Blueberry Muffin Murder – Joanne Fluke

Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen’s cozy mysteries is a really nice series about the owner of a cookie shop – The Cookie Jar – who is always finding dead bodies and can’t resist investigating on her own.

In this third installment Life style guru and TV star Connie MacIntyre is in town for the winter festival. Everyone is looking forward to have a celebrity around but when she arrives her overbearing and demanding personality quickly disappoints everyone. When she is found dead in The Cookie Jar Hannah decided she has to find the culprit soon so she can have her store (now a crime scene) back.

I really liked how Hannah and sister Andrea teemed up, the make a good duo even if they are completely different. However I was disappointed in two things. One was the villain, there were so many people with “reasons” to kill Connie Mac that I felt a bit cheated that the reasons for the real villain were discovered only at the end, I like it when there are some pieces to put together throughout the story even if I don’t add them up till the end. The other was how Hannah keeps undecided between two love interests, one of whom has already told her he is not interested in more than a friendship.

But it was an entertaining read and if you like cookies this is the book for you because there are plenty of recipes. A B-.

Courting Julia - Mary Balogh

I read another of Mary Balogh’s old traditional regencies this weekend. Courting Julia is the first in a trilogy but somehow I managed to read the other 2 first. I really enjoy these smaller books about the regency period where the emphasis is more on the social manners and behaviour of the character.

In this book Julia’s grandfather dies and in his will he leaves his unentailed estate to Julia on the condition she marries one of her 5 cousins within a month of his death. Julia is both surprised and devastated with this clause that leaves her unable to privately grieve for her grandfather and the object of her cousins interest because she is now a great heiress. All the cousins show some interest except for Daniel, the heir to the title. A former play mate of Julia he went away when he inherited his father’s estate and had to deal with new responsibilities. He still sees Julia as an irresponsible young woman, always playing games and having fun. And she sees him has a bore who forgot how to enjoy himself and only cares about convention.

I thought the 2 main characters were planned to be true opposites, Julia is too wild and Daniel too conservative and that was a bit too much imho. It would have been more real if they weren’t such extreme characters that spent half the book believing that they hated each other and after Julia finds herself in danger suddenly realise they love each other.

Just as a side note the villain in this book is the main character of the next one, Dancing With Clara.

Not Balogh at it’s best but still an enjoyable read. A B.

My Crafty Genes

Whenever I think about where my crafty genes came from I think about my Mom. She is always planning this or that to embroider or just embellish. One of these days I'll have to photograph all the things she has made me and that I love. That in it self is a big project because there's lots of things and I'm not that good with a camera on my hands.

In the mean time I'll leave you with a picture of my new jeans. They were just like any other jeans till she made them different!

Back to sewing

This weekend I took the sewing machine out of the closet again and started on some new projects. Remember the hook case I made a few weeks ago? Well I finally made the matching pin cushion I was planning at the time. I added both a flower shapped button and I think they look really nice in a classic way.


They will be a present for my mother in law who does a lot of crochet and cross stitching. I thought these would be useful presents for her.


I have already cut the fabric to make a book cover and I hope to finish it today. Let's see how that project goes along...

Welcome to Temptation - Jennifer Crusie

I really really enjoyed this book. It was funny, witty, had interesting characters and lots and lots of humour. I sure love these kind of books.

Sophie Dempsey goes to Temptation with her sister Amy to help her shoot a movie. As soon as they arrive they are involved in a car accident and the rumours that they are shooting a porno movie start.

Enter the Mayor Phin Tucker to investigate the case as the members of the council want to approve an anti porn law. Sophie is not happy with him poking around since he is the kind of guy who hurt her when she was young. But Phin just doesn’t give up and in the middle of some very funny dialogues manages to convince her otherwise.

The council members, the movie’s actress and respective husband, Phin and Sophie’s families only contribute more to make this a very entertaining story. I think Sophie was a bit too devoted to her grown sister, always solving her problems for her but it really didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Phin was just great with his laid back attitude about being a mayor and how he really wanted was to shoot pool and dedicate himself to his bookstore.

