Aired February 23, 2021
Bree: There’s Max! Oh, my gosh, that little cute dog.
Angela: Yes, the little fur baby. So, we have Pusheen who’s the official mascot. But I feel like (holding Max) he’s the unofficial mascot mascot.
Bree: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Angela: I hope this will go through. Yes! Awesome. Every single time there’s always that like, “Is this technology going to work for us, please?” Oh, my goodness, (reading comments) well, everyone’s coming in. I just want to welcome my guest host, Bree. You guys don’t know, she is totally amazing. She is Falling4Romance, and it’s four, like the number, not spelling it out on Instagram. She has her own blog. I mean, you have just exploded in Romancelandia. This woman is incredible and, so, if you’re not already Following her, please do. She is so sweet and so uplifting, and if you go see her Instagram post, the aesthetic is just mind-blowing. She’s so talented, so sweet, all the books, so shoutout to my host tonight. I just want to give her like all the love and shoutouts.
Bree: Thank you. Thank you so much. You know I’m such a fan of everything that you do. And, like, I basically started reading cozy mysteries because of you, courtagonist and Nicole.
Angela: It was so funny, I remember I saw, again, it was on your Instagram. I forget if it was your stories or actual photo, but it was the Julia Buckley book, and I remember we had talked about it like forever ago. It was one of like the first books when the Club first started, and I saw you mention, and I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, it stuck.”
Bree: Oh, the Writer Apprentice Series.
Angela: (nodding) Yep.
Bree: It’s so good! (waves) Hi, everybody.
Angela: I was like, while everyone’s joining, I’m also holding a treat that is like destroyed; the little fur baby’s right here. So, hopefully, he’ll be quiet for us when we discuss our book of the month Crime & Punctuation. And I swear my phone with autocorrect does not like the title every single time. It’s like, “Crime and Punishment?”
Bree: And the fact that it has (holds up book and points to the ampersand in title) like this symbol.
Angela: So, I had the best time designing our images for this month, for the thumbnail, and then I kind of took the thumbnail and I was like, “Okay for Twitter, I’m going to make this,” because you’re, she has this shirt, and it’s adorable. It’s a romance shirt, and you have a couple of kind of similar ones with different colors, they match the book cover; it was amazing. I was having the best time designing the images. I was like, “Oh, I can just put her right there and then I can use this image.” It was so cute.
Bree: I’m always so jealous of like everybody that’s so good with like making like images and stuff. I’m like, “How do you do it?” I have no idea what I’m doing.
Angela: I don’t even know. (reads comments) We have so many people already joining us. Hi, everybody! This is so cool. I love how there’s always that little delay with technology. I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, all the people!” Yes, I see Ellen Byron. She is offering, so, I’m going to be announcing the Twitter giveaway winner. She is giving away three books this month, as the dog’s growling, and it’s like three books, great. So, I love the, I was going to say I don’t want to mess up the pun. So, her latest is Long Island Iced Tina, which is one of the cutest puns ever. So, already, there’s been one winner over on Instagram, and then the Twitter one is going to be announced probably tomorrow morning, because today I’ve been kind of preparing for the livestream. And then, after tonight, one of the comments, every single comment counts as a giveaway entry, I’m going to gather all the entries and randomly selected winner, and a third person’s going to win a copy of her latest book, which came out today. So, Happy Book Birthday!
Bree: Happy Book Birthday! Oh, that’s so exciting. (holds up tonight’s book) How did you pick this one? How did you pick Crime & Punctuation?
Angela: So, I was so excited that this book won, because it had been on the radar for the longest time. And, so, what ended up happening is, we had four books that had come in second or tied for first. And, so, we’ve had, so far, this is the second book of the four. So, we also have our books planned for March, which is Murder in G Major (by Alexia Gordon) and then April, which is Color Me Murder (by Krista Davis). And, so, after that, we’re going to have to start doing polls again, having people submit their recommendations, and that was actually one of my notes tonight for people to start thinking about what they might want to recommend. But yeah, this is one of those books that had been kind of on the periphery. And, so, when we did this, it was supposed to be the second-chance poll; when we did the vote off, the second, they were like single percentages of each other. So, clearly, the Book Club members really wanted to read all four of the books. So, that’s exactly what we’re doing.
Bree: That’s awesome.
Angela: I am so excited to have that be the case, and that everyone was on board with that, because I also think it’s been kind of really nice to have the books in advance in a way, this way, people could kind of prepare, figure out their reading schedule, you know, figure out if their library had it. I mean, there’s always behind the scenes stuff that I do, making sure books are available, you know, different platforms, there are different variations, because if someone can’t physically read, they can still do audio and listen to it, so I just try and do the back-end stuff beforehand. So, it was very easy to get that all done pre-emptively before it became time for the book to be the book of the month. So, I’m hoping we can maybe do something like choose the next two books out, maybe, so we can do a couple of months at a time.
Bree: I love just the fact that you’re like selecting books that were options and didn’t get picked, you know, because sometimes you’ll see like they didn’t get picked and like they never show up again, and it’s like, “But what if this is a new favorite book?” Like, “Let’s give it a chance.”
Angela: I mean, I was really rooting for Murder in G Major. I can’t even begin to tell you how many different Book Club members had recommended it for different polls. I, myself, I try and remain neutral, and like, “Whatever Book Club members want, they will get.” And, so, inside, I’m like, “Oh! It’s so close to winning.” So, I’m excited for next month too. This one had been on the TBR for the longest time. I saw the author at Malice Domestic, was it two years ago? And she (Kaitlyn Dunnett) was on the panel talking about grammar, and I just remember thinking, “Oh, this lady knows what she’s talking about,” and because she’s so into grammar, I wanted to read the book. I mean, I’m excited to hear what everyone thinks of it, because I think that there’s a lot to unpack with this book. So, what did you think? Did you enjoy Crime & Punctuation?
Bree: I did. I really did. I mean, I feel like I very rarely don’t like a cozy mystery. I don’t think I’ve read any that, like, I just was like, “Oh, this was bad.” My favorite thing was that I just, I really loved Mikki. I loved that she’s sixty-eight.
Angela: (nods) Yep.
Bree: And, like, it was so like we get reminded that she’s older; just like she talks about taking her hearing aid out or needing to put it in, and when her husband passes away, like needing to want to move so she can take it easy, you know, like this next phase of life. But it just felt so natural, like, it wasn’t overdone. But we are reminded that she’s older, but like it wasn’t overdone, and I loved that. I loved it.
Angela: (Max appears) The dog, he’s going behind my chair. I don’t know if you can see the little tail that just happened. So, hopefully, he finishes his treat, so, hopefully, he’ll still be quiet for us and won’t be barking. I agree with you, wholeheartedly. So, I’ve become a huge fan of the Agatha Raisin TV series, and the show differs from the books where in the TV show, she’s probably in her forties, but in the books, she’s in her sixties. And it’s kind of rare almost now to have a full-on senior sleuth, and I like the way it’s handled. I thought it was really, I love the best friend. I love, what’s her name, Darlene?
Bree: (nods) Yeah.
Angela: I mean, it was so relatable and realistic to say, “We’ve aged, probably, a little bit more gracefully than some of our other counterparts from school.” And, so, again, you can kind of tell the author gave this a lot of thought to have those details. I completely agree with you, that’s why I’m nodding along like, “Yep.” I feel like a bobblehead with everything you’re saying.
Bree: There was like the scene where, I think, was somebody in like a wheelchair or a walker and there’s somebody, and she’s like, “We’re going to race next time.”
Angela: I love that one. After the service for our murdered victim, she’s at the front of, I forget if it was the church, but the congregation, she’s at the front, and she finds an opening and she goes, “Four!” and she just guns it into the crowd. (laughing) I lost it. I was like, “Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe that I just read that.” That was epic.
Bree: (laughing) It was so fun, and that’s when I was like, “This lady is good.” Like, it feels so natural because I love old ladies. I think that they are so much fun and so hilarious. And I was like, “She’s, like, handling this perfectly.” I just think there’s so much sass, and they’re so comfortable in their own skin, and it just showed like, that scene was perfect for me.
Angela: I think that it’s also really great too, because I think sometimes, not always in cozy mysteries, but I think, sometimes, when it comes to just writing in general, after a certain age, they’ll just sort of write those characters off or make them one dimensional or they’re like, “Oh, they need help to get around,” or something. So, I like the fact that she treated these characters who are older with respect, and there was that dignity, “Yes, we’re still capable. We can solve this mystery.” And then even Darlene, who wasn’t always physically capable because of her arthritis, is like, “Yeah, I got this! Let’s go on this race.” I mean, I still want to know about the husband always golfing? Like, that is a side question. I’m like, “Was he really golfing?” But she was hysterical. I want her to have her own spin-off series.
Bree: See the doors that they open with cozy mystery series. It’s like, “So, is Darlene going to get a book?”
Angela: I mean, I also like Ann. This is totally jumping ahead, but the murder victim, Tiffany, her grandmother has a maid, and I love how I’m trying to describe this interconnected web of these people. So, Ann, she was in school with our heroine, Mikki, and she was kind of bullied, but she is just, you know, picking herself up, she had an abusive relationship, she’s working for Ronnie, the grandmother, and she is the sweetest, most adorable character. I’m like, “Can you get a spin-off too?”
Bree: No, no.
Angela: We’re just going to keep requesting you (Kaitlyn Dunnett) to write more books, even if it’s not the main character.
Bree: The other thing I liked with Mikki is like, you know, she’s sixty-eight, her husband has passed, and I just think it’s women, like, it’s never too, you never know when you might have to start your life over. You know? I was like, “68, by that time, you would think somebody’s like comfortable and like they’re ready to,” but like, “No, she’s starting over,” and then the fact that she moves into her childhood home? I was like, “Sometimes, you got to move home to start all over again.” And she, literally, like, goes back to her childhood home. I was like, “I love this.”
Angela: I thought it was so funny to see, I kept having, I love Murder, She Wrote, so I was having these flashbacks of Murder, She Wrote with Jessica Fletcher, with the husband passing away, and we don’t actually find out, at least, I couldn’t remember. I went through the story again to try and find it, how he passed away. That was one of the things with Murder, She Wrote, we never learned how Frank passed away. And, so, I kind of saw the juxtaposition and, you know, both characters, Jessica Fletcher not having children, Mikki not having children.
Bree: (nods) Yeah.
Angela: And then I made a note because, again, you can tell I’ve seen every episode of Murder, She Wrote one too many times. One of the file names for our murder victim, Tiffany, she had a thumb drive, and one of the file names is ‘The Corpse in the Gray Suit.’ Well, ‘The Corpse Danced at Midnight’ is one of Jessica Fletcher’s main titles, so I’m going, “Is this a reference?” I’m like, “I need answers here.” I don’t know if anyone else caught that, but I saw that title and, again, me and Jessica, it’s a thing. I have my little Funko Pop over there, somewhere. So, I was just, “I noticed that!” and was like, “I’ve got to highlight this because I’m curious if anyone else is catching the two characters and the similarities.” I was loving it.
Bree: I have to confess, I just got into watching mysteries, and I’ve been hooked. But a lot of stuff is like already like smack dab in the middle of the series, and I’m like struggling with trying to find them. But they are so addicting to watch.
Angela: I’ve got to ask which ones are you starting with?
Bree: Well, you know, I’m a Hallmark girl.
Angela: Oh, yeah, high-five! This is why we get along. (laughing)
Bree: (laughing) So, like, I’ve been watching Picture Perfect Mysteries with Alexa and Carlos Vega, but they only have like three episodes out, and now she’s pregnant in real life. So, I’m like, “Who knows when I’m going to get another series.” I love that, and I love Martha’s Vineyard Mystery.
Angela: What was his name? Jesse Metcalf, there.
Bree: Yeah, I love it! It’s like aesthetically beautiful to watch. It’s so good.
Angela: I mean, those are definitely the newer ones too, and I think that also points to, you know, mysteries are still being made, people still want them.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: I mean, I was so sad when Murder, She Baked ended. I mean, there’s still more books being published, but Hallmark ended the movie, you know, their series, and I’m going, “Oh, so sad.” But then they brought Alison Sweeney back as a podcaster for another cozy mystery.
