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!

Leo the Elf Saves Christmas (Doxon)

Leo the Elf Saves Christmas
Bradley Doxon (2023)

(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 an online freebie, one of those books that was meant to put me in the mood for Christmas. Unfortunately, my Book Club meeting was arriving and I needed to read that book first. And then I really didn't want "Leo the Elf" to be the first book I read in the new year, so I put it aside half-read.

But I came back, so there's the story!

Leo is Santa's guardian, his top elf and defender of all things Christmas. He has a sword and a scepter that he usus to protect the realm, and it's a good thing that he does, too.

Leo is sent on a mission by Santa to increase Christmas spirit which seems to be lacking in recent years. While he's away, the lack of Christmas spirit is enough for the Sorrow King, long ago imprisoned in another dimension by Santa and the forest Elves (not the toy-making elves like Leo), manages to break from of his prison in his dark dimension. He then banishes Santa and his reindeer to that dimension while impersonating Santa himself. His Despair Minions take the place of the reindeer. He then has the elves work on a device that will suck up all the Christmas Spirit in the world so that, the fake Santa tells them, he can distribute it to the world.

Leo returns to the North Pole with a young human girl, Ava, who is filled with Christmas Spirit and who has the ability to wield Leo's scepter, making it shine bright. The two travel, with the help of the forest Elves, to the Realm of Darkness to rescue Santa. Then they must defeat the Sorrow Kind, destroy his machine, and return Christmas Spirit to the children of the world (which doesn't really happen).

My two problems with the narrative are that the Sorrow King succeeds early on, so his able to deliver garbage to the kids of the world and suck up their Christmas spirit. Kids will awaken on Christmas morning to the terrible presents that fake Santa left. This cannot be undone and yet it isn't explained to the children of the world what happened.

Second is the prologue. I'm not anti-prologue by any stretch of the imagination but this one seems added on to explain who the Sorrow King is and how he was banished hundreds of years ago.

The book is YA, so I don't question it much. Like with "The Year Without a Santa Claus", the elf goes into the world and visits a single town to check on Christmas spirit, but i guess that's enough to do reconnaissance.

Despite this, it was enjoyable. It was as goofy as I might've expected but not in a bad way. That said, I don't see myself reading the next book, except for my goal of reading more "second books" this year.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs.

The Skeleton in the Closet (Fox)

The Skeleton in the Closet
by Angie Fox (2015)

(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.)

Book two in the Southern Ghost Hunter Series became available for free from Book Bub, so I picked it up. I was in between book club books and I figured that this would be a quicker read than anything else I had ready since I was alredy familiar with the premise.

Verity Long is still poor, after being forced to pay off her fancy wedding after she left her cheating fiance at the altar. He still wants to get back with Verity despite or even because his mother opposes it. In the meantime, she has (maybe) a thing with his brother who is in local law enforcement, rather than being employed as a rich snob. And Frankie the 1920's era gangster ghost is still around.

Verity tries to unground Frankie (see book one) with little success. Meanwhile, it's the annual Cannonball in the Wall celebration of a Civil War battle that saw a cannonball get lodged a wall in the middle of town.

Darla, a friend of Verity's (and her sister's) is handling donations for the event, and the two oldest and most fuedin'-est families are trying to out-do each other. She makes a startling discovery and ends up dead. Her discovery is missing as well.

Verity investigates the library and all the ghosts who are stuck in time within its walls and finds some revealing evidence, but not THE revealing piece of evidence until much later.

After that, it's dodging dangers on two planes of existence until the truth about the Cannonball in the Wall is know to all.

But most people still think Verity is nuts for blowing off the wedding.

I wouldn't be opposed to reading more of these, but they aren't so great that I'll be buying them any time soon. If the libary has them, I'll borrow them.

Yeti Left Home (Rosenburg)

Yeti Left Home
by Aaron Rosenberg (2023)

(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 an ebook I purchased in a Kickstarter from eSpec Books, which also published my book In A Flash 2020. As a supporter of this book, my name appears in a list in the closing pages.

