Sunday Salon: Reading on a Rainy Day

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey.Tynga of Team Tynga's Reviews has a meme, Stacking the Shelves, to spotlight the books we receive each week.

It's cold, wet, and gloomy outdoors today as it has been the past few days and will be for some days to come. Luckily we have the LED Daylight bulbs that bring sunlight into the house, so we can pretend it's summer. The light is artificial, but it mimics the brightness of the sun and it's also energy efficient, so that's fine. No chance of SAD this winter, we hope.

My books for the week:

The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults by Frances E. Jensen, Amy Ellis Nutt
An internationally respected neurologist offers a revolutionary look at the brains of adolescents, providing surprising insights--including why smart kids often do stupid things--and practical advice for adults and teens.

Cane and Abe by James Grippando
An explosive psychological thriller from New York Times bestselling author James Grippando in which Miami’s top prosecutor becomes a prime suspect when his wife’s disappearance may have a chilling connection to the vicious murders of beautiful women in the Florida Everglades.

Once Upon a Grind: Coffeehouse Mystery #14 by Cleo Coyle
When coffeehouse manager turned amateur sleuth Clare Cosi roasts "magic” beans for Fairy Tale Week, she brews up a vision that leads to a sleeping beauty in Central Park; a big, bad wolf of Wall Street; and an East Side enclave with storybook secrets..

Suspicion at Seven: Lois Meade Mystery#14 by Anne Purser
Lois Meade has done enough buffing and polishing over the years with her cleaning business, New Brooms, to know that all that glitters is not gold. So when a bag of costume jewellery is the main clue in a murder, she has a strong suspicion that appearances may be deceiving… 

Three mystery novels and a nonfiction book.   What are you reading these days? 

Book Review: Her: A Novel by Harriet Lane

Her: A Novel

Title: Her: A Novel by Harriet Lane
To be published January 6, 2015; Little, Brown and Company
Genre: fiction, suspense
Rating: 5/5

Emma and Nina met years ago when they were teenagers, but they never became friends. Emma, now married and pregnant with a toddler and a baby, is courted in seeming friendship by Nina, who does remember Emma from those long ago days. Nina offers help to the overwhelmed Emma, with some babysitting and even offering Emma and her family her father's French villa for two weeks in the summer.

But Nina doesn't tell Emma that they knew each other years ago. This keeps you on the edge wondering what Nina is up to with her secrecy, her spying on Emma, and her little sabotages of Emma's life.

Enticing but subtle plot, lyrical descriptions of surroundings and place, and two intriguing women whose characters and personalities are the opposite but whose "friendship" kept me on edge with anticipation.

Thanks to the publisher for an early read of the ebook proof.

Book Beginnings: A Dog Gone Murder by Elaine Viets

The Friday 56: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

A Dog Gone Murder

Book beginning:

"A dog can't talk," Amelia Marcus said. Her tween scorn should have melted the TV set.
"Sure he can," Josie Marcus said. "As soon as Uncle Bob shuts up, you'll hear him."

Page 56:

"I trust you and Palmer," she said. "I know you'll pick a good dress."

Book description:

New in the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series, from the Agatha and Anthony Award-winning author of the Dead End Job Mystery series.

Mystery shopper Josie Marcus is getting the dirt on doggy day-care centers, and discovers that one dog-loving local celebrity is really bad to the bone. Josie has been asked to investigate Uncle Bob’s Doggy Day Camp, known for its commercials featuring Uncle Bob liking dogs so much that he acts like one. But Josie soon learns how Uncle Bob acts when the cameras are off. Her mother’s new tenant, Franklin, who works for Uncle Bob, plans to quit after seeing the man’s true nature. But before he gets the chance, Bob is murdered, and Franklin goes from the doghouse to the big house.

Now it’s up to Josie to clear Franklin’s name. Her investigation reveals that Bob was more of a dog than anyone knew—and had been kicked out of his house for bad behavior. As she digs up new clues, Josie will have to catch the killer quickly, before any more trouble is unleashed. (goodreads)

Have you read any in this series?

Scorched Eggs by Laura Childs

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted weekly by Jill at Breaking the Spine. What new releases are you eagerly waiting for. Link your post to Breaking the Spine.

Scorched Eggs

Opening sentence: Suzanne didn't know how she felt about Blond Bombshell No. 4 as a hair color, but she was about to find out. 

