Wakela Runen's World

Cirque Du Slay by Rob Osler narrated by Pete Cross This is the 2nd book in a cozy mystery series.  I hadn't read the first book, and it definitely didn't hinder my enjoyment of this book.  The book follows Hayden McCall and his friends as they walk the tight rope of life, love and solving a murder.  Hayden and his best friend Hollister are helping out with a fundraiser that is being hosted by Hollister's friend Sarah Lee.  However, the main act (Kennedy Osaka) for the fundraiser fails to show.  Since Sarah Lee is a longtime friend of Kennedy, she decides to look for her in Kennedy's hotel room.  Not only does Sarah Lee find Kennedy murdered, but she is found there by the police while holding the murder weapon.  Even though Hayden doesn't really like Sarah Lee, he decides to help his friend Hollister in clearing Sarah Lee's name.   This book is phenomenal!    I listened to the entire book in one day.  I did have to pause a few times to walk away from the book, bu

The Body's Keepers by Paul L. Kimmel, M.D. narrated by Lane Hakel From a medical standpoint, this book is quite interesting.  Does it give you information on how to help yourself if you have kidney issues?  No, it does not.  However, it does a great job of detailing the function of the kidneys, the past and current available treatments, as well as the ramifications of a capitalistic medical machine has on the treatment of patients. Dr. Kimmel uses medical cases and personal accounts to help you understand the ramifications of kidney disease on your health and finances.  Living with kidney disease is not an easy undertaking.  I am currently at stage 3a of chronic kidney disease.  This means that my kidneys are not functioning to the capacity that they are supposed to be.  This book helped open my eyes to what it truly means to have CKD and its effects on my body.  You don't really realize how much is affected by your kidneys not functioning at a normal level.   I was able to lea

Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear by Robin Wasley narrated by Eunice Wong Can I start by saying "WOW"?  The audiobook is a little over 12 hours long, but I finished it in one day.  I did not want to stop listening at all.  Robin Wasley sped out of the gate with her first book, a great combo fantasy/horror book.   First up, the narration.  Eunice Wong was incredible.  Her voicing of the story kept me on the edge of my seat.  There was depth to her characters as well as range in her intonation of the actual story.  When characters were whispering, she did too.  If the characters were anxious, you could feel it in her voice.  I will definitely be looking for more books narrated by Eunice! The story starts off describing the sleepy little town where tourists visit to see where the magic used to happen.  However, the fault lines were sealed off ages ago and the magic is no longer accessible.  There is one caveat to that though.  There are guardians who hold keys to unlock th

Once Upon a Murder by Samantha Larsen narrated by Marni Penning This may be the 2nd book in the Lady Librarian book series, but it is the first one that I have read.  Not knowing what occurred in the 1st book did not hamper my enjoyment of this book.  It would have been nice to know more about some of the situations that were referenced though.  I do plan on going back to read the 1st book since I want to know what happened in it. Take a step back to 1784 and ride along as Tiffany attempts to clear both her and Samir's name of murder.  It seems in the prior book; Tiffany had dressed up as her brother and started working for the Duchess of Beaufort as the librarian.  In this book, she is now known as herself and is working as the librarian and also as nanny for the young Duke.  There are some really cute parts with Tiffany and the young pirate interacting.   This book had way too many juxtapositions of contradicting ideas.  Some of them actually concerned me and took me out of the t

Not Your Crush's Cauldron Book 3 of Supernatural Singles by April Asher narrated by Zura Johnson This is the 3rd book in the series and I hadn't read any of the prior books.  This did not affect my ability to follow along with the story.  In fact, I absolutely loved this story.  As soon as I was done listening, I bought the first 2 books.  I can't wait to listen to those!! Zura Johnson creates voices for the characters that fit their personality and has great intonation.  I do tend to listen to my books at 1.5X speed and the pacing at that rate was great.  This is the first book that I have listened to that she has narrated.  I plan to keep an ear out for more of her books.   The series follows triplet witches as they try to discover their true selves as well as their one true love.  In Not Your Crush's Cauldron, we get to know Olive (the 3rd born of the triplets) much more.  She is a reserved, down-to-Earth professor that teaches supernatural studies.  She has a normal

A Killer Romance by Maggie Blackburn narrated by Christa Lewis This is the 3rd book in the Beach Reads series.  It is the first book that I have listened to in the series.   Summer Merriweather inherited not only a house, but a book shop from her deceased mom.  Once a professor of Shakespearean literature, she has now uprooted her life to run Beach Reads on a small island in North Carolina.  Against her better judgement, Summer hosts Lana Livingstone for the Valentine's Day event "Romance by The Sea".  Summer feels that Lana's latest book does not fully understand Romeo and Juliet.  And talking to Lana, she quickly realizes that Lana has the misunderstanding that "Romeo and Juliet" is a romance and not a tragedy.   It soon becomes apparent that Lana is a suspect in her husband's murder.  And when she is found dead at the local B&B, the Beach Read employees are under suspicion.   There were a few things in the story that did bother me a little bit.  I

A Bean to Die For by Tara Lush narrated by Kae Marie Denino This may be the fourth book in the series, but it is the first one that I have read.  I was hooked from the beginning.  I do have to admit, I am not into coffee.  Yea, I know that isn't something to admit to.  I will drink coladas occasionally.  I just don't like regular coffee.   Now that we have that out of the way, the main protagonist is Lana who owns the Perkatory (a coffee shop in Devil's Beach, Florida).  She is to the point in her career where she is thinking about growing her own coffee beans.  Her dad gets her set up with a plot in the community garden.   Darla, the woman who runs (or should I say rules) the community garden, has a long list of rules that must be followed.  It is very easy to get thrown out.  In fact, Lana is taking over the plot of someone who was recently thrown out.  While she is there clearing out his plot, she finds his dead body.   The victim's name is Jack and at first it looks

Hammers and Homicide  by Paula Charles narrated by Petrea Burchard A new series by a new author and what a way to start!  After the last word of the book was spoken, I immediately wanted the next in the series.  Alas, this series is fresh off the press.  So, there will be quite a bit of waiting to go. Hammers and Homicide is the first in the Hometown Hardware mystery series.  The main character is a recently widowed woman named Dawna who owns a hardware store that she opened with her husband.   I loved that the author jumped into the story and you learned about the characters as the story progressed.  Instead of giving a detailed backstory about the main character first.  You meet many of the townsfolk and learn about their quirks and foibles.   There is a very small hint of paranormal to the story as Dawna does feel like the ghost of her deceased husband is still with her.  She feels like she smells him around her.  She talks to him regularly.  Because of this, her kids think she is g

Deadly to the Core by Joyce Tremel narrated by Hilary Huber First, I need to fan girl about the narrator a little bit!!  I absolutely love Hilary Huber. 😍 She narrates some of my favorite series and does a fabulous job.  So, when I hit play and heard her voice I was overjoyed!  There are three narrators that I will go out of my way to look for books that they do, and Hilary is one of them.  I always know that she will do a great job with the characters.  Ok, gushing over Hilary over.   Let's get on with the review of the actual book.  This is a new to me author and I am glad that I found her.   Kate physically survived a crash that took her beloved husband away from her, but mentally she feels like she died with him.  Or at least she wishes that she did.  That is until her Uncle Stan passes away and leaves her an orchard.    She uproots her life and moves to the orchard in the hopes of starting fresh and healing from her past.  However, the orchard manager and her uncle's trus