Leslie Keller Books

The Letter is not a cozy but does have a small element of mystery. There are some spoilers but I will try to keep them to a minimum. This is the first book I have read by this author. Unrelated to the book I have to voice a compliant regarding the advertising on Amazon for the title.  This book is displayed as, "The Letter - the No 1 Ebook Bestseller".  Whether it's a great marketing strategy or false advertising I cannot say but I don't want commentary in the title. We meet Tina Craig in the current day gardening with her grandchild.  The book uses the short introduction as an excuse to send the reader back to 1973 when Tina is married to Rick. She lives in fear of what might set him off - unfounded jealousy, losing his job, losing his money on bets that never pay off.  Domestic abuse, alcoholism and gambling addiction set the stage for her story. Any one of these problems might have been enough for the story but frequently they occur simultaneously in real li...

This book caught my eye because I was looking for a good mystery thriller and the title on Amazon displays as "The Guilty Wife: A thrilling psychological suspense with twists and turns that grip you to the very last page." Very clever marketing and the book itself was good.  It did have some twists but the end was predictable. I didn't like that it started with a prologue. It's a cheater's way of grabbing your attention by throwing out some juicy details. In this case, the few paragraphs of prologue put the reader in media res also known as the middle of the story. Facts that the protagonist would not have known at the beginning. Bethany is a photographer having an affair with a very wealthy client. Calum. She claims to love her husband, Jason but she also loves Calum.  She states, "I was in love with my husband. Always had been, really." I'm not a believer that you can be in love with two people - maybe in lust with one and in love with the othe...

This was, and was not, what I expected it to be. First, based on the title I should have known that anything called Buck Me Cowboy wouldn't be a sweet romance but also seeing the word "Romance" in the title I expected more romance, less bucking. A warning to anyone who isn't looking for erotica this book is very graphic. This review will contain some spoilers so stop here if you don't want to know the basic plot. We meet the main character, Maisie who is alone and trying to keep her family ranch from going into foreclosure. She has to tackle every chore on the ranch but the reader is never sure just what that means.  Most working ranches would have livestock (cows and horses) a means of feeding them such as making hay and would require a team of more than one. In this case she is running a 500 hundred acre ranch that used to be a corn farm. Having grown up with chickens, horses, and cows I can tell you that even on a small scale one person couldn't even bein...

I happened across this book on my Kindle and, since I had never read this author and it was a cozy, decided to give it a try.  I'm glad I did. The reader gets a feel for the main character, Maisie right from the start. She has moved to Florida and taken a job as a hotel manager in order to care for her mother. They live onsite in the hotel in an apartment of sorts.  I was confused trying to picture a hotel which has apartments with kitchens but I know they exist. Maisie has a nervous habit of always fidgeting and has very little confidence in her managerial abilities. In her spare time she's a mystery writer - so how could I not like the character?  Although this was book one I felt as if I had missed some of her backstory.  We know she's thirty-five but at times her mother seems older or younger depending on the scene. There were a few lines, such as this one when she describes her dog, which I loved. "I've always said he'd betray our whole family for ...

Nora Roberts is probably most known for her romance writing but this book skillfully combines suspense, a serial killer and romance in one breathtaking package. Naomi Bowes is a child when she encounters a serial killer in her own family. As I don't like to give away too much about any book, I won't say who it is or what happens but it was chilling. Like dominoes falling, the impact changes not only her life but everyone she comes in contact with.  The author intermingles the criminal aspect and weaves in the lusty romance scenes to keep you turning the pages. I haven't read any of her other work but based on this book I would definitely read more with the caveat that they weren't only romance. Do be aware that there are some sexy scenes in this book so it's not PG-13. I couldn't help but sigh and wonder where the men that can do this have been hiding when I got to this sentence, "He took more, kept them both swaying on that high wire between need and...

It's obvious by the book title that this is historical fiction. I read this based on the recommendation of my mother, who reads more than even I do. There have been few works of historical fiction that I've really loved and this was one of them. The way the author tells the story reminds of One Thousand White Women, which I think was a classic in historical women's fiction. This novel addresses the horror of slavery, the treatment of Native Americans, religion and women's equality. It would seem too much to squeeze into one novel but the author does it with a gentle hand. Mary is a puritan in 1672 in the Bay Colony. She's no stranger to hard times but they haven't hardened her heart to the perils of others. Despite the fact that her husband Joseph is a minister, she helps those who have been shamed in her religious society. This is our first indication that her beliefs are stronger than what is imposed upon her by the sect. When reprimanded by her husband fo...

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...

We meet Trudy when she's at her Aunt Gert's funeral and desperate to use the ladies room. Once in the stall, her two cousins slip in (late for the funeral) and their conversation is the impetus which changes Trudy's life forever.  Her happy marriage and family life are flushed, figuratively, right down the toilet. Later, when she inherits her aunt's home, it is the opportunity for her to change her life for the better. She leaves behind the marriage and the bratty grown daughter and starts on a project to renovate the old house. Fortunately, it turns out that her aunt was wealthy and paid the hunky neighbor to do some of the work.  It seems the plan was always to push Trudy into the right direction. This was a sweet story that kept my attention throughout. It was funny and made you root for Trudy to figure out what she really wanted and needed.  I never like to give away too much of the story in my reviews so I'll stop here before you figure it all out.  I wil...

This is book one of the Rose Garner Mystery series and is a cozy mystery. We meet Rose with a great opening line, "It all started when I saw myself dead."  That definitely makes you want to read the next line to find out if she knows who and how she is killed.  Luckily, Rose makes it through the first book in one piece. Rose works for the Division of Motor Vehicles and the author is adept at making us feel her 'pain'. She also has a sixth sense which makes her feel like the town oddball. Throw in her overbearing mother and a hunky neighbor and we have a fun mystery. In keeping with my vow to never give away too much of the book in my review I am not going to state more here but I definitely recommend this fun character to see where she winds up. Happy Trails, Leslie Visit my website

This book is a step out of my comfort zone as it includes some historical facts about the second World War. As a rule, I avoid novels about war because, to be honest, they are depressing. I usually believe there isn't anything about war which would interest me.  This book was an exception. A fact about this time from Wikipedia which I found amazing. The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was the forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who had lived on the Pacific coast. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. It's the story of Henry, a Chinese boy who grows up in Seattle during the Japanese internment. He befriends a Japanese girl who's family is taken away. We meet Henry as he gazes on the Panama Hotel in the current day. The book moves flawlessly between his past and his present. The novel is about bullying, ...

This book is not a cozy mystery. I would categorize it as women's fiction and it's the second book I've read by this author. I must admit, reading this one was an accident as I had forgotten the prior book, which I didn't like as much as this one. Alex Halstad is an interior designer whose business is on the verge of collapse. She's used the savings and maxed out credit cards, without letting her husband, Barry know how bad things are. When a teenage mom shows up on their doorstep, the daughter her husband never knew he had, their lives change. Alex didn't want children and prefers the company of her dog over her sister's children. When Barry's daughter, Jade enters their lives with her young daughter in tow, Alex's perfectly designed house and potential clients become the subject of the new granddaughter's curious mind.  When the ex-wife comes along to try to reconnect with Jade, things become even more complicated. This was an enjoyable r...

This is a cozy mystery and is the first book in a series. Rosemary Field and her two sisters (Thyme and Sage) have all had to give up their happy lives and work at whatever jobs they can to save their parent's resort. It seems their hippy parents have abandoned them with a sizable amount of debt and the girls are determined to pay it off and save the family home. We meet Rosemary as she is preparing meals for a celebrity. The celebrity dies that night of an allergic reaction and Rosemary is accused of the deed.  Now, she must solve the crime in order to clear her name. First, I will say that I enjoyed the book. It was an entertaining read but (and I have include the 'but'), the editing was poorly done. Throughout the book, I felt compelled to highlight the errors which is distracting. The other part of the story which bothered me was the fact that Rosemary had no real qualifications to land the job as a celebrity chef. I need my characters to get to where they are g...

