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Saturday, November 26, 2016

COYER Blackout Reading Challenge - December 17th, 2016 - March 3rd, 2017



It's just about time for Winter COYER (Clean Out Your E-Reads)! Our lovely hostesses have been kind of lax on us the last few rounds, so they are cracking down on us this time! the rules are very strict, only e-books and audiobooks (unless/until you fill your generator) that you received for less than $1 (or less than $5 for audios only). That's okay though, because I have A TON of those, and hopefully this will motivate to me work on some of them! To see the complete rules and sign up, check out the #COYER Blackout Sign-Ups .

Join us, the storm begins December 17th and doesn't let up until March 3rd!

Generator: 4/10 (100+ pages = 1, <100 pages = .5)

All done for this round of COYER!

Finished:


142 pgs
Review

123 pgs


228 pages
Review


269 pages
Review


 DNF:

 

Brownies and Broomsticks by Bailey Cates

From Goodreads:

EASY BAKE COVEN

Katie Lightfoot's tired of loafing around as the assistant manager of an Ohio bakery. So when her aunt Lucy and uncle Ben open a bakery in Savannah's quaint downtown district and ask Katie to join them, she enthusiastically agrees.

While working at the Honeybee Bakery—named after Lucy's cat—Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren't just tasty—Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!

When a curmudgeonly customer is murdered outside the Honeybee Bakery, Uncle Ben becomes the prime suspect. With the help of handsome journalist Steve Dawes, charming firefighter Declan McCarthy, and a few spells, Katie and Aunt Lucy stir up some toil and trouble to clear Ben's name and find the real killer.


I wanted to like this more than I did. I did enjoy it, but I wasn't wowed. It doesn't stand out for me amongst the other magical food cozies out there. Mungo is cute, and the "book club" ladies are a fun diverse group, but some of the characters are also annoying, like Steve, who really needed to be put in his place. She asked him how many times to stop calling her Katie-Girl, but he arrogantly kept at it, yet she was still attracted to him? That really turned me off of his character.

The cover is adorable (of course they worked in a cat, who at least does make an appearance in the story, one of my pet peeves when they don't) and the mystery itself was fine.  I did give it a 4/5 in the end, the last third got more interesting with the spell working, and the writing is good, I just didn't really bond with any of the characters strongly.  I would probably read more in the series, but not necessarily seek them out.  It was a pretty easy read for a stressful couple of weeks so it could also have been my mood that kept me a little aloof from it. But I really didn't like Steve, someone needs to knock him down a peg. ;)

Saturday, November 12, 2016

November 2016 TBR List Winner - Brownies and Broomsticks by Baily Cates



 And the winner is...


From Goodreads:

Katie Lightfoot's tired of loafing around as the assistant manager of an Ohio bakery. So when her aunt Lucy and uncle Ben open a bakery in Savannah's quaint downtown district and ask Katie to join them, she enthusiastically agrees.

While working at the Honeybee Bakery—named after Lucy's cat—Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren't just tasty—Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!

When a curmudgeonly customer is murdered outside the Honeybee Bakery, Uncle Ben becomes the prime suspect. With the help of handsome journalist Steve Dawes, charming firefighter Declan McCarthy, and a few spells, Katie and Aunt Lucy stir up some toil and trouble to clear Ben's name and find the real killer..

This looks like just the right kind of light and fun read I need right now, I'm really looking forward to it! And brownies, bring it on!


5 votes2 votes1 vote

Saturday, November 05, 2016

My TBR List - November 2016 - Food



Welcome to my November 2016 edition of My To Be Read List, hosted by Michelle @ Because Reading. This is a monthly meme where we offer up 3 choices from our TBR pile for our readers to pick from to help us make the super hard decision of "what do I read next?" a little easier and to whittle away at the ever growing TBR Mountain! 

Theme: Food! Feel free to leave me a comment and tell me which you chose and why.

The poll will stay open through Friday 11/11 , and I'll update this post with the winning book on Saturday 11/12, then post a review on the last Saturday of the month, 11/26.

If you think this sounds fun and would like to join (the more the merrier, because we love voting!) please head on over to Because Reading where Michelle lays out the rules for us!

And the choices are...




From Goodreads:

Never let them see you sweat-that's White House Assistant Chef Olivia Paras's motto, which is pretty hard to honor in the most important kitchen in the world. She's hell-bent on earning her dream job, Executive Chef. There's just one thing: her nemesis is vying for it, too. Well, that and the fact that an elusive assassin wants to see her fry.


From Goodreads:

Granny was famous for her award-winning apple pies-and notorious for murdering her husband Jacob at their homestead in Julian, California. The only trouble is, Granny was framed, then murdered. For more than one hundred years, Granny's spirit has been searching for someone to help her see that justice is served—and she hits pay dirt when she pops in to a séance attended by her great-great-great-granddaughter, modern-day divorced mom Emma Whitecastle. Together, Emma and Granny Apples solve mysteries of the past—starting with Granny's own unjust murder rap in the final days of the California Gold Rush.
From Goodreads:

Katie Lightfoot's tired of loafing around as the assistant manager of an Ohio bakery. So when her aunt Lucy and uncle Ben open a bakery in Savannah's quaint downtown district and ask Katie to join them, she enthusiastically agrees.

While working at the Honeybee Bakery—named after Lucy's cat—Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren't just tasty—Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!

When a curmudgeonly customer is murdered outside the Honeybee Bakery, Uncle Ben becomes the prime suspect. With the help of handsome journalist Steve Dawes, charming firefighter Declan McCarthy, and a few spells, Katie and Aunt Lucy stir up some toil and trouble to clear Ben's name and find the real killer..


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