I'm late to the party this week. Yesterday was a DAY, and I just wasn't up to crafting a TTT list. I was up all night with an upset stomach, so I finally just got out of bed in spite of the early hour. It's quiet and peaceful in my house, so it's the perfect time to make my belated list. This week's prompt is May Flowers, a follow-up to the April Showers one from a few weeks ago. Even though we haven't had much rain at all this year in the Phoenix area, we do have flowers blooming. The lantana in our backyard has been growing like crazy. I'm not sure how long it will last considering the crazy hot temps we've had this week. Our high yesterday was 105! Anyway, as much as I like flowers, I'm going to go rogue this week. Since I will be cruising the Yucatan on May 26, I'm going to jump ahead and do the theme for that week: My Favorite Books By My Favorite Authors (submitted by Cathy @What Cathy Read Next). Sounds like fun!

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The following authors aren't my ten absolute favorites. However, they are all writers I love and read often. More importantly, I can identify the one book of theirs that I love most. I can't necessarily do that with all of my favorite authors, you know? Or am I just weird? (I might just be weird. That's okay!) Here we go in alphabetical order:

1. A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong—I yap about Armstrong a lot because I enjoy her crime fiction so much. Her urban fantasy novels don't interest me at all, and I haven't loved her horror novels either. As much as I enjoy her Rockton/Haven's Rock series, the Rip Through Time series is my favorite. The books are less graphic than the Rockton/Haven's Rock ones and funnier. All of the installments are worth reading, the but the first one is the one I like best so far.

In A Rip Through Time, a modern-day homicide detective travels to Edinburgh, Scotland, to visit her dying grandmother. While taking a mind-clearing jog, she is assaulted in the same spot where a chambermaid was attacked exactly 150 years earlier. When Detective Atkinson wakes up, she's in Victorian Scotland inhabiting the body of the maid, who works for a physician who moonlights as a coroner. As a confused Mallory tries to figure out what is happening and how to get home, she realizes that her professional skills can be of great use to her boss, who helps the police catch killers. How can she help him without revealing that she's not actually an uneducated maid? And how in the world is she going to get home?

2. Bluebird by Sharon Cameron—This YA author pens historical novels centered around World War II as well as sci-fi/fantasy books. Bluebird is the former. It's about a young German woman who travels to the U.S. after the war in order to unmask the Nazi who spearheaded a series of psychological experiments performed on concentration camp prisoners. Absorbing and memorable, Bluebird is a stunner of a novel.

3. Exiles by Jane Harper—I've enjoyed every book I've read by Harper, but those starring federal investigator Aaron Falk are my favorite. Of those, I like Exiles best. It tells a quieter, more intimate story than the other installments in the series do, but it's still a compelling mystery/thriller in its own right. The mystery revolves around a young mother who goes missing at a town festival, leaving her infant behind.

4. The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth—Another Australian author, Hepworth writes domestic fiction with lots of warmth and wit. This novel, my favorite of hers, is my book club's selection for May, so I'll be happily rereading it before next Tuesday. As is indicated by the title, the story concerns sisters, twins Fern and Rose. Fern lives a carefully structured life, sticking religiously to her routines in order to keep her fragile psyche intact. Rose is one of her few friends, someone for whom she is profoundly grateful, so when Rose learns she can't have children, Fern offers to carry a baby for her. She just needs to find a father. That search begins a journey that will profoundly affect both sisters as old secrets surface and new tensions emerge between them. 

5. The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee—Lee writes YA novels, most of which are historical fiction, featuring characters of Chinese descent. This one tells the story of 17-year-old Jo Kuan, a Chinese American who works as a maid for a wealthy, powerful family in Atlanta. Secretly, she also writes an advice column, doling out wisdom for genteel Southern ladies. As Jo's writing gains in popularity, she decides to use it to protest against the injustices she sees every day in her community. She's not prepared for the backlash those articles receive or the danger it will put her in if anyone discovers her secret identity. In the meantime, she's also grappling to understand her own mysterious past.

