Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Sausage Chicken Jambalaya

 


Ingredients 

6 fully cooked spicy chicken sausage links (3 ounces each), cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2 pound chicken tenderloins, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 celery ribs, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2-3/4 cups chicken broth
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1-1/2 cups uncooked long grain rice
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning

Directions

1.  In a large saucepan, saute sausage and chicken in oil for 5 minutes. Add celery and onion; saute 6-8 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender. Stir in the broth, tomatoes, rice, thyme and Cajun seasoning.

2.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until rice is tender. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Monday, February 24, 2020

Weekly Book Reads (Feb 24)




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.  The Third to Die - Allison Brennan

Weekly Book Reading:

1.  The Last Widow - Karin Slaughter
2.  A Longer Fall - Charlaine Harris

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Library Haul 2019 (Feb 23 - 29)



Library Haul


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

Hardcover:

1.  The Last Widow - Karin Slaughter
2.  A Longer Fall - Charlaine Harris

Monday, February 17, 2020

Weekly Book Reads (Feb 17)




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.  Twisted Twenty-Six - Janet Evanovich

Weekly Book Reading:

1.  The Third to Die - Allison Brennan
2.  Golden in Death - J.D. Robb

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Library Haul 2019 (Feb 16 - 22)



Library Haul


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

Hardcover:

1.  The Third to Die - Allison Brennan
2.  There's a Murder Afoot - Vicki Delany
3.  Jealousy Filled Doughnuts - Ginger Bolton

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Bunny Express Saturday 2020 (Feb 15)


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

I received these in the mail this week.








In the latest thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, homicide detective Eve Dallas investigates a murder with a mysterious motive ― and a terrifying weapon.

Pediatrician Kent Abner received the package on a beautiful April morning. Inside was a cheap trinket, a golden egg that could be opened into two halves. When he pried it apart, highly toxic airborne fumes entered his body―and killed him.

After Eve Dallas calls the hazmat team ― and undergoes testing to reassure both her and her husband that she hasn’t been exposed ― it’s time to look into Dr. Abner’s past and relationships. Not every victim Eve encounters is an angel, but it seems that Abner came pretty close ― though he did ruffle some feathers over the years by taking stands for the weak and defenseless. While the lab tries to identify the deadly toxin, Eve hunts for the sender. But when someone else dies in the same grisly manner, it becomes clear that she’s dealing with either a madman ― or someone who has a hidden and elusive connection to both victims.






Investigator Kendra Michaels -- whose former blindness has left her with uniquely insightful observational skills -- must put her life on the line to catch a terrifying murderer setting his sights on some of society's most vulnerable in this electrifying new novel from the #1 New York Times and Edgar Award winning writing duo Iris and Roy Johansen.

Dr. Kendra Michaels, blind for the first twenty years of her life before gaining her sight via a revolutionary surgical procedure, is a renowned investigator known for her razor-sharp senses -- honed during her years in the dark -- and keen deductive abilities.

Now her skills are needed uncomfortably close to home. Two staff members have been murdered at a school for the blind where Kendra spent her formative years. But the murders are puzzlingly dissimilar: one victim was brutally stabbed, while the other was killed by a bullet to the head. Are the crimes related? Or is Kendra on the hunt for more than one dangerous killer?

With the killer (or killers) still on the loose, Kendra must put her life on the line to unravel a terrifying conspiracy. But Kendra soon discovers that she herself may hold the key to the deadliest secret of all.






Miami just got a lot more dangerous -- especially for one innocent young woman running for her life.

The city of Miami is Detective Tom Moon's back yard. He's always kept it local, attending University of Miami on a football scholarship, and, as a Miami PD officer, protecting the city's most vulnerable.


Now, as the new leader of an FBI task force called "Operation Guardian," it's his mission to combat international crime. Moon's investigative team discovers that the opportunistic "Blood Brothers" -- Russian nationals Roman and Emile Rostoff -- have evaded authorities while building a vast, powerful, and deadly crime syndicate throughout Europe and metropolitan Miami.

Moon played offense for U of M, but he's on the other side of the field this time. And as the Rostoffs zero in on a target dear to Tom, they're not playing by anyone's rules.

On the beautiful Hawaiian Islands, not all is paradise in this high-stakes, action-packed romantic suspense.

He'll risk his life for her but will he risk his heart?


