Sunday, August 31, 2014


It's
MONDAY MYSTERY MASHUP

Do you like to solve puzzles?
Do you love to win prizes?
If you said yes to both questions,
you're in the right place! 

It's easy.
Below are five scrambled cozy mystery titles.
Unscramble the titles and enter your answers into 
the Rafflecopter form below.

The more titles you guess correctly, 
the more chances you have to win!

One lucky winner will win a
Surprise!

This giveaway is brought to you by me, 
a poor but happy blogger. ;-)
So, your prize could be a cozy mystery. Or it could be a notepad, magnet, key chain or something that's just fun or cute.

This giveaway is open to the US and Canada.

I've gone back to the old format. 
I heard when you said it was too hard.

Sound fun?
Then go get them unmashed!

1. Rofm Rerhnig ot Teenryti 

2. Aftrhe Wskno Tahed

3. Gnotnih ot Efra utb Esretfr

4. Thdea, Staex, Nda Ilsvre Psrsu

5. Hte Yebams Dmurer Uineqyr

Please only leave your guesses 
through Rafflecopter. 

As always, please leave a comment and 
let me know what you think!

Become a Follower of my blog by 
clicking on the link in the 
upper right hand corner of this page.

GOOD LUCK!

Today is 
Buy A Friend A Book Day.

My friend Kathy is featuring this day on her blog 
Cozy Up With Kathy. Since she said it so well, I'm going to borrow part of what she had to say.

Kathy: Today is Buy a Friend a Book Day! Lisa K., of Lisa Ks Book Reviews, is promoting the event on Facebook. The concept is easy. On August 31, 2014 buy a friend a book! You could have bought the book earlier to give today. Or you can buy a book today and give it to your friend when you are able. The recipient doesn't need to be a friend either. He or she could be a family member, acquaintance, or a perfect stranger!



I think this idea is wonderful. It supports reading, friendship, and promotes the authors we love as well! 

To read the rest of what Kathy had to say, viist her blog here...

I'm going to follow Kathy's lead today. 
Just click on the 
Free Entry 
on the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win a free book! 

This will be a book from my prize pile. 

I'll pick 3 winners and they will have their choice from the book list I send them. 

For this special day, this giveaway is open to 
ALL countries! 

So what are you waiting for?
Get out there and buy someone, anyone a book!

As Kathy said so well..."It supports reading, friendship, and promotes the authors we love as well!"

Thank you to my friend Dawn Frazier for remembering me on 
Buy A Friend A Book Day. 
I love them!

I also want to take a moment to thank author 
Laura Bradford. 

Last year Laura and I were shooting messages back and forth and started talking about how there should be a day where people buy others books for no reason at all. Buy the next day, 
Buy A Friend A Book Day
was born and was a wonderful success. And this year has been even bigger!

So, thank you Laura Bradford for your inspiration for this day!

And thank you to all the authors who bring us wonderful books to read, love, share, and treasure!

As always, please leave a comment and 
let me know what you think!
Also, become a Follower of my blog by 
clicking on the link in the 
upper right hand corner of this page.

GOOD LUCK!!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, August 28, 2014

It's
Cozy Food Friday!

That means it's time to share a recipe from 
another great cozy mystery!

Today's recipe comes from
THE COZY CHICKS KITCHEN
A Killer Collection of Recipes by the 
Bestselling Authors of the Cozy Chicks Blog 
SECOND EDITION


This book contains recipes from cozy mystery favorites, 
Ellery Adams / J.B. Stanley
Deb Baker / Hannah Reed
Lorraine Bartlett / L.L. Bartlett/ Lorna Barrett
Kate Collins
Mary Kennedy
Mary Jane Maffini/Victoria Abbott
Maggie Sefton
and
Leann Sweeney

You can follow The Cozy Chicks blog here...

On to the recipe!

"When I wrote the scene in NEEDLED TO DEATH, the second in the Kelly Flynn Knitting Mysteries, where Kelly visits Curt and Ruth Stackhouse, I envisioned them enjoying one of my favorite pies--blueberry. So, I gave Ruth Stackhouse my "down home" pie recipe for an all-American favorite. Enjoy-- and don't forget the vanilla ice cream!"