6. The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner—I've read almost all of Meissner's books and this one, about the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, is the one that has lingered most in my mind. It stars Sophie Walen, an Irish woman who is so desperate to escape poverty in her homeland that she travels across the sea to become the mail-order bride of an American man she's never met before. She's confused by her silent stranger of a husband, although she quickly becomes enamored of his young, mute daughter. Although she doesn't know it yet, Sophie's life is about to be rocked to its core, not just by a deadly earthquake that will literally shake up her world but also by the unknown woman who will appear at her door, revealing shocking secrets that will change the course of both of their lives. 

7. The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton—Morton's rich family sagas always sweep me away. Although I haven't loved her more recent books nearly as much as I do her older ones, I still consider her one of my favorite authors. Published in 2012, The Secret Keeper is about a woman who secretly witnesses a disturbing crime when she is 16 years old, an event that puts into question everything she knows about her mother. Fifty years later, Laurel is back home to celebrate her mom's 90th birthday. Realizing that time is running out to discover the truth about her mother, she determines to uncover all of the woman's many secrets.

8. How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny—Although I've only read 13 of the 20 books in the Armand Gamache series (the 21st comes out in October), it's one of my very favorite crime series. How the Light Gets In, #9, is set at Christmastime. Our hero, Inspector Armand Gamache, is at a low point in both his professional and personal life. When a friend in Three Pines invites him to come back to the quaint village to investigate a disappearance, he leaps at the chance to return to the place that always feels like home. Turns out, the missing woman is a celebrity who was once famous all over the world. What has happened to her? Because I hate to see my beloved Gamache suffer, How the Light Gets In was a bit of a painful read for me, but it's also a tender and heartening one.

9. The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan—Ryan's latest two novels (one of which comes out next month) are set in the 1950s, but the rest of her books are all set during World War II. The Spies of Shilling Lane is my favorite of hers because although it has its poignant moments, it's mostly a fun, lively, madcap adventure. It stars the indomitable Mrs. Braithwaite, a hilarious queen bee who's knocked off her throne by her scandalous divorce. Indignant, she hies off to London to lick her wounds with her daughter, Betty, who has been in the city helping with war work. When Betty's timid landlord informs her mother that Betty is missing, Mrs. Braithwaite strong arms the reluctant landord into helping her locate her daughter. Turns out, her child has a much more complicated complicated life than Mrs. Braithwaite ever could have imagined, a life that will put all of them in grave danger.

10. Middle of the Night by Riley Sager—Final Girls is the only one of Sager's novels that I haven't read. I've enjoyed all of them, some more than others naturally, but Middle of the Night is my favorite. It's different from his other books, more gentle and moving. Never fear, though, it's just as riveting as his other thrillers. The story revolves around Ethan Marsh, a man who returns to the picture-perfect neighborhood he lived in as a child. It was there that, many years ago, his 10-year-old best friend disappeared during an overnight campout in Ethan's backyard. Already suffering from insomnia and disturbing nightmares, Ethan is plagued by strange things happening in the middle of the night. Signs of his missing friend keep appearing. Is someone playing a terrible joke on Ethan? Or has his long missing pal returned? What really happened the night of the campout? Ethan is determined to find out.

11. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James—I love St. James' eerie thrillers. This one is set in a rundown motel in a dying town where strange things are known to happen. Viv Delaney reluctantly takes a job at the dumpy place with the goal of saving enough money to escape to New York City. It doesn't take long for her to realize that something is very wrong at her place of employment. There's a reason for the bad juju that emanates from the Sun Down Motel and she's going to uncover all its many secrets.

