Angela: It says going live. I’m like, please YouTube. Please go for us. This be wonderful. There we go, yes, we’re live. I feel like the first couple minutes of it, I’m always giving like a free pass, like, okay. There’s always this seven second delay with going live. So you’re awkwardly like staring at the camera and you’re looking at the window. Like, are we here? We don’t know. Oh my gosh. And then the comments pop up. Oh, you guys are so amazing. Danielle, Susan, Paperback. Oh, Victoria, Lady Gizma. You guys are so amazing, Marta. Oh my gosh. Yes. So I went on to Instagram to do, I mean, I always call it the highlight, but the story, so Marta is amazing. I’m going to mention this now because she posted in the comments and I’m going to give her the shout out, because I posted this on Twitter too.
So she made the first book in her series free just for us. So all cozy mystery readers can. She made this free on Amazon. So her book The meeter west and the ghost town glitch. So you can get the ebook free right now, which is so cool. I feel like we’re so honored that she made this book free because today’s our live stream. How cool is that? And then one person tonight who comments, again, every comment is a giveaway entry, is going to win the audio book. So I think that is just so amazing. So someone’s going to get a special upgrade. I mean, yeah, see. I love how Stephanie is smiling, like yeah. That’s great.
Stephanie: That’s awesome.
Angela:Â I think that’s so sweet though, that she made it free because I mean, as soon as I saw that in the email, I’m like, oh my gosh, this makes us such an official club. She’s making the book free because of our live stream. As the dog growls, he’s like, yeah, she does. I love how the notes are at the back and you got to love how big I wrote it because I didn’t want to forget. So Kensington has been amazing this month. So there was the Twitter giveaway. I just posted the Instagram giveaway winners. And then tonight, a second person who comments, again, comments equal giveaway, is going to win a paperback copy of this brand new cozy that was just published today.Â
So you’re going to get this right off the shelves. So again, someone is going to be getting an audio book. Someone else is getting a paperback book, which I think is awesome because so many people read in such different ways. So if somehow you’re impaired, you can’t actually read the book. You can win an audio. If you want to actually physically read a paperback, we got you covered. Plus she made the ebook. So all the digital readers too, everyone’s covered today, which is great.
And now because I already held this up. I can put it on the ground and I am so excited to introduce my two guest hosts because these lovely women have been a part of the book club for the longest time. And this was the first time I actually get to talk to them kind of face to face. This is digital technology and it’s weird to say face to face, but face to face. So we have Stephanie who I always think of as Ms. Richards Reeves. I want to talk to her like she’s my teach because it’s always Ms. Richards. So you got to acknowledge her or subscribe to her YouTube channel and Jeanne, who you guys have probably seen comment because she is so sweet and amazing and always posting over on the Twitter and Instagram.
These women are amazing. I’m going to post all their social media links once this is over. I’m pretty sure they’re already in there right now. Unless YouTube like did something with them, it’s possible YouTube didn’t say something, but I will post all their links again. Follow them. They’re awesome. And I’m so happy to be talking to them tonight. So yay.
Jeanne: Thank you for having us. This is so exciting.
Angela: It’s so cool. And oh my gosh. All the comments just pop up. I’m always so surprised when people comment. I don’t know why. I should have gotten used to y’all, you’re amazing. But every single time I’m like, oh my gosh. Oh. And so Martha says she’s making it free for today and tomorrow. So that is just so sweet.
Stephanie: That’s so nice.
Jeanne: Martha rocks.
Angela: I am just so honored by that. That’s just so generous. I know. See everyone thinking. I just learned you could do this. I’ve had stream yard for, I don’t know how many years, what two now? I just realize you could post comments. Just learned about that. I feel like you should leave this one. Like this is a good one to like leave off with. I love the cozy mystery club and then Kensington really is the best. The two girls, I always got to give Larissa and Michelle, some shoutouts. They’re amazing. The Kensington team is just, I love them so much. They really are just superb.
I mean, I don’t think of it as competition with books because if you’re a reader, you’re a reader, but I mean, this book wasn’t published by Kensington, but yet they’re still offering a giveaway, which is amazing. And I just think that’s so sweet and generous. So let’s talk about our book.
Jeanne: Victoria is commenting on the bookish backgrounds. We didn’t plan it, but Hey, this is just how it worked.
Angela: That’s what I said when I saw it. That was the first thing, it looks so cool. I love how the white one is in the middle too. I think that works perfectly like it’s the book ends of the bookshelves. Oh my gosh. The things that make bookworms happy.
Stephanie: The little things in life. I read it.
Angela: Oh my Gosh. I just realized we match your shirt, the little things in life.
Stephanie: It was meant to be.
Jeanne: Love that.
Angela: So what did you guys think, enjoyable?
Stephanie: I really liked it. Really, really liked it.
Angela: I mean, this book I feel as if it really hit a lot of different kind of beats or just different things for coziness, because you got the small town, you have someone starting over. I mean kind of similar profession, but in a different role, she’s now a teacher. So I mean, there’s just a lot to this. I think that hits the cozy notes.
Stephanie: And the Irish setting was just perfect.
Angela: Yes. I feel as if I’m going to apologize on behalf of myself right now in case I mispronounce any of the Irish names tonight because yeah, if you all read the book, I mean, I’ve mentioned this before, before we went live. Before the Harry Potter movies, it used to be Hermeon and then you hear them say it in the movie, you like, oh it’s Hermione. I’m pretty sure I might say that about some of these characters tonight. So I apologize [07:15 inaudible].
Jeanne: It looks like a lot of the people here really enjoyed the book. That’s awesome.
Stephanie: Oh yay. That’s great.
Angela: Oh my goodness. Yes. The gothic atmosphere that is such a great way of phrasing it. I love that.
Jeanne: Paperback stash. I totally agree with you on the intelligent cozy, there were a handful of words that I ended up having to look up. I was so impressed with Alexia Gordon’s vocabulary.
Stephanie: And she’s actually a physician I found out, so it totally fits. I was really impressed.
Angela: I think the reason why I’m kind of, I’m trying to figure out how to say it. It wasn’t as if she just wrote our protagonist who’s highly educated with the intelligent dialogue. Everyone across the board was very well spoken. I mean, I think I noticed it with Shavon. This woman is the fake psychic and she’s all over the place, but then she says the word Jermaine, I’m going, Hey, wait a second, for some reason I saw that word coming out of her mouth with the dialogue I’m going. Hmm. Like everyone across the board got their GRE words going. $10 words. Hey, already reading book two. Yeah, the spooky vibes. I got to admit. I mentioned this before. I feel as if this was a little bit darker. I mean, there are quite a few bodies by the end of the book.
Jeanne: I love Victoria saying, a lighthouse Shavon it’s a bike, a poison garden. There’s like so many of those things that I could add to. This great town, there are so many great things about this book that we could add exclamation points to.
Angela: I mean, I think the premise of this book, I kind of love how she’s supposed to like randomly end up in this town. So again, Yosemite, I’m pretty sure, I listen to the audio book for that little, just to make sure I said her name correctly with that way, but I love how she loses her luggage. And she goes to the first place she can get to call for the police and help. And then somehow she ends up at the job and then she’s not even paying rent in the cottage. She’s just there to oversee the property. I mean, it’s kind of just, domino effect. It all works out for her, like for her to end up in this cozy setting, the fact that it’s haunted is besides the point.
Jeanne: Yeah, that would’ve scared me so bad. Just sit there and all of a sudden there’s a ghost.
Angela: I got to admit, I kind of like the fact that when she first meets our ghost, she loses it. She runs out the house.
Stephanie: I thought that was extremely realistic.
Angela: I appreciated that so much because I feel as if sometimes they’re like, Hey, there’s it ghost? How are you doing? I mean, she ran away. She went for help. Then she goes back in and then when she sees him again, she picks up the nearest object and hurls it at him, then she does it a second time. I mean, she didn’t really care about, she’s like, I’m going to whip this. Realistic was the word that I think I wrote down. She wears the dead lady clothes. It’s true. That’s another thing, the town they’re so generous. He comes bearing like two bags and she finds, like there’s a Chanel suit in there. I love how, like, I couldn’t say that tongue twister for a second. Oh my gosh. I would be amazed if someone was like, here are designer things just for you.
Stephanie: And everybody knew whose clothes they were, was so funny.
Jeanne: Yeah. And they complimented her on it. Obviously they looked good.
Angela: I mean, talk about being lucky. She’s the same size as the former wife or the deceased wife, I don’t know how we want to refer to this because there are so many different characters who joined along the way. But did you have a favorite kind of cozy element? Were you there for the paranormal? Did you like the lighthouse? Like what was your favorite cozy part of this?
Stephanie: I really liked the atmosphere and the setting for me and the music.
Jeanne: I work at a school. I work at a boarding school and I live there as well. So I was super interested in all the school scenes because I’m like, I see you with that. Yep.
Angela: I mean, I got to admit, I thought it was really cute when, again, I don’t know if she actually worked with children, but I kind of get the impression she understands them. And when you mention the teacher, because the kids, they have their own little jokes. I almost wish that we got to see her more in her daily interactions as a teacher and being in charge of the orchestra because I thought the boys themselves at the boarding school, I thought they were really cute. And they had their own little stories going. When the kid ever tried to pretend to be his twin. And then you got them, like we have prank week, we’re putting prunes in the cookies. And then the other kid, his idea of a prank was just turning the books around. I thought that was adorable. I was there for the kids.
