Freedom to Read Giveaway Hop

As a part of the Freedom to Read Giveaway Hop, I'm holding a giveaway for your choice of one of the following books:


Since there was so much interest in this book in the last hop, here's a second chance at...

Grace Among Thieves by Julie Hyzy is a cozy mystery. You can read my review.

As curator and manager of the Marshfield Manor, Grace Wheaton is delighted to be part of the estate’s magnificent history, but no one told her solving murder was in her job description…

When Grace’s former professor calls to warn her that there have been a rash of thefts at various historical sites, Grace isn’t surprised—because Marshfield Manor has been targeted, too. She wonders if it has something to do with the film crew roaming the grounds, digitally immortalizing the manor, but then she gets distracted by an incident much more dire: the shooting of one guest and the murder of another.



Mistress of Mourning by Karen Harper is a historical novel. I have not yet had a chance to read and review this book, but I've reviewed a previous book by this author and it was "clean" of explicit bad language and sex scenes.

London, 1501. In a time of political unrest, Varina Westcott, a young widow and candle maker for court and church, agrees to perform a clandestine service for Queen Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII. The queen’s eldest child and heir to the throne, newly married Prince Arthur, has died suddenly under mysterious circumstances. Elizabeth wants Varina and royal aid Nicholas Sutton to travel into the Welsh wilderness to investigate the death. But as the couple unearths one unsettling clue after another, they begin to fear that the conspiracy they’re confronting is far more ambitious and treacherous than even the queen imagined.


This contest is for USA & Canada residents only.


To enter the giveaway:

1) you can twitter me saying "Hi @genrereviewer. Enter me in the giveaway for [give the book name and author's name]."

OR

2) You can leave a comment to this post asking to be entered and naming which book you'd like to win. Please also leave some way for me to contact you--or follow this blog so you can see the winner announcement. I'd be fun if you also included why you're interested in reading this novel.

This giveaway ends on July 5th, 2012 at midnight. The winner will be randomly selected. I'll announce the winner on July 6th, 2012 on this blog.

If you entered using twitter, I'll send you a @ or DM telling you of your win and asking where to send the book. If you entered using the blog comments, you'll need to leave your e-mail address or check back to see if you won so you can e-mail me your mailing address. If the winner hasn't responded with a mailing address within four days, I reserve the right to pick a new winner.

I hope everyone has fun with this!


The blogs participating in the Freedom to Read Giveaway Hop:

And the winner is...

It's time to announce the winner of the Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop. Including Twitter entries, we had 32 entries. Using a random number generator and numbering the entrants in the order I received them, the winner is:


Hira Hasnain (~Enamored Soul~)
who won "Murder on Sisters' Row" by Victoria Thompson


Congratulations! I'll be contacting you for your address.

For those who didn't win, you can always buy a copy of these books from your favorite bookstore or see if they have them at your local library. 

The Azalea Assault by Alyse Carlson

The Azalea Assault by Alyse Carlson ISBN-13: 9780425251300 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: June 5, 2012

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Roanoke, Virginia, is home to some of the country’s most exquisite gardens, and it’s Camellia Harris’ job to promote them. Camellia Harris has achieved a coup in the PR world. The premier national magazine for garden lovers has agreed to feature one of Roanoke’s most spectacular gardens in its pages—and world-famous photographer Jean-Jacques Georges is going to shoot the spread.

But at the welcoming party, Jean-Jacques insults several guests, complains that flowers are boring, and gooses almost every woman in the room. When a body is found the next morning, sprawled across the azaleas, it’s almost no surprise that the victim is Jean-Jacques.

With Cam’s brother-in-law blamed for the crime—and her reporter boyfriend, Rob, wanting the scoop, Cam decides to use her skills to solve the murder.


My Review:
The Azalea Assault is a cozy mystery, and it's the first in a series. After an incident about halfway through the book, the murderer seemed pretty obvious to me, and I was correct. Perhaps because the murderer seemed so obvious to me, it bothered me that Camellia was so quick to accuse anyone of the murder as long as it'd get her best friend and sister's husband out of jail. One thing I like about mysteries is the pursuit of the truth of who really committed the crime, and I didn't feel like that was the goal in this story. Cam only kept looking because she couldn't find enough proof on anyone to get them arrested instead.

And her sister's husband and her best friend should never have been arrested in the first place. Suspected, yes, but not arrested. They were arrested and put in jail on circumstantial evidence before the crime scene was even processed. This would never happen in real life (unless witnesses actually saw them do it). I also had a hard time believing that Cam is normally a very law-abiding person. She hardly thinks twice about illegal behavior in pursuit of proving her suspects guilty, and her reasons for being law-abiding apparently aren't based on "because this is wrong" but "what might happen if I'm caught?!"