RUTH'S BLUEBERRY PIE
by Maggie Sefton
Based on the 
Kelly Flynn Knitting Mysteries

BUTTER CRUST PASTRY
1 1/2 level cups all-purpose flour
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, cold
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (as desired)
4 or 5 tablespoons cold water

   Measure the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Mix well. 
  
   Cut in cold butter with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should be course and crumbly.

   Gradually sprinkle in cold water, mixing well with a fork until all dry ingredients are moistened. 

   Form the pastry into a large ball.

   Lightly flour the rolling surface (pastry cloth, wax paper, or other) and rolling pin. 

   Roll dough into a circle wider than a glass pie plate, so there is at least a 1-2 inches of crust overhang. 

   Fit the crust into a pie plate, trim the over hang, and flute the crust as desired.

   This recipe allows for an ample amount of of pastry. Do not be concerned if the pastry tears when trying to remove from the rolling surface. Butter crust is light and delicate and tears easily, but is also easily repaired. Fit the crust into pie plate and "seam" together the torn pieces by dipping a finger into cold water and lightly brushing across the edges. The edges will disappear when baked, and that same delicate fragile quality of the pastry when handling is responsible for the melt-in-your-mouth flakiness of the butter crust. 


BLUEBERRY PIE FILLING
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
dash cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 cups fresh blueberries
2-3 tablespoons butter

   Preheat over to 425 degrees.

   Prepare butter crust pastry (as described above).

   Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon rind in medium bowl.

   Sprinkle lemon juice over the blueberries and stir into mixture. 

   Pour into the pastry-lined pie pan. 

   Dot with butter and cover with lattice piecrust top.


   Lattice piecrust top: Place 6-8 strips across fruit filling. 

   Take the cross strip and weave it through other strips, starting in the center. Fold the strips back as needed.

   Continue weaving the lattice until desired result is obtained. 

   Trim edges of strips on lattice crust and fold lower overhanging pastry crust edge up and over. 

   Seal the edges and flute with a fork.



   Cover the edges with a 3-ince strip of baking foil to keep from burning (remove foil for the last 15 minutes of baking). 

   Bake until crust is lightly browned and the juices bubbling, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.

   Note: Oven temperatures very. Check pie after 30 minutes and continue accordingly. 

   Yield: 6-8 servings. 

Please note that all food photos are from Google Images. Your version may vary in appearance.

I've never made baked a pie.
But this may have to be my first attempt at one!

Want to appear on my blog?
Take photos making a recipe 
featured on my blog
 and email them to me at
 lisaksbookreview@aol.com 
I will post them on an upcoming 
 Cozy Food Friday!

You can find THE COZY CHICKS KITCHEN and other great books written by the wonderful authors at your local bookstore or online at

Welcome to our kitchen! The kitchen is the heart of the home. This sense of warmth and companionship is what The Cozy Chicks try to invoke in our novels. And now, our cookbook will allow you to enter the heart of our cozy mystery worlds—the stories of our characters, of their authors, told through food. For a short while, our heroines have taken a break from crime solving to don aprons and wield spatulas and wooden spoons. And they’d like nothing more than to spend some time with you. THE COZY CHICKS KITCHEN is chock full of mouthwatering gems. Everything is here: main dishes, desserts, salads, soups, drinks, and did I mention desserts? Don’t miss this fabulous collection. I’ve got both the ebook version and a hardcopy. Get yours today! --Julie Hyzy, New York Times bestselling author of the White House Chef and Manor House mysteries The Cozy Chicks Are Bestselling Authors: Ellery Adams / J.B. Stanley, Deb Baker / Hannah Reed, Lorna Barrett / Lorraine Bartlett, Kate Collins, Mary Kennedy, Mary Jane Maffini/Victoria Abbott,  Maggie Sefton, Leann Sweeney

Keep reading to check out my installments of 
Book Beginnings on Fridays
and
The Friday 56

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader
Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading

Keeping my Cozy Food Friday theme going with... 
YARN OVER MURDER by Maggie Sefton
Book 12 in the Kelly Flynn Knitting Mystery series
My Book Beginnings for this week


Saturday, June 9, 2012

Kelly Flynn steered her boyfriend Steve Townsend's truck down the main road running from Rocky Mountain National Park into Loveland, Colorado, just south of Fort Connor. Her friends Megan and Marty Harrington said they would meet her with a horse trailer in a shopping center along this street. Scanning a big box parking lot ahead, Kelly thought she spotted Megan and Marty waving at her from the parking lot. Alongside them, there was a large two-horse-sized trailer waiting to be hitched behind Steve's big red truck. 

Kelly had never hitched a trailer before, so she was glad Marty was there to help. Like Steve, Marty came from a ranching family and was familiar with hauling animals around. Kelly's sporty car didn't haul anything larger than groceries and potting soil. But today, Steve's truck was needed, as Kelly and her friends hurried to help their friend Jayleen Swinson rescue her alpaca herd from the wildfire that blazed in Bellevue Canyon, northwest of Fort Connor. Hopefully some of Jayleen's possessions could be tossed into the truck bed as well. But that depended on how fast the wildfire spread.

The Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda's Voice
Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that's okay.) *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you. *Post it.

Continuing with YARN OVER MURDER theme
My Friday 56

Summer colors burst from every corner. Raspberry reds, blueberry blues, mint greens, lemon yellows. 

It’s early summer in Fort Connor, Colorado, and a herd of alpacas requires rescuing from a raging wildfire. Kelly Flynn and the House of Lambspun knitters may be able to save the helpless animals, but not the unexpected victim of a cold-blooded murder… 

Kelly and her knitting pals were checking out the wares at the annual Wool Market—one of the largest outdoor fiber and animal fairs in Colorado—when news spread about the wildfires raging across the canyon ranches. With temperatures scorching, Kelly receives word that the alpacas of her good friend, Jayleen, are in danger. Working fast, Kelly and her pals hightail the herd to the nearby pasture of one of Jayleen’s friends—rancher Andrea Holt. But their rescue mission is interrupted by a screaming match during which Connie, a longtime employee of House of Lambspun, snaps and accuses Andrea of stealing her husband.

Days later, Andrea is found dead at her ranch—and suspicion immediately falls on Connie. Now Kelly and her friends must untangle this yarn before Connie ends up dangling by a thread…

THE WOLFE WIDOW is book 3 in the 
Book Collector Mysteries.
Release date September 2, 2014 

You can pre-order this title at
or your local bookstore.
NOTE: I am not in an affiliate program with any online company.
I do not receive payment in anyway for my suggestions to you or 
if you make your purchases from a company I mention. 

Follow Meggie Sefton 
by clicking below

As always, please leave a comment and 
let me know what you think!
Also, become a Follower of my blog by 
clicking on the link in the 
upper right hand corner of this page.












Wednesday, August 27, 2014

It's
THROWBACK THURSDAY!
Ready to learn about a new old series?

Today I am featuring a new old series to me by 
an author I'm sure you've all heard of,  
Laura Bradford.

Laura is the author of the Amish Mystery series.

Under the name Elizabeth Lynn Casey she writes the Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries. The newest book in this series, TAKEN IN released this month. 

But today I'm featuring a series she also writes as Laura Bradford, the Jenkins & Burns Mysteries.

There are 4 books in this series.

Originally published by Hilliard & Harris under the title “Jury of One,” “Deadly Readings” is the first in Laura Bradford’s debut Jenkins & Burns mystery series. 

The Jersey Shore has always been known for warm sand, lively boardwalks, and the promise of carefree summer days. This season the small scenic town of Ocean Point, New Jersey, is not nearly as carefree as tourists would hope. The discovery of the body of a young woman is the first in a string of seemingly random and senseless murders, murders connected only by a warning from the same boardwalk fortune-teller. 

It’s a crisis that puts local detective Mitch Burns on edge, and his job in jeopardy. It’s up to him to solve the crimes and protect the livelihood of the town, a livelihood that relies almost entirely on tourists. With the help of newly hired local reporter Elise Jenkins, the two step out to discover who the killer is, before another body is found. 

