Baked Alaska by Josi S Kilpack

Having suffered through a year long illness I have finally started reading again.  I'm going to attempt to do a few reviews of the few books I have read in the past few months.  I have to say I loved this latest book by Josi Kilpack.  She attempts to take an Alaskan cruise with her two grown, adopted children and her boyfriend (separate cabins of course) but nothing goes smoothly.  From the moment she boards the ship she is haunted by a woman she sees arguing with her son.  He refuses to talk to her about the woman, which confuses and hurts Josi because she and her son, Sean.  They have always been so close and Josi values honesty and cannot stand any type of secrecy.  Of course she sets out to investigate who this woman is, which leads to a tragedy and a twist I didn't see coming.  As the secondary storyline Josi's daughter,  Breanna is planning her wedding to a count who lives in England, whose mother has some very strong ideas about what the wedding should be.  It is breaking Breanna's heart, so Josi is also trying her best to deal with that at the same time.  This was a really fun  book with multiple mysteries going on all at the same time.  I highly recommend it for a fun, clean read!
Rating: G
No sex, just a few sweet stolen kisses under the moonlight :0)

No Swearing

Violence: Relatively small amount of violence.  No one witnesses any murder and no one is assaulted

Instead of a book review I thought I would explain why I dropped off the face of the earth the last few months.  I went in for a simple surgery on May 4, and was suppose to be home in 5 days.  What actually happened was a 3 month stint in the hospital, 5 surgeries, a 6 week coma, and me actually dying and coming back.  Quite an ordeal.  When I woke up from the coma I could not move, was completely paralyzed.  I had to relearn everything, to eat, walk, write, completely everything.  It was a really long haul and it messed up my mind as well.  I haven't even completed a book in the last 5 months!!  It is still hard for me to focus, therefore I haven't been able to work on my website at all.  I promise I will come back, things are coming back slowly.  Just being able to type is such a blessing at this point.  Please be patient with me. My goal is October 1st to be back to reviewing and hopefully having my first give-a-way, but I will have to see how my recovery goes.  Keep reading good books!

Murder of a Wedding Belle by Denise Swanson

The Scumble River series by Denise Swanson is a great read.  I've been reading them for a long time.  Skye Denison is a school psychologist who returns home to Scumble River after being away for a long time.  She is the police department's psychological consultant on the side and gets mixed up in just about every murder that happens in the small town.  She is also being pursued by two men in town, Simon, the local Mortician and Wally the Police Chief.  In this outing Skye's cousin, who's been living in LA returns to Scumble River to be married in the most outlandish wedding of the century.  She asks Skye to be her maid of honor. When the wedding planner is murdered 2 weeks before the wedding, Skye steps in to both coordinate the wedding and question everyone involved. High society meets down home folks makes for a lot for humor.  I really enjoyed this book.
PG-13
Sex-mild Skye and Wally have romantic moments, the words smolder make me laugh, but they do sleep together
Violence-mild you don't see the murder, Skye just finds the body
Profanity-D-mn 12, H-ll 9, Ass 9, S-it 6, B-tch 2, G-d 1 they refer to God many times in a good way

Deader Homes and Gardens by Joan Hess

I've been reading Joan Hess books for years so I was excited to find her newest book had come out. She writes with a lot of humor but also with a serious hand on murder.  The cast of characters in this book is what amused me and kept me reading.  Claire owns the local bookstore, she is married to Peter who has secret ties to the FBI and a teenage daughter who is very dramatic and speaks in Capital Letters Mom! This cracks me up!  Her very recent marriage has made their living arrangements extremely close quarters so it is time to go house hunting.  She finds the perfect house, however buying it is complicated, the owners end up dead and the extended family (the strange, funny, wacko cast of characters) don't want outsiders buying any home in their commune. When the agent showing the house to Claire comes up missing, Claire believes it isn't a coincidence, and the deaths of the owners just might have been murder, and so the mystery begins.  I hadn't read a Claire Malloy mystery in quite awhile and I was a little surprised at how much profanity was in it.  It wasn't extreme, no words that made me uncomfortable, but enough to give it a PG-13. But I still really loved it.
PG-13
Sex-none
Violence-mild murder is discussed but nothing graphic
Profanity- D-mn 14, H-ll 6, S-it 3, Ass 3, G-d 2 other remarks referring to God, B-stard 2, B-tch 2