Bree: The podcaster one! Have you been watching that one, because that, they had a marathon this weekend, and I was like, “Should I start watching this since my other shows are like on hiatus, I guess?
Angela: I mean, it’s one of those, I feel as if I just get sucked in with these Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Whenever they do the McBride ones, I kind of got to be like, “Okay, if I start this, this is my weekend.”
Bree: Yeah! So, okay, what did you think about Mikki as like a freelance editor? I loved that part of this book.
Angela: I had questions about this, because part of me, like, I love that this was her job, but I was also kind of wondering what her, I mean, we know she’s a language arts teacher for seventh and eighth graders, and she’s totally into grammar, but I was kind of wondering what else her experience was in regards to editing books.
Bree: Ah-huh.
Angela: That was my question because, again, romance high-five, she was editing for her romance friend, and I’m going, “Wait a second,” like, “Where did this literary?” I mean, you can tell the author knows exactly what she’s talking about; she’s been through this process, she knows the line edits, it’s like developmental, she knew her stuff. I just thought it was interesting, like, “How did you land on this as your job?” I kind of want a little bit more information, “Did she do a certificate program?” Like, “How did she decide this?”
Bree: Yeah, she kept talking about like reference material. So, I was like, “Maybe she just kind of taught herself,” like, I went to school for like English or whatever, and I did love that she kept talking about having books and reference material. But I don’t, I think there’s like something about cozy mysteries with writers that I’m like, maybe, this is a catnip of mine.
Angela: Again, the Julia Buckley series.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: Again, she’s a writer. I mean, I thought it was so interesting, though, that she herself didn’t necessarily want to be a writer, but she loved reading other people’s works, and it was so cute when she was reading the short story, and then I think it was an article about gardening or something, so she was editing like across the board. Maybe the next, again, I think there are only three books in the series, at the moment, but maybe somewhere down the line she’s editing for someone who’s doing journalism, someone else is doing this book; that opens a whole different universe for different doors to open with future books.
Bree: And I love how like the book that she’s editing, I mean, I’m assuming we’ll see this with the series as it continues, but like it kind of ties in. Like, it makes me think of the like the, um, what’s the librarian series by Ellery Adams, where like?
Angela: Oh, yeah, I have that somewhere over there.
Bree: The Book Retreat series, I think.
Angela: Yes!
Bree: And each book is a theme like everybody comes to the hotel, but they all like Agatha Christie and then the murder happens. I love when it’s bookish themed and then the murder happens and the murder kind of ties it into the bookish theme. I’m like, “If that’s a summary, I’m going to buy the book.”
Angela: I mean, whenever they can do that foreshadowing or that juxtaposition of ‘we’re reading this book and then the murder has those similarities’ where you’re like, “Oh, wait, a second. The victim was killed this way and that was exactly how it was in this play that we just saw.”
Bree: Yeah.
Photo by @victoria7401
Angela: That blows my mind because that is such good writing when you can bring it back around like that. And, I mean, for her with this one, I love that her skill set played into the book, but it also played into the mystery, and that was how she was like, “Wait a second, there’s no comma there, and then there’s a comma,” she knows her stuff. So, “If there’s no comma there, that was deliberate.” And, so, I like how that played into the actual kind of clue.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was almost like she was sleuthing before she realized she was sleuthing.
Angela: I know! I was kind of writing that down because my biggest pet peeve is when you have the sleuthers who are just sort of like, “I’m going to be nosy,” looking over the corner.
Bree: (nodding) Yes.
Angela: I started making notes about when she was actively sleuthing versus when she stumbled upon the clues. I mean, even when she stumbled upon the clues, she was like, “Oh, I’m going to go underneath this fence and go looking for things,” like, just to go take shots of the nature scenes, and then she meets the guards. I mean, my favorite, this woman, I love this scene. I love this part in the book, where he goes in for a job interview at the corporation that might be the evil corporation in town, and she’s just like, “Yeah, I’m just going to walk in here and interview.” Naturally, like, “Of course you’re going to go interview with the bad guys.”
Bree: She can tell that the lady is like, “You’re not going to get this job.”
Angela: The lady was like, “We want someone who’s going to be here ten years out,” and she’s like, “I don’t plan on dying.” I was like, “Oh, my gosh, that lady, that was a terrible interview.” but not because of Mikki, because the lady, again, evil corporation.
Bree: Yeah, I was thinking that like as I was reading it, I was like, okay, usually, when I start a new series, it takes a little bit for me to get used to, like, the very actively nosy sleuth, and I did not feel like that with Mikki. Like, she had the manuscript, the girl passed away, she didn’t even know she had like the thumb drive or whatever it was, and then once she realizes she has, like, it was just really casual, like how she started sleuthing, and I was like, “I really like this!” It felt like laid backness.
Angela: I was so invested. I was writing down like, “Why are they asking her about,” in my notes, I kept saying, like, “Why are they asking her if this woman gave her additional material?” And, so, I was kind of wondering if Tiffany made a note somewhere going, “I left this information with someone,” or whatever. So, I thought it was so cute that she was able to truthfully say, “No, she didn’t leave me anything. Oh, she didn’t leave me anything.” And then, all of a sudden, she went, “Hey, wait a second, I still have that envelope.” And then she found this gigantic clue, with the red flag, like, “Here I am!”
Bree: I was like, “Did she know that possibly, like, somebody possibly is out to kill her?” and like, “Let me give this to this book editor, who is going to go line by line?” and, maybe, it just felt like really intentional, and I’m like hoping like Tiffany, beyond the grave is like, “Thank you for solving it. I knew this was coming.”
Angela: I mean, my one little thing for Tiffany is, I felt so badly, like, this might be a little spoiler alert-y at the end, but the book, so Mikki has very clear-cut thoughts about this book, so she thinks the first three chapters are really great, and she could tell that Tiffany rewrote them multiple times. But then the rest of the book had a lot of issues; it wasn’t necessarily best narrative structure, and all those other things sort of pop up, and I kind of, a part of me wished that she, not ghost write, I think she should do like co-author or figure out some sort of credit with the name. I would love for Tiffany to actually get that book published, you know, as a sort of last, “This is what I really wanted to do,” just sort of ‘In memory’ of her. I felt really, I just really wish that Mikki had said, “Yeah, I’ll do the co-author,” or “I’ll do a ‘Dedication’ to her,” or something. I thought that would’ve been so great. That was my one little upset hiccup there at the end.
Bree: Yeah, and I mean, it’s like, it was a mystery within a mystery, and that just made it so fun. It was like mystery upon mystery upon mystery.
Angela: Well, even just random things with the friend, Darlene, there. You know that she’s being more withdrawn, and you’re going, “What’s going on with Darlene?” Like, “What’s happening over there?” Like, there are other characters where you’re just kind of wondering, like, “What’s their story?”
Bree: Yeah, yeah.
Angela: As I’m looking down, even Ronnie and her back story, I needed, I just kept waiting to hear more information. Like, it wasn’t a mystery, I was just sort of on the edge of my seat, like, “What else happened between you two?” I just felt like I was a little nosy with that one.
Bree: I guess one thing that I’ve learned with cozy mysteries is like they do a really good job of like really making you think this is the person, then I’m always wrong.
Angela: So, who did you, I mean, I’m kind of curious with people in the comment section too, “Who did you think was the killer?” So, Tiffany, she came across as very innocent. It wasn’t until probably about seventy-five percent in, and you find out, “Oh, she wasn’t necessarily one hundred percent the angel that she appeared.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: But they definitely played with the husband being abusive, then the husband’s goon. I mean, that guy got right up in Mikki’s face. That guy, I didn’t think he was the killer, but I definitely thought red herring. But he could have killed somebody, if it wasn’t Tiffany. He was totally capable of killing.
Bree: And then how about the characters in her and Tiffany’s book were duplicated off of her husband and the guy? So, I was like, “Oh, it’s got to be the husband,” but then at the end of, like, he’s too easy. It would have been too easy for it to be him.
Angela: No, I mean, that was one of my big things with one of the other books that I’ve read recently. It was a cozy mystery, and when it was the husband, yeah, it was the husband. I was like, “Ugh!” You went right back around in a circle to where we started. It was like, “How dare you do that to me,” because I like playing the game. And, so, this one, I kind of figured out, because I think there were like little details along the way with when it came to our killer that were kind of sketchy; just even the fact that, I mean, can we, should I do the reveal and say who the killer was?
Bree: (nodding) Yes.
Angela: Okay, so, we find out the killer is Mike, and I kind of, from the get go, I had my radar up about this guy for a couple of stupid reasons, because he broke up with Mikki when they were in high school, and I was like, “Oh, but he broke up with our heroin, so he’s got to be a bad guy.” He dumped her in high school for her arch nemesis. So, right away, I was like, “I have questions about you.” I was like, “Wait a second, you broke up with her for the one that she, the enemy there?” Right away, I was like, “I got my eye on you, buddy.”
Bree: (reading comments) Somebody said, “Mike all the way.” Yeah, Leah D. She said, “Mike all the way. His reaction to the flash drive sealed the deal.”
Angela: I started writing down like random things, because I went back to the beginning after I finished the book. And, so, even stupid things like where he chose the restaurant right across the street from the police station, and she makes note of that being odd, and I’m going, “Well, maybe, he literally just wanted to see what they were doing to keep an eye out and have a reason to be there; maybe, he was spying. So, I went back and looked at the scenes with him with a different lens, and I’m going, “Yeah, because even when Mickey said that Tiffany didn’t seem like the type to commit suicide,” she just shot that theory down and he was like, “Why do you say that?” He was really like, “Why are you going up against that theory?” He needed that to be true.
Bree: Yeah, he was acting. He was acting weird, but then it just also, like, all signs pointed to the husband too. So, she did a really good job of like, you don’t know who it could be, I mean, you don’t know who it could have been. I really thought it was the husband, but then when I finished, I was like, “You know, Mike was acting a little weird,” but I just thought it was the husband.
Angela: I would have been heartbroken if it was the grandmother. I understand they were arch enemies in high school, but I mean, that would have been a little much.
Bree: Grandma was definitely acting a little sketchy too.
Angela: I got to admit, even if you don’t like the person you went to high school with, I mean, everybody has that one person you’re like, “Ugh, banned my existence.” Like, everyone has that person they went to high school with. I’m being honest. I’m not naming names, but I had a couple of people like that, where I’m like, “Oh, you’re such a mean girl.” Yeah, but if it was the granddaughter and this person gives you, I mean, she gives her the thumb drive with all the research and her book, and Ronnie throws the thumb drive away. I’m like, “I don’t care who gives me that thumb drive, I am keeping that sucker; that is now my property.” I couldn’t believe she threw it away without looking at the book that her granddaughter wrote. I was going, “Oh, Ronnie.”
Bree: Yeah, and it even made it even more sad because, I think, when she first met with Tiffany, she said, “Nobody knew she was writing the book.” And it’s like because she wasn’t, she didn’t feel supportive, you know? And, like, when we see that later on, it’s like, “Okay, now I know why she wouldn’t want to talk about it to anybody.”
Angela: I mean, that was actually one of my questions because we find out that Tiffany is blackmailing Mike, so that was the whole, we realized she’s not as innocent as she appears. A couple of times, Officer Blume, this poor thing, like, she’s an officer, but for some reason I felt badly for her. I mean, there’s no reason why. I don’t know if it’s just because she kept getting all the short-end jobs where it’s like, “Hey, there’s this sort of thing, go see if that’s actually true or not.” But she mentions that Tiffany was a spoiled brat and you’re going, “Okay, but can you give me an example?” I wanted more information. Like, you hear a couple of things, but there’s not really any concrete evidence of that. So, I mean, I didn’t brush off Officer Blume, but I kind of wanted her to elaborate, which she didn’t. So, it wasn’t until we find out she’s actually doing that, where you’re like, “Oh, wait a second! She’s not as pristine as maybe you’re supposed to imagine she is.”
