Murder in a Basket

GIVEAWAY

FLOWER, AMANDA
MURDER IN A BASKET

College librarian, and struggling arts, India Hayes isn't sure how her older sister Carmen talked her into managing a face-painting booth at the Stripling Ohio Founders' Day Festival or how Carmen persuaded her to wear a pink gingham pioneer dress, including mob-cap and granny boots. But that's where -- and how -- she finds herself on a chilly October day just before Halloween.

India's annoyance is forgotten when she discovers the body of basket weaver Tess Ross on the festival grounds. Tess leaves behind an angry blacksmith husband, a confused adopted son, greedy siblings, a dysfunctional artists' co-op, and a chocolate-colored labradoodle with a two-million-dollar trust in his name. Much to India's dismay, she learns Tess is the sister of her stuffy college provost, Samuel Lepcheck, and the mother of a library student worker, Derek, who has an irrepressible crush on India that she's doing her best to ignore. Derek begs India to investigate his mother's murder.

Despite the urgings of handsome Police Detective Rick Mains to stay out of the investigation, India agrees to Derek's request and finds herself playing sleuth as well as foster-owner to Zacchaeus, the two-million-dollar labradoodle.

With her own eccentric family commenting from the sidelines and her Irish-centric landlady, Ina Carroll, as a volunteer sidekick, India must discover the truth before she has a permanent canine houseguest or ends up the next victim of Tess's murderer.

My Review:

Published in 2012

Quirky cozy mystery that ticks all the boxes. Librarian and amateur sleuth heroine, a cryptic police detective who sends mixed messages, a millionaire labradoodle with a penchant for mischief and a murder to solve. What more could an avid reader ask for? Well, the eccentric septuagenarian landlady sidekick who resembles "a leprechaun training for the British Royal Guard" (p 110) is an added bonus. As is the irony of a cat named Templeton. I grinned my way through the twists and turns of an engaging plot. Plenty of suspects to choose from -- and believe me I thought nearly everyone was guilty at some point. A fun, breezy escape read.

Please note that this book isn't a Christian Fiction selection -- though it is a clean read.

Giveaway Opportunity:

 If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Murder in a Basket please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you post a comment and add your email address please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so it's easier for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday February 19 2017.  Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

Maybe it's You

GIVEAWAY

CALVERT, CANDACE
MAYBE IT'S YOU

Nurse Sloane Ferrell escaped her risky past -- new name, zip code, job, and a fresh start. She's finally safe. If she avoids a paper trail and doesn't let people get too close. Like the hospital's too-smooth marketing man with his relentless campaign to plaster one 'lucky' employee's face on freeway billboards.

Micah Prescott's goal is to improve the Hope hospital image, but his role as a volunteer crisis responder is closer to his heart. The selfless work helps fill a void in his life left by family tragedy. So does a tentative new relationship with the compassionate, beautiful, and elusive Sloane Ferrell.

Then a string of brutal crimes makes headlines, summons responders...and exposes disturbing details of Sloane's past.

Can hope spring from crisis?

My Review:

A medical drama that challenges and convicts.

Maybe It's You is the third book in the Crisis Team series. It reads like a standalone -- though if you have been keeping current you'll be all too familiar with Sloane. A prickly character with a gnarly reputation and a questionable past.

After finishing Step by Step (Book 2 in the series) did I really want to read an entire book dedicated to Sloane? Probably not if anyone but Candace Calvert was writing the story. But, thankfully, she is the author and she wooed me onto Team Sloane in pretty short order.

Yes this heroine is hot-headed and defensive and annoyingly aloof. But she's also an incredible nurse -- fiercely protective of her patients. Kind and compassionate, treating them all with equal respect. What a curious contrast between her personal life and professional one! And so much fodder for enthralling storytelling as Calvert slowly peels back the complicated layers that protect Sloane's fragile, broken heart.

By comparison, Micah seems to have it all together. Raised with the foundation of a strong Christian faith, he's working at a prestigious hospital marketing job while balancing volunteer hours as a crisis responder. But a past tragedy has chiseled some serious cracks in that solid foundation.

There are some interesting dynamics between this hero and heroine. Awkward. Fumbling. Hope thwarted by wariness. A tumultuous romance. The only way a relationship will ever work is if they are both brutally honest...but there's an equally good chance that will tear them apart instead. Talk about tension and emotional overload! I was in romance reading heaven!

Forgiveness and the true meaning of saving grace are at the heart of Sloane and Micah's journey. They have a lot to learn (as did this reader!) before faith can make them whole.

Delectable. Absorbing. Unforgettable. And a deliciously 'meaty' read -- 418 pages!

Giveaway Opportunity:

 If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Maybe it's You please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you post a comment and add your email address please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so it's easier for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday February 19 2017.  Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

Mistaken Identity

GIVEAWAY

MCCOY, SHIRLEE
MISTAKEN IDENTITY

The wrong target...

