Killer Chardonnay

Angela: Technology works. Oh my goodness. I’m just watching the comment thing pop up, this is amazing. Maybe we’re live, I don’t know. Hey, technology works. There we go, it’s working. Oh my goodness. I know, this is so exciting, this is the first live stream of 2021. It’s one of those, like we’re back.

Ben: Yeah, it’s been a little break.

Angela: I didn’t realize how long it had been. I went on the Instagram story just to say hi and check in, and I’m going, oh my goodness, we haven’t done one since November, because  then it was 12 days of cozies at the end of the month. It’s time to chat cozies.

Ben: Mm-hmm  mm-hmm .

Angela: Oh my gosh. All the comments are coming up, this is making me so happy. Summer and Colleen. Oh my gosh. Jill, you guys, this is so cute. I love seeing all the comments pop up, I’m going to cry. 32 people want to celebrate cozies with us. Oh my goodness, everyone’s so happy and excited to be here. Oh, this is amazing. Hi everybody.

For those of you who don’t know, this is Ben and I adore him so much. If you guys saw, he was one of my previous guest hosts, I love him, so I had to have him back. When he filled out the Google application, he was literally the first name that popped up and I was like, it was meant to be. So, if you guys haven’t watched him in a live stream or been on his Instagram or his Twitter, you need to, and you’re going see exactly why I adore him tonight. So welcome Ben.

Ben: I’m all blushing. You’re so kind.

Angela: It’s well deserved praise, there’s no exaggerating, he really is a sweetheart and I’m so happy to be chatting with you. You really do just make me smile, you have just such a genuine sweetness to you.

Ben: Oh, thank you so much. I’m speechless now, so I don’t know.

Angela: And I’m going to pre-emptively apologize on behalf of my five-pound takeup Maltese, who is now officially walking around my kitchen table for no reason. So if he starts to bark, it might happen.

Ben: That just means he wants to join in.

Angela: Yes, he wants to celebrate with us. Well, I mean, because we have a cat in tonight’s book choice, so I guess he just has to represent the dogs, apparently.

Ben: Fair enough. Fair enough.

Angela: Oh my goodness, this is so exciting to see the comments. It’s really hard to keep up because they keep moving up. Oh, yes, this is so cute. I’m so happy you guys are here, and from what I can tell, everyone seems to be loving the January book Killer Chardonnay. Also, today is the book birthday for the second book in the series, and everyone who comments tonight, every comment counts as a giveaway entry and one lucky book club member who’s joining us in commenting is going to win the second book signed by Kate on the day it’s published, which is so cool and I’m so jealous.

Ben: I’m super jealous too.

Angela:  I mean, I’m in the camp who’s just in love with this book. So, I mean, that’s going to be the first question. You know, if you guys enjoyed the book, you, you are one of the people who actually recommended the book. 

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: You’re one of those who were going, hey this book sounds great, let’s add it to the poll, and when it won, you had one of those tweets that were going yes, I was so excited to see it. So you were, again perfect guest host for tonight. So what did you think?

Ben: I loved it. What is not to love? I mean, there’s wine, there’s cats. There’s a love triangle. It’s like everything.

Angela: So, I always do this. I always get a notepad or a notebook, and for some reason, I went with the sloth one this time. It’s not a full notebook, because I had ripped out pages before, but I literally filled up this thing with notes.

Ben: There are pages in there.

Angela: So again, I actually had to start using different colors to differentiate thoughts. I was really invested in this book. It’s so hard for me to figure out where to start, I was mentioning this off camera because I was so blown away with the details. Again, I was so impressed and so I actually read this probably at the beginning of the month, and then he actually caught me listening to the audio again today. When he came and I was going okay, he caught me with that one.

So I listened to it again, and so I also read it again. So technically, if we count the audio, this is my third time with this book. Every time I notice something and I was even more impressed, they just kept upping the antsy every time, and that was really impressive, that’s hard to do. So I’m in the five star camp, what about you? What would you say?

Ben: I think I’m 4.5 almost five, almost there.

Angela: I will admit, I do have someone unanswered questions, but in regards to the details, which is why I’m like, this is amazing.

Ben: Well, let’s just round up, we’ll round up to five. So it’s pretty solid. It’s entertaining, for me, I’m in the camp that never figure out the killer ever, so I’m always surprised and shocked. So I was gasping, I’m sure my neighbors could hear me gasping and freaking out.

Angela: So, this is my thing, I figured out who the killer was, and so I actually was writing down the adjectives and I actually went into, so again, I’m the person, this is where I’m at now. So officially I have the paperback, I have the e-book and he heard me listening to the audio, which I used one of my Amazon credits to buy. So, I took a screenshot with the e-book over here as I’m pulling it up, and she goes, our heroine Parker, she’s our leading lady here, she’s the one who’s opening her winery, and I’m not going to tell you the character’s name because we’ll get into spoilers in a minute, but she’s referring to our murderer here.

So I consider fill in the blank, because I’m not going to tell you the name, a fresh and polished exterior, she’s a polite demeanour and youthful innocence. She’s smart, she would have to manage her course load and obviously she’s been sheltered, and I’m listening to her descriptions and I’m taking screenshots and I’m going, this does not sound like a criminal mastermind. You’re calling her smart, polished. At one point, she mentions how she believes this character was doing yoga, because she has this calm energy that she probably meditates, and I’m going, wait a second, I’m pretty sure this is the killer but you love her. You’re giving her all these compliments.

Ben: Cher, Cher was also thrown around there too.

Angela: I was so confused, because usually there’s a sort of, off vibe with killers where you’re kind of looking at them suspiciously or you don’t like that character and you’re rooting against them like, oh, please be like, please be the bad guy. I want you to get out of the series, I’m done with you, but Parker loves this character. She’s so complimentary, she’s going, I’m going give this person a raise, I’m going to be doing this.

Imean, she was all for this character. So that made it really hard to be a hundred percent, 10 out 10 sure that it was this character who’s the killer. At least for me, I’m reading and I’m going, I’m pretty sure it’s this person, and then, oh she’s so great at her job, she’s this, and then I’m going oh, dang it.

Ben: Yeah, I did not see that coming.

Angela: Okay, so as the comments, I’m trying to see. So apparently, you’re not the only person who doesn’t guess, oh, I’m glad you guys like the notebook. I really went for it this time, I’m trying to be better about writing book reviews, so I’m going to write these all up for you and put them on the website and my good reads page. Oh yes, I am intense. So, some people guess some people didn’t know. So, you were off base and you didn’t figure out until the end. Yeah, it was harder to figure it out because of the adjectives and the descriptions. I mean, again, I’m going to give that credit as the writing.

Ben: Yeah, it’s totally the writing.

Angela: I also think this is probably the first coz mystery I’ve read that was located in Boulder. I don’t know if anyone else has read a cozy setting there. This was the first one, I mean, I’ve come across Martha’s Vineyard and other references to vineyards, but never one about a winery like this. So, this was definitely a first cozy in a couple different ways.

Ben: That and I feel like social media played a huge part too. I mean, it was always there, and I feel like not many cozies have that either, which was kind of a fresh kind of introduction too.

Angela: I actually started writing notes in the back, again I’m like, which page do I go to? Because there’s just so many notes, because I went on to good reads and there weren’t that many reviews or write ups with people in regards to spelling out their thoughts. A lot of people just posted their stars on good reads, and that was it, but some people referenced that this came across as a very modern, cozy. Someone in their good reads comment said something along the lines of it was written for younger demographic and millennials, which was different and I’m going, yeah, that’s true.

And I have to agree. It written in the present tense, it was here we are, this is happening in the moment, and so again, that was really different. So another reason why I’m kind of giving this cozy a little bit more, giving a little bit more credit.

Ben: Yeah, yeah.

Angela: It was different, but in a good way.

Ben: Yeah. Yeah, I did feel like it was a little bit younger too, which I kind of liked my older cozies, but this was a nice, kind of fresher, modern, cozy as a sense, yeah.

Angela: Yeah. I mean, again, we know that I’m always talking about Hannah Swanson. Hannah’s my girl, and so when we did the reread of the first book in the series, I didn’t even realize how long ago that book had been published, and I also love Murder she wrote, and there’s an episode which I just watched, because again, peacock TV, you have access to all the Murder she wrote episodes. If you didn’t know that you can go check that out, I highly recommend it.

And so, there’s an episode where they’re talking about computers, not laptops,  computers, and she’s going, so I can send an email to my publisher in New York, from cab Cove and she’s so excited and had to use the telephone line to get internet access, and that was the big clue for the episode and how you figured out who the killer was, I’m going, oh, this did not age well. In the moment it was great. I mean, floppy disk was the big thing, you’re kind of going, it’s USB right now, but again, it’s hard to figure out where to start with this, because there’s a lot to this one and so many details to choose from. I also have to say, I like the fact that the murder happened very quickly, so you’re kind of invested very quickly. I just see the first comment that pops up is shameless murder show plug, of course.

Ben: Got to plug it in there, got to plug it in there.

Angela: Well, I didn’t know that it was free, it’s literally a free account, so you can watch all the Murder She wrote episodes for free and I’d been binging Amazon prime seasons one through five once a rev, and then it was just rewatch, rewatch.

Ben: And now, a whole new world just opened up.

Angela: Yeah, and then I could watch up to season 12, which was great. So do you want to just start talking about Parker, our leading lady?

Ben: Let’s talk about Parker, let’s talk about her.

Angela: What did you think?

Ben: I loved her as a leading character. She’s driven, she has big dreams, which I’m like, yeah, you can’t help but root for her, you want her to succeed. So, this winery is like her big baby, and you want it to work out for her.

Angela: I have to give her credit. I think one of the reasons why I liked her as a character so much is sometimesm authors make their characters too perfect, if they’re the sleuther, or they’re not relatable, but I definitely could understand her perspective, and I like the fact that she was very grounded and practical in regards to the business. She’s looking at the numbers, she’s paying attention to how much, I think there was one book one time where I’m going, I don’t know how this place stays in business. I literally had no idea, I’m like, does this bakery make money?

I remember there had never been a customer mention and I was going, what? So I like the fact that this was relatable and had that realism to it. I also do have a question. This is me asking you, because you’ve mentioned about wine a little bit. Do they usually serve food? because they were just serving wine at her at her place.

