Aired June 29, 2021
Angela: I love how it always shows the thumbnail. I’m like okay, is it loading? Everyone in the comments are so cute, I’m not sure if we’re live yet. Oh yes we are live, I can see us. Hi everybody! Oh my goodness! I am so excited about tonight because I adore my guest hostess.
She is one of the sweetest people. Again, I get to talk to her for the first time, ever met, because I feel like I know her so well from Instagram and Twitter. Her Instagram handle is @ilikeoldbooks1213. She posts the most adorable cozy mystery photos, she’s always commenting on the page and I’m so happy I get to chat with her live tonight about our Amanda Flower book of the month.
Colleen: Thank you so much for having me.
Angela: I am so excited to see everyone’s comments too. I love the positivity, I’m so happy we have first timers, I’m so honoured you guys are here. We had a little technical difficulty, so we were just like 2 minutes behind schedule. Don’t worry about it. I was reading the comments, so actually it was a good thing because sometimes comments are so fast I miss them. I saw that there are a couple of first timers, and all the love and shout outs to you, I am so happy you’re here and joining us. I cannot express how much it means to, so I really hope you enjoy tonight.
Colleen: Thank you.
Angela: Okay. So, we got the book, our book of the month. Farm to Trouble, Amanda Flower. There clearly people who have very different thoughts on this. Some people loved it, some people gave it two stars so there’s a lot to discuss tonight. I myself have so many notes because my mind was just going all these different places, so hopefully. We’re going to have to talk about the murder mystery part in a minute, well not in a minute, a little bit later.
Colleen: Sure.
Angela: After we start the discussion, because spoilers. We’ll get into that, but there’s a lot of Shiloh. This poor thing, she comes home and the world unravels around her. What did you think?
Colleen: I mean yeah, there’s a lot that I liked about this book, but I will say that I was a little.
Angela: Oh no, did I lose you?
Colleen: [02:25-02:31 freezes] of everyone towards her, it was really stressful, and a lot of it feels so unfair too, and so that was a little bit tough sometimes.
Angela: I love how the dog starts barking the moment I start having a livestream. I’m going to say he agrees with you. Honestly, this little guy, I’ve been trying to bribe him for live streams, I officially come prepared with treats. I mentioned this beforehand, I literally bought him his own croissant from Starbucks, like maybe he’ll spend his time eating the full croissant because he’s a little guy, so big meal, so hopefully he’ll be quiet.
Yeah I know, you just hit the nail on the head because other people were commenting, the whole community, no one was really welcoming to this little thing. In my notes, I talk about how the opening interaction she has is with the chief of police who pulls her over for speeding.
Colleen: Right.
Angela: I think that’s almost indicative of the rest of the book because this is her introduction back to her hometown and she’s getting a speeding ticket. She’s starting off on a bad note and it just keeps getting worse
Colleen: Yeah, and it really did feel so unjustified, especially as you learn more, like her dad seeming so angry at her and yet when you look at it, she’s been bankrolling the farm and paying for it and he hasn’t really been doing much. I mean, I know he just was ill but even before that, it looks like he was pretty focused on his gun collection not the farm, and so that seemed unfair, and then her cousin being all mean to her when she seemed to be just focusing on her theatre, so I don’t know.
Angela: I have so many thoughts on the cousin. The cousin is going to be a full-fledged conversation, because I have so many questions and thoughts about her. I was trying to pull up people’s comments because clearly everybody seems to be on the same kind of train of thought. Honestly, you said you’re stressed out reading this one, other people are commenting about the standoffishness. I mean, I’m so used to the cozy elements with the return to the hometown, everyone usually embraces, the protagonist gets reacquainted and there’s a sort of warmth that envelops them usually and she seemed very isolated and the outsider element was really reinforced because everybody was so cruel to her. The cousin, the first time she sees her, she makes a comment about her arms bring flabby. What?
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: That’s the first thing that you say to her about her appearance, and then you mentioned the dad with the guns. He referenced how he did that when she was growing up too, because he said he started that hobby when her mother passed away and she said she was 6 years old or something when the mom passed away.
Colleen: Right.
Angela: So he’s been ignoring his daughter for way too long, and he also is very hypocritical with her. I have so many problems with her relationship with the dad. Again, this is something so different for cozy mysteries because usually there’s that sort of Lorelai, Rory from Gilmore Girls vibe, where they’re super close and we love our family, so the fact that these two were just at odds and he almost didn’t respect her, that was troubling for me some of the time, I wasn’t a fan of their relationship.
Colleen: This is kind of skipping ahead, but I really felt that at the end of the book I was hoping for more closure, family wise, like with her cousin. Stephanie brought up that her cousin was a hypocrite, I thought maybe that would have been addressed or a little more closure with her dad, and I didn’t really get that closure at the end, which obviously gets us ready for more books, the idea that maybe they will develop in the future but I was a little disappointed in this book, not to see a little more resolution.
Angela: I mean, the thing with the money. So this is a mini spoiler I guess, with the grandmother who passed away, I have thoughts on this so clearly I’m trying to figure out where to start. So the grandmother leaves her a note in her old cabin which apparently nobody decided they wanted to go into after 15 years. I know she passed away, but nobody wanted to check to make sure that she didn’t leave food in her refrigerator. Nobody went in this place for 15 years. I’m not sure about that component.
She says, I left the money in the heart of the farm, and she says in the note that she’s good with money and my undergrad was at a business school, so my first thought is why didn’t you put the money in a bank so it can earn interest? How can you claim the money? Wait a second. So that was the cliff hanger, that she’s going to find the money, that would actually solve all the problems with the debt and the farm, so I kind of wanted that a little bit resolved too, I know that’s the overarching mystery right now, but I kind of wanted that to be episodic, I wanted that answered in this one.
Colleen: I did too, I wanted to find the money for sure. Yeah
Angela: I know.
Colleen: People are saying maybe there will be family growth in the next books.
Angela: I didn’t, because again, I feel as for me, the cousin is very much tied to the murder mystery who done it reveal, so I was trying not to say my total thoughts with this, but I really wanted the cousin to be the killer, I wanted her out of the book. I think all the clues are pointing to her, I really wanted this woman to be the killer because to me, we needed to just get rid of her.
Colleen: Yeah, yeah. Victoria, Hamel, she doesn’t really look forward to reading a second book if it’s going to be like the same animosity and there it is. I would agree with that, I’m really hoping that future books, some of the bad Juju will be gone and will be a little bit more positive, so it can be a little more.
Angela: Yeah. I honestly feel as if for me, the cozy mysteries I love, again, I don’t really like the term escapism, but for me that does kind of play into it, because again, I love my baking cozies because I get to live vicariously through them in a way, and I saw people mentioning the body shaming, and usually for me with cozy mysteries, the characters engage in the I’m going to eat my pastry and you get to enjoy the frosting and the cinnamon rolls, you get to have some of those elements rolled into it.
And again, I’m not saying she shouldn’t be on a diet, but usually there’s components to it where it’s not so much about the inferiority complex of I need to be better, I need to be thin, but I think I didn’t really care for her reasons for being on the diet. It wasn’t because she wanted to be healthy, it was because she felt she had to be, that kind of made me sad. Oh no, am I frozen? What just happened? Wait. Okay. I’m not sure what’s going on. Colleen is frozen on my end, I hope she is not frozen on yours, I don’t know what’s going on. Hopefully she pops back on.
Can you guys hear me? No, I lost her. Hopefully she’ll come back on. I’m in stream yard, so hopefully I can just re add her to the broadcast. I hope you can at least still hear me, I was reading your comments. Hopefully I’ll just read them the comments as she gets back in, and I have my phone in front of me, so if she’s trying to message me she can. I might actually open my email too, this way she can message me if need be, but yeah, I just wanted to say, in regards to some of the comments that were popping up, where did they go?
Yeah, so other people wanted the cousin to be gone. I always feel badly wanting to jump right into the spoilers, but I really wanted the cousin to be the murderer, because I also feel as if Amanda Flower totally set up the mystery once she started seeing the puzzle pieces come together, I totally thought that all the puzzle pieces were going towards her, because she was the one who wanted the father to give the guns to the play, she had access to the guns, she had access to the house with the bullets. I’m still not convinced that the guy who was the murderer had access to the house with the bullets, unless the dad just never locks his doors, the small-town mentality that wasn’t really explained, but I thought all the puzzle pieces were pointing to her.
I also, the thing about the cousin killed me and the same thing with the father was that, apparently Max agrees, was that they were so mean to Shiloh about the murder victim, Crocker and how she wanted to go into business with, just business, not even seldomly, just business with him, and the cousin had already sold her land to him. Business. Sold land. And she makes comments about how Shiloh was an idiot for working with him, and she was so stupid and all these negative things, and she’s trying to keep it secret that she sold the land. I’m looking down, I don’t want you guys to think I’m ignoring you, but I just wanted to see if Colleen was trying to reach in. Oh yay, she’s adding, she’s coming back. There we go. Yay! she’s back.
