Friday Memes: The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

The view from the narrow window was dreary and inexpressible lonely.

Friday 56:

'How thrilling!' she said. 'It sounds just like a play! I've got just the right costume too, haven't I? I shall break into song at any moment. What is it?'

This week I am spotlighting a classic mystery. The Crime at Black Dudley is the first in the Albert Campion mysteries by Margery Allingham. Here is the description from Amazon:

First published in 1929, now public domain in the US and Canada. A house party is under way at the remote Black Dudley, and among the guests are some very shady characters. As they merrily recreate the ritual of the Black Dudley Dagger, Colonel Coombe dies. Pathologist George Abbershaw suspects foul play, and when a vital item is mislaid, a gang of crooks hold the guests hostage. Will they escape the house – what did happen to the Colonel – and just who is the mysterious Mr Campion?

Friday Memes: Midnight Serenade by Dusty Rose

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

I stood beside my luggage outside my stateroom on the Kamaria, one of Solace Cruise Line's most elegant cruise ships, wondering if I was dreaming.

Friday 56:

Later that evening, I decided to be brave and eat at one of the fancier restaurants on board - Polaris.

This week I am spotlighting Midnight Serenade by Dusty Rose. This one has been on my Kindle since January 11, 2025. I don't read much paranormal romance anymore, but this one caught my eye. Here's the description from Amazon:

She never thought she’d trust anyone enough to fall in love—until she meets a protective vampire who can’t imagine eternity without his mate.

I’m thirty-eight and should be in my prime. Instead, I’m dodging men who fixate on me like heat-seeking missiles and avoiding the outside world like the plague.

There’s something wrong with me. People don’t just notice me—they become obsessed. The kind of obsessed that has me hiding out at police stations until it’s safe to go home. Their blank stares, their eerie devotion… it’s like something in my DNA overrides their rational thoughts. And I’m tired of it.

I want a normal life—Saturday barbecues, toddlers causing chaos, a spouse who adores me. That’s not too much to ask, right?

Desperate for answers, I scour the internet and stumble upon Solace Cruise Line’s flagship, the Kamaria. Rumors swirl about its enigmatic owner, Sebastian Solace, and his so-called "pet," Kazi. Turns out, Kazi is a lion. And Sebastian? He’s a suave, dangerously handsome vampire.

Oh, and the ship? It’s packed with paranormals.

Now, I just have to figure out what I am, avoid the humans and creatures falling under my spell, and—most importantly—not fall for Sebastian.

Yeah… that last one isn’t happening.

Maybe life at sea isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Friday Memes: Ember Eternal by Chloe Neill

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

We were servants by fate, sisters by choice, and thieves by skill and practice. And we were looking for coins to steal.

Friday 56:

"It's beautiful. Who owns this land?"

"According to the Emperor Eternal, he does. He demands half of everything the stronghold makes."

This week I am spotlighting Ember Eternal by Chloe Neill. It is the first in a new romantacy series. Here is the description from Amazon:

A new romantasy, following a thief whose dramatic encounter with an assassin and a crown bodyguard (who has dangerous secrets to keep) launches her into a world of swirling palace intrigue, from New York Times bestselling author Chloe Neill.

Fox is a thief with morals—she steals from those who can afford it and takes only a little at that. But she has no choice. Fox and her closest companion are indentured servants to an unscrupulous wealthy woman in the stronghold. Unable to pay off their debts with the work they’re given, they steal in the hopes of one day being free—truly free.

While searching for an easy mark, Fox identifies a would-be assassin with her rare magical ability, and then helps a royal bodyguard fend off his vicious attack on the prince. Soon that good deed embroils her in a vast and shimmering world of imperial politics, long-lost magic, and improbable romance. But Fox longs for freedom, and must decide if love is its own kind of cage.

Friday Memes: Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

Without order, there is chaos.

Without order, there is pain.