As silly as it sounds, many of these Kickstarter books go into the electronic TBR pile. I have a directory of them on my hard drive. Between my book club selections, holiday reading (whichever holiday) and older books already in my Kindle app, I sometimes go back and upload stories and books, usually starting with the shortest, looking for some quick reads. (This means I read more short stories, but then I read more authors, too.)

Happily, Yeti Left Home is from this year, so I'm not too far behind with this one.

First, side note, I told Danielle (Ackley McPhail, of eSpec Books) at a convention that the sequel should be called "Yeti Persisted". She laughed but it's not going to happen.

The story: Wylie Kang is an unassuming Yeti who desires nothing more than his isolated cabin in Embarass, Minnesota, with his reclining chair, his big screen TV and a cold breeze coming in through the window. He pays for this by catching and selling fish in town. One night, Wylie starts having dreams about running though the woods and attacking campers. He wakes up with leaves and twigs in his fur and hands, and no way of explaining it. Worse, he hears that campers were actually killed.

And, worst, a Hunter is looking for him. Hunters trap cryptids like him.

Wylie packs his chair and TV into his pickup and flees his cabin to lay low for a while. He drives all the way to Minneapolis and finds a motel, paying cash out of a coffee tin. He has a drivers license but little else.

While walking around the city, he gets pickpocketed, but the culprit is caught by a Red Cap who recognizes Wylie as something special. This fellow, Knox, takes Wylie under his wing, so to speak, and gets him settled into an apartment that will be cheaper in the long run than the motel, even if he's only staying in the city for a week. The apartment is owned by another supernatural being, and Knox introduces him to more.

Of particular interest are Brea, the Ogress, who is keeping an eye on Wylie to make sure that he isn't any trouble, and Sinead, a Banshee who tended to keep to herself before meeting Wylie. Brea suggests Wylie go to docks to look for work, and Sinead gives him directions.

Once at the docks, Wylie is immediately popular after preventing an accident that might've led to a bad injury, and because he's great at the job of lifting and hauling, even though it exhausted even a yeti like him, but in a good way. He's also popular because he puts an end to the shakedown from a protection racket. His coworkers are so grateful that they give him the heads up that there's a woman looking for him.

Note that his coworkers don't know what he is. They just think he's a big, hairy guy who can lift a lot.

He's finally caught by the Hunter but tells her that he'll find the actual killer, and the "scooby" gang is off to work.

As one can imagine, the Yeti didn't leave home. He's found one.

A quick, enjoyable read with a lot of cool characters all getting along.

Pumpkin Blend (Layne)

Pumpkin Blend
Paramour Bay #14
Kennedy Layne (2020)

(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 freebie from a BookBub mailing. I downloaded it and read it before Halloween, and then forgot about it. Not that it was forgettable (well, maybe a little), but I got behind in my blogging and didn't check my library for everything I'd read. On a side note, I already had book #15 in my Kindle library, which I apparently downloaded last year (or earlier), but haven't read yet. It's a Christmas mystery. There is very little chance that I will get to it by this Christmas as I have a couple of other things going already.

This will be short, and hopefully the Christmas entry will be longer. It was a little difficult to get into because it's the 14th book, so the author is free to assume that the reader should be at least somewhat familiar with the characters.

The big mystery is the disappearance of a very large, prize-winning pumpkin from a cart in town a couple of weeks before Halloween. It disappeared by magical means, but no one knows how. At the same time, the witnesses had to be convinced that they didn't see what they thought they saw. The farmers on the wagon assume that it fell off along the way.

The main character is a witch, and her mother is also a witch, but she's away and can't help with this. The witch has a cat that's a familiar and addicted to edibles and naps. The cat got confusing when he talked about his Former True Love, his New True Love, his On Again True Love, etc, mostly because at first I assumed he was talking about other cats, not actual people. Some people are aware of the paranormal, in general, and the circumstances of the main characters, in particular, but most are blissfully unaware.

The story eventually leads to a cemetery right before Halloween and the spirits trying to break through and the ones trying to prevent that from happening. Pumpkins help with that some of thing.

