Book Title:  A TWINKLE OF TROUBLE, the 5th Fairy Garden Mystery Character Name:  Courtney Kelly, owner of Open Your Imagination, a fairy garden shop   How would you describe your family or your childhood? My mother and I were best friends. She and I played in the garden and chatted with fairies. Sadly, when she died, I was ten and I lost my ability to see fairies.  After that, my father raised me. He did the best he could. He doesn’t have much of an imagination, but he is kind and stalwart. Although at one time he was on the police force, an injury sidelined him. Now he is a master gardener and owns a landscaping company. It is because of him that I became a gardener.   What is your greatest talent? I make fairy gardens and inspire others to do the same.   Significant other? Brady Chase is a restaurateur in Carmel-by-the-Sea. He and I have been dating for a short while. We met each other in high school and took photography classes together and played hoops, but at the time I had a boyfriend, so we never connected. It wasn’t until Brady bought Hideaway Café, which is…

I love rom-com movies. I always have. I love the iconic scenes you’ll never forget once you’ve seen the movie. Like when two people are running through a field of flowers, arms outstretched, finally realizing that the person they are in love with has been right in front of them all the time. Or when they have been strangers throughout the movie only to agree to meet and realize they have known each other all along. Admit it. Don’t you feel the tug on your heartstrings?  In some instances, don’t you feel like your own heart will break if they don’t get together? The dawning awareness for the hero and heroine is my favorite moment in any movie. When the flirting or fighting is over and they admit their love with such passion that you know their fate is sealed. This was one of the most important moments I wanted to craft in my Christmas romance, HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAYS. As a tribute to rom-coms and lovers everywhere, here are my top five favorite dawning moments from movies: In It Happened One Night, Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) and Peter Warne (Clark Gable) are once again in the ramshackle hotel room….

Top 5 Reasons to Read A SPRINKLING OF MURDER, the first Fairy Garden Mystery Have you heard of the Fairy Garden Mysteries? They’re new. The first, A Sprinkling of Murder, is just out. It’s set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and features Courtney Kelly, a former landscaper who has taken a leap of faith and created her own fairy garden shop called Open Your Imagination. Courtney believes in inviting magic into one’s life, but when uninvited trouble enters her shop, she’ll need more than a sprinkling of her imagination to solve a murder . . . There are a lot of reasons that readers are falling in love with the Fairy Garden Mysteries, but here are the top five. Fiona, the righteous fairy. Fiona is a fairy-in-training. She should be a full-fledged fairy by now, but imp that she is, she did one too many pranks in fairy school, so the queen fairy has booted her out and subjected her to probation, during which time Fiona must get serious. By helping a human solve problems–that’s what righteous fairies are good at–she could earn her way back into the ranks. Fiona is fun, whimsical, and earnest. A powerful combo. Courtney Kelly, fairy garden…

Canceled plans, social distancing, and masks are a regular part of our lives nowadays. Can we all just give a huge round of applause to the authors, editors, and publishers out there who have kept the books coming even as the world has seemingly shut down? In fact, I’m supposed to be just returning from an Alaskan cruise right now, sharing pictures and memories of what was to be a trip to rival my outstanding trip several years back to Ireland. Thankfully, there are a plethora of phenomenal books out there to keep me entertained (and keep my mind off that missed Alaskan cruise LOL!). Daryl Wood Gerber adds a dash of the paranormal to the cozy mystery, A SPRINKLING OF MURDER, where readers enter a world where fairies exist and they have to complete certain goals to earn their wings. Courtney Kelly loves sharing her belief in the world of fairies with others through her store, Open Your Imagination, where she teaches and sells various items to help with landscaping, including how to design fairy gardens. Her own personal fairy, Fiona, is visible to those who are willing to believe. Can Courtney and Fiona uncover a murderer? Readers will…

Fresh Fiction Senior Review Debbie Wiley Bookstores have always been a place of joy for me, even as a young child. Books open up doors to new worlds and new adventures. Some authors capture that essence in their books by including bookstores as part of their plots. A wealth of emotions can be conveyed as characters learn to cope and heal through books and bookstores. Here are a few recent books that include bookstores as part of the magical world the authors transport us into. Jenny Colgan’s Scottish Bookshop series includes two books, THE BOOKSHOP ON THE SHORE and THE BOOKSHOP ON THE CORNER, centered around a mobile bookstore. Both stories focus on a female lead character who heads to Scotland seeking a new life where a mobile bookstore becomes part of both of their worlds. THE BOOKSHOP ON THE CORNER is the first book in the series and shows how Nina Redmond first creates the idea of a mobile bookstore, as she seeks to share her love of books with a population unaccustomed to reading for pleasure. The second book, THE BOOKSHOP ON THE SHORE, focuses on Zoe O’Connell’s move to Scotland and her struggles to fill Nina’s shoes…

Hi, readers!! Wonderful reviews have come in for the 3rd in the Cookbook Nook Mysteries: STIRRING THE PLOT. But what matters to me is what you think! Read the First Chapter by clicking HERE. I’m nothing like my amateur sleuth, Jenna Hart, but we have a few things in common. We both love California, we love to read mysteries, and we love to eat! Two years after her husband disappears in a boating accident, Jenna, a former ad executive and marketing whiz in San Francisco, realizes it’s time to change her course. She returns home to Crystal Cove, California, a beautiful seaside community, to help her aunt open a culinary bookshop and café…and to find her smile. Although Jenna is an avid reader and a foodie, her aunt didn’t bring Jenna into the business because of her vast knowledge of cookbooks. In fact, Jenna can’t cook. She never had to learn. Her mother did it all. But she’s determined to learn. And over the course of the series, she does. In STIRRING THE PLOT, the third installment of the Cookbook Nook mysteries, trouble is brewing with a dash of murder. Halloween in Crystal Cove is a big deal, involving a…