Summer Reading Thing - Book #1: Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack

I hadn't known what to expect when I started reading Josi S. Kilpack's culinary mystery, Lemon Tart, or that it would actually be fun to read a mystery. Even now, writing the word fun down, it seems an ironic word to describe this book. It could be a recipe for disaster as many of the story's ingredients were quite dark, after all , a young mother is murdered, a baby is missing, and a man struggles with adultery.
Right away you become aware of the resident baker, Sadie Hoffmiller, who has designated herself as a neighborhood spy because these two detectives, who are completely opposite and troubled as they work together, couldn't possibly solve this case better than Sadie herself. For these are people that she cares about and she can't turn a blind eye without helping by finding any situation where she might gather information whether or not it helps or hinders the investigation. Sadie is merely harmless and downright hilarious too. Even though she is a busybody, she is well intentioned and likable. I partly expected her to show up anytime at my own doorstep with goodies in hand.
Since it is a culinary mystery, there were plenty of descriptions about food to make your mouth water. So, for people who love food this is a book you may enjoy. I did make the brownies from the story and they turned out really good. Besides Sadie's personality, perhaps it is the food that makes this book feel fun after all.
It was an easy read and well paced. I have to admit that I thought this book was fairly predictable until the very end and I was wrong. So, you had me there, Josi, that was an unexpected surprise.
This is a book that seemed finished and can stand on its own so I'm interested to read the next installment, English Trifle, to see how Josi is going to make a series out of these. I know three ingredients to look forward to and that is Sadie, her recipes and the mystery, of course.

361 pages, March 2009, My rating: 3 stars

*Repost from 5-squared for Summer Reading Thing

Catching Up

Last month, June, turned out to be interesting for me this year. I'll see if I can recall everything that happened for me personally:

My computer went down again so that explains my long absence from blogs and my cyber life in general. I do have a lot of writing to do to catch up with all of that. I'm going to start on that a little each day or at least that's the way that I'd like to if my computer holds out for it. I won't be able to get a new computer any time soon. I'll just be grateful for any computer time I get at home or at the library. So, it will be sparse for a bit and there are so many challenges I'd love to do so that's hard for me. I'll just have to see how it goes with catching up my regular blogging before I commit to more.

Around the second week of June, I was driving four of my children to go swimming and then CRASH! I totalled our van. It's been difficult but I'm so grateful that we are okay plus the other driver, as far as I'm aware, was alright as well. Both of our cars were towed from the scene and it was scary but we survived. We've been looking for another van but that's not going to happen as fast as I'd like either. Patience....

Also, I did manage to fly to my brother's wedding with Noah at the end of June. Flying isn't easy for me but things went so much better than I anticipated that I'm happy about that. I felt my brother was happy I came. The wedding was very well done and quite beautiful overall!

I cut 10 inches of my hair and donated it to Locks of Love. I don't know if it is necessarily cooler since I can't pull it up as well but it has been fun to have a change with my hair. Judging from the comments I get from people, it looks nice.

Alas, I can't share photo's because I can't seem to upload them onto my computer right now. That isn't working on there or the CD part either. So, I'm enjoying my new camera but I won't be able to share photo's until later.

My Summer Reading is going really well since I've been reading a ton with no computer. I haven't really stuck to my list but I've read a few from my list and added more that I just couldn't put down. Here are some of the titles that I remember I've read so far - The Silenced, A Lion Called Christian, The Hunger Games, Lemon Tart, Still Alice, Pickup Games, Reasonable Doubt(reread), and currently reading Recovering Charles.
Now, I just need to type all of my book reviews in to 5-squared. Honestly, I'm so glad that I've had books to read in spite of everything. It has really helped.

I hope you are having a fun and successful summer!

Revision of Summer Reading Thing

I think I signed up for this challenge in the wrong way so I'm just going to re-post with my LDS fiction list that I'm planning on reading this summer. This list is all LDS authors now. I'll go for reading these, at least, for the Summer Reading Thing. I'm planning on reading the other books from my previous list at some point but these are the ones I need to read and review in order to be eligible for the challenge.

1. PickUp Games by Marcia Mickelson
2. Lemon Tart by Josi Kilpack
3. Fool Me Twice by Stephanie Black
4. The Host by Stephenie Meyer

I'm new to these challenges but I'm hopeful to enjoy them. I can't go overboard as I would like to sometimes with reading & cool challenges. I also love book groups which I probably have too many to keep up with but I give a good effort as I can. I just have to pace myself as I'm a slow reader that savors and has to re-read sometimes. I think I'll speed up with practice. Most of all, I'm aiming to have fun reading this summer!