Happy Tuesday! Whew! The inaugural Turning A New Page Book Festivalis officially in the books đ . If comments from readers and authors alike can be trusted (and they can) it was a roaring success! Over 40 authors shared their books and writing journeys with 200+ attendees. The board members are all pooped, but eager to get on with the planning for 2025!
Today’s TTT topic is new-to-me authors in 2023. My list today features the writers I discovered while working on the book festival planning. I hope you find a new author to increase your TBR!
Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder is the first book in Valerie Burns‘ Baker Street Mystery series. This cozy mystery checked all the boxes for me — fun small town, fun characters, and a super-fun bakery setting. There are recipes involved! This book was a great whodunit that kept me turning the pages. Recommended.
When Maddy Montgomeryâs groom is a no-show to their livestream wedding, itâs a disaster that no amount of filtering can fix. But a surprise inheritance offers a chance to regroup and rebrandâas long as Maddy is willing to live in her late, great-aunt Octaviaâs house in New Bison, Michigan, for a year, running her bakery and caring for a 250-pound English mastiff named Baby. Â Maddy doesnât bake, and her Louboutins arenât made for walking giant dogs around Lake Michigan, but the locals are friendly and the scenery is beautiful. With help from her auntâs loyal friends, aka the Baker Street Irregulars, Maddy feels ready to tackle any challenge, including Octaviaâs award-winning cake recipes. That is, until New Bisonâs mayor is fatally stabbed, and Maddyâs fingerprints are found on the knife . . . Â Something strange is going on in New Bison. It seems Aunt Octavia had her suspicions, too. But Maddyâs going to need a whole lot more than a trending hashtag to save her reputationâand her life.
Valerie (V. M.) Burns was born and raised in the Midwestern United States. She currently resides in the warmer region of the country with her two poodles, Kenzie and Chloe. Valerie is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Dog Writers of America, Crime Writers of Color, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime. Valerie is also a mentor in the Writing Popular Fiction MFA program at Seton Hill University. As V.M. Burns, she writes the Next Generation Indie Finalist, RJ Franklin Mysteries, Dog Club Mysteries, and Agatha award-nominated, Mystery Bookshop Mysteries. She is also an Edgar award-nominated short story author.
My Impressions:
I love a cozy mystery! And I am so glad that I have found a new must-read author in the genre. Valerie Burns’ novel, Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder, checked all the boxes for me. I loved the small town setting ofâNew Bison, a town on the shores of Lake Michigan, the colorful characters including influencer main character Maddie and a very drool-y, very huge dog, and a twisty mystery that kept me guessing. And with all the baking going on in the book, I was torn between reading and pulling out my Kitchenaid. đ Maddy is a fun character — a social media influencer who is determined to prove that she has a purpose and a plan. Inheriting a bakery from an aunt she barely knew, Maddie is challenged from day one. But with her knowledge of literary sleuthing and clues left from her deceased aunt, she is a formidable, if amatuer, detective. A light and easy read, this book was the perfect choice for a busy holiday season. I smiled and laughed and kept turning the pages as fast as I could. Two Parts Sugar, One PartMurder is the first in a series — there are currently two more books available. I look forward to the murder, mayhem, and pastry delights ahead!
Recommended.
Audience: Adults.
(I purchased this book from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Happy Friday! A new year brings new opportunities, and 2024 is bringing a book festival to my hometown! Woohoo! One of the authors attending is V. M. Burns, a writer of cozy mysteries. There are dogs involved đ . Today I am sharing the latest book in her Mystery Bookshop series. Bookclubbed to Death looks to be a very fun read!
Here’s the first line (I don’t think the characters is speaking to a candy bar, LOL):
“Snickers, come!” I yelled.
V. M. Burns returns with the latest book in her popular Mystery Bookstore mysteries set in a Michigan bookshop specializing in selling murder mysteries.
When the bookshop she owns becomes a crime scene, mystery writer Samantha Washington discovers there is such a thing as bad publicity.
After the local library in North Harbor, Michigan, is flooded in a storm, Sam offers her bookstore as a new venue for the Mystery Mavens Book Club. Unfortunately, she immediately runs afoul of the club leader, Delia Marshall, a book reviewer who can make or break careersâsomething Sam can ill afford with her debut historical mystery soon to be published.
But the next morning, Sam opens her shop to find the unpleasant woman dead on the floor, bashed with a heavyâapparently lethalâtome: The Complete Works of Agatha Christie. While Sam is busy writing her latest British historical mystery in which the queen mother is suspected in the murder of a London Times correspondent, a pair of ambitious cops suspect Sam of the real-life crime.
When she gathers Nano Jo and their friends from the Shady Acres Retirement Village to review the case, they discover that every one of the Mavens had a motive. With her novel about to hit the stores, Sam must find out who clubbed Delia before a judge throws the book at her.
V.M. (Valerie) Burns was born and raised in the Midwestern United States. She currently resides in the warmer region of the country with her two poodles, Kenzie and Chloe. Valerie is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Dog Writers of America, Crime Writers of Color, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime. Valerie is also a mentor in the Writing Popular Fiction MFA program at Seton Hill University. Readers can visit her website at vmburns.com.
Happy release day to Kallie Benjamin aka Valerie Burns. Book 1 in her newest cozy mystery series, Sniffing Out Murder, is now available. Valerie will be joining the Coffee, Tea, and Murder discussion panel at Turning A New Page Book Festivalin Perry, Georgia in January. If you live nearby, you won’t want to miss it!
When a murder unleashes a widespread investigation through Crosbyville, childrenâs book author Pris and her trusty bloodhound, Bailey, must sniff out the truth before the whole town goes to the dogs.
After deciding that life as a teacher wasnât right for her, Priscilla found inspiration for her first childrenâs book in her three-year-old bloodhoundâs nose for truth, and so The Adventures of Bailey the Bloodhound was born. After the bookâs massively pawsitive response led Pris to move back to her hometown of Crosbyville, Indiana, to continue the series, sheâs surprised by how things have changed in the town, but even more so how they havenât.
Pris is frustrated to discover that newly elected school board trustee Whitney Kelleyâa former high school mean girlâis intent on making Crosbyville more competitive by eliminating âfrivolous spendingâ on the arts and social programs, including Pris and Baileyâs beloved pet-assisted reading program. A minor altercation between them isnât anything unusual, but after Bailey sniffs out Whitneyâs body in a bed of begonias, locals start hounding Pris and Bailey as suspects for the crime.
With Baileyâs sharp senses and Prisâs hometown know-how, can they prove to the community that theyâre all barking up the wrong tree?
Kallie E. Benjamin (Valerie Burns) is the author of the Bailey the Bloodhound Mystery series. Valerie is an Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, and Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist. Writing as V. M. Burns she is the author of the Mystery Bookshop Mystery, Dog Club Mystery, and RJ Franklin Mystery series. Writing as Valerie Burns, she is the author of the Baker Street Mystery series.
Valerie is also an adjunct professor in the Writing Popular Fiction Program at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA. Born and raised in northwestern Indiana, Valerie now lives in Northern Georgia with her two poodles.
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