They had the palate cleansing crackers, but I didn’t see any reference to sodas or anything else, I don’t know, I was going to say muffins or scones, but there was nothing else mentioned. So do they do that?

Ben: They usually just have wine. I mean, some places will have little appetizer snacks to eat with the wine, like some olives or cheeses or crackers, that sort of thing, but usually, yeah, they don’t want anything to tarnish the flavour, so that’s why they have those palate cleansing crackers, and its usually little sips. I feel like she was pouring a lot, which I mean usually if you’re doing tasting, you just have a little bit, you’re not going to be gulping a full glass.

Angela: Oh my gosh, I’m seeing the comments pop up. Yeah, she was a rock climber, which was again very different. I don’t think I’ve actually come across, I’m actually trying to remember if there’s any literary character who’s going, I’m going rock climbing as my extracurricular activity, that was different too.

Ben: She was active, yeah. I feel like those gifs that you posted earlier, that’s just bouncing around.

Angela: I mean, some authors would be like, I’m looking in the mirror telling you everything about my appearance and again, I appreciate that we didn’t get that, but we didn’t really know her physical description too much in regards to, we knew she was, for some reason, this stuck out because I’m also five, four. I was like hey, five, four friend. So we get a little bit of her physical description, but she is going up the rock climbing wall and that’s not easy.

Ben: No, and I’m trying to think, like the last cozy I read, there were some jogging or something, like mostly it’s a librarian, like they’re relaxed life.

Angela: Yeah. Most of them are writers, sitting at their computers. They’re relaxing, reading their books. I mean, this one, she was very active, she’s always running around and she doesn’t even have a car. So she’s always doing public transportation.

Ben: Which I love. I’m like, Hey, where to go?

Angela: I relate to that, I don’t have a car in the city. So when she said she had to take an Uber, I’m going, I understand. I also love the fact that this poor Uber driver, this is his first night as an Uber driver and he’s driving her around and she’s like, I think I convinced him to quit. So that was the little side note.

Ben: Never again, I’m not doing Uber anymore.

Angela: I mean, actually this is a total tangent moment, but I want to know how much he made that night driving her around because this guy drives her to the campus. She tells him to wait for 20 bucks. She’s like, if I give you 20 bucks, will you hang out and wait, and of course the meter’s going in addition to 20 bucks, and then he drives her to go pick up her brother at a bar and then she says, can you wait again for another 20 bucks? and then he drives her, and then at some point I think Reid then took the Uber.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: So that guy must have made a pretty penny off of her.

Ben: I mean, he got 40 bucks extra on top of tip, on top of all that A to B to C to D.

Angela: I’m just throwing it out there. I was just curious about that one. I mean, that was his first night, but as soon as she’s like 20 bucks, then another 20, and then he was actually still driving, maybe he should just stay in the game.

Yeah. So talking about the, going back to what we were talking about before, the physical descriptions. I also like the fact that she had bangs, and this is just me saying this, because again, I read a lot, some of the time when they have bangs in the stories, the character’s like, oh, it makes me look young, it makes me like this. It mentions she just brushes her bangs out of her face, there’s no description of this or that, they were just a part of her appearance and that was it, and I’m going, thank you so much because I have side bangs. So I appreciate that.

I’m kind of curious what you guys want to talk about, because again, I have all the notes, but, I’m just going to go mention that I really like the fact that it was grounded with Colorado and Boulder, naming the wines after places and she mentions going to the university and they go to the local shops and stuff. I just thought it was very well situated in the area, because sometimes you’re going, this little town could be picked up and put down anywhere on a map, you could be like, okay, this is just, there’s no landing description, you’re like, okay, this could be in the middle, over here, over there. So I just really like the fact that you knew exactly where this was taking place, so just want to throw it out there.

Ben: No, I know. Yeah, it’s grounded, it sounds like Colorado. I haven’t been to Colorado, but it sounds like, I guess what my take of Colorado is. So it’s very local, with the wine, with the beers that they mentioned too, so yeah.

Angela: So, again, this is why I think I’m going, this woman is now going to be one of my autobi authors. So, you can tell she knew what she was writing about, you can tell she knew the area, you can tell she knows about wine, but just like a random little thing will be tossed in there detail wise. There was a guy running with ankle weights and Parker makes this little mental sarcastic note because running at altitude isn’t hard enough, just that random throwaway joke, I’m going, I’m here for this. So, just stuff like that makes me happy.

Also talking about Parker, I feel as if you have to kind of give her credit for her family dynamic and being a friendship, and I think that plays into her character too. She was really a sweet sister with Liam. I just want to throw it out there.

Ben: She was, she was really a sweet sister. Her whole, even debating dating his friends. I’m like, yeah, that’s a tricky situation.

Angela: Again, I’ve read a lot of romance novels, brothers best friends, sister’s best friend, that’s a trope, that’s thing. So to me I’m a little less sensitized to that when I’m going, yeah of course, if they’re always around, eventually you’re going to find one that you like, but I felt badly that Liam get thrown in her face. He was holding a grudge, he really was, he wasn’t getting over that, and then he brings to her big wine opening, where the dead body occurs because naturally you’re going to have an opening and a murder happens. He brings his friend Reid and he’s going, I never would’ve brought him if I knew you’re going to like him and I’m going, oh my goodness.

Ben: Did you notice he did not even look at his friend Reid, like I can’t even. He’ll be like,  maybe.

Angela: So, this is the first time she meets Reid, and then in the same day, she ends up getting reacquainted with Eli. So, I mean, she kind of meets them both in the same day, but then the relationships definitely go different ways. So which team are you falling on?

Ben: Oh, I’m team Eli, all the way. I don’t know. 

Angela: Me too, I’m team Eli, I’m team Eli. I posted this love triangle question. So on Instagram, it was seven to seven. So seven people were for Reid and seven people were for Eli, and then over on Twitter, Eli won by 78%. 

Ben: Way to go Twitter, way to go.

Angela: I got to admit though. I was surprised that too, I mean, I obviously haven’t read it yet, but celebrating the book that’s going to be given tonight. I pulled up the good reads bio. Well, she ends up with, at the end of this book Reid, and will be Reid’s girlfriend at the start of the next book and I’m going, I’m still team Eli. I’m holding out.

Ben: It’s okay. It’s okay.

Angela: I mean, so I’m curious to see where this goes, but I mean, I think it’s going to be difficult now that she’s in a relationship with Reid, so I don’t really want to get invested in a relationship just to have it end, just saying.

Ben: You never know. There’s hopefully more.

Angela: Oh, Reid’s personality wore on you. So, I think one of my giant notes was, if it was love or lust, because we very much got his physical description consistently.

Ben: Yeah. Yeah. 

Angela: We really know the color of his hair and the copper tones when it was dark.

Ben: His biceps and, we know everything.

Angela: Again, I thought the writing was great. A hunk of deliciousness was actually a direct quote.

Ben: I’m going to use that now, that’s a great description.

Angela: This guy just totally took her breath away. So we know he is definitely good looking, but I don’t know if it was because Liam, and again, this is one of those, is he biased? Is he trying to sway her away, he’s like this guy goes through women, he’s a player, and so, I don’t know if this is trying to keep the sister and friends separate or if he’s trying to protect her from heartbreak.

Ben: Maybe it could be a little bit of both, I think so. He wants to be brotherly and protect her, but also kind of dissuade her not to even start anything.

Angela: The other thing that I kind of thought was odd, and this is at the beginning of the book. So we have the food blogger, come the day of the opening. He’s poisoned and dies, and then Reid doesn’t even react. He’s still drinking his wine at the bar like nothing has changed.

Ben: Is it just me, or was everyone just kind of relaxing, still having wine? No one knew that there was a dead body in the bathroom.

Angela: She didn’t tell people at first, also nobody noticed that she looked like she was freaking out or hyperventilating. It wasn’t until the cop cars arrived, but, even when the detective, you know, Eli’s there asking questions, he’s still at the bar drinking, with his little glass of wine.

Ben: Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, that seal the whole scene.

Angela:  I just saw the word truffles and I was going, oh, someone’s team Reid, and I have to admit, it was cute that he came with a little picnic for her.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: I have to admit that was kind of adorable. I also have one of my things written down. So, he only had a single glass of wine at her opening and the tasting, before he offered to go in business with her. Did anyone else notice that?

Ben: And he wanted to buy a wholesale too. That’s what gutted me, I was like, she wants to make her money, like a wholesale.

Angela: I was kind of curious going, don’t you want to try the other ones before you offered this contract? So I wasn’t sure if he just really liked her or if he liked her wine.

Ben: Could be both, could be both.

Angela: I also want to throw out the fact that she wasn’t taking him off the murder suspect list and this person was poisoned and she had multiple meals with him.

Ben: She was thinking the whole time too, while she was eating, she was like, well, I ate it too, so I guess it’s not poisoned.

Angela: I’m just saying, this person was poisoned you’re eating a meal with them. She also went to the campus alone to meet with somebody. So, as far as a sleuther goes, she was taking some risks.

Ben: Yeah, even though that guy was in the car, the Uber was in the car waiting for her. It’s dark at night, so much could have happened.

Angela: I love how I looked down at my notes and I am like, he made an innuendo to her, like I will make you breakfast, wink wink, smile, smile. I mean, he really did get away with a lot in this book, I’m just going to say that. The wine was just that good, yeah she was just that good. Yeah, probably her, the wine, just the wine. Yeah, whatever happened to the daisies and the vase that Gaskel spit out. That’s a good question? Whatever happened to the vase?

Ben: I was wondering about that too. I’m like, she could have been like hey, he spit in this vase right here.

Angela: That’s a really good question. That’s a really good point, because wouldn’t that have had the poison in it?

Ben: It would have, yeah.

Angela: That’s an awesome question. I didn’t even notice that on my three rereads over there.  This was the page with the description with the killer. Oh yes, we’re also talking about the dimples and the hair is like a halo. Natural descriptions of a killer, but we definitely had a lot of people on the suspect list.

So we had the characters, Moira and Carrick, they owned the other winery. We have Jason , who is her best friend’s boyfriend, who we will definitely have to talk about, and we have Max who is at the wine tasting, this college kid who is a theatre person. Again, I love how everyone has their own distinct backgrounds just throwing in there the writing element of that, that’s amazing.

Reid, the handsome cook with the truffles, we have Gaskel’s sister, which again, when the family’s involved, that’s saying something, and then any other potential people who had negative reviews, that is a list.