When Trinity Miller's attacked by a man who mistakenly believes she's Mason Gain's girlfriend, the reclusive prosthetic maker is forced from seclusion to rescue her. And he soon learns someone's determined to get information on one of his clients -- information they're willing to kill for. Now the former army pilot has to find a way to take down the men on their trail...and make sure Trinity survives. When Trinity arrived at Mason's isolated home to convince him to help her friend's son, her plans didn't include going on the run with him. But Trinity must work with Mason to outwit their pursuers...or risk losing both their lives.

Mission: Rescue -- No job is too dangerous for these fearless heroes.

My Review:

I can't tell you how much I love this series but I'm going to try. :-) This is the seventh book in the Mission Rescue series but no worries if you haven't read all of the other books -- Mistaken Identity reads beautifully as a standalone. Though there are some great character carryovers which were fun to spot.

McCoy knows how to balance her romance and suspense. Both get equal billing and naturally build as the taut plot threatens to spin out of control. Tension starts on page one when Trinity has that dreaded feeling that something isn't right. I wanted her to turn around and rethink her strategy. She's in a car, alone, at night on a deserted back road. Seriously, girly, come back in the light of day why don't you? Did she listen to me? She did not. And action explodes off the page as she's caught in the cross-hairs of some uber bad guys with nefarious goals...and capturing her is now one of them.

Mason is both exasperated and intrigued by Trinity...along with a healthy dose of attraction. But he's a recluse and likes his life just the way it is...well the way it was before his idyllic solitude turned into lethal chaos. Their pursuers are relentless with danger at every turn. Serious, page-turning stuff.

But there are bursts of humour to break the tension as well. Trinity's poor sense of direction had me chuckling at the most hair-raising moments. And the banter between her over-protective brothers who show up on the scene in major rescue mode is grin-inducing. Especially if you've met Chance and Jackson in earlier books like I have.

An enthralling romantic suspense that will leave you clamoring for more...so get busy backtracking on the other books in this incredible series. (I've just ordered Exit Strategy -- the only one I've missed so far. Can't wait for it to get here!)

Giveaway Opportunity:

 If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Mistaken Identity please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you post a comment and add your email address please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so it's easier for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday February 19 2017.  Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

Her Motherhood Wish

GIVEAWAY

GWYN, KELI
HER MOTHERHOOD WISH

Building a family...

En route to the Double T Orphanage to work on its expansion, carpenter Chip Evans and Caroline Hunt discover two orphaned children -- and become their caregivers. But Chip's determined not to let himself get too attached to the children who just lost their widowed father...or the lovely woman helping him care for them. Especially since Callie and the little ones just don't fit into his detailed plans for the future.

Callie can't help but fall in love with the orphans, and despite her better judgement, she's falling Chip, too. Her dreams of being a wife and mother were not quite like this. But Callie believes a plan bigger than Chip's brought them all together...and now she just has to help him see it, too.

My Review:

Chip is a make-a-plan-stick-to-the-plan kind of guy. You might say he has blinders on, too busy looking ahead to the next part of the plan to see what's right in front of him. That would be Callie and two endearing orphans. Only finding a wife and starting a family is three years into the future, according to the aforementioned plan. This stupendously dense hero needs a good smack upside the head to knock some sense into him. :-) Lucky he is handsome cowboy material (even if he is a carpenter) with courtly manners, an over-zealous protective streak and the ability to use gentle persuasion to win over small children. He's perfect in every way -- except for that dratted plan!

Callie fights the attraction -- which isn't too hard when Chip brings up his plan -- but the rest of the time it's near impossible to resist this hero's ready smile and kind overtures. Even so, Callie strives to guard her heart because she knows she'll never measure up to that confounded grand plan of Chip's.  Tender, sweet, infuriating romance ensues. Along with a bonus suspense thread that brought some added tension and a whole lot of action to the story.

Giveaway Opportunity:

 If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Her Motherhood Wish please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you post a comment and add your email address please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so it's easier for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday February 19 2017.  Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

Moving Target

GIVEAWAY

EASON, LYNETTE
MOVING TARGET

Intensity. Skill. Tenacity. The Bodyguards of Elite Guardians Agency have it all.

When Maddy McKay and Quinn Holocombe don't show up for Quinn's birthday party, his friends know that something is very wrong. Their search turns up little beyond evidence that Quinn and Maddy have vanished. And it soon becomes apparent that they did not leave of their own accord.

Maddy awakens in a cement room with no idea where she is. But it's not long before she realizes she's in the clutches of a madman who exacts revenge through games -- hunting games. His prey of choice? Humans. Now Maddy and Quinn must run for their lives and outwit their killer when their game begins.

Because if they don't win this game...they die.

My Review:

No!
Nooooo!
Seriously? NO!!!!!!!

