Book Review: Irish Soda Bread Murder by Carlene O'Connor, Peggy Ehrhart, and Liz Ireland

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Irish Soda Bread Murder   by Carlene O'Connor, Peggy Ehrhart, and Liz Ireland is a collection of three short stories that include Irish Soda Bread Murder by Carlene O'Connor, An Irish Recipe for Murder by Peggy Ehrhart, and Mrs. Claus and the Sinister Soda Bread Man by Liz Ireland. The expected publication date of this book is December 24, 2024, and my overall review of this book is four out of five stars. I'd like to thank NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) that I received for free in exchange for my honest review. Irish Soda Bread Murder  by Carlene O'Connor opens with Tara Meehan helping her Uncle Johnny and Aunt Rose with a local bake sale and psychic convention with the proceeds going to charity. When Rose's biggest rival shows up and ends up dying from her soda bread, Tara knows she must step in to help clear her aunt and uncle from the suspect list. I enjoyed this story a lot better than the last one I read in the series. The only complaint I hav...
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Book Review: Wrecker by Carl Hiaasen

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book review wrecker carl hiaasen

Wrecker by Carl Hiaasen is about a teenager named Valdez Jones VIII, who goes by the name of Wrecker due to his heritage . . . many of his great grandfathers salvaged shipwrecks.  When Wrecker comes across a speedboat stuck on a sand flat, the men onboard pay him to keep silent about what he saw.  He's happy to oblige, but then, Wrecker keeps seeing the men all over Key West, and now, they want more than his silence.

A huge thank you goes out to NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy of Wrecker by Carl Hiaasen.  Having heard a lot of good things about this author, I was thrilled to be approved to receive a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review and was not disappointed in the least.

Although this book written for middle grade children, it seems more mature for lack of a better word.  I would have thought the target audience was young adults.  Don't get me wrong, there isn't anything that isn't appropriate for kids, it just seemed to be written for older kids.  It was extremely well written, and I enjoyed it as an adult.

The storyline was fantastic and mostly believable.  I loved the fact that Hiaasen used COVID-19 as one of the major themes in the story.  So many authors haven't written about it for whatever reason, and I am glad that some of what the world went through is captured in Wrecked for all eternity.  Hopefully, it will give generations down the road a glimpse of what life was like during the pandemic.

I really enjoyed the main character and his stepsister.  They were written very believably.  And, although I didn't care for Wrecker's mother, father, and stepfather, I felt like they were written realistically as well.  The setting was Key West, which I have been able to visit twice before, so I enjoyed the fact that I could picture some of the island and more touristy attractions.  I definitely want to go back there to visit and spend more time there.

Four out of five stars is what I gave Wrecked by Carl Hiaasen.  The only reason I didn't give it a five was that some of the story was a little slow.  I look forward to reading more books by this author.

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