Main Corpse by Diane Mott Davidson *SPOILERS! *

Now I will review the previous books in this series later; but I had to review this one! I love this series but this volume just ticked me off! The story was pretty good, plenty of red herrings so you weren't sure till the end whodunit. But! *spoiler* Goldy, our main character, BROKE SOMEONE OUT OF JAIL, and suffered no consequences!! I don't care if she did end up catching the actual murderer but seriously? She breaks someone out of jail and nothing happens?? The author just brushed over it by making a "deal" with the DA. Pffft I'm thinking if you break someone out of jail, you're going to get in *some* sort of trouble. Anyway this was the 6th book in the series and the first disapointment, I love the characters and I *love* the recipes and descriptions of all the yummy food that Goldy makes.

Rating: Only 3 stars, the rest of the series gets 4.

Recommendations: The first book in the series is Catering to Nobody.

384 pages took about 3 hours.

Not a Review! An Appeal

If there is a book anyone would like me to read and review please let me know! I'll take requests, if I can get a copy. :) I'm always looking for new stuff to read, and I always want to broaden my recommendations for people! I hope people like the new system of reviewing whole series' (when I read them back to back anyway), I'll still do individual reviews for stand alone novels or if I'm just reading one book in the series. I also will occasionally do entries that aren't reviews, if I've got something good to talk about. :)

The Beaufort and Company Mystery Series by Mary Stanton

I love this series. It's unique. I can't think of another series that involves angels and the celestial courts. The main character, Bree, is engaging. Bree is a defense lawyer, in her regular (or temporal) life she is an expert in tax law, in her Celestial practice she handles appeals for justice for the dead. In addition to angels there is the "Opposition" there are demons and other nasties. The story lines generally go like this, there is a temporal case that somehow ties into a appeal in the Celestial courts. She has a Celestial practice that no one who is living can find, and a temporal practice. Aside from the mysteries Bree has a great family, an entertaining ex and a potential boyfriend. It's got a little bit of everything going on! The books, in order, are: Defending Angels, Angel's Advocate, Avenging Angels, Angel's Verdict, and Angel Condemned.

Rating: 4 stars

Recommendations: Like I said, this one is unique. There isn't anything that I know about that is similar.

Dead Bolt by Juliet Blackwell

I love this series. I wish Ms. Blackwell would hurry up and write more. I like the main character, I love her interactions with her friends and family. I especially love how much detail the author gives about home renovation. I think it's a nice touch that the main character, Mel, keeps old skeleton keys and interesting knobs and such from her jobs. There is just the write touch of the supernatural without making it seem silly or unbelievable and the mystery is pretty decent. I did not have everything all figured out halfway through. 

Rating: 4 stars

Recommendations: Ms. Blackwell has another series the The Witchcraft Mysteries that I like almost as much as this one; the first book is Secondhand Spirits. I also like the Home Repair is Homicide series by Sarah Graves; the first book is Dead Cat Bounce. No supernatural flair in that series.

336 pages took me about 2 and half hours.

Abby & Ophelia Mystery Series by Shirley Damsgaard

So, since I read the last 5 books in the series all in a row I decided to simply review them as a series. I reviewed Charmed to Death and the remaining 5 books were (in order): The Trouble with Witches, Witch Hunt, The Witch is Dead, The Witch's Grave, and The Seventh Witch. As I've mentioned in the previous reviews one thing that drove me crazy was how the main character is so inconsistent, she knows she needs to learn to trust her intuition but routinely ignores it, and how she always wants to protect others but puts herself in unnecessary danger. I am pleased to say that over the course of the series a lot of these things are improved. By Seventh Witch I was really starting to like Ophelia and she was (finally!) getting more comfortable with her powers. I'm also really glad that there was finally some romance for Ophelia! Unfortunately, the actual mystery part of most of the books were fairly predictable. The clues were too blatant (at least to me, Ophelia seems pretty dense about her intuition) and not enough red herrings to make you *think* you had it figured out. There wasn't even much of a reveal for the how's and why's of the crime. So, the rating:
3 stars out of 5

If you liked this series try: Bewitching Mysteries series by Madelyn Alt or The Psychic Eye Mysteries by Victoria Laurie.

All of these books were around 250 pages and took me maybe 3 hours a piece!

Charmed to Death by Shirley Damsgaard

I like the concept of this series. And for the most part I like the characters, and the writing; although I figured out who the killer was about half way through. The main character annoys me however. She is supposed to be learning about her psychic abilities but she regularly and deliberately ignores her own intuition, and then complains about how unclear her abilities are!! She is also so consumed with protecting her loved ones. Which is understandable except she also goes out of her way to show how capable they are! But overall I did enjoy this book and this series (this is book two) but I'm only going to give it three stars since I figured out the killer and his/her motivation so early.

Rating: 3 stars

Recommendations: The first book in this series is Witch Way to Murder. Although if you're looking for an even better paranormal series check out Madelyn Alt's Bewitching Mysteries, book one is The Trouble with Magic.

304 pages took about 3 hours.

Not a Review!

Alright, it's a new year and it's time to get going again with this blog! For the new year I'm going to get reviews posted in a more timely manner, and not do lots of reviews at a time. That just results in boring reviews. I've also decided *not* to review every single book I read. Some of the books I run into I'm just not that passionate about. I'll probably do a "meh" review at the end of each month with mention of the books that didn't make it on here for a full review. I think this year I will plan ahead and just tell you now that I won't be posting over the holidays! I think that's it for now. Thanks,
Speed Reader