afterlife. But when the ghost of a murdered woman shows up, she must find her killer and put her spirit to rest. With a ghost that can’t remember, a handsome and skeptical police detective, and a gay best friend, Harper must keep her wits about her to solve this mystery.


I thought this was sharp and witty, but I thought the whole thing revolved too much around the crush angle between Harper and Jared. C’mon, people, focus more on the dead woman in front of you! We got a murderer/rapist on the loose.


A pretty good read. 

My rating: 3.5 stars

Review: A FAIR MURDER by Gillian Larkin

Julia Blake owns a cleaning business. As a last-minute request, she decides to help clean up the school grounds for a fair.


The whole thing was pretty slow. I was just waiting for a dead body to show up. Nothing but proper jibber-jabber.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: CHECKED OUT by Abby Matthews

Ricki Rydell is a successful romance author, but, lately, she’s burnt out. The well is dry. She’s tired of writing the same thing over and over again, and she wants to try something else, like mystery. Unfortunately, she has three more romance books in her contract.

To shake up her boredom, Ricki volunteers at the library, where she encounters a hyperactive fan/aspiring writer. Oy!
On her first day as a volunteer, her overeager fan has a heart attack and dies enroute to the hospital. The first thing Ricki notes is how hateful everyone seemed toward the deceased. Could her death have anything to do with her manuscript? Could the victim have left clues in the books?
This was an okay mystery. The pace was somewhat lagging, yet carried a casual and easy-going tone. It still held interest, but I wasn’t too taken by it. The conclusion wasn’t very satisfactory.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: HAMMERED, NAILED, AND SCREWED by Kathleen Hering

My thoughts: One phrase I love and it correlates well with this book was: “You know where I can get nailed?”

Of course, that phrase is not in the book, but I expected the same witty repartee.  

Laura is a widow from a cheating bastard and now has the wealth from the life insurance. The mystery revolves around the death of that husband? And the Mexican government is involved? Property scam? Insurance jargon? Boring!
And it doesn’t get any better when Laura gets a job for a construction company as an interior decorator no less. This story was just not interesting. 


My rating: 2 stars

Review: MURDER MY SWEETS by Sylvia Selfman

Izzy, along with her senior friend, Flo, opens up a detective agency. She overhears a shady conversation at a pancake house. Were these guys plotting murder?


Ah, Izzy, you gotta stop snooping around and not get mixed up with all these misunderstandings.


Simple read and witty. Izzy was relatable in the sense that she, too, didn’t get technology. I mean, needing a tracking to find a tracker. Ah, to get old and deal with technology.


I thought we had the original mystery from the start, but then it goes to a woman thinking someone’s trying to kill her. Was there a connection between this and the two guys talking previously?


Overall, the mystery is pretty slow—like the old ladies. And not only does Izzy talk to her cat, but she makes the cat talk back! Crazy old lady.


I guess this can be a quirky read, but it was just too slow for me.


My rating: 2 stars