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: Seven-Year Witch (Witch Way Librarian Mysteries, #2) by Angela M. Sanders

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The Running Bibliophile's Book Review of Seven-Year Witch (Witch Way Librarian Mysteries, #2) by Angela M. Sanders
Seven-Year Witch (Witch Way Librarian Mysteries, #2) by Angela M. Sanders opens with Sam and Fiona Wilfred, along with their son, moving into Big House next door to the town library. The land Sam sold to a couple to build a retreat on is said to be cursed. The town librarian, Josie Way, is learning how to use her birthright, witchcraft, through letters her grandmother left her. This lesson has to do with curses. When someone is murdered and Fiona goes missing, the town believes it's the work of Sam's cursed land. Will Josie learn her grandmother's lesson in time to break the curse?

Taking place approximately six months after the first book ended, the author does a great job at reintroducing all of the characters and the backstory in the series without being redundant. My favorite character is the main character Josie. She seems like she would a great bff if she was a real person. Her grandmother seems like she would be a cool person as well. I really wish we knew her grandmother instead of just getting glimpses of her through Josie's memories and the grandmother's letters. Let's not forget about Rodney! The cat plays a bigger role as the series goes on, but I just love him. What can I say? I'm a cat person, lol.

Another favorite character is a Sam, even though he's a bit of a private person, he seems like he goes out of his way to help people. The most unlikable character in my opinion is Fiona. She seems like a very greedy person who is all about herself and doesn't seem to care about others at all. How did Sam and Fiona end up together in the first place? They seem like polar opposites of each other!

As for the storyline, I felt like the plot was a little light, but it wasn't a big deal to me. The reason being is that the author does a great job of building on the background of each character, which really helps the reader get a true feel of the characters along with the community. And, I know that many of the other books in the series are more plot driven, which is another reason I don't mind this installment being more character driven.

Four out of five stars is what I gave Seven-Year Witch (Witch Way Librarian Mysteries, #2) by Angela M. Sanders. It was the perfect story for the mood I was in at the time.  I am looking forward to reading the remaining stories in this series.

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