That was me intermittently throughout the whole read. Mercy, my heart can't take these creepy, sinister suspense novels. Some of the time I was yelling at the characters and some of the time I was chiding myself and occasionally I was fuming at the author. Oh yeah...big time. Gah! She made it right in the end but still. I think this story shaved ten years off my life!

The kind of novel that keeps you nervously checking over your shoulder days later. A truly twisted, evil mastermind brings a new level to the meaning of stalking. Edge-of-your seat from start to finish. A sense of urgency. A muddied trail of clues. The shadow of danger lurking on every page. Cue dark organ music and make sure you have replacement bulbs for your night lights!

As always, Eason expertly weaves romance and suspense in equal measures which thrills me no end. Love the fact that Maddy and Quinn have a history as friends...with the hope of something more. But both have personal issues that prevent them from acting on those deeper feelings.

This is the third book in the Elite Guardian series but it reads great as a standalone. I'm a fan of the series so I enjoyed the 'page time' previous heroines and heroes received in this one. Love the continuity of the bodyguard angle. And there's a delicious teaser from book four which has an Irish connection. Woot!!!! Chasing Secrets will be out this summer.

Giveaway Opportunity:

 If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Moving Target please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you post a comment and add your email address please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so it's easier for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday February 19 2017.  Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

Capturing Beauty

GIVEAWAY

ANDERSON, BRENDA S.
CAPTURING BEAUTY

He's a nature photographer returning to make amends. She's a camera-shy naturalist seeking privacy. Their love for a boy brings them together, but the camera could drive them apart.

Photographer Haven Carlysle is a changed man. Six years earlier, he had run from his tragedy-filled life in Duluth. Now he's back in town to capture the North-Shore's beauty...and to recapture the love of his son. But that means making amends with his ex-girlfriend too. When camera-leery Callie Beaumont steps in to bridge the relationship between Haven and his former family, he's wary, but she's his only hope.

Callie Beaumont is surrounded by beauty. Her parents are local news celebrities. Her sister is a model. And Callie is...Ordinary. All her life, Callie has longed to work outdoors soaking up God-breathed beauty, and the opportunity is finally on the horizon. But being the liaison between the handsome photographer and his son has thrown her dreams, and her heart, into chaos.

Can Haven capture her heart when she won't let him capture her image? And will his poor choices cost Callie her dream job and him the love of his son?

My Review:

My emotions ran high right through this entire read. Once I started, I couldn't stop, even though my bruised heart begged for respite a time or two. :-) I guess you could say I wear my reader's heart on my sleeve when I connect with characters as real life as Haven and Callie.

She's an interesting mix of burning bright light shadowed by insecurities. An 'ugly duckling' surrounded by a family of swans. She's learned to take the backseat, to sacrifice for the greater good and to believe the lies of her youth. She's a dutiful daughter and an outstanding friend. An exceptional 'auntie' to her best friend's son. She can be smart-mouthed and sweet and funny. Snapping out the most outrageous exclamations that always brought a smile to my lips and kept me scribbling my own Callie-isms for the fun of it.

Haven's wounded but rallying. He's done a lot of stupid things in his life but he's found faith and is moving on. Making amends. Determined to reconnect with his young son despite the obvious reluctance of the boy's mother who will only allow visitations if Callie supervises. An interesting way to develop a romance. And a complicated one. And goodness, but Anderson knows how to weave an artfully complicated plot!

There were times I wanted to throttle a few characters. One in particular got my dander...and my blood pressure up. Gah! The scathing things I yelled at her during the read aren't worth repeating in this review. Like I said, it's complicated.

As much as I love frothing at the mouth while rabidly turning pages, I also love being challenged and convicted by a solid inspirational thread and Capturing Beauty is an amazing testimony of the transforming love of Jesus Christ. It's about human perceptions -- how we feel about ourselves and how we convey how we feel about others. And the power those both have on our lives.

If you like feeling emotionally sucker-punched by a good book -- this one is for you!

My thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book.

Giveaway Opportunity:

 If you would like an opportunity to win a copy of Capturing Beauty please leave a comment below or email me at kavluvstoread AT yahoo DOT ca. If you post a comment and add your email address please use AT and DOT instead of @ and . to protect yourself from spammers. If you enter the draw via email please remember to put the title in the subject line so it's easier for me to spot your entry. Draw will be held and winner announced on Sunday February 19 2017.  Offer open to international readers. Good luck!

February Giveaway - Week Two

WON BY JANKA

WON BY BOISE MARY

WON BY MARIA

WON BY SUSAN P.

WON BY CC

WON BY MELANIE BACKUS

As always I will contact the winners by email, however, thanks to the nefarious ways of the Internet, my email might land in your spam folder so keep your eyes peeled! :-) If you haven't heard from me by Monday evening, please email me your snail mail address at kavluvstoreadATyahooDOTca. From time to time the winners and I don't seem to connect, so I have a month time frame. If I can't reach you within four weeks your win will be forfeited. 

 LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK'S GIVEAWAYS: