REVIEW: Lending a Paw

 Lending a Paw
Author: Laurie Cass

I have read the entire Bookmobile Cat series, and it's one of my favorites! So, I decided to backtrack and listen to the series from the beginning on audio. :) Just because. 

Lending a Paw is the first book in the series. 

The basics: Minerva Hamilton, known as Minnie, is a librarian in Chilson, Michigan. She lives on a houseboat with her rescue cat, Eddie. Minnie is excited about driving the library's new Bookmobile, but on the first day, she finds the body of a local businessman and philanthropist behind a rural farmhouse. In fact, the dead man gave the library the funds to purchase the Bookmobile. Minnie Eddie are on the case! Who killed the library's main benefactor? And, will they decide to take out Minnie too because she's asking questions?

I enjoyed re-visiting this book! I enjoy Minnie as a main character. Eddie is a love. And the side characters are all entertaining and add so much flavor to the story. Erin Bennett narrates the audio book and does a great job. From the various voices for the characters and Eddie's signature Mrrrr, I enjoyed her performance from start to finish. 

So glad to be revisiting this series from the beginning! Love it! 

REVIEW: A Troubling Tail

 A Troubling Tail
Author: Laurie Cass

I've been reading this series since 2017 when I happened to see book 1 at my local library. Cute cat. Bookmobile. Colorful cover. Yep -- had to read it. So glad I did! It has become one of my favorite cozy mystery series over the years!! There are only a few series that get my Favorite Stamp of Approval. Book series that send me to my computer to pre-order new books the minute I can....wait for my copy (or request an early review copy while still ordering a physical copy)....and then disappear into my room to binge read. The Bookmobile Cat Mystery series is on that list!! 

When this book showed up as available to review, I knew I couldn't wait until August to get my Minnie and Eddie fix. I requested my review copy, and scheduled a binge read day. Nothing like taking a day for myself, reading a book I enjoy, sipping on my favorite tea.....and just having a totally turned-down, self-care day. 

A Troubling Tail is the 11th book in this series. This time, Minnie ends up doing some amateur sleuthing (with her sidekick Eddie of course) when a local businessman is murdered and the local police have no leads. This new book is very entertaining! There is plenty of investigation and Eddie helping, a good number of suspects and little twists, and the plot moves at a nice pace. I can't wait to listen to the audio book! I always read the story to review by publication date, and then listen to the audio once the book is published. 

In honor of my long-term enjoyment of this series, (and while I'm waiting for the audio of this newest book to come out) I'm re-listening to the audio books starting with book 1. I wanted to refresh my memory and see how the characters have developed since the start of the series. I am having so much fun listening to the days where Minnie had to hide the fact Eddie was on the bookmobile! :)

I'm definitely eagerly awaiting the next book in this series!! After six years of reading, I still love every time Eddie says Mrrrr! 

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Berkley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. Mrrrr!**

REVIEW: The Ghost and Mrs. McClure

 The Ghost and Mrs. McClure|
Author: Cleo Coyle

I read the first five books in the Haunted Bookshop series more than 10 years ago and fell in love with the characters. I was SO happy in 2018 when the author started adding new books again! Then the audio books popped up on Audible+, so I decided to revisit the series from the start! I have the whole series in paperback on my keeper shelf, and now I can enjoy having them read to me! Woot! 

The basics: Penelope McClure is recently widowed. She decides to start a new life, moving to Rhode Island to help her aunt run her bookshop. Just when things start looking up, a best-selling author drops dead in the middle of a book signing and Penelope discovers the bookshop is haunted by the ghost of a long-dead detective, Jack Shepard. 

I love this series! I love ghost stories and cozy mysteries -- and this is a fun blend of both. The humor and a big dose of old time detective-speak make these stories entertaining. Penelope and Jack make a great crime fighting duo!

Narrated by Caroline Shaffer and Traber Burns, the audio book is just over 7 hours long. Shaffer and Burns do a great job of voice acting! Very entertaining listen!

So happy this series is included in Audible+. I'm going to listen to the entire series! 

 

[7/22/2023 - I just listened to this audio book again because I'm listening to the series from start to finish. I tried to do this a few years ago and life interrupted. So started over at the beginning again! I just love the characters, esp Jack, of course.]

REVIEW: Super Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs

 Super Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs
Author: Q.L. Pearce

I love reading middle grade spooky story collections. Reminds me of the days when I was in school and made a book order every fall filled with all sorts of Spooky Season reads! It seemed to take forever for the order to arrive! And, when it did I raced home and got right to reading all the awesome spooktastic stories!