Colleen: My mean internet.
Angela: Oh no, you are totally fine. We mentioned this off camera, but I have had every tech issue under the sun, and so, please don’t apologize, I’m just happy you were able to join back in.
Colleen: Phew! Sorry everybody.
Angela: Her beautiful face is back.
Colleen: So people knew who the killer was I can see
Angela: I was just commenting about the cousin, and how I didn’t really care for the fact that they were making Shiloh feel bad about working with Crocker and she had already sold her land. Again, with that, I thought that played into her motive for killing him., but what are you doing to do?
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: Oh yes, I’m seeing more comments pop up. I saw Hazel pop up, she was adorable. I think Hazel, I want to call them Huck, but Huckleberry and Hetty, the bird lover, they were my favourite characters.
Colleen: Yes. I don’t have any pets beside a fish. I’ve mostly owned cats all my life, but I am obsessed with pugs for some unknown reason, I love their little faces, they are my favourite. So the fact that a pug was the cozy companion, I was so excited every time he was mentioned, he was my favourite for sure.
Angela: I mean, he acted like a human, and I loved her characterizations with writing the dog, the mannerisms, and I love the way she said, he gave me the look that only a pug could give and you knew what she meant.
Colleen: Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. His characterization was really well done.
Angela: He felt like a fully developed character.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: I don’t mean this to sound bad, and I’m not going to name the book, but there’s a cozy mystery series, it’s five books and I’ve read all of them and it’s about a cozy companion, she has a dog, she runs things that have to do with dogs. Again, I’m trying to be very vague so you don’t figure out the book I’m talking about, but the dog is very much just a side. You’re just like yeah, she owns a dog and you don’t know anything about this dog other than it exists. So I love how the dog was really integral to giving her that, he was her, not just cozy companion, he was her Watson.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: The dog was her sleeping sidekick, because usually when they go back to the hometown, you would’ve thought the pregnant old best friend would have been the sidekick, but that wasn’t really the case that played out, it was the dog.
Colleen: It totally was. Yeah, I loved that. He was adorable, and I can’t wait to see how maybe his relationship develops with that cat that they got for Hazel.
Angela: Esmeralda, that was so cute. I was actually really worried; I think I was more worried about this than the murder storyline. I was more worried about if someone was going to reclaim that cat and Hazel’s going to lose her, I was genuinely concerned that someone was going to say, oh that’s my cat thank you so much, and I’m walking away now to three towns over and you’ll never see her again. I’m really happy that Esmeralda stayed.
Colleen: I agree. I agree. Okay, here’s something that I wasn’t exactly worried about, but, first of all, actually I have a question. Did Shiloh ever tell the chief of police about the woman she saw running away from the scene of the crash?
Angela: No. No, I have so many thoughts about the first, the murder scene, honest to goodness, what police procedure, just watching TV, you’re more proficient than whatever was going on in that scene.
Colleen: Right, and then they bring her to the station and interrogate her, but one of the questions was not did you see anybody else?
Angela: And the thing is, she saw this woman and she knew that this was suspicious and she never told anyone until nearly what? 70% of the way in.
Colleen: Right. Yeah. Okay, everybody’s agreed that no, she didn’t. So that was a little strange, yeah that piece should have been brought in somewhere.
Angela: So I understand the immigration elements and I totally respect that. Again, I am in earning my PhD and one of the things with grad school is when you have international students, they talk about their visa, so I totally understand where this character is coming from, the background. I think Amanda Flower did a nice job integrating that, but I didn’t really get her not saying anything. I felt like that was kind of a cheap mystery out in a way, I don’t like phrasing it that way because I want the sleuther to figure it out, I want this to be a here’s my revelation, having an eyewitness was sort of duh, duh, duh. It kind of felt like duh, I mean that just gave it away.
Colleen: Yeah, and then I read a lot of Agatha Christie. So when her friend Christie said, oh, I’ll have to look into that, it’s probably nothing, I’m going to ask somebody. Me and my Agatha Christie mind was like oh gosh, I hope the pregnant friend doesn’t die because Agatha Christie would have killed her off at that point.
Angela: It’s so funny to me that Agatha Christie is the on who started the cozy mystery genre, because her books are not really modern day cozy, those books get dark.
Colleen: Yeah, and lots of people die.
Angela: She’ll kill the kids too, she doesn’t hold back.
Colleen: I’ll ask, because normally in a Christie book, she would have been dead.
Angela: I mean, I think she was really cute. She was probably one of my other favourite characters. I liked how she just kept eating everyone’s cinnamon roll. She’s like, are you going to eat that? Mine now. She orders the chariot tower for her, but she’s going, I’m going to have half of it, I just thought it was so funny, she’s eating off everyone else’s plate.
Colleen: Yeah, I loved that. It looks like everybody’s agreeing that they didn’t like how with the police procedures, no one checks the fingerprints on the gun, didn’t like her withholding information from the police. So yeah.
Angela: Again, with the whole, I usually love Amanda Flower books, but the one with this character that kind of drove me nuts with her was that she didn’t want to seem like a suspect and by not coming forward with any information, she seemed like a suspect
Colleen: Yeah. Yeah.
Angela: The logic there was super flawed.
Colleen: Yeah. Oh, I’ll tell him, but I’ll tell him later. No.
Angela: Especially because he ran back up to her, so she really didn’t have an excuse.
Colleen: Yeah. Right.
Angela: It would have been one thing if she just sort of was still in that state of shock, just meandering around and nobody was there to kind of like point her on track. I mean, again, I’m one of those people where I get lost in thought and so sometime someone’s like hey, over here and then I kind of snap out of it, and it gave her that extra moment of hey, you should tell him this thing with the motivation and she goes oh no, there are people around, what was the inner monologue? I don’t want them to think of me that way, I don’t want the farm associated with scandal.
Colleen: Right.
Angela: Oh yeah, that plan worked out really well.
Colleen: It’s not going to be avoided.
Angela: She made it so much worse.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: I love how the notes, I’m trying to flip back because there’s so many things here. The poor thing, I just felt so badly for her throughout the book.
Colleen: I was overwhelmed by her to do list of all the things that she has to do to fix the farm, and that’s really something I am looking forward to seeing in future books is, what steps are taken and how does this develop? Because she did have a lot of detail about farms and trying to keep family farms going and the hard work that it entails. So I’m curious to see how that goes.
Angela: I think Amanda Flower mentioned that her husband is a farmer, or comes from a farming family, so I can tell that she definitely tried to integrate those details into the narrative. So kudos to her on doing her research, because I live in DC, I live in the middle of the city. I don’t know anything about this, aside from what I see on TV.
There was a documentary at one point that someone had recommended to me because otherwise I probably never would have come across it, but it had to do with the GMOs and how the genetically modified organisms are so bad for you and they show the people going into the fields, wearing the full-on hazmat suits to not inhale them, and so, while I was reading this, I was just picturing that documentary going, oh my gosh, this is organic, she’s trying to do the right thing.
So I was really kind of hoping that I would see that come into fruition. So that might also be part of the overarching narrative, getting to actually see the organic and getting to see her open that café because usually for something like this, I feel as like you kind of dropped into the setting where, I just thought about Brie Bakers, that’s where she just opened her ice tea cafe and it’s already set up. So she’s still a work in progress phase, so hopefully by the end of the series, I don’t know how many books she’s contracted for, we’ll get to see it actually be the farm that she wants it to be.
Colleen: Right. Yeah. Yeah, which I I’m curious about, and like some other people are saying, where is grandma’s treasure? That’s another thing that I want to know.
Angela: I’m pretty sure Summer. Yeah, she mentioned this on Instagram.
Colleen: That’s fair.
Angela: This wasn’t the typical cozy for me because I usually love the community component of it, and I feel as if we didn’t really get that.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: I wanted that back because she didn’t have really anybody in town to turn to, except for her little fur baby.
Colleen: Yeah, I do. I agree, I hope that that gets better. Some of the animosity is resolved so that there can be more of a community, like you said.
Angela: I just looked down at my notes. So the victims widow, we have to talk about her for a second I actually got the biggest kick out of her. When the husband dies, she goes right on a shopping spree, she didn’t waste a moment. She goes into town to the most expensive boutique, she starts buying things. For some reason, I thought that was hysterical because she had the alibi, she wasn’t a suspect, she was just enjoying her life and he was gone.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: That was just mind boggling and really funny to me, that one got to me. The look on your face is priceless. You’re like, we got to talk about her too, so I’m kind of curious what you thought about her.
