Book Review: Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18) by Lee Hollis

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Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18)  by Lee Hollis  opens with Tom Farley and his neighbors in a snit because he's the last holdout to sell his house to a property developer who wants to build a resort. When Tom is shot at a pre-Thanksgiving community gathering and hospitalized, Hayley Powell puts her amateur sleuthing skills to good use. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishers for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this cozy mystery. I received a copy of this book for free in exchange of my honest opinion and review of the story. I loved the fact that this latest installment of the Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery  series had a theme around the Thanksgiving holiday and included live turkeys in the plot. It was good to visit some familiar characters. Since this is the eighteenth installment in the series, Lee Hollis didn't go into much detail of the background of those reoccurring characters; however, she...
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Book Review: Face-Off! (Girl Talk, #2) by L.E. Blair

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middle grade book review face off girl talk 2 by le blair

Face-Off! (Girl Talk, #2) by L.E. Blair opens with Katie Campbell skating with her friends at the ice skating rink and thinking about how her father taught her how to skate and play hockey . . . and realizing how much she misses it. Tired of being the perfect daughter, Katie quits the flag team and tries out for the boys hockey team.

This particular book took me back to my childhood. There were so many situations that were realistic such as the girl's talking about bras in the locker room after flag practice. I remember overhearing conversations about bras in the locker room when I was in middle school, so I could totally relate to this particular scene in Face-Off! (Girl Talk, #2). Other realistic examples were how the girls acted around the boys they liked and how the kids acted at the restaurant & cafeteria. I loved the fact that the game Girl Talk was played during the sleepover. I had completely forgotten about those little red stickers that the players had to put on their face to represent zits.

When I was a kid, there weren't too many times that a girl attended a try out for an all male sports team, let alone made the team. Nowadays, you see more females on a sports team dominated by males like football. I enjoyed the fact that Allison stood up to the hockey coach on Katie's behalf and mentioned Title IX. As a kid, I had no idea what this was, much less that it was a law, and was glad that the author included an explanation of it as I'm sure that other young children don't know about it. The only complaint I have about Face-Off! (Girl Talk, #2) is that I felt like the pacing was a bit off.

Four out of five stars is the rating I gave Face-Off (Girl Talk, #2) by L.E. Blair. If you enjoyed this book, I recommend Wild Hearts (Wild Hearts, #1) by Cherie Bennett.

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