Friday 56:

That was what profilers did. We submerged ourselves in the darkness again and again and again.

This week I am spotlighting Bad Blood by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This is the fourth book in The Naturals series. These are YA mystery stories. I read them years ago and am enjoying this reread. Here is the description from Amazon:

In this stunning conclusion to the popular thriller series, Cassie Hobbes finally has answers about her mom as her and the rest of the Naturals faced off with a secret group of deadly killers.

When Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI's Naturals program, she had one goal: uncover the truth about her mother's murder. But now, everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night has been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful—and dangerous—than anything the Naturals have faced so far. As Cassie and the team work to uncover the secrets of a group that has been killing in secret for generations, they find themselves racing a ticking clock.

New victims. New betrayals. New secrets.

When the bodies begin piling up, it soon becomes apparent that this time, the Naturals aren't just hunting serial killers.

They're being hunted.

Friday Memes: Wreck Your Heart by Lori Rader-Day

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

Outside, the sirens drew closer, wailing up into a scream, then grinding back down, guttural and urgent.

Friday 56:

I was deposited back on the street, dark now, evening. Another long day, somehow spent.

This week I am spotlighting Wreck Your Heart by Lori Rader-Day from my review stack. Here is the description from Amazon:

From award-winning author Lori Rader-Day, Wreck Your Heart is an engaging, “wisecracking and wonderful” crime novel with a big heart, about a country and midwestern singer out to catch her big break before family―or murder―wrecks everything.

Dahlia “Doll” Devine had the kind of hardscrabble beginning that could launch a thousand broken-hearted country songs, but now she’s the star of her own stage at McPhee’s Tavern. As part of Chicago’s―yes, Chicago’s―country music scene, Dahlia is an up-and-coming singer in spangles and boots of classic country tunes. Up and coming, that is, until her boyfriend Joey up and went, taking the rent money with him.

So Dahlia is back to square one, relying on Alex McPhee―again. Alex helped her out of a bad situation when she was a kid living rough with her mother. Now he’s part landlord, part band booster, all-around rescuer. It’s just that Dahlia wishes she didn’t keep giving him reasons to have to do it

Just as Dahlia suspects she’s scraped rock bottom, the mother she hasn’t spoken to in twenty years shows up with something to say. The next morning, a distraught young woman arrives at the bar, asking after her missing mother―Dahlia's mother, too, even if the missing suburban PTA mom the girl describes sounds pretty different from the one who let Dahlia down all those years ago.

Though no one is using the word sister any time soon, Dahlia lets herself be drawn into reuniting the family that might have been hers. But when a body is discovered outside McPhee’s Tavern, the crime threatens not just the place Dahlia has made into a home, but everything she’s believed about her past, her dreams for the future, and the people she was just, maybe, beginning to let into her heart.

Friday Memes: Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

On the last night of August, Tess Monaghan went to the drugstore and bought a composition book -- one with a black-and-white marble cover. She had done this every fall since she was six and saw no reason to change, despite the differences wrought by twenty-three years.

Friday 56:

"Hi, it's me in the kitchen." She figured the front desk attendant wouldn't want to admit he didn't recognize the voice of a fellow employee. "Hey, what room if Mr. Abramowitz in this week? I can't read it on the room service slip and you know how he is if his food is cold. He always threatens to sue!"

This week I am spotlighting Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman. I bought this first in a series thriller on January 27, 2025, from a BookPerk newsletter. Here is the description from Amazon:

In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz’s death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer’s notoriety—and his taste for illicit midday trysts—make the case front-page news in every local paper except the Star, which crashed and burned before Abramowitz did. A former Star reporter who knows every inch of this town—from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill—now unemployed journalist Tess Monaghan also knows the guy the cops like for the killing: cuckolded fiancé Darryl “Rock” Paxton. The time is ripe for a career move, so when rowing buddy Rock wants to hire her to do some unorthodox snooping to help clear his name, Tess agrees. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the Charm City shadows. And Tess’ own name could end up on that ever-expanding list of Baltimore dead.