Colleen: Yeah, I liked her too, especially I liked her because she ended up not standing in the way of Shiloh and Shiloh’s farm and everything, she was actually kind of nice to her, and then she was like, oh yeah, I’m not going to build the wind turbines. So in a strange way, it was actually one person who eased her path, who was the widow.
Angela: It was so funny to me because she was just so harmless and she’s married to this guy who was pretty much victimizing everybody, bullying them into selling and she’s going no, I don’t want to put up the windmills, go live your lives. Oh, don’t worry about that, I tore up your contract. Don’t stress about, she was the one who alleviated all of the stressful components in everyone’s life. Again, the mystery that I was worried about was the cat and she actually said oh no, no, no, I was going to bring it to the shelter and she lets them keep the cat. She lets Esmeralda stays where she is because she is allergic. Obviously, her relationship was really flawed if your husband buys the cat and you’re allergic to it. So I felt badly for her with that one too.
Colleen: And that was kind of a use of that character, but it worked.
Angela: I just saw this pop-up, fairy godmother.
Colleen: Yes she was
Angela: I love the characters that are usually sort of implemented so that they relay the information. So, oh yeah I saw this, oh I heard that, she was the stress reliever. That was her character.
Colleen: Totally was. Yeah. Oh that’s interesting, Crystal Tea Knits is wondering if Shiloh will buy her cousin’s farm back, depending on how good the treasure is, which is interesting too.
Angela: I have so many problems with that cousin, I got a lot, my disposition towards her just totally changed. Everything about her was so frustrating to me, the hypocritical nature of selling her land, but not wanting Shiloh to go into business, and then the play itself, she was kind of a diva director going on there. She was not really giving people a lot of kindness and positivity.
Colleen: Yeah, no kidding. As someone who has directed plays, I did not approve of her methods. They would not have gotten the best performances out of her actors.
Angela: Honestly, again, I really wanted her to be the murderer. I mean, at this point we should probably just say, so I really wanted her to be the killer. This way she would end up in jail, we could say goodbye to her. I almost feel like we’re stuck with her now, like as a family and we’re like please, please grow as a human being, but again, people obviously changing is very hard to do, so I’m kind of hoping she mellows out or is not as an integral or referenced in the rest of the series.
I wanted her gone, I wanted her to be the killer. I thought all the puzzle pieces pointed to her, I was even thinking at one point, maybe she seduced Wes to get him to do that, that was actually one of the things in the back of my mind when she wasn’t really buying into Wes as the killer. I’m like oh well, maybe because she’s so beautiful, she was able to entice him like a femme fatale. No, we didn’t get that.
Colleen: No, we didn’t. And I agree, that hypocrisy, maybe that was going to lead to her being the killer, so we definitely were led on that path because she was so obnoxious, but I kind of felt like it was too much of a hope. The actual killer was very suspicious to me too, because he just didn’t seem to fit in the town, and he was so pushy with his trying to date her and everything like that. What was the mayor’s son’s name?
Angela: Was it Baker?
Colleen: Baker, yes. Baker
Angela: She did one of those things that, I love Amanda Flower usually, this is why I was kind of surprised. She did that thing where you had multiple characters with the same starting letter. You had Stacy, you had Shiloh and what was it, Shannon, was the wife?
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: So that’s why I was going wait a second, which one was he? Because the S’s were kind of throwing me off for a minute. Yeah, I’m seeing other people comment. The mayor’s son, the actual killer, I didn’t think we really got the full puzzle pieces with him in a way, because again, I was thinking with the cousin, she had access to the gun, she had access to going to the house for the bullets. She had all these things that fell into place, whereas I’m not really sure how he had those. They didn’t really get into explaining how he figured out where the bullets were. He also was just really willing to kill his own dad, that was a little
Colleen: And that twist I didn’t see coming, I did not see coming that the mayor was the intended victim, that was a surprise for me.
Angela: I mean, I get it. I like when there’s twists, but that one to me kind of was going huh, didn’t see that one, I didn’t see this coming.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: Because after a certain point when Wes was already in jail, you’re going there’s still more to read, something’s going on.
Colleen: Something’s going on, yeah.
Angela: I see Lady Gizmo, this was the other thing I was going to mention about him. So, everyone in town is mean to Shiloh, except for the owner of Jesse’s cafe, Jesse and the pregnant old best friend, everyone else was rude to her mean to her judging her. Minnie was, I don’t know what that woman was.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: That’s a whole separate thing. Again, my face was just like ugh. Her and her honey stand, good luck.
Colleen: Yeah
Angela: But he was actually welcoming, he was inviting her out for coffee. I mean, yes he was a little aggressive, I didn’t really see him as the romantic interest, we knew where that was going. Hello Quinn, we knew it. There’s no question, you understand who the love interest is.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: He was asking her out, he actually paid for the coffee, he was just really kind of welcoming to her. I mean, he didn’t really seem to have any ulterior motives either, he wasn’t as concerned about buying her land and working with Crocker and everything. So the one person that’s nice to her was the killer.
Collen: Yeah, well, and Wes, as somebody pointed out too, Wes was a nice friend to ger and he’s in jail now too, because of his out of character decision to threaten Crocker, which was a little surprising too.
Angela: I also didn’t like the fact that it was him, because when we met him, he talks about his wife and his sons, and I know they’re fictional characters, but I felt badly for these fictional characters.
Colleen: Yeah, totally. Yeah, that was too bad, but it was a surprise I guess.
Angela: Yeah, I like how people are saying he was slick, I’m not saying he was a great guy, he was just welcoming to her. He was trying to be friendly, he was trying to be nice. Yeah, he definitely gave off weird vibes. He’s also dressed in a full peice business outfit when people are in jeans and a T-shirt.
Colleen: Yeah, suspicious.
Angela: A little twirly moustache was needed. He definitely was creepy, I just thought it was interesting how he was nice to her in some ways, and yet he’s the killer. Wes was the friend, he gave her the information about Hetty and he was the one who turned out to be, what is it? He altered the bird report? I also never really thought about wind turbines affecting bird patterns.
Colleen: I know.
Angela: I learned something new with that.
Colleen: Yeah, that was and scary to think about, and I was a little bit confused as to why Baker didn’t seem to really care about the wind turbines. He wants to bring the town on the map, I guess maybe he didn’t think that that was the path towards it, but it was just kind of interesting that, that wasn’t something he even seemed to care about that much.
Angela: I was looking at the comments, because he was wearing this suit, because he was nice. That’s why you guys knew it was him. So you guys did figure it out because some people said they didn’t, some people said they did. I’m always happy for you for people who figure it out, that’s the fun regarding that, Ha!, I called it, I didn’t call it this time.
Colleen: I said sort of, because I thought that it was him, but I did not piece together at all that he was trying to kill his dad, like that totally didn’t.
Angela: Because your mind actually goes to, oh yeah, the son’s trying to kill the father. My mind does not there instantly go there, I’m happy to say that. That’s one of those things where I’m happy to say, my mind instantly doesn’t go there. I’m glad that’s not where my first thought went.
Colleen: Have you talked at all about how people feel about Shiloh herself. I know we’ve said we feel really bad for her, and that everybody was so mean to her, but it could have been while I was gone because of my internet, but have people really said if they like her or how they feel?
Angela: No, we haven’t gotten into that. We also haven’t gotten into Quinn and their relationship. I mean, there’s still more here, I’m trying to like keep up with everybody with all the notes, but yeah, some people clearly love her and felt badly for her, the whole victim element with the town being the outsider.
Other people are very much, she’s the unlikable heroine. I am very curious to hear people’s thoughts about this, because again, I think she brought on a lot of the trouble herself by not revealing, again, I just start laughing because to me it’s so absurd. She walks away from the crime scene, even if you think you’re going to be the suspect and she thinks she’s going to be a suspect, which is why she doesn’t want to reveal stuff and she becomes a suspect, but if you think you’re going to be a suspect, don’t you want to say hey, test my hands for gunpowder residue. Hey, don’t you have to take a picture of the body before you move it? I didn’t really get the vibe of her wanting to protect herself and protect the farm or taking the smart steps. She didn’t feel like she had agency to me sometimes. I guess that’s what I’m saying.
Colleen: Yeah, and Stephanie is kind of saying the same thing that she never really stood up for herself, and she mentioned that it’s maybe kind of surprising, because if she was a producer in LA, wouldn’t she be more assertive? Wouldn’t she have more backbone?
Angela: I actually wrote that down. I went on Good Reads, I always go on Good Reads after reading , I always try and do my research. Someone said the exact same thing as you all, they said for a TV producer, you have to be a leader, you have to be outspoken. I’m trying to pull the quote, but I remember writing it down, someone on Good Reads said the exact same thing, to be a TV producer, you have to stand up for yourself, be aggressive and maybe by leaving LA, she left that persona behind, because that did not appear in the Glenn.
