Prose And Cons

It{u2019}s been nine months since widowed mom Bella Jordan and her young son Max moved to Lily Dale, the quirky, close-k... (more)

It{u2019}s been nine months since widowed mom Bella Jordan and her young son Max moved to Lily Dale, the quirky, close-knit New York community populated by people who can speak to the dead . . . if one believes in that kind of thing. Now she counts Valley View, the guesthouse she runs, as home and her psychic medium neighbours as friends. Even haughty, British Pandora, who used to own Valley View before her difficult divorce. So when Pandora sweeps in, requesting an urgent tete-a-tete, Bella expects it to be another complaint about book club. It isn{u2019}t. Pandora airily reveals her elderly Auntie Eudora is taking a last-minute cruise from London to New York with her gentleman friend Nigel {u2013} and minutes later Bella is bemused to find she{u2019}s agreed to host them at Valley View free of charge. Bella has enough on her plate: her son Max, their two kitties, a budding relationship with local vet Drew . . . not to mention this month{u2019}s book club pick to read. But when she begins to have suspicions about one of her new guests, she{u2019}s determined to uncover the truth for Pandora{u2019}s sake {u2013} even if it kills her first. (less)

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In Cascade Springs, New York, Violet Waverly and her grandma, Daisy, are the proprietors of Charming Books, where the po... (more)

In Cascade Springs, New York, Violet Waverly and her grandma, Daisy, are the proprietors of Charming Books, where the power of the written word is positively enchanting . . . October in Cascade Springs means tourists are pouring in for the annual Food and Wine Festival, and Daisy hopes to draw those crowds to the store. She asks Violet and the local writing group, the Red Inkers, to give a reading of the works of Edgar Allan Poe on the shop's front porch to entertain the revelers. Everyone eagerly agrees. Yet their enthusiasm is soon extinguished when Violet discovers one of the writers dead in the shop moments before the event. After the shop magically tells Violet she'll need to rely on Poe's works to solve the murder, she enlists the help of her trusty tuxedo cat, Emerson, and the shop's crow, Faulkner. But they must act fast before someone else's heart beats nevermore . . . (less)