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Showing posts from September, 2025

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...

Book Review: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a historical fiction novel that spans many years and tells of the friendship between former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. I don't know if I would have picked up this book if it hadn't been the August selection for one of the book clubs I belong to in my area because I don't read a lot of historical fiction. However, I am so glad that I read it and was able to learn many things I hadn't learned about in any of my history classes.  I don't recall learning anything about Mary McLeod Bethune, and she is an important part of American history. The things she helped spearhead to provide African American people equal rights is quite impressive. One of the things I was horrified to learn about is Franklin D. Roosevelt's resistance to stop lynchings because he was afraid of losing the Southern Democrats backing for his New Deal Bill. Another thing that I fo...

Book Review: The Devil's Advocate (Eddie Flynn, #6) by Steve Cavanagh

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The Devil's Advocate (Eddie Flynn, #6)  by Steve Cavanagh opens with a prisoner in Alabama is on death row and who just had his last supper. His lawyer is trying to get a stay of execution when the DA speaks with the governor and talks him into going through with the execution. Fast forward a few months, another prisoner is waiting on his trial to determine whether or not he will be put on death row when his lawyer goes missing. The federal government pings Eddie Flynn to represent the prisoner and ensure the DA isn't dirty. This book is being re-released for whatever reason, and I received an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) from NetGalley for free in exchange for my honest review. I'm extremely thankful to NetGalley for this opportunity. I've only read one other novel by Steve Cavanagh, and it was great, so I was excited to read The Devil's Advocate , especially because the synopsis sounded so awesome! I wasn't disappointed in the least. This book absolutely clinch...