Book Review: Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi

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Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi  was published on March 11, 2025 by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Bantam. It opens with Claire finding out that her fiancé, Noah, isn't working where he said he was and is now ghosting her. Claire must find out why. Book Review: Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Bantam for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Claire Darling by Callie Kazumi for free in exchange for my honest review. I was absolutely thrilled when my request for a copy was approved because the synopsis was so good. From the beginning, I absolutely loved the main character of Claire and her work friend named Sukhi. Throughout the novel, we learn about Claire's past and how terrible her mother was towards her. I kept hoping that somehow we would learn who Claire's father was and would eventually connect with him. It's really no wonder Claire had no self confidence as an ad...
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Book Review: Death by Food Truck: 4 Cozy Culinary Mysteries by Joi Copeland, Cynthia Hickey, Linda Baten Johnson, and Teresa Ives Lilly

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Death by Food Truck: 4 Cozy Culinary Mysteries by Joi Copeland, Cynthia Hickey, Linda Baten Johnson, and Teresa Ives Lilly is a collection of four novellas that are loosely related to each other.  There are a rash of deaths at the Birch Point Lake Park linked to four different food trucks.  This book collection was published on July 1, 2023.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Barbour Publishing for approving my request to read Death by Food Truck: 4 Cozy Culinary Mysteries by Joi Copeland, Cynthia Hickey, Linda Baten Johnson, and Teresa Ives Lilly.  I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review.  When I requested to read this book, I didn't realize that the stories had religion in them.  Had I known this, I wouldn't have requested it.

Overall, I would have enjoyed the stories much more had they not been religious, especially the first novella.  I felt like the first author was cramming religion down my throat.  The other three novellas were a little less religious.  There's nothing wrong with Christian books, but they're just not for me.  

The culprit in all four stories were very obvious to me from the beginning despite the authors trying to throw suspicion elsewhere.  Each novella also had a strong romantic element to it, which didn't bother me in the least bit.  The reason I chose to read these stories were because of the food themes, which I did end up enjoying immensely.

Three out of five stars is what I rated Death by Food Truck: 4 Cozy Culinary Mysteries by Joi Copeland, Cynthia Hickey, Linda Baten Johnson, and Teresa Ives Lilly.  If you like Christian Fiction, then you'd likely enjoy these stories, but as I said before, they weren't really for me because of the religious elements.

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