Cozy Reader Lady

Surf and Cozy Mystery with Hats

Revisado: 03-20-25

"Killer Brownies (A Sea Glass Beach Mystery #1)" by Amelia Pine is set in Sea Glass Beach, California and follows Paige Andrews as she and her dinner club group investigate the death of cooking influencer Justin Thyme. She's doing all this while trying to juggle her busy schedule working as a bridal millinery designer and new dog mom.

The mystery did keep me guessing. There were several potential suspects. Each of the suspects had a good motive for anger and benefit from Justin's passing. There was one person in particular I kept focusing on but I'm not totally sure why, maybe gut instinct after binging cozy mystery books for a little over a year.

I'm excited to see where this series goes. I say this partly because the millinery aspect is interesting to me. I've done a little myself while in school and I find it interesting what books like this include. The recipes sounded delicious as well. I may have to try some of the tips that were mentioned.

Update note after listening to audiobook:

This narrator does a great job at making each character unique. There's a different tone or accent for each character and they stay consistent. They brought the characters and book to life.

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Not for me and could have used another edit

Revisado: 12-23-24

This one wasn't to my particular liking. It tried a little too hard to stick to a prosciutto theme with a New Years theme. Men may like this one a big more, or at least someone who doesn't mind a slight misogynistic undertone. Even to the female characters.

As for the AI voice narrator. It missed a lot of pronunciations. The one most annoying was the last name of the main character since the main character even explicitly tries to get another character to say it right.

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Ghost Pirate Treasure Hunt Mystery

Revisado: 02-06-24

"Secrets and Scallywags (Magical Mystery Book Club #5)" by Elizabeth Pantley is ghost pirates meet cozy mystery treasure hunt more than murder mystery. There are deaths but there's not much mystery behind why. That's okay, not every cozy mystery has to be a murder mystery.

In this one the book club goes into a modern pirate cozy mystery. The ghost pirates need to recover their missing treasure so they can go back to pirating and not be stuck in limbo. I wont given much more detail as that would be getting into spoiler territory.

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Fairy Baking Cozy Mystery

Revisado: 02-04-24

"Bakeries and Buffoonery (Magical Mystery Book Club #4)" by Elizabeth Pantley is a baking cozy mystery plus fairies. The only thing it was missing from a stereotypical baking cozy mystery was a recipe. I wont say that it needed one though.

These books still make me think of the "Magic Tree House" series with the jumping into books to solve a mystery. This time they have to find the culprit after getting some clue from the culprit in the first part of the book they picked. I have to say I was leaning towards this person but almost switched to someone else right before the reveal.

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Paranormal Cowboy Cozy Mystery

Revisado: 02-02-24

"Cowboys and Chaos (Magical Mystery Books Club #3)" by Elizabeth Pantley is even better than the previous two books. The author is really hitting a stride with this series. Now, being a paranormal cozy mystery series you may ask, "how can a cowboy story be a paranormal story too!" Ghosts. Well, one ghost. In this one the book club is trying to solve the mystery of how their ghost friend died while in the old west.

This one gets a few new plot twists thrown in that make you think a little. There was one reveal I kinda saw coming. However, it was more of a "I knew it!" in excitement.

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Cozy Mystery meets Magic Treehouse

Revisado: 02-02-24

"Shifting and Shenanigans (Magical Mystery Book Club #1)" by Elizabeth Pantley is what you get when you like cozy mysteries and the "Magic Treehouse" series, which I would argue are also cozy mysteries. In this book we get our classic cozy mystery main character who just went through a heartache and windfall. Then, on top of that something magical happens. She gets a talking cat and a magical
library that takes her and her bookclub into the cozy mysteries they're reading.

They have live out the investigation in that book, but being cozy mysteries it's more interesting than scary. Also, like the "Magic Treehouse" series, this was a completely new but accurate to the genre story not a jump into a classic. Though, I could see that being a good bridge to introducing classic mysteries. Or a take on re-introducing a classic to a new era of writing.

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Great character communication examples for real life

Revisado: 02-02-24

"Vampires and Villains (Magical Mystery Book Club #2)" by Elizabeth Pantley takes the Magical Mystery Club into a cozy vampire cruise ship mystery. This book the characters are more established feeling, even the new guy seems to fit right in with little friction to the group. I like that, that's why I like cozy mysteries. People who should like each other should figure out ways to communicate and resolve their issues (should still do this even if you don't like each other too) and this series so far has done a good job of showing that happening.

The mystery part was a bit more involved on the part of the characters. Probably, in part, because the getting to know the characters happened more in the first book. I had an inkling that the culprit was who it ended up being but not really their motives until just before the reveal.

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Smidge of Christmas Lots of Cremas

Revisado: 12-03-23

"Cremas, Christmas Cookies & Crooks (Cape Bay Cafe Mystery #6)" by Harper Lin was more about the Cremas than about Christmas. I would say it was almost too much detail about Cremas and maybe the occasional mention of gingerbread or sugar cookies and a very short bit about a Christmas party at the end of the book.

The mystery was decently done. There were a couple of details I didn't see coming in the end. However, I ended up being right about the who.

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Trigger warning-sexual assault

Revisado: 08-22-23 El oyente recibió este título gratis

"Scrapbook of Murder" by Lois Winston and narrated by Alexandra Bitton-Bailey is the 6th book of the "Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries" series. I have to say I'm glad that the Mama character was barely in this one. We get enough crazy, annoying relatives with the mother-in-law from hell. Seriously, send her to live with the rich brother-in-law. He can afford her and wants to help in some way. She hates living with anyone she has to, at least that way she's not a drain on Anastasia who can't afford it. Plus, Anastasia has her own crazy mother to deal with, I know it's not his mother but still. Get rid of her, she's more annoying than interesting.

The mystery was good, but trigger warning, it revolves around a sexual assault of underage girls. So, if that's something that you're want nothing to do with don't read. I will say it was done in a way to bring awareness without going into details. It did bring the book a smidge out of the cozy genre feel. However, I would still leave the series overall in cozy territory.

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Please have the next one be the last

Revisado: 07-27-23

I only read the first and last chapters now, these have gotten so bad continuity wise and its just dragging out dead plot lines that all the fans want is for Hannah to finally decide Norman or Mike!

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