Ben: All of Colorado pretty much.

Angela: I mean, that is a list, and the poor guy didn’t actually really do anything that bad. I mean, poor Max, he never had a chance. No, he didn’t. Cozy sleuths don’t have good judgment sometimes, and then Jill’s saying he had a good point. All of his points are good, I don’t even know which one you’re referring to, but he’s just always about them, but I’m really curious now about the vase, that just totally caught my attention.

It reminds me of one of the movies where someone said something like, in one of the comments of, if you acknowledged that DNA was an option, this movie never would’ve been made, and I’m like, yeah, because if DNA was left at the scene, like literal. Yeah, never mind, total tangent. But Jason, I feel as if we have to address Jason.

Ben: Let’s do it. 

Angela: So Jason is the boyfriend of Sage, who is absolutely adorable. I would be really good friends with her too.

Ben: Yep. Same, same.

Angela: So cute. She goes to her best friend’s opening and she’s chatting up the wine and she works really hard at her job and she’s so adorable trying to get her little nerd, you know, things in wearing the necklace for Dr. Helen, a little light saber hair pin, and then she’s with Jason. 

Ben: Boring. I feel dull, Jason.

Angela: Who’s on a Frisbee team.

Ben: Which I mean, good for him, he’s doing something.

Angela: The frisbee team is not the issue, it’s the fact that he’s like the oldest guy on the frisbee team for undergrads.

Ben: Yeah, that’s a little awkward. I don’t feel thirty is old, because I’m 30, 30 plus, but it’s definitely with younger college age kids, yeah you feel.

Angela: Yeah, that’s not the, like play your Frisbee team, have at it, join one of those meetup.com things and form your group. I mean, maybe it’s because, so I’m reading my PhD and when I would be on campus, and I would notice the undergrads, I would feel so disconnected because again, when I was an undergrad, I think everyone’s like, we’re all student, it’s all the same, and then once you’re there, you’re like, no, this is different. So that’s kind of how I picture it in a way, not that it’s a bad thing that he wants to do for Frisbee or wear his Pukka necklace. He just isn’t growing up, and she is.

They were together forever. That was one of my questions that we were talking about off camera I’m pretty sure. So, Sage was dating Jason, they started dating in high school, and they’re now in their thirties. So, they’ve been together for at least 11, 12 years, and in all that time, Parker never told her what she thought of Jason.

Ben: And I think I said before, I would’ve said something, at least early on, like yeah you try to be supportive. You’re like, oh yeah date that person, but I feel like if you kind of felt the same way the whole time, you would’ve said something, you know?

Angela: Yeah. I’m looking down at the comments, the cheesecake proposal.

Ben: She hates cheesecake too. How would you date someone for 10 plus years and not even know that, he knew that, but he didn’t care is what it is.

Angela: That’s what makes it worse, that’s what somehow makes it even worse. It’d be one thing if you just forgot, because you’re so excited you’re going to propose and you’re looking for something that looks delicious or looks grand or whatever, and you lose your head for a minute, but he deliberately just didn’t care.

Ben: Yeah, he was all, whatever she liked it.

Angela: I mean.

Ben: And you’re asking her best friend. So, I feel like with the ring selection too, if you’re asking her best friend, you already kind of have your mind made up.

Angela: So, I was saying this off camera because I’m not a Jason fan. If you guys like him, I’m sorry, but, I’m just not a fan of this guy. So, I was really confused where those two rings came from. So he two has rings that he is bringing to Parker to have her look at, to help him choose between to propose to Sage. So, I’m thinking these rings have some sort of symbolism, like one is from each grandmother, you know. One is, for just something, but we never figure out where those two rings came from and neither of them are her, neither of them look like her, neither of them speak to her style. So this guy, he just does not get Sage.

Ben: I love that you’re taking like it might be a grandparents ring or family ring, because that’s super cute, that’s really cute, that changes the whole situation, but yeah, you don’t know. So you don’t know, if these are just two that he saw and he was like, yeah, maybe this will work.

Angela: Part of me was kind of wondering, thinking maybe he was going to get redeemed at some point with the two rings being a family thing, or with him going to campus, like oh, maybe he’s taking night classes instead of doing this, but he didn’t want to tell her and it fails. I was having all these stories play out in my head, but he’s just not worth it apparently.

Ben: That’s why we love you, because you’re rooting for him even though I’m like the first paragraph I was like no, we’re done.

Angela: I’m thinking like, oh, maybe we can come back around, maybe he’s not actually on a Frisbee team, maybe he’s actually taking night classes and he’s scared that he’s not going to succeed. This is my optimism shining through, wanting to see the best in everybody, but it took me, I don’t even know, how long is this book? I don’t know what point she breaks up with him, but I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt for way too long, but they lost me with the cheesecake. That was where Jason lost me, with the cheesecake.

Ben: I hope it was on top of it and not inside of it, because I love cheesecake. So I would’ve scarfed that down and broken a tooth or something on it, I don’t know.

Angela: I’m always curious about people putting rings in food, like what is to prevent someone from accidentally swallowing it, that is actually a concern of mine.

Ben: That is a very big concern. Maybe he’s like googely eyes, all excited and watching, and maybe she’s like, ooh something’s here, but if it’s hidden inside whipped cream, I will probably just eat it.

Angela: Yeah, I’m kind of remembering, even when they put it in a champagne glass or something, what’s to prevent someone from just knocking it back.

Ben: If you’re not paying attention, you’re like cheers, and then yeah.

Angela: It’s kind of cute that he wanted to do a picnic, but yeah, the cheesecake is where it fell off. Sorry Jason, because then we find out that the brother Liam likes Sage, he’s liked her for a very long time.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: I have a question. How come our sleuth never noticed her brother was in love with her best friend. She never noticed this.

Ben: She’s bad at

Angela: I mean, she’s looking highly at the murderer. She thinks the murderer is a little angel of Achilles who meditates, and then she’s looking at the brother, not realizing he’s in love with the best friend. So I mean, she’s working on it, I guess, the observation skills, maybe in book two, she’ll be sleuthing and be like, I noticed this ASAP, but yeah, he’s in love with her.

Ben: He’s in love with her. She was dating Guy at the time, yeah Guy, but how could she not see her brother all attentive and hanging on every word that Sage is saying?

Angela: So, one of my notes was, I wrote down Peter pan syndrome, and this is how I differentiate the two. So we have Jason who’s just in Peter pan syndrome, but Liam is trying to actually get out of it, where he’s trying different things, trying to find his passion, he’s working on himself. So even if the two guys have this issue of growing up, at least Liam is trying, he’s trying to make things now better and trying to propel things forward.

So, I mean, we kind of look at them side by side, Liam’s also a good brother, he cares about Sage, and this was my note that I noticed on the reread. I was so pumped when I noticed this. So, Liam’s wearing the millennial Falcon T-shirt when he goes out to the bar where he gets plastered, because Sage is getting engaged, and then when she’s at her engagement party, she’s wearing the light sabers from Star Wars and I’m going, oh my gosh, they’re both love star wars, it’s meant to be. I don’t know if that was planned or if that was just a random reference, but I was going, oh my gosh, they both love star wars, please, please.

Ben: Yeah, that’s a cute little touch, those little touches that you pick up when you reread, it’s so cute.

Angela: I noticed that the first time, and as soon as I saw that mentioned, when she had the hair tied up with the chopsticks that were light sabers, I’m going, oh my gosh. I just was just head over heels going you need to be with Liam, in the worst way.

Ben: Just forget Jason.

Angela: So yeah, okay. See? Because I didn’t notice it the first time at all, that went right over my head and yeah, the other thing that went right over my head, we’ll get back to Liam in a second, but the dog being named William Wallace. So, I named Max after, Max is named after Maximus in Gladiator. So I’m not against naming dogs or animals after movies, but the joke that went over my head was, his name is Reid Wallace, his last name’s Wallace. He named the cat William Wallace, that was the joke. I didn’t realize the joke was, his last name was Wallace. Therefore William Wallace was not just a movie reference, it was him including the last name. 

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: Did anyone else notice that the first time because I didn’t?

Ben: I did. This is skipping in my head, yes.

Angela: Because I didn’t notice that the first time. So when I went back and because his last name was referenced at one point, and that was when it was on the reread. I’m like, wait a second, his last name is Wallace, hold up. I’m flipping, I’m going, wait a second, I understand now. So, I don’t know if anyone caught that, Braveheart, Mel Gibson. It’s a good movie, but I didn’t notice that the first time either. So, this book with the details, I mean, I don’t know how she edited it, wrote it, but like amazing.

Ben: Amazing.

Angela: Okay, thank you. So nobody else noticed that the first time. I just thought the name was William, and that’s why when he paused during the conversation, she’s like, okay, like, good, yeah, William. I get it now. So anyway, Liam. What did you think of Liam?

Ben: I love. He’s a great brother, I mean, yeah, he’s a great brother, he’s there for his sister. I feel like their family, with the parents kind of choosing the work over the kids, kind of messed them up a little bit, but seeing them as adults now, you’re like, they turned out good, they’re working through their stuff.

Angela: I have to admit, I thought he was really cute to, I mean, again, yes he’s trying to be a photographer and take photos, but he’s like oh, you can use them for your website. I’m trying to take pictures to angle them. He’s being supportive, he went to the opening, he brought a friend. Again, he didn’t realize the love interest, so he would have brought a different friend maybe, but he’s trying to be supportive and I’m going, okay, this is sweet.

Ben: Yeah, and you know her parents aren’t there, because that’s mentioned right there in the beginning too, at least her brother’s there.

Angela: What did we think about the parents not going to the opening because

Ben: I was kind of like, if my parents didn’t go to a big opening of mine, I would be sad, but you learn later on, what her dad tells, so I’m like, oh, okay that means a lot. They came the next day, but then they also said we didn’t want to have your friends there. We didn’t want to downers.

Angela: Yeah, they sent her flowers for the opening day. She came home to this beautiful bouquet and I kind of, I wasn’t sure what to make of that relationship, because I could kind of see both sides. You know, the parents are thinking she’s trying to live her life, they don’t want to be the buzz kill. His word, literally was buzz kill. I wrote that down, it’s in my notes, and so, they actually thought about it before not attending. So it wasn’t like they just blew it off.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: At the same time, it’s still a little sad that they missed out. So, it’s interesting, but again, I kind of give that credit of, oh, it’s not black or white, this is a grey matter. So yeah.