Angela: Right. Yeah, and it seems like people had conflicting visions of her because it sounds like when she was young, she was a real rule follower, goody two shoes kind of, so some of them see her as that, but then they also see her as this person who deserted and who has to do things differently, and so I wasn’t exactly sure where she fit for them too.
Michelle mentioned that her body image issues were a bit much, and I noticed that too. I could see that making her relatable because we all have those, but it made me really sad how it kept coming back and that focus and other people focusing on her having to work really hard and not being able to eat things. I don’t know, it made me a little sad.
Angela: I agree wholeheartedly with this, with what you said, this line of discussion. It came up from time to time too. She mentioned getting her teeth capped and the veneers, she invested a lot of money into her appearance and her wellbeing in this way, she also mentioned having the private trainer and doing the spin classes. She was really trying to get into shape, but again, I mentioned this earlier, when it came down to it, she wasn’t doing it to be healthy, she was doing it because she felt she had to do it. She had to prove she could be skinnier, she had to prove she could be prettier or something, and that’s why I felt as if, it made me a little cringy and really sad.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: Because this is what I do,I I’m sure most people do this, but when I have a bad day, I’m going okay fine, bring on the sweet treats. I indulge in my ice cream sometimes. I mean, I don’t do it every night obviously, but if something goes wrong, I’m going okay, I’m going to give myself a break and get my favourite Frappuccino from Starbucks and I’m getting a Venti, and the fact that she even do that with a cinnamon roll for some reason really struck me because she said that was the beginning of the end, and I’m going, one cinnamon roll is not going to undo everything, you’re okay sweetie. I wanted to be like, it’s okay, you can have a cinnamon roll.
Collen: Right, and a lot of people are mentioning, maybe it’s a childhood insecurity coming back, being back in this world that you haven’t been in and that affecting your confidence and everything like that and I can see that, and Paula is mentioning her guilt too, I really thought her guilt was holding her back a lot in this book, that she felt like she couldn’t stand up for herself because she felt guilt that she hadn’t been there for her family, even though she had, because she was giving them money this whole time, and then also the guilt about her boyfriend’s death that has been hanging. So I do think her guilt was a lot of the reason that she just couldn’t get comfortable.
Angela: That’s true too. Again, maybe Amanda Flower is doing psychology here trying to go oh, this is how it manifested. Yeah, over analytical over here. I also kind of liked, again, normalizing therapy, normalizing mental health. I liked the fact that she referenced that she was in therapy for dealing with Logan’s death and for dealing with her childhood issues and trauma, and I actually wrote down, I wasn’t sure if anyone can answer this question. If she actually was going to get a new therapist now that she’d moved, or if she was going to do therapy long distance?
Because I wrote that down about following up with therapy, but I liked the fact that she did take initiative and agency with this, trying to come to terms with Logan’s death, and I love the fact that she said, it took a lot of time, but I know I’m not responsible, and I thought that was really great that she did therapy and she was doing the emotional work. So I just want to give that a shout out.
Colleen: Yeah, and I really agree with Lady Gizmo, who just said about how Quinn waited 15 years to tell Shiloh that Logan was actually happy, and it’s on the last page of the book. Oh by the way, actually, these years of mystery and guilt weren’t even real.
Angela: That’s the first note I have in my notebook. That is literally exactly what I wrote, that drove my crazy. I was not a fan of Quinn for the longest time. I’m still iffy on him. He’s clearly a good dad, he loves his daughter, but I wrote down that he never told her that Logan was coming to get her because he loved her so much, and I have all these exclamation points and I have arrows and everything. That to me is awful, and the fact that he got drunk and said that things at the funeral, knowing that
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: He’s a love interest now?
Colleen: Yeah. Yeah. That seems like there’s going to be some serious issues there, but she seemed just all happy and jolly about it when she found that out.
Angela: I would have been, I’m still angry about this. This isn’t my life, I shouldn’t be worried about this, that’s the first note I wrote down, because I couldn’t wrap my brain around that, with him going and getting drunk and making a scene and treating her so terribly, knowing that Logan loved her so much. Oh Quinn, I have so many mixed feelings about him. I’m curious, did you like him? Did you want them as a couple? What were you thinking?
Colleen: Ah. It was very obvious to me from the beginning that he was trying to be nice to her and that she was breathing in because of him being such a jerk before, she was automatically having a knee jerk response against him and thinking he was going to do something bad to her, but to me, it was really obvious that he was trying to be nice to her, and so I was like okay, that’s good. I’m glad that he’s sort of being nice and he did kind of stand up for her at certain times and give her good advice at certain times. So in that aspect, I was kind of liking him, but I agree with you, and I think Shaely said this too, that, that revelation at the end, that really just put a damper on him and on imagining the relationship, and as some people are mentioning, his mother. His mother was ugh. No.
Angela: She was so mean. What was that? And the thing is, you realize, it took me a minute to realize this, but she is married to the chief of police and I’m going yeah, they deserve each other, go and live happily ever after together, go ahead and go enjoy. See, yep, I’m loving the comments, you guys are so apt. have so many thoughts about him, I don’t even know which way I want to go with that. I agree with you though, I love that he did talk to her father and address the fact that there needed to be growth and some change, because again, we kind of have been dancing around it, referencing it, but the father, the way he treated her and what he did, even though she wasn’t there physically, she definitely kept that farm in her heart because she was the one who paid the back taxes, she was the backbone, even if she can’t be there physically, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care.
Colleen: Right.
Angela: And the fact that was there and he clearly didn’t care for things the way he should have, I didn’t like that.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: He’s the one who let the farm go that way.
Colleen: Right. And I mean, he clearly has been hurting and grieving and I think maybe have not gotten over his wife’s death and it’s been too much for him, which is fair, but it just was unfortunate that she then was put in such a negative position and treated so badly because it didn’t seem fair at all.
Angela: Oh, I see the comment’s going back to Quinn and I’m going, this is something that I was thinking about too. So, you guys are talking about Hazel and the grandmother, and I just saw this comment pop up about, I thought when the grandmother made a comment about her breaking his heart, it was going to be revealed that she chose Logan over him and she didn’t even realize it and that never came up. I was thinking that I’m totally there with you. Again, I totally didn’t call anything in this book, I thought femme fatale, then I was like it has to be the cousin, I clearly was all over the place, so yeah. I didn’t mean to jump back and forth between the two thoughts, but the father thing, I’m hoping that they get closer in the rest of the books.
Again, I kind of agree that this book was kind of stressful for me, and it made me sad with the problems that she was encountering and the way the characters were treating her. That grandmother, she was brutal, everybody was brutal to her, but even the farm, she has so much work ahead of her and she’s going to be putting work into this farm that her father let go completely, in this town that’s not really welcoming her.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: So, I have some concerns with that.
Colleen: Right, and I’m curious about who’s going to help her too, because her dad isn’t well, and her cousin clearly is more invested in her theatre, that’s her passion. So it doesn’t seem like she’s going to be helping with the farm, so it’ll be interesting to see who are the people who help her with that, I hope there’s somebody.
Angela: So, the one with the cousin. Again, I’m not begrudging anyone go live your dreams, if you want to be an actress or you want to be the theatre director, go for it, but she couldn’t take a photo and send a text saying this is what it looks like here? Because Shiloh walked into this farm totally blindsided.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: So the thing about the contract was, she realizes oh my goodness, I agreed to these terms and conditions and clearly what I thought is wrong. So this is, again making the contract much more difficult and probable to hold up to. So that really bothered me, because not only did the father, again, maybe it was pride or not wanting to tell her, but the cousin didn’t tell her either, nobody told her or a photo saying hey, it’s more than just back hurting him, there’s other problems going on here, because she just really walked into it not understanding, oh, there there’s weeds that reach the window.
Colleen: Yeah. Yeah. No communication.
Angela: Did you see this? Oh my gosh
Colleen: And did you see Tracy D, “I know! When she was mowing the lawn with the push mower, I was thinking, she’s never gone to save the farm.
Angela: And again it’s not as if, so when I grew up in a suburban town, not a country town, and we had the push mower one time, I didn’t like it, and this was a suburban, the grass got a couple inches over. She’s trying to mow down weeds and grass that’s really gotten out of hand. No wonder she was sweating like she fell into the pond, as Hazel would say. It didn’t matter the amount of progress and success that she did. A push mower? What? Oh my God, she’s never going to finish fixing that farm if that’s the tools that she’s going to.
