Cake Popped Off- Great Escapes Tour

About the book 

Cupcake caterer Emory Martinez is hosting a Halloween bash alongside her octogenarian employer, Tillie. With guests dressed in elaborate costumes, the band is rocking, the cocktails are flowing, and tempers are flaring when the hired Bavarian Barmaid tries to hook a rich, hapless husband. Except one of her targets happens to be Emory’s brother-in-law, which bodes ill for his pregnant wife. When Emory tracks down the distraught barmaid, instead of finding the young woman in tears, she finds her dead. Can she explain to the new detective on the scene why the Bavarian Barmaid was murdered in Emory’s bathtub with Emory’s Poison Apple Cake Pops stuffed into her mouth?

With an angry pregnant sister to contend with, she promises to clear her brother-in-law’s name. As Emory starts asking questions and tracking down the identity of the costumed guests, she finds reasons to suspect her brother-in-law has been hiding a guilty secret. Her search leads her to a web of blackmail and betrayal amongst the posh setting of the local country club crowd. Can Emory sift through the lies she’s being told and find the killer? She’ll need to step up her investigation before another victim is sent to the great pumpkin patch in the sky.

Includes spooky Halloween recipes!

And I thought

What a great Cozy read!  I have to say this one gets my vote for favorite of the year (so far the years not over yet!) and wil be featured on my fav's list.  Let me tell you why I loved this book.

The characters are just great.  From page Emory and Tillie just are so fun.  Tillie's wisecracks just cracked me up.  But her fear and concern for her future tugs at your heart strings.  

Each of the characters are well developed and now that I really think about there are a lot of them.  There's friends and family and 'almost' boyfriends and then there are all the suspects and people that Tillie and Emory chat it up with to get answers and clues for the murder.  And then before they can solve the first one Emory finds victim #2.

Poor girl she is the kind of  sleuth that is always the one to find the bodies.

Cake Popped Off was a fast paced  turner that I only put down when my device needed charging it was that good!

I loved all the food that was eaten and described when Tillie and Emory dined at Tillie's club.    I wish the author would have included a few along with the cupcakes and other recipes that were included.

If you want to read a really good Cozy with great characters and a faced paced plot you will want to read Cake Popped Off!

The cover and description may have you thinking Halloween but this one is not about Halloween. 

I received a complimentary copy.  My review will appear on Amazon and Good Reads. 

Cake Popped Off  and the Great Escapes Tour will be promoted on Social Media.

 

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Book Spotlight feat. Minute Zero-I Read Book Tour-Giveaway

I have not read this book.
Spotlights were only offered for this tour

About the book 

Book Title:  Minute Zero (Stronghold Book 1) by Chris Jayne

Category:  Adult Fiction (18 +),  200 pages

Genre:  Thriller, Post Apocalyptic

Publisher:  Inferis Press

Release date:   Sep 11, 2020

Tour dates: Sep 11 to Oct 2, 2020

Content Rating:  Rated PG-13+M for violent scenes and language, but there is no sex.

Book Description:

When the world ends in a heartbeat, suddenly old secrets don’t matter anymore. But new ones still do, and protecting the ones you love is the only thing that still remains.

Two sisters, one a trendy caterer on the run from a vicious killer, the other a country midwife. Because of a simple mistake, Lori Dovner must flee from the vicious mafioso Raoul Saldata, and her life goes from routine day to terrifying journey in a single moment. On the road with her two children, her only goal is to get to her sister’s Montana farm alive. But both Lori and Louise have been hiding a devastating secret for years.

Two brothers, one a Navy Seal on leave, the other a good man who wants to do right by his family. Captain Deacon Hale is taking two weeks to help his brother Roger and his wife Louise on their remote Montana farm. He loved Lori once, but has finally put her behind him. Roger Hale just wants to give his pregnant wife and two young children a good life. He has no idea about the betrayals that have been hidden from him.

Dangerous identity.
Angela Jones is an FBI agent with a terrible debt that she knows she will someday have to pay. And when Raoul Saldata calls in that marker she has no choice but to comply.

Evil incarnate.
Raoul Saldata as a child in Albania, would pretend he was a dhampir, the offspring resulting from the mating between a human female and a vampire. A myth of course, but the evil Saldata practices is anything but. And when he finds Lori Dovner, he intends to do a lot more than just kill her.

MINUTE ZERO (Stronghold: Book One) is an apocalyptic EMP thriller (with a touch of romance) about an ordinary family struggling to stay safe and find each other in the face of insurmountable odds, an abysmal loss of life and the dawn of a new, post-apocalyptic dark age.