Jeanne: And those things happen. I will vouch, those things happen.
Stephanie: I love that she covered for them with the prune cookies too. That was so sweet.
Angela: That was going to be one of my questions tonight. I was going, I was kinda confused. Like at first I was like, oh, this is the best thing ever. And then I’m like, Hey, wait a second. Did they just get away with that entirely? She didn’t even say anything. She was like, yeah, just move along. This is lame prank. I mean if it was more, I don’t know, intricate, maybe she would’ve called him out for it, but just like, hey it was just cookies.
Jeanne: And I love in the end, I know I’m kind of jumping forward, but that the boys really stood up for her and kind of pretty much saved the day in the end. That was fabulous. Giving them that opportunity.
Angela: I love them so much. Again I think that the show is good writing to me because I wanted more. When you want more of a character, I think that’s indicative of okay, good story, good characterization, good background, because again, I wanted more of the daily interactions with them. Even the one who kept showing up late. I mean he had his own little story going on. They all did.
Jeanne: I really wanted it to be more of a reason that he was showing up late than he was smoking.
Angela: I was kinda wondering that too. So we find out that the soloist, the violinist, he comes from one of the wealthy families he’s a Nolan. I was hoping maybe his sister who’s a little bit, she’s a childhood genius. She’s out there doing her own thing. She’s not in school. She has tutors. I was hoping maybe he was babysitting or checking in with her or just something like that. I was hoping it was sister related just showing him being a good brother. But then that didn’t happen.
Jeanne: I was expecting that too. Like he was filling in, watching her, between the times when she didn’t have something to do or whatever, but I mean, as faults go, that’s a pretty minor one.
Angela: I mean, she was the little sister, this girl, I mean, I want to know more about her. She needs her own little spin off. I mean, she needs to be in the next book. This girl was what translating the Latin of auvid, I mean just for fun. And they said they wanted to get her chemistry. She’s 12 years old and they wanted her start chemistry the next semester, the parents were really pushing her. And yet at the same time, she’s not only smart. She was into the mystical elements. Apparently she could see some of the ghost, she seemed to know what was going on. Although she didn’t actually relay it to our protagonist, which I found very peculiar because she seemed to know about what was going on with the missing books. We should definitely touch on that at some point in time because a lot of these characters seem to know more, but yet didn’t tell our leading lady. But yeah, the sister, she was very complex herself.
I’m just going to show you guys why I look down, this is my Max, he’s on the lap and I feel as if I’m showing him because this wasn’t an animal cozy mystery. So we’re turning it into a cozy companion right there. No, I was going to say, I kind of love the fact going back to the beginning that she was a huge fan of our ghost. I thought that was really amazing how, I was going to say Alexia Gordon here was able to show that she had a little heart shaped photo. She had a heart shaped frame, had his photo in there. She had a crush on him starting at seven years old until she left for college. And then she gets a chance to become friends with her idol as she’s helping him.
I just love that for some reason. I mean, there were a lot of moments where I feel as if I actually just went, oh, that’s so cute. I thought, when he put the blanket over her, there were some really touching moments and I kind of, again, wanted to say like, good job at the writing. I liked the little details that kind of came around with that.
Jeanne: I agree. I’m all for romance too in cozy, but I think it’s was really great to see a platonic, genuine friendship between two people in this case. And you’re right. I think that developed naturally believably and it was one of my favorite aspects of the book.
Angela: I was kind of trying to figure out like, are they setting up a love triangle with our heroin and then our inspector and then our math teacher. I kind of saw a little bit of that though. And I’m going okay. I don’t know if I’m in invested in a love triangle. I want her to just choose someone and go with it because love triangles they just drum in bonkers. I mean just, just throwing this in there, we meet the inspector as he’s getting dumped brutally.
Can we just acknowledge that the girlfriend is crying? They’ve been living together four months. It hasn’t been too long, but it’s a dramatic breakup. And then the heroin’s like, hi, nice to meet you. Oh my God.
Jeanne: Good timing. Colleen and Paperback Stash. They liked the friendship too. Awesome. Love it.
Stephanie: And I loved that he was really irritated with her at first too. The ghost.
Angela: I mean, yeah, he wanted to kick her out and then I kind of thought it was really cute how he realized like, Hey, wait a second. I need your help. And then this was just me, again, my biggest pet peeve with cozy mysteries was when the person just like, hi, I’m going to intrude on your life and go snoop in for no apparent reason. I mean, they’re like looking over the fence, trying to figure out, oh, I’m inserting myself into the town just because I’m nosy and a busy buddy. I thought it was great that she was hesitant and rightfully so. She’s like, I’m not a detective. I’ve never done this. And even though he was her idol, she’s going this isn’t my area of expertise. This isn’t something I do. And so she tries to get the psychic, which fails. And then she takes up the mantle of being the sluether. So it was kind of okay I’m on board now. Let’s go. We got this. But I kind of like that she kind of needed to come around to it in a way.
Stephanie: Yeah, because I get irritated sometimes or I always kind of preface it with you kind of have to suspend a little bit of belief and this one was just very, it could happen that way in real life. And I loved that.
Jeanne: Totally agreed.
Angela: I like how I can show the comment zone. I feel so tech savvy and the dog is going behind me. This is interesting. He’s going behind my back. He’s here though. The inspector will be thrown in the friend zone. Yeah I can kinda see that happening.
Jeanne: I mean she did kiss the math teacher. Granted it was a cover, but.
Angela: He showed a little bit of jealousy. He’s going, why were you talking to him at the pub? Why were you? Oh, did you socialize with him? I mean, he definitely showed a little bit of that little romantic. There’s a little tension here now. Okay. He’s going to growl. I’m warning you. This is going to happen. He was trying to, I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone else has, I mean, he’s tiny. I don’t know if anyone has a cat or a dog that does this. He’s been trying to push me off my own chair now. He’ll try to go between my back and the chair. I don’t know what that is.
Stephanie: He wants screen time.
Jeanne: I’m totally with Victoria. And the fact that we have a smart black woman as the antagonist,
Angela: I love that she was reciting the baseball players. She was like, no, no, I’m doing. She talked about her [19:58 inaudible], the issue she was talking, she threw in the backstory saying, my mother won’t approve. I’m not another, like it was said, like what is it? Another little cotton figure. She’s like, no, I’m going to prove. I’m going to become a doctor to prove you wrong. And like, her parents were so smart and I love just the representation. I literally brought out treats to bribe him too. So he has no reason to be doing any of this. That sounded so ADD for a minute where I’m just like, okay, having a moment here. And then the dog comes in to play.
Jeanne: Max has thoughts about this book, I think.
Stephanie: Very opinionated.
Angela: Yes. I thought it was, yeah. The Negro league baseball. That was exactly where I was going with that. I loved how they incorporated that. And I also loved the fact that she was so intelligent, so capable herself. This is going to sound so silly, but I saw this thing about Jennifer Lopez like how does it feel to have all female? Like on your shoulders, like this woman, like she represented women well, just in generally across the board, she was smart. She was capable. She was independent. I was like, bow down. I thought she was a great character.
Stephanie: I loved how much she wanted to succeed. And she got things done. And I loved that.
Jeanne: Paperback Stash has a great point too, about the issues with overachieving and family. You don’t see that in a lot of cozies, but it’s so prevalent in real life. And so it was really neat to see that incorporated. I’m with you. I totally.
Angela:Â I thought that was so interesting. Especially with the older sister, she was making decisions based off the fact, she didn’t want to seem like a failure and that could have been a very dangerous precedent. I mean, she ended up in a nice small town with nice people, but I mean, she definitely did put herself in danger when she probably could have taken a step back. Instead of saying, no, I’m not going to give up. Even with the orchestra. There’s a dog in the hallway barking. They’re having a conversation now.Â
I thought it was so interesting when she realized, okay, this boy keeps showing up late. I need to remove him as first chair and promote Rory or Rori. I don’t know. Again we’ll go with the pronunciation, but she didn’t want to make it seem like she was giving into the headmaster and the benefactor or the donor. She didn’t want to make it seem like no, I’m making this decision for myself, not because you told me to. She really wanted to stand on her own in every single decision she made, which I thought was just so great and brilliant, because it was like, no, everything I do is because I want to do it. There was just so much agency with that.
Jeanne: Absolutely. And I’m agreeing with so many people in the chat saying this was one of the best cozies for banter.
Angela: Yes.
Jeanne: Oh my gosh. So well written, so believable, so fun.
Angela: Oh my gosh. Did you have a favorite banter moment?
Jeanne: I mean, anytime she’s talking with Aman, the ghost, I mean they’re on the same level, intelligently. And the music connection. I mean they just like get each other.
Angela: I loved it. When she’s calling him Irish. They have their little jokes back and forth. And then when he’s trying to do the American accent and then she’s trying to do the Irish accent. Cute. I love that she became friends with her idol. That just makes my heart so happy.
Stephanie: That was so sweet.
Angela: Did you have a favorite banter moment?
Stephanie: Probably the same thing when she’s bantering with Aman. See I’m mispronouncing it now. Aman.
Angela: I know I was about to look down. Like I did some of like the little pronunciation things like the dictionary. We were like, this is how we say the names. This is a really random banter moment, but I loved it when she was with our math teacher. I love how we have him as Frankie, Francis. Then we have the last name thrown in there too. We’re just going to call him Frankie because that’s the easiest one. So she’s in there and he was able to help her because every single person in the cozy mystery, he’s friends with someone who has a tech on, he was able to get the whiskey or bourbon analyzed because everyone has access to a tech lab and that person who owes them a favor. So he brings her the results.
