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TCO Reviews: Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge
Looks like it’s cooking cozy week here at The Cozy Owlet, and this time we’re exploring a historical cozy set in 1950s Paris. Fun fact – when I first realized I could get access to ARC as a book blogger last year, Mastering the Art of French Murder was one of (if not the) the…
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TCO Reviews: Final Draft by Shelley Burbank
For our next March review, I’m excited to share Final Draft by Shelley Burbank! The book follows Olivia Lively, a P.I. in Portland, Maine, as she deals with a criminal ex, overbearing parents, and a plagiarism scandal that threatens one writer’s reputation and another’s future. There’s been so much rain here in the Bay, and…
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TCO Reviews: Love and Other Scams by Philip Ellis
Cons, scams, heists – if there’s a story with a stylish crime in it, I’m in. And my 2022 was full of weddings, which can get tiring after a while. So I was excited to get a preview of Love and Other Scams by Philip Ellis, which follows two con artists who try to pull…
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TCO Reviews: I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai
2023 might be the year we have a good think about the role of the True Crime podcast. Last year, they were a huge trend in the books I enjoyed, but from a lighthearted stance – exploring the form and format. This year, Rebecca Makkai has brought the genre to a darker, more thoughtful space…
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TCO Reviews: Death Comes to the Costa del Sol by M.H. Eccleston
When I’ve got the January blues, I find myself longing for sunshine and warm beaches. So when I came across Death Comes to the Costa del Sol by M. H. Eccleston, I was excited to escape endless rain to the seaside resort of Estipona. (Thanks to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the digital review…
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TCO Reviews: Crime and Punctuation by Kaitlyn Dunnett
When it comes to linguistics, I go back and forth between prescriptivist and descriptivist. I know, intellectually, that language flows with the people, and forcing “correct” rules on it ignores how languages evolve to accommodate new needs. Still, there’s part of me that loves the clear meaning that you get with a well-defined, broadly accepted…
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TCO Reviews: VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
Since I was a young girl, I’ve loved fantasy novels, especially those in urban settings. It was never Big Battles that did it for me – instead, I preferred to see magic used in daily life, on human scale. To this day, I prefer this juxtaposition of the ordinary and extraordinary – whether it’s a…
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The World of Pondside: Cozy mystery with a video-game twist
I’ve always loved the idea of video games as interactive art. Growing up, cozy puzzle-solving games like Professor Layton were a welcome interactive escape. Later, in college, I discovered channels like Extra Credits that got me thinking critically about how the interactivity of games sets them apart. And Cozy Grove, with its wholesome story of…
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TCO Reviews: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
I was really excited to get the chance to read Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Many thanks to the publisher for the gift! This fun take on the manor house mystery will release January 2023, and I honestly liked it so much that I’ll probably buy myself a copy to…
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TCO Reviews: Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood
In addition to mystery novels, I am also an avid fan of word games. I particularly love crossword puzzles: I regularly race my friends to complete the New York Times crossword, and got into cryptic crosswords over the pandemic. I’m still terrible at them – I can’t solve anagrams to save my life – but…