Mad for Max: Kitsch at Capacity

Skirt: Wild Fable, Target; Shoes: Jessica Simpson Collection, DSW

Pink Petals Necklace

Bag: ModCloth; Sunglasses: Wild Fable, Target

Bow: Art Class, Target

Armed with charm(s).  

Dress: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Crafty Confection Necklace

Bag: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Cherry clip: Wild Fable, Target; Sunglasses: Kohl's

Nature's emeralds. 

Shoes: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Dress: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Bag: Betsey Johnson

Puff Piece Necklace

Yellow necklace: So, Kohl's; Belt: Belt is Cool, Amazon

Bunched up buttercup.

Shoes: Sugar, Kohl's

Sunglasses: Amazon; My Little Pony clips: Dolls Kill

When it comes to super-sized style, maxi dresses and excessive accessories make for a kitsch-tastic combo.  I'm talking about maximalism, the aesthetic that flouts the old-school edict of taking one thing off before leaving the house and instead adding five more.  I remember being excited when I found out that it was a thing.  Deep down, I'd always known it was okay to look like a try-hard Christmas tree.  So, it's with unabashed enthusiasm that I share these fits.  Stacking the flair is not only fun but functional because I like to have things to look at throughout the day.  It's why the idea of a uniform -- by which I mean anything from a school-issued skirt and blouse to a pants suit -- sends me into, to quote Anne of Green Gables, "the depths of despair."

That said, Anne, with her love of whimsy and pretty things, would've been a maximalist of the first order.

Purple Hair, Don't Care: The Bully in the Library

As I work through Jenn McKinlay's Library Lovers mystery series, I'm happy to find that each book is better than the last.  Still, I particularly enjoyed my most recent read, Death in the Stacks.

A plot twist turns Briar Creek Library into high school when Olive Boyle takes over as board president.  Intent on making a name for herself, Olive undermines the staff with her masterful manipulations.  Not only does she threaten to replace library director Lindsey Norris, she persecutes purple-haired newbie Paula to the point of tears.  Lindsey goes into protective mode, refusing to believe Olive's accusations that Paula is dangerous.  But things worsen when the middle-aged mean girl meets her end -- and Paula is caught with the knife.

Despite her vow to stop playing sleuth after nearly getting killed, Lindsey has no choice but to save one of her own.  But as she investigates, she ends up with more questions than answers, the most niggling of which is this: Did the queen bee have secrets?

That said, McKinlay's Olive is spot on, the kind of prissy and power-hungry tormentor that we've all run up against, if not in high school, then at some watershed.  Indeed, it's Olive's evilness that makes Lindsey's loyalty to Paula all the more meaningful.  I was very invested in clearing Paula's name, even if I couldn't discover whodunit due to the clever plot.

As chilling as it is charming, Death in the Stacks is more than worth checking out.

May Turkey Day: Muss and Fuss and a Killer to Truss

She's domestic, but she's no diva.  That's the appeal of Sophie Winston, the heroine of Krista Davis's Domestic Diva mysteries, which I read about on the delightful Olla-Podrida.  No, the real diva is Natasha, Sophie's fellow chef-slash-lifestyle guru and lifelong frenemy.  As if that isn't enough, Natasha is engaged to Sophie's ex-husband.  What's a crackerjack cook to do?

Solve a few murders, if seems.  At least that's the plan in The Diva Runs Out of Thyme, the first book in the series.  It's not like Sophie meant to find that Ocicat-breeding PI in a Dumpster, or that mogul bludgeoned with a trophy at the Stupendous Stuffing Shakedown.  But once she's implicated, there's little she can do to extricate herself -- and that goes double for dealing with Natasha.  What's more, she's hosting a houseful of randos for Thanksgiving and juggling two potential suitors.  It all adds up to the kind of kooky cozy that I can't resist.

I love having a new series to savor.

So many mysteries, so little thyme.

