Barbara Silkstone's Lavender Toes Blog Tour with a Spotlight, Guest Post and Giveaway

 

I am so excited to have Barbara Silkstone here at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews with a Spotlight, Guest Post and Giveaway.

Thanks Barbara and Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for allowing me to join your Lavender Toes Blog Tour!

Please take it away, Barbara!

Beauty Product Recipe

Of all the beauty products I have created my very favorite is the first one I whipped up when I was a teen. I call it Olive and Lizzy’s Egg Facial. It leaves my skin smooth and hydrated. After using it once a week for almost every week of my life, no one believes I’m 102 years old!

Trust me, it really works. You just have to get around the icky part of egging your face.

1 egg beaten

1 tablespoon of warmed honey

1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil

1. Whisk egg, honey, and olive oil until mixture is emulsified.

Emulsified = emulsion = two or more liquids that are normally unmixable now mixed so there is no separation.

2. Apply mask to face with a facial brush or hands.

3. Let mask sit for twenty minutes then rinse off. It might feel a little bit itchy but that’s your skin being drawn tighter. I like to sprinkle just a dab of water on my face and use the mask as an exfoliator before completely rinsing it off.

The reasons why it works so well:

Egg has a temporary tightening effect which stimulates the circulation.

Honey has antibacterial properties.

Olive oil is a natural moisturizer.

It leaves your skin feeling smooth and hydrated. If there is any chance you might be allergic to honey do a test spot first. It’s rare to have an allergy to honey but when it doubt check first.

I hope you enjoy this easy-peasy, all natural facial.

Lavender Toes (A Cold Cream Murder Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Independently Published (December 1, 2019)
Paperback: 174 pages
ISBN-10: 1712435833
ISBN-13: 978-1712435830
Digital ASIN: B0821NHR9V



Someone dear to Olive is found dead — toes up and barefooted — in Digby’s Bees lavender field. Olive and Lizzy team up with WonderDog to find the killer. Digby’s hives are home to the wondrous Soprano bees. The little buzzers are the source of the secret ingredient that powers their Nonna’s Cold Cream — a fountain of youth in a jar.

Finding the killer becomes more of a challenge as the gals protect Digby’s bees from a determined land developer who wants the beekeeper’s farm. The clock ticks as saving the honeybees becomes every bit as important as finding the cousin-killer.

While Olive and Lizzy buzz about, Grams, nonagenarian ace reporter for the Silverfish Gazette, takes on the story of a diamond heist in nearby Sarasota. Can the gals protect Grams from another near catastrophe or can the feisty lady handle it alone?

Help the Cold Cream gals solve the mystery of the Lavender Toes while once again bailing Grams out of trouble. And what about those bees?

Every book comes with a recipe for a homemade beauty product.

About Barbara Silkstone

Barbara Silkstone‘s most current series is COLD CREAM MURDERS ~ GLOSSY LIPS, SMOKEY EYES ~SOAP ON A ROPE. Coming this fall Book 5 in the series: LAVENDER TOES. This series will have at least 6 books when complete. The adventures take place in the imaginary burg of Starfish Cove, Florida ~ a place near and dear to Silkstone’s hometown of Redington Beach on the Gulf of Mexico just north of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Barbara currently lives in Central Florida with her eccentric kitty who adores Liam Neeson and chasing lizards (the cat, not Barbara) 🙂

Silkstone is the best-selling author of both Regency Pride and Prejudice variations, including the popular the MISTER DARCY SERIES OF COMEDIC MYSTERIES ~ PRIDE AND PREJUDICE contemporary variations. All her books are light-hearted adventures based on Jane Austen’s timeless tales of love denied and love discovered. “Feel good” tales to warm your heart.

She is also the author of the Wendy Darlin Comedy Mystery series. Five coffee-snorting tales that combine Cozy with outrageous adventures.

Plus a mixed bag of standalone cozy comedy mysteries: Zo White and the Seven Morphs, Cold Case Morphs, The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland and more.

Author Links 

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Barbara-Silkstone-Author-156097004489447/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/barbsilkstone

Giveaway

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/02887792992

Please follow the rest of the tour here, thanks:

https://www.escapewithdollycas.com/great-escapes-virtual-book-tours/books-currently-on-tour/lavender-toes-a-cold-cream-murder-mystery-by-barbara-silkstone

 

Weekly Book Reads (Jan 20)

Weekly Book Reads

Weekly Book Reads is a weekly Monday Meme that is hosted by Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews:

Post the books read last week and books you plan on finishing this week.

Read Last Week:

1.  Angel Eyes - Robert B. Parker
2.  Criss Cross - James Patterson

Weekly Book Reading:

1.  Good Girls Lie - J.T. Ellison
2.  Into the Dark - Karen Rose

Kelly Brakenhoff's Dead Week Blog Tour with a Spotlight and Giveaway

 

I am so excited to have Kelly Brakenhoff here at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews with a Spotlight and Giveaway.

Thanks Kelly and Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for allowing me to join your Dead Week Blog Tour!

Please take it away, Kelly!

Dead Week (A Cassandra Sato Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – Nebraska
Publisher: Emerald Prairie Press (December 7, 2019)
Paperback: 322 pages
ISBN-10: 1733742425
ISBN-13: 978-1733742429
Digital ASIN: B07ZHN2SMS




Will Dead Week kill Cassandra’s career?

VP of Student Affairs Cassandra Sato has a desk full of problems and it’s not even Thanksgiving break.

A student’s injury and a deaf advocacy project brings national media attention to underfunded Morton College.

Cassandra’s new boss talks to her dead husband. Cassandra’s mentor thinks he’s a superhero in a senior citizen’s body. And Cassandra, recently moved from Hawai’i, can’t crack the code of what to wear during November in Nebraska.

Is there more to the Vietnam-era story of a student’s death? Cassandra’s search for the long-buried truth stirs up the wrath of those who want to keep the past forgotten.

About the Author

KELLY BRAKENHOFF is an American Sign Language Interpreter whose motivation for learning ASL began in high school when she wanted to converse with her deaf friends. Her first novel, Death by Dissertation, kicked off the Cassandra Sato Mystery Series. She also wrote Never Mind, first in a children’s picture book series featuring Duke the Deaf Dog. She serves on the Board of Editors for the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf publication, VIEWs. The mother of four young adults and two dogs, Kelly and her husband call Nebraska home.

Her first mystery, Death by Dissertation, released April 22, 2019.

Author Links

Website – http://kellybrakenhoff.com/

Amazon – Https://amazon.com/author/kellybrakenhoff

Twitter - https://twitter.com/inBrakenVille

Instagram – @kellybrak

BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kelly-brakenhoff

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/kellybrak

Giveaway

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/02887792997

Please follow the rest of the tour here, thanks:

https://www.escapewithdollycas.com/great-escapes-virtual-book-tours/books-currently-on-tour/dead-week-a-cassandra-sato-mystery-by-kelly-brakenhoff

 

Bunny Express Saturday 2020 (Jan 18)

Bunny Express Saturday is hosted every Saturday at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews.

I received this in the mail this week.       

Welcome to the first in the Apron Shop mystery series by Elizabeth Penney, set in the quaint village of Blueberry Cove, Maine where an expert seamstress turned amateur sleuth is getting measured for murder.

Iris Buckley is sew ready for a change. After the death of her beloved grandfather, Iris decides to stay in her Maine hometown to help out her widowed grandmother, Anne ― and bring her online hand-made apron designs to real-time retail life. Her and Anne’s shop, Ruffles & Bows, is set to include all the latest and vintage linen fashions, a studio for sewing groups and classes, and a friendly orange cat. The only thing that they were not planning to have on the property? A skeleton in the basement

Anne recognizes the remains of an old friend, and when a second body shows up in the apron shop ― this time their corrupt landlord, whom Anne had been feuding with for decades ― she becomes a prime suspect. Now, it’s up to Iris to help clear her name. Enlisting the help of her old high-school crush Ian Stewart who, like certain fabrics, has only gotten better-looking with age and her plucky BFF Madison Morris, Iris must piece together an investigation to find out who the real killer is and find a way to keep her brand-new business from being scrapped in the process.

Thanks St. Martin's Press!

Weekly Book Reads (Jan 13)

Weekly Book Reads

Weekly Book Reads is a weekly Monday Meme that is hosted by Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews:

Post the books read last week and books you plan on finishing this week.

Read Last Week:

1.  Read and Buried - Eva Gates
2.  Tracking Game - Margaret Mizushima

Weekly Book Reading:

1.  Angel Eyes - Robert B. Parker
2.  Criss Cross - James Patterson

Library Haul 2019 (Jan 12 - 18)

Library Haul

Here's the list of books/manga/manhwa/yaoi manga I picked up this week at the library:

Hardcover:

1.  Into the Dark - Karen Rose
2.  Good Girls Lie - J.T. Ellison
3.  The NES Encyclopedia - Chris Scullion

Weekly Book Reads (Jan 6)

Weekly Book Reads

Weekly Book Reads is a weekly Monday Meme that is hosted by Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews:

Post the books read last week and books you plan on finishing this week.

Read Last Week:

1.  None

Weekly Book Reading:

1.  Read and Buried - Eva Gates
2.  Tracking Game - Margaret Mizushima

Library Haul 2019 (Jan 5 - 11)

Library Haul

Here's the list of books/manga/manhwa/yaoi manga I picked up this week at the library:

Hardcover:

1.  Angel Eyes - Robert B. Parker
2.  Tracking Game - Margaret Mizushima
3.  Read and Buried - Eva Gates

January Releases (2020)

7th
Hindsight - Iris Johansen

14th
A Longer Fall - Charlaine Harris

28th
Vendetta Road - Christine Feehan
Wicked Bite - Jeaniene Frost

Aunt M's Infamous Toffee

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 TBSP cold water
a dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet or milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

Generously coat a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with butter.

Combine sugar, butter and water in a lrage heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly so it doesn't crystalize.

Clamp a candy thermometer to the side of the saucepan, making sure it doesn't touch the bottom of the pan.  Cook, without stirring, until mixture reaches 300 degress F ("hard-crack stage") on the thermometer.

Immediately remove from heat stir in salt and vanilla.

Pour mixture immediately onto prepared pan and spread with a buttered spatula.

Top with chocolate chips over hot mixture.  After a few minutes, chocolate will be soft enough to spread with a buttered spatula or back of a buttered spoon.

Sprinkle crushed pecans over the top of melted chocolate.

Cool completely and break into pieces once hardened.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature or refrigerator up to 10 days.