Ballooning over the desert

-

Hot air balloons floating in the warm breezes over the Phoenix desert.  Definitely a fun activity especially when you land to a Champagne breakfast.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review - The Valley (The Valley Trilogy #1) by Helen Bryan

-
Image
This book moves away from my regular cozy mystery into historical women's fiction. It's the first book I've read by this author. The Valley is the first book in a trilogy set in colonial times Virginia. The setting grabbed my attention since that is the state I grew up in and love dearly. This review does have some spoilers and the book has a large cast so take notes. Sophia Grafton is a wealthy and spoiled child with homes in London and the countryside. She is raised by her adoring father who lavishes everything on her and allows her to run wild. As she reaches the marriageable age of sixteen it becomes apparent she needs a firmer hand. After no prospect is agreed upon by Sophia and her father, he moves her to their country home while he recovers from illness, in the hope that a local lad will catch her eye. Despite a marriage proposal Sophia remains single until her father's death. She soon finds she is penniless with no option but to travel to the new world and...
Read more

Book Review - Catch Me: A Detective D.D. Warren Novel by Lisa Gardner

-
First let me say that normally I would not consider Lisa Gardner to be a cozy mystery writer.  There is no element of humor in this book, however, there is also no graphic violence.  I've read other books by this author and had forgotten how much I love her writing. The book starts with a prologue. In the rules of writing which every aspiring author learns, prologues are the death of a book. I've heard more times than I care to remember to never start a book with a prologue.  In my opinion this book's prologue was really basically chapter one but the author used the term in order to give a flashback scene. The chapter was exceptional and really grabbed my interest so ultimately who cares what you call it. The book is centered around two characters - Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant and detective D.D. Warren.  Told in first person in some chapters as Charlie and in third person when the chapter is devoted to D.D.  The two meet when Charlie seeks D.D.'s help ...
Read more

Book Review - Hazardous Duty: Squeaky Clean Mysteries, Book 1: An Amateur sleuth by Christy Barritt

-
Image
This was a cute cozy mystery with likable characters. The story centers around Gabby, who owns a business cleaning up crime scenes. She really wants to finish her college degree and become a forensic scientist but obligations to her father and to rent prevent her from doing that. Gabby becomes embroiled in a crime when she discovers a gun left at a crime scene and then is almost killed when the house is set on fire. Her employee is accused of the crime but fortunately for Gabby she gets some help solving the mystery from her friends and possible love interests I enjoyed this book, which was the first in the series. My only hesitation is that I felt the author included a bit too much religion in the story for my personal taste. I don't like to mix murder with religion and felt that the theme took away from the story line. Christy has written a number of books, which all have received good reviews on Amazon. I would probably try another of her books to see if I enjoyed it more ...
Read more