Newly Released Berkley Prime Crime Mass Market Paperbacks

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Gotta Write Network blog, Newly Released Berkley Prime Crime Mass Market Paperbacks

Time to make room on your TBR self for these March and April new cozy mysteries. I’ve already read “A Wee Murder in My Shop: A ScotShop Mystery” and fell for one of the characters. Read the book and you’ll fall in love with him, too.  A review will soon be written. Get your copies of these new books on Barnes or Amazon.

 

A WEE MURDER IN MY SHOP: A ScotShop Mystery

By Fran Stewart, March 3, 2015; $7.99

First in a new series

When Peggy Winn finds the dead body of her ex-boyfriend on the floor of her ScotShop in Vermont, she decides to ask her haunting Scottish companion for help solving the crime – before anyone else gets killed.

 

 

A FIRST DATE WITH DEATH:

A Love or Money Mystery

by Diana Orgain; March 3, 2015; $7.99

First in a new series

Reality TV meets murder in the first in a new mystery series from the author of Maternal Instincts Mysteries and co-author of the New York Times bestselling Scrapbooking Mysteries. When brokenhearted Georgia Thornton goes looking for romance on reality TV, she has nothing to lose – apart from a good man, a cash prize, and maybe her life.

 

 

ASSAULT AND PEPPER: A Spice Shop Mystery

By Leslie Budewitz, March 3, 2015; $7.99

First in a New Series

The Agatha Award-winning author of Crime Rib is proud to introduce Pepper Reece, the owner of the Seattle Spice Shop who thinks she can handle any kind of salty customer –until a murderer ends up in the mix.

 

 

 

HOW TO CATCH A CAT: A Cats and Curios Mystery

By Rebecca M. Hale, March 3, 2015; $7.99)

The New York Times bestselling Cats and Curios Mysteries make their return with the sixth book in the series featuring San Francisco. A serial killer with a peculiar penchant for City Hall interns is on the loose in San Francisco and it’s up to me – and my two cats, Rupert and Isabella – to put a stop to the spree.

 

 

HORSE OF A DIFFERENT KILLER: A Call of the Wilde Mystery

By Laura Morrigan, March 3, 2015; $7.99

From the national bestselling author of A Tiger’s Tale comes the third book in the series featuring amateur sleuth Grace Wilde. Animal behaviorist Grace Wilde’s psychic ability gives her insight into the minds of all kinds of creatures. If only humans were as easy to read.

 

 

 

 

SUSPENDERED SENTENCE: An Amish Mystery

By Laura Bradford, March 3, 2015; $7.99

The national bestselling author of “Shunned and Dangerous” returns to the Amish community of Heavenly, Pennsylvania, in this fourth installment of the series where shop owner Claire Weatherly has come to appreciate a simpler, more peaceful way of life. But dark secrets are about to complicate things – and lead to murder.

 

 

 

MURDER TIES THE KNOT: A Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery

By Christy Fifield, March 3, 2015, $7.99

From the national bestselling author of Murder Sends a Postcard comes the fourth book in this series featuring down-home dinner menus. It’s winter in Keyhole Bay, Florida, and while the tourist trade is slow, souvenir shop owner Glory Martine is busy with her best friend’s wedding. But between managing preparations, the bride’s in-laws, and a haunted parrot named Bluebeard, Glory makes plans to catch a killer.

 

 

 

Ladle to the Grave: A Soup Lover’s Mystery

by Connie Archer, March 3, 2015; $7.99

The fourth installment in the series featuring amateur sleuth Lucky Jamieson. Jamieson, owner of Vermont’s most popular soup shop, “By the Spoonful” doesn’t have any time to enjoy her success – she’s too busy trying to keep a lid on false accusations against her loved ones.

 

 

 

 

 

STEEPED IN EVIL: A Tea Shop Mystery

By Laura Childs; March 3, 2015; $7.99

Now available in mass market

In the 15th installment of the series, Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning heads to a winery where she is about to learn the true meaning of terror.

