ROCCO'S AUGUST COZI REVIEWS!!!!!!

Marow!  Here are my reviews for August!!!!!


SINGAPORE SAPPHIRE
A Harriet Gordon Mystery
A.M. Stuart
Berkley - Trade Paperback
August 6, 2019
Four and a half stars

Singapore, 1910--Desperate for a fresh start, Harriet Gordon finds herself living with her brother, a reverend and headmaster of a school for boys, in Singapore at the height of colonial rule. Hoping to gain some financial independence, she advertises her services as a personal secretary. It is unfortunate that she should discover her first client, Sir Oswald Newbold--explorer, mine magnate and president of the exclusive Explorers and Geographers Club--dead with a knife in his throat.

When Inspector Robert Curran is put on the case, he realizes that he has an unusual witness in Harriet. Harriet's keen eye for detail and strong sense of duty interests him, as does her distrust of the police and her traumatic past, which she is at pains to keep secret from the gossips of Singapore society.

When another body is dragged from the canal, Harriet feels compelled to help with the case. She and Curran are soon drawn into a murderous web of treachery and deceit and find themselves face-to-face with a ruthless cabal that has no qualms about killing again to protect its secrets.


THE PINT OF NO RETURN (Paperback edition)
A SLOANE KRAUS MYSTERY
ELLIE ALEXANDER
ST. MARTIN'S
AUGUST 2019
FOUR AND A HALF STARS

This is the first of thie series that I've read and I was impressed - particualarly if  you are intereted in knowing about beer, and how it's made, becasue Alexander puts  a lot of background into the book, along with a msytery!

Amateur sleuth Sloan Krause returns in The Pint of No Return, another delightful cozy by Ellie Alexander―this time investigating a movie star who's murdered not long after arriving in Leavenworth, WA to film his latest project.

No other festival compares to Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, Washington. The whole town is buzzing with excitement over this year’s activities and eagerly awaiting Nitro’s latest offering Cherrywizen, made with locally sourced cherries. But local brewmaster Sloan Krause is tapped out. Between trying to manage the pub, her pending divorce with Mac, and her mounting feelings for Garrett, she’s fermenting in internal turmoil.

To complicate matters, dreamy movie star Mitchell Morgan and his production crew have arrived in the village to film during the authentic Bavarian brewfest. Mitchell has his eye on Sloan and a taste for Nitro’s Cherrywizen. Sloan escapes his advances for good when she finds Mitchell slumped over the bar. Is this a case of one pint too many, or has Mitchell been murdered by microbrew?

A KILLER EDITION
A booktown mystery
Lorna Barrett
Berkley 
August 13, 2019
four and a half stars

With her assistant, Pixie, picking up more responsibility around the shop, Tricia Miles suddenly has a lot more time on her hands. Tricia decides to join the local animal-rescue board and enter the Great Stoneham Bake-Off, but neither pans out as smoothly as she’d hoped.

Balancing a bake-off that’s heating up with a frosty reception from the board, Tricia stops by Joyce Whitman’s romance bookstore looking for a book to get her fired up. She stumbles on something hot, but it’s an argument between Joyce and her neighbor Vera Olson instead of a steamy read. When Vera turns up dead in Joyce’s garden hours later, Tricia has to wonder—could Joyce be the killer? Or is the culprit still lurking in town?

One thing is for sure, someone in Stoneham is stirring up something more sinister than sweet. Tricia is determined to win the cutthroat cooking contest, but first she will have to make sure no one else is in danger of getting burned....

Another tried and true sereis that never seems to run out of steam...or murders.

my first time reading htis series and Iloved it.  will be picking up the others now.  :)


LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS
A ROYAL SPYNESS MYSTERY
BERKLEY
RHYS BROWN
AUGUST 6, 2019
FOUR AND A HALF STARS

Georgie and Darcy are finally on their honeymoon in Kenya's Happy Valley, but murder crashes the party in this all-new installment in the New York Times bestselling series.

Georgie is excited when Darcy announced out of the blue that they are flying to Kenya for an extended honeymoon. Once there, though, Georgie suspects her husband has been sent on a secret mission. 
Once there Darcy confides to his wife there have been a series of robberies, and it seems the thief was a member of the aristocracy and may have fled to Kenya. Since we are staying in the Happy Valley—the center of upper-class English life—they are well positioned to hunt for clues and ferret out possible suspects.

When Lord Charlton, who made advances to Georgie, is found bloodied and lifeless along a lonely stretch of road, it appears he fell victim to a lion. But it seems that the Happy Valley community wants to close the case a bit too quickly. Darcy and Georgie soon discover that there is much more than a simple robbery and an animal attack to contend with here in Kenya. Nearly everyone has a motive to want Lord Cheriton dead and some will go to great lengths to silence anyone who asks too many questions. The hunt is on! Can Georgie and Darcy survive thier honeymoon long enough to catch a killer. . . .

Rhys Bowen does not disappoint, as usual. Fans of hte series will love.

DEATH IN A BUDAPEST BUTTERFLY
a HUNGARIAN TEA HOUSE MSYTERY
JULIA BUCKLEY
BERKLEY JULY 27, 2019
FOUR STARS

Hana Keller serves up European-style cakes and teas in her family-owned tea house, but when a customer keels over from a poisoned cuppa, Hana and her tea-leaf reading grandmother will have to help catch a killer in the first Hungarian Tea House Mystery from Julia Buckley.

Hana Keller and her family run Maggie's Tea House, an establishment heavily influenced by the family's Hungarian heritage and specializing in a European-style traditional tea service. But one of the shop's largest draws is Hana's eccentric grandmother, Juliana, renowned for her ability to read the future in the leaves at the bottom of customers' cups. Lately, however, her readings have become alarmingly ominous and seemingly related to old Hungarian legends...

When a guest is poisoned at a tea event, Juliana’s dire predictions appear to have come true. Things are brought to a boil when Hana’s beloved  Anna Weatherley butterfly teacup becomes the center of the murder investigation as it carried the poisoned tea. The cup is claimed as evidence by a handsome police detective, and the pretty Tea House is suddenly endangered.  Hana and her family must catch the killer to save their business and bring the beautiful Budapest Butterfly back home where it belongs.

Good start to a promising new series!


THE TIME FOR MURDER IS MEOW
T. C. LOTEMPIO
MIDNIGHT INK
PURR N BARK PET SHOP MYSTERY
AUGUST 8, 2019

Cannot review this one - as it is the human's!!!!!!  but I can post a reminder here about it and the cover and urge you to follow her blog tour to hear reviews!!!!1
 https://www.escapewithdollycas.com/great-escapes-virtual-book-tours/upcoming-great-escapes-book-tours/the-time-for-murder-is-meow-a-purr-n-bark-pet-shop-mystery-by-t-c-lotempio/

WIN  ONE OF ROCCO'S REVIEW COPIES!!!

This month, we will be giivng away two copies!  one of SINGAPORE SAPPHIRE and one of DEATH N A BUDAPEST BUTTERFLY!  Winners of each book will be chosen at random by random.org

to enter, leave your name and email address in our comments sectin below!!!!  Tell us which book you would prefer.  US entries only, please. :)  for extra entries, mention this blog and contest on Facebook and Twitter!

Contest ends midnight, August 19!