Now several decades later I still get really excited when I find these out of print books at the used bookstore, thrift shop, garage sales or online. Some I recognize as ones I used to have back in the day! And I find similar books on the shelf at my local library as well! Always entertaining and fun to read. Scary but yet mostly tame. No spurting blood or adult themes to make me lay awake thinking about the gruesome stuff I just read. Just enjoyable spooky fun stories. :) 

This book fits in that category perfectly. 11 spooky stories that are age appropriate for middle grade readers. The stories are relatively short. Perfect read-aloud length or for bedtime stories, sleep-overs, camping out, etc. 

The stories are varied with everything from mummies and lake monsters to a creepy cave or a scary circus. There's something for everyone! :) The illustrations are black and white and very well done. 

All in all, an entertaining collection of stories! There are several of these books in a series. I'm definitely going to read the rest!

REVIEW: The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales

The Haunted House & Other Spooky Poems and Tales
Editor: Vic Crume & Gladys Schwarcz

Back in the day, I owned a copy of this book and absolutely loved reading the poems and short little spooky stories over and over again. It was passed down to me by my older sister and I'm sure was passed on to my nephews after I was done with it. A very well-read and much enjoyed book! 

This book is long out of print, but used copies are available online. It contains 39 tales, poems, gravestone epitaphs, and even songs all on a spooky theme. Age appropriate for middle grade readers. 

I felt very nostalgic as I read back through every story in this collection. It's been decades since I last read this book, but I read it so many times that I remembered most of the stories and poems after reading a few lines. I remember sitting in my room on my bed and reading these stories -- the spooky quarry, the velvet ribbon, a ghostly cradle...so many neat and varied stories! And I remembered the illustrations. Loved them as a kid! Still do as an adult!

The illustrations in this book are awesome, but the used copy I found online did not have a title page or show any credit given to the artist. I researched a bit to try and discover who illustrated and found out that Gerry Contreras provided the drawings. Awesome work! His name should have been on the front cover with the editors, in my opinion, as his drawings really made the book!! 

Loved reading this again! I wish I still had my old copy! I tried to choose one story/poem as my favorite and I just couldn't do it. I will just have to say that I enjoy them all! And, I'm glad I found this book online so I could enjoy reading it again! As I was posting my review to Goodreads, I saw another reader's review that talked about a vinyl record that was released with this book. I had no idea!! I found the recording on Youtube:   https://youtu.be/mqH4xFBtLZY    yay!!!

 

REVIEW: Campfire Tales: The Most Terrifying Stories Ever Told

 Campfire Tales: The Most Terrifying Stories Ever Told
Author: Sean Dresden

I love reading middle grade books, especially ghost or horror stories. Starting my Halloween season reading early this year! Just 'cause! 

Campfire Tales Volume 1 gathers 5 stories by author Sean Dresden. This is the first book by this author that I have read. 

Crawl Space: Milton has an overactive imagination that sometimes gets him into trouble. And, when things get all too real, nobody wants to believe him. Great story!

Room #6: There's not much that is worse than 3 siblings on a cross country trip with the flu. Add in a creepy, out of the way motel and it's going to be a trip they will never forget. Enjoyed this one! 

www.shadowhill.com:Michelle finds herself living in a new house and her parents are acting odd. Strange thing is she can't remember how she got there.....    Who else tries URLs from books/stories? Shadowhill is a clothing company. lol  Great story! 

Past Lives: Nathan's caving trip with his Dad turns into quite a supernatural adventure. Great story! 

Blake's Gold: Treasure hunting can be a dangerous business! Quite the adventure story!

I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection. The tales are short - perfect for reading aloud, for reluctant readers, or for short classroom reading assignments/writing prompts. The stories are varied and only slightly creepy/scary. Definitely age appropriate for middle grade students. 

This book is unfortunately out of print, and I wasn't really able to find much information on the author. Used copies are available online, but the ones I saw were going for a premium price. I found a copy online elsewhere so I could read and review. There is a volume 2 of Campfire Stories by this author, and I found one other book: Killer Tales of the Great White.  I'm definitely going to see if I can find copies of both books to read and review. 

If anybody is familiar with this author, I'd love to hear from him to find out if he's still writing, other projects he published or is working on, etc.