Originally published by Hilliard & Harris under the title “Forecast of Evil,” “Deadly Getaway” is the second in Laura Bradford’s debut Jenkins & Burns mystery series.

It was supposed to be a romantic winter getaway complete with snow, sleigh rides, and nights spent by a roaring fire. New Jersey police detective Mitch Burns and newspaper reporter Elise Jenkins are trading one tourist town for another by heading to a remote Michigan island to relax and enjoy. 

Unfortunately a killer has other plans. When a body is found under two feet of snow, stabbed, Jenkins and Burns once again need to put their sleuthing skills to the test. As a blizzard descends, the island is completely cut off from the outside world and terror mounts while a serial killer plays a frightening game of cat-and-mouse with the island as his playground.

Originally published by Hilliard & Harris under the title “Marked by Fate,” “Deadly Expressions” is the third in Laura Bradford’s debut Jenkins & Burns mystery series.

Thirty-five years ago, seven-year-old Hannah Daltry hid under a desk, the only witness to a horrible bank robbery. Still haunted by that day, Hannah uses her passion for writing to teach others, and to try to banish the demons of her past.

Local reporter Elise Jenkins is a student in Hannah’s class. Eager to stretch her writing wings, she’s excited about the assignment Hannah gives and amazed at the teacher’s ability to bring the horrifying scene of a girl watching a bank robbery to life. But inspiration turns to shock when Hannah is found dead in her classroom. Is her only mistake being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or did the past finally catch up with her? Whatever the answer, Elise Jenkins and police detective Mitch Burns are determined to find out.

In the aftermath of the most destructive hurricane to hit the Jersey Shore in a century, Elise Burns and the other residents of Ocean Point are doing their best to recover and rebuild, which is why the recent string of robberies hits everyone especially hard. Fuming to catch the thief preying on those who have already suffered so much, Detective Mitch Burns will stop at nothing to solve the crimes. 

When another robbery turns to murder and a college student who’s interning at Elise’s newspaper is caught with the murder weapon in his hand, Mitch is convinced it’s an open-and-shut case. Elise knows the brash and ambitious aspiring reporter would go to any lengths to get a story, but was he a killer? Following clues from the intern’s notebooks and her own reporter’s gut sense, she sets out to track down a thief and a killer and exonerate a suspect she doesn't even like—even if she has to put herself in harm’s way to do it. 

DEADLY AMBITION is new, original Jenkins & Burns novella that was released in October of 2013!

The first three books in a boxed set. (eBook)

These titles are not available in paperback. Check you local and online used booksellers. You may find the first three under their original titles...JURY OF ONE, FORECAST OF EVIL, and MARKED BY FATE. 
DEADLY AMBITION was never released in print.

 All titles are available on Nook and Kindle.  

This is a very good series!
Have you read it?

Remember to check back every Thursday 
for more great Throwback cozy titles!

Want to Follow my blog? 
Go to the top right corner of my page 
and click to follow!

And please, leave a comment. 
I always love hearing what you have to say!

????????????????????????????????????????????

Answer to Whodunit Wednesday


THE POINTING CORPSE - SOLUTION

   Sergeant Wilson scratched his head. "There's no way you can know what he was pointing at."

   "Oh, yes, there is," Sherman said. "His battery's dead." 

   "So what?'

   "So, a dead battery probably means his lights were on." Sherman checked the dashboard and saw that he was right. "Let's say Mervin had a rendezvous here last night with someone from the Charity Board, perhaps to get information for his story. That person realized Mervin was getting too close to the truth and killed him. But before dying, Mervin saw something..."

   "Yeah, yeah," Wilson growled. "And he pointed to it. But which of the three things was he pointing at?"

   "It was night, remember? The lake and trees would have been invisible in the dark, especially with all the cloud cover we've had lately. The one visible thing would have been that glowing neon sign. That's what Mervin meant. The killer was Arthur Curtis."

  I'm so bad at these!
Did you guess this one?

Check back next Wednesday for another exciting case!