Though there were no actual sex scenes, I also wasn't entirely comfortable with how physical the characters were and how casual they were about it. It wasn't graphic, but the best friend had sex with a casual acquaintance, and Cam frequently had groping sessions with her boyfriend to "keep him happy." And that relationship seemed to primarily be a physical, using one rather than one with long-term and emotional commitment.

There was a minor amount of explicit bad language and some fake and "he swore" style bad language. Overall, I didn't really care for the characters and the mystery of whodunit wasn't there to keep me hooked anyway, but people that are more comfortable with the characters will probably enjoy the story.

If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop

As a part of the Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop, I'm holding a giveaway for your choice of one of the following books:


Grace Among Thieves by Julie Hyzy is a cozy mystery. You can read my review.

As curator and manager of the Marshfield Manor, Grace Wheaton is delighted to be part of the estate’s magnificent history, but no one told her solving murder was in her job description…

When Grace’s former professor calls to warn her that there have been a rash of thefts at various historical sites, Grace isn’t surprised—because Marshfield Manor has been targeted, too. She wonders if it has something to do with the film crew roaming the grounds, digitally immortalizing the manor, but then she gets distracted by an incident much more dire: the shooting of one guest and the murder of another.



Murder on Sisters' Row by Victoria Thompson is a historical mystery. You can read my review.

With the help of a charitable lady of means, midwife Sarah Brandt rescues a young woman and her newborn from the brothel where the mother was forced to prostitute herself. But their success comes at a high price when their benefactor is found murdered. Though the brothel's madam is immediately considered a suspect, Sarah and Sergeant Frank Malloy investigate, uncovering some unpleasant truths about the victim and her charity-and the woman and child Sarah risked her own life to save.


This contest is for USA & Canada residents only.


To enter the giveaway:

1) you can twitter me saying "Hi @genrereviewer. Enter me in the giveaway for [give the book name and author's name]."

OR

2) You can leave a comment to this post asking to be entered and naming which book you'd like to win. Please also leave some way for me to contact you--or follow this blog so you can see the winner announcement. I'd be fun if you also included why you're interested in reading this novel.


This giveaway ends on June 26, 2012 at midnight. The winner will be randomly selected. I'll announce the winner on June 27, 2012 on this blog.

If you entered using twitter, I'll send you a @ or DM telling you of your win and asking where to send the book. If you entered using the blog comments, you'll need to leave your e-mail address or check back to see if you won so you can e-mail me your mailing address. If the winner hasn't responded with a mailing address within four days, I reserve the right to pick a new winner.

I hope everyone has fun with this!


The blogs participating in the Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop:

Grace Among Thieves by Julie Hyzy

Grace Among Thieves by Julie Hyzy ISBN-13: 9780425251393 Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: June 5, 2012

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
As curator and manager of the Marshfield Manor, Grace Wheaton is delighted to be part of the estate’s magnificent history, but no one told her solving murder was in her job description…

When Grace’s former professor calls to warn her that there have been a rash of thefts at various historical sites, Grace isn’t surprised—because Marshfield Manor has been targeted, too. She wonders if it has something to do with the film crew roaming the grounds, digitally immortalizing the manor, but then she gets distracted by an incident much more dire: the shooting of one guest and the murder of another.

Grace does her best not to go looking for trouble, but with a murderer on the loose, she can’t seem to leave the dirty work to the cops—especially since the killer still seems to be lurking around town, waiting to finish the job of making Grace history…


My Review:
Grace Among Thieves is a cozy mystery. It's the third book in the series (after Grace Under Pressure and Grace Interrupted). You don't need to read the previous novels to understand this one, and this one didn't spoil the mystery in the first book though it did spoil who wasn't "whodunit" in the second book.

Reading the previous mysteries in this series gave me a good idea from the beginning of how this one would play out, including whodunit. And I was correct, though I didn't see any obvious clue--it should have come as a surprise. I think even if you haven't read the previous novels, this book read more like a suspense novel than a clue-puzzle mystery. The suspense was created by danger to Grace and relationship conflicts. Overall, Grace made smart decisions. Any unwise decisions were because of Grace's...innocence?...rather than author-forced heroine stupidity. The characters were all engaging and interesting, and the setting was described vividly enough that I wished I could actually visit the manor!

There was a minor amount of fake bad language. There were no sex scenes, though there were some intense kissing scenes. It's implied that her two male housemates were homosexual, but I'm beginning to think the author did this simply so that Grace could have some close male friends her own age that readers wouldn't expect her to get romantic with. Overall, I'd recommend this well-written novel.

If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Hot Button by Kylie Logan

Hot Button by Kylie Logan ISBN-13: 9780425251355 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: June 5, 2012

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
As chairwoman of an international conference for button collectors, Josie has plenty to worry about. Between greeting collectors, overseeing the dinner cruise, and making sure the conference runs smoothly (which it isn't), she has to attend to the many demands of the guest of honor, Thad Wyant.

When Thad is found dead in a hotel linen room, Detective Nevin Riley asks Josie to help him solve the case. Mr. Wyant’s historic Geronimo button has gone missing. Josie knows only too well how many enemies Mr. Wyant has made in the small and peculiar world of button collectors, so it's no easy task to discover whodunit.


My Review:
Hot Button is a cozy mystery about button collecting. This book was the second in the series, but you don't need to read the first novel to understand this one and this one didn't spoil the mystery in the first novel. There was some information about button collecting, but not as much as I expected. I think I learned more about running a conference.

Josie was so willing to believe whatever she's told (unless it's said by her ex-husband) that I wondered how she could be an effective amateur detective. I even laughed when another character described her as perceptive as she's the least perceptive cozy heroine I've come across. I saw the "twist" about Thad coming from the first few pages, and the same for the "twist" about the constant mishaps. She had all the needed information, yet she needed her boyfriend police detective to point these things out, and even then she hardly believed him.

Josie functioned more as an information gatherer for her boyfriend, and then an information disperser for him in an effort to flush out the whodunit. I was pretty certain of whodunit. The author had written Josie into a spot that would have been hard to get her back out of if it was someone else, and I was correct in my guess. Josie didn't have this same perspective so understandably only figured out whodunit when her boyfriend's trap finally worked and the killer confessed.

Josie was likable enough, but I felt she was irresponsible to basically leave her job of running the conference in order to "help" with the murder. Anyone at the conference could have provided the needed information, and she knew things were going wrong at the conference that needed her attention. I also didn't think very highly of her detective boyfriend who was basically asking for her help because it was the only way to get to spend some time with her. Yet he knew that taking her from her duties was damaging her reputation. His actions often came across as selfish, in my opinion.

Josie also felt like she was personally responsible for making everyone happy. While I know someone like this, I didn't feel particularly drawn to spend more time with such a needy, gullible character.

There was no sex. There was some fake bad language and a minor amount of explicit bad language. One of the main suspects was a homosexual. (Token homosexual characters seem to be the latest "must have" in cozy mysteries for some reason.) He does kiss his boyfriend in the story. Overall, this didn't really turn out to be my type of book, but I'm sure others will enjoy it.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Roses for Mama by Janette Oke

Roses for Mama by Janette Oke ISBN-13: 9781556611858 Trade Paperback: 222 pages Publisher: Bethany House Publishers Released: May 31, 1990

Source: From my personal library.

Book Description from Goodreads:
She's cared for her siblings as best she could . . . but is it enough? Instead of the new life she and her family expected to forge out west, seventeen-year-old Angela is thrust into the role of caring for her three younger siblings after the death of their parents. With the help of her older brother and trust in God, Angela is determined to raise the children as her mother would have wanted. As the youngsters grow, the questions and challenges intensify. Angela feels trapped and overwhelmed. Surely no man will ever want a woman who comes with three children in tow. Is this the plan God has for her life? Will she ever find a way to balance her own dreams with the promises she made to her mama?


My Review:
Roses for Mama is a historical romance set in western Canada during it's pioneer period. It's a part of a series, but each book stands alone and is about a totally new group of people.

This novel was a fun, short read. There was enough setting and historical detail to create a somewhat vague background for the events. The story was mainly about Angela struggling to deal with the pressures and doubts of raising her siblings while fearing her older brother will leave her to handle this alone...yet wanting him to have a chance at his dreams. Angela was a sweet, caring girl with complex feelings about her situation.

I liked how Angela remembered the lessons her mother taught her and tried to remind her younger siblings of those lessons. The mother was a very real force in the story even though she's dead when the story started. Angela and her family were Christians and trusted God to see them through this. The Christian element was woven in as a natural part of the story--the outworking of the godly influence of her parents.

There was no sex. There was no bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable novel.

If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

And the winner is...

I apologize for the delay in making my winner announcement and my lack of review post yesterday. To put it simply, I'm a farmer, our harvest is coming early this year (by weeks), and we're getting a very bountiful apricot harvest that needs to be processed immediately or we'll lose it...So I've been a bit busy with that these last few days  But on to fun things (for you!).

It's time to announce the winner of the Splash Into Summer Giveaway Hop. Including Twitter entries, we had 32 entries. Using a random number generator and numbering the entrants in the order I received them, the winner is:


Candice
who won "Mrs. Jeffries Defends Her Own"


Congratulations! I'll be contacting you for your address.

For those who didn't win, you can always buy a copy of these books from your favorite bookstore or see if they have them at your local library.