Big Shot by Kirsten Weiss – Book Review

New – though slightly belated – book review for one of my favorite authors! It’s Kirsten Weiss with a new mystery series. Now, I can proudly say, I’ve read books from 3 of her many cozy mystery series!

 

“Can you think of anyone who wanted to kill Donald?”

“Aside from the entire town?”

 

Big Shot by Kirsten Weiss is the first book in the Big Murder Mystery Series.

The book opens with Alice, a woman body guard, who wakes up half-way through a job, only to discover that her client had drugged her and stolen her car. She jumps into an Uber and – in her pjs – pursues the rogue client, who gets themselves killed by running into a truck.

Now Alice is wanted for the murder of her client – a mob boss.

To get away from the media frenzy, Alice goes back to her hometown of Nowhere. But the town she left behind seems to be a lot different from the one she comes back to.

Add in that as soon as she arrives, she stumbles on a dead body!

“Unbelievable. You bug out of Nowhere, and when you finally decide to come back, you dig up a body?”

Big Shot is narrated in Alice’s first-person perspective. She’s sarcastic, funny, and super resourceful. She’s also in a line of work that rarely features women – being a body guard.

But Alice isn’t perfect. And I loved that about her. Throughout the novel, she’s hopeful that her ex-husband, Buck, who owns the surveillance company will clear her name. But as a reader I could clearly see he wasn’t doing anything and the situation keeps getting worse for Alice. I like that she's honest, fairly realistic, and practical.

“You deal with many murders as a body guard?”

“No. We try to keep our clients from getting dead.” 

Other characters include Alice’s brother, Charlie, his friends – lots of friends, and an old mobster who seems hell bent on killing Alice in the funniest and craziest of ways!

Though Big Shot opens with Alice’s predicament, she’s quickly thrown into a bigger problem: Her brother being a suspect in a murder in her hometown of Nowhere (where she was hoping to hide from the public eye).

My biggest problem with Big Shot was the long chapters. But otherwise, I enjoyed the book.

Overall, I found Big Shot to be an intriguing cozy mystery with memorable characters, and lots of sarcasm. I look forward to reading more books in the Big Murder Mystery Series. 

Overall rating for Big Shot by Kirsten Weiss: 4 stars.

 

Note: I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) of Big Shot from its author Kirsten Weiss in exchange for an honest review. This did not in any way impact my review or rating.

 

Dewey Decimated by Allison Brooke - Book Review & Blog Tour

 

Today I’m re-featuring author Allison Brook. You may have met Brook from book review of Buried in the Stacks in 2019. This post features her newest book in The Haunted Library Mystery Series. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway! (Ends 15 September)

 

Here’s a bit about the book

Book title: Dewey Decimated

Series: Book 6 in The Haunted Library Mystery Series

Genre: Paranormal cozy mystery

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Publishing date: 6 September 2022

ISBN-10: ‎ 1639100903
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1639100903
Digital ASIN: ‎ B09N6M1SNP

Synopsis:

Librarian Carrie Singleton is back on the case, alongside library ghost Evelyn, in the sixth installment of Agatha Award nominee Allison Brook’s Haunted Library mysteries.

Carrie Singleton is just off a hot string of murder cases centered around the spooky local library in Clover Ridge, Connecticut. She could really use a break—but no such luck, as she; Smoky Joe, the resident cat; and Evelyn, the library’s ghost, are drawn into another tantalizing whodunit.

First, a dead body is found in the basement of the building attached to the library, and it turns out to be Carrie’s fiancé’s Uncle Alec, who Dylan hasn’t seen in years. But Alec has no intention of truly checking out, and his ghost makes itself at home in the library, greatly upsetting the patrons. 

Carrie and Evelyn work hard to keep Alec out of sight, but what was he doing in Clover Ridge to begin with? And why was he killed? 

Meanwhile, the town council, of which Carrie is also a member, is embroiled in a hot-headed debate over the fate of the Seabrook Preserve, a lovely and valuable piece of property that runs along Long Island Sound. Turn it into an upscale park? Sell it to a condo developer? Or keep it as protected land?

As the dispute rages, there’s another murder, this time involving a council member. Could the two murders be connected? And could Carrie be next on the hit list?

Book Review of Dewey Decimated

 

‘Trish came bursting through the door, her face alive with excitement. “Guess what? They found a body in the old building next door.”’

Dewey Decimated by Allison Brook is the 6th book in The Haunted Library Mystery Series. It’s my second read for both Brook and the series. My first read in this series was book 2, Buried in the Stacks.

When Carrie Singleton, head of programs at the Clover Ridge Library, learns of a dead body in the building the library recently acquired for expansion, she says she won’t be looking into it.