It wasn't bad, but two months later, it doesn't seem to be very memorable.

Here's the Good Reads synopsis, for any visitors to my site wishing more info:

Pumpkin tea blends aren't the only things that are being stirred up in the next baffling whodunit of the Paramour Bay Mysteries by USA Today Bestselling Author Kennedy Layne...

All Hallows' Eve is only a fortnight away, and the residents of Paramour Bay can't wait to get their hands on all the candy corn, caramel apples, and pumpkin tea blends this fall season. As a matter of fact, the highly anticipated Halloween Festival is about to kick off in town square with the reveal of the largest pumpkin that has ever been grown in their very own local pumpkin patch.

There's only one itsy-bitsy problem--someone has stolen the town's prized jack-o-lantern! Raven ropes Leo into solving another mystery, but he goes all in when he realizes that a pilfered pumpkin is the least of their worries!

Fill up your candy bowl, grab your favorite pumpkin-flavored drink, and get ready to solve the perplexing case of the missing prized pumpkin!

This was an ebook.

Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Doidge)

Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic
(The Dowser #1)
by Meghan Ciana Doidge (2013)

(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'm pretty sure that this was a freebie in a Book Bub mailing list, but it might've been a random search result when looking for free paranormal cozy mysteries. I don't remember.

It was mostly a quick read, and I rushed to finish it because a library book became availalbe and I wasn't go to be able to renew that.

As it was, I practically forgot that I'd read it, until I noticed the title again on my phone. (My iPad is loaded with a lot of recent stuff which gets downloaded automatically.)

This is the first book in the "Dowser" series. The main character, Jade, is half-witch, half-human, and she knows nothing about her father. Her mother never chose to tell her anything, and she's not around for most of the book. Neither is her Grandma, but her presence is felt, and at times, we're waiting for Grandma to arrive and save the day, since she's so powerful a witch. It turns out, that her father wasn't human, but what he was (or is?) is not revealed in this book. What is a "Dowser"? It's a person who uses a diving rod to find underground water, but in context with this book, it's a person who detects magic.

Jade runs a bakery in Vancouver, which seems to have a fair amount of magic activity despite comments that it doesn't. While working there one day, she notices a vampire lurking about outside (in daylight) looking through the window. The vampire later confronts Jade trying to get her to confess to a crime and informs her that as soon as the council clears it, he will bite her and compel her to tell the truth. Apparently, there are rules that have to be followed. A vampire has been killed and one of Jade's trinkets had been found. Jade have an assortment of odd rings that she joins together. Her adopted sister likes to use them. The rings link the crime back to Jade who has no idea what's going on.

Jade was enjoying a night out at a club when a pack out humans, who are werewolves start dancing with her. The alpha wolf tries to get her attention, but she declines. She later flees into the night to avoid all these creatures. She goes to the gym the next day, and the pack arrives and places their mats around her. Now she notices that Mr. Alpha Wolf is a bit of a hottie. They start talking and have a date. But he never shows up for it. And then he's dead, too.

Jade gets caught up in this with the pack and the vampire, until they figure out what's going on.

It was a pleasant read. There's a series. The next book has a very similar title, but I doubt it will be available from the library and it's not something that I *really* need to read and thus pay for. The series has plenty to work with, even if the author did knock off quite a few characters in this one.

The Witch of the North Pole (Snow)

The Witch of the North Pole by Eden Snow (2017)

(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.)

Looking for books to get me into a Christmas mood, I went looking for free Christmas-themed ebooks (that weren't "bodice-rippers"). There seem to be plenty of "cozy" mysteries with witches, elves or whichever. The funny thing is from the thumbnail, I thought she was sitting on a chimney, not a bag of toys. Also, I didn't realize right away that the author's name was "Eden Snow" -- I thought it was a subtitle for the book!

The book is also listed as Cinnamon Mercy Claus 1. The main character doesn't like to be called Cinnamon, because she used to be teased that it was a spice name. Mercy was somehow better.

