Vanessa’s Comments (group member since Jun 15, 2017)

Vanessa’s comments from the Read, Reading, Planning to Read and More group.

Coincidentally I just listened to Molly Harper's first book in her Cat Lady Chronicles series, "Waifs and Strays". Crazily the main character, Kit McCafferty, is a 41 year old ex-assassin. In this world Kit lives in modern time in a magical city that borders on England and Scotland. She tries to live a quiet retirement just caring for the cats who reside with her and the strays she comes across, but we all know how that works out.
i listened to this novel on audio and I loved the accents. True to Harper's books, this was a pretty quick read and I really enjoyed the flavor of this new series.

Demetra.. me too! I am so glad that I took a chance on the "Killers" series, I love her historical writings and when the first book came out I got it right away just to see, and I'm so happy that I did. it's unusual to find older women characters in a novel, much less a series.

Melindeeloo... I don't know how I got on her ARC lists, but I love Kelley Armstrong's writing and that series is so good. I agree edge of your seat, and you just never know who will do what!! I love me some vengeance!

Just wanted folks to know that the next book in Deanna Raybourn's "Killers of a Certain Age" series "Kills Well With Others" is being released on March 4th. The first book was excellent and I'm really looking forward to the next. This unique series is about a small group of women assassins who are all getting older and who have been slated for elimination and their investigation and their subsequent retaliation. It's a great read as are all of Raybourn's series. IMHO!

This is a reminder that Kelley Armstrong's next Haven's Rock book, Cold as Hell is out today. I am so blessed to be able to read many of her books as ARC's and this book is excellent. I won't give away any spoilers, but Wow, just wow.

A Talent For Murder was one of the Audible daily deals so I got it quite inexpensively. Sorry, I didn't know that it was so costly, but oh so worth it.

For some reason I have listened to two different novels both set in Maine, all places that I know well.
The first book, "Everyone Knows But You" by Thomas E. Rick's, is an FBI who done it set in a rural mid-coast Maine town. Ryan Tapia is an FBI agent relocated from Southern California to Bangor, ME after his family was killed in a tragic accident. He has his own demons to battle, he doesn't take care of himself and suffers from daily nightmares. It takes some time for him to get with the program but he seems to have started to live in the present by the end of the book. A local fisherman who by all accounts was hated by everyone, washes up on federal land, so his death comes under FBI jurisdiction. He wanders around and feels his way through the local politics and drug dealers and eventually catches the murderer.

The second book is "A Talent For Murder" by Peter Swanson. This is the third book in the series. I did not read the first two books and I wasn't lost at all. Martha Ratliff is a librarian living in Portsmouth, NH but working over the bridge in Maine. Martha's new husband is a vendor for teachers' conventions and travels quite frequently. She notices her husband acting differently and while cleaning his shirt she notices a streak of blood on the back of it. As a research librarian, she investigates acts of violence that occurred in the cities, at the same time, and near the convention centers where her husband has worked. She finds a number of crimes, and unable to ask him she calls an old college friend who helped her escape a twisted relationship.
This novel has lots of twists and yes Doug, vengeance.

I enjoyed both novels so much that I am going to read the first two books of Swanson's and I am looking forward to more in the Ricks series.

Wow, i just tried 3 times to get on the Goodreads forum site.

I'm listening to the 5th book of Anne Bishop's The Others series, "Etched in Bone". I actually forgot some of the main stories and the names of some of the side characters. I do love this series. I rarely re-read anything but I am glad I decided to read these.

Great line Demetra. I'm putting that on a to read list.

i loved the Otherworld books by Armstrong. I should clarify, I loved the Clay and Elena books, and the later stories that visit them in their layer years.
Thanks for posting about Bishop's The Others series. I've never re-read the series and I think that it's about time I do. I have some on audio and some on kindle.
Happy Reading Everyone! :-)

I love that the Jack Reacher books are true to the stories. That's a series that I really should get back to. I love that the main character is actually a huge man, not a tiny "star".

Happy New Year Everyone! A toast to you all...
"Here's to a bright new year and a fond farewell to the old.
Here's to the things that are yet to come, and the memories that we hold."