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: (laughing at comment by Stephanie Aurelio) “That was straight blackmail.doc on her computer.” She labelled the file, Blackmail, that was great!
Bree: (laughing) I like when we got more about Tiffany. I mean, it just stinks, because you get it like after she’s gone. But that’s when I was like, “Okay, maybe I’m thinking like, “it’s somebody” and it’s like, “not this person.” Like, it felt like that was strategically done to throw me off. And that’s when I was like, “Okay, maybe it’s not the husband.” Like, “Maybe, I need to rethink this a little bit.”
Angela: I mean, I was kind of wondering, because when we find out that she’s doing the blackmail, a part of me was wondering if she wanted to blackmail so that she could hire an editor for her book, so that she can go off and live her dream or something. I wanted a couple of follow up sentences about it, because she’s, obviously, blackmailing, like, I’m not giving her a free pass on that, but I felt like there was more to her doing the blackmail like the husband controlling her money, her finances, who she’s talking to, what her options are. I was just curious, yes, she’s blackmailing, but what the next step for her plan was.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: Because, obviously, when she’s talking to Mikki at the very beginning of the book, she’s like, “Oh, money’s no option,” and she just totally brushes that off. So, I was wondering if the blackmail money played into that in a way, like, maybe she’s trying to live her dream and move beyond this situation. I’m not saying blackmail. I’m not allowing that. I’m just saying, like, maybe she was trying to do more with it than just escape the husband. I feel like there was more to that story. I wanted her to have her own little, I don’t know, I don’t know what I wanted to do.
Bree: There’s a mystery in the mystery!
Angela: She needed to have a chapter from her point of view or something. We need to find her journal to have her explain herself or something. I was really intrigued. I wanted more information about Tiffany, which is nice. If you want more information, that means, you know, if the author has you wanting more, they’re doing something right.
Bree: What did you think about like just how easy they said it was a suicide?
Angela: That was one of the things when I went back to skim through with Mike being like, “Why don’t you believe it’s a suicide?” I mean, that was really sad that the grandmother and the husband both thought suicide was a legitimate possibility; that was a travesty. My heart goes out to this fictional character like, “I know you’re just blackmailed someone, but I feel bad for you, Tiffany.”
Bree: Then, even the police, and I was like, “Okay, I know that these people have money, so, are the police just like, “Well, they’re saying it’s suicide” and they would believe she would do this, so we’re not going to investigate?” I was like, if Mikki wouldn’t have started investigating, then it would have just been that.
Angela: So, what did you think about, I was going to say, this is the other thing, but I was going to say this is my other Murder, She Wrote note, Detective Hazlett, because it’s Dr. Hazlett in Cabot Cove. What did you think of him then? Because you were talking about the police element.
Bree: You know what? Usually, I don’t like the police in the book just because we’re on the sleuth’s side, and the sleuth’s getting on their nerves. But he wasn’t, I feel like I didn’t see him that much for him to bother me like they typically do. But I do feel like Mikki did a lot of work for him.
Angela: I was going to say without her, he wouldn’t have had, I mean, he had the story, but without her, he wouldn’t have had the other additional documents, the research, the blackmail file.
Bree: Yeah, I mean her just being like, okay, if she’s like, “Why would my card be,” you know, I think her card was dry, like, she had her business card, it was dry, right?
Angela: It was not, you could tell, it looked like it had been through the wash and, so, she’s going like, “Was this on her person?”
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: Like, if she was going swimming, she’s not going to have a business card in her swimsuit.
Bree: You’re right, I was like, “Yes,” I did a lot of work, I mean, he tried to dismiss her and stuff like that, which I think is typical, but I liked that he wasn’t on the page as much, until he was with Tiffany, you know, later on.
Angela: It was great when she was like, “You have to call Detective Hazlett,” when her house got broken into and the other cops show up. She’s like, “I don’t want you. I want him.” She’s like placing a request. I’m like, “Can you do that with the police? Can request who to investigate?”
Photo by @ellehartford
Bree: I love when she decided like, “I’m going to give him the hard drive, but not right now.” (laughing) I was, like, at least she’s going to do it, you know, now that she found it. It just felt like, it felt so intentional, like, you have the heart. They’re asking you if you have anything extra, and you’re like, “No,” and she wasn’t lying. She didn’t think she did, and then she finds it, and I was like, “Did this girl leave this with her on purpose?” Like, let me get somebody neutral involved because I feel like something’s going to happen.
Angela: That’s why I wanted like a journal entry or something, because I was so curious about that. Because, again, I thought it was really, you could tell this writer knew her stuff; she was talking about how the manuscript is supposed to be formatted, and she mentions a couple of times how she thinks Tiffany is naive when it comes to the writing industry about agents who want reading fees for their works and stuff. And, so, maybe we’re supposed to think she was naive to include her research.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: But to have the thumb drive in there, I felt as if she had a reason to have it in there. I don’t think that was just her being like, “You know, I’m a Type-A personality, have all my documents while you edit.” I mean, I didn’t really get that vibe from it because, again, she had a folder. She had the folder with ‘Blackmail’ on it. Like, why else that wasn’t in the story? There was no blackmail in her book, so clearly, for her to have that in, I love that, I love that it was named, like, that’s why when I saw that comment, my mind was just blown with that. Like, you just literally labelled your blackmail ‘Blackmail’.
Bree: (laughing) Call it what it is! Right?
Angela: You could even do just a capital B and an M or something; you know, like BM or something, or maybe even the guy’s initials or something? It was just ‘Blackmail’. She literally wrote it out for you. But to have that on the thumb drive and have it not be password protected, I think that I’m with you on that, like, there might have been a sort of like, “My husband is dangerous.” Here we go, (gesturing handing off the thumb drive) “Just a little something.”
Bree: I feel like something is going to happen. (responds to comment) Okay, Alicia W said she “doesn’t mind the sleuth doing investigations, but they usually portray the police as naive and unable to solve the crimes without them.” That is true. I do feel like she was brushed off a lot. I was glad in this one, the police were off the page, so to speak. Yeah, I like that, because that’s like one thing that makes them really intense for me is I’m like, “Okay, you’re kind of overstepping your boundaries, let law enforcement do their thing,” but there’s stuff that like they’re not going to catch, you know, like, so I just like that we got to see Mikki very kind of casually.
Angela: That was why I was looking down at the notes because the security guard, who tells her she’s trespassing, gives her a rough time. He tries to run her down, or at least in the very least, scare her into thinking that she’s about to be killed. So, this guy, he apparently goes off the main road into the grass, so you can see the tracks, but it’s a he-said she-said situation, and I’m going, “But there are tracks there,” like, “What?” And then there’s also the semi witness where this lady finds her on the ground, you know, flustered and everything else. But the cops don’t actually do anything to the security guard, he just gets off Scot-Free with a warning. So, I’m not really giving her town cops any gold badge, you know, gold stars like, “Oh, great job,” like, I’m not doing that right now.
Bree: I think what’s so cool is like, I guess, her editing job is just like the book is a mystery itself, and then you’re seeing her like kind of break down the elements of like what’s going to make a mystery sell. I just I loved it. I need to know, like, what’s the next book that she’s going to be editing, like, is it a romance novel? Is it going to be another mystery?
Angela: Well, I saw the reference to, I keep wanting to call him Doctor Hazlett because I’m like, Murder, She Wrote. But Detective Hazlett, when she ever said, “Oh, if this is a romance novel, I would be blushing as the heroine.” I was like, “My guest host, she’s going to like that reference!”
Bree: (laughing) Yeah.
Angela: With the romance reference in there, for some reason, I love that. I was like, “Oh, cute,” because she mentions he even has like a little dimple chin.
Bree: I forgot, like, what is she, she mentions the genres that she mostly like reads or edits, and it wasn’t romance. But she does have the friend who writes romance.
Angela: (nodding) Yeah.
Bree: So, I’m like, I just want to see like the rest, as the series progresses, like what she finds herself editing.
Angela: Well, I made a note. So, there are three books in the series, and I totally felt as if it comes back around. So, the third book, “Do you want me to tell you who the murder victim is for the third book?
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: Because it’s literally in the book blurb, it’s right on the back. When I went to Goodreads, it’s the first sentence. You’re not, this isn’t a spoiler.
Bree: No spoilers.
Angela: So, Tiffany’s husband is the victim in book three. And, so, I’m like, “Oh, my gosh! Tiffany’s book is still relevant! Can you find out if it gets published? Can you find out if someone ghost-writes it?” Now I actually want to go read books two and three to find out what happens to Tiffany’s book because if her husband is still in the series, Tiffany by being drawn to him is still in reference.
Bree: Yeah!
Angela: That’s what I’m hoping. I’m like, “Can we find out what happens?” Just for her memory, like, please publish her book. I’m just rooting for her.
Bree: We want more Tiffany.
Angela: I know she wasn’t perfect, but like our heroine wasn’t perfect either. I mean, I got to admit, like, I was very surprised when the author kind of included her teenage back story. I mean, she was a Peeping Tom when she was a kid, and she was kind of a bully to Anne, who was the maid. I mean, she sent her on to snipe hunt, which is, I mean, I saw that on Cheers, they did that for Frasier. I mean, you send someone on this quest to go find an animal that does not exist.
Bree: Usually, if it’s our main character, they were the nice girl or they were the one that got picked on. I was like, “Okay, Mikki, you were a mean girl!”
Angela: I was, all of a sudden, like, “Wait, a second, did I just read what I thought I read?”
Bree: Yeah, that was interesting. You think of that movie Hope Floats where, like, Sandra Bullock returns home and she realizes, like, I was not really that nice to people when I was a teenager.
Angela: Yeah, I was so surprised that she, I mean, she didn’t just flat out acknowledge it. She like, owned it. She’s like, “Yeah, I was really cruel to her.” And when you find out what she did, you’re like, “Yeah, you really were.” Were you a mean girl? Did Ronnie have a reason to be mad at you?
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: I kind of wanted to know if she had done something to Ronnie to spark that sort of animosity because, I mean, some of what she said and did wasn’t exactly, you know, a misunderstanding. It was just like flat out aggressive.
Bree: Yeah, and even after all this time, people like they don’t forget how you make them feel, so they still remember.
Angela: Well, that was the thing that was super relatable. I mean, she just had her fiftieth high school reunion but yet, you know, those people fifty years later, they’re still the same high school cut-out that she remembers. The people they were in high school like that is who you will forever be; and in your other classmates’ mind, that’s just who you are.
Bree: Yeah, I love how she kept saying she needed to make friends. Yes.
Angela: I thought it was cute how she kind of fell into that friendship with Darlene so easily that they just sort of, you know, no time had passed fifty years later. They’re still kind of similar. They could just pick up where they left off. That was cute to me, but then she couldn’t believe the one time she tried to socialize, she chose the wrong lady to socialize with; the town gossip who shows up late left her with the bill. I’m like, “Maybe you should just stick with Darlene.”
Bree: (laughing) It just shows like navigating friendships regardless of the age can be hard.
Angela: I remember Googling, so, I’m originally from Massachusetts, and I live in D.C., and I remember, “How to make friends as an adult,” typing into Google, but the autofill, the thing, I was not the first person to Google that. That’s what I thought of, like, she clearly, she knew the area, the location, but she didn’t know the people in the location. I mean, she was kind of an outsider, even though she knew to some degree, which I thought was an interesting kind of way to play it. I liked how she even said with the cops, “Yeah, he doesn’t know me. He wasn’t born yet when I was here.” Like, she was an outsider.
Bree: (laughing) Oh, my gosh, I loved her. It was so fun. This was a good pick.
Angela: I was just looking down. I love how I’m not even looking at the notes, and I’m like, “Yeah, we talked about this. We talked about that.”
Bree: I’ve been waiting to talk about it! I was just like, “I love Mikki.” Like, I need to talk about her.
Angela: Oh, okay, one character, or, I’m going to go with character, Cal.
