It's Monday! What Are You Reading? #2 + Summer 2016 Comment Challenge

This was another crazy weekend. I participated in the Save Our Cozies Readathon, met with my mystery book club, and went to my childhood best friend's bridal shower. For an introvert like me, all this enforced socializing has left me exhausted. Happy, but exhausted. Not looking forward to work tomorrow.

First things first, the Save Our Cozies Readathon was so much fun! I'm new to the blogging community, so it was nice to participate in something that made me feel like I was part of the group. It's crazy how fast an hour can pass, as I struggled to keep up with the hourly challenges. I greatly enjoyed it, and would sign up again in a heartbeat. I not only found lots of awesome blogs to visit, but I read three different books that I'd had my eye on, but never got around to reading. I also won one of the challenges, so I'm eagerly awaiting a copy of Terror in Taffeta ^^

Hosted @ The Book Date

It's Monday! What Are You Reading is a chance for me to talk about what I was/am/will be reading.

What I Read Last Week:

First up, I did a LOT of reading last week. For the Save Our Cozies Readathon, I read Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna (reviewed here), Death with All the Trimmings (reviewed here), and Murder at Fountainebleau (expect a review soon).

I liked Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna, but ultimately found it disappointing. I might have had my standards too high, but I found the plot rather convoluted. I might check out more in the series, but it's not on my priority list. Death with All the Trimmings was a fun, easy read and I definitely plan on checking out more in this series. The last book I read for the Readathon was hands-down my favorite. Even though I had never read any of the other books in the Elizabethan Mystery series, I was immersed from the very first page. I literally ordered all 5 books in the series as soon as I was finished, I loved it so much. Highly recommended.

1) Pretty good, 2) Good, 3) EXCELLENT

Bruno, Chief of Police was my mystery discussion group's July selection. I really, really enjoyed this book. It started off a bit slow for me, but I was soon immersed in the intricacies of food, life, politics, and murder taking place in the fictional town of St. Denis. The food descriptions were so good, that I whipped up on omelette based on one of the passages in the book (recipe here)

The Teaberry Strangler is, I believe, the 10th volume in the Tea Shop Mystery series. Another great edition, though I suspect I enjoy the world and the characters much more than I do the mystery-solving.

What I Am Currently Reading:

 

 

I got A Dark and Stormy Murder at the author's book signing and discussion and have just been waiting for the craziness of last week to finish before reading it.Throw Away Girls was downloaded from Netgalley (why did it take me so long to find you?!), and it seems like an interesting departure from the many cozies I've been reading. Expect reviews on both in the coming weeks.

What's Up Next:

I am a huge fan of graphic novels, and spent a ton of money on Saturday picking up the latest trades. Paper Girls has been sitting on my shelf, but it's definitely going to be read soon, not only because it's gotten great reviews but because it's also a mystery. So expect me to talk about it in the coming weeks.

Lastly, I will be participating in the August/Summer 2016 Comment Challenge, hosted by 

Lonna @ FLYLeF and Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense.

Since I'm a new blogger, I figured this would be a great way to meet other people in the blogging community, make some friends, and discover new blogs. I'm new to this, so I'm only signing up for 5-10 comments. I can't wait to meet my blog partner! 

You can also follow along on Twitter by using the hashtag #commentchallenge2016

(Save Our Cozies!) Book Review: Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna by Maia Chance

Title: Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna (A Fair Tale Fatal Mystery #3)
Author: Maia Chance
Genres: Mystery| Amateur sleuth| Historical fiction| Fairy tale
Print length: 320 pages
Publisher: Berkeley
Publication Date: February 2nd, 2016
Source: Library
Format: Paperback
Author website: http://www.maiachance.com/ 

Variety hall actress Ophelia Flax knows how to win over an audience. That’s why she’s accepted the marriage proposal of the brutish Comte de Griffe to nettle her occasional investigative partner—and romantic sparring partner—the pompous if dashing Professor Penrose. 
But with his boorish table manners, wild mane of hair, and habit of prowling away the wee hours, the comte has shredded Ophelia’s last nerve. She intends to disengage from her feral fiancé at his winter hunting party—until Penrose, his lovely new fiancée, and a stagecoach of stranded travelers arrive at the comte’s sprawling château. Soon she can’t tell the boars from the bores.
When one of the guests is found clawed and bloody in the orangerie, Ophelia is determined to solve the murder before everyone starts believing the local version of Beauty and the Beast. But until the snows melt, she can’t trust her eyes—or her heart—since even the most civilized people hold beastly secrets...Goodreads

The plot: The classic fairy tale (and best Disney movie ever), Beauty and the Beast, is re-imagined as a fun take on the traditional mystery. 

Our heroine, Ophelia Flax, a former actress/circus performer/lord-knows-what-else, seems to have landed herself in a bit of trouble by agreeing to marrying the rich, yet brutish Comte de Griffe. He believes that she is a rich American heiress, a ruse that she is quickly becoming uncomfortable with. Before she can come clean and break off the engagement, the money she set aside for passage back to America mysteriously disappears. Her scheming companion Henrietta promises to reimburse her if Ophelia keeps up the charade long enough for Henrietta to seduce a rich acquaintance of the Comte. A conman named Forthwith jumps in on this scheme. Wacky hijinks ensue.

To further complicate things, Professor Penrose, a romantic entanglement from previous books, makes an appearance at the Comte's estate with his beautiful fiancee and future father-in-law in tow. To add to this ever-growing party, a stagecoach breaks down outside the Comte's gate and several mysterious strangers join our cast of characters.

Murder(s), snooping, false imprisonment, and a history lesson behind the original story of Beauty and the Beast follow this curious event.


The character(s): Ophelia Flax is our typical, plucky young American heroine. She is a consummate survivor, but with a strong moral code that demands she make her own way in life. Her unusual background within this world makes her a much more interesting character than most cozy heroines.

Beauty, Beast, and Belladonna is the 3rd book in the Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery series, and I must confess that I have yet to read the first two. My lack of knowledge on the series made it a little confusing in the beginning, because the pre-established relationships play a rather important role throughout the novel. However, I don't feel that it's necessary to read the previous books in order to enjoy the story.


The mystery: This book took some crazy twists and turns; most of them were interesting, others not so much. I went back and forth a few times on who the killer really was, but due to the complicated plot and surplus of characters, it was hard to really pin them down. Not sure if this is a positive point or not.

Final bite: This book was a pleasant departure from my usual culinary-inspired cozies, though the plot was a bit convoluted and the page length was a tad too long for a cozy. I'm in a weird position; I didn't care enough for the book to read the first two books in the series, but I liked it enough to read future volumes.

If you like historical mysteries and fairy tale-inspired stories, you will probably love this book.

Rating: 3.6/5

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