Murder at Madame Tussauds Book Review

 

Murder at Madame Tussauds

By: Jim Eldridge

Allison and Busby

General Fiction(Adult)/Historical Fiction/Mystery and Thrillers

Publish Date June 17, 2021

#MurderatMadameTussauds#NetGalley

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I am very grateful that I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest review. 

I gave this book 3.5 stars. I wasn't a fan of the ending otherwise it would have been a 4 star.

This book has a lot of characters but it is easy to figure out. I didn't like how the chapters would jump from one set of characters to another without any warning or a start of a new chapter. Otherwise the chapters and story line flowed well.

This book starts out with the death of a night watchman at the wax museum of Madame Tussauds. His death was very gross with having his head chopped off. There is a missing night watchman who happened to be the deceases partner. The owner of the museum has hired two private investigators to help solve the murder. Scotland Yard is not happy of the involvement of these two people.

I enjoyed the mystery content and a little bit about the times with a splash of history.

There also happens to be a series of bank robbery's in the area.

Are the two connected or are they two different crimes?

Top Ten Tuesday

 For this Weeks Top Ten Tuesday I am doing Mysteries I want to read. Most of these are part of series I need to work on. If it is a series I will make note of it.

Arsenic and Adobo By: Mia P. Manansala Book 1 in the Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery

A Spell For Trouble By: Esme Addison Book 1 in the An Enchanted Bay Mystery

For Whom The Book Tolls By: Laura Gail Black  Book 1 in the Antique Bookshop Mystery

Every Vow You Break By: Peter Swanson

The Secrets of Winterhouse By: Ben Guterson Book 2 in the Winterhouse Series

Peach Cobbler Murder By: Joanne Fluke Book 7 in the Hannah Swensen Mystery

The House on Foster Hill By: Jamie Jo Wright

Murder in the Irish Pub By: Carlene O'Connor Book 4 in the Irish Village Mystery. I haven't read the first book but I received as a Good Reads give away.

Lethal White By: Robert Galbraith This is the book 4 in the Cormoran Strike Series

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle By: Stuart Turton

Have you read any of these books? If so what did you think of them? 

Let me know if you want to buddy read any of them.

Until next time keep reading.

Book Outlet Haul

 

Yes I bought more books for Book Outlet.  I just love the low prices and the free shipping if you spend $35.00 or more. I bought 6 books and 2 I have already read but I wanted them for my collection. The other four are part of a series I want to finish reading. I will have my link down below for you to use. You will receive a $10 coupon on your first order of $25.00 or more.

http://bookoutlet.com/Loyalty/Referral?raf=gZcf3z3f&c=url

Now I will show you each book. These aren't in any order.

All The Days Past, All The Days To Come By: Mildred D. Taylor

This is the 10th and final book in her Logan's Series. This book is a lot bigger than I thought.

This Series has her Newbery Award book called Roll of Thunder, Hear Me Cry. I didn't realize that book was part of a series.

The Sky Weaver By: Kristen Ciccarelli. This is the third book in the Companion series to The Last Namsara. Book Two is below. I haven't read any of them but now I can because I have them all so if I like them I will be able to continue on.

The Caged Queen By: Kristen Ciccarelli. This is book 2 in the companion Series The Last Namsara. I will tell you about the first book by way of the synopsis on the book cover.

In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of the sky  and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But  where there is light, there must by darkness-and so there was also the Iskari, The death bringer.

These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up hearing in hushed whispers. Forbidden though the ancient stories may be, she has always felt a connection to the familiar figures of the past and to the teachings of the Old One. But it isn't until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari-a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl.

Asha's secret stories have a strange and poisonous power, and even uttering them out loud will draw the deadliest of dragons out of hiding, She conquers each one and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm.

All Asha wants is to escape her tragic past and evade her bleak future. When she's offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she takes it-but soon finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend-a slave boy from her berothed's household-Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.

On Life As A Pioneer Woman By: Laura Ingalls Wilder Edited By: Stephen W. Hines

This is the second book of her writings to young women. I have already read this book. I read this a couple of years ago because my daughter Rebekah owns them and I borrowed them and now I am slowly picking them up. There are three books in this series.

Over The Woodward Wall By: A. Deborah Baker. I read this book early this year. This book is goes along with the book called Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. A. Deborah Baker is Seanan McGuire if you didn't know. This is what the synopsis says.

Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework-without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own ways. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.

They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up-and -Under-an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure, and the strangest creatures.

And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.

 

The Blue Sword By: Robin McKinley This is the first book in the Damar Series. The second book The Hero and The Crown is a Newbery Award winner. I have read the second book but not the first because I didn't realize it was a series. This is what the back of the book says,

This is the story of Corlath, golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the Lady Aerin.

And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Outlander orphan girl who became Harimad-sol, King's Rider, and bearer of the Blue Sword, Gonturan, the sword Lady Aerin carried, the sword only a woman may wield, for it will turn in the hand of a man.

And this is a story of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic in the blood, and how it may wake even in Outlander veins...

Have you read any of these books? If so what did you think about them? 

Until next time keep reading.

June Book Of The Month

 

These are the books that I chose for the month of June from Book Of The Month. Here is my link if you want to give them a try. https://www.mybotm.com/0cxpwrpoiqlivn29?show_box=true

Here are the books and what the synopsis has to say about the story within.

Project Hail Mary By: Andy Weir. 

A Lone Astronaut. An Impossible Mission. An Ally He Never Imagined.

Byland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission-and if he fails, humanity and Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of hs assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. 

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery-and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

I have already read this book and really enjoyed it. I received the e-arc from NetGalley. I will have  my review linked here. https://debbiesreadingcorner.blogspot.com/2021/05/project-hail-mary-book-review.html

Instructions For Dancing By: Nicola Yoon

Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began...and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.

As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is all that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything-including entering a ball-room dance competition with a girl he's only just met.

Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it's that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love, In the end, is love worth the risk?

Malibu Rising By: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu: August 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over-especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud-because it is long past time for him to confess something to the brother from whom he's been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can't stop thinking about promised she'll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own-including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family's generations will all come rising to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them...and what they will leave behind.

The Time For Murder Is Meow Book Review

 

The Time For Murder Is Meow

Urban Tails Pet Shop Mysteries #1

By: T.C. LoTempio

Beyond the Page Publishing

Mystery & Thrillers

Publish Date June 9, 2021

#TheTimeforMurderIsMeow#NetGalley

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This is a new cozy mystery series. I am glad I was able to receive the e-arc and given the chance to read and review it. This was a great read and I enjoyed myself.

This book is about an actress who has lost her aunt and has received an estate of a store and home from her. She also inherits her Cat. Shell was a very popular actress for a hit series that wasn't renewed and decides that with the death of her aunt she can restart a new life in a small town with her own cat.

Her shop is the Urban Pet Shop that everyone in the town misses since the death of the aunt. The aunt also has a great collection of movie items and Shell has offered to display some at the local museum for an up coming event. The board members have decline this and Shell is curious for the reason since it was a close vote.

Come to find out the head member has a lot of power or should I say secrets on everyone to be able to force the other members to vote her way.

This head board member is found dead one Sunday and found by no other then Shell. The story goes on from there with a lot twist and turns. I unfortunately I figured out who the murderer was in the first 1/4 of the book but it didn't take away my interest in the book.

I will be continuing the series. I just love the two cats in this book.

Top Ten Tuesday

 

Today's Top Ten is historical fiction books I would like to read soon.

When We Were Young and Brave By: Hazel Gaynor

I received this as a Goodread Giveaway. 

The Nightingale By: Kristin Hannah

My Lady Jane By: Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

The Light Over London By: Julia Kelly

This is also a Goodread giveaway book. 

The Giver of Stars By: Jojo Moyes

Before We Were Yours By: Lisa Wingate

Out of the Easy By: Ruta Sepetys

This is the last book I have to read of hers.

The Rose Code By: Kate Quinn

This was on my TBR last month

The Lions of Fifth Avenue By: Fiona Davis

Dear George, Dear Mary By: Mary Calvi

This was also a Goodreads giveaway book.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them without giving away anything.

Would you like to buddy read any of these?

Until next time keep reading.

Weekly Wrap Up

 

This wrap-up is for the week of May 31st- June 6th. I read 10 books for a total of 2,308pages. This brings my yearly reading total to 163 books.