And then they lock the door to the faculty lounge and then the Latin teacher comes in in a huff and they’re like, we’re canoeing, we’re conversing. And they were just trying to come up with all these different c words, like yes, we’re having conversation. Like it was just so cute. They were just kind of going back and forth. I’m like, oh, he should be love interest for you. It was just so cute the way they’re able to sort of just, like feed off of each other in that way. I thought that was just really cute for the relationship. That was a really random banter moment. But that was my favorite.
Jeanne: It’s a good one.
Stephanie: Kind of like Anna Green Gable. She found her kindred spirits.
Angela: Yes. I mean, she’s known this guy for what, like two weeks. Yeah let’s go break into this murder victim’s house, because that’s what we do. We’re prankster, naturally like doing pranks leads to breaking into a murder victim’s home. Those two things are synonymous.
Stephanie: I wanted to bring up Lula because she almost killed Gethsemene and I was just laughing and like what at the same time.
Angela: Yeah I mean, can we just acknowledge the fact too that this woman got poisoned and then the priest was like, no, no, no, you don’t need to go to the hospital? You don’t need to report. You don’t need to press charges.
Stephanie: You didn’t have that much. It was fine.
Angela: It was literally a bite of Fox. No. Go get her stomach pumped. She’s checking her own pulse. I’m like you’re still alive. You’re clearly checking your own pulse. My gosh.
Stephanie: I would never want to eat there again. That would traumatize me.
Angela: Also the fact that there’s this poison garden in the middle of town and everyone knows where the keys are. What’s the point of locking that? What? Like first of all, you have poison garden because naturally every cozy mystery needs to have a poison garden, especially with all the different poisons, not just, Hey, we just had Fox club. No, we have Wolf Spain. We have hemlock. We have everything you could need because that’s normal. And then they have the thing locked, but the keys are right by the log.
Jeanne: Irish charm for you, I guess.
Angela: I just saw Susan’s comment. The audio book is amazing.
Stephanie: It’s really good.
Angela: I listened. I read the book first and then I listened to it because I wanted to learn the pronunciation of the names. Again for live streams, obviously you’re talking about it. This isn’t just a book. You’re writing a book review, you can just get away with not knowing and just, I wanted to make sure I’m able to pronounce some of them, but I loved the way she was able to do the Irish accent. I loved the narrator. I actually wrote that down. I wrote her name down at one point because I just thought she was fabulous. So this one, her name was Jessica Carol. And then jumping ahead, stupid cliff hanger. I was like, okay, let’s just start with two and then it’s a totally different narrator. Totally different vibe. I don’t know.
Stephanie: She did such a good job switching between the accents too.
Angela: I just want to give her like give her, what is it, like the snaps, the credit. Give her a little gold star. Jessica Crow nailed it. So you guys both listened to the audio then too?
Jeanne: I didn’t.
Angela: So you’re nodding, you listened to it. You liked the?
Stephanie: Yeah. I listened to the first part on audio and I finished it physically and I really, really liked it.
Angela: I was blown away by the way she was able to do the different accents and then she was able to do the different accents in different voices. I would not be able to do that. I could not do that at all. I was very impressed by that.
Jeanne: Talking music, mania. I love your comment about how you love that everyone in town knows not to eat what she cooks. And it’s just like a thing that you know because you live there and I live in a small town too. And one of my coworkers is like, if you have a question about anything and you’re new to town, you ask Susie, because she knows everybody in the history of everything. And that reminded me a bit of this book and this community.
Angela: I’m trying to figure out how to say it like politely, but like everyone knows she’s off her rocker. Everyone’s aware of this. They mention her starting fires. They mention, I mean, there were multiple instances of her. She spiked the tea. She spiked the punch bowl. I mean, this woman was really going at it all throughout town. And I think our leading lady was the only one who’s going, why is she allowed to wander? She’s dangerous. Everyone is totally okay with it though. I mean, I don’t know about how y’all feel about that, but I don’t know how I would feel about someone willing to poison people just meandering around town.
Stephanie: I thought that was kind of odd.
Angela: I mean, I don’t know why that one, that was very perplexing to me, but again, I think I benefited from the fact that I read the book and then I listened to it again because upon the second read. I think audio listening counts as reading, I noticed that there was one instance where she blamed the sister, but then they realized, oh no, it really is her. I’m going, wait. I mean, I don’t want to spoiler alert but the sister’s not a good person. I’m going maybe that was the sister. I think maybe some of what she was maybe accused of maybe was the sister acting out. I kind of want more information on that.
Jeanne: So I have a question. Well, two part. First part, did you guys and everybody listening suspect [30:13 inaudible] and if so, when did you start to suspect?
Angela: I was going to say, so again, upon the second time around, we don’t actually physically meet her as a character until halfway into the book. And so we only hear about her through dialogue and she’s referenced through our ghost, who she was friends with. So again, when we first hear about her, it’s in connection with other characters who don’t think of her in a negative way. So if you suspected her within the first like 50% of the book, I don’t know how you did that. It’s not until we actually got to meet her. And I went back and I wrote down, we met her when she was in the market with Shavon and so maybe that was supposed to be the tip off because Shavon’s not a normal character. I don’t know if that was supposed to be indicative of anything, but yeah, we don’t actually see her until the 50% mark. So if you guys got her right off the bat, I am very impressed.
Stephanie: No, I suspected her, but it was closer to the end before the discovery. But yeah, it was odd. We didn’t get to meet her until halfway through.
Jeanne: I only started to suspect her because nobody was suspecting her and that’s kind a throat for the cozy mystery genre. Then when we found out that she didn’t go to Orla and Aman’s wedding, I’m like, oh, okay, well this is something.
Angela: I’m kind of with crystal where I’m like I knew it was one. I was like, I was definitely on board for one of them. So you guys are pretty much like right on the bat. I mean honestly, like again, I didn’t really have a prime suspect when I was reading this. I was just kind of going with it because I mean, I’m not going to lie. The priest seemed pretty sketchy sometimes. I wasn’t sure if it was him or not because he was the one who was like, yeah, don’t press charges. He’s the one who had accessed all the cult books. I mean, he was definitely like, hello, I am going to be your red flag over here to come down this red herring road. I think it was Victoria. She mentioned that on the Twitter account earlier, because again, the priest had all these moments. You’re like, Hey, wait a second. Is that okay?
Jeanne: That has [32:36 inaudible] point. Like why didn’t Gethsemene, once she figured out that she was so tight, Peggy was so tight with these two characters. Why didn’t she go straight to her? I don’t know why. I didn’t think of that. Ell did and she is smart.
Angela: That’s a really good point. And then I think I’m with Paperback Stash here, when Yosemite is talking, I’m going to call him Frankie, the math teacher in the pub. And she’s like, no, you’re the reason these murders have happened. It’s your fault. When she was deflecting blame? I think I kind of moved her out my little mental suspect list. I still wasn’t like convinced it was her, but when she ever kind of was like, you’re the reason the murders are happening and you know it’s not her fault. That was very suspicious.
As the dog is meandering around himself. The wedding was the dead giveaway. I honestly, I realized very quickly because I feel as if women reading cozy mysteries, like women would’ve gotten this probably quicker than a man would, with the whole, why wait 10 years to kill her? Why the 10 years? And in my head I was right away. Like without missing a beat, I’m like she was pregnant. I knew that right away. I guess that from like the get go, like why she finally snapped, but you got to feel bad for the wife Who’s supposed to be bright sunshine and then Peggy’s just like, no.
Where did my little, okay, so we kind of got to go through the list. So she kills the first boyfriend, this woman. She really went for it. I’m like, we named her, we named the killer. We’re just going to have to talk about it now. So she kills the first boyfriend, but we learned Osheen is kind of connected to, you said your friend has the daughter named [inaudible]? I don’t want to mispronounce the name.
Jeanne: Efa
Angela: Efa. So Efa had a crush on Osheen. And I didn’t put him with Peggy until later when Aman mentioned that the two dated. So I didn’t put them together at first to realize she was going to poison but she killed him. And then she killed the wife of her long time crush. And then she killed the crush and then she just went on a killing spree with everybody. So she killed Shavon with a bow and arrow because naturally you go from poison to bow and arrow. So she poisoned to poisoned, pushed off of the cliff, bow and arrow, she beat the Jenny Hurley to death. And then she set fire to him and blew up a building for Efa and Teague. And then she tried to kill our leading lady with poison again. So this woman was very, very troubled to say the least. Here’s her little, like I’m going to [inaudible 35:09].
Stephanie: Chaotic serial killer there.
Angela: I mean there were a lot of bodies in this cozy mystery. I mean, we always get at least one body, sometimes two, but got quite a few here.
Jeanne: I was so sad with Efa dying because I was hoping that she would be a good girlfriend for Gethsemene. She interacts with a lot of guys and I was like, okay, you need a chick friend. Come on.
Angela: I mean, I got to give our leading lady credit though. When Yosemite meets Efa and Teuge in the lighthouse, it’s raining. She wants to escape the rain. She sees him having the affair and she sticks up for them because she realizes his wife is just completely off. I’m like I don’t like them, I’m just like, there are no adjectives for what that’s going on. So she covers for him, like, yeah, we were out walking. We ran into him. I just thought it was so funny that she stood up for her and then they just sort of bonded. And that was when she learned more about, the actual mystery with Efa. That was really sad because I kind of, I was starting to like her too. I mean the fact that Eileen, the crazy wife there is the one who survives.