Bree: (smiling & nodding)
Angela: One of the scenes I totally related to was when the house was broken into. She was looking for her cat, and I’m going, “That’s how I would be with Max.” I would be like, “I don’t care about my laptop. Where’s my baby?” like running for the dog. I was like, “Thank you!” I thought the cat was adorable.
Bree: I love cats in cozies because, I mean, even in real life, they’re so independent and like, they’re such a character, like, you belong to them. That’s how cats feel to me, plus, like, take it or leave it, I run the world. You’re just like my human, and I loved her cat!
Angela: I thought it was so cute how, because I talk to my dog like he understands me and will respond. (turns to look at Max) I’m looking over there because after he jumped off my lap, he had to go hide the treat, even though he finished it. I’m not going to question that. I’m just going to go with it. So, I talk to this little guy like he understands every word, and I will do the same thing that she did in the book, where I’ll ask a question, even though I know he’s not going to respond. I totally related to that so hard, and I liked the writerly perspective, that was really brilliant because you’re getting her thoughts without having that inner monologue.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: She had fun with it, so it wasn’t just, “Oh, let’s do the Mrs. Dalloway,” and have, you know, “I’m looking at this now, I’m doing that.” Like, “No, we’re talking to the cat.”
Bree: Yeah, somebody’s listening!
Angela: I was so concerned about that little one. As soon as you saw the door was open, in the book, you’re like, “Is the cat okay? Did they steal the cat? Did she run away?”
Bree: That was kind of intense for me. I was like, “I don’t know why I didn’t expect this to happen,” but I didn’t expect this to happen.
Angela: As soon as, what was it, I forgot his name, the husband’s goon, at one point, was going to kick the cat, and I’m like, “How dare you!” Like, again, I think this guy would totally be the killer. He didn’t kill Tiffany, but he killed somebody. You do not hurt the animal in cozies; that’s not okay.
Bree: Do not play with animal harming in books, okay; that’s a no, no.
Angela: No, I literally was reading that and, again, Max was asleep by my feet, and I was like, “I need to give you a hug now because I need to know you’re okay.”
Bree: I sat right up when the cat flooded the kitchen. I was driving when I was listening to that part, and I was like, “Wait, who flooded the kitchen?” and I had to rewind it. I was like, “The cat.” (laughing)
Angela: I thought that was so funny because, again, usually you think cats and water, they don’t want it. But she’s like, “No, no, no. We want the water coming out of the faucet. She wants to drink from the faucet.” I’m going, “Okay, this is like Max.” This is a little prima donna cat, like, (Max) he’s my little prince and he knows it, and this cat is like, “I’m the queen of this house, and if I want water, I am getting my water.”
Photo by @writerahart
Bree: (reads comment by Stephanie Aurelio) “He threatened Darlene’s dog, too!” Yeah.
Angela: That was the animal he was going to kick; that was what it was. I mean, yeah, he didn’t like the cat when he went to her house, but that was what it was. I’m like, “You do not harm animals in cozies. You just don’t. No.” If you do, that person better be the killer too. That person better go down! (shaking her head) Can’t do it.
Bree: I loved it. I loved it. So, I mean, is this one of how many writer cozies have you read, do you think?
Angela: I think there have been a fair amount. I mean, I always love, it’s so funny too, because I love baking cozies because I can’t bake. Whereas when it comes to, I think, writer ones or reader ones, you have that kind of foundational knowledge as a reader or someone who’s, you know, studied the writing craft. So, it’s a little different. I feel as if I can pick up on things like, “Oh, I relate to that,” or that’s why I’m like, “Well, did she have a certificate?” like I kind of wanted more insight. Whereas, if you tell me you’re baking cupcakes, I’m like, “Yeah, you can do whatever you want.” I’m just going with it. So, I want to say I’ve probably read a handful. I mean, as I’m looking over there (turns to bookcase), I think Julia Buckley’s Writing Retreat (A Writer’s Apprentice Mystery) one is great, but there’s also a few others. I also just finished the Allison Brook (A Haunted Library Mystery) one, where there’s the librarian, Carrie Singleton (sleuther is head of programs in a spooky library with its own library ghost), which was really cute. I’m trying to think what other writing ones, off the top of my head. Have you read a lot, or no?
Bree: No, this is like the size of Julia Buckley. No, this is it. That’s why I was like, “Okay, what else is out there?” Because it’s just something about like writer story, I love it in romance, too. Like, it’s just like my catnip. I don’t know why. And I was wondering, like, are you able to read them and take like the writer brain off? Like you are, like, I feel like with baking cozies, they’re like kind of an escape, and it’s like delicious food descriptions. But like when you’re reading a book like this and she’s like editing a book, is your writer brain on?
Angela: Yes and no, I mean, that’s also why, I also think Mikki is a little bit more critical, and this is also why I think I would have a very difficult time editing is because I have this thing where I just want to give you my heart and give you my everything. I would never have the heart to be like, “Your book is terrible. We will not publish it.”
Bree: Yeah!
Angela: Mikki was very much like, “No, she has this problem, this problem, this problem.” I was like if someone said that to me, I’d be in a corner crying. She just was like gloves off. I think she’s also different, again, (Max) he’s barking at something. I apologize. I think that she shows one type of editor or one type of person in that profession, whereas there are others who are more, you know.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: I was going to say easy-going, and are like, “Okay, let’s try and do this. Let’s do that.” (Max barks) Let’s see if another treat will calm him down. He’s underneath the bed, too, so I can’t even like bribe him. He’s hiding the other treat.
Bree: (reads comment by Elle Hartford) Elle said, “Writer brain never turns off.” I believe that.
Angela: I was going to say, you guys are going to get to see, I’m wearing the pajama bottoms. I’m wearing my little cozy shirt; it says Cozy Season. Yeah, so it says Cozy Season but I’m wearing pajamas. So, if I stand up and go to the bookcase, you’re probably going to see the little pink captions. So, I have Julia Buckley ones right over here, but then, there are a whole bunch of books that I think are really great. So, I think it was, because originally at one point, I was going to be able to interview Julia Buckley, but the timing, I remember this was probably like a year ago, almost now. I still need to; I should probably follow up with her again. My computer crashed. I wasn’t able to do the livestream that day, so I just re-read the entire series. (holds up three books) So, I’m full five stars. I fully recommend the series. I was going to say which one’s the first book. (looks at the covers)
Bree: The one with the car driving up the driveway.
Angela: I’m going to say, I grabbed all of them, except the first one. (big smile)
Bree: (laughing)
Angela: So, her Writer’s Apprentice Mystery series, (holds up three books) the series looks like this. I will totally recommend this, and then I think there are also ones that include references to writing or just people like writers. So, we all read this one (holds up book by Vivian Conroy) Last Pen Standing, and I think writers love notebooks and stationery, so you just relate to this one, even though it’s not writerly. Like, as soon as she opens a stationery shop, you’re like, “I am here for this!”
Bree: I love all the notes and pens! I’m gonna buy it.
Angela: Exactly! Like, even other things, even like bookstores too, (holds up Can’t Judge a Book by its Murder (by Amy Lillard) because I feel like all readers are writers.
Bree: Yeah!
Angela: I mean, writers are readers, excuse me. So, like, even ones, when it comes to bookstores, I feel like you still are getting your little writer mentality going. So, I think there are a lot of ways to incorporate, you know, people who want to be authors with the reader life and cozies. So, as I hold up this one too, this one’s cute!
Bree: I love, one of my favorite cozies is Crime and Poetry (by Amanda Flower). Love those books! Like, they will fall off the shelf and like the bookstore is helping Violet and Grandma Daisy solve the murders. I love it.
Angela: So, you just reminded me, as I put the notebook down, and I’m looking around, I had the book, and I know I got distracted by Max. It’s over there, and I’m going to grab it. So, Farm to Trouble (by Amanda Flower) came out today, and so someone who comments tonight is going to win the first book in her new cozy series.
Bree: Hey, let’s see! (reads comment by Victoria Hamel) “A Dark and Stormy Murder.” That’s it, that’s it. I love that one.
Angela: (away from the screen) I’m also looking to see what other cozies, can I pull off the shelf.
Bree: (reads comment by Stephanie Aurelio) “V.M. Burns Mystery Bookshop series, she’s a bookshop owner and a writer!” Oh! I downloaded a bookshop series.
Angela: (returns smiling & holds up Farm to Trouble by Amanda Flower)
Bree: Oh, that’s cute. That is so pretty.
Angela: So, thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, one person is going to win this book. Yes, I was going to say, I just saw someone comment The Plot is Murder (by V.M. Burns), I have that over there too. V.M. Burns, she’s phenomenal. She is such a talented writer. I love her books.
(Max barks, Angela gets up to check on him)
Bree: I love it. Max, your little sleuth dog. (reading comments) Who is The Broken Spine by (Dorothy St. James)? I love seeing Amanda Flower love. I love her.
Angela: (away from the screen, in front of bookcase) I figure I might as well just grab her books as I’m down here.
Bree: Okay.I need the third one. I have never seen it in the bookstore. I need to stop being lazy and order it. Hey! What’s the, this is same topic, but off topic, it’s like somebody, it’s like a ghost series. And now I’m blanking on the title.
Angela: (returns) So, this is the other one (holds up The Plot is Murder) that you were talking about before by V.M. Burns. This book is amazing. I’m like five out of five stars. I love this book; so talented. And then these were the Amana Flower’s (holds up paperback copies). I love her. She’s my auto-buy author. I will always recommend, a lot of times now, when people DM (Direct Message) they’re like, “Do you have any recommendations for getting into cozies?” and I’m like, “Yes, I do. Here you go.”
Bree: Yeah, I think that’s such a good one to start with. I love, I think it’s book one, like Grandma Daisy’s the suspect.
Angela: (holds up Matchmaking Can Be Murder by Amanda Flower) This woman is so prolific. I’m like, she probably doesn’t know we’re talking about her right now, but she has all these books like the Amish one, and this one for matchmaking. I’m like, “What are you doing?”
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: She writes across the board, as I’m looking at the cover. She writes different settings, different characters, bow down, she is cozy queen. She’s incredible.
Bree: She published one for Hallmark last year.
Angela: Yes!
Bree: I thought it was really good, so I hope she keeps publishing too.
Angela: Well, this is the latest, (holds up Farm to Trouble by Amanda Flower) so one lucky person is going to win this one. So, comment, comment, comment. This was, yeah, so this was on my TBR (To Be Read) for the longest time, and it’s still like one of those, I still need to read it, because I know I’m going to want to just sit down and just read it entirely. Like, I’m not going to get up, I’m just going to enjoy it, because that’s how it is with her for her books and me.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: And then, because you were talking about books with writers, Kate Carlisle, she was probably most famous for the house renovation (A High-End Finish, A Fixer Upper Mystery #1) I’m totally blanking on the name. Jewel in Hallmark is the actress for the series. So, she also has (holds up Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle). I was going to say she has another series as well that has to do with, you know, being bibliophiles and loving books. So, I just wanted to grab this one to give that a little shoutout. And then, Harper Kincaid, (holds up To Kill a Mocking Girl) she is always popping up over on the Twitter and the Instagram @charmingwhentipsy is her handle. This one, she’s a book doctor, so to speak, whereas she’s fixing the character, is fixing books: it’s incredible, and you’re like, “Oh, my gosh, we’re preserving literature. This is great!” So, I just wanted to grab this one and give a little shoutout To Kill a Mocking Girl.
Bree: To Kill a Mocking Girl, I love it.
Angela: Cute cover! That’s why I’m like, okay, even if it’s not about writers or, you know, getting the words on the page, again, I feel like all writers have this love of literature. So, I’m like, “This is relatable (holds up To Kill a Mocking Girl) and this one is too (holds up Homicide in Hardcover).”
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: I made a mess (smiling, holds up books) “Oh, I’m going to grab this book, and then this book, (Bree laughs) and they’re all like, right there, too, (turns and points to bookcase) within arm’s reach.
Bree: I’m trying to think of the one, I know her last name is like DiSilverio (Laura DiSilverio, A Book Club Mystery series). I think it’s like a book club series. I’m blanking on the title. I only have like three of the books. I love those I. I’m like getting into like the book club series type cozies. I haven’t read them yet, and they’re like really hard to find; and then I really like home renovations.
Angela: That was the one I was trying to remember; she’s renovating all the houses, and, for some reason, you’ve got to love how I was teetering on the title.
Bree: I have one series, it’s by Juliet Blackwell, but the other one is like E.J. Copperman or Cunningham, something (E.J. Copperman, A Fran & Ken Stein Mystery). Like, I never see them in the bookstore, so I literally only have one book and it’s on Kindle. But, like, I want more home renovation, and then like the skeleton series!
Angela: (smiling)By Leigh Perry? (A Family Skeleton Mystery).
Bree: (laughing)
Angela: You’ve got to love how I’m right on that one! I know exactly which one you’re talking about with that!
Bree: (laughing)I love it!
Angela: As I look over, I have this sort of funky-looking bookcase and, like, I have all my Christmas ones over there, but I have a lot of baking cozies. Like, I’m pretty sure this is just all food-related cozies over there.
Bree: Ah! So, how is the Ellie Alexander baking series?
Angela: I was going to say, I think it’s really cute because she kind of, it was so funny, because I commented, and she’s like, “That’s what I was going for!” I was like, “This gives me Gilmore Girls vibes.” And she goes, “That’s exactly what I wanted!” So, as soon as she said that I was like, “Okay, I’m here for the Gilmore Girls.” Yep, yeah, me and my coffee. I mean, when it comes to baking, Hannah Swensen is my girl. Joanne Fluke, I mean, Kensington picked it up. I’m always going to be a Hannah girl, and she’s always going to be my go-to.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah, I need to go back to it, but it’s kind of a long series.
Angela: I’m trying to remember the title, what is it, sugar and spice or something about spices. Leslie Budewitz, she has a series (A Spice Shop Mystery) that’s food related; again, a phenomenal writer. I totally, wholeheartedly, recommend her books. Maddie Day has a series where, you know, has a lot of food in it.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: So, I was going to say, Leslie Budewitz is another one where, I kind of think, she’s not like a slip-through-the-cracks because she’s won the Agatha Award like she’s a well-known author, but she doesn’t always get the credit she deserves with that, but that is a phenomenal series. Like, “Shoutout to Leslie!” If she’s not on your TBR, you might want to pencil her in a little bit.
Bree: Somebody mentioned Julie Anne Lindsay, and yes, I read the first book in, is it Apple Cider Slaying?
Angela: Yep!
Bree: I love that book (A Cider Shop Mystery). Someone said the Spice Shop series.
Angela: Yeah, I was like, is it sugar, is it spice? Like, what is it? And then I was trying to think, well, Amanda Flower, she has her Amish series, and they’re making candy (shrugs) it’s still kind of baking and I’m there for that.
Bree: (reads comment by Cooking With My Cozies) “Assault and Pepper,” ah, I love the title!
Angela: It’s super cute. She has a whole bunch of, she has a lot of fun, there’s one, it has to do with Chai. Chai is in the title. I’m trying to remember the pun, but every time I hear it, or I see it, it always makes me smile (Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker).
(reads comment by Debbie Lind “Do you like Cleo Coyle’s series?”) Cleo Coyle, oh, my gosh, I am trying. I signed up for the audible plus. I am going back to the beginning because I want to go through her entire coffeehouse series. Like, that is one of my things for this year, that is on my goal to go through the entire one, because now that I have the audio but, for some reason, though, the first three books you have to buy, but then the rest of them are included. So, I’m going to buy the first three and then I’m there. I am there for Cleo Coyle because I started reading her series, I want to say three or four years ago, when I read the first two books, and then I just got busy or didn’t follow up. So, now, I just want to start from the beginning and just keep going.
Bree: I want to read that one.
Angela: It was a good book, and I think what she does that’s super great and different is her characters are sort of in the city, so it’s not the small-town cozy, but she makes a small-town feel. And that’s one of the things I remember from the first book, and I think has come up with, you know, talking to other cozy authors, they’ll sort of cite her. If you go on Wikipedia, her series is referenced under cozy mysteries and then if you go on the cozy mysteries dot com website over there, or whatever it’s called, you know, she’s got some of the top books up there. So, she’s one of the queens of cozies, where she’s pretty high up.
Bree: Jenn McKinlay has a hat shop series and the heroine is from America, but she goes to, I think, London, and I was like, “Oh! It’s a big city cozy.” It just felt really different and I think it’s the only one I’ve read that wasn’t in the states.
Angela: You totally just reminded me, I’m blanking on the character’s name, but Elementary, She Read by Vicki Delany. I’m pretty sure the character is British, and then she comes to America, and she’s trying to get the British slang. And with the American vernacular, I’m going, “This is interesting,” but you just totally remind me of that and, again, she owns a Sherlock-themed bookstore. So, for all our bibliophile friends over there, another good one. (responds to comment by Lisa Marshall “Vivian Chien is good too, A Noodle Shop Mystery”) I’ve got Vivian Chien right over there. She’s an auto-buy for me.
Bree: Noodle Shop!I’ve seen those, and I’ve seen like that, I saw one that’s like PTA (Murder at the PTA by Lee Hollis).
Angela: Yeah! I’ve got that over there too. I’ve got a lot of books over there; you got this one, you get that one. (big smile)
Bree: The mystery section in the bookstore is like, so dangerous, so dangerous.
Angela: It’s also so colorful, like, the images are eye catching and the titles, again, they just make you smile. You just want to pick them up. I mean, this is the thing. So, when you get on those ARC (advanced reader copy) lists, Kensington will be like, “Which ones do you want out of this list?” I’m like I have to say, “The list.” I don’t want to be greedy, but (pretends to check off a list) I like this one, I like this, again, I would never be without this one, “I want the entire list,” but every single time, my first reaction is they all look so good. Then, I have to take a breath, and go, “Okay, be a good girl.” But every single time, I’m like, “I want all of them!”
Bree: I think that, I mean, I think they’re fun to read all year, but like my favorite time, like, the ones like, I will save ones I’m really excited for to read in the Fall, because I just feel like they are perfect for the Fall season.
Angela: (nodding) Yep! So, I think it’s called Pink Lily. That’s where I got my cozy season shirt, and the one I wore last time said, Stay Cozy. They have one that says ‘Autumn Blankets & Fireside Coziness’ and that’s exactly what it is for Fall season. You want to put on your Uggs, have your chai latte with your pumpkin scone, and just enjoy the cozy reading; like, that is what that is to me. This is why we get along, we’re on the same mindset and wavelength.
Bree: (big smile, taps the side of her head)We’re there, we’re there. And, oh, thinking of like, kind of food, I don’t know if this is the only series they put out, but it’s B.B. Haywood’s blueberry series set (A Candy Holiday Murder Mystery) in Maine. I hauled all those books at one time because I was like, “If you’ve got all of them, I’m going to get them!”
Angela: I just realized where the other ones were. I just realized the first book for some reason, here’s the first book (holds up A Dark & Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley). I put this cozy over there, it was behind me. This is the first one, and then this (holds up Holiday Buzz, A Coffeehouse Mystery) is the Cleo Coyle she does the holiday, and I also love when they do the Christmas cozies. Those always make me happy because that also, to me, feels like you’re going from the autumn into the winter; it’s still got the cozy vibes like it just carries over. But the reason I remembered, because you just reminded me, what is it called? (holds up book) Bait and Witch (A Witch Way Librarian Mystery by Angela M. Sanders). I love the titles, but there was one, you made me think of the subcategory, (holds up Absence of Alice, A Sarah W. Garage Sale Mystery by Sherry Harris) The Garage Sale Mysteries.
Bree: Oh, wow!
Angela: Before the college admission scandal issues arose, we had our Lori Loughlin Hallmark series, but the books are still coming! They’re still great. I don’t know where my little tangent digression came with that, but that’s where it just jumped out of my head with that one, but you had me thinking that because of Hallmark.
Bree: (responds to comment by Aaron Oliver “The Cat Who mysteries started me on cozy mysteries and they are great”) The cat, the cat that was trying to get the book.
Angela: We also have Real Murders, Aurora Teagarden, Hallmark, she’s always making new books. You’ve got to love how I’m like, “There’s all these books!”
Bree: Okay, Bait and Witch that made me think of, what’s the one that takes place in Savannah and it’s like a magical something shop.
Angela: (holds up Southern Sass and Killer Cravings by Kate Young)
Bree: Oh, my gosh. I don’t know what the author’s name is. It’s like an almost like a ten book, yes! What’s that? What’s that?
Angela: I don’t think it’s this one, but I like this one. I’m trying to remember which one is set in Savannah.
Bree: It’s a witch series too. I think she finds out like she’s a, she moves there, and she finds out she’s a witch.
Angela: Oh, is this Heather Blake?
Bree: I was thinking of the series that I have on my shelves that (responds to comment by Debbie Lind “Bailey Cates”) Bailey Cates! That’s it!
Angela: We read that book. We read the first book in that series. Oh, my gosh, I think I’m going to have to go back and reread all the books that we already read.
Bree: (laughing)
Angela: Oh! Brownies and Broomsticks! That’s what it is! It’s on the floor, as I’m looking down, it’s right there. Nancy J. Cohen, also, she’s awesome. I was so happy when I got to speak with her. She wrote her Killer Hair series. I was going to say, just throwing out like a random subgenre that would make you (gestures to her hair) a beauty salon.
Bree: I think I only have one from the series, but it’s Carol J. Perry, and it’s like hot, like it’s Salem, Massachusetts. I think she’s like a newscaster or something like that.
Angela: I feel like we read one at one point for the Book Club. (looks down to Max)
Bree: Oh, Max.
Angela: Him and his treat. He really is trying. I don’t know what he’s doing. I don’t know what that was. I don’t know where that treat ended up.
Bree: (responds to comment) I have Liz Ireland’s Christmas one that came out last year.
Angela: You totally just got me. (turns to look at bookcase) I just saw the Nancy Coco one, Death Bee Comes Her. That’s also great.
Bree: I love that. It makes me think of the movie. (responds to comment) Yeah, I want to read Carol J. Perry too. I have the first book, but I haven’t read it.
(Max barks)
Angela: Oh,I know what it is. He knocked over one of the book ends.
Bree: Do you already have the winner for tonight picked out?
Angela: I was like every time I go to talk, he barks. So, what I’m going to do is, every single time, Max, hey. He just ran behind the bed and I can’t reach him, so I can’t even go grab him to give him a hug to settle him down.
So, what I do is, every single comment, once the video renders, I’m going to write down everyone’s name for every single comment and then randomly select the two winners. So, one person is going to win the Long Island Iced Tea book and another is going to win Farm to Trouble.
(Max barks) I don’t know what he wants. He’s hitting the tree. Max, come here.
Bree: Brownies and Broomsticks.
Angela: So, I have that one on the floor, and then the other one you had me think of was (holds up book) It Takes a Witch by Heather Blake.
Bree: I love that cover!
Angela: Yeah, so, I was going to say, if there’s any other thoughts you guys had about Crime & Punctuation, I love how I was like, “Let’s just talk about the cozies!” Was there anything else?
(Bree is laughing)
You’re so adorable, though. I don’t even look down at my notes when it comes to you. I’m like, “We’re just having a conversation.”
Bree: I was just so excited to talk about it and cozies, because I don’t ever really get to talk about cozies. So, this was fun!
Angela: And, now, you just talk about Romance. Like, that’s what you do now, that’s what you are. You’re the romance woman.
Bree: I love it! I love it. But I have so many, like, if I find a series that I’m interested in and like all the books are out, then I have to buy them all. Because, sometimes, you know, Barnes & Noble, they’ll have like the first three books, and then no books in the middle, and then book ten, eleven, and twelve. So, I’m like, if I see them, I have to get them. So, I’m trying to do better at reading all the series that are on my shelves this year.
