Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

No one cooks up a delectable, suspense-filled mystery quite like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke’s dessert-baking, red-haired heroine whose gingersnaps are as tart as her comebacks, and whose penchant for solving crimes one delicious clue at a time has made her a bestselling favorite. And it all began on these pages, with a bakery, a murder, and some suddenly scandalous chocolate-chip crunchies. Featuring a bonus short story and brand new, mouthwatering recipes, this limited edition of the very first Hannah Swensen mystery is sure to have readers coming back for seconds.

Hannah Swenson already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother’s attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden, Minnesota’s most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah’s famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can’t get any worse. Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer.

Who would have the sheer audacity and the motive to kill the most punctual delivery man Hannah ever had? Topping the list is the high school football coach. What exactly was his wife doing, making the rounds with the milkman? Could Max Turner, owner of Cozy Cow Dairy, have had a secret he didn’t want to share with his top employee? The more Hannah snoops, the more suspects turn up. Why has Lake Eden’s most prominent prodigal son, Benton Woodley, just resurfaced? And what about the mysterious Mr. Harris who seemed interested in buying the property next to the dairy, but then disappeared? This is one murder that’s starting to leave a very bad taste in Hannah’s mouth. And if she doesn’t watch her back, Hannah’s sweet life may get burned to a crisp.

WARNING!!!
DO NOT READ THIS BOOK ON AN EMPTY STOMACH!

This was a fun and enticing read. I really enjoyed this book. Ms. Fluke is an awesome mystery writer and an even more awesome cook. First there's the setup for the story; Lake Eden. Not a real town but a simple small town where everyone knows person they just happen to pass by on the street. There's no Desperate Housewives type scandal just the ocasional homicide. I like Hannah. She's the milder version of my mom with my love of baking. Speak of [baking] did I mention that the cookies in this novel can be duplicated in your kitchen. Yes, Joanne also gives you a run down of Hannah's creation for you to create also. It's genius! Apparently, this isn't the first series to do this but it is for me so please excuse my starstruck behavior. the sad part is that since this is yet another audio book (read by Suzanne Toren-- beautifully I might add) I listened to I currently do not have copies of these recipes. But no worries there's the internet more specifically Google and if that doen't work the Library works really well too. I really reccomend this book and the rest of the series (even if I haven't read the other books yet). So check out your local library and read and copy Hannah's books.

Heartbreakers by Pamela Wells

THREE BREAKUPS

Sydney's longtime steady, Drew, unexpectedly bails. Raven can't decide between Caleb and Horace. They decide for her, and suddenly she's left with a sum total of zero boyfriends. Kelly's kinda-sorta boyfriend, Will, has plans for Valentine's Day. Just not with her.

FOUR FRIENDS

Alexia's never had a broken heart, but that's because she's never had a serious boyfriend. So when her three BFFs turn up boyless, she's sympathetic...but maybe secretly-selfishly-glad. She has her friends back. She just has to help them get over their heartaches.

TWENTY-NINE RULES

How else to get over the breakups but follow a few simple rules? It all goes well at first: There are girly sleepovers, cold shoulders, and the destruction of sentimental items. But even as the girls rediscover their friendship, rules are broken left and right. Soon the formerly heartbroken are on their way to becoming heartbreakers themselves.

Especially Alexia.

First (before I forget), this is an audio book review. the narrator Stina Nielsen did a good job narrating this story and actually made this novel a bit more enjoyable than it was. Yes, I didn't enjoy this story. I thought it would be a lot more fun and funy than it was. Instead it was unnecessary drama after unnecessary drama. A lot of the issues in this book could have been solved by simple communication. The choices characters made were predictable (I could see the outcome from chapter 2). To be fair, I did like the character Kelly I felt more sympathetic to her plight. Not because I went through something similar-- in the matters of the heart I'm more of a Alexia and that is why the novel was so unenjoyable to me because she caused most of the unnecessary drama and was obviously sabotaging her relationship. Anyway, as I was saying, I was more sympathetic to Kelly and her relationship drama because it's always a sad thing when (whether you're a guy or girl) you're more in love with someone and they just don't care about (or respect you) enough to let you go. As for the other two girls I barely remember their story lines. But I'm not so disappointed that I didn't enjoy this novels, which in itself something sad.

Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

When Enola Holmes, sister to the detective Sherlock Holmes, discovers her mother has disappeared, she quickly embarks on a journey to London in search of her. But nothing can prepare her for what awaits. Because when she arrives, she finds herself involved in the kidnapping of a young marquess, fleeing murderous villains, and trying to elude her shrewd older brothers-all while attempting to piece together clues to her mother's strange disappearance. Amid all the mayhem, will Enola be able to decode the necessary clues and find her mother?

Here's another mystery series that I'm currently enjoying. I was never a Sherlock Holmes fan. Never read any of his books. But you know what; that isn't a prerequisite. with Set in the beloved Victorian Ages, this story brings back the simplicity of a Nancy Drew mystery with (I'm guessing here) the aspects of a Sherlock Holmes mystery. As for the audio book narration; Katherine Kellgren did a great job with the voices. She was believable as each character. Nothing much else to say except I really enjoyed this novel and cannot wait to read the other books in this series.