Jeanne: God. Right.
Angela: I was like, maybe you could have done, like maybe switch that killing.
Jeanne: We haven’t talked about this yet, but I love, love, loved that. Aman composed a new piece of music, a brand new score for the orchestra.
Stephanie: That was so sweet.
Jeanne: Of course that’s the music that they would’ve won with because it’s new and it’s real and it’s his and the boys felt it. Oh, that really got me. Got me right here.
Angela: I kinda liked the fact that Rory was the one who had the lead solo in the end. I was rooting for him. Before the Nolan boys stood up because it was Rory. And then I don’t want to pronounce Colm. That was his first name, the Nolan boy’s first name. And then he played and it was great. And then it was just great with a little like, plus next to it. I was rooting for Rory. So I was happy that he got to be the one to have the solo for the big moments.
Jeanne: I admit I was still rooting for Colm because I mean she kept complaining about how badly these boys were acting. Girl, if that’s bad, you don’t know bad. I didn’t think it was that bad.
Stephanie: It wasn’t
Jeanne: He’s in the midst. What do you think about that? I thought they were pretty polite most of the time.
Angela: I mean, again, their pranks were let’s turn the books inside out. He didn’t even mix them up in the rows. He was just turning them inside out where they were. They were still in the right spot.
Stephanie: Yeah. If that’s the worst, I’ll totally take that.
Jeanne: Right. Exactly.
Angela: I mean, honestly I’m kind of with you. I mean, I will admit, I think the fighting was the worst that ever happened. That only happened once and I’m still not entirely sure what that fight was in reference to because Rory and Sorsha there, they kind of make a little cute couple and then it wasn’t until later in the story when you find out why he was giving her a leaf and then Sorsha says, it’s part of the poem that Orla wrote, where the boy gives her a leaf saying he’s going to wait for her. That was when I had that delayed. Oh, he’s so cute with her.
Jeanne: So sweet.
Angela: I mean, I’m not really sure why the twin would be fighting Rory who’s also the smallest boy apparently in the class. I wasn’t really sure why they fought, but they fought and then her brother decided he wanted to get in on the action. I was kinda surprised though. She apparently twisted his ear until it was red. I don’t know if she, that was my question. Like, are you allowed to put your hands on a student and like actually injure them?
Stephanie: I guess things are different in Ireland.
Angela: I saw this one comment, this is great. She was the Renaissance murderer.
Jeanne: One has three boys at [39:30 inaudible] and she’s like, yeah, those kids were well behaved. Hats off for you.
Stephanie: I like how interconnected everything was and it all came full circle.
Angela: I wrote that down too. Again, I think the second time around, I noticed more details because one of my questions was actually answered. Because we found out when Orla was, when they found her, she had gone over the cliffs, she had been pushed off the cliff and they saw the body obviously, and they knew what happened and they didn’t do the autopsy. And the autopsy is where you would’ve found out she was pregnant. And so we didn’t get that detail because there was no autopsy. And that was explained within the first 20 pages or something, because he trying to asked for help saying they didn’t do anything, but I kind of liked how it made sense later on when you found out the reasoning, and then there were other things too about her again, when the realistic you see a ghost, so let’s throw stuff at it. She mentions her own softball moment and that comes back later when she’s trying to defend herself, she throws something at Peg. I mean, I love the way she was able to do that. Kind of set the precedent early on and then it comes back like, yeah, you already know that the character can do this or, oh yeah that detail makes sense now.
Jeanne: Yeah. I love it when authors plant something in the beginning and pay it off in the end. When they don’t, that just draws me crazy. But I thought Alexia Gordon did a really great job of doing that multiple times, like you were saying. So it made it really satisfying as a reader.
Stephanie: Yeah. From a writing standpoint, I thought she did a really good job with this.
Angela: I know. I was like, I have the notes. I haven’t even been looking at them. I mean, even the random little details to just make the characters and everything jump off the page. She had the inspectors cologne, and then our ghost had a scent and I love that the scent was how she knew that he was coming. I mean, those little details are what takes the book from good to great, like that will give you go from like three stars to four stars because it gives all, what is it? The sensory experience. You get all the senses working. You know, what they smell like. You can see things. It’s great.
Angela: I will just go back to one of the things where I wasn’t sure how I felt about our second love interest, the math teacher at first, because when he first meets our leading lady, he’s like, why are you here? What do you want? Are you going to leave him, what’s happening? So he was kind of sassy and a little jaded at first. So I kinda wanted to ask what y’all thought about Frankie and how he’s kind of changed or evolved over the course of the story. Because he also went from being the teacher to the prankster, to being the friend, so I was just curious about your thoughts on that.
Jeanne: I’m super for Frankie. I love Franky from the get go. I guess again, because I live and work at a boarding school, so I just saw him as one of my coworkers. You wear a lot of hats, just like in any school you wear, you do a lot of different things because it needs to be done. And I just felt like each time his personality sort of adapted for a certain role, that’s just kind of how it is and the sum of all those parts equaled. I love him.
Angela: Like he is real to me. He is a real person, which is exactly what the writer wants when they’re crafting this fictional person.
Jeanne: Hi Paula.
Stephanie: Yeah. I loved him and I don’t even care if he’s a love interest. I just love having him as a friend.
Angela: I mean, he was so cute.
Jeanne: [43:04 inaudible] end up being besties and I’d be totally good with that.
Stephanie: Yeah. I love his personality.
Angela: I knew I had something pertaining to him somewhere. I’m like, it’s here somewhere. I’ll find it eventually. But I was just going to say one of the things that came back around that I didn’t realize until the second time with this, with the audio. Okay because we have to talk about Shavon too. The psychic, the psychic in quotes, it wasn’t until the second time around when she goes saying I have information from Ezzo my spirit guide, where she goes back and says to O’Riley the cold case detective saying, there’s an important piece of evidence in the victim’s house that was overlooked. And then I realized a second time around, oh my gosh. She’s exactly right. She hit the nail on the head because the key piece of evidence of the bourbon that was spiked that killed him on like Aman there was actually still in the house. So she got something right. She was correct. This crazy lady who’s dancing in circles pointing at like nothing was actually right. So I wasn’t sure if she was maybe like one 10th psychic or just left out with that.
Jeanna: Well, what did they say, a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Angela: What did you guys think of Shavon? I mean, I’m just curious.
Stephanie: She was entertaining, but I was like really you hired a psychic she obviously was wanting money.
Jeanne: I sort of appreciated that Gethsemene, I viewed it as like her making an effort to do something the way of the village by hiring a village. Even though I feel like she could tell from the get go that Shavon was probably not so much a psychic. But the bullying I just wanted to.
Angela: For Shavon?
Jeanne: Yes. Shavon was not just a wacko, but she was a bully.
Angela: She was in the doorway and like holding on and wasn’t letting our leading lady kick her out of her home. I mean, she’s not paying rent, but still that’s her like cottage, just her area. And this lady’s like, I am not leaving. I belong here. I mean when someone’s physically pushing you to leave their home. You might want to just leave.
Jeanne: And that brings me back to something that I love so much about Gethsemene. And we’ve talked about it. She’s such a strong woman and she refused to essentially let Shavon bully her after that one incident, that her house. She just kept putting her off and putting her off. And that was, I mean, go Gethsemene.
Angela: I love that little hand. I love that. That was so cute. I mean, I like how she was like, no, I want the priest first. She kind of gave her excuses without being mean, but you got where she was going and coming. Oh no. I want the priest to do the exorcism. Oh no. I want to look up the best time to have you come. I mean, she was able to do it in a kind of nice way, but the same time it was still forceful. I mean, again, I’m not very, I would just be cowering, like, oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. Like have a nice day. [46:30 inaudible] was a lot to handle. But like she didn’t back down at all. I would’ve.
Jeanne: Smart protagonist. So smart.
Angela: I mean, have you ever seen just like Heaven with Mark Raflo and Reese [46:41 name]. There’s a scene where he’s in this haunted department and he’s bringing in the Ghostbusters team, he’s got a priest for doing the exorcism. He’s got every single type of ghost whisperer coming through and like Reese is standing next to him as the ghost and they’re just walking around and he is like pointing there she is there she is. I mean, Shavon’s going around and Aman knows that she can’t see him, but I just thought it was so funny the way she’s like there in the corner. And there was nothing there. I mean, she was just making that one up.
Stephanie: And the dramatics. That’s what cracked me up.
Angela: I mean, so my favorite was when she’s like, do you need something? Do you need to sit down? Do you need the bathroom? She’s like, what’s going over there. She started offering her like all these different things that she might need. Like she never said the bathroom. I was laughing out loud because I did not expect her to say that. Yes. She actually had to physically push her.
Stephanie: She got it down. I think it was originally 150.
Jeanne: Right. That’s right. She negotiated down.
Angela: I like the little arms like yes. Strong. This is true. Shavon was a little, you’re kind of were like, Hey, what’s going on? It wasn’t until she got the arrow in the chest where you’re like, okay, she’s not the killer. I kind of love how we’re all like yeah our leading lady’s got this. You have so many hashtag Gethsemene rock.
Jeanne: I finished this book a couple weeks ago and I’ve read a couple books after it. So forgive me if I’m just not remembering, but did Gethsemene ever get her luggage?