Colleen: Yeah. People were still talking about the treasure, she better find that treasure so she can
Angela: She can hire a team to come in and mow the lawn. She needs landscapers, she needs people to fix the fence. She needs a lot of help as I’m doing the list and I’m going, oh, the fence, the barn, she should probably just hire a cleaner because her grandmother’s cabin, noone’s been in there for 15 years. She needs a lot of sweat, tears and TLC over there, my goodness. Yeah, the riding lawn mower was there, but it was in the corner, there were stuff in front of it and she knew there wasn’t gas. This is going to sound bad, but couldn’t she had siphon gas out of her own car to put gas in the? I was wondering because I don’t know how far town was.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: The other thing, so mentioning the town, she goes to town to warn her dad that the police are coming to question him, and as she goes to the theatre, apparently the cousin and the father had already come back and they get mad at her for leaving the farm. I wanted to know how far away the main town was from their farms. I don’t know if you know, I don’t know if anyone in the comments knows.
Colleen: Yeah. Well, it’s kind of funny because I have family who live in Kingsley, Michigan, which is very close to Trevor city. So I know Trevor city really well, I could picture Trevor city that she mentioned a little bit, and so I kind of imagined their farm as her farm and they were about maybe 20 ish at the most, minutes away from Trevor city. So that’s what I imagined in my mind, even though that might not actually be true at all, but that’s what I pictured, it wasn’t really far away but yeah, so I don’t know. That’s what I’m picturing.
Angela: I’m just curious, because I’m also picturing one road into town and they didn’t pass each other? I don’t know, I was having a hard time picturing the proximity of the farm in regards to the main town. I also, again, I love my Cabot Cove. I love Jessica Fletcher and they had a population of what? 3000 something, but again, I say something because someone was dying in every episode, murder capital of the USA over there. I couldn’t really figure out the, this was new to me. Again, I’m not a farm person, I don’t know these things. So I’m glad that you can answer that question because I was curious, I wasn’t sure if it was one road leading somewhere, I couldn’t really picture the layout of the town.
Colleen: Yeah. Yeah.
Angela: Maybe that is the heart of the farm. I knew seeing the comments pop up.
Colleen: Yeah, everybody is so curious about grandma’s treasure and grandma’s cabin. Yeah. I was wondering that too, it’s lucky because it sounds like she’s the only one who can handle money or take care of anything in any way, but nobody even thought about going in there?
Angela: I mean, again, I said it as a joke, but when someone passes away, you should at least go in there and get an idea, and be like, okay, did they leave a sandwich on the dresser that’s going to become something. Again, I had older grandparents, so I understand what happens. I’ve had experiences of packing things up and giving things away and learning what to do with residencies, and so I didn’t really get that vibe. No one went in there to check, they just left it as?
Colleen: Right
Angela: Also, where did the grandmother die? Was she in the hospital? Did she die in the cabin? Where was the grandmother when she passed away? Because if she dies in the cabin, you can see the note. So I have questions about that.
Colleen: Yeah. No, that makes sense. Oh, interesting comment from Pati C. She caught a killer and a potential killer of the towns would warm up. I was kind of thinking that too, that maybe people are going to like her now, now that she found a couple of killers and all that.
Angela: I can’t. Yeah, that whole cozy community element was not there with her. She did not get the welcome home, even the elements of the town itself. I totally understand and get it, but it reminded her and was triggering for her with Logan. She saw the place and she just starts thinking about her fiancé who passed away. Again, I totally get it, but it was a high school band, that should not lead to you having moments of that sort of depression and sadness, and again, the dog had to sort of pull her out of it, and so it made it harder to read for me, because I love my cozies that make me laugh and they have the food puns and things like that, so it was almost like a darker cozy in that way, because it didn’t have the levity or the funness that you kind of expect of, oh we have a quirky character over here, we have a quirky character over there.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: We did have a quirky character, we have to talk about the bird lady. O my goodness, but we didn’t have the community giving her those little vibes, and so, I felt when you mentioned the, Oh my gosh, where was the comment over here? Someone was mentioning how they should like her now. I’m hoping they do, because the way it was going was really hard for her and for me as a reader.
Colleen: Yeah, a lot of stress, a lot of sadness. There were a couple parts when she was talking about Logan that I thought were very poignant, I was a little bit like oh my gosh that’s horrible.
Angela: I was getting teary eyed, I was really sad, and when Quinn dropped the bombshell about him loving her and wanting to go be with her, I was getting choked up. Again, I wasn’t really expecting that.
Colleen: Sure.
Angela: Usually with her books, there is a sort of levity, and I don’t think I was really prepared for the poignant moments in a way. Usually you get your discussions about how coffee smells and tastes and we get books over there, someone’s a literature lover, the dead fiancé and the dead grandmother, and then you have Quinn who has the dead wife. There was a lot of death.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: It was hard. Leslie Budewitz, I got the chance to interview her once, she said she always tries to keep in mind that it is a murder and it’s going to affect the community, but usually it’s done in, I always say cozies is like fun murders, this was not a fun murder. There was like three deaths on top of the murder, so it was just a lot.
Colleen: Yeah, you’re right. A lot of emotions were asked of us throughout the book, which some people might like, and some people might not want to experience when they read the cozy mystery.
Angela: So, I was looking down at the notes, the one fun person for me. I mean the entire interaction was so enjoyable. I loved Hetty Strong, I don’t want to mispronounce her name. Hetty strong, the bird watcher. I love Hetty, she was never a suspect to me, I just got the biggest kick out of her eating her peanut butter sandwich at 6: 30, thinking that’s her lunch. She just loved her birds, just leave her be.
Colleen: Yeah, and she was so matter of fact, unlike other people who were angry at Shiloh for potentially being the murderer, she was just kind of like yeah, maybe you’re the murderer. She didn’t care.
Angela: She was like, if you killed him, good job. She had no qualms about anything and she just said anything. Again, I know she’s a fictional person, but that line of whatever popped into her head, it came out of her mouth. I just loved her, and she shared her binoculars, she gave her the chance to see the birds and she had her other bird Watchers with her. She’s leading a tour and she’s trying to introduce people to the birds. I just thought she was so adorable. Can she get a spinoff?
Colleen: Yeah, that would be good right? Because I bet she could see some things through her binoculars, some murders or something like that, that would work.
Angela: I’m just saying, I thought she was hysterical. That was one of those scenes that I got to just enjoy, to me that’s the cozy, that’s what you want. You want the quirky character, who’s really likeable, who you just want more from.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: When you just want more from a character, you know they hit something right.
Colleen: Yeah
Angela: And she was one of those characters like okay I want more scenes with you and we didn’t get any more. She showed up at town hall meeting but aside from that, she didn’t have any more scenes.
Colleen: Yeah, and a couple of people are mentioning that they liked Jessa, and she also is a character that I would have liked to see more of too, because she was so nice and she was so good at her job and everything like that. So, yeah, she was someone I would have liked to see more of too.
Angela: I love how I love how everyone’s on the same page with this book. Everyone loves the same characters, everyone’s having the same problems over there, cozy crew all the way. Same wavelength, I love it.
Colleen: Yeah. It does seem like some people have hope for the series like Sharon Elizabeth, like the setting and then some are less positive, so it was interesting to see how people feel about a book and how it fits for some people and it doesn’t fit for others. Let’s do it guys. The birdwatcher murders.
Angela: Oh no, I like this comment, this is actually a really good idea. I don’t know if Amanda Flower or anyone’s watching this live stream and saying that’s actually a really good idea for a cozy mystery series.
Colleen: I wonder if there is one, maybe there is one and we don’t know it.
Angela: That’s such a random hobby too, I mean, that’s a true random sort of hobby too, they’re not a lot of people who are birdwatchers, but you hit the nail on the head with the binoculars, seeing the murder. I love this, this is something .This is an idea, I’m not kidding this is an idea.
Colleen: All I’m thinking about now is the murder she wrote episode, where she’s at this inn and the bird watcher, well, he ends up being the murder.
Angela: Yeah, but that’s the whole thing, he chose the wrong time to watch birds, and she knew that, she knew the birdwatcher. I also love how we both knew exactly the scene and the episode.
Colleen: That’s because we’re cool.
Angela: Not a lot of people would have got that
Colleen: That’s because we’re super cool.
Angela: Nobody else in the world ever gets these references, and I’m like, I know exactly the episode, the woman pretends to kill herself on the lake, but then she comes back and it turns out the guy who was the birdwatcher kills her then, I know exactly the episode nobody else ever. Yeah, I understand that reference totally.
Colleen: Just because you’re cool.
Angela: What is it? Cool Cozies or Cozy readers? Cozies are cool. We have to figure out a fun little way for saying that, because I just love how we’re on the same page with that. I can’t see anyone being like, oh yeah, I know that episode.
Colleen: Okay. So Bonnie saying she’s not writing it off, she’s going to read a few books, give it more of a try, and I think that’s how I feel too. Some other people were mentioning, there are so many cozies to read, there’s so many I want to read. It’s tough but I think I’d like to try one more to hopefully see if some of the animosity has gone, and then that’ll give me an idea of if I can continue or not.
