A Peppermint Mocha to Die For (Valentine)

A Peppermint Mocha to Die For
Wynn Valentine (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a free ebook I download prior to Christmas but didn't get a chance to read until the new year had already begun. It was short, a novella really, with 65 pages.

Note that Good Reads and Amazon list the full title as "A Peppermint Mocha to Die For: Because Nothing Says 'Happy Holidays' Like a Murder Investigation" even though the latter half does NOT appear on the cover. It does say "A Haunted Inheritance Mystery".

The book opens with Sol hanging Christmas decorations following the very specifc instruction of her aunt while her uncle looks on. Her aunt and uncle are both ghosts.

Right here I figured that I stumbled onto the Christmas episode of a sitcom that I don't watch regularly.

The ghosts can apparently leave the house if they choose to, and other people can see them and know about them. I'm guessing that there are more ghosts to be found in town.

A mystery arises when Sol finds an old recipe card with a protection symbol on it belonging to her great aunt Edna. Aunt Prudence doesn't want to talk about it. It was a long time ago. Better to let some things lie.

But the "house" wants Sol to continue because Edna is in the house. She just isn't appearing like the other two.

There's a mystery, which really isn't a mystery, with a resolution that doesn't feel entirely satisfying. The ghosts know what happened. The older folks in town remember that Christmas party but no one wants to talk about it, until Sol finds the one woman from the original group of friends who is still alive. She finally opens up for no reason other than she's old now.

I had no interest in the characters. The story kept my interest but only because I was waited for something to happen. The writing didn't wow me but it didn't distract me either.

The book includes the recipe for the famous Mocha. I didn't try to make it.

This book doesn't check off any boxes on my Challenge checklist. I don't recall the lycanthropy being a curse. I already read a Christmas book. The title has 24 letters, unless I use the extended title frod Good Reads. (Then it would have a lot more than 25 letters!)

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. The fourth book will be available by the time you see this!

The Graveyard Book (Gaiman)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2008)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a Book Club selection, and it was one of my choices. I was asked to pick three books that I wanted to read. I selected the first of the Murderbot series, and "The Three-Body Problem", both of which I've had in my kindle for quite a while. I considered a few other books but all were well over 400 pages. I didn't want to obligate myself to something that I'd have to slog through. For this reason, I didn't select the first book in The Expanse series (which I've since read on my own). I perused Good Reads for suggestions. Neil Gaiman had quite a few books listed, so I decided to go with one I hadn't heard of, and hoped that the others hadn't either. Less of a chance that they'd already read it.

The Graveyard Book was the clear winner, with Three-Body getting no votes at all.

In the book, a man named Jack (who is referred to in that manner repeatedly) kills a family, but he misses the baby, who had climbed from his crib and toddled up the road to the cemetery. There he is protected by some of the spirits which live there, and one who has taken residence there. The ghost of the baby's mother frantically arrives and implores the spirits to protect her child. She cannot stay because she won't be laid to rest there. But Mr. and Mrs. Owens take charge of the baby and call him Nobody Owens (aka "Bod"). He is given Freedom of the Graveyard like his protector and teacher, Silas, has been given. Silas clouds the mind of the killer to leave when he approaches.

Years pass and Bod gets restless. He wants to go to school and meet people. He outgrows his playmates in the cemetery.

He gets into misadventures and finds but he is protected, and becomes the subject of an ancient prophecy. Meanwhile, the man called Jack returns looking to finish the job he started. We learn more about Bod's family and the fact that Bod's disappearance was covered up.

I enjoyed the book. I expected the ending, and yet I was a little disappointed in it. Bod would eventually have to leave the graveyard and face the world, and he would have to do it alone. However, he seems to be a little young to be doing that at this point. Granted, had I read this as a teen, I might not have thought that was a problem. But as a teen, I didn't have a good grasp at how life worked either.

It was a good read, and I really need to read more of Gaiman's works. I have so many as ebooks from a Humble Bumble years ago. (That's how I found out that I'd actually purchased his first book as a gift -- it was a quickie book about Duran Duran.

Southern Spirits (Fox)

Southern Spirits, Angie Fox (2015)
A Southern Ghost Hunter Mystery

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I read Book 8.5, The Ghosts of Christmas Past, and didn't hate it. There were good characters there, but the story was tied up with Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, a la Scrooge. On the other hand, it wasn't badly written and I didn't say I wouldn't read another book in the series given the opportunity.

I got that opportunity when Book 1 in the series showed up as a free listing in a Book Bub e-mailing. I'll point out here that I've downloaded a few books from them, and have read only a fraction of those. It's at the point where there could be three or four books (or even sets of books) listed for free, and I won't download any of them. Maybe because they all seem to be the same thing. But that would be my fault for downloading the earlier books, so I see ads for more of the same.

Anyway, having read 8.5, some stuff was spoiled a little, but not much. Verity is already broken up with her fiance and already owes money on the wedding so she has to sell home ancestral home. And her ex-fiance's brother shows up and she eventually starts falling for him (a little too quickly, I would think -- there wasn't any sort of will they/won't they). I thought that might not get resolved until the next book.