Angela: No, she did not because I wrote that down. I’m also curious because I travel myself or at least pre COVID I traveled quite a bit. And you would never put the important stuff in your luggage. You put your ID and money in your carryon. So I’m kinda curious about that component of this. Just a smidge.
Stephanie: Because she’s well traveled.
Angela: That was why I was kinda like.
Stephanie: Somebody in the comments. I don’t remember who it was, but at the beginning they said, I wonder if in the second book she’ll find her luggage.
Jeanne: That would be great.
Angela: I mean, I’m also kind of curious, again, this is me because at one point I was thinking about going to the University of Glasgow. So again, I was actually looking into moving across. I was not in the same position as her, but I was looking into things. And so I was thinking like, oh you can mail yourself stuff. You can do this. You can even buy things when you get there. And so with her, I’m going how many bags of luggage did you have, if you were actually moving, moving? And then how are people able to actually steal all of those bags? I have subsequent questions about the luggage, which is why I think I appreciated the comment early on like, is she going to find it? I mean, how do you steal that, like the amount of luggage of, yeah, I’m moving to this place. That’s a lot of luggage.
Jeanne: But didn’t she ended up, it wasn’t planned for a long time. Like she lost out on that job that she thought she was going to get. And this just sort of slipped in as a backup plan. So maybe she didn’t have as much stuff, even a couple pieces of luggage. That’s like, get it back, man.
Angela: Well, even then like it’s got to be a pretty decent size bag. I mean, how do you just walk away? I’m picturing the bag coming out of the shoot and you’re like dragging three bags that are just huge behind you. I mean, I’m trying to figure that part out because that would be very difficult for the thief. Because also how do you know all of those bags go to the same person? I mean, was it a set? Did they all look alike?
Jeanne: So many questions.
Angela: Again. I wasn’t kidding. Like I legit was writing them down. I was like, how did this happen? But at the same time, I didn’t want to pull too much on that thread because I like the book. I always wanted you just accept the premise that oh yeah, this is what happened.
Jeanne: Yeah. Crystal said she will forever wear the dead woman’s clothing, at least that.
Stephanie: They were nice
Angela: Designer suits though. So it works out. I mean, that’s not bad
Jeanne: Free designer suits.
Angela:Â One of the comments I have is just a very random note. I love how much Aman loves his wife. We don’t get to see that relationship, but we learn all about it, about how, when he’s angry, she could totally just mellow him out and how everyone knew he would never hurt her. But at the same time they believed this lie about him. I just thought the way he loved her was so sweet. I just wanted to throw that out there.
I just wanted to throw that out there. I mean, we don’t actually get to see this relationship, but we know all about it and he’s very upfront with it. Again, some masculine traits where he is going, oh, you know how I feel? I don’t need to say things. I mean, he was just saying like, I love her. I’m looking for her. I want to be with her. He was just so upfront. And then everyone in the village knew how he felt too. There was no doubt that he loved her from anybody. I just had a pop up, it’s the airline’s fault.
That’s amazing. And plus, this is again a subsequent question with our killer here, Peg. This woman, she apparently can see Aman. I mean, I don’t know how he never figured out that she could see him because if a ghost popped up next to me, even if I was pretending that I couldn’t see him and he popped up, that would scare me so much. I would jump out of my skin, like I’m surprised that she was able to keep the act up for 25 years. But I don’t know how she was able to banish the wife so that you can only get her lingering scent. And so you know she’s kind of on the same plane, but not really. I kind of want to know how Peg knew how to banish or semi banish or keep the two apart. I have questions about this
Jeanne: And I have questions about how is she going to find Aman and I wish even though I’m okay with the clip hanger, I wish that there had been just a tiny little nugget to give Gethsemene the tiniest little bit of a hint about how to find him. So I wouldn’t be all angsty until I read the second book.
Angela: I am not okay with cliff hanger endings. As soon as I was going, what! I’m pretty sure, again, when I was reading this for the first time, I’m like, it doesn’t have anything because again, this isn’t one of our culinary cozies. There are only two pages after it and one of them is blank and then the other one is just. I was so upset. I’m going, where’s the rest of this?
Stephanie: Most cozies don’t have cliff hangers.
Jeanne: That’s true. Good point.
Stephanie: What happened?
Angela: The ones that have cliffhangers have to do with like a secondary narrative of an overarching mystery throughout the series, I had just listened to on audible The Merry Ghost Inn which I loved. It’s such a cute series. It was just adorable. The main character is looking for her missing mother. And so we don’t know about this missing mother in book one or book two and you don’t get like a little taste of it until book three. But that was okay because she was not the victim or whatever is going on the main narrative. So I was okay with them, not knowing what happened with her, but with this, with him being gone, he’s the second most important character in this entire book.
I was not okay with that. I was so upset. I’m going, I need to know where he is. I need to know what’s happening. I needed another chapter and then that’s why I started book two. And then we still don’t know. I gave up after listening to the audio book for the first hour I think. And then I was like, I still don’t know where he is and I need to go sleep now.
Jeanne: Yeah, that was by far the biggest cliffhanger I think I’ve ever read in any series, cozy mystery or not. And it was a little jarring to me. Like I wanted time to savor the fact that they won the competition and that she was probably going to stay and oh, what does that mean? That’s so fantastic. And but then she just pow right with this.
Stephanie: You don’t have to wait a year for the next one though. That’s one positive.
Angela: Oh, that’s the worst. We have to wait for a book. That’s just, oh, that’s the worst. The benefits of reading a series? I mean, again, I will admit, so I looked it up. So the fifth book in this series was published March 20th, 2020. So right now there are five books in this series and I’m just going, okay if book five ends on a cliff hanger and there’s no indication of a book six, I’m not really sure how I’m going to do that. I’ll be okay up until book five. And then if she ends that on a cliff hanger, I will not be okay.
I mean, again, I’m a romance person. My eyes just went to Eloise James as a new book. I saw that I was like, yes. Yeah, you got the happily ever after, this one you did not get any, there was no happily ever after, it was very much you’re just waiting for it.
Jeanne: Can we talk about our disappointment in Billy? I thought it was fantastic he wanted to memorialize and if Gethsemene wasn’t going to keep living in the house, he was going to make a museum out of it, which seemed lovely and appropriate. And then just out of nowhere, he goes for the money. And that was disappointing.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Angela: I like the facial, like that’s how I feel, like sad face emoji. I was more angry and frustrated with him. I also think I posted this on the Twitter and I don’t know. I can’t remember off the top of my head if anyone responded to this particular question, but I knew I wanted to put it out there. He called her at 4:00 AM and woke her up from like a dead sleep to get the paperwork. And I was really perplexed as to the immediacy of that calling at 4:00 AM. That seemed a little much to me. That also raised the question mark for me, like not only was he doing something sketchy, he was doing something sketchy in a very, very creepy way. I mean, you do not need to call this woman at 4:00 AM. And like he knew it was 4:00 AM. It would’ve been one thing if he was just accidentally doing that. And then he apologized, profusely saying I’m so sorry. No, he knew what he was doing. And so now I just have no respect for Billy.
Jeanne: Again, pro for our protagonist who’s so smart and figured out the history of that hotel owner and used it to her advantage.
Angela: I mean, I love how, again, this writer things come back around because he’s the one who told her at the very beginning of the book when he is bringing her to the cottage. Oh yeah. We invited our ghosts in. Yes. We’re going to be hospitable to them. And then he tries to say the exact opposite to our hotel mogul, his name’s Wayne, I believe. And then she says what he said at the beginning of the book and I’m going, yeah, you remember that dialogue? That’s so great. Kind of came back around again with the details. Alexia Gordon you’re very talented.
Jeanne: Yeah. Another point to payoff. Awesome.
Angela: Oh my gosh. I was just going to say one of your points. And I just saw it as a note. I wanted them to have a sort of victory party or something. I wanted her to celebrate with the boys, like take them out to eat or just meet their families because that’s the other thing too, with the boarding school, we don’t really get to see them interact with anyone else aside from their classmates and even any other teachers aside from her and her math teacher. It’s just those two apparently.
Stephanie: And those points earned it. That was, they only had what, six weeks? And they were apparently horrible at the start of the six weeks. I thought that was so impressive.
Angela: I’m with you when you mentioned like everything was very abrupt at the ending. I mean maybe in book two, again I only listened the first hour on audio and I think it’s an eight hour audio book. So I only made a little bit of a fraction of [59:15 inaudible]. But yeah, I’m hoping that she’ll catch up with them and congratulate them again and maybe expand on it because they must have worked really hard. And that’s again, I want more of the day to day interactions of why they staying late after school. Were they practicing in their spare time? How did they go from everyone thinking that they’re going to fail and not even place to winning the competition, like how did you go from there to there?
Jeanne: They deserved accolades that they didn’t get.
Angela: Oh, random note I love doing Yosemite was in the pub and she played the violin. She got to play a praise list violin, but then she got to share her talent with the pub. I was very happy.
Jeanne: I think that dog, her a lot of props from the villagers, like, okay she knows what she’s doing okay. We’ll follow this lady.
Angela: We’ll follow her. I mean she also [inaudible] O’Riley too. I mean, he was there at the pub drinking and, singing and everything else. And I thought that was really cute. I mean maybe that was also a little indication of a spark.
Jeanne: I think something might be there.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Angela: Yeah, the English teacher. He’s going from an English teacher to a music teacher. I just love how we randomly find out he has a cat. I mean, I was like, oh, we can turn this into an animal cozy in the future.
Stephanie: Right.