There are two secondary romances and some mysteries to uncover not to mention a murder plot but all of them bring something funny to the story. This somewhat unusual small town is the perfect setting for this book.

Highly recommended and an A.

This and that

My aunt gave me some fabrics and sewing supplies. Isn't she great? Now I just have to decide what to do with them. Maybe a book cover... I was entertaining the idea of buying one last year but since now I have a sewing machine it feels like I should try and make one instead of going the easy route and buy.

I also heard of some books to be found at FNAC about sewing projects and including patterns. I guess a visit to their nearest shop is in order! I'm always in need of more inspiration. Speaking of which I often find that just by browsing the photos at Flickr. There are so many talented people out there. I opened an account too but so far I haven't posted any photos. I'm still exploring the site.

On a down side I broke my glasses yesterday. Not a good thing for more than one reason. I have contact lenses but after a whole day with them my eyes feel tired and hurt. Maybe it's time to think about that laser surgery everyone keeps talking about.

The Color of Death - Elizabeth Lowell

I had some trouble grading this book. This is a romantic suspense story, however I never felt I knew enough of the characters or the story to care about them and be intrigued.

Kate's half brother has disappeared with a fortune in jewels. Kate, who is a gem cutter, is trying to find the truth and very much fearing he is dead. The cops classified said disappearence as voluntary and she must be discreet because she has received death threats.

Sam Groves is an FBI agent who watches Kate switching a sapphire at an exhibition and decides to investigate her. After being told her story he makes her his informant and they both try to find who is behind the attacks to jewel couriers and who killed Lee Mandel, Kate's half brother.

I think this book lacks some character development and the suspense plot could definitely have a few more twists to make it more interesting. Instead Lowell concentrates on describing the gem cutting and selling process which is very interesting but it doesn't make a good suspense novel on it's own. When the villain was unmasked I wasn't all that interested anymore. And since I never felt I really got to know the characters I also had some trouble believing in the romance.

Because of all of the above, a C.

Close to You – Christina Dodd

This is the third book in a trilogy about 3 sisters and since I thought the first 2 were pretty average I was ready to consider this one the same.

However this was my favourite among the 3 books. I quite liked the main characters, especially the heroine, Kate, which I found a modern and level headed young woman. Teague was more stereotyped – the kind that is always pursued by women but runs away from commitment because of a sad childhood– but in the end I thought they made a good couple.

The worse of this book ended up being the mystery. This is a romantic suspense but there’s almost no suspense because we are introduced to the villain pretty early in the story. We just get to watch as Kate and Teague try to discover what is happening and why.

Kate was adopted as a baby and doesn’t remember anything about her real parents. She is suddenly offered a really good job but soon discovers none of her colleagues like her because they believe she didn’t earn the job by her own merit and, at the same time, someone starts stalking her. Teague is assigned her bodyguard and as they start to get to know each other, and eventually unmask the stalker, they discover that there’s a mystery behind Kate’s adoption. At this point the reader already knows what happened and who did it that’s why I say there’s no suspense.

The characters of the previous books have an appearance since the main action behind the 3 books is to the bring all the siblings together again.

The confrontation scene was a bit over the top with ghosts and paranormal elements. I know that’s fashionable these days but to me it was unnecessary.
Other than that an entertaining read, a B.

Marvão

Arriving at Marvão... you can see the houses and the castle up there











Some urban details...





































































Marvão is undergoing extensive renovating works and it will look even better after those are done. They are preparing their candidacy to the World Heritage Fund and I'm thinking maybe that's why such extensive work. You can't see it from the photos though.













The Castle... once you're up there it's not difficult to imagine life in the medieval times...












On the way home a stop to look at a megalitic ruin, the Menhir da Povoa. It's 4 meters high.

Castelo de Vide

We had a great time visiting Castelo de Vide. Pity it was just for the weekend. We will surely return another time...


View from the castle walls













Going down through the old jewish quarter
















the old sinagogue being renovated




















































more tomorrow about Marvão...

Weekend Getaway

We are going away for the weekend again so no more posts till Monday.

We thought we deserved a treat since it was Valentine's Day and all that... We had been planning to visit these 2 locations in Alentejo for some time now and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

We are going to Castelo de Vide and Marvão.

The picture is an overview of Marvão.

Sharing Crafty Gifts

Although I have always loved handycrafts and enjoyed trying to make things on my own it was my friend S. who convinced me to take up woodpainting and decoupage classes.
Over these last few years she has given me some lovely crafted gifts and I thought about sharing them with you :-)
The only photo I'm not sharing is of a ceramic Santa Claus box she gave me for Christmas because it's in storage right now. I'll have to remember to photograph it in the future and post it here.










She has made some other beautiful things but I've been trying to convince her to set up her own blog so hopefully you'll get to see them there.

All Night Long - Michelle Jerott

This was another book I read because of a group I belong to. Michelle Jerott is Author of the Month at the Historicalromancechat group and this was the only book of hers I had in the TBR pile.

I liked it from the beginning. A freelance photographer contacts a farmer because she wants to take some photos and do some research in one of his fields regarding an army officer suspected of deserting during the 1832 Black Hawk War.

Annie is not exactly welcomed by Rik but once she gets there they decide to get along and she even rents a room at his house to be closer to the place she wants to study. Although they feel attracted to each other Annie is afraid of commitment and Rik still has to deal with his feelings regarding his ex-wife and his ex best friend she left him for.

The historical research is an added bonus for a history buff like me and it gives the characters the perfect background to get to know each other and start exploring each other feelings. Besides the first attraction it's sort of a journey of discovery and healing for both of them.

The cover is totally wrong for this book and this is a perfect example of "don't judge a book by it's cover".

In the end a really nice read, a B.

Categories

Since the readers of this blog have many different interests I decided to put on the side bar the several post categories that I use to label each post and that you can choose to read. This way you can check only book reviews or crafts or what else you might find interesting...

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter - Blaize Clement

Ever since I joined the Cozy Mystery group I've been discovering a whole new genre.

I was a big Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner fan when I was growing up but in this past decade I've read very few mysteries and the ones I did were more thrillers or suspense novels.

This month book for discussion is Blaize Clement's Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter. This is the first book in the Dixie Hemingway series. Dixie is a Pet Sitter, she used to be a deputy in the Sheriff's Department but a personal tragedy lead her to leave the force and choose a job where she doesn't have to deal with people. She chooses to be a Pet Sitter, taking care of the animal while people are away on vacation.

On one of her visits to groom a cat she finds a dead man drowned in a cat bowl. She calls the police and tries to find the cat's owner who seems to have vanished. As she tries to contact her she finds herself more and more intrigued with the woman's life and the secrets she was keeping. She strucks a friendship with a young neighbour who also has some secrets of his own and soon another body is found.

Dixie can't stop herself from trying to know more about the situation, especially when she fast becames the target of malicious gossip for having found the bodies, and soon is adding up clues to find the truth.

I really liked Dixie. She is a woman which had to deal with loosing her husband and child and is now trying to get back on her feet after 3 years. Although she thinks she is doing fine a comment by one of the detectives makes her realise she has been hiding emotionally and she starts to reflect on that.

Then I really liked this small town atmosphere with the diner, the club... it seemed very real and with real people. No nosy old ladies here...

And especially I liked Dixie interaction with the animals - cats and dogs - and her reflections on each's personality. It was so much fun and the animals were really lovable.

All in all one of my favourite books so far in 2007, and A.

A Zippered Pouch

I've been wanting to try to use zippers for a couple of weeks now. They look so nice on small pouches and are sometimes much more practical than buttons to keep things closed and safe.


I wasn't sure I would have success in my first attempt so I picked some leftover fabrics and a zipper I had rescued from a old bag. Spent yesterday afternoon with this project in hands but I think I finally succeeded and I really like how it looks. It's a bit small but I think it looks rather nice.

I've been so busy this week I didn't have much time for crafting but I hope to compensate that in the days ahead if things get back to normal at work...

Temptress - Lisa Jackson

I always thoughts that Lisa Jackson wrote contemporary thrillers so it was with some surprise I heard of a medieval mystery. Medieval is my favourite period in history so when A. offered to lend it to me I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by.

I quite liked the the idea behind it: a wounded and unrecognisable man is found unconscious at the castle gates. The ring he wears makes everyone think he may be Carrick de Wybren, a man known to have abandoned Morwenna - the lady of the castle - after seducing her and believed to have set the fire that murdered his own family.
At the same time another assassin lurks in the shadows spying and planning other murderers.

We are gradually made aware of the story behind each of the characters at the same time the wounded man's health improves and he starts to question his identity and the identity the others give him. He has to comje to terms with the fact he may have done some terrible actions...

However I was very disappointed that right in the middle of all this emotional turmoil the author makes Morwenna and "Carrick" fall in lust and engage in a night of passion. That was, from my point of view, totally unnecessary to the actions and happens when Morwenna is still not sure who the stranger is. I found that unbelievable because the whole book reads like a mystery - who killed Carrick's family?, who is the wounded man? who is killing now? - and suddenly we have some hot sex scenes thrown in. The romance could have been a bonus but this way it ruined the story for me.

I was hopping the final chapters would redeem it some how with the mysteries being solved but it didn't happen. The killer was a surprise but again the romance bits grated on my nerves. New characters are added just because there has to be closure regarding past events and once again I couldn't see why the two main characters should have feelings for each other. Can't get into the reasons for that because it would be a spoiler but I would love to discuss this one with someone who has already read it.

I would have given this one a B if it had just been a mystery but this way it falls into the C category.

Bad day!

I've been offline all day because when I got to the office the glass window was broken and the computers gone. We were robbed!

Spent the day talking to the police and cursing the thieves. The damage and problems this is giving us is so much more than what they are going to get for 2 computers... Stupid people!

This is CSI too close to home for my tastes...

What Fantasy Archetype are You?

I was hesitant about taking this test because I haven't been reading much fantasy lately... now that I did I'm having serious doubts about the result... I always thought I was more of a Eowyn kind of girl... but I do like Hermione ;-)

What Fantasy Archetype Are you?




The Pillar-of-Strength Love Interest
You are the Pillar-of-Strength Love Interest! You're like Arwen (Lord of The Rings), Guinevere (Arthurian Legend), Princess Leia (Star Wars), Door (Neverwhere), Ginny/Hermione (Harry Potter), and Kahlan Amnell (Wizard's First Rule). You are the protagonist's love interest and you almost invariably love him too. You are strong, resiliant, caring, loving, loyal and virtuous - but you often have to make hard decisions between love and the Right Thing. You and The Mentor usually go way back, and keep your eye out for betrayal of your love from The Traitor. Also, keep guard, you are the favorite hostage of The Totally Wicked Villain.


Take The Quiz Now! Quizzes by myYearbook.com

The Perfect Waltz – Anne Gracie

Last year I read The Perfect Rake and had great fun with Prue and Gideon’s witty dialogues. Since then I’ve been looking forward to it’s sequels. The Perfect Waltz is the second book, about Hope Merridew.

I also enjoyed this one very much although I didn’t find it as light as the previous book. The hero, Sebastian, has come to London in search of a wife. He feels a wife would be the solution to his sisters problems. The two young girls grew up separated from him and the older one is a rebel and the younger doesn’t speak.

Thankfully we get to know him before he meets Hope and so are aware of his love for his sisters and that he can have tender feelings. Because ever since he meets Hope and finds himself dancing with her he is also stiff and rude. That is the power of attraction being fought. He is decided to court Lady Elinore, a very proper lady dedicated to good causes, and his feelings for Hope keep getting in the way.

He judges Hope by what he thinks are all young misses and so finds her lacking in what concerns raising young ladies. One thing that bothered me was the fact that there were several opportunities for Sebastian to be set straight about that and discover that Hope also had lived a hard life but there are always interruptions and what not preventing that. I know that would make for a shorter story but this way it felt too artificial.

Of course Hope also feels very attracted to him and they keep meeting at social functions. A walk in the park introduces the Merridew family to Sebastians’s sisters and soon he starts to realise how they are improving just by being around other young girls. As the action progresses he realises there’s more to Hope than he first thought, actually it takes more time for that to be evident because it’s like Hope decided to make up for her difficult upbringing by being totally carefree in how she behaves, and after resolving things with Lady Elinore they finally have their happy end. There’s a fun secondary plot about Seb’s friend and the Lady Elinore although I think her change was too sudden, I needed for that story to develop more to understand it and how it happened.

The books also deals with the very harsh treatment given to working children during the regency period mentioning work at the mills and child brothels. Not enough to make it a hard reading but to make you aware of that reality.
A B.

A Cool Map

Create your own visitor map!


Wondering if it will still record visitors once it goes to the archives...

Almost Like Being in Love - Christina Dodd

This is the second book in a trilogy about 3 sisters and a brother whose family was split up when they were just children and teens. Their parents died in a car crash and were accused of having stolen money.

I read the first one in this trilogy last year and although it had some flaws I enjoyed it enough to pick the other 2 books.

Pepper is the middle sister and at the age of 8 she was put in foster care and away from her siblings. She has survived by using false identities and finding jobs as a landscape gardener.

After attending a book signing by a famous author that she much admires she is the witness of a murder. The famous author, who is also a military general is accused by her aide of selling information to the terrorists and kills him in cold blood.

On the run after having been spotted Pepper returns to the ranch where she lived for a few years as a teen. She discovers that the woman who was her foster mother as died and her former boyfriend is around with his own agenda. Contrary to what usually happens in most books I’ve read lately I thought the suspense subplot was very weak. Pepper spends a lot of her time on the ranch worrying about the general being after her but there’s no sign of the general or any danger for a long time.

Also Dan was there as part of a plot to lure some terrorists but these don’t show up for most of the book. So basically it’s just the 2 of them and their recollections from the past. I think this part dragged a bit and they were too angry and didn’t seriously talked about what was upsetting them for too long. And when they do, they get mad at each other in a way that I thought was just to keep them apart for a while longer.

So actually there were 2 problems that made me give this one a C+: the suspense subplot needed to be more important to the story, if they were in actual danger it would be easier to believe they would bond and only trust each other and one thing leading to another; it seemed weird to me that they just went back to lusting after each other after 9 years while still not talking or trusting the other.

We already know from book 1 that Hope, the big sister, is trying to find the rest of the family and that there is more their parents accident than what was revealed at the time. So there’s a reunion when the family finds Pepper and I guess the rest will be explained on book 3.

Santa Maria da Feira

Unfortunately we were only able to go on Saturday and had to return the next day but during the weekend we had time to visit the castle, go to Casino de Espinho and win some euros, eat at some great restaurants and try the traditional cake Fogaças.

We just needed more time to catch up on each other's plans for the future but I'm sure we will do this again in the future and more opportunities will come.












So thank you M. for organising things so well and for showing us such a great time! :-)

Going Away for the Weekend

I’m going away for the weekend so there’ll be no posts till Monday. I’m going to visit my cousin M. (the travel nut :-)) to Santa Maria da Feira and we’re planning a nice weekend with some relaxation, good food and some sightseeing and lots of catching up. It’s not that far from were I live, 3 hours only, but nowadays we seldom see each other.



Some nice photos


More info



Oh and I’m planning to convince him to start his own blog but he doesn’t know that yet ;-)

My Sewing Box

Nothing new in the crafts department as I've had a busy week and really not much time to dedicate to my hobbies. I have however many crafty things from my pre-blog days and so I decided to show you a picture of my old sewing box :-).

I bought the wood box and decorated it with sewing and knitting designs. Nowadays it's actually small for all the supplies I have around the house. I need to buy a new one but I'm undecided wether to buy one already made or to buy just the wood box and decorate it.


It would be simpler and easier to just buy it but so far I haven't found anything I like as much as this one. Talk about sentimental value!

I'll probably keep this one for my hand sewing suplies and will wait till I fall in love with a new one to store the rest of the things. When I'm very undecided that's what I do, I keep going to the stores in hopes that something really appeals to me and I decide I have to have it.



Sooner or later that is bound to happen!