The Tail Waggin' Winterfest is the highlight of the season in Slyvan Creek - a small town in the Pocono Mountains famous for being pet-friendly. There's an ice sculpture display, a dogsled race, and an annoying TV producer filming the festivities. Not only is Lauren Savidge annoying, she's controlling and overbearing. Daphne Templeton wants to tell Lauren to jump in a lake. And that's what they're both going to do in the town's first-ever polar bear plunge in Lake Wallapawakee along with eighty or so others who are braving the frigid water to raise money for animals in need. But Lauren is dragged out of the water by a mysterious St. Bernard. Now Daphne and her trusty sidekick, Socrates the basset hound, are going to help Detective Johnathan Black in the murder investigation whether he wants them to or not. This is the third book in the Lucky Paws Petsitting series but it's the first one I've read. I had no problem following along. I felt as though I was ...

Literary agent Peter Katz is intrigued by a partial book submission he has just received. The submission, entitled The Book of Mirrors, tells the story of the author's time as an English student at Princeton during the late 1980's. The author, Richard Flynn, documents his relationship with the protégée of the famous Professor Joseph Wieder. But just before Christmas, Weider was murdered in his home and the case was never solved. Twenty-five years have passed since then and Peter Katz suspects that Richard Flynn is either going to confess to the murder or reveal who it was that did it. But the manuscript ends abruptly and Richard Flynn is in the hospital, dying, and the remaining pages are nowhere to be found. I'm giving this a generous three stars. I liked so many things - a book within a book, memories, the stories we choose to tell others and the ones we keep hidden, the unsolved murder of a popular professor. But all of these things didn't come together as well as I ...

This is the third novel by B.A. Paris. She's one of those authors that I don't even have to read the blurb because I already know it's going to be good no matter what. The first two were really good, but this one is really, really good! My advice is to start this book when you have a few hours to spare because you won't want to put it down! A young British couple are on their way back home after a vacation. Finn leaves the car for a few minutes and when he returns Layla is gone, never to be seen again. That was over a decade ago now. Finn is happy, he's getting married. But then his relationship starts to go awry because of a little Russian Nesting Doll. This book started off good. I was taking my time getting to know Finn before, during and after his relationship with Layla. But there was one part early on that made me think "oh my God" and I couldn't stand not knowing what happened to her. It's like B.A Paris is a race car driver and she threw me...

It's autumn term at the exclusive St. Aidan the Great boarding school, also known as S.T.A.G.S to the privileged pupils, and Greer MacDonald is struggling to fit in. Making even one friend is looking bleak until she receives a mysterious invitation with three words embossed on it - huntin' shootin' fishin'. And it's from Henry de Warlencourt. Henry is the most popular and wealthy boy at S.T.A.G.S and he's inviting her to spend half term weekend at his country manor. She's surprised and flattered. But when she arrives at the ancient and sprawling Longcross Hall, she realizes that the only adults around are the servants and the three bloodsports - hunting, shooting, fishing - aren't only about the wild animals. Greer and the other two misfits Henry has invited along are being hunted. To look at the actual cover, it's gorgeous. Crisp and elegant. When I read the blurb I thought people were being hunted and that was it. People being hunted I'm okay w...

In war-torn London, 1941, fourteen-year-old Ruth Goldberg and her two younger siblings, Gabi and Hannah, survive the bombing of their family home but their parents are believed to be dead, buried under the rubble. They don't know that their father has been taken to the hospital with amnesia. Years later, Ruth stumbles across a newspaper photo of a celebrated pianist who looks exactly like her father. The only way to find out for sure is to write him a letter, and as the pianist's memories surface, his new life begins to fall apart. I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I did like the early days - with the Goldberg's as a whole, and as poor Ruth had to stay with aunt Fenella and uncle Harry while her younger siblings went to stay with aunt Betty. The characters were okay. The concept was interesting. I liked the setting. But I found it long and drawn-out. Once I put the book down I didn't really want to pick it back up. I'm happy it's...

On the outside it appears as though Corinne has a perfect life, but after three failed IVF attempts she has one more chance at having a baby. When she finds a little part of a doll house at her door she feels as though it's a good sign. But as more pieces show up she realizes these aren't good signs at all. These are pieces to her childhood doll house. Someone has been inside her home. But why? Corinne's sister, Ashley, has three children. Her baby girl won't sleep through the night and her  teenage daughter doesn't seem to like her much these days. An exhausted Ashley is becoming more and more frustrated with her husband as he spends more and more time at the office. When phone calls from an unknown number start up, she thinks that maybe her husband is having an affair. What else could phone calls like that mean, right?  I tried picking this book up a few times, but wow - boring. I was bored until about 25% at which point I was disgusted. I don't enjoy reading ...

Noah Marshall had been living a comfortable and privileged life thanks to his mother, the highly decorated chief of the Austin Police Department. But he becomes worried and frustrated as her drinking increases. He comes home one night and she lets out bits and pieces of secrets she's been carrying around for years. She can't handle the guilt of destroying an innocent family's life. Noah's left with his grief and a note to find Grace Wilkes. Grace is living in a run-down trailer park in Arizona where no one cares that her father was a corrupt cop in Austin, murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. She's struggling to get through each day, not knowing if she'll find her drug-addicted mother dead when she gets home from work. It takes some time after she finds Noah on her doorstep to trust him. Despite their differences they are searching for the answers to the same questions. Together they set out to uncover what dark secrets the Austin Police Department ...

Jakób Kowalski is planting a bomb on the train tracks shortly before the train passes by, his only problem is that it was the wrong train. Fighting with the Polish resistance against Germany and Russia, their intent was to destroy a German troop transport, not destroy a train going to Auschwitz. On that train was six-year-old Gretl Schmidt. Although she is spared from the concentration camp, she is now an orphaned German Jew who finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. Jakób's guilt and compassion allow Gretl to stay with him for three years and the pair form a strong bond. But Jakób believes Gretl will have better opportunities in South Africa where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant families - so long as her Jewish roots, Catholic education and connections to communist Poland are never discovered. Poor Gretl. She had been through a lot but she was determined and headstrong and I couldn't help but root for her to have some hap...

Duneen is a remote village in Ireland where little happens. Until human remains are discovered on an old farm. The remains are believed to be Tommy Burke's who was last seen twenty-five years earlier, getting on a bus to Cork. As Sergeant P.J. Collins struggles to solve a big case for the first time in his career he uncovers anger, resentment, secrets, and regret from some of the community's residents.  I really like the cover. Unfortunately, there's not much else I like about this book. I found the characters lacking depth. They're unlikable and forgettable. And they blame the disappearance of Tommy Burke twenty-five years ago for their unhappiness to this day? Ugh. There were three Ross sisters and I couldn't keep straight who was who. There were too many characters and side stories. It was like a bad romantic comedy. I wanted to know what happened to Tommy Burke, but this was very boring to get through. I dreaded picking it back up and had to start skimming the...