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Murder In The Bayou Boneyard by Ellen Byron-Great Escapes Tour-Review/Giveaway

About the book 

  USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author Ellen Byron’s howlingly funny sixth Cajun Country mystery.

 

Maggie Crozat, proprietor of a historic Cajun Country B&B, prefers to let the good times roll. But hard times rock her hostelry when a new cell phone app makes it easy for locals to rent their spare rooms to tourists. With October–and Halloween–approaching, she conjures up a witch-crafty marketing scheme to draw visitors to Pelican, Louisiana.

 

Five local plantation B&Bs host “Pelican’s Spooky Past” packages, featuring regional crafts, unique menus, and a pet costume parade. Topping it off, the derelict Dupois cemetery is the suitably sepulchral setting for the spine-chilling play Resurrection of a Spirit. But all the witchcraft has inevitably conjured something: her B&B guests are being terrified out of town by sightings of the legendary rougarou, a cross between a werewolf and vampire.

 

When, in the Dupois cemetery, someone costumed as a rougarou stumbles onstage during the play–and promptly gives up the ghost, the rougarou mask having been poisoned with strychnine, Maggie is on the case. But as more murders stack up, Maggie fears that Pelican’s spooky past has nothing on its bloodcurdling present.

And I thought . . . I've enjoyed this series from the beginning.  I am always 'taken' with the covers.  I love the illustration with the family dog taking center stage.  

The main characters the Crozart family are fun and endearing.  Maggie the main character is always ready to step in and figure out 'what's up' and who the villain is.  Even if she gets in a little trouble of her own.  

In Murder In The Bayou Boneyard not only does Maggie have to figure out who 'dun it' but she along with the family have to figure out how to keep all their land in the family when a distant relative decides to waltz in with an ages old deed for part of the Cozart property.  Which BTW makes the Cozart clan probably suspects when the cousin meets her demise.  

Ellen Byron gives the reader a page turning mystery with a few twists and turns that keep you turning the pages. 

I always look forward to a new book in this series.  Each one has been a great read.  

 I received a complimentary copy.  My review will appear on retail sites and Good Reads.  Murder In The Bayou Boneyard and the Great Escapes Tour will be promoted on Social Media.

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The Watchman Of Rothenburg Dies by Adiano Licio Great Escapes Tour-Review

About the book
A holiday is a time to relax, unwind and see the sights. But for two adventurous sexagenarians, the sights have a tendency to include dead bodies. 

Etta and Dora, both newly retired teachers, travel from their home in Southern Italy to a fairy-tale German town for their first home swap holiday, delighted by their neighbours’ warm welcome. But the welcome turns sour when the Night Watchman of Rothenburg is brutally murdered while his tour group takes photographs nearby, a halberd buried in his chest and a peculiar iron mask by his side.

When the murderer claims a second victim and the son of their hospitable neighbours becomes the number-one suspect, Etta’s analytical mind goes to work. Why was a shame mask left at the scene of each murder? Is there a clandestine trade going on behind the scenes of apparently upstanding local businesses? And why does every lead take her back to the sinister Devil’s Ale pub and the terrifying gang who lurk within?

Meanwhile, Dora has a puzzle of her own – how can she persuade Etta that a loveably disobedient Basset Hound called Napoleon is now a permanent part of their lives?

◆◆◆ Pack your bags, jump into the backseat of Etta and Dora’s old Fiat 500, and join them on their travels around Europe. There’ll be mystery, murder and mayhem aplenty wherever they go. ◆◆◆ 

And I thought

By the end Adriana Licio had a new fan.  I am anxiously waiting for book two.  

I have to admit for a bit I was really disliking one of the characters.  I had a hard time keeping Dora and Etta straight.   

I don't want to give any thing away.  But one of the main characters  wasn't too keen on taking in the Basset Hound Leon (short for Napoleon) after his owner was murdered.  I mean seriously did you see the cover.  Leon just melts your heart. And the cover of book 2 will 'get you' also! 

I enjoyed the story it was fun going along with girls on their tour of the quaint German town.  And then not only is there one murder to solve but 2!

And before the 2nd one is solved the murderer goes after one of the girls and Leon!

It was easy to turn the pages to solve the murder all the while hoping for a Happy Ending for all.

I couldn't help but be reminded of Murder She Wrote at the end as the girls and the police explain to the neighbors and talk over how and why the murderer began his crime spree.

I enjoyed The Watchman Of  Rothenburg Dies.  Book 2 is on my TBR list.

I received a complimentary copy.

My review will appear on Amazon and Good Reads.

