by Lacey Louwagie

This is a fairytale retelling that ventures into adult situations, but tastefully so. A young woman, Emily, is to marry the king, but her life is dependent on proving she can spin gold from straw. Of course she can do no such thing, but Rumplestiltskin saves the day with his special magic. He is little and ugly, and hopelessly in love with the woman who will become his queen.

Rumpy is also human and doesn't hesitate to accept the favors that Emily offers in return for his lessons in how to perform the magic, though she finds it difficult to make the transmutations. Like in the original fairytale, she has promised him her first born child in return for his help as well.

This story expands on the original tale and gives a reason for Rumpy's wish for the child. There is magic and court politics in what I thought was a nice little Fantasy tale well done.

The writing was very good and I have no hesitation in giving this one 5 stars.

Book source ~ Kindle Unlimited

Lacey Fitzpatrick works as a security guard for a self-storage place because her ex-boyfriend was a dirty Vice cop and ended up in prison. With all of the reporters hounding her at every crime scene she decided the best thing to do was to resign from the LAPD Homicide Unit. But man does she miss it. Then, 6 months after leaving, the newspaper reports that a girl’s body is discovered and it may be connected to a serial killer cold case she was obsessed with. So, she goes to the crime scene to see what’s up and finds out that Sam Firecloud was called into the home by the owner because of unusual paranormal activity. Sam is a medium and he’s the real deal. In order to catch the Fairfax Stalker Lacey needs to convince Sam to work with her on it.

I had this book on my list for a while and finally decided to give it a go after going on a blogging break. This is an easy book to read. It flows smoothly and the pages turn themselves. Not literally. But I was done before I realized it. Lacey is a flawed character who tries to fix herself. She doesn’t usually wallow in her mistakes. Sam is a half-Navajo medium who keeps pretty much to himself. He doesn’t flash his gift around. He just wants to release spirits that are trapped and live his life. He’s not real excited about helping Lacey, but they end up making a terrific team. There’s not much gore to this. Bad things happen to girls in this book (revealed by the spirits), but it’s not front and center. I really like Sam and Lacey. The end up meshing really well together and I enjoy the writing and Lacey’s research so much I grabbed the next book in the series. And the next. And the next. Well, I binged, so that should tell you how much I enjoy these books. I highly recommend this cozy paranormal mystery.

One of two books I remember reading in honor of the millennium; the other was Stephen Jay Gould's Questioning the Millennium. So one look back and one look forward. The look back was fascinating. Although I know more about the history of the British isles than any place outside the US it remains impenetrable to me.
I enjoyed it quite a bit, of course, I'm the sort of person who walks out of any historical film discussing how well they did in recreating the period. for England the answer is almost always "not enough sheep."

Library copy

An author is haunted by the serial killer he spent years researching. And he’s not the only one!

Tucker Ashton went on a killing spree that took the lives of many (most) of the people residing in Marlowe, MA and he’s been locked up until now . . .

Three people feel compelled to travel to Marlowe for reasons of their own despite the fact that Ashton may or may not be on the loose. Call them crazy, if you will, but their reasons make a lot of sense once you get to know them and the author takes care creating their motivation for putting themselves in peril. Ivy needs closure because the love of her life was one of Tucker’s victims, Zeke is a collector of serial killer memorabilia and is obsessed in a bad way with Tucker and Ethan is a man desperate for a little cash no matter the cost. They all hole up in the decrepit Marlowe hotel which seems the perfect place for a little murder, lol.

There is something strange going on in Marlowe but there’s no way I’m going to spoil it. The fun of this book is discovering exactly what the heck is going on and it surprised me at many turns. Especially the final reveal. Wow, I can’t express how much I loved it! So fitting, so perfect, SO DARK. Yes! He went there and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Anyhow, this is a creepy book that builds a unique little world for itself while also crafting interesting, imperfect and haunted characters which I always appreciate. It also keeps you off kilter. I had no clue what was happening or why until the author chose to reveal it to me. That’s good writing in my book. I enjoyed the excerpts from the serial killer book which were placed throughout the story giving you a bit of background on the killer who was fascinating in his horribleness. The build is slow and I appreciated that and when the action starts it doesn’t stop until the very end.

A definite recommend for any horror fan.

A Gingerbread Romance is full of sugar and emotion. Taylor and Adam are an addiction that proves itself calorie free and heartwarming. Step out of your comfort zone and try something new. It could be the best way to find a happier you. Baker brings out the best parts of the heart all year around. A tasty treat.