Helen works at Juliana’s in South Florida. It’s a job with absolutely no prospects, but it’s the type of job that Helen wants and needs. She had to quickly leave her old life behind in St. Louis, and now she is stuck taking sub-par jobs to avoid her past catching up with her. In spite of terrible customers, a boss with questionable morals, and poor pay, Helen makes it work until the day a dead body is found in a barrel in Biscayne Bay. When the police start to investigate, the clues lead to Juliana’s and its staff. Helen is suspected of murder. In order to clear her name, she starts her own investigation.
With a quirky cast of characters, Shop Till You Drop draws the reader in. There are enough suspects to keep you guessing until the closing chapters of the book, and the novel concludes nicely with an epilogue that explains what happens to all the players involved. This is the first book in the "Dead-End Job Mystery" series, so there are plenty more dead-end jobs for Helen if you are interested in reading more.
Melissa "Bernie" Bernard can't help but feel that love has passed her by, and she'll happily complain about it to any who will listen. Though she enjoys her work as a college librarian in San Francisco, deep down she wonders if there could be more. So when a video of a marriage proposal at the library catches Bernie rolling her eyes, Bernie is shocked to find that she's become a viral sensation. Just as she's ready to go into hiding and permanently bury her nose in a book, a handsome reporter appears with a proposal of his own - he will find dates for the undateable. Bernie must go on 30 different dates in 30 days. With one disastrous date after another, she's ready to give up, until the reporter proves he'll do anything to find her the perfect match, even if it means putting himself up for the role.
Funny, and adorable, The Undateable is perfect for readers who like their romance light and fluffy. The characters have a nice chemistry, especially if you enjoy clever banter, and the friends-to-lovers trope. This is the first in the "Librarians in Love" series, and is even written by an actual librarian.
Lina is just like any other 15 year old Lithuanian girl in 1941, until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home and tear her family apart. Lina, her mother, and her young brother are taken north, across the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Under Stalin's orders, they must dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Hoping she can send a message to her father, Lina uses her art as a way to let him know they are still alive.
Between Shades of Gray is a difficult read due to the subject matter, but ultimately it is necessary. Though it is technically a book for young adults, it is easily a cross over book for adults interested in a different World War II story.
Betsy is headed to the country with her friends, the Larsons, to visit their newly purchased cabin located on one of the many lakes in Minnesota. While new to the Larsons, the cabin dates back to well before World War II. Over the course of several weekends, the Larsons had been working hard to get their cabin back into shape. In fact, the weekend Betsy comes to visit, they all work together to pull up the old carpet and linoleum. All are surprised to see a trapdoor hidden underneath. They open the door to investigate and discover a body. More accurately, they find a skeleton of someone who had been long dead. Over the course of the story, Betsy works with her friend Jill to try and discover who the bones belong to, how they ended up in the Larson’s cabin, and who the killer is.
While this is the 14th book in Monica Ferris’s Needlecraft Mystery Series, the book can stand on its own, without need for knowledge of the previous titles. Recommended for those who like their mysteries without gore and violence.
