Illusion by Ginny Yttrup

 

This is the second book in the Mendocino Village series. I loved revisiting all of the characters I had come to love and relate to in the first book INVISIBLE. My favorite character was Ellyn. I found that I related with her the most. Her struggle with weight and self-image continues in this book and it resonated with me. I loved Rosa as well. She is a bossy woman who tends to drive people crazy but her heart is big and she truly loves those that she tends to mother. Pia is Rosa's daughter. I love how obedient and respectful she is to her mother even when it hurts her. Miles...such an understanding and loving man. He's much more understanding with Ellyn than I think most men would be, but then he was married a long time before so maybe he is just seasoned. I have to admit Twila's "gift" is a bit beyond me and something I would be leery of, but her insight helps a lot of people and was interesting in the story. I liked Nerissa's strength and determination to hang on to what she knows about God even when she was receiving no answers and not feeling his presence. The spiritual battles that were fought and won were heart-breaking and heart-warming. There was even a thread of humor throughout, because honestly, if we can't have a bit of humor in our struggles then we truly would sink into despair. At the beginning of each chapter there is an inspirational quote from Thomas Merton and each one touched my heart, but my favorite quote in the whole book was something that Nerissa had said to Ellyn early in the book and then Ellyn reminds Nerissa of it in this quote:

"When we believe God is anyone other than who He says He is, we believe an illusion." "And if we believe we are anyone other than who God says we are, we also believe an illusion."

A great reminder for sure. ILLUSION touches the heart and speaks to so many different emotions, I smiled and I cried and I was definitely satisfied with the ending. If you like contemporary fiction, strong female characters and spiritual insight in your reading then you will definitely want to pick up ILLUSION, but I recommend that you read INVISIBLE first because it is just as wonderful!

Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie

This is a compilation of short stories by Agatha Christie. I had never read them before so I enjoyed them very much. A couple of them featured Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's never-to-be-forgotten famous Belgium detective with the mega "gray cells" and the perfectly groomed mustache. A couple featured Miss Marple as well. I've not read any Tommy and Tuppance stories before so reading a short story with them in it has me curious to read of their adventures. Each short story is about 30 minutes long. Although the first story is longer and takes about an hour to read. I enjoyed each story. Not all of the stories deal with murder, but they do have intrigue. If you are an Agatha Christie fan then I would recommend reading some of her short stories!

Point of Danger by Irene Hannon

Eve Reilly is a conservative talk radio host. She talks about all kinds of hot topics which means that she has some haters out there. But nobody has ever acted on their threats...until now.

Brent Lange is a police detective. When he gets a call out for a possible bomb found in a package on Eve's front step he is determined to do his best to find the person that has been threatening Eve before they escalate any farther.

Definitely an exciting beginning to a new series for this author. I enjoyed the suspense from the opening pages to the exciting conclusion. I also enjoyed the relationship explored between Eve and Brent. A couple aside stories were also pretty interesting and kept the pace of the story moving along. I found it interesting that though the characters were not dealing with a pandemic as "the real world" is at the moment, there were some hot topic issues that were relatable to what is going on around us(protesting, unrest etc.) that kept the story relevant for the times. I definitely look forward to Eve's sister Cate's story which is the next book in the Triple Threat novels.

Candy Cane Crime by Amanda Flower

Charlotte is put in charge of collecting money and notes for the candy cane sale to raise money for new costumes for the Nativity parade. When Charlotte finds an anonymous note in the box for her she doesn't know what to make of it. But when notes for her keep showing up she is determined to find out who her secret admirer is.

I just love the characters in this series! Even the animal characters! Of course Jethro the pig made an appearance. I like that Charlotte seems to have a nose for mystery as well as Bailey. And while I love a good murder mystery, and those have tended to follow Bailey around, it was nice to see that not every mystery has to involve a dead body. As with the other books in the series there is a recipe at the end of the story. I can't wait to try it for Christmas this year! mmmmm!

Everywhere To Hide by Siri Mitchell

Whitney Garrison stumbles onto a murder in the back alley of where she works. Whitney may or may not have seen the murderer...Whitney is face blind! That means her brain does not recognize faces. Think of it as when you see a picture and someone has scrubbed out the face of one of the subjects. That is how Whitney sees faces. But the murderer doesn't know this so now Whitney is in danger.

Leo Baroni is the detective assigned to the case. At first he is not worried about Whitney, but as things unfold he begins to see that the murderer will stop at nothing to get to Whitney. Leo is trying to help Whitney, but with her face blindness there is no telling who the murderer could be.

Oh my! This was such an exciting story! I'd never heard of face blindness before. It has a big technical name, but it's easier to say face blindness. Anyway, it was something that added to the suspense of the story. The blending of suspense with Whitney's ex boyfriend and a murderer also added to the mystery of the story and kept the reader guessing as to his role in all the things happening to Whitney. Bitcoins, virtual money, cryptocurrency, etc. are all concepts I have a hard time grasping and I found that there was a lot of detail in the story concerning those. Very important to the plot, but still hard to grasp even though the author did a great job in explaining them. Loved Leo and Whitney's relationship and how it developed and I definitely loved how Whitney slowly gained her confidence back throughout the story. I thought things were left hanging a bit with Whitney's relationship with her father. It seemed there was no resolution as far as clearing the air between them. Maybe that was supposed to be "understood" but I felt that it was left hanging. I enjoyed the book very much and always look forward to what this author has to publish next!