Ben: Yeah. I feel like it’s working with the whole dynamic of the family. I feel that they’re better as a family at the end, so it makes me happy too. They’re talking about it, not just kind of, you know, yeah.

Angela: I’m seeing the comments. So Miss Richards, Reid was so mad at her parents. Jackie, you thought that was rot and then it did. Okay, so this is true too, Renee, and this was in my notes. Parker said she got the free education, but the very next sentence they gave her nothing, I wrote that down too, because I’m going, by the way, if you get a free undergraduate degree, I’m like you got something financially, you did. She went on about working for room and board, I’m going room and board versus the full tuition bill, very different.

The free education thing that kind of got me too, and then you wanted to know more about the origins. Oh, you want to open the business, that’s cute. Yeah, you can’t imagine not going. Yeah, I also thought it was kind of interesting or at least noteworthy, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, actually. They were willing to help her financially if she needed the money for her winery, but yet Parker didn’t ask, so she didn’t know to ask and then they were waiting to ask.

So, there was definitely a disconnect between what she’s thinking and what the parents are thinking. So, I don’t know what to do with that per se, because they were willing, but yet she doesn’t want to ask them for help. So should they have offered, is it their responsibility to offer? I mean, how does this play out?

Ben: I don’t. Yeah, it’s definitely a grey matter. It’s communication, so they should have been like hey, if you need any money, just let us know, but then yeah, she didn’t think about asking, because maybe she’s proud. So she didn’t want to ask, but you can’t also expect them to offer the money like that too.

Angela: I have admit, part of the reason why I was so curious about this was the fact that Liam is the older brother and usually it’s the reverse. Usually the baby of the family gets coddled, that didn’t happen here, it was the older brother, I mean he was even investing at one point. So I mean he had the podcast, so I’m assuming he bought the microphone and the software to edit and everything else. Now he is doing photography and he has a black room. His ventures are not hey, let’s go to the dollar store, that’s not what he’s doing. 

Ben: He’s fully investing in every hobby, which is awesome, but also like , if you just kind of move to the next one, it’s a lot to invest.

Angela: I have to admit though, that was really cute how after his camera was destroyed, Parker wants to invest in her brother and show him that she supports him. I think their relationship is probably the cutest in regards to the familial elements. Her and her brother are just adorable, even if he does hold a grudge.

Ben: Yeah, it’s really sweet what she does.

Angela: It was an improvement instead of the mother telling her to constantly lose weight or get married. Yeah, they get married is a reoccurring cozy theme, of we’re going to set you up with this person, or this person has a son, that happened. I actually, now that you brought this to my attention, she didn’t actually mention her in a relationship at all.

Ben: No.

Angela: I think I actually might like her parents a little bit more now. That’s actually a really excellent point, I like that one. Okay, so, I also want to say her aunt is adorable and this lady is not even a character, but I love her. Even if everything we get is second hand stories or acknowledgements I’m going, can I love you, you’re an amazing person. Can you get a side story of a pre story?

Ben: Yeah, I want prequel with the aunt.

Angela: She was so cute, she’s supporting her. She gave her money, the way they said, she would go with the foam finger, I’m going, the descriptions of her was so cute.

Ben: Yeah, yeah, and it’s what they needed, because their parents were always busy, so their aunt was the mom kind of little bit.

Angela: Yeah, she just had that. I love how she, it reminds me of Rebecca, where it’s like, you hear the name and you know about the character, but you don’t actually see the character, that’s what I felt this was. We have all these descriptions of her, so we feel like we know her without knowing her, because everyone’s so sweet about her.

Aww, you thought that by her buying the camera, that it was a turning point. Yeah, that was oh, flashback, yes. Can we do that? It’s picking up in the second book. Oh, also I’m convinced this is a tangent digression sort of, I don’t know, but I think Carrick is going to have his own book about his own past coming back to.

Ben: Oh, yeah.

Angela: That’s that was on my realizations, upon the second reading, we find out the other winery, the owners, Carrick has a past, so I can totally see his past coming back at him and him ending up in jail and her wanting to help because they were nice to her. I can see that being a future story in the series, so I’m making a prediction, just throwing that out there.

Ben: You heard it here first, just so you know.

Angela: I’m throwing it out there, that seemed to me like a setup, of having that vague reference to him having a past.

Ben: Oh, yes. Can we talk about Moira right now?

Angela: Oh, yes, please.

Ben: Where do I start? I love her. I mean, also you pointed out too with the Moira from Schitt’s Creek. So, I know it’s not the same description of her, but I just kind of pictured Moira as Moira.

Angela: The number of times I’ve rewatched Schitts Creek is amazing. I love that show so much, I love that show, I really do. If you guys haven’t seen Schitt’s Creek, please, please watch it, it is amazing. I mean, because again, I don’t drink, I’ve never had wine, so there’s an episode where Moira is trying fruit wine, which I mean, well, that’s a whole separate thing, but you know, she’s at the vineyard and I was thinking of that for this. So, I actually am kind of curious if that was where the name came from and connection with if maybe that was the inspiration.

Ben: I hope so, I can only hope so.

Angela: But this woman, she’s so cute. I think I probably have two or three pages of notes for her, and I’m not going to read them all, obviously, but I just thought it was so sweet the way she was trying to be so supportive. I mean, this woman literally hands over a list of VIPs to Parker to help her with her winery, nobody does that. Seriously, this is a woman who could be competition and she just genuinely wants her to succeed. I mean, I know she’s a fictional character, but I just want to hug her.

Ben: She could have easily, after that disastrous first day been like let’s cut our ties here, never go back, but she comes back and offers some business. I mean they’re business rivals kind of. So, I mean, would you want your patrons to go there, but she she’s trying to help out, because she’s generally that kind of nice person.

Angela: So it’s, I mean, I’m seeing the comments pop up, Bebe. There was the thing on Etsy where, it was like Santa Bebe and she’s wearing the little Christmas hat

Ben: I have that shirt. I have that shirt.

Angela: You do? I saw it as a sticker and I wanted to get it, and I think it was sold out by the time I actually was going to place the order, ugh so sad, but yeah.

Ben: It’s Bebe, it’s cold outside, is what it says?

Angela: Oh my gosh. Yeah, we’re going to have to talk about Schitt’s Creek eventually at some point, because that show is just amazing.

So, it took you a little while. I think that was part of it, you’re not sure if she’s genuine, so in the moment you’re going okay, is this you being manipulative? Is this, but it’s not until you realize she’s not the killer, in which case she is genuine. So yeah, again, first read, I’m looking at her with that, I was going to say, you know that Gif, where the lady’s got her little magnifying glass looking through, that’s what I felt like. I was like, I’m looking at you, what do I do with you? So, it was not until rereading, when I’m going, oh my gosh, she goes back to apologize. She had bought a bottle of wine at the opening. I’m going, this woman is actually really thoughtful.

Ben: Yeah, because you had that question. Is she sabotaging? Does she throw that glass of wine on purpose? You know, like you’re wondering .

Angela: Yeah, yeah. See, Shannon’s saying she thought she was shady, she was on your list. She thought she was so fake. Yeah, I kept waiting to see, I mean, again, I figured out who the killer was, because the comment about, oh, so, and so’s girlfriend. I figured that out, I mean, obviously she’s not dating an undergraduate. I don’t know how old she was, but she’s not dating one.

Ben: She’s not, no. I mean, her husband’s very attractive too, so, I mean good for her.

Angela: With the little French accent.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: See, apparently Max is also agreeing Carrick’s a handsome man. Yeah, you’re reading her, doing all these things, you’re going, are you setting her up for something, did you specifically hand the poison? I mean, where did this come from? I thought it was so cute though, I started realizing how generous she was, even to me just buying the bottle of wine and going back to apologize, actually taking time out of your day to go back and say, I’m sorry for making disturbance, and then she even told the contacts that she was going to be sending them, saying like hey, I’m going to be sending your information to someone be on a lookout, and then I realized that she actually gave them the tasting for free when Parker brought Sage with her to the winery, it was on the house and I’m going, this woman is just the cutest thing in the world.

Ben: So nice, and multiple times she’s like, don’t listen to the reviews, it’s not the end of the world. Those comments, I’m like, she generally is trying to help out, which makes me so happy.

Angela: And then I even wrote down, again, this was upon the second reread where I’m going, okay you can write. She remembered Parker’s favorite drink was the red Merlot, or the wine.

Ben: Yes.

Angela: She remembered which drink she liked, and she brought it over and even said that, talk about thoughtful.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: I’m like, can we be friends. Oh, what’s going on? Someone has a prediction. I’m seeing comments. Takes some strays. Yes, so Carrick was a stray, I also think, I was going to say, I don’t know if he deserves her, I don’t even know how to phrase it. Here’s this woman who’s so generous and kind, and there’s a moment, I went back with the notes where he’s looking at Parker with an evil eye, but I wasn’t sure if it was an evil eye because she was eavesdropping.

Ben: Probably. I mean, that’s like little grey area.

Angela: I saw the word prediction and I lost it. Oh, people are wondering if he’s still genuine. That’s true. At this point, she’s done so many nice things though. Where’d it go? I’m never going to find it, now that I’m looking for it, I’m going to have to scroll back through everything later, obviously to find all the comments for the giveaway entries, maybe they will become partners, that’s a good question.

Ben: That would be fun, I would approve of Moira and Parker being partners.

Angela: I mean, do we also, this is my, I mean, this is my question for you and everyone else. Do we actually find out why she threw the drink at him? Do we actually know what prompted drink throwing? We know their marriage is on the rocks and they’re having some issues and they do reconcile by the end, but what did he say to get the drink?

Ben: I actually don’t remember, I actually do not. I don’t even think we know.

Angela: I don’t think we actually find out, I don’t think we know, because again, I’ve officially dedicated a lot of time to this book. I was on the lookout, and I don’t think we know what caused the drink throwing, but I’m going to guess he must have said something pretty bad, because she seems nice, to just do that.

Ben: Right, right.

Angela: Ooh, okay, thank you, Colleen, thank you. Victoria said she thought that Moira will want something from Parker in the future.

Ben: Ohh.                 

Angela: I mean, granted, apparently their wine is not the best, so maybe she does want to be partners because the wine is so much better. Yeah, okay. So thank you. If you guys figure that out or this comes up in book two.

Ben: Please tag both of us, we want to know.

Angela: I mean I’m genuinely curious, because that’s not something that happens usually.Okay, we talked about Parker, I was going to say, we already talked about Reid wanting a partner, that was one of my comments. This is also one of my lingering questions, so poor Liam. Liam in his photos, he’s very talented. Do we find out which photos survived or is this one of the ones that is left kind of open ended?

Ben: I think it’s left open, I don’t think he said which one it was.

Angela: Okay, because I’m curious, what was the photo that was left, that was the one photo that wasn’t burnt, torn apart, after his home, the basement. This poor guy, he had one of the worst days ever.

Ben: Yeah, his passion.

Angela: I was just curious if anybody had any guesses or thoughts about what the one photo that he was going to enter into a magazine or contest?I was kind of curious about that.

Ben: I thought it was like a little hint to maybe flush out the suspect, I thought it was like a little, maybe they’re going to catch them, but it didn’t happen.

Angela: Ooh, okay. So, I’m kind of curious what’s going to happen now, now I’m looking at these comments, they’re just popping up. You felt badly their wine was so bad, he wanted to take a vacation, and she didn’t want to take the money. Oh yeah, that’s true too, they’re taking off the busy season, so putting their marriage before business. They were fighting to stage a scene to steal from Parker, you think he stole the recipe.

Ooh, okay. So inside the library with miss Amanda, that is an amazing title, I love that. They don’t play a big part in book two, okay, so I’m going to, hopefully this is at least a three-book deal, I want them to come back because Moira seems adorable.

Ben: Yes.

Angela: You like to think it’s a picture of Sage. I’m kind of curious if it’s a picture of her, I’m kind of curious. I think it would be either really cute if it’s the photo that Parker saw, and had that moment of wow, he’s talented, or if it’s a photo of Sage, because then that’s just, you know, their love is meant to be.

Ben: Yes, that would really cute.

Angela: That would be really adorable, all the more reason for them to be like true love. I don’t know if you guys can hear that, the dog finally clocked out out and he’s snoring. All of a sudden, there’s a big intake and I’m going, oh, how sensitive is this microphone? So, again, poor Liam, he’s in love of Sage, the best friend, and he goes and gets drunk because the love of his life whose unrequited love is getting engaged, and Reid calls. Reid is a grown man in his thirties, who is friends with Liam, calls the sister Parker. Did he do that because he wanted to call her, or if because he actually needed help?

Ben: I think he wanted to call her. He could have easily dragged Liam back to his own place.

Angela: I made a note of that, because I was curious, I’m going, oh, we have to at least draw attention to this with Reid.

Ben: I think he wanted to see Parker again, so I think he called her.

Angela: I mean, because I’m kind of curious going, he’s an adult, he’s a friend of his. He knows where this guy lives, I’m guessing he also has a home.

Ben: You’re guessing he has a home.

Angela:  I’m guessing he has a home, based on the fact that he has a cat, you know, I’m saying he has least something, even if there’s a couch or chair or a sleeping bag, I’m just kind of curious, he calls Parker. That kind of stuck out to me, I’m going, is this your way of keeping her around? What are you doing?

Ben: I think so, and then there’s a little moment there, while Liam’s passed out on the couch, there’s that moment there with Parker and him. I think he wanted to call her.

Angela: Again, I wasn’t sure if that was a little manipulative or if that was him genuinely trying to be like, oh, I’m looking for opportunities, again, maybe because I just like Eli so much.

Ben: No, I’m on the same page there too, so I’m always questioning every move that Reid makes, I’m going ohh is this genuine? But I think genuinely he just wanted to see her.

Angela: I mean, again, he’s calling her to him, meanwhile, Eli just happens to run into her at the climbing gym. Meant to be, forced interaction.

Ben: It’s very biased takes going on here.

Angela: Yeah, clearly I don’t have a favourite, obviously I’m totally neutral. He wanted to, okay guys, thank you. He wanted to call, him being all nervous about Liam being drunk. After the age of 21, you just go with it at that point, you know what to do. Yep, okay that’s true too. Reid wanted her to know that Liam was upset, that’s true. Maybe he did want the emotional component of that. I was just saying, I just thought that was interesting.

Ben: I mean, that’s not suspicious.

Angela: Again, maybe because I like Eli. We should also talk about Eli, because we haven’t done that yet. What do you think of Eli?

Ben: So, you know his backstory, you know he’s a big stoner in high school, and he changed, so he got almost the third strike and so he kind of changed his past. So, he’s grown a lot since then and, so I’m rooting for him.

Angela: I thought it was interesting how, not like the justification, you find out he’s not doing that just to be a cool kid or he just wants to be perceived a certain way, he had genuine at home problems that was causing him to have this really bad experience and he was turning to marijuana, apparently that was his drug of choice, and that it was legalized and she made a joke out of that. She’s like, are you upset now that marijuana is legal?  I’m like, that’s actually a really good point, but yeah, I like the fact that we find out why he was using it. It wasn’t just a matter of, oh, I was in high school, this is what people do, but there was actual motivation, and then he realized, he’s not going to let other people impact his life and he did turn around.

So I’m going, I have to say, I think that’s definitely, he made it himself, which I kind of give him credit for. He made his life what it is, and you got the flip side again, you have to look at the two love interests, and then you have Reid, whose family wanted him to go to an Ivy league school. They wanted him to be a doctor, a lawyer. So, I’m going to guess that they were very supportive to some degree at least, being like, oh, you’ve got this, you can do this. Very different upbringings, just throwing that out there.

Ben: Yeah, yeah.

Angela: I mean, I also want to know. So this book is so detailed and we literally find out every pretty much calorie that they eat, every taste, every meal, every drink, and then the one thing we don’t get is the bonding conversation between Parker and Reid when he’s driving her to evergreen to go on a sleuthing mission and we find out he has two siblings, we find about the parents. Why is that conversation not here? So, just throwing that out there, I wanted to know more about his background. Oh, I have a random note, Libby Lincoln, which is also a great name.

Ben: Yes, yes. Libby.

Angela: What are your thoughts on Libby? Because you just got really excited.

Ben: Well, I felt almost, she was a throwaway character a little bit, but then she came back again, she was there doing her own thing and then left and then you find out that she’s also a,  not a food critic, I think she’s like a blogger. I think that’s what it was, right?

Angela: Yeah.

Ben: Blogger, yeah. So, but kind of morbid things, so I was wondering if people were going to be interested in to her winery, like from the, they killed someone, so it’s a little edgy. So it was fun that she kind of brought that kind of Intel in there too.

Angela: I like the fact that, I loved her description. She just sounded so epic in this character description. She had the dolphin tattoos and she had this cherry blossom and I mean the pink hair, I’m going, she just sounded so cool. I’m just going, I need to see this character, this needs to be an actual Hallmark movie so I can see you, but she was so cute too, I don’t know how much the one glass of wine cost, but she gave the $20 bill and they make note of the fact that it is way above what the price tag was.

Ben: She was also very supportive, like, trying all the small businesses, which I kind of like that aspect in the story too, like doing things local, so supporting local, so that’s nice.

Angela: So you guys, I did read the little book blurb, so I knew Reid’s parents were coming to town in the second book in the series, and apparently she wants to impress them and things go badly. So, the first chapter is on the website and they’re really mean, yeah, no, I’m curious, I just wanted to know more information.

I guess, my point was that we get all this description, all this information, and then when it comes to their backstory with that, I want that conversation, I want to know more, but if it’s in the book two, maybe that’s exactly why we don’t get that conversation, because we’re going to find out anyway. So I think you just answered my question. Thank you.

See, again, I want to read book two. I was going to say, what is it Berkeley? I work really well with, I love Kensington and source books, yeah. So this one is from Berkeley, I was going to say, I don’t know if Berkeley’s ever sent me any of the arcs, but I think they had it on NetGalley at one point. I didn’t look into that, because I’m really bad with NetGalley, I always forget to review the books and then.

Ben: Don’t do that, don’t do that, yeah.

Angela: No, and then sometimes authors will send you the NetGalley link and you’re like, oh, I clicked on that before and didn’t knew it was NetGalley, and now I’m in the system with this book. So, we should probably talk about this, we got Jolly’s.

Ben: Jolly diner.

Angela: So, this is my question, we actually don’t have the Jolly’s diner clue until it’s referenced in Max’s suicide note and our killer put in the main clue in the suicide note that could tie everything together.

Ben: Conveniently.

Angela: I was going to say, here’s a killer who’s supposed to be very intelligent. That was not very intelligent. So we got our main clue and that was a really sad backstory.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: I was going to say, so this happens in cozy mysteries, but I don’t think this would happen in real life with the grandmother conveniently being nearby, near Jolly’s and she happened to hear the whole history, and she didn’t just tell the  history she invited them into her home. 

Ben: Yeah. She could have been like no, but she was like, yeah, come on in, but I mean, she had Reid for eye candy, so that kind of helped out, I think if it was just Parker, I don’t know if that would happen.

Angela: The line is, I don’t know where it went in my notes, but it was like, God bless those dimples, because he pulled out the dimple card and was smiling and, you know. Yeah, Reid was the reason that woman let them into her home.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: I just love how she just opened the door, she gives them lemonade and provides them with the entire backstory, I mean the backstory is important, but I just love how she was just like, here you go, that was just great. If anyone knocked on my door, I wouldn’t open it.

Ben: And you’re not going to offer them lemonade, and tell them a whole bunch of backstory.

Angela: No, I’d be like Max defend the apartment. I’d be like, I’m sticking my five-pound Maltese on you, but Jolly’s. So, her name is Holly and her dream is to open a restaurant, and her husband, he sells his landscaping business to support her, and he’s working at the restaurant and then our food critic comes and she actually acknowledges, and we were told this, that she was so nervous, she messed up the order.

So it wasn’t just him being critical, she actually did make a mistake. So I wanted to kind of red flag that and ask what you guys think of this, because apparently she did mess up the order, and so I wasn’t really sure how that played into how this went about, because obviously he wrote a bad review and things filed from there, but did she deserve the bad review? I’m kind of curious.

Ben: Yeah. I feel like part of it, she did mess up on something, but it’s also, I don’t know, he had the whole cancer thing too on top of it.

Angela: It definitely seems as if there was a fixation on, I’m going to mispronounce this guy’s name, Rascal. I mean, that is the name, he definitely needed his own blog or something with that name, but yeah, he wrote a bad review and apparently the entire town turned against her.

Ben: If it was a beloved, welcoming part of town, I feel it’s hard that the whole town would just be like, nevermind yeah it is bad, or something like that. Everyone’s been eating there for how long? I don’t know

Angela: I saw somewhere that that’s why there are more serial killers in the past because now no one wants to open the door. That is an amazing comment. Reid knows how to use what God gave him. He does. My favourite was when they went to meet up with Parker and she says that girl never even gave me a smile and she’s bringing over his muffin or whatever it was.

Ben: The barista?

Angela: Yeah.

Ben: She goes there all the time right next door.

Angela: And then as soon he walks in once and the woman’s looking at him, I mean, yeah, he definitely knows how to work it. The killer should have gone on a killing spree against the town. Oh God, yeah. No more evergreen?

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: That’s actually a good question, Crystal. Yeah, how did she not notice that ring? That’s a good question, unless it was like a chain and it was put under, I don’t know. Yeah, I was kind of curious about that too, how one bad review led to the entire thing crashing down around them, especially

Ben: Everyone’s mind would’ve changed. They’re like, oh yeah, this is terrible food or something.

Angela: I’m just kind of curious about that element. There was something about that story where I was going, I felt like there was even more backstory to that. I don’t know if this is going to come up in book two at some point, but I kind of felt like we could even parse that out further. I also want to know, because apparently again, me with my little timelines. So, that happened nine years prior to this happening in the book, and so the child would’ve actually been a teenager I’m sure.

I was trying to play out the timeline, I was kind of curious, because then also, he would’ve been coming up in his blogging career. So would he have had the same influence nine years ago that he would’ve had in the present?

Ben: True, true. Yeah, if he was just starting out.

Angela: I mean, I feel as if we should probably actually just start talking about the killer because we’ve been dancing around.

Ben: Let’s do that now. It’s time for the big reveal.

Angela: I was going to say, as we’re talking about the backstory, I mean, would you like to take?

Ben: Well, I was blown away, so I did not pinpoint. I was so fixated on Jason the whole time, Anita totally slipped through my radar.

Angela: So, she loved having this woman as her assistant, she wants to give her a raise. We find out how beautiful she is. Her hair is like a halo around her as she walks in, she is this she’s that, and then we find out, we’re given little clues along the way. So, when I heard that Max’s girlfriend said this and oh, were you Max’s girlfriend? even though Parker obviously wasn’t. We have these little references to someone younger and then, Jolly’s child. So, I was 99% sure it was Anita, but the fact that Parker loved her and gave her such rave reviews was keeping me from going it’s you, it’s definitely you

So, I didn’t really know what to do with that, because maybe that was just good writing in a way, because you don’t want to be like, I am 100% certain this is the killer. So, I mean, that definitely kept me from having that, which is again, what you want with cozy mysteries, you want to play the game. So that definitely made me play the game, but I didn’t know what to do with that, because I’m going, you really love this person who’s a murderer.

Ben: Yeah. Right up until that last scene, I was all what? And then, and I was like no.

Angela: She also came in to help her, and she’s dressed up. She’s already carrying around the box of wine. She’s not just carrying around wine, she’s carrying around a box. I mean, this woman’s really going for it. Okay, the comments are popping up. So you thought it was Jason? Yeah, I was kind of wondering. Again, I just didn’t like him as a character.

Ben: Yeah. So I think that’s why, that’s why I was, it’s Jason. Yeah, so be Jason.

Angela: So, this was something else too. This was again, why I think I kind of brushed it off a little bit. Once we found out about Max’s girlfriend, I was convinced it was her, the 99% of me was convinced, but I was curios when Eli, our detective and the love triangle who I’m rooting for. When Eli, our detective came to question them and she got nervous, and then she kind of has a point when she says, well, when you see a cop car, you slow down. Again, back when I was driving, I don’t have a car in the city, but when I was driving, I would do the same thing, I understood her reasoning.

Ben: Yeah. Same here. Same here.

Angela: I fell for it.

Ben: She tricked us.

Angela: I mean, she did. Yeah, she had the best 100% opportunity. She was crazy.

Ben: Yeah, yeah.

Angela: As she’s on her way to jail, she was still giving advice. Yeah. I also love how she’s got the cork screw to her, like she wants to kill her, you really were a good boss. You’re literally threatening her life and you’re complimenting her.

Ben: Yeah. Still with the compliments.

Angela: What? I am sorry, I didn’t know what to do with that one. I also thought, we were talking about this before with her throwing the bottles of wine.

Ben: Yes, yes. My favourite scene, my favourite scene.

Angela: Please tell them your favourite scene, because this is amazing.

Ben: So, Parker traps Anita, and so Anita starts using some leverage to try to get out of that situation. So she takes the one thing that Parker cares about is all the wines she’s made. So she takes the bottles and starts throwing them down, and Parker has this moment where she’s like, should I just let her go? This is important to me, this is parential revenue, and she keeps on mentioning the wines flushing out, like the puddle and Anita’s just commenting as she’s throwing the bottles down.

Angela: I mean, she’s listening. She’s hearing them crashing and she’s literally like, Parker do you want to open the door for a second?

Ben: I’m sure she’s like, she’s like money. She’s like, that’s negative, as each bottle gets .

Angela: Okay. I can’t sell the inventory, I’m making money with this, and you’re like, that was all of my time, and that was all my blood, sweat and tears. It’s my dream crashing.

Ben: Parker, she must have been, yeah.

Angela: Anita really just went for it, I mean, this girl. I also just want to say that I love the fact that the murder weapon or her potential murder weapon for Parker was the cork screw, even the murder weapon was wine related.

Ben: It’s fitting, it’s fitting.

Angela: I was like, that’s a nice tie in, but yeah, she’s keeping the postcard as her bookmark. I mean, this again, I was like, is this just you, the mementos of a serial killer? Like, what is this? Why is that your bookmark?

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: The more you think about her and the more you look at what she is doing, she was off her rocker crazy.

Ben: She’s supposed to be really smart. So I would’ve been like, she should’ve destroyed that, that could not have been tied in there.

Angela: So, I saw something like poor Max, Max got the bad end of it. That poor guy.

Ben: She used him.

Angela: That poor Max, awful frat house, awful girlfriend. He just got mixed in this, yeah. That poor guy. Yeah, his friends, obviously they were not the brightest.

Ben: No

Angela: But yeah, there was something going on there where he didn’t really seem to fit in with his group of friends, and he’s got this girlfriend who just manipulated him and apparently, I thought this was kind of sad for him too, right? He writes her a love letter for their one-month anniversary, and Anita, who’s already killed him. I mean, you can’t do much worse than that is making fun of him. Oh, he wrote me a love letter for a one-month anniversary.

Ben: How convenient, now I can use this as his suicide note, copy his handwriting.

Angela: Yeah, he was pouring his heart out to her. At one point, again, pride and prejudice is one of my all-time favourites. My undergrad thesis was on adaptations and I went down this rabbit hole of how men write love letters, and I went down this entire thing and I even did an independent study on writing letters. So I love letter writing, and here I am like, oh, that’s so sweet and that’s so thoughtful and she’s making fun of him and he’s already passed away, but I’m mad on his behalf as I’m reading her making fun of him. I felt so badly for this guy.

Ben: Yeah, he was totally used, poor Max.

Angela: I know, and obviously, I mean, justice. Hashtag justice for Max. I saw something. Parker says to the cops save my wife, he thought he had a Canadian girlfriend, that is amazing. No yeah, it reminds me of, you know, oh my girlfriend lives out of town, out of state and they’re like yeah, sure she does. I also want to know about her just including Jolly’s in the note.

Ben: Yeah. If she’s supposed to be a mastermind, that was a really bad mistake.

Angela: Also, I kind of, even though I’m on his team, on his romantic team, how come Eli, wasn’t reading the comments on Rascal’s blog, and how come he didn’t actually look that up himself?

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: Did he really need Parker to be like hey, here’s a link between this comment in Jolly’s, trace the IP address. I’m kind of curious what Eli was doing with his days when he wasn’t thinking about or talking to Parker, how come he didn’t make that connection or any of his team really? Because apparently, there’s an entire police force aside from Eli.

Ben: It’s always a theme, right? That the police aren’t doing their work. So you have to sleuth yourself.

Angela: Oh, question. We haven’t talked about all the wine metaphors that Parker used out the book, did people like those? What did you think? Did you like wine metaphors?

Ben: I did. I especially loved all the wine names. They’re all really cute, which makes me happy, like Snow Day Sirrah.

Angela: I was going to say, again, I don’t really know much about wine, but I love the line when she was talking about imperfections and how that causes the wine to have the taste that it does, because it’s different and it’s imperfect just like people and I’m thinking, oh my gosh, I felt like this book was very literary, I mean, obviously, but I meant literary fiction with this sort of metaphor, symbolism.

I felt like this book had these literary components to it in that regard, and I think the wine metaphors kind of played into that, you know, going down the literary with the comparisons, it just, again, that’s why I think the writing is just so top notch with this. I loved it.

Ben: I loved it. I loved that.

Angela: You thought it was, okay. The husband thinks it’s cheesy. Well. What is it, there’s a line in one movie. Oh my gosh, it was in the holiday with Kate Winslet, where she was like, I need more corny in my life, I’m like, yes we do. Thank you, Kate.

Ben: I mean, this is why we come to cozies, we come for this.

Angela: I thought it was very, I think they were intelligent, like doing the imperfections.

Ben: That’s the last paragraph, right? Yeah.

Angela: Yeah, I liked that. I mean, I also thought it was really, really cute. The cat Zinfandel, am I saying that correctly?

Ben: Yeah, you are.

Angela: The cat from the grapes origin, the cat from the shelter that they didn’t know where she came from, I think that’s really cute.

Ben: It’s really cute. It’s really cute.

Angela: I liked that, call it cheesy. I’m there for it.

Ben: It’s not cheesy.

Angela: So cheesy is okay. What was this? Cheese goes with wine.

Ben: Yep, it does, it pairs well.

Angela: Maybe she should serve cheese with crackers. I just want to know about these palate cleansing crackers, what brand of crackers is this? I’m curious, because I didn’t know this was a thing.

Ben: I think they’re probably just a zero-flavor kind of.

Angela: I’m just curious, because I didn’t know that that was an actual existence thing.