Mercy, a strong, indepedent woman, who works in an office with lots of spreadsheets but little interaction with people, is ill-prepared for a visit to her grandparents, whom she doesn't know. Her parents are away for the holidays, leaving her no place else to go. She's farther North than she's ever been. In fact, she's at the North Pole. And her grandfather is Santa, the actual Santa Claus.

The problem is that her grandmother isn't happy with the whole "Santa" situation and is leaving him. She's also leaving running the entire operation in the hands of Mercy.

Oh, and Mrs. Claus is a witch.

And, by the way, so is Mercy, even if she doesn't know it.

The entire "Santa" business, how old he is, the family line, the replacement Santas, can all be accepted as part of the narrative. That's the setup for the story and it's internally consistent. It gets a little problematic with Mrs. Claus, angry as she is, bailing out and leaving her granddaughter in charge without any training whatsoever. Or telling her about her witchy background and not helping there either.

There is some help in the form of a single spell, which a helpful elf, Ginger, tells her should be cast away from everyone, but indoors, so no one else is affected by it. Unfortunately, the elves captured a human who saw them and was holding him in the same warehouse where Mercy read the spell. He is affected with the same Christmas cheer, and agrees to help Mercy break into the Christmas Command Center and access the computer with the Naughty List. (Those on the Naughty List get a special present that gives them a chance to turn their lives around. The list includes the man's daughter.)

Unlike a Hallmark movie, the two do NOT become a couple by the end. However, it's a book series, so it might be something to expect in the next few books.

It was a cute book. If there's one drawback, it ended abruptly. The story's told but there's not denouement, no day after, nothing. On the other hand, there was the first chapter of Book 2. I don't normally read those, but in this case, I made an exception and read far enough to see how the ending would have played out. And then stopped because I don't normally read these.

Update: In the time it took me to write this up, Amazon sent an email that included the second book for free, so I downloaded it. It probably won't be read until after Christmas. I'm reading something else right now and then I have a Book Club book to get to.

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).

Claus for Concern (Lester)

Claus for Concern, by Paula Lester (2020)

An Aurora Aspen Magical Holiday 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.)

Another Christmas book that I thought should get its own entry. And this one appears to be the first in a series, which was nice. (Other books were Chirstmas books in the middle of their series.) It was written well-enough and the main character was good, but the mystery was not. When a character dies, the waiter who served a drink is arrested. There is literally no evidence other than he handed the sheriff a poisoned drink. But Aurora Aspen is determined to find the real killer to help her ex-boyfriend.

The town hasn't seen a murder in years, and you would htink that they would want to get this one right. Even if the police were inexperienced (mentioned at the end of the book), you would think that they would want to get help to get it right instead of getting it done. They know the victim was killed with heart medication, and yet no one wonders where a healthy young man got the medication from. For that matter, in hindsight, using it to kill the man seems like a boneheaded move on the part of a killer who should've been smarter and not just lucky. Then again, the final actions of the killer were pretty stupid.

Speaking of the killer, when Aurora realizes who the killer is, and the killer is in the next room, she withholds that information from the reader even though it should be foremost in her mind. Granted, by this point, it's obvious because there's really only one other character of note in the book. So the resolution is somewhat less than satisfactory.

Anyway, Aurora Aspen runs a catering business. She is a witch by birth but her grandmother is no longer alive to explain how to be one. She doesn't understand how her magic works except that she can tap into the spirit of the holidays and focus it to make things a little better. Christmas trees and cookies look better with just a little push. Her Dad, whose house she still lives in, knows about it. Her mother left them many years ago, but her presence is felt during the book. And there's more to her that needs to be revealed. Her best friend has known about her powers since they were little. Her ex-boyfriend, Cam, does not, but it seemed like he did in the chapters after bail was posted, but then it stated that he did not.

The Santa and Mrs. Claus characters who turn out (people dressed as them for Christmas) are a bit of a mystery themselves, but apparently, not one worth investigating farther by the main character even though their presence is somewhat unusual. For one thing, they seem to know a bit about her and her power. For another, the word "Claus" is in the title. Yes, it's a Christmas-time story but Santa plays only a tangential role in a couple of minor scenes.