The book and The Great Escapes Tour will be promoted on social media.

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Jokers Wild by Barbara Barrett-Great Escapes Tour-Review

 

About the book

“The show must go on.” That applies even to playwright Marianne Putnam, when the director of her one-act play, “Jokers Wild,” fails to show for curtains up on opening night at the community theater in Serendipity Springs, Florida. When the director’s wife begs Marianne to accompany her to their home to check on him, they find the man floating in his pool. Dead.

Though not known for his pleasant disposition—her relationship with him had been tense since nearly ramming into his car in a parking lot, but after all, he was the director—who would have wanted to murder him? Surely no one in the production crew, cast or the staff of the community center where the play was to be staged. Maybe it was the wife, who Marianne had overheard arguing with him. Or perhaps someone from his theater connections back in the Big Apple.

Since she was there when the body was discovered, Marianne is considered a suspect. That doesn’t mean she can’t help her three Mah Jongg friends—Syd, Micki and Kat—assist the sheriff with the investigation. But who’s there to help her when her path crosses the murderer’s.

And I thought 

Another great read in a fun Cozy series.  I have read several in this series and have enjoyed the antics of Syd and her friends. 
I felt in Jokers Wild that the author seemed to develop each of the main characters more.  At least that is what struck me. 
Each book seems to develop the relationships and the characters more and more.  
In Jokers Wild the husbands/boyfriends began to do more real sleuthing on their own.  In the previous book they had taken to getting into the sleuthing to protect the woman and keep an 'eye' on them.   But in this one they were more into helping prove that Marianne had nothing to do with the murder. 
If isn't hard to discover a list of suspects from disgruntled co-workers/associates, to ex-lovers that the wives turned a blind eye to or did she?  
This group of amateur sleuths is a lively group of retiree's that let no stone go un-turned to solve the mystery and keep each other out of trouble. 
I liked that the relationships have developed with the Sheriff with the sleuths and with Kat (Katrina). 
This one ended with an excerpt of the next book which is on my 
TBR list.   
If you like a good cozy with some fun and sometimes kooky sleuths you'll love this series. 

I received a complimentary copy. 
My review will appear on Amazon and Good Reads. 
Jokes Wild and the Great Escapes Tour will be promoted on social media. 

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Dough Or Die by Winnie Archer-Great Escapes Book Tour-Review/Gveaway

About the book 

Known for its mouthwatering traditional breads, the Yeast of Eden bakery has gained fame across Northern California’s coast. Now the shop is bound for Reality TV—but a murder may kill its reputation . . .

People come to the beach town of Santa Sofia as much for the healing properties of Yeast of Eden’s breads as for a vacation getaway. And now a cable food channel has selected the bakery as a featured culinary delight for a new show. Baking apprentice Ivy Culpepper is excted as the crew arrives, ready to capture all the ins and outs of the renowned bread shop. But instead they capture something much harder to stomach: the attempted murdered of the show’s cameraman just outside Yeast of Eden . . .

With no motive and no clues, and the town craving answers, it will be up to Ivy to sift through the evidence to find the truth. But she’ll have to move quickly before someone else is targeted or the wrong person gets the heat—and the business collapses like a deflated soufflé, right before her eyes.

And others are saying

This is a well told mystery that has plenty of clues, suspects, and red herrings to keep you guessing. What I really loved about it though were the people in the story.
~The Book’s the Thing

Winnie Archer has written another book that pulls you into the story until you can feel yourself right there in the midst of the action!
~A Wytch’s Book Review Blog

It may be a murder mystery, but DOUGH OR DIE is a feel good novel that intelligently looks at today’s society. It’s also a complex mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed, even though it left me craving a loaf of Olaya’s rosemary bread.
~Cozy Up with Kathy

Dough or Die is a bread lover’s delight, and you’ll find yourself drooling over the delicious recipes that are whipped up at Yeast of Eden & by Ivy’s chef boyfriend.
~Reading is My SuperPower

And I thought 

I've enjoyed this series and I think I can safely say this one was my favorite.

There is a bit of a large cast of characters including the baking group the main character Ivy, the bakery owner and workers, Ivy's boyfriend and then all the crew from the reality show filming.  Then there are witnesses and suspects and well there are just a bunch of people involved in this one.  

But Winnie Archer does a great job of developing characters and describing them.  Even the lesser characters that are only in a few scenes are well developed. 

There are lot of clues and a few suspects but even mystery to keep you involved and turning the pages. 

I especially like how the author introduced the method of Key Hole gardening when Ivy volunteered at the women's shelter to investigate a lead.  I had never heard of Key Hole gardening and it was interesting.  

