Kale to the Queen by Nell Hampton

Kale to the Queen

Author: Nell Hampton
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (The Quick Brown Fox & Company)
Year: 2017
Genre: Mystery
Age: Adult 18+
Page Count: 208

Rating:

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This is book #1 in a new series by this author called the Kensington Palace Chef Mystery. Book #2 is already out, this year I think, & I'm hoping she continues with them. This author also writes under the name Nancy Coco & Nancy J Parra. She has several other "cozy mystery" series, maybe I'll check some of those out. This was our Cook the Books book club pick for this month.

This book follows the new life of our main character Chef Carrie Ann Cole. She has recently left her life in Chicago with long time boyfriend John behind to move to England & be the personal chef of the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge. Although the book doesn't mention their real names we all know the famous faces that live in the palace in real life. I wonder if they have a personal chef in real life? Let's hope not with the way this story turns out. After only her first day on the job one of the sous chef's ends up dead in a bed of kale inside the beautiful private royal greenhouse! It's up to Carrie Ann to help solve the mystery. Throw in a hunky gardener, a charming head of security, & one jerk of a boyfriend & the story is almost complete. I think I see something possibly happening in the future with the gardener but I'll have to keep reading to find out. I won't go into complete details to ruin the story but I think Carrie Ann made the right choice to come to a new country for a new job. She is very brave to do such a thing.

The recipes in this book sound good. The "host" of our book club today made the frittata & that's something I don't eat unfortunately because it looked delicious. Someone else also picked this book when we did our recipe parade a few months ago & they made some delicious scones, that's the recipe I'll include down below. Overall I enjoyed this book & I'm gonna keep reading the series.

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder

Author: Joanne Fluke
Publisher: Kensington Books
Year: 2013
Genre: Mystery
Age: Adult 18+
Page Count: 323

Audio Publisher: Recorded Books
Audio Year: 2013
Audio Reader: Suzanne Toren
Audio Length: 9 hours & 48 mins

Rating:

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This is book #16 in the Hannah Swensen series. I really enjoy listening to these on audio. I have 2 more books until Hannah's big day & 8 until I'm all caught up with the series. It's gonna be weird to be caught up & not have anymore to listen too. I think this is the longest series I've ever read.

In this installment of our story we see once again that anyone who crosses Hannah always gets what they deserve. But maybe in this case the "bad guy" was trying to do some good before an untimely although very satisfying death. One of the things that I've thought about before but really came to light in this story is how the heck do these people that live in small town Minnesota live such a wealthy life? Maybe I'm confused about the way of life there. I'm pretty sure the books take place in the late 90's early 2000's so it's a different time, but that wasn't that long ago! For example in the previous books many of the women including Hannah talk about visiting a popular dress shop there in town, it seems that they spend large amounts of money on cocktail dresses for when they go to dinner out at the Lake Eden Inn, a resort in their town. Now I understand having a nice dress to go to dinner at a nice place but the way they talk about it is as if they are going to the prom or something. So in this book the over the top thing that I just didn't get was they had just remodeled a hotel in town & they were having a big party. The hotel had a giant penthouse suite with a pool & they all gathered as a giant crane delivered a big glass dome to go over the pool & patio to protect it from the weather. Something like that just seems very fancy for a small town. But then again it is fictional!

I was able to figure out who the killer was pretty quick in this one so I wasn't surprised at the end. Hannah had another death defying feat to escape the killer, she had to climb out onto the window cleaning rig of the giant glass dome of the hotel penthouse, kinda like when she ended up in the car that was being held up by the crane, if I remember right from a previous book. Her & Mike aren't on the best of terms, they haven't been for the last few books. He keeps doing stupid stuff to her & being a complete jerk then later he's all oh I'm sorry I love you blah blah blah. If I was Hannah I wouldn't put up with that! But she is going to marry someone else in just 2 books so we'll see what happens from here. So far Hannah & Norman are going strong despite the whole Dr. Bev thing, I hope they can make it work but I don't know what will happen for sure.

The recipes in this book sounded delicious! Especially since I started a diet about 2 weeks ago I was dying to eat some of this stuff! I've included one for you below.

Evermore by Sara Holland

Evermore

Author: Sara Holland
Publisher: Harper Collins
Year: 2019
Genre: Fantasy
Age:  YA 13+
Page Count: 346

Audio Publisher: Harper Audio
Audio Year: 2018
Audio Reader: Eileen Stevens
Audio Length: 9 hours & 1 min

Rating:

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This is my 275th blog post!!! That's a lot of reading & activities. This blog started off as a way to show my friends & family back home what I was doing at my new job (at the time it was at a different library then I'm at now). It has turned into a way for me to communicate with all of you...my readers...& show you what I love to read & I hope you will enjoy it too. I plan on continuing into the future for as long as I am able. So here we go...

This is book #2 in the Everless duology. I just finished rereading Everless last week so that I'd be fully read to read this book since it's been about a year since I originally read Everless & fell in LOVE! I don't think I fully did the book justice the first time. It is a phenomenal book & if you like fantasy you will love it too. It's unlike anything I've ever read before.

This 2nd book though...I'm conflicted. I feel like the story ended too quickly & was a little abrupt. The progression of the story was different than the first book. It started off right where the first book ended but I felt like by about half way in we just weren't where we should have been. That being said I still enjoyed the story. I was happy that it ended in the way I thought it would...kinda LOL. What I mean by that is the big ta-da event took place just not in the way I thought it would. I think the slight twist was set up that way to make the main character look like "the good guy" even though I'm starting to think she had the potential to be as bad as "the bad guy" if given the right opportunity. There were some surprises along the way, a romantic interest keeps you going (although it was a little predictable), & they all lived happily ever after. I started out reading the book but it had a hold on it so I switched to the audio & the reader is the same as the first. I thought it was a little slow for my ears which usually happens to me so I sped it up to 1.25 times the regular speed. I don't like the Audible speed settings as much as RBDigital's. Overall I really enjoyed this duology & I would highly recommend it to fantasy readers.

August 2019 TBR

This month I'm planning on reading at least 5 books like I did last month. I already started on 2 of them that I'm hoping to finish this weekend so I think it's doable. 

Evermore by Sara Holland

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37693552-evermore?ac=1&from_search=true 

This is book #2 in the Everless duology & I'm so excited!!!! I'm still in the early stages, like chapter 3 or 4 but I've waited a long time for our library to get it! 

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15811630-red-velvet-cupcake-murder?ac=1&from_search=true 

This is book #16 in the Hannah Swensen series & I'm listening to it on audio. 

Kale to the Queen by Nell Hampton

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31213510-kale-to-the-queen?ac=1&from_search=true 

This is our book club book pick for August.

Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37569327-good-riddance?ac=1&from_search=true

My mom read this book & really liked it so she gave it to me & I'm gonna try & get to it this month.

The Wicked King by Holly Black 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26032887-the-wicked-king?ac=1&from_search=true

I found this one e book through Overdrive, one of the benefits of having many library cards LOL! I'm sure I'll speed through it. 

 

July 2019 Wrap-Up

This month I was really happy with the books I was able to read. I'm hoping to keep my streak going into the fall. We'll see how things pan out now that summer reading is over. I had 2 audiobooks, our book club book, a book I've been waiting to read for a long time, & a great reread.

Cinnamon Roll Murder by Joanne Fluke

My review is  here.
https://whitemountainlibrarian.blogspot.com/2019/07/cinnamon-roll-murder-by-joanne-fluke.html
I'm still keeping up with this series on audio, I'm already moving onto #16..I think that's right LOL. They are fast & easy to listen to & the recipes are good.


The Lifters by Dave Eggers

My review is  here.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35734857-the-lifters?from_search=true
I saw this book on the shelf on audio while I was shelving one day. I ended up buying it because one of the characters is named Maisie. I discovered there was also pictures in the book & that really added to the story.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

My review is here.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26032825-the-cruel-prince?ac=1&from_search=true
This one I have been waiting a long time to read & I am so happy I finally did! Now I'm hoping to read the next one in August & then I have to painfully wait until November...I think that's the right month...for the last one.

Pies & Prejudice by Ellery Adams

My review is here.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13055971-pies-and-prejudice?ac=1&from_search=true
This was our book club pick for July & I enjoyed it overall. 

Everless by Sara Holland

My review is here.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32320661-everless?ac=1&from_search=true
This book was my reread & I liked it even more the 2nd time. I didn't do another review & I kinda feel like my 1st one really didn't do it justice, you have to read the boo to fully understand how good it is!