I started reading Nightmares Can be Murder and I lost the will to go on.  It just didn't work for me at all and nothing about it peaked my interest.

 

I started reading The Wedding Soup Murder but grandma is such a mean old bat I just wanted the MC to throw the meatballs at her.

 

I looked at Death of a Crabby Cook and just couldn't even open the cover - the idea of starting it made me want to go scrub the grout in my shower.

 

I'm not rating them because I never got out of chapter 1 for any of them.  They might be just the ticket for quite a few people - I just can't do it myself.

 

This wraps up my first round of TBR cozy purging.  I think it went much better than last year's effort and I might try it again with a few others next month.

 

Now to find something fun to read...

I did this last year, with mixed results, but I'm trying again:  I've gone through my TBR pile and chosen all the books that I've been seeing-but-not for the past year - those books that when I look at my piles to choose a new read, my eyes just slide right over because they aren't grabbing my attention.  I'm going to plow through these books and unless they totally blow me away, they're going in the "give away" box(es).  Cozy reading spree ahead.

 

The goal is to leave only those books on my TBR that I can't wait to read, and get rid of those series off my shelves that I'm never going to read again.  

 

So, you know, I can then go out and buy lots of new books to create new towering TBR piles with.  

Moonlight Reader started TBR Thursday a few weeks ago and I'm joining in.

 

I received 5 cozy mysteries this week.  2 of them first-in-new-series:

 

Death is Like a Box of Chocolates:  New series.  Dumb, dumb title, but I'm trying not to judge.  Candy shop settings seem to be the latest cozy band-wagon.

 

Nightmares Can be Murder:  New series.  Also, and I just now noticed this while reading the summary - another candy shop.  HA!  But this series seems to be focussed on the dream club, so we'll see.

 

Marked Down for Murder:  Josie Bell is Jenn McKinlay.  As Jenn McKinlay she writes three series that are (mostly) excellent (if she'd quit screwing with her MC's by creating love triangles and rhombuses.)  This series, quite frankly, was AWFUL at the start.  I continued it only on the strength of her other writing, figuring they had to get better.  Fortunately, the last two books have been an improvement, although still not even in the same ballpark as her three other series.  Unless something hooks me in this one, I'll probably put "paid" on the series and be done with it.

 

Groomed for Murder:  Second book in a new series.  I really quite liked the first book, I thought it was a strong introduction.  With this book, I finally find out what happens to the guinea pig!

 

The Wedding Soup Murder:  Another second book.  The first one was good enough to get me here; but I'm not sold that this is going to be a keeper.  I like the MC being an author though - it has potential.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Another winner from this author. I was spoiled by being to read both books in this series back to back.

I have fallen hard for the whole Rienzi family. They are all back. The romantic triangle/tension continues to evolve between Vic, her old boyfriend Tim and carpenter Cal. Nonna is still keeping her family in check and strongly guiding them to her way of thinking. All the characters are growing as we get to know them better.

In this installment we meet the chefs at the Belmont Country Club and let’s just say I would rather spend time with chef Gordon Ramsey:) These chefs are extremely temperamental and are not happy having outsiders in their kitchen. When the Club President is found dead there are plenty of suspects including the chefs and the father of the bride.

I was very impressed with the way Genova weaves the mystery into the Rienzi family subplots. It is seamless. Having a mystery writer as the protagonist just blends everything together deliciously, like a masterful piece of Italian lasagna, with plenty of layers. This breathes life into the characters and makes the jump off the pages.

As with the first story the descriptions and talk of the food made me so hungry. Again I appreciate the recipes included in the back of the book.

The only part I don;t like it that now I have to wait for a whole year to visit this wonderful Italian family. Ciao Rienzi Family! I can’t wait until we meet again!!

In addition to the two books I included in my #ukbookoftheday post today, I bought the above books last week.  Almost all of them are pre-orders for books scheduled for September publication.  None of them are books I'm going to stalk my postman over, but I'm hoping will be fun.

 

2 are firsts in brand new series:

Nightmares can be Murder,

Death is Like a Box of Chocolates 

 

4 of them are the second book in series

Death by Devil's Breath,

Groomed for Murder, 

The Wedding Soup Murder,

Boiled Over - The first book in this series was very strong and I am looking forward to this one.

 

The remainder are series that are good enough that I keep buying the new releases: either they're pretty good reads already (Literally Murder), or previous books had possibilities and I'm hoping for improvement (Stirring the Plot and Marked Down for Murder).  :P