I like the relationship of Ivy and her boyfriend he jumped right in and helped her even though he couldn't actually go in the shelter he was the delivery boy.  What a guy!

And the bread.  My mouth was watering.  There were alot of ethnic breads baked and mentioned.

If you like a good Cozy with a great story and some great characters check out the series. 

I received a complimentary copy. 

My review will appear on retail sites and Good Reads. 

Dough Or Die and the Great Escapes Tour will be promoted on Social Media. 

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There is a great Giveaway offered.  Click here to enter or to read more reviews and other posts. 

Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn-Great Escapes Tour-Review/Giveaway

About the book 

A Shakespearean scholar inherits a beachside bookshop–and a murder mystery–in this delightful new cozy series for fans of Kate Carlisle and Ellery Adams.

Summer Merriweather’s career as a Shakespeare professor hangs by a bookbinder’s thread. Academic life at her Virginia university is a viper’s pit, so Summer spends her summer in England, researching a scholarly paper that, with any luck, will finally get her published, impress the Dean, and save her job. But her English idyll ends when her mother, Hildy, shuffles off her mortal coil from an apparent heart attack.

Returning to Brigid’s Island, NC, for the funeral, Summer is impatient to settle the estate, sell her mom’s embarrassingly romance-themed bookstore, Beach Reads, and go home. But as she drops by Beach Reads, Summer finds threatening notes addressed to Hildy: “Sell the bookstore or die.”

Clearly, something is rotten on Brigid’s Island. What method is behind the madness? Was Hildy murdered? The police insist there’s not enough evidence to launch a murder investigation. Instead, Summer and her Aunt Agatha screw their courage to the sticking place and start sleuthing, with the help of Hildy’s beloved book club. But there are more suspects on Brigid’s Island than are dreamt of in the Bard’s darkest philosophizing. And if Summer can’t find the villain, the town will be littered with a Shakespearean tragedy’s worth of corpses–including her own.

And I thought 

I enjoyed this new cozy read there are few quirky characters to get to know the main character summer it was an interesting person determined to find out what was going on and what happened to her mother I couldn't help but wonder if the author intended for the reader to figure out who did it cuz it was just it was so easy for me to figure out but what I couldn't figure out was why the police chief what's stonewalling on investigating why which is a bit of a little little mystery in itself making this reader wonder whether in future installments we might learn a little more about the chief I did enjoy all of the main characters summer and her aunt her cousin and her niece or just a fun group a family that sticks together I do wish that the author would have been cleared at those cinnamon rolls that they talked about throughout the book in the recipes at the end of the book I enjoyed the ending and how everything came together I felt that the author could have left a bit of a cliffhanger but it was refreshing to see that everything  came together in the end and I look forward to reading more in this series

I received a complimentary copy. 
My review will appear on retail sites and Good Reads. My review and the Great Escapes to will promoted on Social Media.

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Checked Out For Murder by Allison Brook -Great Escapes Tour-Review/Giveaway

About the book 

Carrie Singleton and Evelyn the ghost sleuth the slayings of a starlet and a star-crossed psychic in Agatha Award nominee Allison Brook’s fourth Haunted Library mystery.

Daphne Marriott strolls into Clover Ridge and informs librarian Carrie Singleton that she’s a psychic. But had she foreseen what fate awaited her, Daphne would have steered clear of the quaint Connecticut town. Evelyn, the library ghost, tells Carrie that there’s more to Daphne than she lets on.

The mysterious woman grew up in Clover Ridge with her no-good dad, who apparently met his end at the hands of Daphne’s brother, Billy. Still, Daphne proves a welcome distraction when Carrie’s overbearing mother hits town. Mom’s much younger husband, Tom, is in a movie that’s that’s lensing locally, and she’s there to keep an eye on him: Tom’s costar, sultry Ilana Reingold, is also his ex-fiancée, and there’s no denying the chemistry is still there. Soon after mingling with the moviemakers at a meet-and-greet, Daphne is found dead.

Carrie and Evelyn investigate, assisted by bushy-tailed library cat Smoky Joe. But the suspect list could overflow the library shelves. Has Billy killed another relative? Is their long-missing mother involved? Or Daphne’s mean ex-husband? Carrie’s sure she knows who committed the crime, but can she bind together the clues before the culprit Dewey-decimates the town? 

