One wouldn’t think books and whiskey easily blend. But they do. In ways, I surely never imagined when I started researching whiskey for my Lucky Whiskey series. The first book, A SHOT OF MURDER: A Lucky Whiskey Mystery, drops on June 8th. So raise a glass and read on. Both whiskey and books start with humble beginnings – Whiskey starts its life as beer and books start, at least for me, as half-form, often unpalatable ideas, that, like beer are foul and need to be changed into something infinitely better.   Both whiskey (Irish spelling) or whisky (Scottish/Canadian spelling) are grammatically correct, though the whiskey should be used as whisky looks like the writer is just drunk, much like the ridiculous use of gray (American spelling) when it should clearly be grey (British spelling). I mean, just look at it! Both whiskey and words must watch out for sneaky thieves – With whiskey, nearly 2% of a barrel is stolen by angels each year in what is referred to as The Angel’s Share, which is about the same amount of books stolen from libraries a year. Oddly, the most pilfered book is the Guinness Book of World Records. Both whiskey and books…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Kirsten Weiss!  Writes: I write cozy mystery in its various forms, including paranormal. My latest release is the cozy mystery CHOCOLATE A LA MURDER, book four in my Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum series. I call this series “paranormal light.” There may be something supernatural happening at the San Benedetto Paranormal Museum (it is, after all, a paranormal museum), but that’s up to the reader to decide. The real defining elements of my books are love and humor. The main characters love and care about each other, and the quirky humor reflects that. About my heroine: Maddie Kosloski returned to California after a decade overseas and discovered she had a lot of rebuilding to do. CHOCOLATE A LA MURDER is the fourth book in the cozy mystery series, and at this stage, Maddie’s finally ready to settle into her new life with her new love, police detective Jason Slate. But the universe has some zany curveballs (and murder) in store. Plus chocolate. Lots…

Today we are joined by Senior Reviewer Deb Wiley, with an article all about charismatic pets as side characters in cozy mysteries, contemporary romance, and other fiction genres. Enjoy! Stories featuring pets are always a popular draw for me. Whether it involves a man borrowing someone’s dog to capture the interest of a woman, such as in Sarah Morgan’s NEW YORK, ACTUALLY, or a mysterious cat who keeps popping up at the most opportune times, such as in FINAL SHADOWS by Kay Hooper, dog and cat stories are almost guaranteed to be on my TBR shelf. But what about stories featuring some more unusual animals rather than the expected dog or cat? Here are a few of the more intriguing stories I’ve read with pets outside the norm. Kym Roberts is hands-down the winner for having the most unusual and most entertaining pet! Her Book Barn series features a bookstore owner, which already draws my attention. However, Charli Rae Warren’s pet pink armadillo, Princess, steals the show in almost every book. In KILLER CLASSICS, Princess gets a boyfriend.  I’m not going to spoil anything by saying more but if you love pets and other animals getting involved in the storylines,…

I met one of my favorite cozy authors this past fall. Lynn Cahoon is as entertaining in person as she is on the page and I just had to hit her up for another interview. Check out why Lynn can make the pages keep turning for her readers! Kym: The last time I interviewed you at the Cozy Corner, you had one series and you were starting on your second. Now, you have three mystery series all going at once plus two romance series under Lynn Collins. How do you keep track of the different characters, their quirks, series businesses, and locations? Lynn: Keep track? I’m not sure I do. I’d love to say I have an extensive series bible that has all the characters, their likes, their hair color, when they came into the series, etc. I should have a series bible. But honestly, I do a lot of seek and find in the prior books to make sure I’m remembering things right. And, if I’ve timed it right, I’ve just read the last book in the series for copy edits or page proofs when I start the next one. Kym: We finally met in November at the Kensington…

A love for reading was instilled in me at an early age and I remember reading Gothic romances tinged with a touch of mystery as far back as middle school. Cozy mysteries and paranormal stories (urban fantasy especially) were natural fits for me as I grew older but what a great surprise to discover cozy mysteries that blended my love for the genre with my love of the paranormal! How could anyone not love a magical bookstore? Amanda Flower is quickly becoming one of my favorites for cozy mysteries with that delightful paranormal touch and her series, Magical Bookshop, is practically a must read for all book lovers. Charming Books is exactly the kind of bookstore I would love to browse, a bookstore where the book you need will fly off the shelves just for your reading pleasure. There are three books in the series, CRIME AND POETRY, PROSE AND CONS, and MURDERS AND METAPHORS (releasing in February 2019), and each book is as delightful to read as one would expect. After all, there’s a magical bookshop involved! Magical bookstores aren’t my only love, however, as enchanted gardens have captured my heart as well (particularly during gardening season when I…