Friday Memes: All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

Anything can be counted. The hairs on her head. The words she's spoken to you. The number of breaths she has left.

Friday 56:

"Camille Holt." I paused after reading her name. "Why does that sound familiar?"

"Because she's not just a professional poker player," Lia replied. "She's an actress."

This week I am Spotlighting All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This is the third book in The Naturals series. These are mysteries and thrillers with some romance too. All written for young adults. Here is the description from Amazon:

Three casinos. Three bodies. Three days. Crack the case with the Naturals series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Inheritance Games.

After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team's unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any tape. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code -- and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes. Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there's been a break in her mother's case. As personal issues and tensions between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds -- and impossible choices.

Friday Memes: Secrets of the Lost Ledgers by C. J. Archer

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

I'd spent a lifetime studying the faces of men I passed in the street, looking for any resemblance to my own. Although I had my mother's gray eyes and small stature, my fair coloring must have come from my father. 

Friday 56:

"I didn't keep my late husband's records or papers after he died. I am sorry."

This week I am spotlighting the fifth book in The Glass Library series. Secrets of the Lost Ledgers by C. J. Archer is historical fantasy. I've been enjoying this series from the beginning and am eager to read this episode. 

Here's the description from Amazon:

An invisible message from a dead man resurrects a decades-old mystery.

With her sharpened magical senses, Sylvia recognizes invisible writing while cataloging an obscure book for the library. She’s shocked to discover the message, written many years earlier, pleaded for help. She’s even more shocked to discover the author of the message was married to a paper magician. Could there be a connection to Sylvia’s father?

With a magical mystery on her hands, Sylvia engages the help of Gabe Glass, and together they follow the clues to the location of two hidden ledgers that implicate a very dangerous individual in an illegal bookmaking scheme. Although not named, Gabe is convinced he knows who the bookmaker is, and sets out to prove it.

The investigation draws them into the shady underbelly of the horseracing industry and uncovers a link to Gabe’s parents that takes everyone by surprise. As they unravel the mystery’s tangled threads, unexpected twists and turns lead them to the truth.

But the greatest twist of all is the danger no one saw coming.

Friday Memes: Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

Is it possible to forget that you've committed a murder? Well, I'm here to tell you that it is.

Friday 56:

There's never a good reason why a doctor is needed urgently.

This week I am spotlighting Bleeding Heart Yard by Ellie Griffiths. This is the third in the Harbinder Kaur series. I've had it on my TBR pile for a while. Here's the description from Amazon:

A murderer strikes at a school reunion—but the students are no strangers to death— in this propulsive, twisty thriller from the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries

Is it possible to forget that you’ve committed a murder?

When Cassie Fitzgerald was at school in the late 90s, she and her friends killed a fellow student. Almost twenty years later, Cassie is a happily married mother who loves her job—as a police officer. She closely guards the secret she has all but erased from her memory.

One day her husband finally persuades her to go to a school reunion. Cassie catches up with her high-achieving old friends from the Manor Park School—among them two politicians, a rock star, and a famous actress. But then, shockingly, one of them, Garfield Rice, is found dead in the school bathroom, supposedly from a drug overdose. As Garfield was an eminent—and controversial—MP and the investigation is high profile, it’s headed by Cassie’s new boss, DI Harbinder Kaur, freshly promoted and newly arrived in London. The trouble is, Cassie can’t shake the feeling that one of them has killed again.

Is Cassie right, or was Garfield murdered by one of his political cronies? It’s in Cassie’s interest to skew the investigation so that it looks like it has nothing to do with Manor Park and she seems to be succeeding.

Until someone else from the reunion is found dead in Bleeding Heart Yard…

Friday Memes: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

"Oh dear," Linus Baker said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "This is most unusual."

