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: Halloween Party (Fear Street, #8) by R.L. Stine

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Book Review: Halloween Party (Fear Street, #8) by R.L. Stine

YA Horror Book Review of Halloween Party (Fear Street, #8) by R.L. Stine
Halloween Party (Fear Street, #8) by R.L. Stine is the eighth book in the Fear Street Book series. Justine Cameron is throwing a Halloween party for nine specially picked students. The kicker is that none of the nine people really know Justine, and they wonder why they were invited. When the lights go off and come back on, there's a body with a knife in it. Is there a murderer amongst them?

I'm in the process of rereading my way through my childhood, and I decided to read the Fear Street book series again . . . this time in order. I must not have read Halloween Party because I didn't have the book. I purchased the book through ThriftBooks.com, and I have to say that I didn't remember anything about the storyline, with the exception of the nickname for Niki sounding very familiar. 

The Fear Street books are a more mature horror book series than R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book series. I loved reading these books in middle school and high school. Halloween Party was filled with typical high school drama that took me back to my younger days. 

book review halloween party fear street 8 rl stineI loved the fact that the storyline was a "locked room" mystery, and it's the perfect book to read during the Halloween holiday or on a Friday the 13th. I didn't really see the ending coming, but I feel like there were a few plot holes that didn't allow for one to figure out what would happen. As a kid, I would have likely overlooked this and not cared. I also liked the fact that there were characters brought back from previous books in this series. I don't think I noticed this the first time around since I had read them out of order (and read a lot of other books in between).

The only real complaint I have is that I felt like Niki's nickname of "Funny Face" was a bit offensive seeing as the character had a hearing disability. With that being said, I loved the fact that there was a character with a disability represented. I don't remember there being too many characters with disabilities being in books from the 1980's or 1990's.

Halloween Party (Fear Street, #8) by R.L. Stine was a fun and enjoyable read. I don't really have any complaints, and I gave it four out of five stars.

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