The Legend of the Golden Raven By: K. Ancrum

I gave this novella 2 stars. I am not sure if it was me or the story. It has been over a year since I read The Wicker King and maybe that is why I had a hard connecting to the story. It is only 40 pages, but it took me 3 days to read. I honestly cannot even tell what it is about. The book did do a lot jumping from present to past. I will not tell you not to read it but if you do, please read it right after you the Wicker King.

Wilderlore: The Accidental Apprentice By: Amanda Foody

I gave this book 4 stars. It is a fast read about spirit animals. They call them Magical Beasts in the story. This story is about a young man who has lost his family to an extraordinarily strong Magical Beast and is left orphan in the town with lots of rules. He keeps breaking the rules and does not feel welcomed there. One day he and his fellow working go looking for a mushroom, by the woods (which are forbidden to be enter) and somehow get into the woods. They find a girl there who is going to summon this great beast. She ends up summoning a beast but not the one she wants, and that beast beat ends up bonding with the boy who lost his family. He does not want the beast and gets into trouble at his village and must go to another village to try to get the mark removed. He goes through a lot of trails and learns some important things. There is a lot going on in this story and I recommend that you read it.

Paradise Lost By: John Milton

I gave this classic 3 stars. This is the retelling of Satan and his fallen angels from Heaven. I would suggest that you read the bible version before you read this book. This was for whateverathon prompt of reading a book out of my comfort zone. Digital challenge of written before 2018. Personal challenge was to read a classic a month and top ten.

The Miner’s Lament: A Story of Latina Activists in the Empire Zinc Mine Strike By: Judy Dodge Cummings.

I read this book for the Whateverathon and the prompts it fulfilled were POC Rep. and TBR Game. For the Boxofficeathon it fulfilled the prompt to read a classic or Historical fiction by reading an e-book. I gave this book 4 stars. I have a review up and the link is below.

https://debbiesreadingcorner.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-miners-lament-book-review.html

Elatsoe By: Darcie Little Badger

 I gave this book 4 stars. This book was used in the whateverathon for a debut novel and POC Rep. The read digital challenge for a hyped book.

This is a native American book about a young girl who can bring the ghost of dead animals back. There is a lot of magic involved. She is trying to figure who murdered her cousin and her friends are helping her along with ghost of dead animals she can bring back.

Swamp Thing: Twin Branches By: Maggie Stiefvater

I gave this book 3 stars. This is a graphic novel for young adults. This is about twin brothers who catch their Dad having an affair and he sends them to visit family while the parents figure out what to do with their marriage.

The one brother is very nerdy and has been working with plants and the experiment he is working on is how to pull the plants feelings into some form. I was confused on what was doing and what he was trying to accomplish. Anyway, things go wrong, and weird things happen. Was not on my June TBR but I saw the book at the library and wanted to read it.

Beauty Queens By: Libba Bray

I gave this book 4 stars. This was a ride to read. At first, I thought I was not going to like it, but I did. This book has a lot of characters and each one is different except being a beauty queen. There is a trans., POC, Lesbian and a deaf person and maybe one who might be bi. You find al this out as you read the book.

This story takes place on an island out in the middle of nowhere. Their plane crashes and the flight crew do not survive. The girls do and they must learn how to get along and work together to survive.

Caleb’s Story By: Patricia MacLachlan

I gave this book 4 stars. This is the third book in her Sarah, Plain and Tall Series. This is about Caleb keeping up with the family life in Journal form. His sister Anna started this when Sarah came into their lives. World War 1 is happening and so is the Spanish Flu. Somethings take place that I do not want to mention just in case you have not read the first book. It is just a little more about their lives.

Grandfather’s Dance By: Patricia MacLachlan

I gave this book 4 stars. It is the fifth and final book in the Sarah, Plain and Tall Series. This book is about the wedding of Anna and life. Again, I do not want to say too much because it the conclusion of a series. They are quick reads and fun with some historical fiction in them.

Dear Justyce By: Nic Stone

I gave this book 4 stars. I used this book for the Whateverathon prompt of POC Rep. This is the second book in the Dear Martin series .This book is told in back flashes and takes place at Yale and a detention center. There is a dead police office and a boy is charged with the murder because he is the weapon. Did he kill the police officer or is he being set up? You have to read the book to find out.

Did you read any of these books? If so do you agree with my ratings? If not tell me why. 

Until next time keep reading.