Big Boned by Meg Cabot

Life is reasonably rosy for plus-size ex-pop star turned Assistant Dormitory Director and sometime sleuth Heather Wells. Her freeloading ex-con dad is finally moving out. She still yearns for her hot landlord, Cooper Cartwright, but her relationship with "rebound beau," vigorous vegan math professor Tad Tocco, is more than satisfactory. Best of all, nobody has died lately in "Death Dorm," the aptly nicknamed student residence that Heather assistant-directs. Of course every silver lining ultimately has some black cloud attached. And when the latest murdered corpse to clutter up her jurisdiction turns out to be her exceedingly unlovable boss, Heather finds herself on the shortlist of prime suspects—along with the rabble-rousing boyfriend of her high-strung student assistant and an indecently handsome young campus minister who's been accused of taking liberties with certain girls' choir members.

With fame beckoning her back into show business (as the star of a new kids' show!) it's a really bad time to get wrapped up in another homicide. Plus Tad's been working himself up to ask her a Big Question, which Heather's not sure she has an answer for . . .

Another fun mystery book by Ms. Meg Cabot. Who knew she is such a good mystery writer. I didn't. Ok so the stakes where higher in this book. Heather finds herself to be a suspect in this murder mystery. That's basically her motivation for taking on this case. I do not have any complaints about this book. The story was fun but not as exciting Size 14 Is Not Fat Either. Justine Eyre perform well in this audio book adaptation (no complaints there either). While writing this review there was a sense of cool calculation-- I don't think that the right words for the mood I'm in. This book I guess didn't wow me. It was hot but too mild to be on Mary Murphy's "Hot Tamale Train".

Finals, and Web Sites, and More (OH MY!!)

EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! So kerayzeee...... Ugh! Cannot, cannot, can not believe a month has passed. It's finals week at UMD. YAY!!! School's almost out!

Anyway just popping in to deliver a long overdue review and to tell you wants goin' on with TLC the website I mentioned in one of my previous posts. I found the perfect web hosting site (free of course) and I'm rounding the corner on completong the site. There were a few bumps and bruises, hits and misses but now it's all coming together nicely and will be ready for browsing by mid June.

I don't think I mentioned it earlier; but TLC (Teen Lit Central) is suppose to be a place to find out what's going on in the teen lit world. The main attraction is the series and novels database. but I'm also adding things like a media page and a blog and site page. and that just the beginning. So. Yep. I'm almost done and a bit anxious excited to see what you guys think.

Airhead by Meg Cabot

EM WATTS IS GONE

Emerson Watts didn't even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister, Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there-along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard. How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her-and life as she'd known it-forever? One bizarre accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.Now getting her best friend, Christopher, to notice that she's actually a girl is the least of Em's problems. But what Em's pretty sure she'll never be able to accept might just turn out to be the one thing that's going to make her dream come true . . .

NIKKI HOWARD IS HERE TO STAY.

I've been neglecting to do something that I should have been doing in my previous posts. I listen to a lot of audio books. some digital, some taped, and some on CDs. But I haven't been mentioning them in my reviews. It's worth mentioning since almost half of these books I talk about are audio books. So from now on you'll be seeing a lot of audio book commentary.

Yay!! Meg Cabot is back on my list of faves. This book was original, fun and just like I remember MC's YA Books to be. I don't have anything really negative to say about this book. The only really annoying thing about this book was Gabriel Luna, Mr. British rock star. I find him to be a nuisance and an unnecessary plot device placed only to cause an uneeded conflict in the story-- as if Em/Nikki doesn't have other issues to deal with. As usual, I hesitate to go into a more in depth discussion of this story in order to avoid spoiling anyone who hasn't read Airhead yet. So I'll KIS (Keep It Simple) and say that this novel was a surprising joy to read after so many misses (even my mom liked it). I'm Really looking forward to reading the next book Being Nikki.

Oh! Almost fogot to mention the audio book aspect. It was good no complaints. Stina Nielsen did a good job.

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot

Former pop star Heather Wells has settled nicely into her new life as assistant dorm director at New York College--a career that does not require her to drape her size 12 body in embarrassingly skimpy outfits. She can even cope (sort of) with her rocker ex-boyfriend's upcoming nuptials, which the press has dubbed The Celebrity Wedding of the Decade. But she's definitely having a hard time dealing with the situation in the dormitory kitchen--where a cheerleader has lost her head on the first day of the semester. (Actually, her head is accounted for--it's her torso that's AWOL.)

Surrounded by hysterical students--with her ex-con father on her doorstep and her ex-love bombarding her with unwanted phone calls--Heather welcomes the opportunity to play detective . . . again. If it gets her mind off her personal problems--and teams her up again with the gorgeous P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives--it's all good. But the murder trail is leading the average-sized amateur investigator into a shadowy world. And if she doesn't watch her step, Heather will soon be singing her swan song!

Another good book by Meg Cabot. The stakes are higher in this book and the baddies are even more dangerous. I'm loving the storyline for this novel. Heather isn't as naive as she was in the last book. She seems to have her head partially out of the clouds. It seems that MC likes writing about these kinds of heroines (the ones like Princess Mia and Lizzie aka Queen of Babble who tend to get carried by their daydreams). The things Heather deals with in this story; her dad coming back, the gruesome murder, and other things I think help her to grow as a character and a fictional person. And the mystery part of the novel was entertaining as the first book. I'm really looking forward to book 3.