One spoiler I will disclose is that none of the other players, many of whom seem odd, are revealed to be magical in nature themselves. One would expect more witches to appear in the series before long. I probably won't be reading the Valentines Day book, which should be the next in the series.

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.

Troll Hunter: Witch for Hire (Mason)

Troll Hunter: Witch for Hire
(Gretchen's (Mis)Adventures - Season One #0·5) by P. A. Mason (2020)

(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'm a little wary of books with many subtitles, but this is becoming the norm in these days of quick ebook publishing. I'm also not fond of the use of "Season" to describe entries in a series, unless it's actually about the seasons of the year or seasons of a TV show or similar.

I assumed the 0.5 meant this was some kind of prequel, or setup for the rest of the available books. In any case, there was a story here to be told. It might not have been the best-written, but it did it's job. I gave it 3 stars on Good Reads because I didn't think it was a two-star book. Some of the things I gave two stars to weren't very good.

It also contained Chapter 1 of the first book, which is a marketing gimmick, so I can't complain about that.

The story revolves around a witch named Gretchen, who makes potions. She has feline familiar named Mulligan, and a broom that doesn't always fly right. Plus, there's a weird spell book. She spends a lot of time down at the pub, owned by a sick, dying dwarf, where the riff raff hang out.

She gets hired by the town to get rid of a troll under the bridge, which is feeding on people's livestock. No one else wants the job. She manages to make a potion, with the help of the spell book, but by accident, the troll becomes "enchanted". I'm not sure if that's the correct term, but that's the one used. The troll becomes self-aware, developing a more of human intelligence instead of operating on a more animalistic level. Basically, it became a player character race.

Enchanted creatures have rights, so they can't chase him off any more. But Jurgen becomes Gretchen's responsibility. The troll isn't welcome at home any more, nor does he like that way of living. But he's still a troll, and people don't like him. He gets a temporary job with the silversmith, doing heavy lifting in the back, but after an allergic reaction, he winds up working at the pub.

Gretchen starts working at the pub, the Salt and Bog, because the dwarf needs help. And when the roof of cabin falls in (due to excessive water damage), she moves into the pub as well.

There's another witch, Nora, and a girl who wants a love potion so that the silversmith will fall in love with her. He's such a catch that every mother would want him for their daughters, and yet he turns them all down. Gee, wonder why (that's not really a mystery at all). And everything works out in the end, including Gretchen getting her house fixed.

I don't see myself getting the boxed set of the next "seasons". Also, this was one of the books I downloaded while looking for books with gnomes. I don't remember the gnomes. They might've been there, but if so, nothing about them stuck out in my mind that I remember them a day after finishing the book.

A Very Beechwood Christmas (Garrett)

A Very Beechwood Christmas:
Four Festive Magic Mini Mysteries from Beechwood Harbor by Danielle Garrett (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.)

I downloaded this around Christmastime and started it in 2020, but I had to put it aside becasuse I had library books to finish. Of all things, I found it because I was searching for books with gnomes. I was thinking of writing something, and I wanted to see how other people handled them.

Well, there are gnomes here, but they aren't really the focus of the book.

Beechwood Harbor, and Beechwood Manor, are home to witches, "shifters", ghosts, and other supernatural individuals, as well as regular people who don't know that they are there. It's a haven, of sorts (not to be confused with Haven from the show, but that could be a comparison). There is a series of more than a dozen of these mysteries. I wouldn't be adverse to revisiting some of them. The downside is that I didn't always feel like I knew the characters, like maybe there was stuff I should've know. Like when you tune into a random new TV show midseason.

For once, i downloaded something free that wasn't painful to read. I liked the writing style, even if some things didn't afree with what an editor or two has told me.

The main character is Holly Boldt, although I forgot that early on, becuase her name is rarely mentioned in the first story. Keep in mind, I primarily read at bedtime, so it's a little bit from night to night, usually. The stories are connected, but they get told from different points of view. After two parts of Holly, it switches to Nick, a private detective. After that, there's the tale of a ghost cat. And someone else, a ghost whisperer (I'll edit this later). And back to Holly for what's basically an epilogue.

