My dear, sweet friends.

I just finished writing a lost post with tons of fun photos to tell you about something that will be happening for the next couple of weeks on the blog. 

I finished, schedule it, and the cloud, gremlins or trolls stole it away. 

At the time I'm writing this, it's past my bedtime and my eyes are getting blurry, so please forgive that I haven't tried to recreate the whole thing here. 

The lovely Karen of a Cup of Tea and a Cozy Mystery

 is going to guest host on the blog in May from Monday 1 - Wednesday 11 (and maybe a couple more days). 

I have some offline things I need to get straightened out. The top two are getting my house in order (y'all do not want to see it) . . .

 . . . and catch up on reviews that I will be posting later in May and in June. They are so late!

Karen has something wonderful planned for all of you! I don't want to give it away, so you'll have to check back every day! And please, in the comments give her a warm welcome and a big thank you  for watching over you all for me. I don't have enough words to thank her on my own.

 I'll be peeking in from time to time. You know I'm too nosy to stay completely away.

Take care of yourselves. 

Remember to smile in a world that needs it. 

Say kind words in a world that needs it. 

Pray for a world that needs it.

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

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upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions.

It's

Cozy Food Friday!

This week's recipe is from

DEATH OF A WEDDING CAKE BAKER

Book 11 in the Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mysteries

by

Lee Hollis

For Matron of Honor Hayley Powell, catching a half-baked poisoner before her friend's wedding will be icing on the cake . . .
 
Liddy Crawford, best friend of food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell, is getting married. The wedding is the talk of the town in Bar Harbor, Maine, including snide gossip about the age gap between the bride and her groom, local lawyer Sonny Lipton. But the cruelty of the comments is nothing compared to the nasty wedding cake baker, Liddy's quarrelsome cousin Lisa.
 
So when the belligerent baker is found facedown in a three-tier cake, the victim of a poisoned slice, there are more suspects in town than names on the guest list. With Sonny getting cold feet, Liddy getting hot under the frilly collar of her wedding gown, and a killer possibly crashing the ceremony, Hayley vows to solve the crime before her best friend walks down the aisle . . .
 
Includes seven delectable recipes from Hayley’s kitchen!

🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽

PIMENTO CHEESE DEVILED LEGS

photo property of www.flavormosaic.com

Ingredients

1 dozen large hard-boiled eggs, peeled

2 ounces finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup real mayonnaise

½ teaspoon paprika, plus extra for garnish

½ teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

2 ounces diced pimentos, rinsed and patted dry

photo property of www.simplysidedishes.com

Directions

   Cut your eggs in half lengthwise and remove the yolks. Place the yolks in a medium bowl and set your whites aside on a plate.

   Mash your egg yolks with a fork, then add your pimentos, cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, paprika, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. 

   Stir your mixture until it's all well-incorporated. Taste and add a little more salt and pepper if needed.

   Fill your eggs with the mixture and refrigerate until needed. Right before serving, sprinkle a little more paprika on the eggs. Serve and watch them quickly disappear. 

photo property of www.lemonblossoms.com

🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽

I love deviled eggs! 

I've never tried them with pimentos. 

Have you?

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by submitting your email in 

upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions.

Today I'm happy to be joining

Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours

in celebrating release of

KNIT OR DYE TRYING

Book 2 in the Riverbank Knitting Mysteries

by

Allie Pleiter

Business is booming for Libby Beckett and her fabulous Maryland shop, aptly named Y.A.R.N., but when a town festival brings a fatality with it, Libby gets all tangled up in murder.

As spring comes to Collinstown, the village launches a food festival to draw a new group of tourists. Libby, the proud owner of Y.A.R.N., has planned a yarn event to provide an alternative option to a foodie weekend. Artisan fiber dyer Julie Wilson—known for her work with animal-friendly, plant-based knitting fibers such as bamboo and hemp as well as her brilliant use of color—will hopefully draw a crowd with a special dyeing workshop.

The festival begins, but it draws more than crowds. First, a flock of sheep parades down the street, herded by farmers protesting Julie’s antiwool stance. Then Julie’s celebrity chef sister appears, and the siblings resume a long-standing rivalry. Despite all this, Julie’s workshop has sold out. Libby is thrilled, and they’re preparing for a full house. But the night before the event, Julie is found alone in the warehouse event space—dead. The witty “Watch Julie Wilson Dye” workshop title now has a terrible new meaning—and it’s up to Libby to catch a crafty killer.