 

 

 

 

DEMISE IN DENIM: A Consignment Shop Mystery

By Duffy Brown; April 7, 2015; $7.99

It’s springtime in Savannah, Georgia, in the newest Consignment Shop Mystery from the author of Pearls and Poison. The azaleas and magnolias are in bloom – and Walker Boone is on the run.

 

 

 

 

DARK CHOCOLATE DEMISE: A Cupcake Bakery Mystery

By Jenn McKinlay; April 7, $7.99

The New York Times bestselling Cupcake Bakery Mysteries bake up sweet surprises, but as the series continues in this seventh installment, Mel and Angie are in for a fresh batch of trouble.

 

 

 

 

 

LEMON PIES AND LITTLE WHITE LIES: A Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery

By Ellery Adams; April 7, 2015; $7.99

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Books by the Bay series and the Book Retreat mysteries comes the fourth book in this series featuring another tangy slice of life–and death–in a charmed, and charming, small town.

Summary:

Ella Mae LeFaye’s Charmed Pie Shoppe has become a phenomenon beyond her wildest dreams, providing the enchanted town of Havenwood, Georgia, with spellbinding desserts and magical pies. Her personal life is also heating up as she takes on the responsibilities of leadership within her magical community. In fact, the only thing weighing her down is the fact that handsome Hugh Dylan won’t return her calls…

Still, when Havenwood is rocked by a series of mysterious deaths, Ella Mae must put romantic longings aside—especially when she realizes that the mystical symbols left at each crime scene are dangerously personal. Now she will have to whip up all her supernatural skills to uncover a killer out to settle an ancient score—before the murderer devastates everything Ella Mae is determined to protect…

 

 

SHADOW OF A SPOUT: A Teapot Collector Mystery

By Amanda Cooper; April 7, 2015; $7.99

From the bestselling author of Tempest in a Teapot comes the second installment of this series where avid teapot collector Rose Freemont takes a break from her Victorian tea house only to find a new mystery brewing elsewhere.

Summary:

Leaving her home in Gracious Grove behind her, Rose is off to the annual convention of the International Teapot Collector’s Society. Her granddaughter Sophie is minding the tea house while she’s away. Rose is eager for tough cookie Zunia Pettigrew to appraise a prized antique teapot she believes may be a holy water vessel from China.

But when Zunia declares the pot a fake, Rose is really steamed. After Zunia’s found dead beside Rose’s dinged-in teapot, Sophie must rush to her grandmother’s aid and find the real killer—before Rose is steeped in any more trouble…

 

GRAVE ON GRAND AVENUE: An Officer Ellie Rush Mystery

By Naomi  Hirahara; April 7, 2015; $7.99

LAPD bicycle cop—and aspiring homicide detective—Ellie Rush is back on patrol in the newest mystery from the award-winning author of Murder on Bamboo Lane.

Summary

Ellie stops for a friendly chat with gardener Eduardo Fuentes while patrolling one of Los Angeles’s premier concert halls. A few minutes later she’s shocked to discover him lying at the bottom of a staircase, clinging to life and whispering something indecipherable. Nearby, the father of Xu, a Chinese superstar classical musician, claims Fuentes was knocked down while attempting to steal his son’s multimillion-dollar cello—a story Ellie has trouble believing.

Meanwhile Ellie has issues of her own to deal with—like the curious theft of her car, a 1969 Pontiac Skylark. But after the gardener takes his last breath and Xu mysteriously disappears, it’s clear to Ellie she must act quickly before someone else falls silent…

 

 

A STICKY SITUATION: A Sugar Grove Mystery

By Jessie Crockett; April 7, 2015; $7.99

The author of Maple Mayhem returns to Sugar Grove, New Hampshire, in the third installment of this series where the Greene family, including Dani’s irksome Aunt Hazel, are busy preparing for the annual Maple Festival. But nothing kills the festive spirit like murder.

