My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran, Larissa Zageris

My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran, Larissa Zageris

My Rating: ★★★★★

I have loved choose your own adventure books since I was a kid, so I always get excited when I come across them. This book did not disappoint! Readers are the nameless protagonist in a historical romance set in the 18th century. There are several different paths that we can choose with a variety of characters ranging from eligible men, a few supernatural beings, and widow butting heads with her ex. Just when I thought the book couldn’t get any more hilarious, I took yet another path that had me in stitches.

One of the things that I love about this book is that it doesn’t take itself seriously and pokes fun at tropes found in romance novels. I love a good trashy romance novel, but it was so much fun taking different paths and going on different adventures that had hilarious twists and turns and the occasional surprise ending. I kept going back to the beginning to discover new paths over and over. I do wish that it had more LGBT paths, but I’ll live. I would love to see another choose your own path book from the same authors in the future!

Carnality, A Naughty Whodunit by S.P. Aruna

Carnality, A Naughty Whodunit by S.P. Aruna

My Rating: ★★★★

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Frederick Stevens is an extremely crooked man. When he’s not charming his way into his latest conquest’s bed, he’s revealing who he really is to the people around him as he plots and steals. Frederick is a twisted man who leaves nothing but chaos in his wake. He’s also man who has made many enemies, which includes his wife, step daughter, business rivals, and past conquests. Unfortunately for him, several of his enemies want him dead. Some plot to kill him while others hire professionals to do the terrible deed for them, but when he turns up dead, no one knows who took him out.

I don’t usually see romantic or erotic mystery novels around, so this book caught my attention because I love when two genres that don’t usually go together are paired to create a story. Once I got into the story, I found that it’s a bizarre soap opera involving a lot of scheming people who are all angry with one person: Frederick Stevens. Told in the first person perspective, we follow several narrators and watch all the pieces of the story slowly come together.

The story was a little confusing at first because there are so many characters and there are moments when the narrator suddenly changes without warning. It was puzzling for the narrator to change in the middle of an event without warning. It just abruptly switched perspectives with no page break or any other indication that the story was about to switch to another character’s view. I got into the story once I became more familiar with the characters and was used to the sudden change in perspectives, but I do think that there needs to be some improvement on when and how the story will change narrators.

That said, I rather enjoyed the story. Many of the characters were interesting to follow and I liked how we got to see exactly why each person hated Frederick. It was dramatic, bizarre, and sometimes funny how the group of characters lived their lives and moved about as the story continued. At some point, the characters start to collide with one another and that’s when I knew things were going to get even crazier very soon. It was a fun read and I’m interested in seeing where the story goes as the series continues.

The Knitter's Dictionary by Kate Atherley

The Knitter's Dictionary by Kate Atherley

My Rating: ★★★★★

I received a copy from F + W Media through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m an avid knitter and I always keep an eye out for knitting books and videos so that I can recommend them to any friends who want to pick up knitting or are otherwise new to the craft. I also find it good to own some of these books myself for when I have a question or need to jog my memory on a stitch or something in that realm. One thing that I really like about this book is that it has information about what to look for in a yarn based on the type of project one is buying yarn for. It’s not something that I see often and it has some really good information on this topic, which is also extremely useful for people new to knitting.

The book has a nice layout that makes it easy to find what one may be looking for. It has a combination of written terms and graphs depending on the subject. It has a lot of useful information for new and old knitters alike. The only thing that I found it lacking was information on plant fibers and acrylic, especially since many people frequently use one or both. It’s not a problem for me, but it might be for someone who is interested in having that information all in one book.  That said, I rather like this book and will definitely add it to the list of useful books that I recommend to others.

A Crafter Knits a Clue (A Handcrafted Mystery #1) by Holly Quinn

A Crafter Knits a Clue by Holly Quinn

My Rating: ★★★

I received a copy from Crooked Lane Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sammy recently moved back to her hometown to take over her late best friend’s craft store, Community Craft, rather than allow it to close down. Just when she’s getting into the groove of running a shop and trying to keep her late bestie’s spirit alive, she makes a grim discovery: the owner of the town’s local yarn shop has been murdered. Sammy is reeling from the discovery and decides to dust off her old amateur sleuthing hat off and get to the bottom of the murder.

I love crafting cozies, so I thought this book would be right up my alley. However, I had a hard time getting into the story and I think that is because Sammy doesn’t have much of a connection with the victim, Ingrid. Because of this, I found it hard to believe that Sammy was willing to put herself at risk multiple times to find out who the killer was. I didn’t really get into the story until around halfway through when her sister and cousin became more involved. I really like how they work as a team and seeing how they play off each other as friends and family as well as fellow amateur sleuths.

While I had a hard time getting into the story, there are things that I liked from the start. For example, I love that Sammy and the people she’s close to are very family oriented. They’re the type of people who are close as family as well as close enough with friends that those friends are like family. Even Sammy’s reason for keeping the Community Craft shop going is in the same bracket. The shop was her best friend’s passion for crafting come to life in a way that brings people together, and Sammy wants to keep it alive as well as the memory of her dear friend.

I love crafting, so I enjoyed seeing various people come together at Sammy’s shop as well as seeing Sammy work on the shop and what’s popular with its customers behind the scenes. I hope to see crafts make a bigger splash at some point as the series continues. It’s always fun to imagine what the characters are making and what their inspiration behind their projects are.

The mystery itself was semi-interesting. I found myself more interested in who Ingrid was and the secrets that were being discovered than I was in the murder mystery. I think that Quinn did a good job revealing bits about Ingrid in a way that made it seem like her life was the real mystery. That really caught my attention and I really enjoyed how she demonstrated that several people were holding their cards very close to their chest. I am looking forward to seeing how the series develops as more installments come out.