R13: SS Team 3 - Shelf Indulgence

[Shelly]

COMPLETION POST
Week 11, Spot 91


Deadly Summer Nights by Vicki Delany
Date read: 04/07/22
Pages: 289
Rating: ⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️⛵️
How it fits: 1st in The Catskill Summer Resort series

Review:
Deadly Summer Nights is the first book in Vicki Delany’s newest series; Catskill Summer Resort Mysteries.
This series is set in 1953, post WWII and at the start of the Cold War. It’s also the McCarthy era when the US was concerned about communism infiltrating democracy.
Olivia Peters is a second generation Russian immigrant, a gracefully aging dancer, actress and silver screen star. Olivia has inherited Haggerman’s Catskill Resort (think Kellerman’s from the movie Dirty Dancing). She has asked her daughter, Elizabeth Grady, a young war widow to manage the resort for her. During their second season running the resort and getting their accounts into the black a reclusive guest is murdered and the Chief of Police is throwing around the words “Communist Sympathizer”. This could ruin Haggerman’s reputation as a small but relatively luxurious summer resort for NYC and surrounding areas well heeled families.
The unscrupulous owner of Kennelwood, the next resort over, is fanning the flames that could burn Haggerman’s reputation to the ground. Elizabeth needs to figure out what’s going on fast if she wants to keep her mother’s resort open.
I really enjoyed this new cozy mystery angle. I like Elizabeth, Olivia and Olivia’s sister Tatiana, head of housekeeping. Tatiana’s bulldog Winston is a great addition, too. Elizabeth's childhood friend Velvet McNalley, Rosemary Sullivan and Randy Fontaine round out the staff. All likable characters. I thought the mystery was well crafted and though I was born at the end of the 1950’s, not the beginning I remember the history of the era.
All in all I would recommend Deadly Summer Nights. I will be reading Book #2, recently released “Deadly Director's Cut”.

[Melanie]

Just wanted to update everyone that I'll have my review up later tonight so we can roll.

[Melanie]

Completion Post: Week 11 - Spot 91



Book: The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis
How it fits?: #1 in Sunrise Cove series
Date finished?: 4/3/2022
Rating: 4 Stars

Review:
The Family You Make was an excellent start to a new contemporary series set in a small town near Lake Tahoe.

When his first visit home in years starts to be too much for Levi Cutler, he escapes to ride the slopes for a few hours to clear his head. But when a sudden storm hits, Levi now just hopes to make it down the mountain alive. After the gondola he's riding in gets stuck part of the way back, Levi tries to make small talk with the only other passenger, a beautiful woman named Jane. When the gondola in front of them plummets to the ground, Levi calls his mother to say goodbye only to find himself unable to do so. Instead Levi introduces Jane as his girlfriend to his mother's delight. But after the pair don't die, Levi doesn't know how to break the news to his family. Desperate, Levi convinces Jane to pretend to be his girlfriend for one dinner. As the two spend time together to get to know each other enough to make it through the dinner, Jane and Levi find themselves falling for real.

Fake dating is one of my favorite romance tropes so I was looking forward to Jane and Levi's romance. The circumstances of their first meeting were intense and I enjoyed the tense banter between them as they tried not to think about falling to their deaths. The situation definitely led to the pair developing a connection quickly and I liked that they had the chance to build on it. To prepare for the dinner with his family, his parents' fortieth anniversary celebration to be precise, Jane and Levi go on a date to get to know one another. The chemistry between these two was fantastic and I loved the scenes where it was just the two of them. Throughout the pair's fake courtship, they're both dealing with some heavy personal issues. At times I wish they would have opened up more with each other about what was going on but it was understandable why they didn't. Ultimately I enjoyed the pair's romance and was happy with the way they worked everything out.

Throughout the book there is also a romance developing between Jane's roommate and their neighbor. Charlotte, Jane's roommate, has a traumatic past that has led to her being distrustful of men in general. Their neighbor Mateo, who works at the same hospital as Charlotte, is clearly attracted to Charlotte despite her "stay away" vibes. I liked that he never pushed Charlotte for more than she was willing to give and I thought the build up to their romance was sweet. There's some great banter between these two that just got better as the book went on.

Overall The Family You Make was a great read and I will definitely be continuing on with the series and picking up The Friendship Pact when it releases later this year.

[Melanie]

Review Posts: Week 11 - Spot 91

Melanie: Post 253 - Sunrise Cove #1
- The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis
Leslie Ann: Post 248 - Instinct #1
- Murder Games by James Patterson
Janeylou: Post 250 - Cut & Run #1
- Cut & Run by Madeleine Urban
Lexi: Post 249 - When in Pheme #1
- Honey and Pepper by A.J. Demas
Trio: Post 246 - Society of Beasts #1
- The Vicar and the Rake by Annabelle Greene
Shelly: Post 251 - Catskill Summer Resort Mystery #1
- Deadly Summer Nights by Vicki Delany

[Melanie]

Here's our roll for week 12.

Week: 12
Previous Spot: 91
Roll: 4 + 5 = 9
Bonuses Redeemed: 1
New Spot: 101

You can read any of the following:
- Standalone
- 1st book in a series
-10th book in a series
- 101st book in a series
- Alternate task 101. Cover: White

[Janeylou]

So theres a few teams o 100 or 100+ , so is it first team to read all their books wins ?

[Janeylou]

Two teams have already finished folks ...i havent even picked my book yet 😄

[Lexi]

Do we need to read for this week then or are we done?

[Trio]

Oh... are we done?

[Leslie Ann]

Mod
With no less than five (!!) teams reaching spots above 100 on this roll, we've had a tight race to the finish.

Congratulations to the winners of this round: Team 12 "Librarians of the Galaxy" were first to finish all their books for a winning spot!

Please also give a high 5 to Team 5 "High Five" - the second team to finish their reads for a winning spot, they've earned the silver medal, so to speak. (Nope, sorry, no actual silver medals available... but it's the thought that counts, right? :P)

This officially concludes the game.
However, any teams (full or partial) who would like to keep going, either just to finish out the current roll or all the way to the finish line, are welcome to do so.
(For example, 3 out of 4 players on my SSS team have voted to continue even though the winner has been decided.)
If you choose to do so, I'll be around to answer questions but will otherwise leave it to teams to administer themselves. :)

Thank you all for another great round of SS ~ Super Series!

[Leslie Ann]

It was fun playing with all of you. See ya next time. 😀

[Shelly]

Congratulations to Team 5 and Team 12!

Thank you Melanie for being a terrific captain.
Thanks team 3 - Bibliomaniacs for keeping it fun!

I read my last book for the completion and finished it today so…here it is


BOOK: Murder in a Scottish Shire - Traci Hall
READ: 04/10/22
PAGES: 304
HOW IT FITS: 1st in the series
RATING: 🧶🧶🧶🧶🧶

REVIEW:
Murder in a Scottish Shire is the 1st book in Traci Hall’s Scottish Shire Mystery series. It’s the story of a single mother, Paisley Shaw in Nairn, Scotland. She owns and operates Cashmere Crush, a yarn and knitting shop.
When Paisley discovers the body of her former part time employee dead she doesn’t think the coroner’s ruling of suicide is correct. The hot new detective, Mack Zeffer, is not happy with Paisley’s attempts to help his investigation.
I really like the characters, I thought they were well developed and mostly likable. Especially Paisleys circle of friends.
The murderer was not someone I expected and I liked the twist.
I will definitely continue this series.

See you all next time 👋