REVIEW: Bruce Coville's Book of Ghosts II

Bruce Coville's Book of Ghosts II:
More Tales to Haunt You
Author(s): Bruce Coville and others

I'm a complete fan of old Scholastic paperbacks...the sort we all ordered from school book order forms and websites back in the day. I love it when I find them in thriftshops, used bookstores, garage sales, and online. I grab them up, read them, then donate them back so others can enjoy! And, a few favorites are proudly displayed on my keeper shelf. 

My very favorite sort of OOP middle grade books are mystery and ghost stories. Fiction or non-fiction...doesn't matter. Love the spooky stuff! July is close enough to Halloween and spooky season to let a few ghostly books start trickling into my reading. Why not!! Read what you like -- right? I'm figuring all year is spooky season for me because I love scary/weird/creepy stories! 

The book I'm reviewing is unfortunately out of print, as many of these lovely Scholastic gems from the past are. The author has a website where you can order some of his books, but this one is on the out of print section of the site. [I used to include a link to author's sites in my reviews, but I had a post get taken down because someone reported an author's website as a spam/dangerous site and I had to remove the link for my post to be put back......so just search for Bruce Coville. It will pull up a link to his site.] I have two copies of other out of print story collections from this author and editor, but found a copy of this one online. Used paperback copies are available online. Just be sure you find a listing with a fair price. Out of Print should not mean ridiculously expensive! 

Now.....on to the book!

I love the front cover! The ghostly face on his toasted marshmallow is just wonderful! The poor kid heard one too many scary tales around the campfire, that's for sure! I love the brightly colored covers on Coville's story collections. Very eye catching. I could see the cover grabbing the attention of reluctant readers who love ghost stories -- a great way to get a book in the hands of a kid who just doesn't really enjoy reading. Or ones who do! Short stories like this make great writing prompts. Story collections are awesome to get kids writing book reviews or making their own illustrations for their favorite story as an art project. These tales are short enough to be wonderful to use for reading aloud, or for bedtime reading. The tales are a bit scary but not so scary to keep middle grade kids awake. 

In this collection, Coville gathers 11 ghostly tales from various authors. I enjoyed all of them! 

The book starts out with Part 3 of an ongoing story with parts included in other Bruce Coville books, The Monsters of Morley Manor. It's a fun story about a wooden box filled with miniature monsters that turn out to be actual monsters, rather than toys. Each piece of the story ends on a cliff-hanger and has the title of the book that contains the next piece. Nice reader hook! And, the story is entertaining! Unfortunately with most of the books now out of print, finding a used copy or an online copy is required to read the entire story. 

Now for the stories! This collection is varied with creepy tales about all sorts of different things! All of the authors but one were new to me, so I looked each one up to see what I could find out about them and their writing. 

The stories: 

Leaves by Mary K. Whittington. Old Mrs. Foss was scary and horrible in real life. She's even worse when she's dead! Great story!

I didn't find very much information about this author in my research online. She published 3 children's books: The Patchwork Lady, Winter's Child, and Carmina, Come Dance! All of the books appear to be out of print and I found no biographical information on her. 

George Pinkerton and the Bedtime Ghost by Lawrence Watt-Evans and Julie Evans. Mr. Pinkerton is a librarian....and a monster hunter. A family just bought a house and finds out it's haunted. George is brought in to solve the problem. 

 Lawrence Watt-Evans is a prolific writer who pens mainly fantasy novels, but also dabbles in sci-fi, comic books, horror, etc. He wrote this story with his wife, Julie. His website states that George Pinkerton developed as a character through stories they made up to tell their kids at bedtime. He wrote several George Pinkerton tales (and told even more to his kids but never wrote them down) and this is one that sold. Two more George Pinkerton tales are in other Bruce Coville story collections.

A Cry in the Night by Nancy Varien Berbereck and Greg LaBarbera. Peter just moved into a big old house with his parents. The house is ok, but at night the wind sounds just like someone calling for help. A very creepy-cool story!

 Nancy Varien Berbereck is a fantasy writer who has written several Dragonlance books. I tried to find information on Greg LaBarbera, but found no information other than finding him listed as co-author with Nancy on stories included in other Bruce Coville story collections. 

Haunted by a Pig by Mel Gilden. Howard's room is haunted by a pig. And only his eccentric Uncle Max can help get rid of it. What a bizarre but fun story!!

Mel Gilden has written more than 40 books for adults and children. He has also worked as attraction consultant for Universal and Disney, and has written adaptations and television scripts.  