I've been listening to the Lord Edgington Investigates series on audio. I'm on the last book on audio, (so far). "The Christmas Bell Mystery" by Benedict Brown. The series is narrated by the actor George Blagdon of both the Viking and Versailles series. He does a tremendous job and the novels are really well written. Lord Edgington is a former Metropolitan police superintendent and he takes his teenage grandson Christopher, under his wing. They seem to fall into murder investigations wherever they go. We watch Christopher grow from a totally clueless teen to a much better detective in a few short years and 13 books later, I am still enjoying them. These books tend to be 7 to 8 hours per story, so the tale isn't dragged out to boredom.

On kindle, I am reading the Jodi Taylor Christmas story, "Lights! Camera! Mayhem! (Chronicles of St. Mary's). I love these.

HappyBookWorm... I didn't receive the ARC of Armstrong's time travel series, but I did receive an ARC of the latest Haven's Rock book, "Cold As Hell". It was non-stop from beginning to end.

Does anyone know if Jodi Taylor did a Christmas short story this year? I've been looking on Amazon and I can't seem to get one to pop up.

A Very Merry Christmas to all!

Jana DeLeon just announced that her husband passed away. She us devastated. Apparently he had an infection it went septic, he spent 3 1/2 weeks in the hospital. He was released to a rehab place, and after visiting with friends he went to lie down. She went home to feed the dogs and received a phone call that her husband had passed away. I feel so sorry for her. Prayers for her & her family & friends.

Hi Everyone. I've been popping in to read the posts, but not commenting. I don't know if anyone here has been reading the Kindle vellas, but they're going to discontinue them early next year.
I've been reading "Death By Punchline" by Kimberly Titus. The main character had a rough childhood and grew up in a small town in North Carolina. She is by trade a comedian, and her retorts are excellent. Each series has a murder/mystery and there are three series, each is a continuation of a main story. Titus has a couple of kindle vellas and there are a couple of cross-over characters that appear in each subsequent tale.
On audio, I've been listening to a cute series set in 1920's England. It's the Lord Edgington Investigates series. The main characters are a naive 16 year old boy and his 75 year old Grandfather who was a London Metropolitan police superintendent. They stumble upon at least one murder per book. The grandfather is grooming his grandson, Chrissy as a detective and the kid is about as far from a detective as he can be, but the grandfather always encourages him. Accompanying them on their adventures is the grandfather's trusty dog, Delilah. It's cute and clever and we see the young man grow up, (somewhat). His grandfather is well known and respected. His inner dialog is usually pretty funny.

I just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
Hubby will get more work done in the beginning of January. I hope that will be the last time.🤞

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
On a different note... Happy Birthday Doug!! 29 again!

I've been listening to a kind of cozy mystery series set in the 1920's and the main characters are a 16 year old boy and his former Scotland Yard grandfather. His grandfather also is a lord who inherited after the death of his brother in wartime. The series voice is this 16 year old chubby kid, Chris. He isn't, in his own words, good at anything, but as the story goes on he has a bit of a knack for investigation. The Lord Edgington Investigates series starts with, " Murder At The Spring Ball". I listen to them on audio and they're all about 8 hours long, which is pretty good for a murder mystery series.

On kindle, I went back to a series that I haven't read in a long time. It's the Samantha Fox series by C.J. Archer. I read the first couple of books a while ago and decided to return to them.

On a totally different theme here... I had lunch today with some friends that I have know quite literally my whole life. One is battling cancer, it has metastacized and it's in her lung, brain, and spine. If there is one thing to take away from all of this it's to make the effort and visit with your old friends. We will never know just how short life can really be. I am 66 and she will be 64 next month. We have know each other since we were 13 and 11, that's a long time. So hug your friends and share a laugh or two.
She's opted for quality of life over quantity. There is nothing left for the doctors to do. Sorry if that seems somewhat morose, but I just want to encourage folks to act now before it's too late.

Glad to hear that your sister is doing better TINNGG.
I've been hanging out at the hospital myself. My husband had his 2nd heart attack in June. He had a stent put in in July, again in August, now they did a really tricky stent today and they're going to try again on Friday to place another one in the same artery just a little but lower that today's. My husband's body just loves to clog his arteries, stents and bypasses. Lucky him.