Thursday Thoughts: Blog Tour/Review and Giveaway--Class Reunions Are Murder by Libby Klein

Today I'm participating in the Class Reunions Are Murder Blog Tour.  In this post you will find book and author information along with my review.

About the Book . . .

Class Reunions Are Murder: A Poppy McAllister Mystery

 Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Kensington (January 30, 2018)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 Pages
ISBN-13: 978-1496713032
E-Book ASIN: B072HS2JGM

 

Synopsis . . .  For fortysomething Poppy McAllister, taking a stroll down memory lane in Cape May, New Jersey, isn’t just awkward—it’s deadly.

Newly widowed and stuck in a middle-aged funk, Poppy has been running on cookies, infomercials, and one-sided chats with her cat for months. There’s no way on earth she’s attending her twenty-five-year class reunion—especially after receiving a very bizarre letter from Barbie, the popular cheerleader who taunted her all through high school. At least, not until Poppy’s best friend practically drags her to the event . . .

Using the dreaded homecoming as an excuse to visit her eccentric Aunt Ginny, Poppy vows to leave Cape May with pride and Spanx intact. Too bad Barbie is still the queen of mean at the reunion. And worse, that her dead body is lying right in front of Poppy’s old locker. Singled out as the killer, it’s up to Poppy to confront her past and clear her name. But between protecting her aunt from disaster and tackling a gluten-free diet, can Poppy crack the case before she’s voted “Most Likely to Die” by the murderer?

Includes Seven Recipes from Poppy’s Kitchen!


My Review . . . They say you can't go home again . . . or can you?  Poppy McAllister is less than thrilled at the prospects of returning to the town she couldn’t wait to escape and attending her 25th high school reunion.  In fact, the only thing she dreads more than being seen by her former classmates as “fat, frumpy, and a failure” is running into her former fiancé after all these years.  Both things are about to happen as she makes the trip from her home in Virginia to Cape May, New Jersey.  Back on familiar turf, Poppy is happy to catch up with her closest high school pals—a group who were bullied by the mean girls—and they vow to present a united front against any unpleasantness from their former tormentors.
 

At the reunion, ex-prom queen and mean girls ringleader Barbie Clark proves that she hasn't mellowed with age.  Barbie has quite a volatile history with many of her former classmates, and she seizes the opportunity to publicly humiliate and embarrass them and their guests during the reunion.  Following several ugly scenes, Barbie is found dead in front of Poppy’s old locker, making Poppy the prime murder suspect.  But there is no shortage of others with strong motives for revenge among Barbie’s old flames, rivals, and the other reunion attendees. Was Barbie killed due to a recent slight or because of a grudge that has been stewing for years?  Poppy and her friends must work quickly to find out, as local police officer Amber Fenton—another former mean girl from the class of 1989—works diligently to pin the murder on Poppy.  

There is plenty to hold readers’ attention in this novel beyond the murder mystery aspect.  Several interwoven story lines add depth to the main characters, and Poppy’s attempts at self-improvement give Class Reunions Are Murder plenty of laugh out loud dialog and scenes. Also adding to the enjoyment are the Jersey shore setting; Poppy’s mischievous cat Figaro; eccentric elderly Aunt Ginny; and two love interests—her former fiancé Tim and steamy local barista Gia. 

All in all, Poppy McAllister is a very likeable, relatable character with an unpredictable life and lots of possibilities going forward.  This series is an entertaining addition to the cozy mystery genre, and I’m eagerly awaiting the second book, Midnight Snacks Are Murder, which will be published in July 2018. 

Giveaway . . .  Enter for a chance to win a copy of Class Reunions Are Murder by Libby Klein by visiting this Rafflecopter link.


About the author . . . Libby Klein dabbles in the position of Vice President of a technology company which mostly involves bossing other people around, making spreadsheets, and taking out the trash.  She writes culinary cozy mysteries from Northern Virginia office while trying to keep her cat Figaro off her keyboard.

 

Author links . . . 

Webpage – https://libbykleinbooks.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/libbykleinbooks/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/LibbyKleinBooks

Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/libbykleinbooks/

Purchase links . . .  

Amazon      B&N    kobo

 

Tour Participants . . . 

January 30 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT
January 31 – Readeropolis – INTERVIEW
January 31 – Girl with Book Lungs – REVIEW
February 1 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
February 2 – Teresa Trent Author Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 2 – The Power of Words – REVIEW
February 3 – A Holland Reads – SPOTLIGHT
February 4 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW
February 5 – Queen of All She Reads – REVIEW
February 6 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – SPOTLIGHT
February 7 – Maureen’s Musing – SPOTLIGHT
February 7 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 8 – Book Club Librarian – REVIEW
February 9 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW
February 10 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW  
February 11 – The Montana Bookaholic – REVIEW
February 12 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW
February 12 – Socrates Book Reviews – REVIEW


Note:  I received a complimentary advance copy of Class Reunions Are Murder from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.


Thursday Thoughts:  Blog Tour/Review and Giveaway--Class Reunions Are Murder was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

                                                      

 

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.   

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraph from The Power by Naomi Alderman.  This book won the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.  The excerpt shared is from a library copy.