The story starts with learning that Santa is real, and that he's coming to Beechwood Harbor this year to soak up Christmas magic to power the sleigh and operations for the holiday trip and for the coming year. It's an annual tour of different havens around the globe. Folks in the supernatural community are excited and rolling out the welcome wagon.To regular folk, he's just another mall Santa with some rented reindeer.

Unfortunately, some rabid gnomes get loose and start messing up the town. The gnomes, it turns out, were having a bad reaction to some sweets. This leads into the next story where it seems that someone is trying to ruin Christmas, or at least prevent Santa from gathering the needed magic. This is foiled, but were our heroes too late?

And so it goes from one narrator to the next, and back to Holly. The first four would be the mysteries. The fifth and sixth are just for fun to close out the story. You can't lead all the way up to Christmas Eve with Santa and then just drop it. You need to know what happens next? How was the ride? And what will Christmas morning bring?

It was a fun book for the holiday. If I were the type to reread books, I might do that in December.

Frostbite (2008)

Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead, 2007, Graphic Novel

Frostbite, Richelle Mead, 2008, Graphic Novel

This review is about two graphic novels. The entry for the novel, Vampire Academy can be found here.

First off, I read the Vampire Academy graphic novel months ago, and could have sworn that I had an entry for it, but I don't see one. The school I'm currently assigned to has the graphic novels for the first two books in the series in their library. I figured that I'd "reread" the first book, just to familiarize myself with the characters and the story line. I'm glad I did. I needed to get used to the images of the characters. Rose in the comic looks nothing like the cover of the first novel, but that's okay because it's a different artist.

The other thing that struck me, and which wasn't really a surprise, was how much of the book had to be left out to make it into a comic. I was still able to follow along for two reasons: one, the essentials are there, and two, I'd read the book, so I could fill in the gaps.

After reading the first book, I was not opposed to reading the second installment. However, as I'm not the target audience for the book, I wasn't going to go out of my way to track down a copy. I have plenty of things to read that I never get around to. (Another reason for this blog: I can't write new entries unless I read new books, so it'll prod me along sometimes.)

The comic was enjoyable, but I thought it likely missing parts of the book. The teen drama parts fill up a good part of the graphic novel and then the ending comes rushing at you. Again, that might just be my perception because of my demographic. But it didn't turn me off from wanting to read the book, which is something.

Frostbite gives us more background about the mythos governing the two types of vampires. We also get to meet Rose's mother, and learn about their strained relationship. Not surprising that they can't have a normal family life -- they are both dhampirs. Rose is training to a Guardian, and her mother already is one. The vampire's they protect will always be their first priority. That's part of the reason Dmitri resisted Rose in the first novel (other than the whole icky age thing, and the fact that she's a student in the academy).

Speaking of which, the relationship between Rose and Dmitri moves along, not just as trainer and pupil. The twist here is that another vampire comes along wanting Dmitri to be her Guardian, and he considers it.

The other twist to this book is that the Strigoi have enlisted the aid of humans to attack the Moroi. This is discovered from the use of weapons, such as a silver stake, that Strigoi can't touch.

In the end, Rose grows as a Guardian, getting closer to her hopeful position being Lissa's Guardian.

Vampire Academy (Mead)

Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead, 2007

Okay, for starters: There are two types of Vampires: the Moroi, who are living, breeding vampires, and the Strigoi, who are your more traditional evil vampires. There are also Dhampirs, which are the offspring of Vampires with humans or dhampirs. Dhampirs are mules, unable to reproduce on their own, so they owe their existence to the Moroi. If you search online, you'll find that these are creatures from Romanian folklore, which is a plus for me. Mead takes something existing, which I'm at all familiar with, and makes it her own.

The Moroi aren't your typical vampires. Besides having families, and vampirism being hereditary, they also go to church every week, even if just to learn about St. Vladmir, the patron of the academy. One of the characters is even named Christian, which seems odd at first blush.

