Fiction

So far I've been highly impressed by this series; for other series that are long-running, it can sometimes be difficult to maintain its original charm. In this book Mike Kingston, the detective, goes through a major character change in Hannah's perspective. He's more high-handed, more involved with others (AKA has a "roving eye"), and isn't included very much here because of his personal involvement with the victim. Not that I'm complaining. His role wasn't particularly interesting in the plot and there wasn't as much humor included as with Norman. It just... didn't feel quite normal? It felt

I've been waiting for this one since the first Bamboo Kingdom book came out. So far, the series is wonderful. I love the rainforest theme/choice of characters much more than Bravelands (which was decent, just not up my alley). It's the same cast of characters with altering perspectives in the chapters; Ghost, the white panda (searched this up and he's supposed to be leucistic, a partial loss of pigmentation rather than a complete loss of pigmentation like albinism *hence the cover art of him*), Rain (the stubborn yet good-hearted comic relief), and Leaf (cheerful and optimistic). The third

Carrot Cake Murder:

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This book revisits the same cozy cast of characters and introduces a few new ones, like Gus (who sadly doesn’t make it too long into our story…actually, not so sadly…he was kind of a braggy middle-aged jerk. Ran away from home at age 20, got “rich” off of opening a bunch of strip clubs and then came back all high and mighty to the family reunion.) Turns out that he’s not nearly as loaded as he says he is and the only reason he’d come back to Lake Eden was to get an old baseball card he’d left there that is worth $2 million.

Poor old Jack (Lisa’s

(Warning: Contains spoilers.)

Hannah is busy with baking for the upcoming Winter Festival, and a cooking celebrity, Connie Mac, has arrived in Lake Eden to help with the cake. Although her nickname of the "Cooking Sweetheart" quickly turns out to be false; she's bad-tempered, bossy, and will fire anyone on her staff in a moment's notice. The festivities sour even further when she's found dead with her head bashed in Hannah's pantry and The Cookie Jar is taped off as a crime scene, shutting down her business until they can find the killer. Hannah is infuriated and even more so when Mike tells

(Warning: Contains spoilers.)

A new, delicious chapter in the lives of Hannah Swensen, her sister Andrea, and her domineering mother Delores begins. Hannah Swensen is excited to be the head judge of a baking competition, and relieved after the last mystery has been solved and her mother has laid off of her slightly about the marriage issue, but the excitement is quickly soured when Coach Boyd Watson (another judge and the wife-beater of Danielle, one of her friends) is discovered dead in the Watsons’ garage after Danielle calls her in a panic. She again has to take matters into her own hands

(Warning: Contains spoilers.)

This was refreshingly new for me to discover- I stumbled across it when I previously read A Plain Vanilla Murder (also cozy mystery, but centered around botany) and wanted something similar. It's a flavorful confection-themed mystery sprinkled with suspense and the tart wittiness of the heroine, Hannah, along with the residents of the small town Lake Eden. When Ron LaSalle, Lake Eden’s football star, is found dead next to Hannah Swensen (the owner of The Cookie Jar)’s sweets, she is forced to take action and go on a sleuthing mission to find the killer- because

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare

Duke Theseus of Athens and Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons were to be married, and the people of Athens are overjoyed at the news. One day before the wedding, Hermia and Helena, two friends, meet coincidentally in the market square. Hermia is sad because tomorrow, she will be marrying Demetrius, the man that Helena loves. Hermia tells her friend that she does not love Demetrius, and to Helena's amazement, Hermia tells her about the man that she loves. The man's name is Lysander, and Hermia is upset because she had told her father she did not wish to

Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare

One night, Julius Caesar was killed and Antony made a speech over his body. When a civil war rose, Servius (the narrator) was one of the first soldiers to join Antony's legions. He was commended for his courage and promoted to the rank of centurion before the Battle of Philippi. After the battle came peace--though it was a peace that wasn't bound to last long.

The empire had been divided into three people: Octavius Caesar, who was cold-hearted and merciless took the West, Lepidus, who wasn't harmful one bit, the African provinces, and Antony the East.

Soo

Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

Juliet is attending a costume ball that her father has thrown, and meets a young, handsome man called Romeo, who she falls in love with instantly. Tybalt, Lord Capulet's nephew, recognized Romeo as a member of the Montague family, who have been rivals with the Capulet family for years. He is about to go get his rapier, when Lord Capulet stops him. 

The Prince of Verona had prohibited any fighting between the Capulets and the Montagues. Tybalt argues with Lord Capulet, saying that Romeo will only make a fool of their family that he sneaked into the Capulets'

The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare

Somewhere in the English countryside, a tinker by the name of Christopher Sly becomes the mark of a joke by a local lord and is found drunk in front of an alehouse. The lord's men take Christopher to his manor and treat him as a lord. When Christopher recovers, the lord's men tell him that he is actually a lord and that he only believes himself to be a tinker because he went insane for the past years. When Christopher wakes up, he denies the story--but then he sees his wife, a pageboy dressed in women's clothes, and agrees. He wants to be alone with his