Angela: I mean, I will admit, I think when it comes to cozies, part of me is always like, I want to start with book one, I never want to pick up a book in the middle of a series. The one time I’ve done this thus far was literally, what, a month or so ago, it was Lethal and Lace. It was book five, but it was the only one available in the audio subscription with Amazon. Usually, though, I only read the first book, so when I go to the bookstore and I see, “Oh, this is book 10,” and they don’t have any other, you know, they don’t have book one, I’m going, “Okay, I’m going to have to get back to you on that.”
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: So, I think that is somewhat problematic for me and my cozy reading, because when you go to the bookstore and they don’t have books one through twelve, or if it was Hannah Swenson, that would be like an entire two bookshelves, right there. So, I mean, they don’t do that. So, I think that might be one of the drawbacks for me when it comes to trying to stay on top of your cozy reading because, every so often, you’ll see a book come out in a series and it’s the seventh one, it looks awesome, and you’re going, “I haven’t read books one through six, though.”
Bree: I have done really good. Like, if it’s another romance, I’ll jump into the series wherever because it usually doesn’t, you don’t miss out on too much. But with cozy mysteries, I’m nervous. I’m like if I pick up book six before book one, I just feel like I’m gonna have missed something.
Photo by @ilikeoldbooks1213
Angela: You’re playing catch up, and I know, because this is the thing too, right? When it comes to cozies that I think is great with this subgenre of mysteries is that every author tries to make it so you can read each book as a standalone. But I do think you miss out on details when you pick up the next book in a series. Like, when you pick up book five instead of reading books one through four. So, with that book Lethal and Lace, the guy she ends up with, he literally proposes to her in the first couple of pages, but then you find out he was her ex-husband’s divorce lawyer and you’re going, “There’s a story there that I totally just missed out on,” like, “I need to go read books one through four now.” So, that was like, you could pick it up and understand, but you didn’t have the full context, so I did feel like I was missing out.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: A little sad. All the comments are popping up! It’s so hard to keep track of them all. You guys are amazing. I love this Book Club. You guys are so cute.
Bree: (reads comment by Aaron Oliver) “Are there still used paperback bookstores?”
Angela: I don’t know. They do exist, obviously, but I mean, with COVID, I don’t know how many of them are still opening their doors right now.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: I think that’s part of the issue, right?
Bree: Yeah, here we have like half-price books, and they’re open back up, and that’s nice to see. I was really worried about used bookstores for the longest. It’s nice to see that they’re still open.
Angela: I think that was one of the things with COVID, where there are a lot of really great second-hand bookstores, but it’s really hard when you know you’re trying to keep your doors open, but your people don’t want to go out, people are staying in. I mean, the amount of eBooks that are being read, in five years from now, when they release all the numbers, I think it’s going to be fascinating to be looking at the spikes that occur with different genres and authors.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: (reading comments) Oh, my gosh, yeah, I mean, as long as people are getting books, like, that’s also the other thing too, as you see people saying, “Yes,” I’m one of those people who are like, however, you get books, whether it’s the library, you want to listen to them on your audio or whatever, I’m just happy when people are reading the books.
Bree: Yeah, that is one thing that I miss, like, my library is doing, I can check out stuff online and then I go pick it up, and they give me a specific time, I have to call them when I’m outside, they’ll set it on the table, and I have to just go. And I’m like, “I just want to come in and walk around so bad.”
Angela: So, you give me this sort of wanderlust feeling, because this woman, I don’t know what your cafe system, like, I don’t know what cafes you visit, but her coffeehouses, her pictures are phenomenal, and I’m always, I got this longing, because the coffeehouses in my area, I just don’t leave my apartment that much, like, I don’t hardly ever leave. And, so, I haven’t actually gone to a cafe and just sat down just to take pictures, read the book, take some photos, like, I haven’t done any of that in the longest time, and then I see your photos, and I’m like, “I miss going to coffeehouses and writing.”
Bree: I was miserable, like, when COVID first kicked off and everything was closed, I was miserable because, like, as a mom going to the coffee shop is the one thing that I do by myself. And, so, once they started opening back up, you can’t go without, you can’t enter without a mask. They only let so many people in and I go, like, right when they open before they get busy. So, that’s just become my system, like, if they open at 8:00, I’m going to be there at 8:00.
Angela: (nodding) Yep.
Bree: I’m usually the first person in there for like thirty minutes, and it’s just nice. I love it.
Angela: I see those photos, and the longing that I feel when I see them, I’m like, “I miss those days.”
Bree: And I didn’t realize it, one of my friends was like, “You know, you need to keep posting them because not a lot of places, coffee shops, are open.” And I was like, “I didn’t even think that!” And I was like, “You know what? You’re right.”
Angela: The one that I went to that was my favorite in my area, they don’t have, it was always a very small sit-down area, and it was ‘WiFi Free’ so you weren’t supposed to have your computer open. It was just meant to sit there and have conversations or just sit there and read and just enjoy the moment. And, so, again, someone who always feels like, my brain is always going, like, it is ridiculous, it’s very hard for me to relax, so I would go there because I knew I couldn’t open the computer, and I just had to sit there and enjoy the coffee or make my little notes or whatever. And, so, now, you can just go and get your coffee and leave. They don’t have the sit-down options. So, when I see your photos, I’m like, “I miss the days.”
Bree: (laughing) Do you do a lot of writing like out and about?
Angela: Well, I think part of that too, with that process, at least, was, you know, I’ve been working on this dissertation for the longest time and, again, there’s been some more recent hurdles, which I will not divulge fully. But once this process is finally done, it’s going to be like, I’m going to be running around, I’ll be posting videos, being much more involved. It’s just, it’s been difficult.
Bree: Academic life, academic life.
Angela: But that was the whole thing though, too, right? For me, it was getting away from the dissertation and being able to turn that part of my brain off and not worry, like, “I’ve got to be doing the Lit Review. I’m going to be researching this. I’ve got to be reading this article. I’ve got to be reading that book that someone’s recommended.” So, for me, a lot of it was like getting away from the work because my apartment, it is ridiculous. I’ve got my office and there’s just academic books (gestures piles high). My dissertation is on The Romance Genre Fandom, so I have like all these tabs and stuff in the office, and I have to close door so you don’t see the books with all the notes.
Bree: (smiling) Have you added anything in since Bridgerton happened?
Angela: At this point, I’d probably be able to add a few more things, because the process is, again, hurdles. So, before the final version is submitted, I’m probably going to add a couple of paragraphs, at least. Because Julia Quinn, I mean, this woman, got to bow down to this talent. She definitely was able to create something; that series came out at the perfect time for people with Netflix, like, wanting the happily ever after is wanting the positivity. I don’t think I can ignore that because a lot of what I’m saying in the dissertation is why people are reading Romance and people want positivity and, like, that’s exactly what Bridgerton let’s people have.
Bree: And with everything that you’ve been working on is leading up to like, “And here we go! Perfect example.”
Angela: Well, it’s so great when I wrote something and, again, it hasn’t been put out into the world yet, and I’m like, “And someone else just said this.” So, I was like, “You should have just let me submit this to the library now. Thank you very much.” Again, I try to smile through the pain, like, not bitter grapes. I’m just happy, it’s getting its due; like, the fandom is getting the recognition, the credit. I mean, that’s all I really cared about to start with anyway. My project started with the stigmatization of the genre, so if we can help eliminate that at all, that’s great. I’m not going to be upset that someone else beat me to it. I’m like, yeah, “Go, Bridgeton!” like, “Do what you’re doing right there. Keep going. Get that award.”
Bree: I cannot wait to hear about the finished product because you’ve been working on it for a long time.
Angela: I’m going to be very honest. At this point, I think the final product is probably going be more reflective of the committee than myself. So, after it’s done, I’m probably going to come back out with something and post it on either my website, or do some like short blog posts, or something to show what I was doing, and what I originally wanted, because, you know, once you have a committee and outside influence, it’s really hard to stay true to your original goals. But I just love the genre. I love the fandom. I just wanted to shine a light on it. So, again, trying to stay positive, like, there is a reason why I started this study. You know, there’s a motivation to finish it for that reason.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: So shoutout to Bree because she was one of the first people I interviewed. Like, when you first started Instagram, when you first started Booktube, again, this is how long I’ve been working on this dissertation, people. This woman, her Instagram is ridiculous. She has exploded. I interviewed her when she just started.
Bree: (laughing) That was a while ago.
Angela: (laughing) Like, that is how long I’ve been working on this project.
Bree: Oh, my gosh, I can’t even imagine, Angela. I would be over it.
Angela: I mean, that’s the thing, though, too, right? I think because I care about what I’m researching, that’s why it’s hard to not give up on it. I just want to see this through because, at this point, I do have the research and, again, I’m being very honest, like, this is something I probably, you know, wasn’t going to reveal. But, like, I do think the end product is more representative of the committee than my intentions, but I’m still going to stick to it. I still think it’s worthwhile, and I still am going to have the data that I gathered, and then I can do with it what I will, after-the-fact. So, I just gotta see it through.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: It hasn’t been the easiest process, but I’m going to see it through. I mean, there’s been more recent hurdles that I haven’t discussed publicly and, you know, you can you can probably see my Instagram and stuff has probably been less active and whatever. Like, I haven’t been posting the individual videos that I had been. I’ve just been doing The Cozy Mystery Book Club livestreams once a month. This is my YouTube life right now, because everything’s been so dissertation focused. So, I mean, this is part of why I think I enjoy the Club too. This gives me a break to go read something different, to actually talk to people who love books like I do. I get to step away from everything, so it’s just wonderful. I love being able to do this and not have to worry about anything else.
Bree: I mean, we’re rooting for you, girl. You take the time you need.
Angela: I have to admit, I know my mom probably will check out this video at some point, you know, I got to give the family credit, shoutout to them. Like, if they hadn’t, if my parents hadn’t been so supportive, like, “Finish it. Do what you got to do,” like, that’s been a really big deal, because I’ve had every issue known to man with this program. I’ve had issue after issue after issue. But like, I’m still here, I’m still going to get it done! That’s all you can do, right?
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: I just keep working, keep chugging along and, eventually, hopefully (smiles).
Bree: Like you said, it’s a topic that you love, and I think that people don’t realize that it is something worth studying and like researching and looking into. I mean, there’s so many aspects to the genre that one could research and study, and I just I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.
Angela: As I’m like, smiling, one of the things with the literature review, so I’m studying the Romance Fandom, and a lot of academic studies that have been done have been on the content, not the people consuming content. So, again, I’m a communications major. I’m not studying English language. I love my grammar and punctuation, (Bree laughs) but I’m studying the people, so it’s different. And there hasn’t been a lot of studies done on the fandom. And, so, I have a lot of popular references, you know, popular presses or books that were not necessarily academic. So, I got dinged for not having any academic citations for the fandom; like, “But they don’t exist yet. That’s why I’m doing this.”
Bree: So, do you have to defend, like, this is why I don’t have that.
Angela: (nodding)
Bree: Okay.
Angela: So, it is what it is. Again, like all the more reasons to be like, “Let me go read a cozy mystery, let me go relax.” This is why I think I love going on the Cozy Instagram and seeing what people are posting. I mean, again, I think there’s something about this Club where, like, you guys just brighten my life. You make me smile. There’s something to it when I see the photos of people with posting Crime & Punctuation. Like, “They posted it! They’re reading the book. This is so great!”
I was having a really bad day a couple of weeks ago because again, hurdle, won’t divulge into that, but it was always great to, you know, again, I got to see the photos and I’m like, “They’re reading the book! This club matters!” So, it really does brighten my day in that way. As I’m talking, I’m getting emotional.
Bree: I was reposting the pictures that you posted today, and I was just, I mean, I kind of look at cozies like I do with romance.
Angela: (nodding) Yeah.
Bree: Like, anybody who, I just I love people that are like unapologetic about what they love. And I think that anything that is like cozy or like relaxing that brings people joy is so easily dismissed, and I was just like, “I love what the Book Club stands for because it’s all about these cozy mysteries and they’re just so fun and they’re a really good escape.” I mean, I don’t know, I tried to read literary fiction a couple of years ago and, like, no shade to it, but it was not an escape, okay?
Angela: So, again, I’m advocating romance but I realized a lot of it is lately, I just want to reread old romances because every so often you’ll pick up a romance like, “This is this character’s back story?” You’re like, “Okay.” I picked up a romance novel and, all of a sudden, you’re like, “Okay,” there are a few things that I’m trying not to, you know, it wasn’t a bad thing, it was just, all of a sudden, the heroine’s attacked by a bad guy and you’re like, “Nothing happens,” but it’s still on the page. She gets away, but I didn’t want this. Like, I don’t need this right now. Let me go find, that’s why I’ve been reading more cozies. I’ve been trying to post some of the reviews lately. And, so, I was like, “Let me go back to the cozy” or “Let me go reread this old romance.” I want the fun. I want the calm, you know. The other day on Twitter, I didn’t comment because, again, I’m not, I just read stuff sometimes. Someone said, “Oh, let’s have more on-the-page violence with cozies,” and I’m like, “That’s not what cozies are.”
Bree: (shaking her head) No! That’s why I read cozies. I couldn’t do too much of the violence. I can’t do that.
Angela: No. (shaking her head) I saw the person on Twitter, it was like they had this whole thread about maybe having more on-the-page relationships come to fruition. I’m going, “But that’s not cozies.” I’m like pulling up the shirt over my head like I want to hide, “That’s not what cozy mysteries are.” So, like, people who read cozies, you read them for a reason, like, we get it.
Bree: (smiling & nodding) Yeah.
Angela: (responds to comment by Cooking With My Cozies “Cozies are usually light-hearted”) Yes, see, light-hearted! You know, it’s a great escape. So, yeah, you don’t want on-the-page violence, you don’t want on-the-page (turns head), if you want that, you pick up a different book, a different series, you know, whatever. So, I just saw that and I’m going, “But my cozies, my crew gets it.”
Bree: And the cool thing like, especially, if it’s like small-town cozies, it’s kind of that reminder that even if you live in the idyllic small town, you never know what’s really going on. (laughs)
Angela: I think it’s always kind of nice too, though, you always have that validation that justice is served. You know, the bad guy is going to go to jail. There’s going to be penance of, I mean, again, usually it’s a murder mystery, ninety-nine percent of murder mysteries you know they’re going to jail, the good triumphs. Your sleuther, who’s usually a woman, she has agency, she’s being able to do these things. In a lot of cozies, they have their own businesses. I think that there’s a lot of positivity in regards to representation. I mean, even the book we just read tonight, right? She’s like, “We’re not a size two.”
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: She’s said she’s twice the woman she used to be. I love it when cozies say, “Yeah, I am a size twelve. I’m a size eighteen.” There are different races, ethnicities, I love what cozies stand for and how they show women in all these different roles; it’s just so great. I’m getting really excited, with the hand motions over here, like, “I love them!”
Bree: (holds up Crime & Punctuation) I mean, a sixty-eight-year-old sleuth.
Angela: (smiling & nodding)
Bree: I mean, I can’t remember the last time I read a book with a main character that was sixty-eight. I loved Mikki.
Angela: This is what I mean, like, it’s just inspiring to see, yeah, she’s starting her own business, she’s doing what she wants to do. Again, she has agency. She’s going out there; she goes to the interview too. She’s looking into things. She takes it on herself. So, I think that’s also really sort of inspirational, like, yeah, “If you want to go do something, you can do it,” maybe not go look into a murder mystery. (smiles)
Bree: Yeah! At any time in life! At any time in life, you can go for it. I love that.
Angela: (nodding) I mean, whether you want to be an editor, I love the ones where, you know, there’s, what was it? She was writing a book on the side and she decided to do writing as her, I’m totally blanking, but she was probably, she wasn’t, um, a silver sleuth, she was probably in her forties, but she’s going, “Yeah, I’m going to write my book now. I’m going to do this.” So, I kind of thought that was really nice, yeah, she’s owning her passion.
Bree: (nodding with a big smile)I love that. I love it. It’s never too late. It’s never too late.
Angela: I still love Agatha Raisin with her TV show. I mean, this woman, that actress, you know, she’s kicking butt and she’s not a twenty-one-year-old size two. I mean, she’s beautiful, and she’s in shape, again, she’s older. I think that’s great, showing women of different ages instead of being like, “We’re going to be prim and proper. We don’t age. We have no lines. We know you’re never beyond the sample size.”
Bree: Where do you watch that? I have never seen it.
Angela: Which one? Agatha Raisin? I get the reason.
Bree: (nodding)
Angela: She’s so beautiful. She probably is like a size four. Her name is Ashley Jensen, the actress, and she’s on Acorn TV. So, you can get the subscription on Amazon. I think it’s four (dollars) ninety-nine (cents) a month, but a lot of times they’ll do like the Free, they’ll do a lot of Freebies, where they’re like, “You get to try it for thirty days.”
Bree: Okay.
Angela: Yeah, you can probably binge the season, like, you can binge them very easily.
Bree: (laughs)
Angela: The other one for Acorn TV that I recommend is Queens of Mystery. That is another one showing women of different ages. The main character, she has three aunts, and she has one aunt that’s a writer. She has another one who’s this former rock and roll woman. And then, what’s the third? The third one, I think, she’s invested in theatre. And, so, again, like, different women, different ages, it’s great. I recommend that one too.
Bree: Acorn TV. Okay.
Angela: As I’m nodding, I’ve seen that, I think there are six episodes in total, I’m pretty sure, and it’s only one season at the moment, so that can be a quick binge, but it’s worth it. It’s a good one.
Bree: Okay, I’m going to look it up.
Angela: As I look down (reads comment by Stephanie Aurelio) “Love Queens of Mystery.” There’s also the theme song, I tried to find the theme song on iTunes because, apparently, I’m that person who wants a theme song. (laughs) Queens of Mystery is a good show, and I’m like high-five Stephanie, “We’re on the same page.”
Oh, my gosh, just so cute, as I look down (reading comments). I know I was just chatting with you. All the comments, they’re popping up. I mean, you guys are so amazing. Is there something else about the book you guys wanted us to talk about, touch on? Whether it’s about the book or other books that I grabbed, apparently, or Acorn TV? I mean, we also have, I don’t think you go by the goddess anymore, but it used to be Bree the Goddess (gestures hands up to present to the side) as I’m, I got to angle, how do I angle this? Be like, “Bree the Goddess.” Any questions for Bree? I mean, anything that you want to pop up before, you know, the end of the night or I lose my voice, whichever comes first.
Bree: (holds up Crime & Punctuation) I like seeing that everybody seemed to like it; that made my day. It was, yeah, I like seeing that everybody seemed to like it. Everybody seemed to like Mikki.
Angela: I love that, I was so happy, as I’m trying to remember the first one, yeah, so, it was a Killer Chardonnay for last month. And then I love how like I’m blanking on January’s book right off the top of my head. (Bree laughs) Yeah, I love how I’m forgetting next month. So, Killer Chardonnay was the first one of our four books that we read, and everyone loved that one too. And it’s so great to see the Book Club choosing the books. Again, these four books were tied; they were recommended again and again and again. And, so, to see people enjoying the books that they really wanted to read, your heart just has to soar with that. I mean, that is amazing.
Bree: Yeah!
Angela: People are enjoying it because they wanted to read it.
Bree: Are there any releases that you’re excited for? Like, cozy mysteries coming out this year? Or, like, in the next couple of months?
Angela: I was going to say Kensington sent the list and Kensington is my go-to. I love Kensington. I also love Poisoned Pen Press; they’re amazing. Kensington will send the list of books; that’s why I mentioned Kensington right off the bat. They’ll send the list of books. So, Ellery Adams has a book coming out April twenty-seventh Murder in the Cookbook Nook that is one of my new favorite titles. And then Amanda Flower has another one, again, like, you got to bow down to this woman and her talent. She also has one coming out April twenty-seventh Lemon Drop Dead.
Bree: She is a beast; her and Ellery Adams, and Ellie Alexander. And, like, how do these women sleep at night? They just (shaking her head).
Angela: I have no idea. (looks forward) Like, “Do you sleep?”
Bree: Count books! (tilts her head to the side and places a hand under her chin) Look! Like, “I’m dozing off, but I just got a book idea, so let me go write!”
Angela: I’m trying to remember, there’s another one on the list that I remember I saw, where I’m going, “That looks amazing.” I think there was another one. Oh, yeah! So, yeah, Murder, She Edited (by Kaitlyn Dunnett) the fourth book is coming out for this series for Crime & Punctuation. It’s Murder, She Edited, and that’s coming out July 27.
Bree: (claps)
Angela: So, that one’s coming out. And then, as I’m scrolling down the list, there was one where I’m pretty sure it was the first book in a series where I’m like, “Oh, I’m going to make note of this.” Oh, Two Wicked Desserts (by Lynn Cahoon). There’s a Halloween mystery coming out in July, so I might have to put a little asterisk, like, “Keep this on the list.”
Bree: Yes!
Angela: Oh, I remember what it was! Carlene O’Connor, she has Murder in Connemara, so that one’s coming out too. I think that’s the third book in her series. She has the Ireland series (An Irish Village Mystery), and then (looking at the list) Murder in a Teacup (by Vicki Delany).
Bree: Ah!I got a Carlene O’Connor. It’s like a green cover.
Angela: Yeah, she wrote the Ireland one. (turns to look at bookcase) She has a couple of Irish ones.
Bree: Is it a bookshop? Irish bookshop or something?
Angela: I’m trying to remember. (turns to look at bookcase) It’s over there somewhere. The dog is being weird, so if I go, try, and take that book, it’s not going to work. We’re going to get barked at again. But, yeah, there are a whole bunch of books coming out. Oh, Lee Hollis has one, Death of an Italian Chef. That, for some reason, like titles alone, you’ve got to smile. So, there are a lot of books coming out to be excited about.
Bree: I’m going to have to keep up with them on NetGalley because they kind of, like, give me free range with their NetGalley. But I’m, like, probably the world’s worst eBook reader, you guys.
Angela: I don’t do NetGalley anymore because I wouldn’t be able to read it in time, and my score was going down.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: Because they always try and keep track of who gets access to what and when you post it. So, it was one of those, I don’t want to be that person who just says, “Four stars. I just want to get my rating back up.”
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: I don’t want to do that.
Bree: Yeah, I will forget, then like four months down the line, I’ll be like, “Oh, let me get on NetGalley, and it’s like five reviews that I’m typing up! And I’m like, they are probably like, “Why do we give this girl access?” I mean, I try, you know, just, I’m a little late.
Angela: I don’t think they put expiration dates, because if they did, my rating would be zero or something; like, it would be ridiculous. There’s always a super delayed reaction. I think one time, too, I got approved for something, but I didn’t know it. I forget if it was, it might have been an Avon book, and I had put in to get access to one of the books. But I didn’t know, I never got an email, or a pop-up or something. But I didn’t know and then, eventually, I read the book and I had purchased it. And, I don’t know, again, this is probably, I haven’t checked NetGalley in months, now, as I say this. But, months ago, the last time I probably did, I saw and was like, “Oh, I can do a review on this one,” even though I didn’t use the NetGalley.
Bree: (laughing) Yeah, I didn’t use it either.
Angela: (responds to comment) See, I’m glad Tracy says, “NetGalley is the best.” I think the one thing with NetGalley is you get to see what’s coming out and then you can get excited for it, even if you don’t read it on NetGalley.
Bree: (nodding)
Angela: You can say, “Oh, this book has this author! This book!”
Bree: Yeah, but it can be discouraging, but I tell people like, “Be careful what you wish for, because before you know it, you’re going to get approved for all these things, and now you’ve got to read them, and review them.” And I’m a mood reader, so, like, I may ask for it, and it may take them three weeks to give it to me, and I’m like, “Well, now, I’m not really in the mood for the book.”
Angela: Yeah, I just told you I was rereading my old favorites. You know, sometimes, you don’t want to take a chance, either.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah, yeah. This year has been, like, I have been mostly reading backless titles, so I’m like, “I need to stay off NetGalley,” because older books have just been it for me this year.