This book is the last in a pile of books I won, which included How to Be a Zombie, A Great and Terrible Beauty, and Catching Fire, which I'd previously read but don't seem to have an entry for. (I donated that one to the hotel's library by the pool.) I wish I could say that I left the best for last, but that really, I left the one that looked like I'd least enjoy for last.

First off, I'm not the target demographic for this book. I joke around about Teenage Paranormal Romance, but they are a big sub-genre. They don't have to appeal to everyone. Like Bray's Great and Terrible Beauty, there was a bit of "Mean Girls" to it, but unlike it, the fantasy elements just didn't make it worthwhile for me.

Not to compare it to Harry Potter, but as an example, we don't expect Harry to defeat Voldemort in Book 1, but we expect that he'll make an appearance. In Vampire Acadmeny, much is made about the Strigoi and while I don't expect Rose to take one down (any one, but a powerful one, or the "main" one, if there is such a creature), you might expect on to show up at some point. Basically, the book was long on Academy and short on Vampire.

So little, in fact, that halfway through it, I imagined a "What If...?" where I replaced the Moroi, Strigoi, and Dhampirs into High Elves, Dark Elves and Half Elves. I could write it -- I wouldn't, but perhaps I could.

Again, I'm not the target audience here, so if anyone found my blog and this is your genre, don't let me turn you off from the adventures of Rose and Princess Lissa as they learn how to protect vampires or just be a vampire.

Would I read farther into the series? Probably not, unless the sequel showed up in another book raffle.

A Great and Terrible Beauty (Bray)

A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray, 2003

This book came to me via a book raffle at Lunacon, a general science-fiction convention based, for the most part, in Rye Brook, NY. It's the longest running NYC-area con. The actual winner of this lot had already won a pile of books, so when she walked up, she grabbed a pile and came back and gave them to me. Glancing at the titles, she was more the target demographic than I was.

Anyway, after a year or so of sitting on my shelf, I started going through the pile of books. (Another book in that pile was How to Be a Zombie, which I read earlier in the year.) Reading the description of this and another book, I was afraid that I had a bunch of Teenage Paranormal Romances, a genre that didn't exist all that long ago and now has an entire section in the last remaining Barnes & Nobles locations I visit.

I didn't have to worry.

A Great and Terrible Beauty does have some romance, but it isn't the paranormal kind. And it has its own paranormal/fantasy realm, which can be entered from the Victorian era. Other than that, I don't think it fits the genre much.

If anything, my first thoughts were of A Little Princess, the remake of the Shirley Temple movie, which started in India before moving to a girls academy, with its supernatural elements. Those thoughts were quickly dispelled thankfully.

Normally, at this point, I'd make references to the characters because that was the main purpose of this blog initially: to remind myself about the books, not to review them. However, I read this a few months back and much of it has left my mind. Basically, teen Gemma Doyle, after her mother's murder in India, gets shipped off to Spence Academy in London. She's followed there to make sure she doesn't get involved with what she eventually gets involved with -- magic, the other realm. But are these warnings for her safety or to prevent her from achieving what she's supposed to?

Along the way, she has to deal with the mean clique of popular girls -- or is it the popular clique of mean girls -- and their hangers-on. Before you know it, Gemma has worked her way into their graces and brought along her friend and roommate Ann, completing a foursome with Felicity (the leader) and Pippa.

We learn a little more about their families and why they are how they are, and learn how they plan to cope with their existence being groomed to marry rich, old men (possibly to settle debts) or if they're destined to be spinsters, maids or something trivial and menial.

I enjoyed the book. I can't say that I'm going to run out and look for the sequels, nor is it necessary to do so. Whatever nits I could pick, I forgot about months ago. I think I had one about Gemma's brother showing up at the school in the middle of the book when I didn't recall a mention prior to that. Then I thought Bray would set up a romance between the brother and one of the girls, but he sort of faded back into the background after a scene involving Gemma's family. Again, minor -- I've forgotten the details.

Fun read to pass the time on the train. And despite the cover, I didn't get funny looks from anyone for reading it. Well, no more than the usual funny looks you get on a NYC subway.