Summary:

Aunt Hazel isn’t exactly sweet, but she’s not the only one putting syrup maker Dani in a sour mood. Her family is trying to help renovate the town’s Opera House, but their contractor Russ Collins seems to specialize in finely crafted excuses. And his latest one is killer.

In the Opera House basement, Russ uncovers the remains of Spooner Duffy, a charming drifter thought to have skipped town decades ago with a hefty sum of the town’s money. Tapping into some unpleasant memories, Spooner’s bones also threaten to reveal a murderer’s secret, and now it’s up to Dani to catch a killer before the town is stuck with a deadly reputation.

Recipes included!

 

 

A FRIGHT TO THE DEATH: A Family Fortune Mystery

By Dawn Eastman; April 7, 2015; $7.99

From the author of “Be Careful What You Witch For” comes the third Family Fortune Mystery starring former cop Clyde Fortune, who — snowbound with her kooky family in a creepy castle — is climbing the walls and combing the halls, looking for a cold-blooded killer.

 

 

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The Key Is In Asking By Laura Bradford (author of Suspendered Sentence)

Tags

Berkley Prime Crime, Gotta Write Network blog, Laura Bradford, Suspendered Sentence

If you could be a fly on the wall in my conversations with other people, you’d see that I ask questions—everything from the standard, “how was your day?” to more in-depth stuff like “what made you pick that line of work?” or “what drives you nuts?”

I’m not over-the-top about it, but I’m curious. I guess I’ve always felt that you learn more in life by listening and hearing. Maybe someone talks about a hobby I knew nothing about—something that might connect with me, too. Maybe someone has traveled somewhere I’ve always wanted to go and by asking questions and listening to their answers, I get to go along, too.

Sometimes, because of a question I asked, or an answer I sought, my internal plotting machine starts ticking. It’s happened over lunch with a friend, it’s happened while talking to someone at a party, and it’s happened inside my own head.

Wait? What?

Question-askers like myself, don’t just ask questions of other people, we ask questions of ourselves, too. I’m the first to admit constantly asking yourself questions can be a royal pain at times, but when you happen to be a writer, it’s also a really cool “quirk” to have.

Because questions lead to answers, and answers sometimes lead to intricate characters, dynamite settings, and the kind of plots that keep my readers turning the pages of my books late into the night.

 That happened to me as I was getting ready to start writing the fourth book in my Amish Mysteries—SUSPENDERED SENTENCE. In my mind I saw a young Amish teenager hanging out with her friends while on Rumspringa. Some were experimenting with drinking, some were experimenting with cigarettes, all were enjoying music and a chance to blur the lines of their otherwise simple life for just a little while. By the end of the night, she was dead. Her parents were told she ran off, lured away by the English life. And, for nineteen years, they had no reason to believe otherwise—until her remains are uncovered on their property, anyway.

That was the “vision” in my mind that kicked off this book. But it was the questions I started asking myself on the heels of that “vision” that had me fastening my seatbelt.

How did she die?

Why didn’t her friends say anything?

Who buried her?

How could they let her mother and father believe, for nineteen years, that their daughter was still alive?

Question after question (and answer after answer), I began to realize what happened to that Amish teenager. And as I moved through the layers of her story, I discovered that one fateful night was just the start of a tale far more sinister than even I had realized.

So that’s me. In a nutshell.

I ask a lot of questions.

Because questions lead to answers…

******

Laura Bradford (aka Elizabeth Lynn Casey) has wanted to be a writer since she was ten years old. Today, she is the author of several mystery series, and a handful of romance novels. She is a former Agatha Award nominee and the recipient of an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award.  SUSPENDERED SENTENCE is the fourth book in her Amish Mysteries with Berkley Prime Crime/Penguin-Random House.  In her free time, Laura enjoys making memories with her family, baking, playing games, and catching up with friends.

Website: www.laurabradford.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/laurabradfordauthor

Twitter:  @bradfordauthor

 

guidelines, conferences and all that jazz…

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Gotta Write Network blog, News

A long time ago,  I learned that you can never have enough news to keep you informed about current writer’s guidelines and what conferences are slated in the United States. So instead of you heading to every corner of the blogosphere, I’m going to announce “news you can use” right here. So, publishers and convention organizers feel free to email me a brief listing and a photo. Send it to Netera@aol.com. Cover reveals, blog tour stops are for a nominal fee. Blurbs are for this column. Do me a favor and follow the blog!

And we’re off…

Who doesn’t love heading to San Francisco? Come on, admit it… Hop on a cable car, visit Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate Park or Chinatown. Or get educated! Register for the San Francisco Writer’s Conference, which is slated for Feb. 12-15, 2015 at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. News is that over 100 bestselling authors, literary agents, editors and publishers from major publishing houses will be attending. Their banner below shows just a few of those you can meet.

 

Click here to scan over the 2015 list of SFWC Speakers. In reviewing the list, my interests immediately moved to: Domenica Alioto, Editor at Penguin Random House, Brenda Copeland, Executive Editor at St. Martin’s Press, Mercedes Fernandez, Editor at Kensington Books and Katherine Pelz, Editor at Penquin Random House. Here’s the link to the flyer. Like most events of this nature, it isn’t cheap, but it allows access to workshops, sessions and keynotes for four days, the gala reception and pitch sessions. You can’t put a pricetag on that. Based on availability, there’s a special price room rate at the Mark Hopkins.

AVON IMPULSE – posted what you need to know…. The editors are ATM looking for: Romantic Suspense, Super Sexy Contemporaries, Trilogies and beyond and Historical Romance with a hook.

AVON has a Call Out.

Always a Bridesmaid

They say when you marry in June, you’re a bride all your life… but what about the bridesmaids? They may be holding their friend’s bouquet, but that doesn’t mean they’re standing around waiting for love to find them. Send AVON your novella about a bridesmaid and the moment she realizes she’s found the one. It can be fun, sexy, romantic, or even outrageous — the best love stories combine all four! Make the editors believe in summer love!

Details:

• 25,000–40,000 words
• Sensuality level: from Moderate to super-sexy
• Contemporary
• Must be received by December 1, 2014

Send submissions through the form at www.avonimpulse.com. Refer to this submission in the “In Reference To” box on the submission form.

How would you like your Book Club to speak to Holly Brown, the author of “Don’t Try to Find Me?” She’s interested in speaking to book clubs and you can learn more by emailing her at hollybauthor@yahoo.com or visit her Facebook page.

What’s it about:

When a fourteen-year-old runs away, her parents turn to social media to find her—launching a public campaign that will expose their darkest secrets and change their family forever, in this suspenseful and gripping debut for fans of Reconstructing Amelia and Gone Girl.

Buy the book on Amazon.

Hope Tarr has some good news…

Bound for the Big Screen…

Operation Cinderella, the first book in her Suddenly Cinderella contemporary fairy-tale themed romance series with Entangled Publishing, is optioned by Twentieth Century FOX! For feature film! Read all the thrilling news in the press release. Discover the series on Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and everywhere e-books are sold. (Selected series titles are also available as audio books). Download the books individually or as a cost-saving series Bundle.

Book Review – Delectable by Adrianne Lee

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Adrianne Lee, Delectable, Denise Fleischer, e-book, Gotta Write Network blog, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Digital, Montana, pies

Delectable
Big Sky Pie #1
By Adrianne Lee
Grand Central Publishing
Published on: Sept. 3, 2013
Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format: ebook: Nook or Kindle
260 pages
Contemporary set in Kalispell, Montana

Adrianne Lee presents a small town slice-of-life novel with a very real issue. Quint McCoy, a Montana real estate agent, experiences an undeniable wave of guilt. So much of his life was wrapped up in being a successful businessman that he wasn’t able to spend time fishing with his father. When his father died, his grief consumed him and he couldn’t cope. He pushed away everyone he loved, especially his wife Callee. He blamed their marriage for being the reason he didn’t spend quality time with his dad.