Angela: You just reminded me when you said cozies you want to read them I’m like well, speaking of cozies that are going to be, so next up is “Death Becomes Her” for next month, and then for August, we have “Books can be deceiving,” and so, I was actually trying to film a short Instagram video. I’m one of those people who have to repair things in advance because I know I get preoccupied. It takes me a very long time to do certain things, and so I know I have to do it way in advance. So I wanted to film a little video reading the bachelor for this, and I realized I purchased this book years ago I’m pretty sure. I’m pretty sure I put it aside thinking, oh, I’ll get to it and then I just never got to it. So this has just been sitting there, so it says copyright 2011. There’s a very good chance I’ve owned this book since 2012, but I just never.
Colleen: But that’s how it is, there’s so many.,
Angela: I’m pretty sure that it’s one of those books where I think I read the blurb or something on Good Reads or someone talked about it, bought it super excited to read it, put it in the bookcase, forgot entirely.
Colleen: Yeah. Yeah.
Angela: So it’s not a day when I say it with Amanda Flower, I’m like, I probably will read the rest of the series, but if I get preoccupied, it happens. It’s not just this series, it happens everywhere.
Colleen: Right. Totally.
Angela: Yeah, that’s why I’m like, more books to read.
Colleen: Yeah. I’m excited to try Nancy Coco, because she is an author I haven’t tried yet, but I’ve seen good things about and I just love the idea of the bees. That’s just so cute.
Angela: What was it? The environmental theme, we had the wind
Colleen: Wind turbines in this book.
Angela: Now we have the bees who are endangered in this one. Although we also had the honey cart, Minnie was just a nutter butter, I don’t know what her deal was, but hopefully our honey lovers over here are much kinder.
Colleen: Yes. Yes
Angela: I also really love the cover. Everything about this is just super adorable to me, I don’t know if you guys can see it, there we go.
Colleen: And Caroline Poly, yes. That right there Death Becomes Her” that’s next month.
Angela: Yes. So this is next month and then this one is August. I’m trying to hold it up. I feel like one of those beauty gurus who’s going, I’m going to show you the brush and you can read it, and then, again with the coziness. So, after the live stream is archived, I can go back and see all the comments, I always convert them all to giveaway entries We’re going to have another cozy mystery, so “It takes two to Mango,” someone’s going to win the paperback copy of this book, and so again, I had this, I got the arc, it has officially been published.
Colleen: Yes, today.
Angela: Oh, it is? Today’s the book’s birthday?
Colleen: Yeah, today is
Angela: I love how you know that. Thank you for that.
Colleen: I read it too, it was a hoot, Oh my gosh. It was funny, the main character is a piece of work, she is hilarious, she’s got a big personality and she is very, so I hope whoever wins it’s very exciting. That will make you laugh.
Angela: You are on your game, you got the book and you read it. I put this aside and it was so pretty. I put it on my bookcase, going, it goes in with my cozies and I put it so it was featured and then I walked away and that was it. So now I need to, thankfully at least, obviously I read the tonight’s book, but now that this book is done, I can move on to this cozy and enjoy this one, and now you said you liked it, I have more incentive to actually get the reading done. Sometimes I just put them aside like oh, you’re so pretty, I don’t want anything to happen to you.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: I know I do that with notebooks, I’m sure other people do that with notebooks. I’m like, your cover is so pretty I don’t want it to get creased. I kind of think that’s what happened with this book where it’s just such a cute cover I just didn’t want anything to happen.
Colleen: It really is that cute. Angela, Lynn McNanny is asking, where do I find upcoming titles?
Angela: Upcoming titles of Cozy mysteries that are going to be published?
Colleen: I think she’s asking about upcoming titles about what we’re reading.
Angela: Okay. So, ‘m very happy with the new system that’s sort of been integrated. So, now we are doing kind of batches of polls and we pick the books, cause it used to be month to month and this works out great for me and great for you guys preparing your 2d read lists. So now we’re doing quarters, so we’re going to be having four books chosen at a time. So right now, this is the second book, so the next two books are obviously “Death Becomes Her” and “Books can be Deceiving” as I pull up, I have an image here, I can’t do the screenshare, otherwise that’d be so easy, but yeah, I love the idea of doing them four at a time, and so right now I’ve been posting on Twitter and Instagram to get your recommendations in, because I’m gathering them all.
There’s so much behind the scenes stuff that I don’t talk about but I should. I’ve been gathering all your requests and book recs for the next polls, and so I’m going to be posting those pretty soon. So then we’re going to pick our September, October, November and December. Right?
Colleen: Mhmm
Angela: Because December’s the buddy read, that’s why I just paused, I’m like wait a second. So I actually need to make sure I referenced that, I’m going to have to make a note as I was saying, oh I need to add this to the to-do list, because December is the buddy read, it’s not a live stream. We’ll talk about that, that’s 12 days of cozies. So yeah, I’ll post the next 4 polls probably in a month, because I’m going to try to gather all the other requests, and make sure I organize them by theme. I do the work.
I always make sure that the books are available because one time there was a book that sounded awesome, but it was out of print, they were no longer printing copies. And so, nobody could get a paper rack, it would’ve been really hard and that was really sad. So I always have to make sure that the books are available in different formats too. We have the audio, again, I think she popped in here, but I was actually reached out to, there’s actually two people who are deaf, and so, I wanted to make sure they themselves were able, I’m going to try to do the trancripts with the captions, once the videos are archived, so I’m trying to make sure that I do all the things for you guys. So, I will make sure that the next 4 books, when they are chosen, I’m going to post about them everywhere..
So I’m going to post about that on the Twitter, everything is at cozy mystery club and then the Instagram too, and also, what I’ve been doing is I’ve been making that the pin tweet. So if you go on the Twitter, it has the image of the four books that we’re currently reading. Hopefully the image that I’m picturing is the correct one with the months listed next to it, so I’ll do the same thing for the next batch.
Colleen: Awesome, and you’re still taking suggestions, correct? At any of those places too, Instagram or Twitter.
Angela: Yes, wherever there are cozies, send me the message, post, just let me know. I want to make sure that I get your request as I start smiling, because I’m trying to give you guys enough time to see the request and respond to them. I really just want to make sure that you have the opportunity to participate across platforms wherever we’re talking about and celebrating cozies. So please, and if you don’t want to post publicly, you can feel free to message me either on Twitter, Instagram, send me an email, whatever works best for you. So if you have a book that you’re going, this is a great book, I’d love to see that on a future poll. Let me know, I will listen to you. This is a book club, you guys pick the books.
I don’t think I’ve actually ever, I always wait to see what you guys want to read. I don’t even vote in the polls because I don’t want to skew it anyway in my favour, I don’t even vote. So I had actually been wanting to read this book for a very long time, I had filmed a little Instagram video that I just sort of put aside because no longer relevant. I was saying how I would love to see this in a future book club poll, and then you guys said submitted this, I’m going okay, I don’t even have to say anything.
Colleen: You guys are awesome.
Angela: But I also, again, even in that little video I had said I’d love to see in a future poll, hopefully someone will send in a request because I wasn’t going to try and put ideas in your head, I’m going to respect what you guys want. So if you have an idea of just let me know, and this one comments all the time, you guys need to follow her. She, comments across platforms, she talks about cozies. I love your request and your thoughts and comments everywhere.
Colleen: Angela, I don’t know if you saw, but Kim who I, Hi Kim, I love your Instagram. She says she found a Bird Watchers mystery series, and the first book is called “A Bird in the Hand” by Molly Palmer Jones.
Angela: Okay, I don’t know where this comment is, but I love it and you are amazing, and we are going to have to look into this. There it is. Okay. I’m able to pull up the comment. Kim also has an amazing Instagram.
Colleen: Oh my gosh, I love it. All the Lovely pages is hers with dots in between. All. The. Lovely. Pages. It’s beautiful
Angela: She has an amazing Instagram and she is so sweet, I love the captions too. She doesn’t just have the amazing photos, because they are amazing, but she definitely talks about books and enjoys books, and I think that just totally adds to it for me, because Instagram is so easy for someone to take a great photo and just be like, have a nice day, and you’re like, what was that book about, did you like it?
Colleen: That’s why I put a warning on my Instagram biography, thoughtful reviews and long captions Sorry, that’s me.
Angela: I mean sometimes, generally sometimes I do those small little captions then that’s usually just give an update and be like, I’m still alive, I’m still trying to hang in there, dissertation life, but I love it when people talk about the books and it’s not just, I took a photo of a book. I’m not bashing, if you just want to take a photo book, go for it, I’ll follow you. I always feel badly, Instagram made it so difficult, as I’m trying to compose myself, I get so frustrated. The issue with Instagram, I want to be able to follow the book club members, but Instagram cuts off your notifications after a certain point, and I don’t get to see who’s commenting on everything, I don’t get to see who’s posting everything.
