Check out this amazing lineup I have scheduled for my 2025 newsletter. My newsletter goes out the first Monday of every month.
To sign up -
https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/429866/87468051644024810/share
Or you can pop on over to my website melissaproofs.com
Huge shout-out to all the participating authors!
I did not realize that the show we watched, “Maid,” was by this same author. We really enjoyed that show.
I have had “Class” sitting on my shelf for a while and
decided to give it a read. I really enjoyed this author’s writing style. While
a lot of times I find a narrative form of a story not for me, this one was very
well written, I thought. And while it may seem to some that she is bemoaning
and complaining about her life, it’s not really like that. She is just describing
in a realistic way how her life was juggling being a single mom, a lot of
heartache, going to school, and holding down her own business, not to mention
trying to find some time for herself. She also doesn’t have a lot of money so
paying the rent (even if she had a roommate) and buying food as well as
providing for her daughter’s basic needs also became a juggling act.
I think all of these challenges made her who she is. I think
it taught her daughter, Emilia, that sometimes even the smallest choice is a
big one. All she really wanted was stability, less of a struggle, and someone
to share her life with, someone to take part of the load off her shoulders. Not
having that, I truly believe she did the best she could. I was also interested
in reading how she struggled with applying for help – the negativity it would
possibly bring upon her, not to mention her own self-image of needing the help,
being embarrassed to need the help.
Even in today’s world, I often find myself wondering how single parents manage – working (sometimes more than one job), raising children, paying the bills, going to school, and the multitude of other things parents do. Hats off to all of you!
I finally pulled this one from my shelf. I was not disappointed and actually a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. This tale is told in multiple voices, which made it all the more interesting to me.
Masha – the owner of Tranquillum House. She developed a new
… ummm … treatment shall we say to help people transform themselves.
Yao – paramedic turned Masha’s right-hand man so to speak.
Delilah – another of Masha’s employees.
Jan and Gus – a couple minor characters, Jan being the
massage therapist and Gus being her significant other.
Frances – she’s the author character and I believe the main
one telling the story. She’s an author after all.
Lars – the overweight fellow.
Ben and Jessica – a young married couple who won the
lottery, which caused all sorts of problems for them.
Heather (mom/wife), Napoleon (dad/husband), Zoe (daughter) –
A family struggling with grief.
Tony – the good-looking fellow.
Carmel – a mom of four girls who just wanted a break.
Tranquillum House is marketed as a health resort where folks can go to transform themselves, little did these nine strangers know what they were in for. As you can imagine, having nine different personalities in one place proved to be quite unnerving for some of the guests, but Masha … she enjoyed it. She enjoyed playing on their so-called weaknesses. She came up with some activities that were quite unheard of, but I think that’s part of the beauty of writing. The author can delve into their imagination and come up with things that are so farfetched they make the reader shake their head. Like the ‘noble silence’ for five days, being locked in a room with total strangers and trying to find a way out, to name a couple of things. And don’t forget the smoothies! I also like how the author tied everything up in the end so there was closure for all of these perfectly flawed characters.
I really, really, really enjoyed reading Brynn’s story. I cannot recall a book that has had such deep character personalities, and there were quite a few. Here’s a rundown:
LuAnn and Gary – Luann is the owner of the boardinghouse
that Brynn was staying at for her summer in Wharton. Gary is the bartender. And
boy what a story they have.
Jason and Gil – Summertime renters at the boardinghouse.
Their story is quite interesting as well, how they came to be a couple.
Alice – Jason’s ex-wife, Rebecca and Jane’s mother. Alice is
afflicted with Alzheimer’s, but she knows things … things she shouldn’t know.
Dominic – The very attractive man who is also staying at the
boardinghouse and gets a lot of attention, being a newcomer to Wharton.
Simon and Jonathan – Another interesting couple who work at
Kate and Nick’s inn.
Kate and Nick – Kate is Brynn’s long-time friend and Nick is
her husband, who also happens to be the chief of police in Wharton.
