Posts Tagged ‘Author Amanda Lee’

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Better Off Thread
by Amanda Lee

A true cozy lover’s cozy that might just surprise you at the end.
~Laura’s Interests

I really enjoyed this book with the themes of Christmas and of course murder…
~Community Bookstop

I’ve really love all the characters in this book and their friendships. I feel like I’m visiting friends when I read a book from this series..
~A Chick Who Reads

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Better Off Thread (Embroidery Mystery)
Series: Embroidery Mystery (Book 10)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley (December 6, 2016)
ISBN-13: 978-0451473851
E-Book ASIN: B01CZCW26A

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My Review

Another fun cozy in the Embroidery Mystery series. I’ve read several of these and am always glad to revisit old friends, see who got snuffed and why, sift through the clues, and see if my guess on who did it is correct.

It’s a busy time at Marcy’s embroidery shop, but she just can’t refuse when her friend, Captain Moe, asks her to play an elf to his Santa for sick kids at the hospital.

It’s all fun and laughter until the hospital’s administrator is found dead and Rudolph’s shiny red nose points at Moe as the main suspect. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

It was good to visit with Marcy again and see how her relationship with Ted was going. And always glad to see more of Angus, her Irish Wolfhound. He’s such a character and plays a bigger role in this one. He’s got a nose for clues.

Being from a small town myself, I’m drawn to cozies. They feel so much like my community. Most people know each other and that breeds familiarity. A murder that’s close to home has everyone looking at their neighbor, wondering just how well they really know each.

A fun misadventure for the holidays, you can’t go wrong here.

4 Stars

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Synopsis

Santa finds himself in a stitch of trouble in the tenth in the series from the national bestselling author of The Stitching Hour…

Marcy is busy helping her customers make hand-crafted ornaments at her embroidery shop, the Seven-Year Stitch. But despite the yuletide bustle, when her friend Captain Moe asks for her help, she can’t refuse—especially when the favor is to play the elf to his Santa for sick children at a local hospital. Despite the ridiculous outfit, Marcy finds herself enjoying spreading cheer—until the hospital’s administrator is found murdered.

Although the deceased had plenty of people willing to fill her stocking with coal, evidence pins the crime on Moe. Now it’s up to Marcy, with the help of her police officer boyfriend Ted and her Irish Wolfhound Angus, to stitch together the clues to clear Moe’s name—before someone else winds up crossed off Santa’s list for good…

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Gayle

 

About This Author

 Gayle Trent (and pseudonym Amanda Lee) writes the Daphne Martin Cake Decorating series and the Embroidery Mystery series. The cake decorating series features a heroine who is starting her life over in Southwest Virginia after a nasty divorce. The Embroidery Mystery series features a heroine who recently moved to the Oregon coast to open an embroidery specialty shop. She also writes the Down South Café Mysteries as Gayle Leeson. 

Author Links

Facebook / Twitter

Purchase Links:

Amazon B&N kobo

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Tour Participants

December 1 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW

December 1 – Community Bookstop – REVIEW

December 2 – A Chick Who Reads – REVIEW

December 3 – Grace. Gratitude. Life. by Marie McNary – REVIEW

December 3 – StoreyBook Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

December 4 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW

December 4 – Author Annette Drake’s blog – SPOTLIGHT

December 5 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW

December 5 – T’s Stuff – SPOTLIGHT

December 6 – The Power of Words – REVIEW

December 6 – Melissa’s Eclectic Bookshelf – GUEST POST

December 7 – fuonlyknew – REVIEW

December 7 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

December 8 – deal sharing aunt – REVIEW

December 8 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

December 9 – MysteriesEtc – REVIEW

December 10 – LibriAmoriMiei – REVIEW

December 10 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT

December 11 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too! – SPOTLIGHT

December 12 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW

December 13 – Varietats – REVIEW

December 13 – Texas Book-aholic – REVIEW

December 14 – Brooke Blogs – REVIEW, GUEST POST

December 14 – Carole’s Book Corner – SPOTLIGHT

December 15 – A Holland Reads – REVIEW, GUEST POST

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways, click on the lucky Christmas kitty below.

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Welcome to The Friday 56 hosted by Freda’s Voice.

 

This is a really fun meme!

The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find a sentence or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

Then go over to Freda’s Voice and leave your link so we can visit your 56!

My 56 for this week is from:

Better Off Thread

An Embroidery Mystery #10

by  Amanda Lee

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Genre: Cozy Mystery

From Page 56 in the paperback.

“Hey, you won Mom over. That was no small feat.”

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Read on if you want to know more.

Synopsis

Santa finds himself in a stitch of trouble in the tenth in the series from the national bestselling author of The Stitching Hour

Marcy is busy helping her customers make hand-crafted ornaments at her embroidery shop, the Seven-Year Stitch. But despite the yuletide bustle, when her friend Captain Moe asks for her help, she can’t refuse—especially when the favor is to play the elf to his Santa for sick children at a local hospital. Despite the ridiculous outfit, Marcy finds herself enjoying spreading cheer—until the hospital’s administrator is found murdered.

Although the deceased had plenty of people willing to fill her stocking with coal, evidence pins the crime on Moe. Now it’s up to Marcy, with the help of her police officer boyfriend Ted and her Irish Wolfhound Angus, to stitch together the clues to clear Moe’s name—before someone else winds up crossed off Santa’s list for good…

AMAZON

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Leave your link and I’ll drop by your 56.

Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

You can find a list of my reviews HERE.

For a list of free eBooks go HERE

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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I have another fun cozy mystery to share with you!

Wicked Stitch is the 8th book in the Embroidery Mystery Series but you don’t have to have read the other books to enjoy this one.

I started this series with the fifth book and then read the 7th book before reading Wicked Stitch. I plan to go back and start from the beginning. I’d like to be there when Marcy first moved to Tallulah Falls.

Enjoy my review.

And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

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Wicked Stitch
by Amanda Lee

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A great cozy mystery…
~Bab’s Book Bistro

Wicked Stitch:
An Embroidery Mystery

Series: Embroidery Mystery (Book 8)
Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Signet (April 7, 2015)
ISBN-13: 978-0451467409
E-Book ASIN: B00MNN7GXQ

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 My Review

It’s good to be back with my friends in Tallulah Falls. There’s big doings going on. The town is hosting the Renaissance Fair and all of the business owners are setting up booths to ply their wares and dressing up in period costumes.

Marcy plans on displaying some of the blackwork embroidery she’s been working on along with some other stuff from her shop, The Seven year Stitch.

Everything is going swimmingly until Marcy visits the booth next to hers. The booth belongs to her nemesis, Nellie, who just recently opened up a needlework shop right next door to Marcie’s and even copied her interior decorating.

Trying to once again mend fences, Marcie visits Nellie’s booth only to find her collapsed on the floor, a scarf wound tightly around her neck.

Marcy calls her boyfriend,detective Ted Nash, to report what she found and she’s quickly cleared as a suspect. Well almost. Nellie’s sister, Clara, swears Marcy killed her. The two sisters never liked Marcy from the moment she moved to Tallulah falls and made her life miserable.

Marcy and Ted put their heads together to try to solve the murder, along with an arson case that might be connected. Marcy’s booth gets trashed, people get assaulted, and a killer roams the crowds, invisible is his costume.

It’s never dull in Tallulah Falls. For such a small town, there’s always trouble and poor Marcy seems to always land in the middle of it.

All of the usual characters are back, the good and the bad. I swear those sisters, Nellie and Clara, are meaner than snakes. I was as enraged as Marcy to learn that Nellie had set up shop right next door to her, plying a lot of the same merchandise, trying to steal her customers, and copying her interior decor. I guess it could be considered a compliment and I have a feeling Marcy wouldn’t lose many customers to mean old Nellie.

Not that I’d wish Nellie dead. The obvious suspect would be Marcy. I know Marcy can handle herself and she’s gotten really close with Ted. Their romance is steaming along and they had me giggling and sighing. They are so sweet together. And Marcy’s Irish wolfhound, Angus, is as adorable as ever. I love when the author gives an animal a part in their story. There’s a sweet little rabbit too and Angus adores it. Unfortunately, it belongs to Nellie. I think play dates will be unlikely.

Once the killer was revealed, and it was a surprise to me, I felt the ending was a bit rushed. I would have liked a little more action. It was over so quickly. Perhaps I just didn’t want it to be the end yet.

Spring is here and summer will soon follow. I’d recommend this as a fun mystery to read while sitting outside taking in the fresh air or lounging by the pool. I’m looking forward to visiting Tallulah Falls again.

4 Stars

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Synopsis:

When murder strikes the small town of Tallulah Falls, embroidery shop owner Marcy Singer isn’t afraid of getting into the knitty-gritty to clear her own name…

For most small-business owners in Tallulah Falls, the upcoming Renaissance Faire is a wonderful way to promote their specialty shops. For Marcy’s nemesis, Nellie, and her sister Clara, it’s an opportunity to finally put Marcy and her shop, the Seven-Year Stitch, out of business. Apparently the sisters like to keep their grudges all in the family and have set up a competing booth right next to Marcy’s at the Faire.