Title: Scorched Eggs (Cackleberry Club #6) by Laura Childs
Expected publication: December 2, 2014; Berkley
Genre: cozy mystery

Book description:
Suzanne, Petra, and Toni—co-owners of the Cackleberry Club Café—are equally good at serving up breakfast and justice. As Suzanne is getting her hair colored at Root 66, she witnesses the County Services office next door suddenly go up in flames. The fire department does their best. Unfortunately, their best isn’t enough to save longtime civil service worker—and friend to the Cackleberry Club—Hannah Venable.

Soon it’s discovered someone set the fire on purpose. When Suzanne finds a possible connection between the fire and the nearby Prairie Star Casino, she realizes the arsonist wanted something very big and bad kept secret. (publisher)

What new release are you waiting for?

The Cinderella Murder by Mary Higgins Clark

First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted weekly by Bibliophile by the Sea. Share the first paragraph of your current read. Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB.

The Cinderella Murder (Under Suspicion #1) by Mary Higgins Clark/Alafair Burke

First paragraph, first chapter:

It was two o'clock in the morning. Right on time, Rosemary Dempsey thought ruefully as she opened her eyes and stirred. Whenever she had a big day ahead she would inevitably wake up in the middle of the night and start worrying that something would go wrong. 

It had always been like this, even when she was a child, and now, fifty-five years old, happily married for thirty-two years, with one child, beautiful and gifted nineteen-year-old Susan, Rosemary could not be anything but a constant worrier, a living Cassandra. Something is going to go wrong. 

Publisher description:

Television producer Laurie Moran is delighted when the pilot for her reality drama, Under Suspicion, is a success. The program is a cold case series that revisits unsolved crimes by recreating them with those affected. It helps solve an infamous murder in the very first episode. Now Laurie has the ideal case to feature in the next episode of Under Suspicion: the Cinderella Murder.

When Susan Dempsey, a beautiful and multi-talented UCLA student, was found dead, her murder raised numerous questions. The suspense and drama are perfect for the silver screen - but is Cinderella's murderer ready for a close-up?

Are you a Mary Higgins Clark fan? Are you ready for her new mystery? 
Released today by Simon and Schuster, who provided a copy for review/feature. 

A High-End Finish by Kate Carlisle

Visit It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey

A High-End Finish

Title: A High-End Finish;A Fixer Upper Mystery by Kate Carlisle
Published November 4, 2014: Signet
Genre: cozy mystery

Opening sentence: "You could have warned me that installing drywall would be hell on my manicure."

"In the seaside town of Lighthouse Cove in northern California, everyone knows the best man for the job is actually a woman—contractor Shannon Hammer. But while Shannon can do wonders with a power drill and a little elbow grease, she’s about to discover that some problems aren’t so easily fixed....

 Shannon’s home-renovation and repair business is booming, but her love life needs work. On a blind date with real estate agent Jerry Saxton, she has to whip out a pair of pliers to keep Jerry from getting too hands on. Shannon is happy to put her rotten date behind her, but when Jerry’s found dead in a run-down Victorian home that she’s been hired to restore, the town’s attractive new police chief suspects that her threats may have laid the foundation for murder.

Determined to clear her name, Shannon conducts her own investigation—with the help of her four best friends, her eccentric father, a nosy neighbor or two, and a handsome crime writer who’s just moved to town. But as they get closer to prying out the murderer’s identity, Shannon is viciously attacked. Now she’ll have to nail down the truth—or end up in permanent foreclosure.…"(publisher description)

This is the first in a new cozy mystery series. Thanks to the publisher for a review/feature copy.
What are you reading this week?  

Sunday Salon: Library Books and a Review

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week.Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer; Also visit It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey


Busy, busy Sunday. A quick post.....Reading is a great relief, respite. Thank heavens for the library!

Just finished another great read by Louise Penny that kept me up late into the night and had me finishing up early this morning! Took a few days to finish it in between my chores! Interestingly, it has a few elements of magic and the mystical, which added more intrigue to the crime novel, which it basically is. The 10th in the mystery series.

The Long Way Home

One of the books I got at the library, I have another to read that will be lighter reading and getting ready for the Christmas mood.

The Nightingale Before Christmas

I enjoy humorous mystery novels too, and Donna Andrews writes these!

In my mailbox last week?

The Cinderella Murder

I Take You

I read this ARC, I Take You, as soon as I got it from the publisher.

My comments:Outrageous, funny, very entertaining women's fiction. I might add that some scenes are over the top, but I didn't seem to mind.

What books are on your reading shelf this week?