 

 

 

The Men Writers Association

New Bevand Square

27th October

 

Dear Naomi,

 

I've finished the bloody book.  I'm sending it to you, with all its fragments and drawings, in the hope that you'll give me some guidance or at least that I'll finally hear the echo of it as I drop the pebble of this book down the well.

 

 

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

 I am drawn to this book because of its speculative nature.  The setting is an alternative reality where teenage girls and women have vast physical power--the ability to inflict pain and death with the flick of their fingers.  It's quite different from my usual reading.

This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

 

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring an upcoming read, Say You're Sorry by Melinda Leigh.  The excerpts shared are from a copy I got at the library. 

 

  

Beginning:  Chapter One

 

Darkness.

 

Tessa had been afraid of it most of her life.  For as long as she could remember, she'd gone to bed dreading nightfall, looking under the bed, double-checking her nightlight.

 

***************

 

Page 56:  "Once Tessa had been a little girl, coloring at her kitchen table.  She should have had a long, happy life."

 

***************

 

My thoughts:  Melinda Leigh has been on my must-try author list for some time now, and I recently picked up the first book in the Morgan Dane series, which she started in 2017.  Have you read this author before?  If so, please give me your feedback.

 

***************

 

From Goodreads:  In a new series from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh, former prosecutor Morgan Dane faces the most personal—and deadly—case of her lifetime.

After the devastating loss of her husband in Iraq, Morgan Dane returns to Scarlet Falls, seeking the comfort of her hometown. Now, surrounded by family, she’s finally found peace and a promising career opportunity—until her babysitter is killed and her neighbor asks her to defend his son, Nick, who stands accused of the murder.

Tessa was the ultimate girl next door, and the community is outraged by her death. But Morgan has known Nick for years and can’t believe he’s guilty, despite the damning evidence stacked against him. She asks her friend Lance Kruger, an ex-cop turned private eye, for help. Taking on the town, the police, and a zealous DA, Morgan and Lance plunge into the investigation, determined to find the real killer. But as they uncover secrets that rock the community, they become targets for the madman hiding in plain sight.

 

 

 

This Friday Focus post was originally composed, compiled, and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph

It's Tuesday . . . time for . . . 

                                                      

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.   

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraph from Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.  The excerpts shared are from a library copy.

  

Prelude

Baltimore, Maryland

August 3, 1939

My story begins on a sweltering August night, in a place I will never set eyes upon.  The room takes life only in my imaginings.  It is large most days when I conjure it.  The walls are white and clean, the bed linens crisp as a fallen leaf.  The private suite has the very finest of everything.  Outside, the breeze is weary, and the cicadas throb in the tall trees, their verdant hiding places just below the window frames.  The screens sway inward as the attic fan rattles overhead, pulling at wet air that has no desire to be moved.

What do you think?  Would you continue reading?
I have been eyeing this book for a while now, and have added it to my (hopefully) soon to be read stack.  It was inspired by a true story, and the cover beckons me to learn more about the narrator's story.

Have you read it?  If so, what did you think?



This First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated. 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

 

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring my current read, A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis (a pseudonym of longtime crime fiction author Katia Lief).  This is the first book in a new series called The Searchers.  The excerpts shared are from a copy I borrowed from the library. 

 

 

Beginning: 

Prologue

She likes the feel of the ground underfoot and so she toes off her sneakers and carries them, swinging loosely from her fingertips.  But after a couple of minutes she steps on something sharp and changes her mind.

 

************

 

Sunday

1

 

Roy's eyes are cloudy.  He blinks and suddenly they're hazel again, like they used to be: green-streaked riverbeds of timeworn memory.  Elsa gently squeezes his hand, hoping he'll say something, anything, as unexpectedly as his eyes gained color.  He hasn't spoken all morning.  He lies there, his short salty hair poking in every direction, staring at the charcoal screen of the turned-off television, taking in the latest news of his diagnosis.

 

********************

Page 56: "She should have done what she'd told Lex she was doing and gone into the office.  Maybe she still will, if only to erase her lie."

********************

My thoughts:  The opening lines of the prologue and first chapter don't convey much of the plot, which revolves around the disappearance of a 17 year old girl, who never made it home from her job at a local coffee house.  It is up to FBI Special Agent Elsa Myers to find Ruby Haverstock, despite a lack of promising leads and pressing personal matters of her own. 

 

I found myself fully engaged in the story after completing the prologue and first chapter.  Elsa Myers is an interesting character with a curious past that is slowly being revealed.  I keep reading "just one more chapter" (or two) because I find Elsa every bit as compelling as the investigation and its outcome.

 
********************

From Goodreads:  A girl, missing
A woman, searching
A killer, planning...

A thrilling new FBI series for fans of Tess Gerritsen and Karin Slaughter.

FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing people.
She knows how it feels to be lost...

Though her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, Elsa cannot refuse a call for help. A teenage girl has gone missing from Forest Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series of false leads hides the fact that she did not go willingly.

With each passing hour, as the hunt for Ruby deepens into a search for a man who may have been killing for years, the case starts to get underneath Elsa's skin. Everything she has buried - her fraught relationship with her sister and niece, her self-destructive past, her mother's death - threatens to resurface, with devastating consequences.

In order to save the missing girl, she may have to lose herself...and return to the darkness she's been hiding from for years.

 

 

 

This Friday Focus post was originally composed, compiled, and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.