Book Review: Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18) by Lee Hollis

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Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18)  by Lee Hollis  opens with Tom Farley and his neighbors in a snit because he's the last holdout to sell his house to a property developer who wants to build a resort. When Tom is shot at a pre-Thanksgiving community gathering and hospitalized, Hayley Powell puts her amateur sleuthing skills to good use. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishers for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this cozy mystery. I received a copy of this book for free in exchange of my honest opinion and review of the story. I loved the fact that this latest installment of the Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery  series had a theme around the Thanksgiving holiday and included live turkeys in the plot. It was good to visit some familiar characters. Since this is the eighteenth installment in the series, Lee Hollis didn't go into much detail of the background of those reoccurring characters; however, she...
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Book Review: Plum Spooky (Stephanie Plum, #14.5) by Janet Evanovich

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plum spooky stephanie plum 14.5 an inbetween the numbers book janet evanovich
Janet Evanovich writes a few books in the Stephanie Plum book series called "A Stephanie Plum Between-the-Numbers Novel". Typically, they're novellas, and I finish them with the thought that they're cute but not very engaging, and they usually don't move the rest of the series forward. And, I don't particularly like the character named Diesel. On top of that, the third "Between-the-Numbers Novel", Plum Lucky (Stephanie Plum, #13.5) couldn't hold my interest, and I gave up after the first chapter.  I do plan on going back and reading it to see if I just wasn't in the right mindset to read it.

With that being said, I was pleasantly surprised with Plum Spooky (Stephanie Plum, #14.5) by Janet Evanovich. This time, it is a full size novel, and I have to say, it's the one I absolutely fell in love with and changed my mind about the "Between-the-Numbers" books in the series.

Things I enjoyed about Plum Spooky was that it somewhat picked up where Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum, #14) left off and tied in with the rest of the Stephanie Plum books, which was a refreshing change from the others. It's also a little creepier with it taking place in a place called "The Barrens", a remote wooded area with a lot of colorful characters. With that being said, I wouldn't say it was scary, but I think I would've been creeped out if I had gone hiking or camping in the woods after reading it. I also found Diesel to actually be likeable in this book. Normally, I find him a bit annoying.

One of the characters in this book that I found hysterically funny was the "flame farter". Between him and Lula farting, I had a case of the giggles. Usually, I don't find fart humor funny, but I must have been in the mood to laugh, and it hit my funny bone in just the right way. Another character named Martin Munch went by his last name. Every time I saw his last name, I thought of Munch from Law and Order:  SVU. It made me wonder if Janet Evanovich was watching reruns of the show in her downtime while she wrote the book. Another great thing with the characters is that you find out if Lula and Tank will take their relationship to the next level or not. And, I really want Carl, the monkey, to make more appearances in the series.

Five out five stars is what I gave Plum Spooky (Stephanie Plum, #14.5) by Janet Evanovich, and it is easily the best book out of all the "Between-the-Numbers" books. 

Synopsis of Plum Spooky (Stephanie Plum, #14.5) by Janet Evanovich:  Stephanie and Lula are tracking down Martin Munch in the Pine Barrens with the help of Diesel. They encounter the Jersey Devil, the Easter Bunny, a flame farter, and a whole cast of colorful characters and even get stuck in a cranberry bog.


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