New Years Week Book Round Up

This week I read 3 books! My internet hasn't been really working until I called tech support today. I think they finally got it working...at least for now! We'll see if it stay like this. The tech support guy switched me to a different channel so I'm getting the fastest internet in 5 years!!! So since I haven't been able to do any reviews I'm just going to do a few mini reviews in one of those final books of 2019. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Raspberry Danish Murder by Joanne Fluke

 2018/ Kensington Books
Adult/ Mystery
362 pages
Audio read by Suzanne Toren
2018/ Recorded Books
10 hours

This books is #22 in the Hannah Swensen series. The last book (Banana Cream Pie Murder) was the first true shocking ending. This book was the same way. I always knew Ross was a bad guy & this book just solidified that for me. I'm curious to see if he'll come back after everything that's happened or if he really is gone for good. We had our first suicide of the series (I think, if I remember all the previous stories) & we had a murder...double whammy! I was determined to catch up on this series by the end of the year. That didn't happen, I still have 1 more book to read but I was close. The recipes sounded really good in this book. I know I say that a lot but these ones especially sounded great! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christmas Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

 2018/ Kensington Books
Adult/ Mystery
270 pages
Audio read by Suzanne Toren
2018/ Recorded Books
6 hours & 12 mins

This is book #23 in the Hannah Swensen series. This like Christmas Caramel Murder isn't a real book in the series order. It doesn't continue where the previous book left off. This book was interesting because not only was it a side story within the main story there was also another story in this one that someone was writing. At first I wasn't super interested in that part but by the end I realized that it was actually relevant to the main story so I went back & read it. There was also no murder in this book. I think that's the first time ever! There was a shooting & that was bad but everything turned out ok in the end. In this book we find out what happened when Hannah left college, her Dad died, & how she got The Cookie Jar, the truck, & her condo. I have to admit that I always kinda knew everyone in this small town was surprisingly rich, or at least well off but I didn't realize Hannah was a "trust fund kid" so to speak. When her Dad dies she uses money that he had invested from his business that's part of her "college fund" to get the bakery & her condo. I always thought that she worked for that money not just had it given to her. I also always wondered why she sent to college & got a Master's degree then opened a cookie business??? We know why she left college but I'm more confused now about her back story than I was before. I'm also a little disappointed in her. She gets up early to run her business & stays up until all hours making dinner for everyone & running all over town solving the murder cases. She seems like a hard working woman but the more I think about it maybe she's not? She seems to spend more time gallivanting around & going out to dinner than actually working, especially now that she has a bunch of people helping her at The Cookie Jar.  I'm still interested in the story but I'm not sure how I feel about it overall anymore.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Peppermint Peril by Joy Avon

2018/ Crooked Lane Books

Adult/ Mystery
282 pages

This was our Cook the Books pick for December 2019. I have to say that it wasn't a bad book but I didn't really enjoy it as much as I have some of the others. I think every time we each have our own opinions about which books we like & didn't like. I didn't finish this book before the meeting so I had the ladies tell me what happened in the story. So the last few chapters I had left I really just skimmed. Some of the books we read I'd be interested in reading more but not this one in particular. Most of the characters were stuck up & very rude. There was a lot of different people in the story, I had to keep little notes to keep everyone straight. I did like the main character & her little dog. I always like the animals! The for our meeting we had a tea party. Lots of members chipped in to organize everything it was very nice & lots of fun but...I forgot to take any pictures!