There you go, eleven of my favorite books by eleven of my favorite authors. Have you read any of them? Which are your favorite books by your favorite authors? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Eighteen years ago, a green canoe washed ashore on Orcas Island. Its only occupant was an infant. Dakon Sanders, the wealthy and eccentric shipbuilder who owns the island, took in the baby and named her Lucy. She earned her keep by working as the bachelor's housemaid. When her skill with paints became apparent, he made her his research assistant, tasking her with creating the illustrations for a book he's writing about island wildlife. As much as Lucy loves Orcas Island, especially the creatures after which it's named, she longs to leave it, to finally see what lies beyond its shores. Although it's rare in 1918 for women to go to college, she's already secretly been accepted to the University of Washington. Now all she has to do is summon the courage to inform her austere guardian that she is leaving.

Before Lucy has a chance to confront him, she discovers Dakon Sanders' detached head on the beach. The superstitious islanders see the brutal killing as a warning sign from mythical sea wolves. Lucy knows her guardian's murderer is very real. When Dakon's will is read, and she is named the new owner of his sprawling estate, she fears she's next on the killer's hit list. Can she figure out who beheaded her enigmatic guardian and why? And will those answers lead to the ones she's been pondering her whole strange life: who is Lucy Nowhere? Where does she truly belong? She must find out, before it's too late.

A new Stacey Lee novel is always cause for celebration in my book. I especially love that her newest historical YA offering, Heiress of Nowhere, is set in my native Washington State. Lee perfectly captures the moody, broody Pacific Northwest (PNW, as the cool kids call it) atmosphere, which provides an appropriately portentious backdrop for a tale that is full of mystery, intrigue, and suspense. Magical realism doesn't always work for me, but Lucy's "sea-wolf sense" actually feels possible in the world Lee has created. This dash of the supernatural works well in combination with the evocative setting, the locals' superstitions, and the whole Gothic vibe of the novel. All of these elements enhance the book's plot, which is complex and compelling, with enough twists to keep the reader glued to their seat. In fact, I whipped through Heiress of Nowhere in one day because I couldn't put it down. The fact that the killer's identity (mostly) surprised me was an added bonus.

Lucy is a sympathetic heroine, but hardly a pitiable one. She's smart, capable, loyal, compassionate, and brave. It's easy to root for her to find the answers she so desperately wants. There are two young men in the story who are vying for her attention. I find love triangles annoying anyway, but this one is especially disappointing because, in my opinion, Lucy chooses the wrong guy. Other than that, I found Heiress of Nowhere to be a satisfying, enjoyable read, another excellent example of why I love Stacey Lee's work so much.

(Readalikes: Hm, I can't think of anything. Can you?)

To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find

Our TTT prompt this week is a good one, and unique to boot. I don't think I've ever done a list on this topic: Top 10 Authors You Wish Were Still Writing Today. (Thanks to Rebecca over at Top 100 Books for suggesting it and, as always, to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting TTT.) As much as I like this topic, I'm having a hard time coming up with ten authors. We'll see if I make it or not! 

1. Maeve Binchy—This Irish author is the first one who came to mind for this topic. I've read and loved all of her warm, engaging novels. Unfortunately, Binchy passed away in 2012.

2. Joshilyn Jackson—Don't worry, Jackson isn't dead! She's just turned her writing focus to domestic thrillers instead of the Southern women's fiction for which she used to be known. Although I do enjoy mystery/thrillers, hers just don't entice and enchant me the way her older books do. I hope someday she'll go back to the genre in which she truly shines. 

3. Mary Higgins Clark—Since this author's mystery novels were tame enough for teens, my dad got me started on MHC back when I was in junior high. I spent many a night reading way past my bedtime to finish one of her books. She continued writing up until her death in 2020 at 92 years old. Even though her newer books never enthralled me the way her older ones did, the "Queen of Suspense" will always reign as one of my favorite authors. 

4. Elizabeth C. Bunce—I'm a huge fan of Bunce's Myrtle Hardcastle historical mystery series for kids. It's tons of fun. It's been three years since the last installment was published and, while that doesn't actually sound like that long now that I'm typing it out, I'm still hankering for a new Myrtle mystery. It looks like Bunce may have turned to pursuits other than writing, but a reader can dream...