Same thing with the home feed, the way it goes now, and it’s not chronological. It’s so difficult, and I try to manually go in to see who’s commenting and see what’s going on, but I usually do it on my computer and go into the link and actually physically see you. So I want to make sure that you guys know that I’m trying to pay attention, but if I don’t respond or I don’t follow you back it was Instagram. Just send me a message and be like hey, I posted a photo of Farm to Trouble and I didn’t know if you saw this or not. I want to see the photo, I do. It’s Instagram. As I’m trying to keep the smile on my face, I’m going your technological affordances, why did you change them?
Colleen: No. Yeah, you’re so supportive of everybody on Instagram and Twitter and everybody, it’s so nice.
Angela: I want to be able to give the shout outs to everyone who’s reading the books. I want to put you in the Instagram highlights, I want to put you on the Instagram stories, I want to reshare your photos. I actually, I’m trying to look around the mess that’s going on. I posted this on Instagram and I posted it on Twitter first, but if you guys actually took a photo of Farm to Trouble, send me a message because I’ll send you some of the Sleuther bookmarks. She got hers right there.
I love seeing the photos of them and I’m going, I have extras, why are they in my office? I should just send them to people who will enjoy them. So if you took the photo of Farm to Trouble, just send me the link, say I took the photo. I’ll click on your Instagram page and I’ll share the photo and send you a thanks and you’ll get a bookmark.
Colleen: So generous Angela.
Angela: It’s my pleasure. I’m so honoured that you guys participate and read the books and for taking time out of your lives to chat about cozy mysteries with me, I mean, it makes me, all the happy feelings, the heart melting. So if you are talking about the cozy mysteries, I want to know, and I will make sure that if it’s not already following, it will be following you soon. So just let me know.
I’m trying to look down. So was there any other thoughts, comments, queries, suggestions, when it comes to this book? Any other thoughts? I know that there there’s a lot to talk about and unpack with this one. I just want to make sure, I know we kind of got off on a little tangent once I held up the books, but if there was anything else in your notes or someone else’s notes.
Colleen: One thing I liked was that, this happened a few times, where Shiloh would say, I know I just heard something important, and I kind of liked that, that she was giving us hints as to something that might be important, so that was kind of fun. Oh, thanks Lady Gizmo, she says I’m a wonderful co-host, thank you.
Angela: I love her. There’s a whole backstory here too. I’m pretty sure you popped up on one of the Google forums, I’m going, would you like to be a co-host? She goes, I didn’t know if you would ask me, she was so excited. I’m going, Oh my God yes, this is great. I was so happy to make that connection, this woman is incredible. It was so funny because I’m pretty sure, what was it? The boobies and newbies on the podcast episode, you won that giveaway, right?.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: And then she won the next giveaway for the different places that I was trying to celebrate cozy mysteries. So she wanted to give me for boobies and newbies with the podcast episode, I was the guest on, and then she won the giveaway for a Astori Rice cozy mystery conference, and when she saw, I was like, I know her. I was so happy, I was surprised to see someone I know and is a part of the club, and it was so funny to me, it was just so good to see your name pop up. I adore this woman, if you’re not following her, please do. She is welcome back to co-host anytime she wants.
Colleen: Oh, thank you. Well, I’m just the luckiest person in the world with my wins, but also, I made my bookstagram in November, at the beginning of November and it was just a couple weeks in that I found the cozy mystery club, and I made it just in time to be able to read the November book, and then that went right into 12 days of Cozies , which if you’re new, is just this amazing thing that Angela puts together the first 12 days of December, where we get to talk to cozy mystery writers and do reading sprints, so I feel like I joined just at the right time, to really enjoy all of the amazing things that you do with the club, and so, it’s just been so much fun.
Angela: That makes me so happy, I’ve actually started working on the next 12 days of cozies. I’ve already started printing images for reading sprints. Again, this is in the back of my mind because I love doing the images in Canva and editing things, so I’m already trying to work on that, so if you guys have any other queries or suggestions or things for 12 days of cozies that you want to see, I’m already thinking about it, it’s on the list. I’m really happy you enjoyed that though, that makes me really happy to know that was your introduction, like I did something right.
Colleen: Oh for sure, yes. Thanks everybody, thank you Crystal Tea Knits and Stephanie, yaay.
Angela: She’s so sweet. She’s definitely coming back, that’s a no brainer. She’s coming back, we have to have her back. Welcome back anytime. It’s so funny too, because she was so on her game, as I try and piece my thoughts together with this. She messaged me, I didn’t have to even ask. She was like, here’s the profile photo, because usually she has the emoji what is it? I don’t know what the terminology is.
Colleen: Bitmoji
Angela: Bitmoji, okay. I knew that there was a term, and she was like, here’s my actual face, and I’m going, she sent me this, I didn’t even ask. She made my life so easy, it was so great. So again, as far as co-hosts goes, she is on her game even off screen, just want to throw that out there.
Colleen: Thank you.
Angela: She was on her game, I didn’t have to ask her anything, she was already there.
Colleen: Oh man. Oh, everybody’s talking about Christmas and Fall, there is something, and I have to admit, for the first time ever in my cold, mid-western life, I’m excited about the Fall and Christmas, because of books, because thinking about cozy mysteries and getting to do 12 days of cozies again, it really is nice.
Angela: And Colleen, I am really happy that you found cozy mysteries, and you joined the club. For me, when it comes to cozy mysteries, I definitely love it when they’re themed. So that’s why when I say, when you guys make recommendations, what I do is I have a notebook that it is all cozy mysteries, I have multiple notebooks by the way, but one of them is just your recommendations and I try and group them by theme, so I put all the autumn ones together, because I’m going to make that the poll for October. I was trying to put all the food ones together for November and Thanksgiving, so I was trying to group them for specific events.
So, when I was taking the suggestions, I was looking at that and I was thinking about that, so in my head, it has been the fall for the last couple of weeks and then Hallmark pushed it even further because they’re doing their Christmas celebration, so I’m already over the summer. I’m like, can we just hit fast forward a little bit? It’s a little too hot anyway right now, I want to go enjoy my scarves and my pumpkin spice. Yes, I like pumpkin spice. You can judge all you want but I love it. That pumpkin scone from Starbucks, again, I would eat, no, I’m getting my scone. I’m getting my scone, just throwing that out there.
Colleen: Yeah. People are talking about sometimes you have to read a few more books until you enjoy the series or don’t judge it by the first and couple of people are mentioning that even if they didn’t love the book, it was a good discussion, and I would agree, I like it when people have criticisms and things that bothered them or that they liked and we can hash through some of them. I think it makes it more fun, honestly, and I loved seeing everybody’s issues that they had or things that they liked or didn’t like. I really liked that.
Angela: It’s one of the funny things about a book club, where the book is chosen and then you find out about it, so there’s no preparation, you just know that this is a cozy mystery. I look into it, in regards to the availability, but I don’t read the books until they’re already selected and everything else, so I never know what’s going to come up or pop up, and that just makes it so interesting to me because it’s already been chosen, people are already reading this and I’m going, oh, are they going to like this? What are they going to think about this? I’m always so curious when things pop up going, is anyone else going to notice this, pick this up? I’m always making my notes because I want to talk about it with you guys, I get so excited, I’m like oh, what are they going to think? And you guys can agree, you can have different ideas and I am all for it. It’s just, it’s so much fun.
Colleen: I agree. I totally agree.
Angela: I just saw this comment, don’t judge a series on the first book alone. That is so true. I’m just saying, I am agreeing with that wholeheartedly. The Cleo Coyle series, I think my favourite was probably, it was one of those 12th or 13th or something, it’s way later in the series, not that her first book is bad by no means, she’s an awesome writer, not what I’m implying I’m just saying my favourite came much later.
Colleen: Sure. Sure. Right. Well, it will be really interesting to see who, of everyone chatting here continues with this series, who doesn’t and I’ll definitely want to hear what people think as they continue.
Angela: Yeah. You guys are going to have to keep us posted you. You are, you’re going to have to say I’m pre-ordering when it’s finally available. I’m hoping Kensington Press will, Kensington will send out, you’re on their list right? They’ll send out their PDF of books that are coming out, and so you get to see again, like quarterly what’s coming out. Kensington , they’re starting to do almost by month or every other month or something, saying oh here’s our net Gallia Widgets, so I’m really hoping as soon as this one’s available or as soon as it’s popping up on their publishing list that I can say, oh guys, it’s coming out. So hopefully with what’s going on with this series, so I can then give the information to you.
Colleen: Cool.