When Clara is discovered dead in her own booth—strangled by the scarf she had almost finished knitting—Marcy becomes the prime suspect. Now she has to do whatever it takes to keep her reputation from unraveling and get to the bottom of a most deadly yarn…

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About This Author

Gayle Trent (writing as Amanda Lee) writes the embroidery mystery series. The series features a heroine who recently moved to the Oregon coast to open an embroidery specialty shop. Marcy Singer left her home in San Francisco, along with the humiliation of being left at the altar, in order to move to Tallulah Falls and realize her dream of owning her own shop. She takes along her faithful companion, a one-year-old Irish wolfhound named Angus O’Ruff. She makes many new friends in Tallulah Falls, but she also makes a few enemies. Thankfully, her best friend Sadie MacKenzie and her husband Blake run the coffeehouse right down the street from Marcy’s shop, the Seven-Year Stitch; and Detective Ted Nash always has her back. Gayle/Amanda lives in Virginia when she’s not inhabiting the fictional world of Tallulah Falls.

 

Author  Links

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads

Purchase Links
Amazon B&N Book Depository Kobo Google Play

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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Amanda Lee’s Embroidery Mystery Series is so fun. I’ve read one other book in the series and was excited to get a chance to read Thread End.

Please, enjoy the excerpt and my reviews.

And don’t forget to enter the giveaways! Yep, there’s two!

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Thread End

by Amanda Lee

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Thread End:
An Embroidery Mystery

Series: Embroidery Mystery (Book 7)
Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Signet (June 3, 2014)
ISBN-10: 0451467396 / ISBN-13: 978-0451467393
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MY REVIEW

I live in a small coastal town and we have a lot of small shops like The Seven Year Stitch. I enjoy wandering around, looking at all of the colorful items and usually walk out with things I didn’t plan on buying. It’s also fun to chat with the other folks and catch up on the latest news.

There’s a few things I look for in a cozy mystery. First, the cover art. It’s perfect for this series. I like how the author features  Marcy’s wolfhound, Angus, on the covers. I’m a huge dog lover and he adds a lot of humor and genuineness to the story.

The title is important also. It has to be catchy and fun. Thread End is perfect, as someone does meet their end.

There need to be colorful but flawed characters. Marcy is definitely flawed. She’s a magnet for dead bodies. Seems like, for such a small town, she ‘s always stumbling across a new victim.

There also has to be a theme, like the embroidery shop. I enjoy reading about the shop and how Marcy runs it and converses with her customers.

Next is the romance. Marcy and sexy Detective Ted Nash are getting serious and Marcy finally gets to meet his mother.

Finally, there’s the mystery. The author gives you a shady victim. He’s an art thief, and when the museum is robbed you’d think of him first. But that doesn’t work as Marcy finds him rolled up in one of the tapestries, dead, behind her shop.

There are plenty of suspects, with new characters and old. I had such fun sniffing out the clues. There are a lot of red herrings before you begin to get an idea who the culprit is.

What charmed me the most was the little details. Like Marcy waiting to put on her bright red lipstick until after she kisses Ted hello, or remembering to let her dog, Angus, in and out periodically throughout the book. These small things make the story come to life. They ground you in real life events.

The author also is very good at sprinkling in the back story of characters and past events without bogging down your reading. She casually mentions things in just the right places so you aren’t left wondering. That’s why I say you can read this series in any order. But I’d recommend starting at the beginning so you meet each new character as they are introduced and experience them as they grow.

If you like a good cozy mystery, I highly recommend Thread End and the rest of this series. They’ll tickle your funny bone, sharpen your sleuthing skills, and warm your insides with the enchanting romance.

4 STARS

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Synopsis

Marcy can’t wait to see the new exhibit at the Tallulah Falls museum on antique tapestries and textiles, including beautiful kilim rugs. But her enthusiasm quickly turns to terror when, the day after the exhibition opens, she discovers a dead body behind her store, the Seven-Year Stitch, wrapped up in a most unusual fashion.

The victim appears to be a visiting art professor in town for the exhibit. Did someone decide to teach the professor a lesson, then attempt to sweep the evidence under the rug? Along with her boyfriend, Detective Ted Nash, Marcy must unravel an intricate tapestry of deception to find a desperate killer.

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A Book Excerpt

I’d stayed up too late the night before; but even sleep deprived, I was chipper as Angus and I pulled into our usual parking spot outside the Seven-Year Stitch. I had seen Vera and Paul only briefly at the museum exhibit, so I supposed Vera would be in sometime today. I hoped she would anyway. It would be fun to relive the evening with her…going over the pieces we’d liked best. I wondered if she’d made the collector any offers. I grinned. Knowing Vera, she probably had.