And I thought
Sometimes covers beckon you to take a chance and turn the pages.  Checked Out For Murder was one that captured my attention.  The cover with Smokey Joe the resident library cat beckoned this reader to turn the pages. 
This was a good read filled with a bit of drama and murder.  I enjoy Carrie and the resident ghost Evelyn.  
When 1 murder leads to another Carrie has her hands full trying to get the answers while juggling her romantic life and her moms and her relationship with said mom that is well 
strained (?).
I love the small town setting and I really enjoy the library setting.  This is a great series.  Each book is written as a standalone. 

I received a complimentary copy. 
My review will appear on retail sites and Good Reads. 
Checked Out For Murder and the Great Escapes Tour
will be promoted on social media. 


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Dog-Gone Dead by Jackie Layton-Great Escapes Tour-Review/Giveaway

About the book

Who’d have thought mulch could cause such a stink?

Low Country dog walker Andi Grace Scott is happy to score some free mulch from one of her brother’s landscaping jobs—until she discovers the dead body buried beneath the bark.

Worse, her brother’s landscaping tools were used to commit the murder. Once the police arrest her brother and seem happy to have “caught their man,” Andi Grace has no choice but to track down the real killer. She’ll risk everything to prove her brother’s innocence. Even if it means turning over every rock in town.

If you love small-town coastal life, dogs, and strong heroines, you’ll love Dog-Gone Dead.

And I thought
What a delightful refreshing  and charming cozy mystery if you can use the words delightful and charming for a cozy.  Dog-Gone Dead is one!

Dog Gone Dead  was just dog gone good! I didn't have the privilege of getting to read book 1 and really the only reason I knew that this one wasn't book one that's because I read the

 info for the tour.

 It was easy to pick up and get into the characters and the plot there was a little reference to the plantation that Angie Grace inherited in the previous book  but it just made me want to go back and read book 1 so that I can get all the background info. 

 I loved the concept of turning the plantation into a bed-and-breakfast and Adventure Park for dogs for boarding and day

care. 

The mystery Who Dun It kept me guessing! Was it the wife? 

The jilted lover?  The lover of the lover?  Or the boss? 

The were a bunch of suspects that keeps the reader guessing along with Angie Grace who is determined to find the answers and prove her brother had nothing to do with the crime. Since Angie was guessing too I didn't feel too bad I didn't sleuth out the answers!

The cover was kind of cartoonish but it beckons the reader to dig in and turn the pages.

This one was a super clean read.  The main characters speak about their faith.  And I enjoyed that.  

I look forward to many more in this series and purchasing book 1. 

I received a complimentary copy. 

My review will appear on retail sites and Good Reads and promoted on social media. 

Dog Gone Dead will be featured here and on My Journey Back the Journey Back blog in future posts.  

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Mystery Follows Her -A Collection of Cozy Mysteries by Mutiple Authors -Great Escapes Tour-Review/Giveaway

About the book

MISCHIEF, MAYHEM, OR MURDER?

MYSTERY FOLLOWS HER through dangerous city streets, quaint villages, and locales across the globe. Uncover the clues with feisty female sleuths of various ages in this multi-author cozy mystery collection of short stories.

Catch a mugger in THANKSGIVING AND THEFT by Dianne Ascroft
Dig up hidden treasure in BURIED BY THE BEACHby Ellen Jacobson
Open up a case in CLOSED OUT by Tamara Woods
Pray for justice in TREASURES IN HEAVEN by Sarah Biglow
Escape the blame in RING GONE ‘ROUND THE ROSES by Aubrey Elle
Try on some clues in THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN RING by Beate Boeker
Search for the suspect in WHEN THE CLOCK CHIMES TWO by Adriana Licio
Catch the culprit in HIJINKS IN AJIJIC by Vikki Walton
Locate the missing loot in VENDORS AND VILLAINS by Angela K. Ryan

You’ll love this collection of intriguing and light-hearted stories from award-winning and best-selling authors from across the globe.

And I thought 
Very fun.  Mystery Follows Her was a charming and cozy chance to meet a few new authors.  A few were familiar but many in this group were new to me. 
I enjoyed the short mysteries.  They seemed to be just the right length for quiet evening read.   Each one is well written and a lot of them are prequels to series so the reader gets an introduction to the series.
I loved the cover and I felt that it depicted the collection well and intrigued me to turn the pages.

Can I pick a favorite? 

 That is hard for me so I'll just say I enjoyed every story and every moment of reading.
I do have several new additions to my TBR pile.

If you love good cozy mysteries buy this one or put on your wish list. 
This collection is a great gift for a Cozy reader or someone you want to introduce to the world of Cozy.

I received a complimentary copy.
My will apreview appear on retail sites and Good Reads.
Mystery Follows Her will be promoted on social media
and ison my 2020 Christmas picks list.


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