Angela: I don’t know what it was, I was going to say, again, I started using the Kindle App a long, long time ago. Obviously, you know, I’ve got little lines around my eyes. So, I went back to the beginning of my Kindle library, and I was reading books that I had purchased when I first got Kindle, and it was like the first time I was reading them. I had no recollection; it was like reading them for the first time. It was wonderful, I didn’t have to spend any money. I already had them. It was great!
Bree: Aww, goodnight, Lady Gizmo (waves) “Thank you and I hope Max finds his treat” aww.
Angela: That was sweet. I like the little bone emoji. I didn’t even know that was a thing.
Photo by @cozyuptocrime
Bree: (laughing) Yeah!
Angela: I know (turns to look down at Max) he’s probably wondering why Mommy’s ignoring him, at this point. He’s probably being like, (different voice) “My night-time walk, Mommy.” Again, I do the voices like I imagine what he’s thinking. I imagine what he’s saying.
Bree: Little Max. So, when are you all meeting again? Like, when’s next meeting? so I can watch.
Angela: Let me open the book. So, next month we have Murder in G Major, and for March, we have two guest hosts, Stephanie Richards and Jeanne Epstein. So, we have two guest hosts next month, and these women have been involved in Book Club for the longest time, and so have you (Bree). I love you. You’re great.
So, I was so excited to see the names pop up with the Google survey. I posted the Google Form, excuse me, so I had asked people to fill out the Google Form to show interest because I didn’t want to put people on the spot being like, “Will you guest host?” you know, if someone’s camera shy or something. So, when I got to go through the Google Form and see who filled it out, I’m sort of just doing it in batches so I can re-post and re-share the Google Form. So, if you are interested, you can go fill it out, this way, I know you might want to be a guest host in the future. You can also choose the months. I was so happy, the reason why I’m pointing at Bree is, she filled it out, and I think you chose two months, and I was so excited (throws arms up in the air) “She chose February! I need a guest host, and I know her! This is great!”
Bree: (laughing)
Angela: I was like, “The timing is aligned.”
Bree: I did!So, like, if you still have them, if you have a month down the line that you want me to come on, I would love to come on.
Angela: (big smile) I was so excited because, again, I posted the Form and, again, I don’t want to make people feel pressure or, you know, I don’t want to be like on the lookout and see who’s answered. I don’t want to be like refreshing it every couple of, you know, because once I start to do that, that’s what I’m going to do. So, I waited until after, you know, I waited probably like a month to go check in with the Form, and you were probably, I think, the second person, because Ben was the first person who filled out the form, and you were the second. I’m like, “She filled out the Form!” I was so excited because I wanted to ask you to be a guest host, but I know you’re so busy.
Bree: (big smile) I may not be as busy as I might look, okay.
Angela: This woman, she’s a mom. You have three children, I believe.
Bree: (nodding) Yes.
Angela: She has three children that she’s taking care of; she’s raising a family. She’s in school. Her Instagram is amazing, so you’ve got to take those pictures, you’ve got to edit and everything else. You’re reading. I was like, “I don’t want to put her on the spot,” and make her feel like, you know. So, I was so happy to see your name pop up.
Bree: Yeah!
Angela: So, you deserve a shoutout. I was like, “Thank you for filling out the Form and being here.”
Bree: Thank you. Yeah, I signed up for two, so whenever you need me to come back for my second, just let me know.
Angela: I was going to say, right, you were the second person. Ben, I think, he clicked off multiple months and then I saw you said February, I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, it’s her for the first time, this is great!” It’s perfect.
Bree: (nodding) Yay!
Angela: I was so excited, and it’s so funny, because her title is Falling4Romance. I was there when you first started reading romance, and so I was like, “Oh, she’s romance, it’s February.” And then this book had no romance in it, but I liked that. I was just so excited, I was like, “February it is.” I was so happy that you’re able to do this this month, and it’s also been the longest time since I got to chat with you.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: Because I get to see your beautiful photos when my Instagram is behaving itself. We’re not going to get into that, but if I ever accidentally Unfollow someone, just let me know and I will fix it. She was one of the accounts that my Instagram Unfollowed, and I was so mad when I saw that.
Bree: It happens. It’s like waiting for the algorithm to work. You’re just like, “Did so-and-so stop posting?” and then you go look, it’s like, “No, they’re active, all the time.” It just doesn’t want me to see it. So, it happens.
Angela: Yeah, because I hadn’t seen any photos for a while, and then I saw them. I was like, “I’m Following her,” and I’m like, “I get to see her photos now.” Instagram, behave yourself. I see her photos. So, I mean, you’re incredible. I don’t know how you live your life. You’re an inspiration. I’m so happy that you were able to join us this month because now I’ve got to go look up the other month that you selected, because now I’m curious, because I don’t remember off the top of my head. But yeah, if you have any cozy mysteries on your TBR or other things that pop up, I’m like, “You’re going to have to let me know.”
Bree: I’m going to send you, when we get off of here, I’m going to message you like my shelves, like, “These are the books that I couldn’t think of while we were talking!”
Angela: I know, right? Once the video archives, again, I’m going to go through, because YouTube is really funky when it comes to comments, like, they pop up as the video goes (airs live). This is why it takes me a little while to sometimes get all the comments for the giveaways. The next time I go through the video to do the comments, I’m probably going to be like, “Okay, I’m going to make a note of this book, and this book.” So, it might even take a little longer to do the giveaway, if I do that too, because there’s, obviously, a lot of books that were referenced and I have shelves to reorganize, because I was just grabbing things after a certain point. So, yeah! I think that this was really, it was kind of nice to talk about different books in addition to the book of the month.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: Because sometimes we just talk about the book of the month and, I mean, again, I love that. Last month I was gushing over Killer Chardonnay, and I would have kept gushing over it forever because it was such a great read. But, yeah, it was kind of nice to talk about additional cozies in addition to Crime & Punishment.
Bree: I just had to pick your and like everybody’s brain because I don’t really get to talk about cozy mysteries. So, thank you guys for having me, and letting me ask questions and get recommendations, and talk about Amanda Flower.
Angela: I feel like we kind of need shows like Amanda Flower Crew, like, The Cozy Mystery Crew of Amanda Flower.
Bree: Her Hallmark book, like, it sold out the day that it came out, and I’m like messaging her on Instagram, “I’m trying to buy the book and it’s gone.” And then, as soon as Barnes & Noble got it in again, I was there, and I was like, “I’m dying! If you have a book under Hallmark!”
Angela: She also seems like just the sweetest little human being too.
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: I love her newsletter. If you guys aren’t following her newsletter, she’s just so sweet. I think the last one, she had a soup recipe. I mean, again, here’s this woman who’s writing all these books, and she has these random inclusions, and she has this Etsy Store where she has handmade crafts. And I’m going, “How?” And she also has really adorable cats. You mentioned you like cats.
Bree: Yeah! Oh, yeah, her Instagram has cats, yeah.
Angela: (nodding) I was like, “Follow her.”
Bree: How do you have time to write Flower?
Angela: I feel like I need to make a list of women for Booktube, for Bookstagram, for writing, and be like, “These are the women I aspire to be like.”
Bree: Yeah, right! It’s Women’s Month with Women’s History.
Angela: I mean, that’s what it is, though. I’ve got to give her credit for being able to, because she doesn’t just write a lot of books, she writes a lot of great books.
Bree: Yeah.
Angela: And there’s great characters and great stories. I mean, there are some authors who, you know, who find a formula and like, “If you like one book, you will like all the others.” That’s great, but she (Amanda Flower) doesn’t do, you know, none of her stuff, I mean, every single thing is unique unto itself. So, like bow down to her, bow down. I was like, “I’ll give you all the gold stars for your shirt,” if I was the teacher, like, “You get the gold star.”
(reading comments) You guys are so great and you guys are amazing for joining and reading and being a part of the Book Club. I mean, I didn’t even realize like how long we’ve been talking. I mean, it wasn’t until the dog was like, “Pay attention to me,” where I was like, “Hey, wait a second.”
Bree: Oh, Max! He’s so adorable. Well, thank you for having me.
Angela: You are welcome, any time.
Bree: Thank you, everybody, who was with us. Thank you.
Angela: I know, thank you, guys, for joining. Next month is Murder in G Major. I already made the YouTube link so you can add it to your watch list. I will re-share it.
If you haven’t signed up for my personal newsletter, I always feel like I’m pitching, but I’m not. I always include the links and references to the books and where to find them in there, which is why I’m referencing it. Plus, I have a bunch of Freebies. I was doing this earlier (holds up a coloring page I’LL BE YOUR COZY COMPANION, parts colored). I have all the Freebie links and stuff I really wanted to share. So, if you sign up, you’ll have access to all the Mandelas that I had created, all the cozy bingo cards, just everything cozy. I really try to do a lot for you guys. So, if you want to subscribe, please do that because I’ll include more information, additional giveaway information, and so much more. I always try and do that. I only send it out once a month, on the first of the month, every month, that’s it. There are some authors who do, you know, daily. I’m not going to do that, I promise. So, you can add that to your watch list.
I’m trying to think, I felt like there was one other thing. So, next month, Stephanie and Jeanne are going to be the guests; and then April, Vonnie and Victoria are going to be, again, we have two guest hosts. But after that, I was going to ask if you guys can start thinking about books for May because, once again, we’re going to have to start doing the Twitter polls because we only have two more books on the TBR. So, you’ve got to start thinking about what other first books in the series you might want to read. So, please start thinking, mulling that over. There’s no rush; two months away, but just start thinking.
Bree: Cannot wait, can’t wait to see what they are.
Angela: I know, I’m always so excited, because people will find books that either slip-through-the-cracks or were older that I never saw, or books that had just come out. I mean, it’s always great to have people who love cozies recommend like, “This is a cozy I want to read.”
Bree: (nodding) Yeah.
Angela: I think that’s great. So, I can’t wait. Just start thinking and I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with because I know it’s going to be great. Please check the Twitter account and Instagram for the Winners for tonight, as I’m starting to lose my voice. Yes, because I’m going to go through the comments. It’s going to take me a little while because clearly y’all are amazing and we’re killing it tonight with the comments. So once the video archives, I’m probably going to do it tomorrow. It might take me a little while, but please be sure to check the Cozy Instagram and Twitter for the announcement, because sometimes when it comes to YouTube, I can’t find people like, again, people don’t have to have YouTube accounts to comment for YouTube. So, sometimes, it’s difficult to find the Instagram handle or the Twitter handle, so please be on the lookout to see if your name gets posted, because I want to make sure I can contact you, so you can get your either Amanda Flower or Ellen Byron book. So be on the lookout for that!
Bree: Good Luck!
Angela: And a huge THANK YOU and virtual hugs to Bree.
Photo by @writerahart
I am so happy and so thankful and appreciative that you joined us tonight. I mean, you’re just, I adore her. So, again, if you are not already Following her across platforms, please do so. She’s incredible, and she’s also the kindest human being. You know, it’s one of those things where some people are so talented. But you’re, like, you’re talented and a good person. Like, you’re just the complete package. So just shoutout to you.
Bree: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I’m rooting for you.
Angela: Aww, thank you.
Bree: I love it. Thank you.
Angela: I know, I love the Cozy Club. You know, I kind of got a little emotional. I was like, “Nope, I’m gonna stay composed.” I mean, your well-wishes, they really do mean so much to me because, you know, this is, you know, this is, as I’m getting emotional again. You know, I love this Club. I love being able to celebrate books with people who share my love of literature who, you know, enjoy the same books that I do and celebrating books about women by women. It’s just it’s a wonderful feeling, and I love being able to spread the coziness. So, just, thank you, guys, for joining us. And, you know, this is your Tuesday night, so thank you for spending your Tuesday night with us. You guys are the best! So, the best to you too!
Bree: (waves) Bye, everybody.
Angela: (waves) Bye! Please stay safe and healthy, and you know, please take care of yourselves during Covid.
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