Instead of going for grief counseling, working through his feelings, and then moving on with his life, Quint literally walked away from everyone he loved. He told Callee that he couldn’t deal with the marriage anymore and that he wanted a divorce. He packed his bags for an extended fishing trip and walked away from his business. His life began crumbling away brick by brick.

Molly lost her husband and now her son’s inability to cope threatened any happiness he and her daughter-in-law deserved. Determined to resolve the situation and bring the two most important people in her life back together, Molly puts her plan into action. She renovates one of the buildings she owns, which just happens to be Quint’s real estate office, and creates Big Sky Pie. Now all she has to do is wait for her son to come back in town and get him and Callee in the same room.

When Quint returns, he immediately notices that his business is gone. Where it went, he’s not sure, but in its place is a new pie café. He has a feeling that his mother knows what’s going on.

Ready to put her painful past behind her, Callee comes to town to return her wedding ring and then drive off toward a new life. Culinary school will soon start and her girlfriend has a job for her.

If it wasn’t difficult enough to experience their first encounter since Quint walked away, they now have to deal with Molly’s medical emergency. Callee, Quint and Andrea, Quint and Molly’s assistant, have to deal with Molly’s need for surgery and keeping her dream alive. They have to hire a top-notch pastry chef to get the business up and running.

Can they put their own problems aside and work on Molly’s dream? Read the book and find out.

Delectable is about second chances. It’s about Quint’s overwhelming grief which nearly takes over his life. He had to get a grip on reality and reel in everyone he could have lost in the process.

The book is character driven and pulls you into what the two main characters are experiencing. There was good character description so I had no problem visualizing who they were and their life challenges. The storyline kept me interested and I’m determined to bake a homemade pie. I do think that Lee took Quint’s guilt a little too far. It could have been expressed through negative behaviors such as drinking too much, not wanting to spend quality time with Callee, and forgetting business appointments. I don’t think he should have left everything he loved. I also would have liked more background and description of the town they lived in.

Four freshly baked cherry pies out of five
Denise Fleischer, gottawritenetwork.wordpress.com
Author of Deadly Reservations (ArcheBooks)
–Review copy courtesy of Forever (Grand Central Publishing) through NetGalley.

Getting Back to Reviewing

Tags

book reviewing, Denise Fleischer, Gotta Write Network blog, Marty Steere, Mystery, Romance, Rosemarie Piemonte

Okay, so I’ve been away from the wonderful hobby of reviewing romance and mystery novels. I’m making up for lost time. It’s not like I’ve been lazy. I write for three different virtual magazines, write time travel/paranormal/SF novels and work for a newspaper.

This is what I’m currently reading:

Sea of Crises
By Marty Steere
Fiction

Started reading this outside today because the weather has been so nice. I can’t put it down. Might be a good sign. I love the fact that it focuses on a space mission mystery and has elements of a thriller.

Falling Roses: In the Dark
By Rosemarie Piemonte
Romance, Suspense, Action, Mystery

I believe this is Rosemarie’s third book in the series, which follows Gabrielle and John, Jackie and Seth. Gabrielle’s past after several deadly encounters still impacts her life years later.

Reading just for fun:
Brownies and Broomsticks
By Bailey Cates

I love paranormal books, anything dealing with magic, ghosts or reincarnation. This one has magic and is set in a bakery in the south. I love the characters.

I’ll soon be reading Janelle’s Time by Dayna Leigh Cheser, What a Wicked Earl Wants by Vicky Dreiling and The Duchess Hunt by Jennifer Haymore. Have to see what e-books I’ve been given.