jan jones

After the grim aspects of my last book, I was ready for something “fluffy,” so I selected Eryn Scott’s “Chai, Chai Again.” It is number four in her Pebble Cove Teahouse cozy mystery series, but did well as a stand-alone.

It is early winter in Pebble Cove, Oregon, and the small fishing community has just survived one of the biggest snowstorms in decades. Rosemary “Rosie” Woodmere is happy. She is finally on her own. Though she has a great relationship with the librarian mother, Rosie has never felt adequate.

This week I decided to have some fun with the fantastical so I selected “Druid Magic” by C.S. Churton. It is the first in Churton’s Druid Mystery series.

Lyssa Eldridge is utterly bummed. She has just received her final college rejection letter. She hates to disappoint parents again and can’t help feeling that she’s a failure who will never “fit in.” While her younger sister, Holly, looks like their parents, is a good student and has many friends, Lyssa is darker, struggled in school and is pretty much a loner.

“The Things We Carry” by Kate Anslinger is the first in her The Town series but stands alone just fine. Chapters are labeled “Before” and ‘“After,” indicating a major event, but we won’t know what it is until the end.

Evie and Matt Sullivan and their boys, Jack and Liam, have just arrived in Flagport when Jack makes a friend. The neighbor’s place is gorgeous, complete with a backyard “kid paradise.” It is home to Lauren and Ryan Rivers and their girls, Lily and Piper. The two women hit it off immediately.

I needed a quick, light book this week, and I found it in “Purrs and Peril: A Norwegian Forest Cat Café’ Cozy Mystery” by Jinty James.

A few months ago, Lauren Crenshaw inherited her grandmother’s quaint café in Gold Leaf Valley, California. The inheritance included the café plus an equally adorable, attached cottage.