Carrie has racked a reputation for solving crimes in her local community. And everyone expects her to take part in this investigation.

“Why all the questions? Are you planning to look into the case?”

“Just natural curiosity. I want no part in this investigation.”

“Music to my ears.”

It is not clear why but Carrie can see ghosts. Including Evelyn whom she met in the library when she first joined a year earlier. Together, Carrie and Evelyn solve murders one book after the other. 😊

Despite her supposed-disinterest in the murder, Carrie is slowly dragged into it. The victim turns out to be her fiancé’s distant uncle.

But that’s not the only problem. Soon it’s not just Evelyn that Carrie can see but there’s a second ghost with no recollection of who he is or how he died.

Bit by bit, Carrie is dragged into solving the murder. Add in a nosy reporter who is dying to break a story and feature Carrie in it.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

I laughed. “Because Evelyn’s a ghost, and she’s a good friend of mine.”

Dewey Decimated welcomes a few familiar faces and names and adds more people to The Haunted Library Mystery Series cast.

In addition to the murder mystery, Carrie is now part of her town’s council. And though they are just 5 people, there’s much debate over a major project in the town. Carrie soon discovers that there are politics and money at play in the council.

And as soon as she solves one mystery, a new one emerges with the death of a council member.

Dewey Decimated is a fun and calming read from Allison Brook. One of my problems with Buried in the Stacks was the amount of repetition Carrie had to do to tell the different people what has happened. While this remains a part of Dewey Decimated, it’s much less than Buried in the Stacks.

“The last thing I needed was a ghost having a meltdown in my office.”

The only thing I didn’t get about the book was the title ‘Dewey Decimated.’ But that could just be me.

In terms of imagery, there wasn’t a lot of it but that didn’t bother me. I also love the book covers in this series.

Overall rating for Dewey Decimated by Allison Brook: 4 stars

 

About Allison Brook:

A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn Levinson writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and novels for kids. Her books have received many accolades. As Allison Brook, she writes the Haunted Library series. Death Overdue, the first in the series, was an Agatha nominee for Best Contemporary Novel in 2018. Other mysteries include the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club series and the Twin Lakes series.

Her juvenile novel, Rufus and Magic Run Amok, was an International Reading Association-Children's Book Council Children's Choice. And Don't Bring Jeremy was a nominee for six state awards.

Marilyn lives on Long Island, where many of her books take place. She loves traveling, reading, doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku, and chatting on FaceTime with her grandkids.

Connect with Allison via her website, Facebook page, Twitter, Goodreads, and Bookbub.

Buy Dewey Decimated via Amazon  Penguin Random House    B&N    Kobo    Google Play 

Keep up with the rest of the blog tour featuring spotlights, book reviews, author interviews, and character interviews.

6 September: Spotlights via Ruff Drafts, Brooke Blogs, and The Book Diva's Reads

7 September: Spotlights via Celticlady's Reviews and Maureen's Musings and a book review via Baroness Book Trove

8 September: Spotlights via Angel's Guilty Pleasures and The Mystery Section and a book review and author interview via I Read What You Write

9 September: Book reviews via View from the Birdhouse and Cozy Up With Kathy and a character interview via Read Your Writes Book Reviews

10 September: Spotlights via I'm All About Books and #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog, along with a book review via eBook Addicts

11 September: Book review via Nadaness In Motion and spotlight via FUONLYKNEW

12 September: Book reviews via Christy's Cozy Corners and Books a Plenty Book Reviews

13 September: Spotlights via Sapphyria's Book Reviews and Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers and a character interview via Ascroft, eh?

14 September: Book review via Reading Is My SuperPower and spotlight via Literary Gold

15 September: Book review via MJB Reviewers, spotlight via Socrates Book Reviews, and an author interview via Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book

 

 

How My Blog Got 1 Million Visits in 7 Months by Patric Morgan – Book Review

This book review is quite different from my other reviews because it relates to my work. You'll find bits in blue italics. These are my personal comments.

 

How My Blog Got 1 Million Visits in 7 Months by Patric Morgan is the book I wanted to read 2 years ago. That said, the book is filled with helpful information and advice on blogging, content writing, and launching a blog.

I found lots of helpful ideas and tips in there that I'm planning to use and experiment with when writing blog content for my freelance clients.

By the way, the full book title is: How My Blog Got 1 Million Visits in 7 Months: A practical and straightforward guide to increasing traffic to your blog in your spare time - and without having to pay for advertising.

While Patric Morgan's blog (Wales on Craic) is a bit different compared to other blogs, his tips and experiments are quite helpful. That said, the part on viral posts is still a bit hazy.

I'm still of the opinion that you can't really create viral posts. You can try, but whether they go viral or not depends on your audience and some ad spend.