Libby Beckett

from Allie Pleiter’s KNIT OR DYE TRYING

I remember when I thought “yarn shop owner” would be a quiet career.

I thought it would be a peaceful life doing what I know I was put on earth to do: make beautiful things with yarn and help others do the same. I still do that—the yarn part. The rest of it hasn’t turned out as peaceful as I’d hoped.

It’s not that I didn’t know what I was in for when I invited wildly talented yarn dyer Julie Wilson to come lead a workshop for my “Wield More Than Wool” event. If my Maryland hometown of Collinstown was hosting a “See More Than Seafood” festival, I thought it’d be a great tie in to teach people about all the other wonderful fibers that aren’t wool. After all, there’s cotton and silk and flax and now they even make yarn from pineapple and rose fibers!

Trouble was, Julie was a prickly character who eats controversy for breakfast. The local sheep farmers are so miffed about her anti-wool stance that they sent a spray-painted “No Julie” flock down our town’s main street. Protest sheep—evidently that’s a thing. So…quiet? Absolutely not.

And if all that isn’t enough, Julie’s smack in the middle of a monster fight with her sister Monica, who just happens to be in town as a guest chef for the food festival.

Just when Mayor Gavin Maddock and I think we’ve gotten the sisters to play nice, one of them ends up dead (hint, it’s not the chef sister…). Now I have a murder to solve…again.

I do my best thinking when I’m knitting, so I’m going to need lots of yarn, lots of pie from my friend Margo’s pie shop across the street, lots of support from my English bulldog Hank. Good thing all those are in ready supply. And my ever-meddling mother, Rhonda, is ready to help whether I want her to or not. Now if I could just begin to untangle those clues…

You can get to know me better by reading KNIT OR DYE TRYING, the second book in the Riverbank Knitting Mysteries. Or, if you like, you can learn how I ended up in this crazy career choice by reading the first book ON SKEIN OF DEATH. Either one will give you a creative, crafty escape from life and a glimpse into the fascinating world of fiber arts.  Hey, there’s even a knitting pattern included in the back of each book! And, if you like what you find, you’ll be happy to know that book three, IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT SHEAR, is headed your way this November.

KNIT OR DYE TRYING by Allie Pleiter, is a mystery that knitters are going to love! A non-knitter? No worries, so am I, and I really enjoyed this book!

Interesting characters, and an intriguing mystery made for an easy, fun read. Those reasons and the fact that author Pleiter kept the story moving at a great pace, had me turning page after page for much longer then I had planned.

The clever writing had me stumped on the why/what/whodunit. However, looking back as I write this review, I seem to remember a few clues that snuck right past me while I was writing.

There a few things I want to share here so much, but I don’t write spoilers in my reviews. You’re just going to have to read, KNIT OR DYE TRYING for yourself!

About Allie Pleiter

An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and firm believer that “pie makes everything better,” Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction working on as many as four novels at a time.  The bestselling author of over fifty books, Allie has enjoyed a twenty-year career with over 1.5 million books sold.  In addition to writing, Allie maintains an active writing productivity coaching practice and speaks regularly on the creative process, publishing, and her very favorite topic—The Chunky Method of time management for writers. Visit her website at www.alliepleiter.com to learn more.

Author Links

Instagram     Facebook Page     LinkedIn      Twitter       Pinterest      Goodreads     BookBub     Amazon

Subscribe to Allie’s newsletter

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

April 25 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

April 25 – Maureen Musings – SPOTLIGHT 

April 25 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog – SPOTLIGHT

April 26 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT

April 26 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

April 26 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT

April 27 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – GUEST POST

April 27 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT

April 27 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT

April 28 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST

April 28 – Diane Reviews Books – GUEST POST

April 28 – Lady Hawkeye – SPOTLIGHT

April 29 – Hearts & Scribbles – SPOTLIGHT

April 29 – I Read What You Write – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

April 29 – Moonlight Rendezvous – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST

April 30 – My Reading Journeys – REVIEW  

April 30 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT WITH EXCERPT

April 30 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW

May 1 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW

May 1 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW

May 1 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT

May 1 – Girl with Pen – SPOTLIGHT

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by submitting your email in 

upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions.

Today I'm joining Berkley Mystery in 

celebrating release of

A PERILOUS PERSPECTIVE

Book 10 in the Lady Darby Mysteries

by 

Anna Lee Huber

An all-new historical mystery in this USA Today bestselling series featuring beloved inquiry agents Lady Kiera Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage.

Argyll, Scotland. July 1832. After a trying few months in Edinburgh, Kiera and her husband and investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, are eager to escape to the Highlands with their three-month-old child. Kiera is overjoyed for her cousin Rye and her detractor-turned-friend Charlotte who are being wed in a private ceremony at the estate of Rye’s great-uncle, the Marquess of Barbreck, in what seems to be the perfect wedding party.

But when Kiera is invited to peruse Barbreck’s extensive art collection, she is disturbed to discover that one of his most priceless paintings seems to be a forgery. The marquess’s furious reaction when she dares to mention it leaves her shaken and the entire house shocked. For it turns out that this is not the first time the word forgery has been uttered in connection with the Barbreck household.

Matters turn more ominous when a maid from a neighboring estate is found murdered where the forged painting hangs. Is her death connected to the forgeries, perhaps a grisly warning of what awaits those who dare to probe deeper? With unknown entities aligned against them, Kiera and Gage are forced to confront the fact that they may have underestimated their opponent. For they are swiftly made to realize that Charlotte’s and Rye’s future happiness is not the only issue at stake, and this stealthy game of cat and mouse could prove to have deadly consequences.

About Anna Lee Huber

Anna Lee Huber is the USA Today bestselling & Daphne award-winning author of the Lady Darby Mysteries, the Verity Kent Mysteries, the Gothic Myths series, and the anthology The Deadly Hours. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. She currently resides in Indiana with her family and is hard at work on her next novel. Visit her online at www.annaleehuber.com.

 

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by submitting your email in 

upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions.

Today I'm joining Berkley Mystery in 

celebrating release of

KNIT OR DYE TRYING

Book 2 in the Riverbank Knitting Mysteries

by 

Allie Pleiter

Business is booming for Libby Beckett and her fabulous Maryland shop, aptly named Y.A.R.N., but when a town festival brings a fatality with it, Libby gets all tangled up in murder.

As spring comes to Collinstown, the village launches a food festival to draw a new group of tourists. Libby, proud owner of Y.A.R.N., has planned a yarn event to provide an alternative option to a foodie weekend. Artisan fiber dyer Julie Wilson—known for her work with animal-friendly, plant-based knitting fibers such as bamboo and hemp as well as her brilliant use of color—will hopefully draw a crowd with a special dyeing workshop.

The festival begins, but it draws more than crowds. First a flock of sheep parades down the street, herded by farmers protesting Julie’s antiwool stance. Then Julie’s celebrity chef sister appears, and the siblings resume a long-standing rivalry. Despite all this, Julie’s workshop has sold out. Libby is thrilled, and they’re preparing for a full house. But the night before the event, Julie is found alone in the warehouse event space—dead. The witty “Watch Julie Wilson Dye” workshop title now has a terrible new meaning—and it’s up to Libby to catch a crafty killer.

KNIT OR DYE TRYING by Allie Pleiter, is a mystery that knitters are going to love! A non-knitter? No worries, so am I, and I really enjoyed this book!

Interesting characters, and an intriguing mystery made for an easy, fun read. Those reasons and the fact that author Pleiter kept the story moving at a great pace, had me turning page after page for much longer then I had planned.

The clever writing had me stumped on the why/what/whodunit. However, looking back as I write this review, I seem to remember a few clues that snuck right past me while I was writing.

There a few things I want to share here so much, but I don’t write spoilers in my reviews. You’re just going to have to read, KNIT OR DYE TRYING for yourself!

About Allie Pleiter

Bestselling international author Allie Pleiter honed her talents in the world of popular fiction, where she still releases multiple books a year. Allie has over 50 published titles to her name, and over 1.5 million Allie Pleiter fiction and non-fiction books have been sold around the world.

Her well-known Chunky Method system trains writers at every level to formulate plans and meet deadlines in a way tailored to their unique working style. Allie runs an active coaching practice helping writers and all kinds of creative people be more productive, as well as training productive people to be more creative. Already a national speaker among writing associations, Allie now extends her reach to entrepreneurs, speakers, consultants, and anyone who needs to bolster their productivity and creativity in a demanding marketplace.

Allie is an avid knitter, confirmed coffee junkie and firm believer that “pie makes everything better.” She holds a BS in Speech from Northwestern University and lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband and the world’s most adorable dog.

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

Follow my blog by submitting your email in 

upper right hand corner of this page (on the side bar).

Reading from your phone? Scroll to the bottom of your page and click "View web version". Then follow the above directions.