I hopped out of the Jeep and snapped Angus’s leash onto his collar. He jumped out and sniffed the sidewalk while I unlocked the front door. As soon as we got inside, I took the leash off. Angus bounded over to the sit-and-stitch square where he’d left his favorite toy—a Kodiak bear Vera had brought him back from a trip she’d taken a few months ago.

I relocked the door. I still had about half an hour until the shop opened, and I liked to have the shop tidy and restocked when customers started coming in. The first order of business every Saturday morning was to take the trash out. The sanitation truck ran at noon every Saturday, so all the shops on our side of the street scrambled to get their garbage out to the receptacles before then.

Fortunately for me, the Seven-Year Stitch didn’t generate a lot of trash…especially when compared to MacKenzies’ Mochas. That shop produced more garbage in a day than the Stitch did in a week. In fact, Blake had to take their garbage out twice a day—double bagged so the food scraps wouldn’t attract bears.

I was thinking about bears, Blake, Sadie, and how Sadie had talked me into coming to Tallulah Falls and opening my shop—for which I would be forever grateful—when I stepped out the back door with my bag of trash. I tossed the bag into the bin, turned, and then gasped as I saw something lying against the wall.

For the world, the…thing…looked like the kilim Reggie had admired so much last night at the exhibit. But it couldn’t be…. Could it?

I crept closer. It was the rug—I recognized the colors and the unmistakable patterns. But what was it doing here?

I took another step toward the rolled up kilim and saw that it was badly stained. Had someone bought it, got something all over it, and left it here for the sanitation crew to dispose of? Surely not.

Maybe Vera had bought it, gotten it stained, and then left it here at the back of my store to see if I could clean it. No, that didn’t make any sense to me either, but I was really grasping at straws.

I took one more step closer and nudged the rug with my foot. I wasn’t about to touch such a valuable kilim until I found out why it was lying outside my shop.

When I pushed it, the rug rolled slightly. Then I spotted something…a hand! And the hand was attached to a body…that was attached to a face…a face that looked vaguely familiar.

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Gayle

About The Author

Amanda Lee, also writing as Gayle Trent, is a full-time writer living with her family in Southwest Virginia. She writes the embroidery mystery series as Amanda Lee and writes the cake decorating series and the Myrtle Crumb series as Gayle Trent.

 

 

 

 

Author Links

http://www.gayletrent.com/, http://www.gayletrent.com/blog/, http://www.killercharacters.com/, http://fatalfoodies.blogspot.com/, https://twitter.com/GayleTrent, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/426208.Gayle_Trent

AMAZON BOOK LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Thread-End-An-Embroidery-Mystery/dp/0451467396/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1395856444&sr=1-1

Purchase Links
Amazon B&N

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Other books I’ve read in this series.

I won Thread on Arrival by Amanda Lee from a giveaway on Lori’s blog escape with dollycas.

I fell in love with the soft, pastel colors on the cover art. I love a cover that is, well, cozy.

Click on the cover for my review.

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I have two giveaways today!

You can enter both!

The first one is for a print copy of Thread End (Open Internationally)

To enter, please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win and leave some comment love. Tell us somethin!!

Now for the second giveaway! It’s open Internationally!

$50 Amazon Gift Card

Click on the rafflecopter below to enter.

Raffle button

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Tour Participants

June 1 – Griperang’s Bookmarks – Review,
June 2 – Books-n-Kisses – Review, Interview, Giveaway
June 3 – fuonlyknew ~ Laura’s ramblins and reviews – Review, Giveaway
June 4 – Queen of All She Reads – Review, Guest Post,
June 5 – Brooke Blogs – Review
June 6 – Shelley’s Book Case – Review, Interview,
June 7 – Michelle’s Romantic Tangle – Review, Guest Post
June 8 – rantin’ ravin’ and reading – Review, Giveaway
June 9 – Back Porchervations – Review
June 10 – Melina’s Book Blog – Review, Guest Post,
June 11 – deal sharing aunt – Review, Interview, Giveaway
June 12 – Mochas, Mysteries and Meows – Guest Post, Giveaway
June 13 – Community Bookstop – Review
June 14 – Chloe Gets A Clue – Interview

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The Embroidery Series

The Quick and the Thread (An Embroidery Mystery, #1)  Stitch Me Deadly (An Embroidery Mystery, #2)  Thread Reckoning (An Embroidery Mystery, #3)  The Long Stitch Good Night (An Embroidery Mystery, #4)

Thread on Arrival (An Embroidery Mystery, #5)  15814877  18812364

Go here for more of Amanda Lee’s books.

And go here for Gayle Trent’s books.

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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