Friday 56:

Well. They looked as if they were suffering from red-eye effect, the flash happening too quickly for the pupils to react. There was a ring of blue around the red. It was certainly chilling, but Linus had seen it many times before. Just a trick of the light. That's all it was.

This week I am spotlighting The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. This has been on my radar for a while, but I was pushed to buy it when I saw so many booktubers singing its praises. Here is the description from Amazon:

A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place―and realizing that family is yours.

Friday Memes: To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provbeginnides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

"I didn't sign up for this."

Friday 56:

Nelle, as she preferred to be called, was a favorite of her father and had a reputation among the elder family members as someone to be avoided. Not only because she'd once tossed her own sister out an open hotel window, thirty floors up, but because they all found her rude and disrespectful.

This week I'm spotlighting To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston. This one is a little spicy and has mature themes. It is also humorous fantasy and the sixth in a series. Here's the description from Amazon:

Laugh-out-loud humor, a feminist outlook, and one-of-a-kind shape-shifting romance come together with the continuation of the fan-favorite Honey Badger Chronicles from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelly Laurenston.

Nelle Zhao is a social media maven who knows what matters. And the only thing that matters right now is survival. Not easy, though, when her honey badger teammates attract trouble the way she attracts attention. She didn’t know when it became her job to protect the ones she cares about from themselves, but even she has to admit…she’s really good at it. Too bad some people don’t appreciate when she’s being helpful. Especially Keane Malone, who doesn’t know how to accept a friendly paw. But Nelle excels at helping! And at ignoring other people’s irrational demands, such as doing it all alone. Keane, poor pretty kitty, doesn’t understand the kind of assistance a shit-starting honey badger like Nelle can truly offer . . .

Keane knows two things—he doesn’t like other people, and he is going to crush the de Medicis, an evil coalition of male lion shifters who are not only snatching innocent humans for fun and profit, but also killed his father. And for once, he may not be able to fight this fight alone, forcing him to let long-legged, jet-setting Nelle join the fight. And getting close to Nelle is suddenly bringing out his roar . . .

Friday Memes: A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

I had just wiped some dust from Henry's hat (dusting him was a regular Saturday chore) and was cursing my decision to move his corpse closer to the entrance when the bell over the door tinkled.

Friday 56:

"But why?" I said, a mostly rhetorical question. I was merely thinking aloud. "If the men weren't killed for food, why were they killed? It doesn't fit with typical animal behavior."

This week I am spotlighting A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan. This is a recent addition to my TBR pile. Here is the description from Amazon:

A Wisconsin bookstore owner and cryptozoologist is asked to investigate a series of deaths that just might be proof of a fabled lake monster in this first installment of a new mystery series by USA Today bestselling author Annelise Ryan.

Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she’s not tending the store, she’s hunting cryptids—creatures whose existence is rumored, but never proven to be real. It’s a hobby that cost her parents their lives, but one she’ll never give up on.

So when a number of bodies turn up on the shores of Lake Michigan with injuries that look like bites from a giant unknown animal, police chief Jon Flanders turns to Morgan for help. A skeptic at heart, Morgan can’t turn down the opportunity to find proof of an entity whose existence she can’t definitively rule out. She and her beloved rescue dog, Newt, journey to the the strait known as Death’s Door to hunt for a homicidal monster in the lake—but if they’re not careful, she just might be its next victim.

Friday Memes: Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

"F**k!" cried Fern, ducking back inside the carriage a whisker before a clawed and scaled hand sailed past. 

Friday 56:

Saved by a bunch of penitents, she thought. Then, Too bad I'm out of the bookselling business. I bet they could really use some filthy romances. The thunder of a distant avalanche swallowed up the sound of her delirious laughter.

This week I am spotlighting Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree. This cozy fantasy is the third book in the series and is from my review stack. 

Here's the description from Amazon:

Return to the cozy fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller Fern

Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!

If only things were so simple…

It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.

A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.

As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when nothing seems inevitable.