Angela: I just hold onto that. Every cozy [Inaudible1:00:53] animal somehow, but he even adopted the cat after he solved his first case. For some reason, even the detail of how he got the cat made me happy.
Jeanne: I know it’s heartfelt.
Angela: I mean, so at the very end this is one of the other reasons why I think I immediately went into book two. So Peggy sort of evades the police and commits suicide at the end, correct? Our killer kind of– I thought maybe in book 2, it was like, ha ha. I pretended I’m back now. And again, I haven’t gotten that far, but I was kind of surprised that usually doesn’t happen with cozy mysteries. Usually, justice is served where they go to prison and we usually don’t see justice be served, but we see them get into the cop car and driven away. We don’t see the trial usually, but we at least know that the person’s in custody and that didn’t happen this time around. And I was so surprised about that, which is again, why I’m like, this is a darker, cozy mystery
Stephanie: Yeah.
Jeanne: I wondered how much of that is just based on the style of this author or if it’s more of an international thing, like, is that a UK Irish?
Angela: It reminded me of an Agatha Christie sort of thing. I mean, I don’t want to spoil this, but, and then there were none you can tell by the title, how many are left at the end of the book? And then there were none wink, wink, nudge, nudge. I kind of got that vibe because I was not expecting that. I mean– I wasn’t sure at first, if it was supposed to be symmetry because she jumped off the cliffs where she killed Orla or what, but I was very, very surprised by that, that we didn’t have the cops get our killer for some reason that really struck me. I have an entire page dedicated to just that one note
Stephanie: Yeah. It reminded me of a dark and stormy murder by Julia Buckley.
Angela: That’s a great book
Stephanie: That One is kind of like right on the line of a cozy because it’s darker and this one feels the same way.
Angela: She had the same thing though, too, where she has all the cozy elements in the book, but at the same time it does have a little bit of a darker vibe. You’re going, oh, we have the dogs and then something dark happens and then we’re talking about coffee and then you’re kind of going, wait a second, a gray area. So yeah. I mean maybe these two kind of need to be next to each other on the shelf.
Stephanie: I enjoyed it.
Angela: I do too. I was really happy with this book. It was just the cliff hanger. That was where I got frustrated. Maybe my romance novels have spoiled me rotten where I get to have my, everything tied up in a nice, pretty bow. But yeah that was my biggest complaint was the cliff-hanger. At the same time though, when you want more of a story that shows that it was a good story. So that’s why I’m kind of hesitating to say like, oh, it ruined it because it didn’t. It just meant I want more.
Stephanie: Yeah. And I think I just wasn’t expecting it. Like if I’m reading a fantasy or something, I know there’s probably going to be a cliff-hanger, but in a cozy, it usually doesn’t happen. So it was jarring.
Angela: Different standards with fantasies. Again, you’ll be going. My favourite with fantasies is when you only have 10 pages left and there’s so much more story to go and you’re going, this is not going to be good. You know that when you see the last 10 pages and you’re like, yeah, no, like you kind of realize like right before the end where you kind of prepare yourself, I didn’t prepare myself for this one. I love how you Guys know exactly what I’m talking about Usually. I mean, again, readers get readers. If I said that to somebody who was not a reader, they’d be going, huh? What? No.
Stephanie: Well, and even on audio book, it was like, wait, there’s no more left because I wasn’t paying attention because you can’t physically see it. So it just ended.
Angela: Yep. Nope. I mean I want more information with all of these characters. I even know what happens next. I’m pretty sure I’m going to fall into this series and just be again, I’m hoping, once I get acclimated to the new narrator for the second audiobook, maybe, hopefully she’s the same for book three, four, and five or maybe I’ll just end up reading them with my e-reader or something. But I’m hoping they keep the same one for, continuity’s sake. But yeah, I’m definitely in the series now I need information. I can’t just cliff-hanger. . This is not how I work as a reader or as a human I need more information
Jeanne: Renee has a good point about the really cute titles.
Stephanie: Yes.
Jeanne: Murdering G Major and Death in D Minor it’s so good. I’m terrible at puns. And I’m always just amazed at how great some of these titles are for these cozy mysteries. And this was no exception.
Stephanie: Yeah. And how many they come up with?
Jeanne: Yes. Yes.
Angela: I mean, I got to give her credit with including the musical components in the title because it is such a musical cozy and that is so rare. Again, I can find my baking cozies all over the place, but I don’t really know too many musical cozy mysteries and random aside with the cover. I kind of love how it’s a green violin. She’s in Ireland green, green violin on the cover. For some reason. I just loved that. I just think everything about this is just perfect.
Stephanie: yeah.
Angela: I can read them by next week. Can’t read them. Give you guys a summation very soon.
Jeanne: Crystal had a good point about how it was neat that everyone in the village was so into classical music, but you don’t necessarily get a lot, especially around like a boarding school or a small town like that, at least in the United States. I mean it’s like football or not that there’s anything wrong with football, but it was neat to have something different that kind of the village revolved around.
Angela: I mean, I did like it when she says soccer and he is going football no like he grasped a corrector and had that. What was the Orla liked cricket. And he liked football. It was cute how they didn’t mention that. But yeah, this school, for some reason, music was their thing. And that made me so happy. My little reading heart was going, this is not typical. You guys have an orchestra, even just having an orchestra in the school it was kind of new. I mean, most, I don’t, I don’t know if any coz mystery, musicals or musical cozy mysteries have orchestras in their high schools. That just seems like it was such a different detail than a lot of other books would have
Stephanie: Yeah.
Stephanie: Hey, thank you. They have the same narrator. I appreciate Yani. I was worried about that. I mean I really love the first narrator. She was spectacular. I don’t know what the backstory was with getting the new one for book two. And again, I listened to the first hour, [Inaudible1:07:50 ] apparently is originally from Virginia. So she has that sort of slow Southern drawl. Whereas with the first one you get the Irish accent. And so it is very, very different. It was kind of jarring almost. So definitely going to have to take, a day and then get ready for about two and go back. A posh private school. Yes. I kind want to know, were they wearing their uniforms? Were they dressed with their little blazers? I’m kind of picturing them like that in my head.
Stephanie: That’s how I pictured them wearing proper.
They’re also on the verge. I actually wrote down little money sign I don’t want to mispronounce this name. Dan Lev. I keep thinking of the guy from Swiss Creek, Dan levy, like Dan levy, Dan levy with the donation, they’re going to get their own sort of stadium-esque thing going, he’s going to have private rooms design. So their soundproof, I mean this music program is going to be top notched by the end of the series. So I’m kind curious about that too. I’m not really sure how much input somebody’s going to have, but I’m really curious to see where those donations and the musical elements kind of progress to,
Stephanie: Right? Yeah.
Jeanne: Same.
Stephanie: So what was your overall star rating? If you give star rating,
Angela: Jeanne, what was yours?
Jeanne: I’m going to go four solid four. Like I’m pretty harsh on books in general. So a solid four I think is pretty good. Just with those few little details that I’m like, but it was buoyed by the fact that this author is so intelligent and she wrote all of her characters so intelligently and it had so much cozy yumminess, I’m at a solid four. What about you, Stephanie?
Stephanie: The same, a solid four. I really, really enjoyed it.
Jeanne: Good.
Angela: I’m kind of with you guys where I’m kind of I’m Teeter tottering between I almost want to be that person. I really want to be like that fraction reader. I mean, sometimes I really want to be like 4.25, 4.75. I feel like that person, because I’m kind of thinking 4.5 for me in a way, because again, the cliff-hanger ending was just so startling to me. I want more, which is a good sign, but very bad that I kind of wanted to go throw the book against the wall. My exact reaction was anger. Wasn’t wait a second I was upset with the cliff anger. That was not for me. But so that kind of left me a little 4.5 little deductions. So that was my biggest complaint with that. But yeah I thought she was just so talented having those details come up at the beginning and then come back around at the end. I mean she is a good writer. She is. She’s very talented. I can see why this book was nominated for so many awards.
Jeanne: Right?
Stephanie: Yeah.
Jeanne: Bonnie agrees four stars.
Stephanie: Yeah, it seems like almost everyone really like it.
Angela: I can share the star ratings.
Jeanne: Nice.
Angela: I hope the other books in the series are, are at the same level. I’m very impressed with the fact that this is the first book in the series too because sometimes they’ll progress, they’ll get better as the series goes on. But to start out on such a high note, now my expectations for book 2 are really high. So you got to live up book one now the pressure is on she does that to herself by being so talented so I’m kind of curious where that’s going to go to where, oh, hopefully book two, book three and the rest of them are the same caliber. I have faith in her though. Because she seems like she could do it.
Jeanne: I believe that she will, even though I haven’t read them yet, but.
Stephanie: We have faith.
Angela: I mean, I also love the main character. So I’m rooting for her too.
Stephanie: Yes.
Jeanne: same.
Angela: I’m trying to see what other little notes I had. I mean kind of curious. What’s going to happen with the sister who is poisoning people because now she doesn’t have her lookout I don’t know what’s going to happen with Nola in the following books, but I think that’s all I had. Did you guys have any other thoughts, comments, questions?
Jeanne: I’ve been pretty pushy about my thoughts. So I think–
Stephanie: No, we covered everything I was wanted to talk about.
Angela: I’m looking down at my little diagram. I will just say I was very surprised with the first investigation your heart has to sort of go out to Aman. I always have to pause to think this is how you pronounce his name. Your heart has to go out to him because there’s a week in between Orla being pushed over the cliff and him being poisoned. So he has an entire week of grief and the police force really didn’t help him. They, they sort of just took the word of a guy who hated him of, yeah, I saw his car. Didn’t really do any sort of investigation. And even upon his suicide, nobody looked any further then, oh, he must have been grief-stricken.
I felt terribly for him. And I thought really poorly of Jimmy Hurley there. Their police force. I’m kind of curious too for the following books because there seemed to be a lot of speculation that they were corrupt aside from our, inspector with the cold cases. O’RilEy who’s new by the way, who hasn’t been in town that long, there seems to be a questionable backstory with the cops in that town. So as cute as the small town life is, the police force sort of has left me with a giant question mark
Jeanne: agreed. Victoria has a really interesting point here. She was not such a fan of how many women are portrayed as crazy or unstable. I noticed that, but it didn’t ring a bell. That’s such an interesting point, Victoria.
Stephanie: That’s a good point.
Angela: You kind of got me thinking of the whole, she’s not like other girls sort of thing where you wanted the protagonist to be the one that they focus on sort of situation. But there weren’t that many female characters in the book to start with. I mean, I did like, oh my gosh, I don’t want to mispronounce her name. She’s with Teague, Efa
Jeanne: Efa,
Angela: Efa. She was really cute. But I mean, again, she’s having an affair. She’s a doctor she’s running the pharmacy she’s capable. She has a kind heart, but, there was a little something going on where you’re not like, oh, you’re not, not completely upfront, wink quick, nudge, nudge. Aside from her, yeah, the other women– we have I’m looking at the list. Yeah. We have Nola who was in her own little area and there weren’t any women on the force either. For second, I thought DI Kildare was going to be a woman, but then it was Donny. It was a man. I was kind of curious about that too, but, or less seemed awesome. I mean, everyone, except for our killer, who was psychotic, everyone else seemed to love her. So she was a positive representation.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Jeanne: A lot of women were victims in the sense that they died. And so maybe in book two and three and four and five will get more female characters in there.
Angela: My dog just went under the bed. He’s hiding somewhere. He’s so tiny. I tried to keep him from going under the bed by putting things in front of it. So he can’t get, I just saw something moved for and going he’s in there. Yeah, there weren’t that many female characters. I was expecting not a confrontation, but I was expecting our leading lady to run into the literature professor who dumped the inspector, but we’d never see her again after the breakup. And even then she was a little bit, she wasn’t the most understanding of women. She wasn’t portrayed very well during that breakup. So yeah, you have a very fair point but I loved our leading lady though. Like she was a good female representation. Yeah. Everyone else. Oh, so this is interesting.
Jeanne: Yeah. Yep.
Stephanie: Yeah. I agree with that.
Jeanne: I feel like even’s character tried to address that a little bit by saying, even I went there one time and it was, everybody needs it sometimes, but I agree. I don’t think it was enough.
Angela: Yeah. I kind of like the fact that Aman there mentioned no, I was tired. I needed to recuperate. I went there. I didn’t mention it because it didn’t need to be mentioned. And he owned it and I appreciated the fact that he stood up for himself and he didn’t back down of oh yeah. I should have told you. He was like, no, I took care of myself. I did the self-love self-care. I think the bad part was how they didn’t know the difference between someone who was having mental health issues and someone who needed to be taken in by the police. Because they didn’t seem to know what to do with Nola, where she needed to have she needed, she needed help in a mental sense, but they didn’t need to bring her to the police station.
You should have brought her to the hospital, not to the cops. They didn’t seem to know how to actually deal with what she was doing and why she was doing it. I think that was probably the biggest issue as my dog goes behind the bed now. All of a sudden I hear him doing things I’m like, what’s going on? I think that was really a problem for me, but maybe that’s a small town where they didn’t have enough people on staff. They were, they needed more education in regards to, this is now the world we live in. be, be nicer, be kinder. But I, I understand why you’re saying that. I also felt badly that the actual mental health institution was closed.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Angela: It seems like a town that would’ve needed. I mean, people in town were going there. I’m not really sure why it closed. Because clearly there were people who needed it and they also just abandoned it this place was literally left with the folders. Like someone just walked out of there. I have so many questions about that.
Stephanie: Like crimes was a movie setting.
Jeanne: Exactly. And that does happen. I mean that, or at least it used to happen. And that’s why we have so many caricatures of that because the stereotypes are there. But yeah, I wondered if Alexia Gordon was, not addressing it as much because it’s in a different country and they do things differently or it’s in a small area where they didn’t really have access to a lot of the resources that people needed or if that was just the town and that’s how she wrote it. I don’t know.
Angela: Oh no. I mean, I kind of hope I’m hoping Nola. I want her to get the help she needs because the one, again, the priest saying no, no, no don’t press charges. At least if that was brought to attention, they would be able to say, okay, why are you doing this? Let’s talk about this. Let’s get you the help you need. Whereas brushing it under the rug of, oh, if we don’t talk about it, it’s fine. That’s not the healthy approach to take. So I’m hoping in subsequent books, she’s, getting therapy, if someone’s taking care of her, I would like to see that in the rest of the series.
Jeanne: Yeah. So would max
Stephanie: Max would too.
Angela: He’s behind the bed too I can’t even see him cause I got the fan, in the way, he’s just somewhere over there.
Stephanie: Whoa. He has strong opinions.
Jeanne: Yes
Angela: He has a very big personality with strong opinions.
Jeanne: He steals the show when he is not even on screen I love it.
Angela: It’s so funny. He is five pounds, but he has such a big personality. Like, I mean, he really does. We also can communicate very well. Max is. I mean, I’m kind of curious if there are any other thoughts or questions. I mean hopefully max will pop his head out before the evening is over. I will just mention, so our next book is Color Me a Murder. So this is our book for next month. I haven’t read it yet, but I printed out the cover because I want to color it in. I am obsessed with that. I think this is such a cute cover where it’s an actual adult coloring book page. I think that it’s such a cute idea. So if you have not already gotten this book, please add it to your TDR. I don’t think it’s available in audible, but there is an audio book available. So there are all the different ways to get it all the different outlets where it’s available, Barnes and Noble, Amazon. I looked at them all up with the links. They’re all on the Twitter page
I don’t want to misspeak. So I’m going to open up the Twitter. So what I’m doing is I really love the fact that we were able to have our next four reads all planned out. I don’t know how y’all felt, but that was just brilliant for me. I was able to figure out okay, this is what we need to do here. And I was able to make the graphics. I was able to, get everything in order in regards to giving you guys the links and being able to tell you, Hey, this is what’s going on. And I think it was really nice for the people who do plan out their reads. And so people were able to add them to their reading challenges and figure out what was going on in regards to, okay, I can add this to my library, wishlist, and get it in time.
I thought that was wonderful for a lot of people. I’m trying to do that again.
Right now, 102 votes, we were at 98. When this before we went live, that is so exciting. I’m like, yeah,102 votes. That’s great. So right now I am posting the poll for the May read and then I left that up for an entire week and then I’ll do the same thing for the June, July, and hopefully August. Hopefully we can do the next four as well. And every single book, it was the ones that you guys recommended, because I’ve been asking you guys probably since we’ve had our four reads, like, Hey, start thinking about the books you’re interested in and I’ve been marking them. I have an entire binder. I have another notebook and everything else just dedicated to keep track of your book. I’m not kidding. I do my research
What I did was I grouped them by theme. So right now it is a bookish cozy theme. So for whom the book tolls, the broken spine, on borrow crime and little bookshop of murder. So right now we have the little bookshop of murder winning at 35%, but on borrowed crime is at 28. So it could come back around if you guys keep voting. So you have 24 hours left to vote for that one. And then as soon as that one’s done, I’ll keep posting the next theme. So your June read will hopefully we voted on. So then hopefully by the time we have our April live stream, we will have our next four reads all planned out after this. Lovely. So that is the goal. That is the plan. I am hoping that works. I’m so excited to see what wins too, because again it took me a little while to figure out how to keep track of this is why there’s a binder.
How to keep track of people’s recommendations was because some people would DM them on Instagram. Some people would mention them on DMS on Twitter. Some people would answer Twitter questions. Some people would answer Instagram question. Some people would send it an email or they’d respond to my newsletter with an email. And so that was when the binder happened. So that was when the, Hey we’re going to put these into themes. So the next couple I’m like, do I spoil the themes? Do I tell you what the themes are? But every single book you guys recommended, I lost track of who recommended what. But someone did recommend them. I promise,.
Stephanie: I Love how close all the polls are too.
Angela: Yes.
Jeanne: Which is totally nice.
Angela: It makes me excited to read any of them.
Angela: I am always so excited when I see them being that close because it just, it shows that everyone’s on the same page too, that everyone has similar interests and everyone is just also reading, reading the cozies, they’re interested and they’re engaged. That just makes me so happy. I mean, whenever I see the numbers again, as soon as I saw a 10 2, I’m pretty sure my face lit up like Christmas tree. I was like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. Like seeing the participation is just the best. It makes me so happy. It really does. Guys are so cute. Hey just ordered your copy. Oh
Stephanie: did you say it was Krisa Davis?
Angela: Yes. I’m pretty sure. What is she? The domestic diva..
Jeanne: Yes the diva Series. I love that series.
[Interposed talking 1:24:37]
Jeanne: That’s how I got into it. And then I read the whole series and she has another one coming out in May and I’m waiting.