5. C.J. Omololu—This YA author died of cancer in 2015 at 49 years old. I enjoyed her novels, and wish she would have had time to write more of them. 

6. Agatha Christie—I have a feeling the Queen of Crime is going to be a popular choice today! Truth be told, I've only read a handful of her novels, but I think it would be really interesting to see what she could do with modern mystery themes and tropes.

7. Julia Keller—A Pulitzer Prize-winning author of both fiction and non-fiction, I thought Keller had last published in 2019, when she had two novels come out. After checking her website today, I see that she published a self-help book in 2023, BUT it's still been seven years since a new installment in her Bell Elkins crime series came out. I really enjoyed those books, and would love to see more of them published. It doesn't seem like that will happen, sadly.

8. L.A. Meyer—Meyer started writing his swashbuckling YA series starring the intrepid female pirate "Bloody" Jacky Faber when he was in his 60s. He finished it just before his death at 72 years old in 2014. The series is so fun. I wish he would have had more years to write. It would have been interesting to see what he did after the Blood Jack books.

9. Y.S. Lee—Lee is a multi-talented author who creates in various mediums. I'm currently re-reading her YA historical mystery series starring a teen Chinese-English sleuth in Victorian England. There are only four installments. I wish there were more. I'd also love to see Lee write additional YA novels. Fingers crossed.

10. Lois Duncan—I loved Duncan's mystery/thriller books back in the day. It's been decades since I've read a book by her, but still, there was a time when I could not get enough of her engrossing novels. She passed away in 2016 at 82 years old.

Hey, hey, hey! Look at that, I made it to ten. Have you read any of these authors? Which writers do you wish were still working today, or at least writing what you want them to write? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post, and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT! 

I'm loving all the quirky, cozy-ish murder mysteries that have been popping up lately. I've read a bunch of them recently, and they just make me laugh. A Cute Little Murder by Molly Harper is no exception. It's a fun, light-hearted, Scooby-Doo kind of romp. I loved it!

The story goes a little something like this: 17-year-old Lainey Piper doesn't believe that her father's suspicious accident was accidental at all. Her doubts about what really happened, combined with her natural talent for sleuthing and an innate desire to see justice done, lead her to a reluctant collaboration with classmate Harlow Drake. The host of a web series centered on local crime, Harlow is known for taking big risks and angering the locals with her bold accusations. Lainey isn't a limelight kind of person, but she can't seem to resist getting caught up in Harlow's schemes, even when it means scaring her mother, annoying local law enforcement, and becoming a pariah in her small town.

Fifteen years later, Lainey is a work-from-home forensic accountant who lives alone with her cat. Her business isn't exactly booming, so when she receives an offer from the True Crime 24/7 network to investigate a historical cold case with Harlow (whom she hasn't spoken to since high school), she can't afford to say no. When she steps foot onto an island in the middle of Lake Michigan, spies her creepy murder hotel accomodations, and notes that her old friend is, if anything, even more self-absorbed than she used to be, Lainey begins to doubt the wisdom of accepting the offer, no matter how lucrative. It doesn't take long, though, for her to get wholly caught up in the mystery of solving a Prohibition-era disappearance as well as a much more contemporary ones. Soon, the job isn't about finding a long-ago killer or even helping an unrepentant Harlow make a comeback; it's about staying alive on a remote island, surrounded by strangers she's not sure she can trust, with no way to call for help. Even armed with her "crime-fighting Mary Poppins bag," Lainey might not be able to sleuth her way out of this one...