How My Blog Got 1 Million Visits in 7 Months is divided into seven parts. Part 2 is where Patric talks about finding a niche. And as a freelance writer, I can tell you that's the hardest thing.

I've been freelancing full-time for almost a year now (had previous freelance gigs in the past but as a translator) and I only discovered the idea of a niche and what it means to narrow down on niches a year ago.

I kept changing and editing my LinkedIn profile (based on the type of working I was getting and exploring) and when I zoomed in on a niche, people started approaching me.

"I always remember my first ever boss telling me that you have to invest to get money back," says Morgan. And I can't agree more.

Before I shifted to freelancing full-time, I was a managing editor and later an editorial manager for different companies. Because budgets were tight, we didn't have training options in these companies.

So, I would constantly encourage my team members to invest in courses (online or offline). Whenever I tried anything on Udemy, I'd send them the courses when they were on sale and tell them which were the good ones.

My advice to any person in the world is "don't stop learning" and that normally involves some investment. It doesn't have to be financial, but investing your time, effort, and energy also pays eventually. And it shows in your work.

There are lots of quotable parts in How My Blog Got 1 Million Visits in 7 Months. If I could I'd like to quote pages 39 & 40 WHOLE! I've bookmarked them for my next blog post and will see how things turn out.

Overall I want to thank Patric Morgan for writing this book. It's short, easy, to the point, and doesn't make over the top promises.

It's about one man's experience with blogging and it's not a "get rich quickly scheme" compared to what you'd often find online.

 

Overall rating for How My Blog Got 1 Million Visits in 7 Months: 4 stars

 

Note: I got a free copy of How My Blog Got 1 Million Visits in 7 Months by Patric Morgan as part of a newsletter subscription.

 

Other non-fiction and self-help book reviews on Nadaness In Motion

Write Your Book in a Flash by Dan Janal

The Beginner's Affiliate Marketing Blue Print by Alex M.

The Financial Diet by Chelsea Fagan

 

No Longer Safe by A.J. Waines – Book Review

Book: No Longer Safe

Author: A.J. Waines

Number of pages: 377

Publisher: Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Publication Date: 4 February 2016

I've wanted to read A.J. Waines for years. I've featured Waines on my blog a few times through blog tours. I finally decided I'd start with No Longer Safe, which having finally finished it, I have some mixed feelings about it.

I started with this book because in one of our interviews Waines said: "In No Longer Safe, ALL the main characters have psychological ‘issues’! Some of these are clear from the start, other ‘defects’ start to emerge as the story progresses. Like ordinary people, the fictional characters try to hide their behaviours and coping strategies, so the reader comes up against lies, secrets and deception. In No Longer Safe, no one is who they appear to be…"

How's that for enticing a reader?

It worked for me. And Waines was right; you could easily see the characters' traits the moment they open their mouths.

No Longer Safe is narrated from two first-person perspectives; that of Alice, a naïve and shy young woman who idolized her university friend Karen, and Karen, a conniving woman, who used Alice but also helped her get out of her shell.

The main view point is Alice's, while Karen gets a few short chapters to give some backstory and the other side of things. Karen's chapters feel like she's writing in her diary.

No Longer Safe opens with Alice getting an invitation from her once-upon-a-time friend Karen Morley, to spend two weeks in a remote house in the Scottish highlands. Karen claims she wants to reconnect after several years' disappearance. Alice immediately jumps at the opportunity and heads to the location Karen had sent her.

"You made me feel so safe, without any sting of judgement."

However, once she arrives, Alice senses that Karen isn't as friendly as she used to be and soon discovers that two more people had been invited. So it's not exactly some a happy reunion. Not to mention, the two other friends, Jodie and Mark, are an odd pair from university days that Alice doesn't like.

One night, Alice wakes up to find a dead man in her room and Karen convinces her that they need to cover it up. Throughout the novel, the reader is unsure what happened exactly. Who killed him? How? Why?

The pace in No Longer Safe is quite slow. And the chapters, though there are 58 of them, are too long, in my opinion. Yes, there are short ones; those from Karen's perspective and the later chapters when the speed picks up. But I found this to slow down the already long novel.

From chapter 1, the reader can feel that Alice is infatuated with Karen and that she has an inferiority complex:

"You were my inspiration, the person I wanted to be."

"If you were a Porsche, I was a clapped out Morris Minor – with an emphasis on the 'minor.'"

Character development is different in No Longer Safe. How? Let me explain without spoilers. We see that Alice, the main narrator, begins to realize how gullible and trusting she'd been at university but is now, slowly, discovering that her so-called friends weren't what they appeared to be. She understands that Karen had been using her.

One of the comments I wrote about Alice, while reading No Longer Safe, was "infatuated with a complex, yes. Stupid and doesn't notice things, no," which plays in Alice's character development both compared to university days and during the course of the novel.

As the story progresses, Alice reflects on things that have happened at university, including what Karen told her once that struck with her: "This could be useful one day – never give up leverage easily, Alice."

There tons of quotable lines, images, ideas, and dialogue in the novel.

Despite the pace, I enjoyed reading the novel. Alice is relatable. She's a shy girl who was infatuated by the popular girls at university. She was willing to do things for them to be part of their clique. Now, years later, she's still willing but she's also growing, maturing.

In a way, I felt that No Longer Safe is all about character. The ending was jarring for me and in a way had me thinking of another psychological thriller I read a while back, which is Lies She Told by Cate Holahan. Don't get me wrong, the novels are completely different but sometimes you make connections or get this feeling that one book or story reminds you of another.

Overall rating for No Longer Safe by A.J. Waines: 3.5 to 4 stars. Yeah, I can't really decide. I'm still struggling with the ending. The pace definitely put me off but the characters are rich in issues and complexities.

"Am I safe? Am I really safe here? Or were things about to get even worse?"

You can check out an excerpt from Chapter 6 from No Longer Safe on Nadaness In Motion.

A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng – Book Review

Book: A Collection of Dreamscapes

Author: Christina Sng

Genre: Poetry Collection, Twisted Fairy Tales, Dark Poetry

Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press

Publication Date: 16 April 2020

Number of pages: 170

A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng is a poetry collection divided into 5 sections and featuring an array of beautifully dark poems.

I particularly enjoyed the rewritten "Fairy Tales" and "Myths and Dreamscapes" sections.

A Collection of Dreamscapes opens with "Allegra," a 5-star stunning and beautiful mythological story within a poem. I absolutely loved this one. I must note though, that the poems in this opening section should be read in order – as I realized – but you will enjoy them nonetheless.

As I said, I loved the "Fairy Tales," where Sng takes on common tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and twists them all. Sng also has several different stories/poems about a single fairy tale, like Rapunzel.

My favorites were: "Little Red," "Snow," "The Girl from the Tower," "Jack and the Giants," and "The Mermaid."

"Snow," the poem on the Snow White and Seven Dwarves tale, is different from anything I've read. Sng introduces ideas such as social media into the story. That said, I felt the poem was a bit long, less poetic in some places, and unbelievable in others. Still, it was definitely a far cry from the prince charming theme known for these types of tales but still Snow White wasn't the strong woman, unlike Sng's version of The Red Riding Hood.  

An interesting take is Sng bringing the modern world into the fairy tales. Interesting but a bit jarring still. You can find this in "Snow" and "Rapunzel."

"Beauty Sleeps for a Century" is a good rewrite of the Cinderella story, however, there was a significant repetition of "but" throughout that, for me, disturbed the flow of the poem.

I also liked how Sng mixed some of the tales together as you'll see in "Cinderella," "Always a Beast" and "Living Well Is the Best Revenge."

I absolutely loved "When There Are Monsters." It’s a dark and powerful piece and easily relatable to the real world, where monsters aren't just confined to books or TV screens.

The poem "The Monsters Within" is one of the more gruesome pieces in A Collection of Dreamscapes. It sent shivers down my spine. Similarly, "Violation" is a dark, gruesome and heartbreaking piece.

"In the Tall Grass" is a full on sci-fi poem. And I've never read a poem like it before. It's interesting, exciting, and definitely different.

I absolutely loved "The Lady of the Lake," with Sng's take on it; dark but brilliant. I wish I can quote it whole.

"The Joy of Sewing" is a creepy and gruesome piece that reminded me of the movie The House of Wax.

One recurring problem for me with A Collection of Dreamscapes is that many of the pieces read as more prose than poetry. An example of this is seen in "The War of the Fall," which has a great story but is not very poetic. I also found the sequence of the poem to be a bit confusing.

I have no problem with free verse, I write in it mostly myself but when writing in free verse there is a fine line between just dividing your sentence and having poetic flow to the piece. At the end of the day, you want people to read your free verse pieces as poems not as a newspaper article.

Other recommended pieces in A Collection of Dreamscapes: "Margritte of Mer," "Concepts," "Lobotomy," "Annalise Wanders the Forest," "Noonwraiths," and "The Tooth Collector."

Overall rating for Christina Sng's A Collection of Dreamscapes: 4 stars

Originally I rated this collection 3 stars, but upon an inspection while writing the review, I think the book deserves 3.75 to 4 stars.

Note: I received an advanced reader's copy (ARC) of A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng from Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi. This review is part of National Poetry Month.