Ben: I was slightly offended though when she poured out the wine from Moirah’s winery, because I don’t know. I know they don’t want you to drink it all, I guess, but also, I was like, don’t you just take a sip and then you’re just pouring it out.

Angela: So what did you guys, yeah, the entire Murphy, I have questions about them. That’s why, when you said that they didn’t play a big part in book two, I’m thinking they have to come back for book three with Carrick at point, maybe this is like a Hannah Swanson thing where they’re going to keep going with this series until book 20, and I’m just saying one of these books is going to be his story, I don’t know which one but it will be, but I mean, their wine was bad.

So apparently Sage is, unlike Parker doesn’t know the difference between wine, she’s like me and like that one’s red, that one’s white. So did their clientele not know, why do they have all these bad wines except for one great wine?

Ben: Yeah, the one that Parker likes, yeah.

Angela: I’m kind of curious, yeah, you might be tossing away their wine, but that’s still their wine.

Ben: Also, I want to know how big it is because, are they right there seeing them tossed away? I would be sad, I don’t know, I would politely sip until I was done, and then be like okay.

Angela: Well, this is the other thing about wine though, too, this isn’t like you can slip things under your napkin. 

Ben: No, no, no. It’s liquid, even if you try to pour it down, it’s going to make a sound as you’re splashing.

Angela: I don’t know about anyone else, but you would try and put the broccoli underneath the broccoli. So it might look a little higher, but it’s hidden, you can’t do that with wine, so I’m just saying. Oh, my gosh, I saw the comments, I’m trying to scroll down to see if there’s something we’ve missed or see something pop out. I have to admit, I am glad that Sage does not end up with Jason, so I’m happy about that.

I also, I’m fingers crossed, hoping that at the end, when Sage is talking to Liam there’s potential for things to come. So, we talked about Eli, I’m just scrolling here. If there’s something you guys want to, if there’s something you want to add please do, as I’m just looking through.

Ben: You’ve covered everything. I love Zin though, let’s talk about the cat again. So precious. Yeah, the little grey cat.

Angela: So cute. I mean, some cozies, the cat is a full-on character, they’re always around. We read Alison Brooks ones, there were like, the cat is the library cat, they’re in the narrative, and so, this one to me was very relatable because I’ve never actually been to a library with a cat walking around. So, I like the fact that this is an actual pet, this is her cat, and again, this kind of goes back to talking about these literary elements and every single character, and everybody had this backstory, even the cat had a backstory. I mean, even the little quirk of being afraid that she’s going to forget to feed her, that broke my heart. You’re nodding, like yeah, it broke mine too.

Ben: I love it.

Angela: That was so sad, I know she got her from the shelter, but that was so sad. This cat’s afraid she’s going to forget to feed her.

Ben: Well that, and Zin could tell that Liam needed someone there. So she curled up next to Liam for support, it was so sweet.

Angela: The little details with the writing, apparently they were snoring in unison.

Ben: Yeah, that too, that too.

Angela: I’m looking at the little cat, she was so cute, just regards to the character. The one thing that did catch my attention, and this is how I knew she was going to end up with Reid at the end of this book. I knew this when the cat went up to Reed and was suspicious of Eli, that was how I knew, that was the moment I knew. Poor Eli.

Ben: Zin knew.

Angela: That was how I called it, because in cozy mystery, if the cat doesn’t like you, you are either the murder or you’re going to get killed off in the book, something’s going to happen.

Ben: Either one, either one. There’s no in between.

Angela: If the cat doesn’t like, you’re either the killer or you’re going to get killed, something’s going to happen to you. The animal has to like you in cozies, and you can also never kill the animal. That’s the other one, you can never hurt the cat.

Ben: I don’t want animals in danger. Yeah, no.

Angela: I just saw there was a comment and I just lost it. It was, where did it go? It said that the lady was acting. It said, the lady who opened the door was acting like Edward in Twilight, like everyone just gravitates towards Reid. I saw the Twilight reference and I just lost it as I’m scrolling. That’s funny though, because all of the girls, even Liam calls out, even Liam’s like, why all the girls falling over this guy? But apparently, they were falling over Eli a little bit too, because at the rock climbing gym, they were eyeballing him a little bit.

Ooh, this is, I just saw Tracy’s comment. You thought that she might be the new assistant. So, that would be interesting if Libby did become the assistant. I just saw that, that’s actually really good. I’m like, I don’t know if you need ideas for the next book in a series, but that’s a good one.

Ben: Yeah. I’m wondering who falls in the assistant, if she’s going to have one.

Angela: I mean, can you imagine trying to figure out who to hire next? I’d be like, can I have your entire backstory?

Ben: We need FBI to do a background check on.

Angela: I thought that she knew enough about her because she’s going, oh, she cited dual interests, but that’s actually not the major. So she didn’t even know what this girl’s major was.

Ben: No, no, no, yeah. Anita was playing, she was a theatre major, she was playing a role.

Angela: Well, I like the line, give this chick an Oscar. She nailed it. Oh, I found the line. Mika Francis, you wrote this, the way the woman acted around Reid was like Edward in Twilight. Yep, that was the line, and then grandma McGuffin thought Reid was fine.

Ben: She was all about that.

Angela: I want to make sure I found who said that, because it was funny when it caught my eye, I was going, oh gosh. Yeah, I thought that was funny. So Anita was a surprise. Yeah, it looks like you guys really liked the book, which makes me so happy. I just love that. I love that you guys love the book, because again, this is meant to be fun and enjoyable, and so I love when people love the books that we’re reading, because obviously you guys choose them and you guys have amazing taste.

Ben: I’m just happy you got all these books a second chance. So that makes me really happy. So you brought them all back and yeah.

Angela: Well, I’m so happy. This is the one we’re kicking off 20, 21 with, this just set the standard really high.

Ben: Yeah.     

Angela: I have really high standards now, I also need the second book in this series.

Ben: Same, same.

Angela: So, this one of my big things sometimes with books where I’m going, I want this series to be done because if I have to wait between each book, I’m going to go insane, but I’m already in it. So now for book two, I’m going to be waiting for each one now, but I am here for this book and I don’t know what her back list is, but she can write.

Ben: Yeah, she can, she can definitely write.

Angela: I think that’s one of the things when you try and write things yourself and so you pick up, like wow, your character does have dimensions in the backstory. So you’re going, how did you do this? Did you sit down and write this out? This book was very well, organized, I don’t know if she did outlines or character bios or what, but it worked.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: This is your first cozy.

Ben: Yaay!

Angela: That makes me so happy. Your first cozy, I’m hoping that this was a great cozy introducing to genre. I think it is, I’m just going to say.

Ben: I think it is.

Angela: This is also a good book to recommend to people who are not necessarily cozy mystery inclined I guess, too, because you probably can convert them. That makes me so happy.

So I actually have them behind me and I’m curious. Okay, he’s fine. I’m like the dog’s not behind the chair. So, the books that we’re reading next are actually right here, and I was so happy I actually, so I already had one of them, but I didn’t have the physical copies of the other ones. So next month we are going to be talking about is Crime and Punctuation, which is an amazing book title, and then the second one in the series. So this one is from Kensington and Kensington is amazing. I love the two girls who work at Kensington. I have it on the bookcase and I haven’t read it yet, but I need to, but they sent to me, and so I’m pretty sure I’ve taken photos of this book cover and the title is amazing.

So the second one is called a fatal fiction. So just based on the titles alone, I’m here for the puns, I’m here for the puns. So this is next month, and then the month after that, this one. Okay, you all, this has been on my to be read list for so long, and I was determined. I was waiting to with everybody, because I knew at some point it was going to win, I knew it. So this one finally won, it’s finally coming back around. So, Murder and G Major, so this is the cover of this one. So we have February, March, and then our April one is Christy Davis with Color me murder.

Ben: Color me murder.  

Angela: So, we still have three more books on the to be me read list. So you guys have plenty of time to add them to your next book call, add them to your good reads to be read list. So yeah, I also want to read the next book in this series.

Ben: Yeah, same here.

Angela: I know, the covers are great. Kensington is awesome, they are. I just love Kensington. Ooh, you’ve already read Murder and G Major, ooh and she says, it’s good. So somebody approves, hashtag somebody approves. This was her first book?

Ben: This was her first book?

Angela: This is a debut book?

Ben: Well.

Angela: I think I’m blown away by that, that’s amazing.

Ben: I think both of our reactions were just like what?

Angela: I’m kind of bugged eyes out over here. I mean, I’m going to go out on a limb and say she wrote some books before she wrote this one. She definitely did some pre-writing and learned her craft, because this was A plus.

Ben: Yeah.

Angela: Okay, so maybe Zin will warm up to Eli in the next one. Okay, so she wrote short stories, okay. We’re learning about Kate’s background. She’s also again, do you guys have any other thoughts, comments, please type them in now because Kate, she actually reached out to me. So, I never want to put authors on the spot, so I always, with the giveaways that are organized, people volunteer, I work with Kate a lot, and so, she actually reached out to me and said hey, thank you for reading this book, I’m so honoured that it was selected. If you’re interested in doing a giveaway, please let me know, I’d love to do something. So the book being offered tonight is totally because she is just a generous, sweet human being.

Ben: I love that.

Angela: So, someone from the comments is going to win the second book signed by her. She said she was going to sign it, send it out, that’s just very sweet, because sometimes people are like, oh, do you want me to send it to you? Do you want me to do this? The fact that she just offered and saying how happy she was that we were reading this. So, I don’t even know her, but I like her.

Ben:  I love her. I love it.

Angela: You can tell when someone is just genuine and sweet. So I thought it was really sweet of her to message and say, I would love to offer something in the book club and to the readers who are enjoying the story. So I’m going to give her a little shout out and credit for that one.

I just looked down and you guys are already giving her credit, yeah. She just came across as really sweet with the message, because sometimes, I don’t know, people won’t offer or I don’t expect them to offer, but sometimes, I don’t know, I’m not going to get into that, but sometimes people will just expect things or whatever, and the way she was just so genuine and offering, I just thought that was very sweet, I was appreciative of that. So I’m sure someone’s going to be very appreciate and happy with the next book in the series from her.

I know, I feel like the cozy authors, the cozy community is so sweet, because again, this is a community where people just want to read stories and read uplift stories. So I think it’s very easy to find kind people here. So yeah, we’re very fortunate. Aww, I know, I’m so happy. You know, we get to interact with them and chat with them. I know Jackie’s here, she was one of our 12 days of cozies authors, doing the cozies chats and I love that, I really do. I’m appreciative of the community we’re a part of, our cozy crew.