And this one is an actual mystery, involving "Southern Spirits", which in this case is a defunct disterilly on a property that's being renovated. The problem is that it's haunted with several ghosts (who are "Southern Spirits" of a different sort). And a poltergeist. And there may be humans are aren't happy either.

A quick read (two or three days of train rides and before bed).

The Ghost of Christmas Past (Fox)

The Ghost of Christmas Past, by Angie Fox (2019)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

A year ago, around Christmas, I downloaded A Very Beechwood Christmas by Danielle Garrett. Oddly, it wasn't because I wanted to get into the holiday mood, but because I was looking for books with gnomes in them. But it fit the spirit of the season.

So this year, I decided to try that again, and I downloaded a handful of short novels and stories with the criteria free kindle Christmas -romance. Sadly, that exclusion was necessary. The first several pages looked like things from the Hallmark channel, even though some had vampires, elves or ghosts in them. Not the kind of mood that I was looking for.

Anyway, I will be posting another thread containing a list of the shorter Christmas books and stories that I stumbled across and read. However, this one (and likely one or two others) were long enough and enjoyable enough that they should merit a separate entry, as Ms. Garrett's book did back in January. Thi is the first of them.

The cover of The Ghost of Christmas Past states that it is Book 8.5 in the series. That .5 is important because it tells you that it's a side adventure from the main series. That also makes it a good place to dip in and get a sense of the series. I would gather that some of the story will be spoilers for the first book but probably nothing major. No worse than starting a show in season 3 and then thinking about catching the reruns on cable. (Note: I haven't thought that far ahead!)

So what is this about?

Verity Long is a ghost hunter and she's aided by a ghost named Frankie, who is Prohibition-era gangster who is bound to an urn Verity has. He can enable her to see ghosts and be in contact with the spiritual world. It helps her solve mysteries, fix problems or rescue animals. That last one is importnat to her and also the reason that she has a pet skunk named Lucy.

There are two competing stories here than collide in both realms. Verity's boyfriend is the brother of her ex-fiance. His mother isn't a likable person and definitely doesn't like Verity. She sends her a basket of pears, along with the bill for them, so she can bring it as a hostess gift to the Wyndell family dinner. She gets into an argument with Virginia (the mom) and decides to stay home and skip the party. Next, the ghost of Donna Lankin shows up -- she is responsible for Verity's rescuing Lucy -- and she sends Verity off to save a sow in need of rescuing. Turns out that "sow" could mean pig or bear. In this case, it's a bear and three cubs, sleeping in an old mill, in danger of being struck by a heavy hook that's going to fall from its pulley as the ancient rope frays. And naturally, this mill in on the Wyndell property.

While there she encounters a ghost of the past, but she'll soon meet one of the present, and an ancient powerful one rooted to the land who shows her the future. So you have A Christmas Carol going, but there's also a bit of It's a Wonderful Life because the choice to save Christmas for the Wyndells is up to her, but she's not really the Scrooge here.

Naturally, the day is saved and the old matron, rather than being told off, gets to come around and not be so crusty that she drives a wedge through the entire family.

A quick read, entertaining light fare. Would I get more of them? Not really my thing, but I could think about one or two. Then again, I probably said the same about the Beechwood Witch.

Bellewether (Kearsley)

Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley (2018)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

The was a book group book. Yes, I've somehow become part of a book group.

The spelling of "Bellewether" is a pun on the French "belle", and it is the name of a ship and an estate in the book.

There are dual storylines taking place during the Seven Years (French & Indian) War and current day at a home above Snug Cove on the northern shore of Long Island, which is becoming a museum dedicated to the the life of a Revolutionary War hero. The hero will become Captain Benjamin Wilde, but he is still just one of the brothers of Lydia Wilde in the earlier narrative. There is also the story that a ghost haunts the museum and the woods about it, and the tale that it is a French soldier, killed by the one of the Wilde sons, when he attempted to run off with Lydia Wilde.

Charley is a descendant of the Wilde family, whose family fled to Canada during the Viet Nam War, but has come back to Long Island to look after her niece when her brother dies. She becomes the curator of the museum, much to the chagrin of a couple of board members, but she has the credentials for the job. She encounters the ghost early on and also starts to learn more of the history of the Wilde family as she goes to retrive items that were in the house according to an Inventory List made during British occupation (during the American Revolution). She also tries to find inormation behind the ghost story, which would allow them to expand the mandate of the museum. Some information is not welcome to be found. In particular, no one wanted to discover that the Captain was raised in a house with slaves. (Note that I don't think the current-day historians uncovered the entire story.)

The pre-Revolutionary story was of more interest to me. I can't say that I've read much of the Seven Years War era. Usually, it's from the 1770s onward. As for the modern-day story, most of my interest lay in uncovering the stories of the past. The ghost, which you can be certain early on is in fact a ghost even if you don't know whose, doesn't add much to the story, except as an aid to steering Charley in the right direction at times. The love stories/triangles are for anotehr demographic than me but didn't affect my enjoyment of the book either way.

Kearsley adds some historical notes at the end of the book which are of some interest, which events actually happened with real people, and how her characters and composites fit in.