Jiang Ying Yue assumed her kidnapping was random, that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, who would want to harm her? But then her rescuer --- a charismatic former soldier who takes her breath away --- uncovers a traitor in her father's organization. Now, Ying Yue realizes that she's become a pawn in a dangerous game, and her kidnapper won't be satisfied until she disappears for good.

Zu Anyanwu's work with Search and Protect and his canine partner Buck have always been his first priority until he's tasked with keeping Ying Yue safe. To him, the brave and resilient investment expert is more than just another client. But with danger closing in, Zu can't let his emotions get in the way of the most important job he's ever had --- protecting the woman he loves.

Thanks Hachette Book Group Canada and St. Martin's Press!

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Dorothy St. James's BonBon With the Wind Blog Tour with a Spotlight, Excerpt and Giveaway

 

I am so excited to have Dorothy St. James here at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews with a Spotlight, Excerpt and Giveaway.

Thanks Dorothy and Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for allowing me to join your BonBon With the Wind Blog Tour!

Please take it away, Dorothy! 

Excerpt

“Wait up!” Harley jogged to catch up to us as we made our way toward the beach. Not that we were walking that fast. Marion was weighed down with her equipment and had refused my offers to help carry something. And Police Chief Byrd rarely moved quickly. He once told me that a hasty police chief stirred an air of panic in the residents of the town. Above all things, he strove for calm and easy in his life.

“What’s going on?” Harley asked. His clothes were streaked with mud and wet sand. The cuff of his shorts had ripped since I’d last seen him.

“Are you OK?” I blurted, suddenly more concerned about what had happened to him than some dead body on the beach that wasn’t going anywhere. “Are you hurt? How’s the office?”

“Um…I’m fine. There was…some damage to the office. It’s going to have to be completely redecorated. Luckily all the files had been digitized and uploaded to an offsite server. So I suppose I didn’t lose anything important.”

I eyed him closely, trying to decide if he was more shaken up about the damage the hurricane did to his office than he was letting on. He’d taken over his father’s law practice after his father had passed away. The only change Harley had made to his father’s office, with its old wood paneled walls and furniture the color of faded avocados from the early nineteen sixties, was to purchase a computer. While money constraints might have kept him from updating and making the office his own, I suspected he’d treated the office like it was one of downtown Charleston’s famous historic sites — not changing a blasted thing — as a way of keeping his father’s memory alive.

I wanted to say something comforting. I wanted to let him know that he could count on me for any emotional support he might need. But when I opened my mouth none of that came out. Instead, I said, “The carpeting in there was older than the both of us combined.” And then I wanted to kick myself for sounding so uncaring.

Harley only chuckled. “It was a classic pattern. Don’t know I’ll be able to find anything quite that shade of brown with brown highlights to replace it.” His entire face brightened as he shook his head. So perhaps I’d said the right thing after all. “But enough about my office, what’s going on?”

“Dead body on the beach,” Byrd answered for me. “Your girlfriend found it.”

Harley tripped over his own feet. “Penn, really?”

I nodded.

“We haven’t been back in town for more than” — he checked his watch — “two hours, and you’re already stumbling across dead bodies?”

“It wasn’t on purpose. Besides, it wasn’t me. Stella found it.”

“You’re blaming the dog?” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Whatever you do, don’t let Fletcher hear about it. He’ll declare it was a murder.”

“He won’t hear about it from me, but this is Camellia Beach. If he’s returned, there’s a good chance someone has already told him,” I said.

Fletcher was my newest employee. He had this unnatural interest in playing amateur detective. It was an interest that had nearly gotten him killed a few months ago.

Harley groaned. “That boy is looking for murders. He was wearing a Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hat the last time we saw him, for goodness sake.”

“It might be a murder,” I mumbled. Not quietly enough, apparently.

Harley paled.

I felt for him. He was likely remembering the last murder on the island. He’d helped me track down the killer. Things had turned downright dangerous at the end. Matters between Harley and me had also turned steamy right before we’d confronted someone who had no moral qualms against killing anyone who had gotten in their way.

Like Fletcher, we’d also been lucky to escape with our lives.

“Don’t misunderstand me,” I said. “I hope it’s nothing. I hope I’m seeing dead bodies where none exist.”

We arrived where I’d found the suspicious-looking shirt. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps that stinky lump in the sand wasn’t a dead body. I grabbed Harley’s hand and held it tightly as both Byrd and Marion donned plastic gloves.

Marion produced a little whisk brush from her medical bag — not something I was expecting she’d have in there and then squatted next to the suspicious lump. With fast, efficient swipes she removed the top layer of sand from a small area. A moment later, Byrd cursed.

I leaned forward to see what had upset him.

A mistake.

What I saw wasn’t something I’d wanted to see. I quickly pressed my face to Harley’s chest, sandwiching Stella between me and her arch nemesis. She wiggled and growled low in her throat.

“I didn’t want to be right,” I choked as I tried to soothe my angry little dog. “Truly, I didn’t.”

“I know, Penn.” Harley rubbed his hand up and down my back.

Marion had uncovered from the sandy grave what was clearly a man’s hand. The action of her brush had dislodged something disc-shaped from his fingers.

“Is that a gold coin?” Harley asked.

“Looks like it,” Marion answered as she continued to clear away the sand.

“It’s an accidental death,” Harley whispered in my ear. “Someone stayed during the storm who shouldn’t have stayed. It’s tragic, but far more common than you might think.”

“I hope you’re right.” It didn’t feel like he was right.

The gold coin that had fallen from the dead man’s hand nagged at me.

“I’m right,” Harley said, but he sounded worried. 






Bonbon with the Wind (Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Publisher: Barking Dog Press (December 9, 2019)
Print Length: 251 pages
ASIN: B082L528GS




There’s a legend in the Sea Islands that before a hurricane hits the Gray Lady can be seen walking down the beach warning of doom. Penn doesn’t believe in such silly stories, but she does believe weather forecasters. A powerful hurricane is heading their way. Everyone on the island of Camellia Beach is busy boarding up windows and securing valuables to upper levels of buildings. Joe Davies, a local treasure hunter with an unquenchable sweet tooth, claims to have seen the Gray Lady walking toward him just that morning and is terrified for his life.

After the storm passes everyone returns to survey the damage. As Penn walks her little dog Stella on the beach, she finds Joe Davies’ body washed up onshore. Not only that, it looks as if an exploding transformer caused Joe’s seaside shack to burn to the ground. Did the Gray Lady claim another victim? Many on the island believe that is exactly what happened.

Penn is sure there’s another explanation. She follows the clues and hints of lost gold to discover that the truth behind the treasure hunter’s death is as much of a maze as the boating channels winding their way through the local marshes.





About Dorothy St. Janes

Dorothy St. James is the author of the White House Gardener mysteries. For the past twenty years she made her home on Folly Beach, an artsy island community in South Carolina with her sculptor husband. Dorothy is a member of Mystery Writers of America (MWA), Sisters in Crime (SiNC), and the International Thriller Writers (ITW). This is her fourth Southern Chocolate Shop mystery.

Author Links

Website – http://www.dorothystjames.com

Facebook –
http://www.facebook.com/dorothystjames

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/dorothywrites

BookBub – https://www.bookbub.com/profile/dorothy-st-james

Purchase Link – Amazon


Giveaway

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/028877921001

Please follow the rest of the tour here, thanks:


https://www.escapewithdollycas.com/great-escapes-virtual-book-tours/books-currently-on-tour/bonbon-with-the-wind-southern-chocolate-shop-mystery-by-dorothy-st-james








Saturday, February 8, 2020

Bunny Express Saturday 2020 (Feb 8)


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

I received this in the mail this week. 



 
From Erica Spindler, the New York Times bestselling author of The Other Girl and Justice for Sara comes The Look-Alike, a thrilling psychological drama about a woman who believes she escaped a brutal murder years ago ― but does anyone else believe her?

Sienna Scott grew up in the dark shadow of her mother’s paranoid delusions. Now, she's returned home to confront her past and the unsolved murder that altered the course of her life.

In her mother’s shuttered house, an old fear that has haunted Sienna for years rears its ugly head ― that it was she who had been the killer’s target that night. And now, with it, a new fear ― that the killer not only intended to remedy his past mistake ― he’s already begun. But are these fears any different from the ones that torment her mother?

As the walls close in, the line between truth and lie, reality and delusion disintegrate. Has Sienna’s worst nightmare come true? Or will she unmask a killer and finally prove she may be her mother’s look-alike, but she’s not her clone?
 Thanks St. Martin's Press!
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