Book Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1) by Alan Bradley

It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.

For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

I really wanted to like The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. It was chosen as the March reading for a book group that I plan to join I wanted to like this book so we could have good chats about it. Alas, I just could not get into this book very well. The girl who is the main character Flavia she is just, I can’t like her. I don’t mind precocious children at all but this goes above and beyond. The writing style of it all being from her point of view, it is just a little to much for me.

The book is not bad so much as it is just a bit to much for me. Ah well what can you do right? It was not a total waste of time but I think I am going to stick with Sherlock Holmes when I want smart crime solvers.

My Gemstone Rating:

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Teaser Tuesday 2/24/15

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Royaldecree

“The Duke of Somerset was released from the tower of London on the sixth of February. On the Eighteenth he recieved a full pardon. At about the same time Will, was made chamberlain of the King’s household, in May my Father became a member of the privy council, although his duties in Calais kept him from attending most of the meetings.” ~ By Royal Decree by Kate Emerson pg. 219

Musing Monday 2/23/15

Musing Monday is hosted over at Should Be Reading.

Musing Monday asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

Another Happy New Year from Fire & Ice and here is the first Musing Monday of the year!

Musing Mondays asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer each week…

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ___, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

This week I ignored the random question and I am going to shout from the roof stops I AM SO EXCITED. Poldark the series by Winston Graham. It has always been a favorite of mine, and ones I am going to re-read again soon. But BBC and PBS are reviving the series from the 70’s! with Aidan turner as Ross. YUM.

RossPoldarkCover2015-2

Booking Through Thursday 2/19/15


This one is Hosted at the Booking through Thursday Blog.

Do you prefer to read collections that are all of works by the same author? Or collections by different writers? Consistency or variety?

I am about both! I love to read a good long series by an author I enjoy, I mean I spent most of last year reading Harry Dresden, I love the Cynster series by Stephanie Laurens, The Cousins wars by Phillipa Gregory…The Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig..the Lady Emily series by Tasha Alexander..bottom line for me is Both. I love when an Author I enjoy does a good series because I can settle in and know I am going to enjoy characters but I also like to find new authors. Nothing makes me sadder then when a series I love suddenly takes a bad turn and gets…not so great. sadly that happened with the Blue Blood novels for me.

Teaser Tuesday 2/17/15

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Amy clapped her hands to her head, “I just needed her to be quiet to stop all her nasty screeching threats.” “So you knifed her to death here in our own lodgings?” ~ pg 301 The Lady of Hidden Secrets by Susan Carroll

Booking Through Thursday 2/12/15


This one is Hosted at the Booking through Thursday Blog.

No, no, I’m not asking if you like romances … what I want to know is what is it about stories that you love? Is it the stories themselves? The people? The plot twists?

Oh this is a clever one, I like a lot of different thing about stories. Romances or books in general. The first thing for me though is I have to like a character in the book. I need to feel some kind of connection to at least one character if not, I tend not to like the story as much. I love feeling like I am inside someone else’s life, like I am walking hand in hand with them. I like plot twists as well even though some of them have made me want to throw books at the wall and a couple books have even been thrown.

Book Review: The Obituary Society by Jessica L. Randall

When Lila Moore inherits her grandfather’s house, she finds herself in a small Midwestern town where margarine is never an acceptable substitution for butter, a coveted family recipe can serve as currency, and the friend who will take your darkest secrets to the grave will still never give you the secret to her prize-winning begonias.

Lila is charmed by the people of Auburn, from the blue-eyed lawyer with the southern drawl to the little old lady who unceasingly tries to set Lila up with her grandson. But when strange things begin to happen, Lila realizes some of her new friends are guarding a secret like it’s a precious family heirloom. It’s a dangerous secret, and it has come back to haunt them. Lila is caught in the middle, and her life may depend on uncovering it. But even if she can, can she stay in Auburn when not everyone is what they seem, and even the house wants her gone?

The Obituary Society was an interesting book and seemed to be a little bit of everything blended into one book for me that did not work but the book was still enjoyable. There were several times I just wanted to reach out and smack some of the towns people throughout the book. However, there were some I enjoyed.

Overall this book was not a bad read it just did not overly tickle my fancy and won’t be one that I probably remember for long. Lila is a fun character and the book is fairly well written so I think it would appeal to other readers without an issue. Wish I could say a little more but this book was just kind of..meh for me.

My Gemstone Rating:

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Teaser Tuesday 2/10/15

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I am currently working on three books. My craft ADD seems to have passed on to books. That is okay though one is a re-read for me.

“As I stood outside in Cow Lane, it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No … eight days a week.” ~ The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1)
by Alan Bradley

““He promised her that he would give her everything, everything she wanted, as men in love always do. And she trusted him despite herself, as women in love always do.” ~ The White Queen (The Cousins’ War #1)
by Philippa Gregory (this is my re-read)

“If they could have made the journey entirely by horseback, Seraphine would have been an interpid traveler and an agreeable companion. Seraphine mewed up in a ship for so long was an entirely different creature, but Sir Patrick had been anxious to return to London as soon as possible.” ~ The Lady of Secrets (The Dark Queen Saga #6)
by Susan Carroll

Musing Monday 2/9/14

Musing Monday is hosted over at Should Be Reading.

Musing Monday asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

Another Happy New Year from Fire & Ice and here is the first Musing Monday of the year!

Musing Mondays asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer each week…

I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ___, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION:Do you have people in your life (face-to-face) that are readers like you? Or, do you find that you have to reach out to those online in order to find like-minded folk?

I do have people in my life face to face who are readers like me. However, many of them I met online in the first place or they were family. In my new hometown I am just started to reach out to people but I have joined a book club and I have made a new friend on my book swap site that lives locally. So for me it is a combination of things.

Booking through Thursday 2/5/15


This one is Hosted at the Booking through Thursday Blog.

Another week another Booking through Thursday

When the weather is cold and blustery, would you rather read something is equally wintery? Or something to take you as far away from the snow as possible?

It depends on the mood I am in for me. If I am in the mood to curl up and feel all wintery and seasonal I love a good snow bound winter book. If it has been super cold..for a super long period of time and I am fed up I will tend towards something that is geared in a warmer clime.

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