Emilie & the Hollow World

Emilie & the Hollow World (Emilie Adventures #1) by Martha Wells

Emilie is living in an 19th century-esque world. She has decided to run away as her aunt and uncle are extremely controlling and always insinuating that she is a wanton women, ready to “whore” it up.

Seriously!

She is going to visit her cousin who runs a school, and work there. Only problem, she doesn’t have enough money to sail there.

But Emilie is of plucky stock and decides to stowaway on a boat. Unfortunately, she ends up stumbling upon a thief ring and a group of sabotagers. She saves the ship she was going to stowaway on, one belonging to Lord Engal.

As the ship sails away, it turns out that they are leaving the country and heading to the center of the Earth. The ship is lead by Lord Engal and Lady Marlende as she is searching for her missing father, Dr. Marlende, his ship damaged inside the Earth.

Also on board is Kennar, a Cirathi which is a creature from inside the planet but traveled out to seek aid for Dr. Marlende.

When they go inside the Earth, they encounter all kinds of strange creatures, get involved in an underearth war, and find themselves caught in betrayal and sabotage.

Emilie is going to have to use every ounce of nerve she has to overcome these obstacles and survive.

Hopefully…

Thoughts After Reading:

I thought this book was fantastically written. For those who are a fan of steam punk, Jules Verne, and fantasy stories, will love this book.

I thought the characters were all well written and fun. Emilie was a normal girl, who was thrown into incredible situations and able to overcome and work with them.

I loved her interactions with one of the sailor/sorcerer Daniel and hope more develops from them. They were hilarious and fun.

Aw, how cute.

I only had two issues with this book:

1) I hate when books have the character Emily spelled Emilie. For some reason my brain keeps reading it as Emil. It’s not the author’s fault, but just a pet peeve of mine.

2) I wish the author gave more background as to Emilie’s world (the non-hollow part). The author just drops us into it, but we never get a lot about the culture. I mean I assume it is similar to our earth, but I don’t know. I think the book would be stronger if they gave us more on that aspect.

Otherwise, I loved it and recommend it.

Read it today!

For more fantasy books, go to Just Because You’re Paranoid, Doesn’t Mean a Demon’s Not After You: Storm Front

For more steam punk books, go to Ticker

For more mysteries involving a missing person, go to B is for Burglar

For more mystery reviews, go to Gingerbread Cookie Murder

A Taste of Fame

A Taste of Fame (Potluck Catering Club #2) by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson

So some of you might be wondering where is the review for book one? Well there is no review for book one.

The first book isn’t a mystery but a Christian novel that chronicles the lives of six women who change from a potluck prayer group to a catering group. Each member has different issues in their lives, as they grow in friendship and through trials. I wanted to skip it, but as I can’t completely do that without confusing you, I’ll give you a bite.

The potluck group was started by Evangeline and grew to have five other members; Vonnie, Goldie, Lizzie, Donna, and Lisa Leann. The women go through trials, tribulations, prayer, and delicious food.

Synopsis:

So since the hiccups of the first novel, the women have had a successful time with their catering business in their hometown. But things are about to change.

Lisa Leann’s son came to visit, and decided to film them for his media class. It turns out that he also used the footage to enter them in the reality show, The Great Party Showdown.

Even though most don’t want to participate, they signed a contract and have to, besides that the church could really use the money they win.

We are so happy for you

They win their first challenge of catering a special event in the community, creating a 1930s Animal Crackers themed party.

And now the ladies are off to New York.

Yay!

Evangeline has adapted to married life with her long time crush, Sheriff Vernon Vesey. She has even developed a better relationship with her stepdaughter, Donna, who has previously hated her. Her biggest issue, she and Lisa Leann are going into the city to do preliminary research, will she survive spending time with the Texan she can’t stand?

Lisa Leann’s old affair came back to bite her in the last book. She admitted everything to her husband, but while he agreed to work on their marriage; he has been cold and silent. When Lisa Leann has to leave, Henry gives her an ultimatum: stay with him and they will stay together or leave and that will be the end.

Vonnie is a little unsure about being in the city, but happy that her son David will be joining her. Vonnie was married when she moved to California to a Latina man. He died in Vietnam and Vonnie went into labor. Knocked out by grief and drugs; her mother told her that her son died and Vonnie signed the release papers, unknowingly signing her son’s adoption papers. When David surprised her by knocking on her door and revealing everything, Vonnie felt blessed to have her child back and loves every moment she has with him.

As they prepare for their next challenges, continuing the movie theme they find a few things they did not expect. They are doing very well, but a few things seem to be going wrong. Almost as if someone is sabotaging them.

But which team?

Lizzie is enjoying the break and opportunity to visit New York as she has had a lot on her plate. In the last book she had her mother’s Alzheimer growing worse, her youngest daughter’s wedding to plan, her son and his family moving in with her when he lost his job, and her husband being injured. But when she helps a deaf couple find their lost handbag, she discovers one of the production assistants for the show on a date with a contestant. She reads their lips and sees that the assistant has “everything arranged.” Is the contest rigged from on high? And if so, what can Lizzie do to stop it?

Donna is feeling pressure from all sides. In high school Donna and Wade dated, and she became pregnant. She lost the baby and Wade began drinking. Now 12 years later, Donna is a deputy and Wade is sober and taking care of his nephew Peter, the boy being the same age as their boy would have been. Donna is considering getting back with him, but then there is David who is crazy about her and wants to start a new relationship.

But now there are the paparazzo hounding her, a Cajun cook trying to start a relationship; all the while Donna being on two cases. First looking to see if her tip about Pete’s mom fleeing her abusive husband for New York to be true, and second who the saboteur is.

Goldie and her husband Jack have had a rocky relationship. Jack had been cheating on Goldie since they first got together, due to his compulsion for sex. They’ve been in counseling, and with the help, Jack has been able to master his compulsion. However, Jack’s health has been bothering him, and when he has to have surgery Goldie leaves the competition to fly out to be by his side. Will she make it in time? Will Jack survive?

Aw…

How will the potluckers be able to win this whole thing down a player and with a saboteur on the loose? Time to pray.

 

Thoughts After Reading:

I thought this was pretty good. The story was fun and interesting and I thought the development of the characters was great.

I loved the idea of the movie themed parties from An Affair to Remember, King Kong, and Guys and Dolls; defintely the theme direction I would have gone in.

The only thing I thought was dumb was that Deputy Sheriff Donna was kind of dim about a few things. She starts investigating Bubba, the Cajun chef, as the potential saboteur and when he tells her she probably mistook his cousin Bordeaux who looks just like him.

What a joke. Come on how could you not see through that.

There were a few other times when it would have been easy to see through things but she didn’t.

But otherwise, I thought it was a good read and think it is worth a read. 🙂

For more caterer mysteries, go to Catering to Nobody

For more Christian novels, go to A Change of Fortune

For more sabotage mysteries, go to The Silence of the Llamas

For more mystery reviews, go to The October Game

The Silence of the Llamas

The Silence of the Llamas (Black Sheep Knitting Mystery #5) by Anne Canadeo

The Black Sheep Knitting group has headed out to the countryside, doing some good farm stand shopping.

The crew is on their way to visit friend’s of Dana’s. Her old college friend Ellie; married Ben Kruegar, sold her successful business, bought a property in Plum Harbor, and created a Llama farm.

Aw, how cute.

This weekend is Ellie ad Ben’s big grand opening of their farm, the Laughing Llama. While the event is fun, full of food and farm animals; somebody isn’t interested in it. In fact, the llamas are attacked by someone with a paint gun, severely injuring them.

It turns out that, that isn’t the only bad thing that has been happening. There have been a series of “pranks” as the couple calls them, ranging from missing items, the animals being released, etc.

It turns out that the idyllic countryside is not that idyllic after all. There is a development company that wants to buy up all the farms, and a group of people are trying to protect the lands. They believe that the Kruegars bought the land, only to turn it over to developers, but Ellie and Ben claim they are here long term.

Their hired hand Dot, is a great help, but not really close to them.

Then one night they find the dead body of the man who was most interested in stopping them from “selling”, Jason Ridley. Now the police are looking at Ben for the murder, and the Black Sheep Knitting group are on the case.

Thoughts After Reading:

So there are two mysteries in this novel. One is the sabotager, and the other is the murderer. This mystery was half good, with the murder being done excellent.

while the sabotage part wasn’t that good. I mean I figured it out immediately.

It wasn’t as bad as A Stitch Before Dying , but not as good as Till Death Do Us Purl or While My Pretty One Knits.

***Spoiler Alert***

So as soon as I read this on page 43:

“Oh, Ellie, what’s the difference? We know who it is. Justin Ridley. He’s the only one who could have done this. The only one who has any reason to harass us. Who believes he has a reason,’ he [Ben] corrected himself.”

I knew it was Ben.

I knew Ben was like the husband in Gaslight and Dangerous Crossing, just after the money and behind the scheme to sabotage so he could get it.

For more Black Sheep Knitting Mysteries, go to Till Death Do Us Purl

For more cases of sabotage, go to A Taste for Murder

For more mystery reviews, go to Just Because You’re Paranoid, Doesn’t Mean a Demon’s Not After You: Storm Front

 

A Taste for Murder

A Taste for Murder (A Hemlock Falls Mystery #1) by Claudia Bishop

We are introduced to the Quilliam sisters: Sarah “Quill” Quilliam is an artist in New York City, known as the next Georgia O’Keefe. She is starting to hit the big time, when she is stalled and has a block on what to paint next. Her younger sister, Meg, is an amazing chef also living in NYC. Around the time that Quill starts having trouble with her paintings, Meg’s husband is killed in an automobile accident.

Both women need a change of scene and travel up north to rural New York. While visiting the cute, country town; the two discover a historic inn for sale. They decide to buy it, run it, and take on this new path in life.

In the first book, to town is getting ready for it’s Historic Days. Quill and Meg already have enough trouble trying to fit in a town where everyone knows each other practically from the womb, and now are trying to work with and around the committee members.

They also discover they have quite a lot of unruly guests, including an older woman and her companion, whom trouble just seems to follow.

A local businessowner is murdered, followed by the companion participating in an Historic Days event.

It’s up to Quill to investigate!

To make things worse, someone is trying to sabotage the inn by canceling reservations, poisoning food, etc.

Quill’s friend flees and is accused

And much more.

Thoughts after reading:

Well I really enjoyed this book. At first I found it a bit hard to get through as the author’s style is old-fashioned and a bit flowery. But it surprised me midway with a few twists and an unexpected villain.

For more on Hemlock Falls, go to A Dash of Death