Find Yourself Bodies in the Boatyard

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BLURB:

Selling your house and moving onto a rundown sailboat—not a dream come true. Finding dead bodies in the boatyard—a total nightmare.

Mollie McGhie loves her beachfront cottage. When her husband announces that he wants to sell the house, downsize, and move onto their dilapidated sailboat, she’s not impressed.

When the boat starts leaking, she secretly hopes it will sink. Instead, they haul her out of the water and into the boatyard. Fixing the boat up is bad enough, but when Mollie finds someone has been killed nearby, things get even worse.

Mollie takes matters into her own hands and investigates the mysterious death in the boatyard, along with her adorable feline companion, Mrs. Moto. While she searches for clues, she meets more of the quirky characters who live in the small Floridian town of Coconut Cove, learns about sea turtles, overcomes her fear of public speaking, and, of course, eats way too many sugary treats.

Can Mollie catch the killer before someone else ends up dead?

New to the series? Start with Murder at the Marina. Find out more here.

My review: 

Mollie McGhie must share her husband with a sailboat. While he wants to move onto it and sail around the world, Mollie refuses to leave her comfy seaside cottage. With the boat in the boatyard needing work, Mollie suddenly finds herself helping with it and stumbles upon a body. Investigating the murder is tricky with all the odd folks and their secrets who live in Coconut Cove, but Mollie is determined to solve it. Yet will poking around and her love of sweets get her killed too?

This is the second book in the fun and enchanting Mollie McGhie mystery series. I was swept back into the world of Coconut Cove with the first page, loving Mollie's quirky voice. I totally empathize with her love of chocolate and cats, and her desire not to live on a little boat! She's the everyday woman who investigates not only alien abductions but the occasional murder as well. Not that the Chief of Police likes her doing so! Her husband Scooter is adorable, and I love that he adores her even if he can be kind of clueless at times. Plus the whole cast of coastal folks. I was making my own list in my head of who could be the murderer. It came together smoothly and unexpectedly with a few twists. I do like mysteries that have me wondering and not guessing correctly who the murderer is right off the bat. (I typed boat. I typed it twice before I managed bat!)

This cozy mystery is a light and hilarious read. I'm addicted. I cannot wait for more in this series.

Buy the book:

Amazon (US) | Amazon (CA) | Amazon (UK) | Amazon (AU) | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Apple iBooks | Google Play

Paperback available at: Amazon

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Givin' Up The Ghost review

Blurb:
Indigo Eady is NOT clumsy. At least, not until she moves to Sabrina Shores. Can she help it if she’s off-kilter since moving to a modern day medieval village in England? Who knew it would be teeming with afterlife? Ghosts are coming out of the woodwork: Franny Bishop, an interfering nineteenth century madam; Hannah, a technology-loving seventeenth century serving wench; and Cleo, a prissy ghost cat. Not to mention Bart Bagley, the murder victim!

With the overwhelming psychic overload, it's no wonder Indigo somehow manages to bowl Badger over every time they meet. She is becoming hazardous to his health, not to mention her own. If it weren’t for the murdered spirits and interfering ghosts vying for her attention, her life would be so much easier! 

To top it all off, why did Badger have to be so cute? That is no doubt the problem. Mix needy dead people and very-much-alive cute guys, and you have the ingredients for a world totally out of whack. Even so, sparks fly in more than one direction! 
 
But who has time for romance? They have a murderer to catch, and time is running short as the body count mounts.

My review:
Having recently lost her father, Indigo Eady has moved to a village in England to live with her Uncle Richard and cousin Simon. She's looking forward to a fresh start and forgetting the troubles her psychic talents have brought her. Yet in an old town, there are a lot of spirits and it's hard to find some peace. Simon convinces Indigo to help find out what happened to his best friend Badger's father. When she discovers the man has been murdered and the police haven't done a thing, the friends launch their own investigation. They've gotten themselves into something bigger than they imagined, and to top it off, Indigo can't stop herself from liking Badger even when she makes a fool of herself in front of him all the time. That problem will have to wait when it might be her life on the line next.

A fantastic ghost story with intrigue and a bit of romance. This well written tale builds with the list of suspects and has you on the edge of your seat, eager to see what will happen next. Indigo has had it rougher than the average teen and acts more mature than her sixteen years. Her character is refreshing in the YA genre where the teen angst can become immensely annoying. To add to that, the boy she likes is a good guy. No bad boy complex here. I'd love to see more teens in YA books like them. While I enjoyed the main characters, it was the ghosts that made me laugh. Chloe the ghost cat who particularly loves the guys, and Franny who was once a madam became my favorite.

This is a book for readers of any age. It has a sweet quirkiness I adored. A little bit of a Scooby gang vibe, but with real ghosts. I can't wait for Gwen Gardner's next book in the Indigo Eady series, A Guilty Ghost Surprised, which will come out later this year.

Author Bio: Running, writing, and reading are her favorite things. She's also a dreamer. Have you ever told yourself that “someday” I’m going to travel or write or whatever it is that you are passionate about but can’t do right now for whatever reason? You can go for years and years and keep telling yourself that “someday” you’ll do it. Too often “someday” never comes. But Gwen's did. She's a former Administrative Manager and Vice President of a successful swimming pool plastering company – until she woke up one day and realized that he “someday” had arrived. She quit her job, moved to the mountains and began to write. Crazy, she knows. But even crazier? Is when you get to the end of your life and realize that your “someday” is too late. Life is much too short for that! So the adventure has begun.

Find Gwen at her blog, Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can buy Givin' Up The Ghost at Amazon.

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