Call Me Ghost by Lael Littke: A teenage ghost has haunted a house for 200 years. Can a living teenage girl help him move on? Great ghost story!

 Lael Littke is the author of many YA novels and short stories, including several books in the Point Horror series. 

After You've Gone by Michael Markiewicz. A boy overcomes stage fright with a bit of ghostly help. Awesome story! This one is my favorite from the collection.

I really wasn't able to turn up any additional information about this writer other than he had seven short stories published in collections edited by Bruce Coville from 1993-2000. I did not find any additional works published by this writer. There is a non-fiction author by the same name, but I found no indication that they are the same person.  

The Tenant Who Frightened a Ghost by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. Harriet Leighman sure can make up a great story! A very short tale, but quite cute and clever! Enjoyed it!

 Jessica Amanda Salmonson writes mainly fantasy and horror fiction, but has also penned non-fiction, short stories, poetry and has edited several story collections. She won a World Fantasy Award for her 1979 story collection Amazons!.  

Soul Survivor by Neal Shusterman. A bored spirit gets into some real trouble. A totally creepy and awesome story! 

Neal Shusterman is the author of the Scythe series and has won several awards for his writing. He writes mostly YA fiction, but has also written several murder mystery games, short stories, and screenplays. 

Shark! by John Gregory Betancourt.Never bully a fossil. Not a wise choice. Awesome, creepy little tale! Loved it!

 John Gregory Betancourt writes Sci-fi, fantasy and mystery novels, including four Star Trek novels. He has also written short stories and edited Amazing Stories, Weird Tales and H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror.

Biscuits of Glory by Bruce Coville. Benjie helps a ghost who is cursed to make biscuits every week forever. Cute story! 

Bruce Coville has written many novels for YA readers and edited many story collections for YA.

All in all, this was a very entertaining collection of slightly scary stories for kids. I enjoyed reading each one!

REVIEW: Witchy Wednesday

 Witchy Wednesday
Author: Denise Jaden

When her eccentric aunt dies, Tabitha Chase travels to Crystal Cove to sell her late aunt's houseboat. One dead body, a psychic cat and two cute detectives later, she finds her life totally changing in ways she never expected.

I love reading cozy mysteries because they give me a chance to relax and just enjoy a story. No adult themes, nothing disturbing, fun background themes, cute pets and a dash of humor amidst amateur sleuthing. The experience is even better when I discover a new-to-me author and series that I enjoy. I hit the jackpot with Denise Jaden's Tabitha Chase's Day of the Week mysteries. Cool cat, fun main character, light witchy theme, humor and some interesting sleuthing. Fun read! 

I like Tabitha Chase as a main character. In this first book, I definitely see that there is plenty of room for character development and the author wasted no time in getting Tabby on the path to changing her life. The side characters in Crystal Cove are interesting and fit into the plot perfectly. I adore Sherlock the cat. And the two detectives added to the investigation portion of the story nicely, although I do not really like love triangle situations. One well-known cozy series I've been reading for years has done that plot mechanic to death and I'm just over it. But I get the feeling that the two detectives will figure things out and one will find another love interest and one will gravitate to Tabby. I hope. 

A great start to a cozy series! I'm definitely going to continue reading this series!

REVIEW: Behold the Monster

 Behold the Monster
Author: Jillian Lauren

I have to admit that I found this book disturbing and hard to read. Mostly because I could not imagine sitting across the table from someone who killed at least 93 women, maybe more. It just chilled me to the bone.....but I couldn't stop reading. 

Jillian Lauren skillfully paints a picture of the time she spent as the "best friend" of serial killer Samuel Little. Their relationship started with a letter and blossomed into recorded phone calls, prison visits, a docuseries, and a strange almost-friendship. Lauren wanted to know how many women he killed and to give those women a voice. And Samuel wanted to talk. And....talk, he did. 

Yikes. Kudos to Jillian Lauren for bringing many of these women's deaths to light from out of cold case files. And for her dedication to research and interviews with Samuel before his death from Covid in 2020. She tells a graphic and disturbing tale....but tells it well. 

This book is disturbingly real and frightening, but I read every last word. The story is also told in the television series "Confronting a Serial Killer." I haven't watched it yet, but since I read the book I will definitely watch the series. 

I'm up for whatever Jillian Lauren chooses to investigate and write about next! 

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Sourcebooks. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**