Play Dead by David Rosenfelt

Started: 3/22/2025

Finished: 3/27/2025

Year: 2007

Pages: 358

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: TBR pile, continuing with the series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Few can rival attorney Andy Carpenter's affection for golden retrievers, especially his own beloved Tara.

"After he astonishes a New Jersey courtroom by successfully appealing another retriever's death sentence, Andy discovers that this gentle dog is a key witness to a murder that took place five years earlier.

"It will take all the tricks Andy's fertile mind can conceive to get to the bottom of a remarkable chain of impersonations and murder -- and hopefully save not only a dog's life but also his own in the process."

Opinion: One of the better books in the series, probably because a found golden retriever was the star of starting a complex murder investigation.

The Crime Brulee Bake Off by Rebecca Connolly

Started: 3/19/2025

Finished: 3/21/2025

Year: 2025

Pages: 309

Genre: mystery mixed with romane

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "When Claire Walker is selected to be a contestant on the immensely popular cooking show, Britian’s Battle of the Bakers, she is thrilled. She can’t wait to spend eight enchanting weeks baking at the picturesque estate of Blackfirth Park. She can almost smell the fresh pastries wafting through the air as she and her fellow contestants use historical equipment to bring pre-1900s recipes to life. If she can win the fifty thousand pounds, she’ll be able to ditch her teaching job and launch her baking career.

"The Viscount of Colburn, Jonathan Ainsley, is the custodian of Blackfirth Park and an eligible bachelor. With his family’s income dwindling, he reluctantly agrees to host the entire production team, but he refuses to participate since he’s had enough of single women who see him as nothing more than a potential conquest. But when a contestant is found dead soon after filming begins, Jonathan is forced to get involved. To make matters worse, the baker’s death is eerily similar to the legendary death of the tenth Viscountess of Colburn two hundred and fifty years earlier, which sends rumors racing through the estate.

"Even as suspicion falls on some of the bakers, a decidedly different kind of heat begins to simmer between Claire and Jonathan. If they are to have any hope of a future romance, they must first solve the mystery before the show gets canceled or someone else falls prey to the Blackfirth Park ghost."

Opinion: If you like the British baking show and mysteries, you'll probably enjoy this. The mystery was decent. The romance was average. Some timeline jumps needed some work.

Murder in the First Edition by Lauren Elliott

Started: 3/17/2025

Finished: 3/19/2025

Year: 2019

Pages: 315

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Addie’s getting into the spirit for the upcoming Charity Auction—especially since she’s got an 1843 copy of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol to donate. Her former colleagues at the Boston Public Library have confirmed that its worth runs toward the high five figures, which should help with the new pediatric wing. Her mood darkens, though, when a visitor from the past appears—Jonathan Hemingway, the father of her late fiancé. His presence stirs up sad memories for Addie, but also has her fuming when Jonathan, true to his womanizing ways, runs off for a lunchtime liaison with Teresa Lang, who’s in charge of the auction.

"Soon after, Addie heads to Teresa’s office at the hospital—and finds the poor woman’s dead body. What she doesn’t find is her valuable first edition. What sort of Scrooge would steal from sick children and commit murder in the process? As a Nor’easter bears down and a mystery emerges about Jonathan’s past, Addie must find out if she can appraise people’s motives and characters as well as she can appraise rare books . . ."

Opinion: Halfway predictable but interesting little twists and turns

Chakras, Food, and You by Cyndi Dale and Dana Childs

Started: 3/17/2025

Finished: 3/17/2025

Year: 2021

Pages: 290

Genre: Dietary self guide

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: Goodsreads.com giveaway

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Chakras, Food, and You is a revolutionary approach that customizes health assessments based on the chakras―the ancient system that modern-day yogis exalt and the ancients across all cultures and periods embraced as the secret to enlightenment. After first taking the Chakra Type Quiz within the pages, you will learn which foods and supplements, exercises, and movements mesh to enable your individual body's peak performance. Then, you'll be equipped to make eating and lifestyle choices that synchronize with your real self.

"If you’re a First Chakra Manifestor, you’ll boost your adrenals by eating plenty of protein and taking extra minerals; you’ll eat when you are hungry and drive down stress by moving around. If you are a Third Chakra Thinker, you have to graze at set times. All twelve chakras―Manifestor, Creator, Thinker, Relator, Communicator, Visualizer, Spiritualist, Mystic, Harmonizer, Naturalist, Commander, as well as a twelfth special chakra, unique to each individual―are thoroughly covered.

"With additional tips and thoughts on meditation and spiritual practices, sleep protocols, stress-busters and relaxation practices, and self-care rituals and activities, Cyndi Dale and Dana Childs's Chakras, Food, and You is an accessible and straightforward health-and-life changer."

Opinion: This takes a different approach to figuring out what is best for your body. It also allows you to focus on your main chakra (based on a quiz in the book) instead of reading about all 12 chakras that they list.

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger

Started: 3/13/2025

Finished: DNF

Year: 2025

Pages: 376

Genre: thriller

Grade: D

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.

"Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves."

Opinion: Dragged. Took too long to get to anything interesting and some sections jumped time. 

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

Started: 3/11/2025

Finished: 3/13/2025

Year: 2015

Pages: 298

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "No one speaks the language of suspense more brilliantly than Kathy Reichs, author of the acclaimed Temperance Brennan series. In Speaking in Bones, the forensic anthropologist finds herself drawn into a world of dark secrets and dangerous beliefs, where good and evil blur.

"Professionally, Temperance Brennan knows exactly what to do—test, analyze, identify. Her personal life is another story. She’s at a loss, wondering how to answer police detective Andrew Ryan’s marriage proposal. But the matter of matrimony takes a backseat when murder rears its head.

"Hazel “Lucky” Strike—a strident amateur detective who mines the Internet for cold cases—comes to Brennan with a tape recording of an unknown girl being held prisoner and terrorized. Strike is convinced the voice is that of eighteen-year-old Cora Teague, who went missing more than three years earlier. Strike is also certain that the teenager’s remains are gathering dust in Temperance Brennan’s lab.

"Brennan has doubts about working with a self-styled websleuth. But when the evidence seems to add up, Brennan’s next stop is the treacherous backwoods where the chilling recording (and maybe Cora Teague’s bones) were discovered. Her forensic field trip only turns up more disturbing questions—along with gruesome proof of more untimely deaths.

"While local legends of eerie nocturnal phenomena and sinister satanic cults abound, it’s a zealous and secretive religious sect that has Brennan spooked and struggling to separate the saints from the sinners. But there’s nothing, including fire and brimstone, that can distract her from digging up the truth and taking down a killer—even as Brennan finds herself in a place where angels fear to tread, devils demand their due, and she may be damned no matter what."

Opinion: Interesting take on exorcisms.

A Deadly Pattern by Elizabeth Penney

Started: 3/10/2025

Finished: 3/11/2025

Year: 2014

Pages: 218

Genre: mystery

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: TBR, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Travelling to Arizona in the search of the next suspect in the death of their good friend Rose, they find Dakota Longbone, a Native American guide and interpreter from Sedona. Perhaps Dakota is also the culprit who has been trying to thwart the investigation and will stop at nothing to force Emma and Kelly off the trail. Only time will tell."

Opinion: A decent continuation of the series. Whodunit mystery continues. Native American art being stolen was a nice mystery to read about.

In the Woods by Tana French

Started: 3/7/2025

Finished: DNF

Year: 2007

Pages: 429

Genre: mystery

Grade: F

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

"Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past."

Opinion: Just couldn't get into it. Felt myself drifting off to do other things. The premise is interesting.

Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Fluke

Started: 3/5/2025

Finished: 3/6/2025

Year: 2001

Pages: 307

Genre: mystery

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "When the president of Hartland Flour chooses cozy Lake Eden, Minnesota, as the spot for their first annual Dessert Bake-Off, Hannah is thrilled to serve as the head judge. But when a fellow judge, Coach Boyd Watson, is found stone-cold dead, facedown in Hannah's celebrated strawberry shortcake, Lake Eden's sweet ride to fame turns very sour indeed.

"Between perfecting her Cheddar Cheese Apple Pie and Chocolate Crunchies, Hannah's snooping into the coach's private life and not coming up short on suspects. And could Watson's harsh criticism during the judging have given one of the contestants a license to kill? The stakes are rising faster than dough, and Hannah will have to be very careful, because somebody is cooking up a recipe for murder. . .with Hannah landing on the 'necessary ingredients' list."

Opinion: Decent continuation of the series. Murderer was too predictable.

Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson

Started: 3/3/2025

Finished: 3/4/205

Year: 2022

Pages: 308

Genre: thriller

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: Goodreads.com giveaway

Type: ARC paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Abigail Baskin never thought she would fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. He’s a good guy, stable, level-headed, kind—a refreshing change from her previous relationships.

"But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life. Their honeymoon on a luxurious, secluded island will be the beginning of their blissful lives together.

"Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something much, much more. Something special. Something real—and he’s tracked her down to prove it.

"Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the shadows one night, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss… including her perfect new husband."

Opinion: Interesting take on relationships and scarily fitting for today's society.

Food for Thought by Alton Brown

Started: 2/28/2025

Finished: 3/2/2025

Year: 2025

Pages: 283

Genre: Memoir/essays

Grade; B

Reason for reading: fan of Alton, library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "From cameraman to chef, musician to food scientist, Alton Brown has had a diverse and remarkable career. His work on the Food Network, including creating Good Eats and hosting Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, has resonated with countless viewers and home cooks. Now, he shares exactly what’s on his mind, mixing compelling anecdotes from his personal and professional life with in-depth observations on the culinary world, film, personal style, defining meals of his lifetime, and much more.

"With his whip-smart and engaging voice, Brown explores everything from wrestling a dumpster full of dough to culinary cultural appropriation to his ultimate quest for the perfect roast chicken. Deliciously candid and full of behind-the-scenes stories fans will love, Food for Thought is the ultimate reading experience for anyone who appreciates food and the people that prepare it."

Opinion: I've seen Alton live and will be seeing him again soon. Only recognized one of his stories from his live show. A fun and interesting look at some small aspects of his life.