Saturday, September 30, 2017


I'm so happy to be joining Berkley in celebrating 
the upcoming October 3rd release of

A ROOM WITH A BREW
by Joyce Tremel


A ROOM WITH A BREW
is the third book in the Brewing Trouble Mysteries

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Did I mention there's a
Giveaway?
Keep reading


Disaster is on tap in this all-new mystery from the author of Tangled Up in Brew.

It's Oktoberfest in Pittsburgh, and brewpub owner Maxine "Max" O'Hara is prepping for a busy month at the Allegheny Brew House. To create the perfect atmosphere for the boozy celebration, Max hires an oompah band. But when one of the members from the band turns up dead, it's up to Max to solve the murder before the festivities are ruined. 

Adding to the brewing trouble, Candy, Max's friend, is acting suspicious... Secrets from her past are fermenting under the surface, and Max must uncover the truth to prove her friend's innocence. To make matters worse, Jake's snooty ex-fiancΓ©e shows up in town for an art gallery opening, and she'll be nothing but a barrel of trouble for Max.

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*****!!!GIVEAWAY!!!*****
One lucky reader will win a print copy of
A ROOM WITH A BREW
Enter using the Rafflecopter form at the end of this post.
USA only
This giveaway was made possible by Berkley.

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MY REVIEW


I’ve been tipsy with anticipation waiting for the release of this third installment of the Brewing Trouble Mysteries.

After I stayed up all night reading A ROOM WITH A BREW, I woke with a severe readers’ hangover. It was worth every minute of it! Author Tremel focused this third book in her series around Oktoberfest. Protagonist Maxine “Max” O’Hara expects to be busy in her brew pub, and she is, but she didn’t expect to be busy in a murder investigation. But it would be out of character for Max not to search out the why, and who in this cleverly written whodunit.

A ROOM WITH A BREW was an exciting mystery filled with more twists and turns than there are bubbles in the suds of a head of beer. Author Joyce Tremel kept the mystery going, and had me guessing all through the book. Just when I was feeling proud of myself thinking I had figured it out, sobered me up with a reveal I didn’t see coming!

A fantastic mystery, fun and interesting characters, quick and yummy recipes, plus the added bonus of getting an education in beer, A ROOM WITH A BREW has everything you could want from a cozy mystery.

Don’t brew on it for long. Hops yourself out and pick up a copy of your own. You’ll be drunk with happiness that you did.

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ABOUT JOYCE


Joyce Tremel was a police secretary for ten years and more than once envisioned the demise of certain co-workers, but settled on writing as a way to keep herself out of jail. She is a native Pittsburgher and lives in a suburb of the city with her husband.

Her debut mystery, To Brew Or Not To Brew was nominated for the 2015 Reviewers' Choice award for Best Amateur Sleuth by RT Book Reviews. The second book in the series, Tangled Up In Brew was released in October 2016 and chosen as a "Top Pick" by RT Book Reviews. It was the winner of the 2016 Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Amateur Sleuth. It was also named one of the Best Books of 2016 by Kings River Life Magazine.

Now available for pre-order
Release date:
October 3
GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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

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Click on the link in the 
upper right hand corner of this page!

Friday, September 29, 2017

Foodie Friday Take Over! A Cookbook You Will Love and A Gift You Can Give!

Surprise! Karen here and I am so excited with a new cook book I ordered I had to share with you all.
Lisa knows my favorite things are Toast and Jam and guess what someone put out a cookbook called just that!
This is a book by Sarah Owens (No relation) and it came out August 15th! It is filled with some amazing recipes for not just breads and jams but amazing scones, chutneys, pickles and so much more!

I reviewed Toast and Jam back in the spring and I loved it so much in digital that I bought it in hardcover. If you can put it on bread, in a sandwich it is in this book, so gourmet! The Peach and Tea  Preserves are mouth watering and I loved the egg salad recipe too! I have always wanted to make bread from scratch and how about sourdough from thin air! This book is so inspiring and would make the perfect holiday gift for the cookbook lover in your life!