Ben: Cozy crew. I love the cozy crew. Everyone’s so sweet.

Angela: I was going to say I had my little note, so I mentioned the books. So, next month, I just want to mention again, she offered the giveaway, she messaged me. Ellen Byron, she actually offered three books. So, we’re trying to figure out how to do this best, whether it’s one for Twitter, one for Instagram, one for YouTube, all three for the YouTube livestream, but she offered three books. So next month the giveaway is by Ellen Byron, and I just want to make sure I reference that because I knew I had another note in here. 

Ben: That is awesome, that’s so kind of her too.

Angela: I knew I had another note in here, I knew it, and then I think I mentioned this over Instagram. So I think I told you guys all my notes. So if there’s any other thoughts or questions, please comment them now because I’m pretty sure went through all my notes and there were a lot of them, so yeah. 

Ben: I saw those pages, all those pages.

Angela: Well, I mean, I also write pretty big and I’ll underline and circle stuff. So, and this isn’t a full notebook, this was me ripping things out along the way, so even if it started out as a hundred pages, it’s not a hundred now. I don’t know where it’s at, but it’s not a hundred, but I really enjoyed the book. So I’m hoping the next one is on par and we’re just in for another good read.

Ben: These were all, they were all the second ones or they were close to winning. So I feel like everyone really wanted to read all these, so I’m excited that you brought them on.

Angela: I think this was the one that tied and had a vote off and it lost the vote off by point  something, it didn’t even lose by a percentage, less like a 0.5 or something in vote off. So this book had been on the list for a while and then I couldn’t believe it, because these were all the books that came in super close, missed off by like a single percentage of winning, and so when the poll came back around, again, I had been playing with the idea of doing a second chance poll.

All of the books were in the lead at one point, every single one of them. So if you guys didn’t know, that’s why we have the next four books planned, because usually every month I’ll give you guys like a heads up and be like okay, what books are you interested in reading? Let me know, and then I always look up to see where they’re available because I don’t tell you guys all the backend stuff, but I always look up to see, okay, are they available across platforms? Will people be able to read them on different devices? Because I know people have different, methods of reading and some people say they can’t do this because of eye strain.

Other people can’t do other things because, I just always try and pay attention to the different mediums and platforms that things are offered on. So I always try and make sure they’re available in different ways for people who don’t want to necessarily buy Amazon, I want things to be available in the library too. So I always look into things, and so once I have the titles, I do all the backend stuff and I didn’t have to ask you guys this month, because you guys already wanted to read these four books.

So you guys don’t have to, I mean, if you have any book recommendations or anything catches your eye, please keep them in your back pocket because we’re going to need them after April, but until April, we get books on the list. So usually by now I’d be telling you, please, please send me your recommendations for books you want to read, but you already got it. I know, you guys are so adorable. Thank you so much for joining us tonight, you guys are just the best. Do you have any final thoughts? You want to talk about the book or anything else?

Ben: I mean, I can’t wait to read the second book, so I’m going to request it. I think hopefully my library has it, so I’m going to request it and I can’t wait to read it, so this is a great start to a series. So yeah.

Angela: I’m very impressed. I’m glad you told me she wrote short stories, and even if this is just her first book, that is amazing. Seriously, all the credit, I’m very impressed.

Ben: Me too.

Angela: I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, and it wasn’t until I was looking at the cover when I saw that Leslie Budewitz gave it the kind of write off of, like this is my little book quote, please read this book. So Leslie’s a great author, I am now going to be auto buying all of Kate’s books, so I am a very happy reader. As I’m losing my voice.

Ben: My mom loves wine, so I’m hopefully going to get her into cozies too. So hopefully she enjoys this too. So yeah, that’s going to go to her.

Angela:  I mean, that is, aww.

Ben: I’ve been trying to get her to read cozies. She’s read a couple here and there, but I hope this is the takeoff that she’s like yeah, so we can share.

Angela: I mean, this is amazing too, because I just saw, I don’t want to mispronounce your last name, Gores? I hope I’m pronouncing it correctly. You’re saying this is your first book club, you guys are so sweet, I’m happy you found the book club, and if you can convert your mom, I love that this is the book that brought you in, that makes me so happy. As I’m saying that I’m trying to not cry. I really do want you to enjoy the club and I want you to enjoy the books and everything else.

I mentioned this over on Instagram, but I might as well bring it up here too, just in case you missed a little announcement over there. So, I was thinking about doing a couple different things so that instead of one giveaway month with the one big book during the live stream. So I had bookmarks made. So, I was going to offer to do a couple smaller giveaways, and I wanted to know if you guys were interested in that so that there would be one winner, and two of the book club bookmarks.

I had a couple made up, so I would send an additional one, and I also, I got one as a gift for myself, I was so happy and so I made some vinyl’s that says sleuther, I was going to say it’s all shiny. So hopefully you can still see, I made all of them different fonts and they’re different colors. I was thinking of doing that, so someone on Instagram and then someone on Twitter would win the two bookmarks, and then I’d probably, again, I can’t do one, me being me, I’m always like, I’ll give you two book marks. So I was going to do the two book club bookmarks, and then probably two sleuther stickers or sleuther vinyl stickers.

You always have to say vinyl in the transfer. So just going to do that, so I wanted to make sure you guys are interested in that if you liked that idea, because I know it’s a little bit smaller than usual, but I still want to do something, just offer.

Ben: I love this idea, so I’m just going to speak for everyone.

Angela: Okay.

Ben: Those are adorable. I love the hashtag sleuther, and those little vinyl stickers are so cute, you showed all the different kind of fonts you had, it’s so cute. They’re adorable.

Angela: Thank you. Okay, because I wasn’t sure, I didn’t want it to be like, oh, is it too small? But I wanted to make sure that it was something you guys would like, because I don’t want it to be like, oh, I’m doing giveaway, I’m doing a giveaway. I just want to make sure you know why I’m doing this or why I kind of thought of it, because it’s just something, because I always want people to feel included and involved, and I know that more people have been joining. So someone asked about getting bookmarks and I’m not going to sell them.

Even the society sticks and Salo pages, they’re not business, I don’t make royalties or percentages. It’s just, when I’m a part of something I want to be able to put on my sweatshirt and feel involved, and someone wanted to buy the bookmarks. I’m like, I’m not going to charge you money, I’ll do the giveaway. So hopefully, people can receive bookmarks just because they want them. So, that’s why I offer, because when someone asked to buy it, I’m going, I’m not going to charge you, and as soon as I saw that comment, I started going okay, I’m going to have to find ways to get the bookmarks out to people in a very organic sense. So you don’t feel like you’re buying anything.

So I just wanted to make sure that I kind of told you guys if you see that pop up, that’s why, and so if you want bookmarks, you’re going to get a very good chance. So I’ll probably try and do in between live streams, so probably, every two weeks. So you’ll do like a small one for Instagram and Twitter, and then the main one being the livestream book club giveaway.

Ben: Yes.

Angela: Oh you guys. Okay, so now I’m looking at the comments, I’m getting emotional. Yeah, I’m one of those people where I like to feel included, I also wanted to make all the little vinyls a little different, so not everyone’s receiving the same thing. So, even if you win something, it will be a little different, so you’ll get something unique. So different fonts, different sizes, different colors. So yeah, you’ll see that.

Yeah, I kind of get a little like, oh I don’t want you to think I’m just doing giveaways. I get very self-conscious sometimes, I don’t want to come across like hey giveaways, but yeah. Ah,  I just saw the comments pop up. Thank you guys so much for joining. I mean, I am so honoured that you spent your Tuesday night with us and I’m so appreciative of Ben, being the amazing human being that he is. I mean, seriously, like all the applause and love for him for joining me tonight.

I mean, this book, I’m pretty sure it came on my radar because of you and then because you mentioned it, I think I retweeted and other people said they want it on the poll, so I’m pretty sure we can trace this book being our book of the month, back to Ben. So all the applause and since everyone seems to love this book, we love it because of you.

Ben: I saw winery and I was like yep, I’m sold, I want to read this.

Angela: I’m just very appreciative of you taking the time to chat with me. If you guys aren’t following him, please do because he’ll post these cute little comments and I love his tweets and Instagram posts. So if you want more cozy content, please follow Ben, and I wanted to just make sure that you guys knew that, because a lot of people are subscribed to the newsletter, but I don’t think you know that there’s the hidden page that I made, because I can see sometimes what gets clicked on. MailChimp is so strange, I always feel like I don’t want to know analytics, because I’m like, this is so big brother, but you can find out things.

So if you’re subscribed to the newsletter, please use the hidden link. It’s not a hidden link, it’s just not made public, you can’t Google it, but if you’re part of the newsletter family it’s in the email, so you just click on it, and there’s all sorts of cozy content for you, from adult coloring  pages to cozy companions, because we all need our little sleuthing friend. There’s just a lot of extra cozy stuff there that I want you to be able to enjoy, and I want to make sure you know you have access to it, basically. So, just a little shout out, little reminder with that.

So that was one of my notes too, because I love the bingo boards, again, spreading all the coziness, like please take advantage of it because it’s there, just making sure you knew that because, the reason why I’m mentioning this is because someone said, oh my gosh, I just found this. I didn’t know you had a freebie page, I didn’t know there was a hidden newsletter page and I’m going, maybe I should make sure that people know these things exist. So that’s my little reminder to enjoy the content because it is there, and I want you to have fun with cozies.

Ben: It’s all the love. You can just tell all the love you pour into this Angela, everything, every little thing that you do is just full of love, and I just love it so much.

Angela: Well, I’m so appreciative of everyone joining the book club and I feel like it’s the best responsibility or the best thing in the world to be able to organize this and see people enjoy things. So just all the more motivation to keep thinking of things for people to enjoy, thinking of the colouring book pages or thinking of different things to do. I mean, I love it, so it’s just my absolute pleasure and honour, to be able to be a part of this.

So thank you guys for joining us, I really do appreciate it. As I get emotional, but thank you guys so much. Thank you to Ben and please stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope you have fun reading and sleuthing and just all the love to you. So, any other comments?

Ben: That’s pretty much what I was going to say.

Angela: Okay. Have a nice night everybody.

Ben: Night everyone, you guys take care.