Rebecca and Jane – Jason and Alice’s daughters. They don’t
play a huge role, but they are important to this story.
The town of Wharton, a small town on Lake Superior. A place
where folks go to recharge their batteries, so to speak, to escape their ‘real’
lives, if even for a summer.
Yes, it seems like there are a ton of characters in this
tale, but each one has a specific role, some roles larger than others. This
story centers around Brynn and her grief. She comes to Wharton at the
insistence of her friend, Kate, knowing that she needs to reset her emotions.
Along the way Brynn meets Dominic and there is an immediate attraction, but she
can’t figure out why. Then come the dreams. Then the sightings she sees (of
which no one is surprised, the boardinghouse is haunted after all). Then there
is room five and what is so special about room five?
These pages contain so much … love stories, hauntings, visions, dreams, the past colliding with the present – or does it? The mystery surrounding Dominic and why Brynn feels so drawn to him. I think the author really nailed it with all the intertwining lives of these characters. Now, I have filled my shopping cart with all the books … I can only imagine what some of these characters get up to in each of them, as per the Acknowledgements, Wharton is a big part of this author’s writing.
Where are all the cozy mystery readers? This one’s for you!
Laura finds herself heading to Texas at the invitation of
her parents. This situation works out for her as she is not getting along with
her siblings. She is also reunited with Hattie, who was like a grandmother to
Laura and someone she has missed. The interesting thing – they communicated by
writing letters! This is something that has gone by the wayside these days. I
always thought it was fun (and still do) getting handwritten notes in the mail.
We are also introduced to Hattie’s care person, Nicole, and
her mother, Edith. They are the colorful characters in this tale, based on
their personalities.
We meet Jordan who has a story of his own. Hattie was a
kind, caring person and helped him out.
We meet Brent, the good-looking lawyer. Every story needs a
good-looking lawyer.
We meet Detective Adams. We meet Laura’s dad, Zane. And
Connie. And Duska. And Moon Pie, a cute corgi, who adds to this tale.
Laura is what I would call an amateur sleuth. She wasn’t
happy with the way the detectives were handling the cases they were handed so
she decided to investigate on her own, much to the detectives’ dismay and
admonishments. She gets herself into all kinds of trouble along the way, when
she only wanted to help, not cause harm.
While cozy mysteries aren’t my normal type of book to read, I did enjoy reading about Laura’s misadventures and her persistence. I like the fact that she found out what she was made of, her inner strength, her never-give-up attitude until she found the answers she was looking for. And maybe even a bit more.
Find Ms. Bell:
Website: https://www.marlenembell.com/
Twitter: https://x.com/ewephoric
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marlenembell
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marlenemysteries/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/marlene-m-bell
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17642396.Marlene_M_Bell
Purchase Links:
Interested in your own book tour?
Partners in Crime: https://www.partnersincrimetours.net/
Need a proofreader? I’ve got you covered - https://www.melissaproofs.com/
What a cool read for the Halloween season!
The premise of this story is Josephine (Jo) living next door
to the Marwick House, which was supposedly haunted. All Jo really knew was the
neighbors closed their blinds on the sides of their homes so they couldn’t see
Marwick House, as well as the fact that none of the families who moved in
stayed for very long. In fact, the last family living there left in the middle
of the night, leaving all their belongings, never to return. Then, Anna moved
in.
Being somewhat of a loner, but also being curious, Jo met
Anna and they became friends, of sorts. Jo also has a cousin, Lukas, who stops
in occasionally just to make sure things were okay with Jo. I had a suspicion
there was more to Jo’s story as to why she was alone but that was left a
mystery. Lukas also met Anna; yes, there’s more there.
And let’s not forget Helen.
What I really liked about this tale was the description of Helen when she showed up and the backstory surrounding her. I liked the descriptions of the noises that Jo, especially, would hear when she was in Marwick House. I liked the darkness that surrounded Marwick House and the descriptions of how just being in its presence would affect different people. If you like a good ghost story, pick this one up.
I found myself relating more to Marcus in this tale. After all, he was the one who introduced Kenny, one of his students, to Bob, his partner, who happened to be a lawyer.
The premise of this tale is Kenny finding himself in all
kinds of legal trouble and not knowing what to do. Bob, though exceptionally
busy in his practice, decided to take on Kenny’s case. However, the more he
talked to Kenny the more frustrated he got with him. Kenny, as it turns out,
didn’t tell Bob everything … naturally, when Bob found out, he’d question Kenny
further who still told him half-truths, if that. There was so much more to
Kenny than I was expecting. I liked the realism that was portrayed with Kenny
not being one hundred percent truthful.
What I really enjoyed about this tale was the courtroom scene near the end of the book. The back-and-forth trying to figure out what happened to the victim, Cathy. And then the verdict, and then the even bigger twist right at the end. That’s what really got my attention, that last final twist.
Help me congratulate D.J. Maughan on his new book – Idaho
Fall. Here’s the blurb:
An entrepreneur with a startup valued at one billion
falls from a balcony on the eve of the company going public. Was it an
accident? Or was she pushed?
Rita Burch is a rising star. The founder of a huge clothing brand, she is on
the brink of financial nirvana. Her company is set to go public with a
valuation of over one billion dollars when her body is found broken and
unconscious, a victim of an apparent accident. Comatose, and fighting for her
life, determined to wake, she learns she can leave her body.
Following the detectives as they investigate her accident, probing for clues,
Rita learns disturbing details about herself and others.
Shocked by her life, she faces a dilemma. Even if she could, would she want
to live?
My Review:
I like having the opportunity to read books by new-to-me authors, so when the opportunity to read this one arose, I jumped at it. I was not disappointed. I could’ve easily read this one in a day, time permitting.
As the blurb suggests, Rita has a terrible accident and
finds she can leave her body. This definitely adds a ‘paranormal’ aspect to her
story, but it was intriguing to me that she could actually do this, focus on a
certain person, and then ‘be there’ in an instant. She discovers what people
think of her and has to take a close look at herself, even comatose, and was
surprised at what she discovered. The biggest questions – who pushed her and
why. You’ll have to read the book to find out the answers.
I liked the writing style, the short chapters, the pacing
which was quick and kept me turning pages. I really enjoyed Hank and Joyce, the
detectives assigned to Rita’s case. I liked their relationship. Joyce is the
seasoned detective of the two of them; she seems to have a way of seeing a
scene and picking up on the mildest of clues. She seemed to be stuck on one
particular but odd question. She got her answer, though, and some pretty
quizzical looks … the question was so bizarre and seemed misplaced in an investigation.
If you’re looking for a new author who lets his imagination
take over, give this one a try. A bit of paranormal, for lack of a better word,
sure, but what would you do if you could float around at will?
Help me congratulate Jaime on her new book - Specters in the
Glass House. Here’s the blurb:
An ominous butterfly house. A sinister legacy. An
untraceable killer.
In 1921, Marian Arnold, the heiress to a brewing baron's empire, seeks
solace in the glass butterfly house on her family's Wisconsin estate as
Prohibition and the deaths of her parents cast a long shadow over her shrinking
world. When Marian's sanctuary is invaded by nightmarish visions, she grapples
with the line between hallucinations of things to come and malevolent forces at
play in the present. With dead butterflies as the killer's ominous signature,
murders unfold at a steady pace. Marian, fearful she might be next, enlists the
help of her childhood friend Felix, a war veteran with his own haunted past.
In the present day, researcher Remy Shaw becomes entangled in an elderly
biographer's quest to uncover the truth behind Marian Arnold's mysterious life
and the unsolved murders linked to an infamous serial killer. Joined by
Marian's great-great-grandson, can Remy expose the evil that lurks beneath
broken wings? Or will the dark legacy surrounding the manor and its glass house
destroy yet another generation?