You have to check this book out there are pages and pages of  out of this world amazing recipes and new flavors to try!
Rustic breads, scones, and biscuits paired with fruit-jams, jellies, nut butters, savory spreads, pickles, and more--from the James Beard award-winning author of Sourdough.Bread and butter, toast and jam, scones and clotted cream—baked goods have a long tradition of being paired with spreads to make their flavors and textures sing. As a baker with a passion for plants, Sarah Owens, author of the James Beard award–winning Sourdough, takes these simple pairings in fresh new directions. Spread some Strawberry & Meyer Lemon Preserveson a piece of Buckwheat Milk Bread for a special springtime treat. Top a slice of Pain de Mie with Watermelon Jelly for a bright taste of summer. Lather some Gingered Sweet Potato Butter on a piece of Spiced Carrot Levain for a warming fall breakfast. Make a batch of Dipping Chips to serve with Preserved Lemon and Fava Bean Hummus for an inspired snack. Wow brunch guests with a spread of Sourdough Whole-Grain Bagels, Lemony Herb ChΓ¨vre, and Beet-Cured Gravlax. The recipes here offer a thoroughly fresh sensibility for the comfort found in a simple slice of toast spread with jam.


This one is for sale now and in stores! Check it out, pick it up and wrap and ready to go for the holidays!
Thanks Lisa for letting me takeover today to share about this amazing cookbook our Foodie Friday Fans I hope will love as much as I do!
When you are done here I would love to have you check out my Fancy Friday Finds post over at www.acupofteaandacozymystery.com 

Thursday, September 28, 2017


WHAT'S COOKING?

I just have to say how much I'm enjoying this feature. I've always loved cookbooks, so this is so much fun for me! I hope it is for you too.

Now, for one of the most entertaining 
cookbooks I've ever read. 

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SWEET REVENGE
Passive-Aggressive Desserts for
Your Exes and Enemies
by Heather Kim


50+ killer cakes, cookies, and candies for your exes and enemies. Dumped by your beefcake boyfriend? BFF steal your one-and-only? Lab partner a more-than-periodic no-show?  Don’t take these battles online. (Seriously, don’t do that, okay?). Get out your heaviest rolling pins, sharpest cleavers, and most blistering torches, and kill your enemies and exes . . . with kindness. That’s right – bake that loser ex a pan of Go Fudge Yourself. Gift your former friend a You’re the Devil Cake. And give that annoying admirer a Donut Call Me Again. Let them taste your over-them happiness and see what comes next . . . Pastry chef and tattoo artist Heather Kim serves up sinfully delicious recipes and bittersweet advice.

MY REVIEW


Such a fun, creative, angry cookbook! Author Heather Kim had me laughing, licking my lips over the yummy recipes, and honestly, just a little bit scared. ;-)

SWEET REVENGE PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE DESSERTS FOR YOUR EXES AND ENEMIES. Quite the title. How could I pass it up? I couldn’t! From the title, to the cover, to the description, I knew this was not going to be my average recipe book. Any it wasn’t.

Despite the title, author Kim has created a way to safely blow off steam by creating mouthwatering, amazing desserts with names that allow you to get the hurt out of your heart, and kindness into your soul. Super fun chapters like . . . Go Ahead and Bite-Me Sized Treats, and I Never Kneaded You Anyway, you can get an idea of the recipes titles. A few are . . . You’re a Total Monster, Kiss My Molasses, I Cannoli Be Happy When You’re Dead, Stop Texting Me You Crepe, You’re a Piece of Sheet Cake, Suck it Up and Grow a Pear, Donut Call Me Again, I Ain’t Pudding Up With You, and so many more, you’ll have no problem finding a recipe to fit your mood, to give to that not so special someone in your life.

Along with the cleverly titled recipes, you’ll find pages full of colorful photos, fun illustrations, great tips, sugar profiles (who knew there were so many types?), nut identification, and more, SWEET REVENGE is as informative as it is fun.

I had a really great time with this one of a kind cookbook. You can tell the author has a great sense of humor. And I love that the sting of betrayal can start your healing by making wonderful desserts that taste good, and make you laugh.

If you know someone who has been burned by a significant other, or friend, treat them to this funny and vengeful cookbook. Have a SWEET REVENGE sweets party. By the time you’re done baking, laughing, and eating, you’ll forget all about the jerks in your life!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Heather Kim is Korean-American, born and raised in Chicago. She is a pastry chef, tattoo artist, and painter, and considers Hola Arepa Restaurant and MPLS Tattoo Shop her homes. You can find her in Minneapolis, happily chasing her husband, Scott, & her schnauzers, Maximus & Nietzsche, around the couch.

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THE DINNER PLAN
pre-order now

Available
January 1, 2018


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

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

Wednesday, September 27, 2017


I'm so happy to be joining Berkley in celebrating 
the upcoming October 3rd release of

FAMILIAR MOTIVES
by Deila James


FAMILIAR MOTIVES
is the third book in the Witch's Cat Mysteries


A new witch and her feline familiar get their fifteen minutes of fame in this enchanting mystery in the national bestselling series...
 
After learning that she comes from a family of witches—and adopting a familiar named Alistair—artist Annabelle Britton has made beautiful Portsmouth, New Hampshire, her home. Together with her coven, this good witch is trying to put a stop to magic and murder most foul. 
 
When Anna takes Alistair to see local veterinarian Ramona Forsythe, they meet the most famous cat in town: Ruby the Attitude Cat, spokes-feline for a pet food brand. But then Ramona turns up dead, and Ruby goes missing. It seems like the murderer used magical means, so it’s up to Anna and Alistair to catch a killer and cat-napper as only a canny cat can.

A Word from Delia


THE LONG-LOST GRANDMOTHER OF SUSPENSE
            It’s impossible for the reader of mystery and crime fiction these days and not to notice that the girls are having trouble.  They’re gone.  They’re on trains.  They’re seduced by mass murderers.  They are stuck in fancy apartments with bad pasts.  Killers and victims are upstairs, downstairs, and in my lady’s chamber, and occasionally in a numbered cabin.  The girls are trapped by lives that oppress and confuse them.  Their friends and family die in droves.
            As a trend in mysteries, this emphasis on ordinary women as perpetrators, victims and escapees, isn’t new.  It’s the return of a portion of the genre that was popular just after World War II, another time of great change, great confusion, and great frustration.  Back then, the sub-genre was called “domestic suspense,” or “domestic noir.”  The stories revolved around women’s lives, usually their home lives, and one of it’s greatest practitioners was Elizabeth Sanxay Holding.
            You’ve probably never heard of her.  I sure as heck had never heard of her.  That is, until I picked up Sarah Weinman’s fabulous anthology of classic suspense by women; Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives.  
            Now, I am a writer and a reader of cozies. I love them and the whole range of the gentler side of mystery fiction, including the venerable English village and country house mysteries, and of course, give me anything featuring a cat and a bookstore.  But I also love classics, and gothics, and stories of women (and their families) behaving unexpectedly, and badly.  So this collection seemed right up my alley.  While I enjoyed a lot of what I found in Troubled Daughters, it was Holding’s “The Stranger in the Car” that sent me running (okay, it was a fast walk), back to the bookstore and demanding “Who is this?” and “WHERE’S THE REST OF HER STUFF!”
            In Holding, I met a woman from the past writing about women who were confined, dismissed, belittled, and thrown into situations where — if they really had been what the men around them thought they were (and sometimes, what they tried hard to be) — they would collapse and expire.  That is not what Holding’s women do.  Sometimes they discover themselves in their danger.  Sometimes they simply reveal their true selves, as tough, intelligent, capable, and sometimes very, very sneaky, human beings.
            Holding wrote across the spectrum of thriller and mystery.  She is best known for domestic suspense, like The Old Battle Axe (a personal favorite), in which an overlooked spinster witnesses a very strange murder.  Then there’s The Blank Wall, where a housewife finds a body in a pond and tries to shield her family from the trouble it will cause.  There’s also The Innocent Miss Duff, which contains one of the best portrayals of the self-deception of an addict that I’ve ever read.  
            But Holding wrote a lot.  She dabbled in psycho-drama a la Patricia Highsmith with work like The Obstinate Murderer (dated, but still interesting) and the exotic-location thriller Speak of the Devil.  If I have a real favorite among Holding’s work, it’s Speak of the Devil, and it’s all because of the main character, Miss Peterson.  
            Like all fans of cozies, I love the person of the female amateur sleuth.  She’s a smart, busy, independent person who gets caught up in the crime when she’s on her way to doing anything but solving a murder.  That’s Holding’s Miss Peterson, but Miss Peterson’s got an edge.  In fact, if I was playing the casting game, I’d go straight for Lauren Bacall.  
            When we meet her, Miss Peterson is sailing to Havana on her own.  She’s restless, and looking for a change.  She has a full, active life that she feels no compulsion to explain, or justify, not even to the reader.  She speaks a number of languages, a fact she does not necessarily advertise, and is clearly very over qualified for the job she ends up taking.  Oh, and she goes around armed.  All of this would make her an unusual point of view for a modern novel, never mind one published in 1942.  Add to this that she is very much in charge of her own love life, and her own personal safety, and you’ve got something really special.
            I’m happy to say that here in the future, Holding’s work is relatively easy to find.  There are some good reprints out, and if you don’t happen to have a good local used bookstore a lot of the rest is available via Amazon.  So, if you’re a fan of those missing girls, and/or Daphne DuMaurier, and/or Patricia Highsmith, and/or Dorothy Sayers, and/or Agatha Christie and/or…
            Well.  You get the picture.   
            Enjoy.

MY REVIEW

Another enchanting installment in the Witch’s Cat Mysteries.

Author Delia James takes us back to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to help witch, Anna Britton, and her cat familiar, Alistair catch a killer, and find a missing “celebrity” cat.

As with the other books in this series by Delia James, FAMILIAR MOTIVES was a well written tale packed with murder, mischief, and magic. Under the author’s spell, I became immersed in the story, and I couldn’t get through the pages of this book fast enough.   

Rather you like your cozy mysteries with cats, a para-normal twist, great plots, or all of the above, FAMILIAR MOTIVES has something for everyone. Conjure up a copy of your own!

ABOUT DELIA


Delia James has been a writer almost as long as she’s been anything.  She started putting stories on paper by drawing stick figures comics based on Maurice Sendak cartoons and never stopped.  These days, she writes her magical mysteries from her home near Ann Arbor, Michigan, assisted by her loving husband, Tim, her magnificent son, Alex, and her vocal cat, Buffy the Vermin Slayer.


Now available for pre-order
Release date:
October 3
As always, please leave a comment and 
let me know what you think!

Want to follow my blog? 
Click on the link in the 
upper right hand corner of this page!


Tuesday, September 26, 2017


Author 
Kathi Daley 
has a new book!

TRICK OR TREASON
Book 26 in the Zoe Donovan Cozy Mysteries


It's funny, it's family, it's a Zak and Zoe Halloween Mystery.

As is his tradition, Zak has gone Halloween Crazy, while Zoe is trying to overcome the baby bump blues and harness some enthusiasm for the annual Haunted Hamlet. Things seem to be on track for a Spooktacular good time until Zoe stumbles onto the body of a long time friend in the alley behind Rosie's just days before the big event. The death of this popular community member leads to an investigation which reveals a shocking history that Zoe and the gang never suspected and can't quite explain. 

Join Zoe and the gang as they peel back the layers to a mystery with fingers reaching into the past as well as into the future.

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You know what happens here on the blog when Kathi Daley has a new book don't you?

πŸ‘»πŸ‘»πŸ‘»πŸ‘»!!!GIVEAWAY!!!πŸ‘»πŸ‘»πŸ‘»πŸ‘»

For your chance to win a copy of
TRICK OR TREASON
use the Rafflecopter form below

USA - Choice of Print or Kindle copy
Canada - Kindle copy only


You will find a full list of Kathi's books at . . .



GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway