This is not as the title suggests, another little Christmas murder mystery. There's snow. Lots of snow. It's a decent enough country house murder in Yorkshire but I was disappointed. The main characters, Dylis & Inigo were very good & by book's end, weeks later they're headed off to her family's home in Worcester, for Christmas!

"She was- though she couldn't admit it directly, not even to herself - in search of a shortcut. A way to be someone who had done something without having to actually do it. "

Perfect Christmas cozy mystery with lots of recipes, elves, a pageant carols and a locked room murder to solve. There's a bit of a problematic drink co-worker at the holiday party with a dash of rude sexually harassment that didn't play well in the resolution for me but that didn't ruin the read. Fifth in a series.

"Dental hygiene must be very important to him if this is the kind of fluorescence he can achieve and still be a coffee addict."

"There's nothing more invisible than the middle aged woman, and there's no denying that middle age is creeping up in time with the descent of my ass, a sort of inverse gravitational relationship."

A good story but had I realized it was about a woman with Munchausens I'd likely have skipped it. The portions in Buenos Aires were very good & Dunlop's writing didn't disappoint.

The writing was fine but the story trajectory, especially after the main character leaves Vitek (the fertility clinic) leapt headlong into the navel-gazing chasm and by story's end, I was just glad it was done. All things being equal, I'd have rather re-watched Gattaca.

I loved the message (and the narrator chosen for pov) but it was so unsubtle I grew annoyed. Perhaps the author was going for obvious so her points weren't missed but it took away from the story for this reader.

">>>Good morning, Max.>>>Hello, Riley.>>>What have you done since our last session?>>>Max read 895,013 books."

"Why did you kill your husband?" I ask. "Not husband. Oscar kill Max with knife two thousand thirty-nine times."

I just found it to be a letdown. I read it instead of listening so perhaps it's better in audiobook form.

The real test of lovers wasn't how they dealt with illness, whether they were "supportive" or sexually faithful; you discovered what people were made of only once on the pointy end of how they handled money.

They don't often get big snow storms in the Kootenay area of British Columbia. Lots of snow, that's a given; sometimes the air is so full of snow that the daytime is as white as the night is black. But there isn't much wind in these mountains, and the snow falls thick and fast and straight down, where it lies deep on the ground.

I'm torn. Aunt Lydia saved it form me. It may be a better read for devotees of the television series. If your thing is all about Offred's children & their fate, this is all in your wheelhouse. Praise be! Alas, I'll continue wondering how exactly Gilead fell & what social reckoning followed.

"Aunt Vidala said that best friends led to whispering and plotting and keeping secrets, and plotting and secrets led to disobedience to God, and disobedience led to rebellion, and girls who were rebellious became women who were tebellious, and a rebellious woman was even worse than a rebellious man because rebellious men became traitors, but rebellious women became adulteresses.#

It got me out of my book slump but as psychological suspense stories go, it wasn't very taut. Some well done wit but the murderer was very easy to peg terribly early on & the reveal didn't make up for that.

"Seriously, how can pancakes be gluten free? It's like taking water out of clouds. "

Just so-so, unfortunately as the characters were mostly forgettable . But the author has a great way with descriptions of places. Very vivid

"Everything has gone wayward. Sliding sideways into entropy. "

"Some people are just trash. and they find other trash and start to form a landfill. The internet makes it easier. "

"Yumiko Sakamoto was going to begin her new academic study the following October, but did not live long enough to see the chance. She died of a brain aneurysm the night the comet passed overhead. "

One of my favourites of 2019. Read on vacation & definitely recommend ebook as it's a tome.

"They foster multidisciplinary global thinking and engagement, " Celeste had said, like it wasn't just a mission statement concocted by some communications firm. Gabe had given in, and now his daughter had become a far-left, political thespian with minimal talent. Perfect."

"I'm not paying for her voluntourism!"

"As they tucked into their main courses, conversation shifted to travel and their dream destinations. The topic morphed into a lively debate about human settlement on Mars. Gabe thought being part of the Mars mission would be a thrill, a chance to explore a new frontier, establish a new world, be a pioneer. "

"It wasn't that the EC didn't understand different cultures, had never come face to face with. Independence. Real self-reliance. Spacers no longer needed EC for survival. That had been true from the time the Pell station core had left Venture, bound for a star with a living world. "

"Human history could turn on one fool's heavy-handed order."

"When Dolores's team- the Manchester County Vixens - was announced, the cheers were deafening, echoing off the gymnasium walls. Derby names were a big thing - all the women had them stenciled on the back of their jerseys. Dolores was called Spine Cracker. "She has her master's in library science. Get it?" Tammy said. "

"He looked expectantly at his mother but without any real hope. Parents, in the opinion of young Terence, were sadly disappointing."

"The small town, nestled deep in the mountains in the interior of British Columbia, was a magnet for drifters. Along with more than its share of artists, the comfortably retired and Internet workers."

A great setup and very vivid descriptions recommend this one but the end felt a bit flat. I was expecting more. That's not necessarily the fault of the storyteller, just the feelings of this reader. I would read another by Allen.

Well done speculative #sciencefiction & quite the page turnerThere's a glorious nod to the horror that is infectious parasites under your skin as in Guillermo del Toro's The Strain. And if you like the class disparity & proto molecule threads of James S.A. Corey's The Expanse, this could be your thing. #arcs Thx to #BerkleyPub

This was my first read by Holly Hepburn & it was just the thing for my Brit Chick-lit fix. There's some romance, secrets, lies, darling shops & plenty of tasty nibbles to tempt.

"But you never rushed opening. Oxygen cost. Water cost. Out here, even with all the working machinery aboard, heat cost. You treated those pumps and those seals like they were made of gold, and while the safety interlocks might take almost-zero for an answer and let you open on overtide, it was money flowing out when you did. You remembered it when you saw your bills at next servicing, damn right, you did. " - ch.1 #sciencefiction

by book's end, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed it. it started off with lots of present day, moneyed 1% angst & conspicuous consumption but the mystery of 24 years in the past kept me interested. it ended strongly & in a way i hadn't expected. this is the first i've read by melissa de la cruz.#arcs #edelweiss

"Now then, lads, I want you to think carefully. Don't answer unless you're quite sure of your facts. I don't want any second-hand rumours, see? The point is this-the police have an idea that a member of the club may have slipped off the course during a round of golf and used that as his alibi. Know what an alibi is, eh?"
"O'course," said a lean hatchet-faced man. "It's when a bloke swears 'e's in a place when 'e isn't." Meredith grinned.

as only the audio version is available in the states atm, i ordered a hardbound copy along with some other books. i love the cover & can't wait to read this! #sciencefiction #scifi

this is the first "#metoo" novel i've read & i quite enjoyed it. chandler baker has composed a timely yet not heavy-handed story that captures a vast array of experiences, while delivering a pretty decent mystery. exactly what happened that day on the 18th floor balcony?
it's out in july & i won this galley in a giveaway so thx to #FlatironBooks #contemporaryfiction #arcs

this pretty much ensured a solid half hour of silence on a drop in at the cafe at B&N this weekend. Arkady Martine is a conjurer of world-building & political intrigue & i'm here for it.

also, C.J.Cherryh has a new book in the Alliance-Union series, called Alliance Rising. i have so much series catch up to do in 2019 📚 #scifi #sciencefiction #weekend

very much enjoyed this & Liz Nugent can have all my book 💰 whenever she puts out a new one. Delia Russell is terrifying & not even remotely fit to be around people. this is a propulsive character study that i didn't want to put down.

Doreen's a recently divorced trophy wife whowith her dog, Mugs, has fled Vancouver for Kelowna. Her gran Nan has moved into a retirement community & given her house to Doreen. A cat & parrot are along for tge ride & provide humour. Be advised Doreen has some srs ineptitude for a 35yo that she doesn't seem to know Google can help with. 1st in series.

a very good & timely story of a group of parents too invested in their children's "gifted" status & admission into a prestgious charter school. in addition to the bad behaviour, there's humour & it moves at a good pace. well done all around.

I'm a #climatefiction fan & also appteciate a good impending apocalypse scenario so I quite enjoyed this. Eric Barnes has written a very engaging prequel to his The City Where We Once Lived (which I need to read) & shows a world that is ever closer to a collapse due to environmental changes. The characters were believable and sometimes unsettled me as much as the landscape. #edelweiss #arcs #speculativefiction #ArcadePublishing

Good beginning to a series. Felt like romantic suspense as opposed to a straight mystery. There are many twists & revelations but if you read lots of mysteries you'll probably see quite a lot & work out the big twist ending way early. I still enjoyed getting there (eventhough Bex gave me many 😏 moments) & by the end knew I wanted to read more about Bex & her investigations. Publishes April 2019. #netgalley #quinnavery

Neil Clarke's assembled a very good #anthology of lunar fiction & my #sciencefiction loving heart was giddy for most of the 600 pages. my TBR is expanded & I got some Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Nancy Kress in the mix too. enthusiastically recommended. thx to #NightShadeBooks #arcs

"I felt a kick right then. Right on the shin. I knew who that was: my conscience, Ernestine. I just kicked the bitch right back. Yes, I'm a liar, I told her; a deceiver, a coldhearted Air France slut. I was thinking not of my Aunt Viv in a French drunk tank but of the braised rabbit in that bistro on the rue Monsieur le Prince." -ch. 1 pg. 17

I was in the mood for a #cozymystery that had a sleuth abroad & this brought so much more. Nanette is a fluent in French saxaphonist with an abiding love for Paris. While searching for her estranged aunt, she finds love, delves into the artistic black expatriate experience in the 20th century through music & dines very well. There's wit & many passages worth remembering.

Kimber, a 38 year-old remorseless chaos bomb has her life upended when some decide she needs a dose of her own bitter medicine. Things get drawn out longer than neccesary or interesting because secrets & reasons. My high hopes were dashed. 😞 #psychologicalthriller

"Kimber has never trusted Tinker Bell, who seems to be faithful only to boys. Plus, Tinker Bell's a fairy, and in stories fairies use superstition and fear to manipulatr humans."

i'm experiencing sheer joy! behold 600 pages of lunar shorts. i'm reading it in pieces & trying to stick to the book's order & not go straight to my favourite author's pieces ( #KristineKathrynRusch #KimStanleyRobinson, #IanMacDonald & #GregoryBenford ). #arc #sciencefiction #anthology #scifi