A Cute Little Murder combines a lot of my favorite murder mystery tropes: an isolated setting; a probably haunted house (hotel, in this case) full of tantalizing secrets; a colorful cast of characters, all with axes to grind; an absorbing treasure hunt; and a banter-y background romance. Since this is more of a cozy than a Gothic thriller, the setting isn't all that creepy, but it is atmospheric. The ratty old Crossings hotel is a character unto itself, complete with the hidden depths that make all story people more life like. Although Harlow is not one of them, her production team is full of likable characters, even including the clueless tech bros who are more oblivious than purposely offensive. Although the historical mystery Harlow and Lainey are on-location to solve really isn't the focus of the novel, it adds another layer of interest to the story. The relationship between Harlow and Lainey is the real focus of A Cute Little Murder, and it's interesting to see how the latter has evolved while the former really hasn't. I would have liked a deeper dive into Harlow's character in order to understand her better, but this isn't really that kind of story. As for the present-day murders, I did identify the killer before Lainey, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of this entertaining book. It's a fun one that kept me turning pages and made me smile.

Readalikes:  A Cute Little Murder has a similar style/vibe to Murder at World's End by Ross Montgomery, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter, the Ernest Cunningham series by Benjamin Stevenson, and the Vacation Mysteries series by Catherine Mack.

To the FTC, with love: I received an e-ARC of A Cute Little Murder from the generous folks at Penguin Random House via those at NetGalley. Thank you!

What's the April weather like in your neck of the woods? In my corner of the Sonoran Desert, it's HOT, like in the 90s and above. We've had some overcast skies in the last week, but no rain, sadly. None is predicted in the forseeable future either. Boo hoo. Maybe this week's Top Ten Tuesday topic—April Showers—will act as a rain dance to bring our parched desert some much needed moisture. A girl can dream! 

For my list today, I'm going to keep things simple and highlight ten books on my TBR list that feature rain in some way or another. I've had a long day, so I'm not going to include plot summaries, but I will link the book titles to Goodreads. How's that?

As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

1. Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt 

2. Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

3. The Colors of the Rain by R.L. Toalson

4. Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

5. Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson

6. In the Days of Rain: A Daughter, a Father, a Cult by Rebecca Stott

7. Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff

8. In Times of Rain and War by Camron Wright

9. The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

10. Rainy Day Sisters by Kate Hewitt

There you go, ten books on my TBR list that feature rain in some way or another. Have you read any of them? What are your favorite "rain" books? I'd love to know. Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

I'm bummed I missed last week's Top Ten Tuesday topic and, honestly, if I hadn't come up with this week's prompt myself, I would probably be doing that one instead! When I thought up this one—Top Ten Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life—I just thought it would be something different that could help us all get to know each other a little better. I didn't realize how tough it would be. Sorry. Hopefully, I'm not the only one doing the topic this week. Ha ha.

As always, TTT is hosted by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.

I was born and raised in a lovely little burgh in Washington State, making me a:

I went off to college in Utah, where:

Actually, I met the man who would become my husband when I walked into his apartment during our freshman year of college. It all started because his roommate, who was team teaching a church class with me, brought a plate of homemade cookies over to my apartment. He claimed he had made the delicious treats, even though it was clearly a regifting situation! Upon hearing what had happened, my soon-to-be husband—the person who had actually made the cookies—was affronted. To prove that guys could cook, he invited all of the girls in my apartment over for dinner. A few of us went. We were all impressed by the boys' efforts and we ended up becoming good friends with the guys in their apartment. Of course, two of us became a *little* bit more than friends...

My boyfriend and I were both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Young men and women in our church often serve full-time missions for the Church. At 19 (the minimum age for male missionaries at that time), he went to Chile, dedicating the next two years of his life to serving the Lord while I continued my studies. It was the early 1990s and since phone calls weren't allowed and email wasn't really a thing yet, we wrote letters back and forth. Lots of letters. 

Two years later, we stopped being

and became

Soon after that, life was all about:

We had four kids and they kept us very busy, especially in the early days when I had to:

to feed and cuddle my babies. I got pretty good at holding a bottle in one hand and a book in the other!

Now, those babies have grown up, and with them going off to college, serving in the Army, working adult jobs, and so forth, it feels like: