I had a hard time putting this book down. From start to finish, I was on the edge of my seat.
I mistakenly thought the book was a cozy mystery when I requested it on Netgalley so part way through the book I was a bit bothered by some of what was happening.
It seemed a little darker than a cozy mystery, but, so far, up to that point the book had been like a cozy mystery – very clean, no graphic descriptions of bodies, close friends for the main character, quirky characters in general, a small town, and a fairly straightforward mystery.
Eventually, I began to accept that this wasn’t a light and fluffy cozy mystery but one with a bit more grit to it. Not enough grit to be disturbing or horrifying, however.
There is a sad backstory for our main character, Maggie Walker, but I like how she deals with that story slowly as the book and mystery unfold. I like how she has empathy for victims of crime, which is something I don’t always see in cozy mysteries. Sometimes main characters are a bit more flippant about the crime that has occurred.
Maggie Walker is not flippant about what she has been thrust into the middle of, or what she has experienced in the past. She’s very realistic and faces it head-on without bringing the reader all the way down in the dumps.
I loved the friendship between Maggie and Sally.
I think Maggie needs a pet, though, so if there are going to be more of these books, I would like Maggie to have at least a cat so she isn’t rattling around in her grandmother’s old house all alone anymore.
My one negative was that the book dragged just a little bit toward the end for me. It was just a little bit, though, and not enough for me not to want to keep going and find out what happened. I am only adding that so other readers will know that if you feel the same way – don’t give up. Push through because the ending is worth it. Other readers may not feel that it dragged, however.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own and a positive review was not required or requested.
Welcome to my Sunday Morning Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading, watching, listening to, andwhat I’ve been writing.
We got snow this past week, but it was a weird storm. We got 6 or 7 inches in our little down, but a few miles up the road they got 10 or 12. My parents live about five miles away from us and they got about 4 or 5. The town three miles north of them received a dusting. The town 15 miles from us where we buy the bulk of our groceries received only rain.
It was a strange storm, needless to say. It wreaked havoc because the snow was very heavy and wet. It knocked down already dead Ash trees in our area (killed by the ash boar) and knocked them down onto lines, taking out power for many in the area. Our power has been flickering off and on since Friday night.
For some reason, we have no cell service right in town but at least my Wi-Fi calling works in the house. We aren’t sure if that is connected to the storm or not.
The snow, for all the chaos it caused, though, was very pretty.
I’m hoping future snows this winter will be less heavy and damaging. A few of our bushes and one of our trees was damaged. A big maple in front of us that we can’t currently afford to have cut down (this thing is one of the biggest maple trees I have ever seen in my life!) lost a limb. I was worried it might lose more and cause major damage to our house or our neighbors. Getting this thing cut down will have to be a priority in 2025.
I had hoped that the snow day would mean more time in front of the fire, reading a book. Sadly, I spent most of Friday watching Little Miss play in the snow, loading the woodstove with wood, cooking some dinner, and doing other odds and end chores. I did find a little time to read some, though, thankfully.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
I have been reading The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene. It is, of course, a Nancy Drew Mystery. One of the early ones. Number 27 to be exact. It’s okay but I’m a little confused about the plot and who the wooden lady is. This one seems to be a bit all over the place. It’s not like anyone has ever called these early middle-grade books great literature, of course. The mysteries do hold up most of the time. This time around I don’t feel like this mystery is really capturing my attention like others have.
I also started Christy by Catherine Marshall last week and while I am only on Chapter 2, I am really enjoying it.
The Boy and I are reading The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for his British Literature course. It is a bit slow getting into but then it really picks up.
This past week I finished two of the three novellas in an Amish romance/Christmas novella collection. I haven’t finished the third yet because the second one, honestly, wasn’t that great to me.
The collection was The Christmas Gathering with authors Shelley Sheppard Gray, Lenora Worth, and Rachel Good.
I’m not usually someone who reads Amish fiction, but that wasn’t the issue with the one novella. It just dragged and dragged and threw in way too many characters for a 12-chapter book.
My plans have changed a little bit on what I am reading next because first, my sister-in-law (brother’s wife) told me about a series and I decided I’d try it. That book is The Sweetness of the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. It is the first in the Flavia De Luce Mysteries.
Also, I had a book on hold on Libby and it became available yesterday. That book is Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood. It is the second book in The Marlow Murder Club series.
After those books, or while reading them, I’ll be adding A Quilt For Christmas by Melody Carlson, which I picked up from a recent library trip.
Little Miss and I are still reading And Then There Were Five from The Melendy series by Elizabeth Enright. We read that some nights before bed if we aren’t too tired. She is reading the second book in the Harry Potter series as well, but not every day.
The Husband just finished The Bounty Huntersby Elmore Leonard.
What We’ve Been Watching
The past week I watched Transformers One twice. I watched it first with Little Miss and The Boy and then we watched it as a family last night for The Husband’s birthday. The Transformers aren’t really my thing but growing up my friends loved them and I played with them some too so I do know a lot of the characters. Not like The Husband and The Boy do. Sheesh – the tiny little details they know is a little mind-blowing.
They know all the characters and storylines from the original shows and the ones in between, as well as the live action films and the comics.
Last Sunday, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I watched Chocolat during a watch party. That was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to when we do that again.
I finished reading over and rewriting parts of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree Friday and it is now in the hands of my editor husband. From there it will be proofed. I’ll be looking for advanced readers for the book. If you are interested, you can sign up to read it before it comes out here.
This week I finally sat down and listened to another episode of the True Drew Podcast, which talks all about Nancy Drew – the books, the games, etc.
I also listened to a podcast by a homeschooling dad called The Life Without School. That was eye opening and interesting.
So what have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
This is a blog link-up where we not only allow you to share your past posts but we encourage it. So share away!
Tonight into tomorrow we are getting our first winter storm of the year.
According to forecasters, we are getting either two inches or twelve. I am not kidding about the forecast. I’ll keep you all updated on what we actually do get.
I’m so glad you are here and participating in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. You can share up to three links each week.
We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I have been watching movies from September through November for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema.
This week we had a watch party for the movie Chocolat and we were the only two who showed up, but it was still fun.
We were hoping for at least one or two more people to join in but maybe next time around.
Chocolat is a movie from 2000 starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, and Alfred Molina, among others.
The plot of the movie is about Vianne Rocher, played by Binoche, who travels from town to town with her daughter, Anouk, never staying in one place because, she says, a type of curse was put on her family that causes the female members feel the need to travel to another place when the east wind blows.
This means the women in the families, are always on the move, rarely making long term connections with spouses or significant others, or really anyone.
Anouk, is becoming drained from the traveling and it’s clear she’s longing for a place to call home.
Friends are made somewhat slowly in the small town thanks to the iron-fisted rule of the mayor Comte de Reynaud (Molena) who is also in control of the church and uses religious guilt as a weapon against the people of the town. He is wealthy but is very lonely due to the fact his wife has gone to Venice and seems to have not come back.
Vianne opens her chocolate shop at the beginning of Lent, which is the time when Christians abstain from temptations, which sometimes include sweets, for about a 40-day period before Easter.
Vianne is not a Christian – in fact she’s probably more into Paganism — and is confused why Molina’s character is offended by her opening the shop. She also doesn’t really care that he is offended, if we want to be honest.
She wants to be welcomed with open arms but also seems to want to show that she is a free spirit who doesn’t care much about their traditions. She’s well-meaning, though, especially when it comes to wanting to changed the lives of a neglected wife, an abused wife, a grandmother who has been cut off from getting to know her grandson (Dench), and an older couple who simply need an extra push toward romance.
The movie is charming and shows the importance of accepting others who are different from you but also brings to light the dogmatic nature that can settle into organized religion.
Molina’s character thinks he controls everything even while he fights for control within himself. He tells the young priest at the church what to say and suggests that anyone who steps away from his will is also defying God.
The story becomes even more complex when Johnny Depp’s character, an Irish gypsy or “boat rat” shows up via his riverboat and faces the wrath of Comte de Reynaud who seems to see any outsider as a threat to the village.
Vianne feels a connection to Roux who is also an outcast in town and pretty much anywhere he goes.
Erin and I were chatting during this one so I shared with her that I felt someone like Colin Ferrell could have played Johnny’s part better than him. He was all the rage in the 1990s and early 2000s, I know, but he’s not actually Irish and I felt his accent sort of showed that. Ferrell is Irish and could have given the same type of smoldering looks that Johnny gave to Binoche.
I also shared with her during a scene where Johnny pretends to eat a worm that a classmate of mine in elementary school actually did eat a worm. My teacher was horrified and yelled, “Jeremy! You just ate a living thing! Go inside and think about what you’ve done!”
Chocolat was nominated for 35 different awards, but only won three.
It was nominated for five Academy Awards including best picture, actress (Binoche) and best supporting actress (Dench). It did not win any, sadly.
Directed by Lasse Halstrom the screenplay was written by Robert Nelson Jacobs and based on the book of the same name by Joanne Harris.
Halstrom said in an interview that one thing he really liked about the book was how complex Harris’s female characters were. They had a lot of layers and he wanted to make sure that was conveyed in the movie as well.
This movie is a favorite of mine because of all of the superb performances – especially Binoche, Molina, and Dench.
Have you seen this one? What did you think?
I’m leaving the trailer here for you in case you would like to watch it.
With this movie, we have reached the end of our Comfy, Cozy Cinema for Autumn but will begin our link-ups for our Comfy, Cozy Christmas after Thanksgiving. As usual, these will be any posts related to the holiday season – books, movies, traditions, events, thoughts, analysis, etc. and you can post your links to the link up at any time during the month of December.
If you would like to share your review of this movie you can link to your post here:
Come celebrate the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Facebook group (clean and Christian fiction) reaching 500 members with this chance to win six different ebooks by six different authors.
The giveaway is from November 14 to November 21.
Here is a description of each book that will be provided to the winner:
When You Returned: a second chance romance by Havelah McLat: “When Jaclyn, a renowned skater, is losing the beloved rink that has been in her family for generations, she seeks for professional help. Lavern broke her heart eight years ago. She vows not to fall for him and only works with him to save the rink. What could go wrong?” by . “When Jaclyn, a renowned skater, is losing the beloved rink that has been in her family for generations, she seeks for professional help. Lavern broke her heart eight years ago. She vows not to fall for him and only works with him to save the rink. What could go wrong?”
Return of the Son by Demi Griffin: Biblical Fiction about the widow from Nain, a romantic story about an arranged marriage, a troubled king, and a relentless Savior.
Confessions to a Stranger by Danielle Grandinetti: Secrets abound in this suspenseful, first-in-series historical romantic mystery.
Third Identity by Kelsey Gjesdal:. Double agent Rebecca Sanders has life going the way she wants it until her twin sister shows up and everything starts going wrong.
The Maestro’s Missing Melody by Amy Walsh: a romantic comedy set in a small village in the UK.
Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing by Lisa R. Howeler: A modern cozy mystery with a vintage feel. Full of lovable characters, a light mystery, and just a dash of romance.
Well, nothing too serious really and I am certainly not saying all “old ladies” do these things.
I guess you could say I am drawing on the stereotypes of “old ladies”, not the realities, so please do not take offense if you do consider yourself an actual “old lady.”
The stereotypes I am talking about are where they eat prunes (well, we—I mean they — have to because their digestive systems slow down!), curl up under blankets (hey, their circulation isn’t what it used to be), watch Murder She Wrote (hey, it’s a fun escape!), pet their cats (cats are cozy!), and sip warm herbal tea.
Of course, I know they (um….we?) aren’t all like that, but this weekend we came home from taking one of Little Miss’s friends back to her dad and I realized I had the rest of the night to myself. I opened the fridge to pour myself a glass of lactose-free milk (hey, don’t judge – it’s not an old lady thing. I’ve been lactose-intolerant since I was born.) and saw my prunes in the fridge door.
Yes, I have prunes. Let’s not talk about why. I grabbed a couple and declared to my husband, “You know, I actually enjoy prunes!”
In the next few seconds, I remembered I hadn’t finished an episode of Murder She Wrote before we left so I said, “Oh! I have a Murder She Wrote episode to finish!” I think I might have even clapped. The very idea of getting my warm blanket, making a cup of tea, and watching Murder She Wrote was just thrilling to me.
And that’s when it hit me.
I actually am old. I’m not even 50 yet but I looked at my husband and said, “I’m old! I’m eating prunes and watching Murder She Wrote!”
He said something along the line of, “You’re not old – now go in and cuddle under your blanket and maybe make some tea later while you finish your episode, dear.”
I confess to you that I did not watch just that one episode of Murder She Wrote. No. I watched two more and Little Miss watched them with me.
We were like two little old ladies.
I was under one blanket and she was under another.
She had a dog and cat with her and then the cat curled up on me part of the time too.
Every little while one of us would comment about the show, but mainly we were fairly quiet.
“There’s something not right about that ginger,” she said at one point. “Something about her eyes are crazy.”
“I think that guy did it,” I said. “They always have the innocent looking ones that we all fall in love with be the bad guy in these shows.”
Then her, “Yeah you two could be friends under different circumstances — like if you hadn’t straight up killed that man!”
Continuing the old lady theme throughout the weekend, Little Miss and I watched a couple episodes of Mary Berry’s show and I read from a series of Christmas novellas/Amish romances.
I hadn’t seen this series of Mary Berry on Amazon before so I was giddy with excitement. The series was filmed in 2022. Mary is 89 this year. She was 87 years old and looks like she’s in her 60s and still as perky and active as ever. I know that won’t be me at her age – if I even make it that far, but I wish it could be. Heck, I wish I could be like her at my age.
I am not usually a fan of Amish romances, but these were written well and very sweet. The book is called A Christmas Gathering with novellas by Shelly Shepard Gray, Rachel J. Good, and Lenora Worth, in case you were wondering.
The time with Little Miss and reading my sweet Amish romances was the most relaxed I’ve been in weeks. I think I’m going to draw into the “old lady” hobbies more this winter and not feel even a little bit guilty about it!
(If I start knitting or making quilts, though, you better come rescue me. It means I’ve sunk too far down into old lady land. *wink* )
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
I am officially an old lady. I was telling my husband how much I enjoy prunes and a few minutes later I gasped and said, “Oh! I have a Murder She Wrote episode to finish! I’m so excited!”
My husband then reminded me I should brew a cup of tea before I got comfortable under my blanket on the couch. All I need is my slippers and a few more cats and my Old Lady Kit is complete.
The best thing is that my 10-year-old daughter, Little Miss, is watching with me, curled up under her own blanket with the dog curled next to her, saying things like, “There’s something wrong with the ginger here. Look at her eyes.” or “yeah, you could be friends under different circumstances because you literally killed a man…” and “Bro really needs some better pants.”
She’s starting her kit early.
Then she said, “Honestly, I would have liked to have had that lady as my grandma on my dad’s side.” (Since she never knew his mom for a variety of not-so-fun reasons.)
When I told her after the second episode that we could watch something else she said, “No! More!”
So we launched into our third episode.
Earlier this week Little Miss finished the art class we’ve been attending that was sponsored by the county library. Friday night The Husband took her to an art reception for her work and I stayed home with a sinus headache or neck thing…not sure which. It was so fun to see her so excited about her work, which the teacher had them name and then set a price on, if they wanted to.
I thought it was very interesting to see which drawing she decided to list as “not for sale” and which one she said she would sell for $20. Nothing would change her mind either.
What I/we’ve been Reading
The Christmas Gathering – a book full of three novellas by Shelley Shepard Gray, Lenora Worth, Rachel J. Good (because I needed something happy and light to read)
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Christy by Catherine Marshall (this is my slow and easy read)
The Secret of the Wooden Lady by Carolyn Keene
The Maestro’s Missing Melody by Amy Walsh, which I reviewed here.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashi
Little Men by Louisa Mae Alcott
Little Miss and I finished The Four Story Mistake and started And Then There Were Five in The Melendy Children series by Elizabeth Enright.
Little Miss is also reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets some nights.
The Husband is reading The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood because I told him to. Ha! Okay, because he really wanted to.
The Boy is readingThe Hound of the Baskervilles.
What We watched/are Watching
Above I mentioned what an old lady I have become and I really have because last night I found a new-to-me series of Mary Berry on Amazon Prime and just about giggled with delight. Little Miss was very excited too. We absolutely love Mary Berry. The fact they have several specials or series with her on Amazon now that I didn’t see before has me very excited. One thing I love about her shows is that they don’t only show viewers how to cook but also provide some background about the dish they are cooking or some education about cultures.
The episode we watched last night was about an Indian wedding. It was extremely interesting.
Tonight we will be watching Chocolat, together via a watch party and YOU are invited. We will be pressing play together on the movie and chatting in our Discord server, which you can join here: https://discord.gg/TpWNxJ4Z
I really hope you will join us! If not, it will just be Erin and I chatting with each other and that’s not all bad either. Haha!
What I’m Writing
I finished the rough draft of Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree this past week and now I am in the rewriting and editing stage. It will be released in 2025.
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
The first thing to note about The Maestro’s Missing Melody by Amy Walsh is that it can be read alone, even though it is part of a series.
The second thing to note is that this is a very well-written sweet romance that had me captivated from the beginning to the end. Also, I think I might be in love with The Maestro. Not really, of course, but I mean bookishly in love. The way The Maestro attempts to fight love when it is calling to him is very enthralling, even for readers, like me, who don’t always read romances.
The Maestro’s Missing Melody isn’t a over dramatic romance, but is instead a series of gentle steps toward healing for both main characters. The use of musical terms and musical metaphors are two of many aspects that make this book so rich and authentic.
McKay Moonlight has had her share of heartaches – the main one being abandoned by drug-addicted parents. Now she is in Scotland after being given a chance to study under the famous Scottish fiddler Huntley Milne, who she refers to as The Maestro because – to her – he is the fiddling maestro. She’s been listening to his fiddle music for years with her grandparents, who raised her.
Huntley isn’t sure what to make of McKay when she arrives, especially since during their first meeting she ruins a beautiful classical musical performance when the ringtone on her phone blares out a Willie Nelson song. Huntley has some heartache of his own to get over. First there is the loss of his wife many years before and the fact his Aunt BeeBee has suddenly been placed in a home, which means he is left to care for his tween niece and nephew that his aunt adopted years before.
This is an easy going book in some ways, yet there always seem to be something happening. There is a mystery that Huntley must solve when his aunt makes it clear that she wants Huntley to find a family book for her back at her mansion. The students that Huntley is mentoring are staying at the mansion as well and after the niece (Dory) attaches herself to McKay and asks her to come with them to visit Aunt BeeBee, McKay also becomes involved in helping to look for the book.
The mystery and the possibility of an “age-gap” romance (this means Huntley is a bit older than McKay) kept me turning the pages. Walsh’s writing did as well. She turns a simple meeting or interaction between characters into a delightful word treat.
For example:
“The Maestro bent toward me again and surrounded me with those huge arms. I savored the warmth of his chest, the smoothness of his newly shaved cheek sliding across mine, and a scent I’d never smelled on him before––possibly spiced citrus with a hint of pine. If the night had ended right then with my first-ever hug from Huntley Milne, it would have been the best birthday ever.”
Faith is a big part of this book, with both McKay and Huntley asking God to heal Aunt BeeBee, to guide them in their steps, to be a comfort to the children as they fear for their guardian while she is in the nursing home. Bible verses are also shared throughout or intertwined with aspects of the plot throughout.
The Maestro’s Missing Melody is a heartwarming, cozy read that I enjoyed each night before bed to help me decompress from long and stressful days. It’s a story that left me hoping the best for each character, praying (yes, for fictional characters) for them to have a happily ever after.