Tea Shop Pretty Amidst the Grim and Gritty: View from the Vanity

Laura Childs's A Dark and Stormy Tea may be boiling over with murder and mayhem.  By my favorite parts are her descriptions of Theodosia's charming tea shop and cottage.  And of the many word pictures she paints, the most vivid is that of Theodosia's vanity:

"With its desk and drawers and cushioned stool, the vanity took up one wall and was the perfect spot for Theodosia to sit and apply makeup or brush her hair.  Scattered atop the vanity were Theodosia's collectibles -- perfume bottles by Chanel and Dior, leather-covered journal, ceramic box decorated with jaguars that held her good pearl earrings, a large white bowl with scalloped edges that corralled her bracelets, cuffs, and a strand of pearls and a Jo Malone candle." (79)

I love hearing about "collectibles," especially those of a beauty bent.  They're full of feminine fun, aren't they?  So here are some pics from my own vanity.  Or, rather, the nightstands in my closet.

Princess toys and novelty tissues may not be Chanel.  But they are my happy place.  

Tasty Tussles and the Old Cupcake Hustle: Of Prints and Princesses

Publish or perish.  Also, high school never ends.  These maxims came to mind as I read Jenn McKinlay's Going, Going, Ganache and Dying for Devil's Food.  Even if Going, Going, Ganache isn't about academia but a struggling magazine.  

After turning a photoshoot into a food fight, Mel and the rest of the Fairy Tale Cupcakes crew are sentenced to run a baking boot camp for the Southwest Style staffers.  But things really go south when one of the reporters is murdered.  As a writer who exposed Arizona's elite, the guy had a lot of enemies.  So it's up to Mel to find out which one silenced him for good.  

In Dying for Devil's Food, Mel is guilted into catering her fifteenth high school reunion despite being bullied as an overweight teen.  True to form, some of the popular kids, including the class mean queen, sling backhanded compliments about her now-svelte figure.  But the real trouble starts when said queen goes to powder her nose -- and never returns.  A poisoned cocktail points to murder -- and a lipstick-scrawled message makes Mel the prime suspect.

So there you have it in a pastry shell.  Copy and cattiness kill.

That said, the real crime would be if Fairy Tale Cupcakes used pastry shells.

A Play on Nerds: Monsters are Murder

Whenever I settle in with one of Laura Levine's Jaine Austen mysteries, I know I'm in for the Godiva of treats.  Just like Jaine before downing a pint of Chunky Monkey or her cat Prozac poised to inhale her Minced Mackerel Guts.  So when I opened Death by Smoothie, I was set for a feast.

Jaine's latest gig is as a script doctor for computer geek lovers-turned-lottery winners.  They're over the moon to be producing a play of their favorite sitcom, the all-but-forgotten I Married a Zombie.  Yet the duo's dreams are dashed when their talentless leading lady makes an enemy of everyone on set -- and threatens their romance.  So it's no surprise when someone poisons her green smoothie, recasting the undead diva as dead.

Jaine thought she had her hands full resuscitating the script.  But things get really dicey when her neighbor Lance enlists her to find out whodunit.  His actor boyfriend is a suspect, and if there's anything that love-a-holic Lance can't abide, then it's losing his soul mate du jour.  So Jaine dusts off her detective hat and does some digging.  That is, between emails from her wacky parents, hijinks-jammed job interviews, and entertainingly awful dates, all while fueling herself with another Big Mac and/or buttered bagel.  Jaine's sleuthing -- and life -- make for the most deliciously cringeworthy in the cozy genre.  There's no PI I adore more.

Luckily, I can enjoy Jaine's antics for capers to come.  Because despite her dangerous pass time -- and diet -- she has more lives than Prozac.   

The House That Jack the Quipper Built: Drop Dead Gingerbread Cred

"Run, run, fast as you can.  You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"  The beloved rhyme turns out to be untrue in Lee Hollis's Death of a Gingerbread Man.  Because the runner up of Bar Harbor's annual gingerbread house building contest loses more than first place.  He bites the sugar dust, with the winner emerging as the prime suspect.  And he (the winner, not the dead dude) happens to be Hayley Powell's long-lost father.  

In the twenty-odd Hayley Powell food and cocktails mysteries, we've heard nary a word about the man who gave the sleuth life.  Sure, her impossible-to-please mother Sheila sometimes rears her ugly head, but her pops has remained, well, a mystery.  Until now.  Fresh from yet another failed romance, Dwight Jordan blows back into Bar Harbor, much to the delight of half the town -- and the chagrin of the other.  A charming if disheveled conniver, Dwight leaves a trail of chaos wherever he goes.  And this time that trail includes murder.

Death of a Gingerbread Man may be Hayley's zaniest misadventure yet.  I snickered at the sitcom-worthy snafus that Dwight "unknowingly" authors.  Each is more cringeworthy than the last, making for a quirky Christmas caper.  Yet despite being a clever whodunit, Death of a Gingerbread Man isn't really about whether or not Dwight offed his fellow baker.  It's about if he'll stay in Bar Harbor or keep running. You know, like the Gingerbread Man.

Maybe the rhyme rings true after all.  

Library Lovers and a Sleuth Undercover

They say that knowledge is power.  But sometimes it's a lifesaver too.  At least according to Jenn McKinlay's Library Lovers mysteries.  Yes, she of the Cupcake Bakery and Hat Shop mysteries -- not to mention standalone romcoms -- also pens this cerebral-themed series.  Here's the 411 on what it's about:  

Lindsay Norris has reinvented herself.  After finding her fiancé in flagrante with his grad student, she ditched her Yale gig and relocated to coastal Briar Creek.  Now she's a library director, hosts weekly crafternoons (book club, crafting, and lunch, oh my!), and is devoted to her rescue dog Heathcliff.  Also, sometimes she solves mysteries.  Because being research savvy is one sure-fire way to find out whodunit.  And so with the help of her fellow crafternooners and hunky boat captain Mike "Sully" Sullivan, Lindsey proves that ignorance isn't bliss.  

Also, that mystery and romance go hand in hand. 🔎💖

Fireworks Fowl and a Perp on the Prowl: Game for a Ghoulish Thanksgiving

With Turkey Day on the horizon, I was on the hunt for a harvest-themed whodunit.  However, it seemed that I'd exhausted all of my go-to authors.  Fortunately, there are cupboards full of festive culinary cozies out there.  So I plucked Isis Crawford's A Catered Thanksgiving off the paperback pantry shelf.  I was drawn to its colorful cover, complete with skull-embedded pumpkin pie crust.  Yet once I delved into the fiction-rich filling, I had some trouble getting it down.    

This was partly because I needed to become acquainted with a new sleuth, or in this case, sleuth sisters.  Foodies Bernie and Libby run their late mother's catering company, A Little Taste of Heaven, in New York.  They're close with their dad, a retired cop.  Bernie is tall, dark, thin, and impulsive and loves clothes; Libby is short, fair, plump, and cautious and wears her pants until the elastic gives out.  Needless to say, they bicker a bit.  Which can be fun, albeit sometimes confusing because Crawford alternates between their points of view.   

Still, the real blowout doesn't occur until the duo sets up shop in miserly Monty Field's kitchen.  He's hired them to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for his feuding fireworks-fortune family, never imagining that he and the turkey will go up in smoke before the table's set.  There's some description of Monty's stuffing decorating the walls, setting the stage for a story that's more gruesome than goofy, which you know isn't my cup of tea.  Adding insult to pyrotechnic-induced injury, I thought I'd figured the mystery out, and everyone knows that's no fun.  But it turns out that I was a turkey!  Because there's a twist at the end that implodes everything, and it's as satisfying as a potato cheese casserole. 

Which got me thinking, if I was wrong about the killer, then maybe I was wrong about the rest of it too.

The only way to know for sure is to see what Bernie and Libby cook up for Christmas.

Halloween Hues and Boo-tiful Coos: Scary Secondary to None

Wreath: Amazon

Skirt (a dress!): Zulily

Necklaces: Betsey Johnson, Macy's

Bag: Betsey Johnson, Amazon

Tee: Fifth Sun, Kohl's

Bag: Marshalls; Ring: PinkBopp, Etsy

Jumbo Jack-o-Lantern Necklace

Top: Nine West, Kohl's; Skirt: So, Kohl's; Bag: Cat & Jack, Target 

Where it's Bat Necklace

Remember when Halloween was all about black and orange?  I'm so glad that purple and green (and sometimes pink) have since been invited to the costume party.  Because a secondary color palette packs more roar for fierce fits and dark décor.  And I made the most of that with these outfits.  I've had the candy-colored clothes and accessories for many moons except for (interestingly) the celestial tee, Where it's Bat Necklace, and pumpkin purse.      

Clothes may make the witchy woman, but spooky season's stale without a festive read.  My pick?  This creepy cute collection of cozies:          

Capitalizing on the murder mystery cult classic that is the cupcake, the aptly named Halloween Cupcake Murder introduced me to a new coven of cozy queens.  In Carlene O'Connor's eponymous and Galway-based Halloween Cupcake Murder, a cupcake holds the key to the killer of a curiosity shopkeeper.  And also, bizarrely, a cult.  Yet this was far from the most curious tale in the trio.  Because Liz Ireland's Mrs. Claus and the Candy Corn Caper seeks to find not only who offed an elfin baker in Santaland, but who's peddling contraband candy corn in this most Christmassy of locales.  Still, it may be the third confection, Carol J. Perry's A Triple Layer Halloween Murder, that takes the cake.  In this Salem-set story, the sleuth investigates the disappearance of a bakery baron via her visions -- and collaborations with her cat.  

All three novellas are made for curling up in front of the fireplace to forget life's crazy.  Even if I read them in no such place, but between and during diaper changes and feedings.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed my escapes to these crime-riddled fantasy lands and may have even found some new go-to authors.       

But my biggest Halloween headline isn't about baubles or even books.  It's about, of course, our first Halloween with Charlotte.  Here are our family costumes, which we wore to my parents' Halloween party:

Yep, we're 3 Musketeers and the Three Musketeers, starring none other than Char Bar.  As with all our Halloween costumes, the husband came up with the idea.  Although it was my (somewhat desperate) idea to go with these dubious dresses.  You may notice that I edited the husband's to look like it was sort of part of his tee.  Ah, technology, the hallowed hobgoblin of social networking.

And with that I wish you the happiest of Halloweens -- the kind with no tricks and all treats. 🎃🍫👻🍬💀🍭👺🧁

Are You Ready for Some Cupcakes?

Always!  And not just the pretty pastries themselves, but Jenn McKinlay's cupcake-themed cozies.  Which means that I was more than game to read one of her latest, Fondant Fumble.  Although I don't follow football, I was hooked the moment the nefarious owner of the Arizona Scorpions (not a real team) turns up dead in his own QB Keogh's cupcake shop.  The owner didn't want Keogh selling cupcakes -- apparently it isn't a good look -- and that doesn't look good for Keogh.  Naturally, cupcake MVP Mel sets out to clear Keogh's name -- as well as prevent his punting partner from eating all the profits.  But then the killer kicks things up a notch.  With the goalposts constantly moving, the cupcake crew needs a Hail Mary more than ever in this, their flour of need.     

Fondant Fumble is a sweet treat touchdown.  Partly because the plot is clever, partly because it shows that football players are people too.

And sometimes people just want to bake cupcakes. 🏈🧁

Sex Equals Death: The Mystery of Romance and the Romance of Mystery

I was recently reading a post on The Big Hair Diaries about the romance of books and reading -- in other words, the magic of imagination and transportation that comes from losing yourself in a story.  And that got me thinking about my two favorite genres: romance and mystery.  Or, more specifically, romcoms and cozies.  Sure, these gentler subgenres are softened by comedy.  But they still center around sex and violence.  Which makes me wonder how such turmoil can be comforting, not just to me, but to countless readers.  Yet maybe it's not the turmoil that's soothing.  Maybe it's the resolution of the turmoil, and with it, the reaffirmation of love and life.  

Or maybe there's no deep explanation at all.  Maybe people are just animals.

Either way, when I find a romance with mystery or a mystery with romance, I know I've hit the genre jackpot.  Which is the case with most of the books I read, including Christina Lauren's Dating You/Hating You and Lee Hollis's Death of a Bacon Heiress.  

Because office romance burns hotter when sparked by a scheme, and finding out whodunit is more fun with flirtation.

Rebecca Serle's Mother of Pearl Pearls of Wisdom

I picked up Rebecca Serle's One Italian Summer during a Target run last September, but it remained on my bookshelf for months.  Although it was much-buzzed-about, I just wasn't ready for a mother-daughter tearjerker.  But after I read Lee Hollis's (highly entertaining and enjoyable) Death of a Lobster Lover, I was ripe for something serious.

And losing your mother is as serious as it gets.

That's what happens to thirty-year-old Katy Silver in this novel.  Her mother was her best friend, so when she dies, Katy's world crashes.  Now she's questioning everything, including her marriage.  Heartbroken and lost, she embarks on the Italian vacation that she and her mother planned to take together.  Positano turns out to be postcard-perfect.  Katy is spellbound, getting to know her mother in a new way by exploring the city she loved.  Then the unthinkable happens when Katy sees her mother at her hotel, in the flesh and thirty years younger.  What follows is an unorthodox and haunting jaunt down memory lane.  I didn't love or even agree with all of it.  Yet although some parts were problematic, what I initially thought of as a clumsy conceit ultimately gave me chills.  

Thought-provoking and moving, One Italian Summer was sometimes difficult for this daughter and, now mother, to read.  

Still, it was well worth the detour.

Crustacean Vacation Incarceration

No, this isn't a post about law-breaking lobsters run amuck on spring break.  It's a review of Lee Hollis's Death of a Lobster Lover.  Which is, admittedly, almost as zany.

When Hayley and her besties Liddy and Mona head for a weekend at Mona's family cabin in idyllic Salmon Cove, their only agenda is food and fun.  But then the cabin turns out to be a ramshackle, marking the beginning of the trio's troubles.  Liddy catches the eye of a dashing reporter only to find him strangled on the beach.  Mona's old flame resurfaces, and the local sheriff won't rest until she puts the Three Musketeers behind bars.  But despite these obstacles, Hayley needs to find out who killed that reporter and why.  And that's no easy feat in Salmon Cove, where everyone has something to hide.

A cozy that's as suspenseful as it is quirky, Death of a Lobster Lover keeps you guessing until the bitter, butter-drenched end.  Colorful and cartoonish, it's the ideal escape, a little vacation unto itself.

Because sometimes the best way to kick off summer is with a story about kicking the bucket.

Berries and Baubles: The Final Countdown

Sparkly Sky Necklace

Top: FCUK by French Connection for Sears

Bag: Amazon

Headband: INC, Macy's

Selfie Saturday with Geoffrey at Macy's.

Clip: Wild Fable, Target

Necklaces: Betsey Johnson

Top: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Bag: Zulily; Top and clip: Marshalls

Tomorrow is D-Day.  "D" as in "delivery."  But also as in the actual D-Day, i.e., the World War II one.  Hopefully, mine won't be as violent.  

That means it's time to post my last pregnancy pics.  Also, a shot of the last book I read, Jenn McKinlay's Strawberried Alive.  A somewhat grittier-than-usual cozy, it's about a serial killer bumping off small business owners as well as, of course, strawberry cupcakes.  That said, I have four paperbacks stashed in my hospital bag, two romcoms and two mysteries.  I'm not naïve enough to think that I'll be able to read them, but I feel better just knowing they're there.

It's a weird feeling, this hurry-up-and-wait for the most important day of my life.  But I take comfort in knowing that countless women have felt the same way, and that most of them -- unlike those soldiers -- lived to tell the tale. 

So I don't think there's anything left to say except this:

See you on the other side.