I downloaded this book because it was a cozy mystery by an author I had never read and because it had more than 350 reviews on Amazon with 50% being five stars.  I rarely will not finish a book that I have paid for and started. This book was an exception.  I really did not like it at all . I forced myself to read about one-third but after that I gave up. I had to check several times to see if I had missed the first book in the series - I had not. I tried to take into account that the main character lived outside of London and as such would have some cultural differences. I've been to London a few times and I love the people. In fact, my best friend is British but that wasn't my problem with this book. The characters were not believable. The protagonist, Harley Hill's claim to fame is that she's a criminal, chased by her bookie for money owed. She gets a job working as a finder to help figure out why someone broke into a jewelry store and left only a Chinese object r...

The Washington Post has compiled a list of great mysteries or thrillers from 2015. In case you haven't already read all of these, I'm including five here for you to add to your 2016 reading list. Listed below each book is the back cover description. A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George Inspector Lynley Book 19 The unspoken secrets and buried lies of one family rise to the surface in Elizabeth George’s newest novel of crime, passion, and tragic history. As Inspector Thomas Lynley investigates the London angle of an ever more darkly disturbing case, his partner, Barbara Havers, is looking behind the peaceful façade of country life to discover a twisted world of desire and deceit.   The suicide of William Goldacre is devastating to those left behind who will have to deal with its unintended consequences—could there be a link between the young man’s leap from a Dorset cliff and a horrific poisoning in Cambridge?   After various issues with her department, Barba...

When you decide which movie to go to do you read the reviews first or watch the trailer? If you want to try out a new restaurant do you immediately scroll through Yelp to see what other diners thought? Would you read a new author who had only a few reviews posted?   If everyone else likes something does that guarantee you will too?  I ask these questions because I am wondering how much other people's opinions matter. I am guilty of this to a degree. I always read the reviews first to see if I think I will like something before I invest my money or my time. However, I loved the remake of the Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp, even though it was panned by critics. I have hated some written work that others have loved, and vice versa. Think about something - an activity, a film, a restaurant, or a book - that you loved despite how others felt about it. Was it freeing or scary to spit into the wind of what was not popular or trending? I like to imagine that my opinions...

I selected this book, which is not a cozy mystery, nor even a mystery because it came up in my Kindle suggestions.  The book is mostly set during the second World War and is based on two characters: Marie-Laure a young blind girl and Werner a young soldier in Hitler's army. It flits back and forth through different characters and different years. Normally, I find that distracting but in this book the author handled the time change with finesse. Werner, a child leaving in a foster home with his sister, develops his talent for repairing electronics, which leads to an opportunity to attend a special school for boys. As he ages, he is forced into military service and eventually his troop finds their way to Paris. Marie-Laure's father teaches her to navigate the world on her own, despite her blindness. It is these skills which ultimately lead to her survival during the occupation and invasion by the Allies trying to push the Germans out of Paris. I'm not a fan of war sto...

The description of this book originally didn't interest me but my sister told me to read it, so I did. I'm glad I did, because once I started I couldn't put it down.  Written in first person as the three women characters - Megan, Anna and the main character Rachel. As with all of my reviews, I try not to give away too much of the story. I will say that Rachel was hard to like at the beginning of the book. In fact, she was hard to like most of the way through the book. Author Hawkins, adeptly maneuvers the reader until you are completely committed to a direction and then in the last part of the book, she throws you off course. I love a work of fiction which might be considered as women's literature but also includes mystery and maybe even a murder. When an author surprises me with a fantastic twist, I can't wait to read her next work. I would definitely recommend this book. Happy trails, Leslie