Angela: Cause she’s at Kensington now. I’m pretty sure too. I think she transcended to a different publisher as I’m looking over there. Cause I’m pretty sure. Hi, He’s back. Oh my God. Now he has a bone he’s trying to bury. This is going to be interesting.
Jeanne: thanks lady. Gisbel that’s so sweet.
Angela: Aw, yes. You guys are so sweet for joining and being here and saying yes, I was so happy that you guys answered the Google interest form because I always have that moment, like who might be interested? Again, now that we have a form, I could figure out like, this is great. But before I was like, oh my God, I don’t want to put someone on the spot. I don’t want to be like, hey, someone’s shy or not ready. As soon as I saw your names, I’m going, I know them. They’re Great they are awesome I love their comments they are always so engaged and so positive.
Soon as I saw the name. So I’m like, yes, this is the best I was so excited because you guys also were like, yeah, we’ll do this. I think Stephanie, you were like, I’ll do any of the most like I’d love to participate I was oh my god she is so excited about cozy
Stephanie: Anytime.
Angela: It was so cute. Jeanne is adorable too. I’m like you guys are just adorable like so sweet. Like I just want to keep you guys, again I’ve seen your username all over the place and actually getting to talk to you is just it’s so great. It makes me so happy. I’m so happy you guys joined tonight. I was so excited to be able to put your little faces in the thumbnail. I don’t know, if you guys have seen it, I was able to go take their little photos. So cute.
Jeanne: Yeah, my thumbnail. I’m like, dang. That’s an old photo. My hair was like this short .
Angela: I think I took your user profile picture. Again, benefit of planning, able to make the thumbnails in advance. I’m so happy. You guys are so sweet. I mean, I was so happy when you not only filled out the Google form. And then when I actually asked you, you said yes, it wasn’t one of those, those, Hey, I’m going to put my hand up in the air. No, don’t call on me.
Stephanie: Had a little fan girl moment. Like, yes,
Jeanne: Totally Stephanie. And I don’t know about you guys, but I have really loved the three. I don’t know how many you’ve done with three. I missed a couple of months, but usually, it’s two and it’s one with three.
Angela: I mean again, like I never would’ve put someone on the spot where I know things come up. If someone ever backs out from the three, I’m like no, no. Like I understand take care of, I remember one time someone had a loss in the family were saying, oh no, no we’re going to be going. And they were apologizing to me. Like, no, no, no, like go take care of yourself. I’m sorry for your loss. Like, go take care of yourself. I’m thinking of you like wishing you well. And so, again, like I’m really happy that we’re able to do the 3 of us. I mean, because I haven’t had a live stream with either of you. So this is new across the board and then next month, I’m pretty sure I didn’t realize this until after I was like, we have Voni and Victoria, so it’s going to be V and V. So it’s another three people
[Interposed talkig1:28:04 ]
Angela: was so funny when I saw that, I was like, Hey, wait a second. That’s going to make things easy or hard. Like, we’ll see how this goes. Hopefully this isn’t a tongue twister at some point, at least the author’s name doesn’t have a V in it. You guys are so sweet. Thank you so much for joining. I’m starting to lose the voice because we’ve been talking for a while, but if you guys have any final questions, comments now is the time to post them because, and also get your comments in because giveaway is going to be happening for Freshly Brewed, Murder and Marta being the awesome author that she is the audio book. I’m trying to think if I had any other announcements..
I posted an egg. I love how I say egg now I’m like the egg TV or like the little Instagram highlight. I mentioned that a story or write is organizing a cozy mystery romance themed conference that is happening. I believe April 11th. I wrote it down and then I put the notebook on the floor and the dog is now on top of it. So I can’t look it up. She’s doing that. And mass domestic is also happening and that’s a virtual conference. I signed up myself for that one and then Astoria’s conference is happening next month and there’s a cozy mystery gift basket going to be happening. And I put aside one of the mugs and candy and all sorts of other coziness and goodness. There are also going to be some more sluther vinyl giveaways. And for those, I also put in extra cozy swag.
Some people are so cute. They post their photos of what they get in the mail. And that makes me so happy. I post I put in the bookmark, the vinyl slit, their sticker. We have Purrlock Holmes and there’s a vinyl sticker of her, her little, her little Sherlock sluther cat, which is so cute. I love the mascot that we have. So I’ll be doing some more of those flash giveaways as well. So there are lots of things going on and to be on the lookout for, so please make sure you check your Instagram and Twitters, because if you want to win again, I also pick like five people at a time because I can’t stand to like, not give the love to you guys.
Jeanne: You are so generous by the way, you are amazing keeping up with this. This is why you built such a following Angela because you are incredible at this hosting this and making sure people feel loved. So kudos my friend.
Angela: Oh thank you. I mean, I’m just so appreciative of everybody. I mean, it was, it was so sweet because I was really kind of out of it last month and I’ve, I’ve been kind of picking myself back up, responding to the DMs and everything else. I was saying, this has been a really rough day. There was a dissertation related issue and I got all these DMS and people wishing me well and it just picked me right up. I mean, it literally changed my entire disposition. I went from like crying about this issue as I’m getting emotional, talking about how you guys make me happy. I was like, you guys sent like all these well wishes. I’m like, oh my gosh, this is really the best crew in the world. I mean, and, and it really is my absolute honour and pleasure to like celebrate Cozy Mysteries with everybody.
I’m so honoured that you take the time out to talk to me. Like you guys sitting here taking the time outta your day to co-host. I mean, hello. I love you guys. Like, this is amazing. You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to be here. And the fact that you are, I mean, it just means the absolute world to me. So for me, it’s like, yeah, this is the least I can do. Like I wish I could do more. I mean, I specifically, when I was having the bad day, I went to the cricket I, that was my Christmas present. I went to the cricket. I’m like, what can I do to make myself feel better? Like what can I do? And I was like, oh, I want to do something for my cozy mystery book club– like my family, let me do the vinyl stickers. And so that’s what I did. Focusing on that was what I, got me outta my funk and getting your well wishes was just so sweet and like brightened and changed everything. So you guys really do make my life better. You do. So it’s my absolute honour and pleasure. If I can do more giveaways, I will.
Stephanie: Yeah, you’ve built a really awesome community for sure.
Angela: I mean you guys are the community though. Like, I mean, you guys are just so sweet and amazing and it’s just you participate, you comment and your comments are thoughtful and they’re sweet and they’re kind, and you engage with the books. I mean it’s so easy to, to talk with y’all and be kind to y’all you make it so easy, to just enjoy this community. We had what, like at one point we had like what 35 people watching. I mean, that is incredible. It really is. It’s my absolute honour to be a part of this. I’m just so privileged it really is. As I get emotional I mean [Inaudible1:32:37 ] to you guys too. You comment, you have been a part of this for a very long time. I’ve been seeing your usernames for, I don’t even know how long. I mean, I’m pretty sure Stephanie you’ve been here from probably like the beginning. I’m pretty sure
Stephanie: Close to. Yeah. Yeah.
Angela: Jeanne you’ve been across platforms, like I’ve been seeing you, you were in, I think you were actually part of the first 12 days of cozy.
Jeanne: Maybe. I mean, I have to tell you, this group really helped me through the quarantine and the pandemic, like seriously bullied what was a really scary and tumultuous thing, not knowing what was going on. And this Cozy Mystery Book club really kind of gave me something to focus on that wasn’t scary,
[Inaduble1:33:25 ]
Angela: Virtual Hugs. I want to virtually hug you. No, I mean, I think cozy mysteries themselves too. They lend themselves perfectly and beautifully. They’re upbeat. You got the characters that you love aside from a cliff-hanger here. Most of the time they end, with the little bow tied up where you get to enjoy it. I mean, I’m so happy that it was able to brighten your days. That just because you guys brighten mine too. I think that’s kind of just like, that’s true for both of us where I’m like, yes you guys. I just love that cozy club. Oh my gosh. Cozy club connection. There we go. My little tongue twister.
You guys are the best. I mean, it was just I’m so honoured. I mean, I’m so happy we were able to do this tonight and I’m so thankful that people were able to join us. I mean, again, you guys are taking time out of your lives to come chat cozies with us. I mean, you guys are awesome. And I want to give you guys the virtual shout out and hugs too. Thank you for being here and talking about this book and hopefully you guys will also like this book next month. So far, I’ve heard really good things. I’m really hoping everyone else enjoys it as well. So far only a handful of people have said they’ve started it. I know a lot of people have said they’ve started the next book in this series though. So I mean probably going to have to check in at some point but next up Colour Me a Murder Chris Davis. So that is happening. But do you have any final thoughts, comments for the night before you say goodbye?
Jeanne: Super love, much fun. Loved every minute of it.
Angela: I am so appreciative you guys for joining. And again, I’m going to be sharing all of their social media links because they’re amazing. And you guys are just so sweet and incredible and I’m so happy that you were able to join me tonight and you are welcome back anytime. I’m just very appreciative and so I’m going to be sharing all of their links, please follow them across the board because again, they brighten my day. I’m sure they’ll brighten yours and I am going to be posting more giveaways, more information, more things are happening. Next month they’re going to be three books, courtesy of Kate young, who is one of my favourite cozy mystery authors. She does baking cozies. Well cooking cozies, technically speaking. So they’re going to be more cozy mystery giveaways happening next month too. So be on the lookout after those. So aside from that, I think that is everything. And you guys are amazing. I love everybody. You guys are great. So I’m going to be hitting end broadcast. Have a nice night guys.