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: The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

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NetGalley ARC Book Review of The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White
The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White is the story about Phoebe Manigault returning home to Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, to help her sister with their ailing mother. When past memories resurface, Phoebe is thrown back into some childhood turmoil.

I requested an Advanced Readers Copy ARC of The Last Carolina Summer from NetGalley, and I was ecstatic when the provided me with a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. So, a big thank you goes out to them!

When I began reading this story, I just happened to be vacationing in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. I loved hearing about the different places, including streets and a bridge called the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which I had to cross to get into Mt. Pleasant as well as Isle of Palms. It's always nice to be able to visualize the places and author writes about. With that being said, I'm not a fan of traveling over bridges, and one of the scenes of The Last Carolina Summer mentions a car going off the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, so any time I crossed that bridge, I was even more of a nervous wreck. Don't worry ... this isn't a spoiler as it's mentioned numerous times throughout the story, even in the beginning.

As for the characters, most of them were very likable with the exception of Phoebe's mother and sister. With that being said, by the end of the story, you understand both of them better and know why they were the way they were, which made my heart break a little for them and like them better.

Like always, Karen White pulled me into the novel right away. She's such a a talented writer and definitely has a way with words. I can't wait to read more from her. Lucky for me, she has a couple of series that I can binge read. I've read the first book in both of those series, and I loved those just as much as The Last Carolina Summer, which I gave five out of five stars.

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