Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Gathering Mist by Margaret Mizushima

 

First line: 
Weather could make or break a search and rescue mission, and the wind would play havoc with the scent trail today.
Series:  Timber Creek K-9 Mystery

Summary:  When Deputy Mattie Wray and her German Shepherd, Robo, are asked to fly out to Washington's Olympic peninsula to join in the search for a missing nine-year-old boy, she can't say no. Even though she's supposed to be getting married to her veterinarian fiance, Cole Walker, at the end of the week. Because there's a lost child and the local police need Robo's air scenting skills. Luckily, Cole has her back, even traveling to Washington to offer his doctoring skills to all the SAR dogs there and their handlers helping to search the dense forest area where they think the boy wandered off into. But Mattie soon starts to suspect his disappearance is the result of something more sinister. Can they find him in time?

My thoughts:  I love this series and a big reason why is the dogs and all their search-and-rescue skills. It's so interesting! I like learning about the difference between ground tracking and air scenting, each dog's speciality, and how their handlers guide them. And Mattie and Robo certainly have their work cut out for them this time trying to track a small child through such a rainy forest setting. This mystery also has good action and suspense. And all of these characters are so great. I've loved seeing Mattie's and Cole's relationship deepen over the course of this series. And Robo is the best! Gathering Mist is another winning read from Margaret Mizushima.

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Top Ten Tuesday...

 
Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme is COVERS WITH AN ITEM OF YOUR CHOICE ON THE COVER.

And I decided to go with CLOCKS. Because I just had to change all of mine...again. And could we please choose one time, either Daylight or Standard, and stick with it? I'm so tired of having to change my clocks, both inner and outer, twice a year. But these covers with clocks on them are kind of awesome. 


Hooked by Emily McIntire








The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk




Timekeeper by Tara Sim




The Betrayals by Bridget Collins




The Love Proof by Madeleine Henry




The Watchmaker's Daughter by C.J. Archer




The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton




Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield




The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene



Happy Reading!


Friday, November 1, 2024

Randomness....

Recently finished reading:  The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer.  And I loved it--Lucy, Hugo, Jack and Christopher, Clock Island, and the contest! It was magical. 


"Only brave children get their wishes....Because only brave children know that wishing is never enough. You have to try to make your own wishes come true." --Meg Shaffer



This John Atkinson cartoon totally made me laugh. Check out his website, Wrong Hands, for more clever and humorous art. It'll make your day!




My latest library haul...I know, once again I checked out too many books, and five more holds will probably come in tomorrow, but it's my bookish addiction, and there's no 12-step program for it: 

Murder at King's Crossing by Andrea Penrose
Cat's Paw by Roger Scarlett
The Next Everest by Jim Davidson
Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot
The Hunter's Daughter by Nicola Solvinic
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
 Snowed In by Catherine Walsh
The Novice by Taran Matheru
Miles Bailey Gets Down on One Knee by Jen Atkinson
Chicken Dinner News by Jeff Billington
Gathering Mist by Margaret Mizushima


And my list of glad things from October:
  • I saw chickadees on my walk this morning...they're my favorite little bird and always make me smile. 
  • Tracker has started again! It's so good...one of my favorite TV shows this season. 
  • I'm also really loving Jelly Roll's new album, especially his song I'm Not Okay.
  • I found some favorite books on sale at my library's used book sale...picked up 5 of them for only 50 cents. Any day with new books in it is a good day!
  • My family got together for a fun game night last weekend; we played Zombie Run (a fast, easy and fun card game) and Mycelia.
  • And my football team won their last 3 games! They are now 8-0. Go BYU!




 

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Top Ten Tuesday....

 
Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme is a HALLOWEEN FREEBIE.

I decided to look back over my last ten years of October posts and revisit some of my favorite &  scariest October reads. I've also included a link to my original reviews. Happy reading! 











October 2015:  Dracula by Bram Stoker




October 2016:  Shiver by Alex Nye




October 2017:  Ghost Song by Sarah Rayne




























Happy Reading!

Friday, October 25, 2024

Haiku Reviews...

 

The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh


Getting hit by a
car has Kelsey rethinking 
her entire life.


Fiction .... 370 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.
(A charming novel about friendship, second chances, journeys, hope, romance, and not letting fear keep you from choosing life.)





Grim and Bear It by Juliette Cross


Aura witch invites
Grim necromancer to join
romance book club ... love follows.


Paranormal romance .... 382 pages .... 3.5/5 stars.
(Clara and Henry were a very cute couple, but there's lots of language and several steamy sex scenes, so beware if that's not your thing.)





The Teacher by Freida McFadden


A troubled student.
Married tachers. Obsession,
love, hate, sex, and death.


Thriller.... 379 pages .... 3/5 stars.
(Fast-paced, with lots of unexpected twists and turns. But very unlikable characters.)





My Vampire Plus-One by Jenna Levine


Amelia knows taxes, but
vampires? Fake dating Reggie is one
surprise after another.


Romance .... 389 pages .... 4/5 stars.
(So cute & funny! I especially loved Reggie's bullet journal excerpts.)




Happy Reading!


Thursday, October 24, 2024

A little bookish fun...

 



Isn't this a cute tee shirt? I bought it for my sister for her birthday because she loves booooooks, too. I also liked this sweatshirt, although I didn't buy it. But it made me smile. 




Happy Reading!


Monday, October 21, 2024

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

 

From the blurb:
"The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.

The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present."

My thoughts:  I've read six other books by Riley Sager: I really liked three of them, disliked two, and thought the sixth landed somewhere in the middle. So I didn't know what to expect with this one. But I'm happy to report that I ended up really liking it. Ethan's guilt and grief felt so real, as did his desire to figure out what happened to his friend that long ago night. And Sager does an excellent job of interweaving the past with the present through the different characters' POVs. The way he lets the story unfold builds good suspense and made me want to keep reading. I also really liked the touch of supernatural in it. All in all, this is a fun mystery!

My rating:  4.5/5 stars.

Happy Reading!


The other three Riley Sager novels I really liked:

I did post reviews of the other three Sager books that I've read, so you can find them on my blog if you're interested in knowing what I didn't like about them.