Angela: Good. Oh, so you can pre-order it. Thank you so much, thank you. She’s on her game, she’s on her cozy mystery game. The only other cozy mystery note I had, and she caught me writing this down, and you have to love how I’m using my lettering pen, because the dog was on my lap at the time. The only other note is, the second Tuesday, Tuesdays, the second Tuesdays is now cozy corner chat night, and so on July 13th, we have three authors, and the one who was on her cozy mystery game is actually one of the authors who’s joining us. So Marta is one of the featured authors for cozy corner chat, the other authors are Libby Klein and Kate Lansing, and we read Kate Lansing [inaudible 01:21:04] I love that book, so I’m really excited.
Colleen: I did too, awesome. Those are so fun, so if anybody. I didn’t do Twitter at all, until I joined the cozy mystery club and I don’t really know a lot about Twitter, but if you’ve ever thought of trying it, the cozy corner chats are really fun because you get to ask real authors questions and it’s not too hard. You write the question and you tag their username and Angela’s username and then hashtag cozy corner chat and they really answer your question. So if you’re nervous about it, give it a try. I didn’t understand it either, but then when I tried it, it’s so fun and so exciting to get to talk to authors.
Angela: It makes me so happy, I’m just smiling ear to ear. I’m so happy that you’re saying that, I’m really excited to make this a new component to the book club, because again, I mentioned this earlier, but I want to make sure it’s accessible across platforms because I know not everyone can join us live for YouTube or participate for Instagram. So, I want to make sure that people can participate however it’s applicable to them, so if you can’t participate in the live stream, maybe you can participate on Twitter. If you can’t participate on Twitter, maybe you can participate on Instagram. So I’m really happy that I can offer and create something else for the cozy mystery lovers. So I’m really hoping that you guys enjoy it. Oh yay, you guys are so cute.
Colleen: Oh apparently, you can see the cover put out last year already for book two of this series. I’ll have to look at that after we’re done, see what it looks like. Apparently Renee says it’s cute.
Angela: One of my favourites.
Colleen: Hi Sharon.
Angela: Oh, hi Sharon, thank you for joining us. I just saw this comment about a fashionista. So crimes of fashion, I love that series, It’s awesome, and then Killer Hair by Nancy Cohen, it’s obviously about a hairdresser and there’s a lot of talk about styling and making things fashionable. So just going to throw those two out there for you. Clearly, like I’ve gravitated to that field too, I just want to throw that out here. Oh my gosh, you guys are so sweet. I know, I’m starting to lose my voice, so if there’s anything, other questions, anything else that’s on your mind for the cozy book club, books coming up, if there’s something else, please comment now, because otherwise my voice is probably going to go out.
I say this every single time, but I’m such an introvert and I talked to the dog. Again, I relate to Shiloh in that, I do talk to my dog, like he will respond. So my voice is always going, why are you talking? You’re not used to talking, why are you doing this to me? So if you have any questions, please comment. Oh yeah, so we’re going to have to go check this out. I’m going to have to post the photo and link over on Twitter and maybe take a photo, share it on the Instagram stories.
Colleen: It looks like it’s a Halloween book.
Angela: Hmph. What is it, the Mrs. Claus? This is the Kensington series. This was our 12 days of cozy buddy reads this year. I say this year, well technically the past, you know, 2020. It was the Mrs. Claus series, and now, the book that’s set in Winter, in Winter Wonderland, in Santa’s village is a Halloween book this time around. So we’re going to get Christmas in Halloween, I’m so intrigued by that concept.
Colleen: I loved it, I read the [inaudible 01:24:36-01:24:37] Net Gallie, it was so good, I liked it better than the first one.
Angela: Really?
Colleen: The first one, I was eh about actually, but the second one, I loved it, I thought it did everything that the cozy mysteries should do, I totally recommend it. It’s Mrs. Claus and the, I can’t think of the title. It’s the second one in the Mrs. Claus series, it was really good.
Angela: Again, I’m going to have to find this and put the link to this on Twitter. I love how every time I’ve had a reference or you’ve had a reference, we’re both like yes, that one, this one. I found another book, she’s like oh I’ve read that, I love it. That makes me so happy, I love that so much. I’m explaining the premise and she’s already read the second book.
Colleen: Oh Victoria read it, definitely. It’s really good. It’s just because we’re so cool Angela.
Angela: Again, it’s one of those, if we were actually, again virtual life. If we were in the same proximity, I feel like we’d be like bookstores, let’s go. We have to go get this, we have to get that.
Colleen: Totally.
Angela: I’m like, oh you want to have a murder she wrote marathon? Yes.
Colleen: Yes. Yes.
Angela: Oh my gosh. Okay yeah, we’re going to have to look up the title, because just I remember it’s Mrs. Claus and something, and there’s a spider on the cover.
Colleen: I bet I can find it pretty fast, but
Angela: I wish I could answer your question. You guys are asking questions, I don’t know the answer I’m so sorry. I can picture the cover because Kensington sent it and as I’m looking around, I have an appointment tomorrow.
Colleen: Mrs. Claus Halloween Homicide
Angela: There we go. Halloween homicide. I like you guys founded at the exact same time with Renee. The timing of that, as you’re saying it her comment popped up. I have the book, I was just going to say I put it aside because tomorrow I have an appointment and I figured well, I’m walking to the appointment, I’m going to bring my books with me and take photos along the way, and that’s on the books I put away. So it’s already in the bag packed up, ready to go. So I know where it is, but I couldn’t take it out to show you, which I always love to do. So it’s somewhere over there and I know if I move anytime right now, the dog loses his mine and I wasn’t going to do that to you because when he barks, he barks.
Oh, well I hope you guys, if you read the second book, I hope you like it, and let me know what you think, because I haven’t read it yet. I was going to say, maybe it could be a buddy read or something. So, for the cozy mystery book club, we read the first book in the series because don’t want to drop in the middle of the series with characters unfamiliar with. I know that it’s technically supposed to be able to pick up wherever you want, but we read the first book of the series. So since this is book two, maybe we can do a Twitter buddy read or something, so can always figure it out. If you’re interested.
Colleen: Awesome.
Angela: You guys are so sweet. I’m glad you enjoyed it. As I’m looking at the comments I’m losing my voice, I take books on field trips with me. I’m pretty sure every time I leave the apartment, I’ve got a book with me, that’s just how it is. I look for opportunities to feature the book, and I haven’t done it in a long time, because before Covid, what I used to is, if I needed to take a break from work or school or something, I would just pack up the bag and go to the cafe that I like and just sit there and take photos of books. That’s what I would do as an event, as a get out of the house sort of thing.
Colleen: That’s awesome.
Angela: So I would feel like a tourist. I think one time I actually deliberately just went outside to walk up and down the street because I wanted to take photos of books. It’s so fun, because at this point I’m proud of myself, I feel secure in my Bookstagram and Book tuber life, because when I stopped to take photos of books, most people don’t understand what I’m doing, but I still do it.
Colleen: Yeah.
Angela: When I hold up the book and I’m having the phone, there’s always someone who’s looking at me going what? It’s worth it though. If I can take photos of books to share with you guys, I’m happy.
Colleen: Absolutely.
Angela: Thank you guys for joining, everyone’s saying good night right now. So it doesn’t look like there are any other questions, so that makes me happy that I answered all of them. So I want to give a shout out and a huge thanks to my co-hostess, if you’re not already following her on Instagram and Twitter, please do. She talks about books, she loves books and you’re going to love her loving books, she’s just awesome. So, and she’s welcome back anytime by the way, because I had the best time chatting with her and the fact that you brought up the murder she wrote episode made my night. So, I had a great time tonight. I was waiting for this because I love her comments and I knew that she was going to be a great co-hostess, and she lived up to the dream I had in my head.
Colleen: Thank you so much, thank you for having me. Thank you so much and thank you everybody.
Angela: I know. You guys are so sweet with all the comments. It takes me longer than I always thought, because it ends up taking me days to go through the comments, because you guys are so amazing with your comments and I get to relive the awesomeness while I convert the comments to giveaway entries, because I get to see, oh, so-and-so this, so-and-so that, I didn’t see it this time, I wish I did. So I get to go read your comments again, and I’m really excited to do that. You guys are just so amazing for being here and commenting and reading the books as I get emotional, every time I get emotional, I’m just so honoured you guys take the time out of your day to chat about cozies with us. So thank you for being a part of the cozy mystery book club, it makes me so happy.
Colleen: Yay! Best club ever.
Angela: And as I’m looking for the book and next month, hopefully you will join us for our conversation of Death Becomes Her. So, hopefully you get to join the sleeping fun next month, last Tuesday of the month, every month.
So thank you guys for joining. I’m going to hit end broadcast and hopefully have some green tea to make the voice sound a little bit better, but I’m so happy you guys joined us. Thank you so much and thank you to my co-hostess.
Colleen: Thank you! Bye.
Angela: Bye everybody!
