Glossed and Found (A Bath and Body Mystery, #3) by India Ink

Glossed and Found by India Ink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Glossed and Found is the third book in the Bath and Body Mystery series by India Ink. I am one that just simply has to read books in the order they are meant to go in, but as I read this book, parts of the story seemed familiar, like I had read them before, but yet other parts of the story I knew I hadn't read before, and I know I didn't read the second book before a couple of days ago. I am thinking I might have picked this book up at one time, not realizing it was book three, and then maybe read parts of it, but even if I did, it was a book worth reading again!

Auntie and Persia run Venus Envy in small town, Gull Harbor, WA. It is an upscale bath and body shop that recently added a hairdresser and a makeup artist. Persia has been gifted with a sensitive smell that allows her to pick up on subtle undertones in a fragrance, and so she creates custom blends for her clients, along with all the fragrance blends for Venus Envy's line of bath and body products.

The day of the Thanksgiving Gala in Gull Harbor, Lisa Tremont, the makeup artist at Venus Envy, ducks out early leaving a note that she had to meet someone about the suspicions that she had regarding her late fathers estate. Persia is mad at Lisa for ducking out, but she also knows Lisa wouldn't do it if it wasn't important. Lisa had a date for the Gala, but she never makes it to the Gala, and never calls her boyfriend to cancel. Her sister Amy is worried sick, but there isn't much her boyfriend, the chief of police can do, since Lisa is an adult.

When no one has heard from Lisa in a couple of days, Amy files an official missing person report, but that isn't good enough for Persia and Amy. With the police budget already stretched to the limits and more cuts in the future, Kyle, the police chief can only do so much, especially since there isn't a ransom note and no clues as to what happened to Lisa. Persia is always checking things out on her own, usually to the chagrin or Kyle, but this time she asks his permission to talk to Lisa's clients, as the owner of the shop where she works, and report back to Kyle. This time kyle is glad to have thee help, because he just doesn't have the resources available to do alot on this case.

Another well-written and enjoyable book. I felt pulled in and routing for Persia to find Lisa, and for Kyle to get more money from the council, although that issue is still left hanging at the end of the book, some of the things mentioned in the book about what to do about the council were brought up and I look forward to the next book to see which ones come through and what help it does give the town. I find myself enjoying the town of Gull Harbor and wishing it was a true place that I could visit, but for now I will just have to keep reading about it in this series.

View all my reviews Just found out from the authors webpage that she is no longer writing this series, nor does she feel that she could ever make money writing cozy mysteries, so this is the last. We'll never know if Kyle got more funding, if Auntie truly did run for a seat on the council, and what happened on Persia and Auntie's trip to Hawaii. To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. I am also disappointed in the authors disregard for fans and for the genre. Her current work is way out of my realm of reading, it is a more specific genre than cozy mysteries, and I can't believe that she could really be making more money writing that drivel, but if that is what she thinks, then so be it.

Tutu Deadly (A Jenny T, Partridge Dance Mystery)

Tutu Deadly by Natalie M. Roberts

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


My oldest daughter is a dancer and into musical theater. So when I saw this book listed on the Cozy-Mystery group by someone that they had just read it, i knew I had to see what it was about.

The lead character is Jenny T Partridge, and she owns a dance studio, albeit a small scale studio. She has psycho dance moms coming in and out all day, complaining that their daughters are better than they really our, deserve more front-center time, etc, etc.  On this day, she has been confronted by a psycho mom who thinks her daughter is a dancer, when she clearly could care less about dance and more about picking her nose, who proceeds to pee herself and the dance floor.  As she is cleaning up the mess, a police detective walks in and asks Jenny about a mom, who she comes to find out is dead. Jenny faints on the spot.

This is different in a number of ways from most Cozy mysteries that I have read. In most books, the lead is a capable and confident woman who purposely sets out to find out what is going on, Jenny has no desire to find out what is going on, to just live her normal life, but that is not to be.  Jenny comes across in the first few chapters as almost a brick short of a full load, so to say. She can't get a simple common expression correct and seems to be oblivious to half the world around her.

I think it was Chapter 3 or 4 when I fnally stopped getting the feel that Jenny was brainless, but just oblivious. If it wasn't for the hunky detective that shows an interest in her, and the best friend James that has no clue how to handle his mother, who is actively planning his and Jenny's wedding even though James is gay, I would have no interest in another book, but the ending of this has me on pins and needles to find out what happens with the detective and james.




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Dance, Dance, Dance and Boy Scouts....

When I was going through all those years of fertility treatments, I never really thought about what life would be like if we ever had kids. I remember thinking that I would always bake birthday cakes from scratch, and I do. That was something that kept me going in the darkest days of treatments. When we finally had a boy, I guess I thought of football and baseball games, and when we had a girl I thought of softball but that was about it.

Well, Maeve is defintely nothing I could have ever imagined or dreamed of. I was not a real girly-girl growing up and Maeve is into Musical Theater and Dancing. Wow. I have entered a whole new world. Today is dress rehearsals for a benefit show that the dance studio is putting on tomorrow.

Maeve, and now Molly also, dance for One Step Above Dance Company, or commonly in the area known as OSA. Tomorrow afternoon at the Fairgrounds they are doing their company, or competetion dances ad a benefit. Tickets are $5 and all the money goes to the Ellettsville Boys and Girls CLub. Now, I have to say that I am super excited to be part of something like this that will benefit the Boys and Girls Club, because I love our boys and girls club, It is awesome and the people there really care about the kids.

Maeve and her dad had to be out at the fairgrounds at 9:40 this morning to rehearse their Father-Daughter dance. Every couple of years the studio does a fun dance with fathers and daughters, and they performed for the first time last week. I got to watch and I have to tell you it was amazing. Some of the dads were great dancers, others had no clue, but that wasn't what mattered the most, what was the greatest thing was the look on the girls faces when they were dancing with their dads.

Now I guess it's time for me to get cheesy, but you know, I loved the fact that the studio took the time to offer this dance, and even more that there were so many dad's that agreed to dance with their daughters no matter what their skill level was. In this day and age, with so many broken families and so many parents working two and three jobs that they don't have time to spend with their kids, ad with the teenage pregnancy rates and the research finding that it might have something to do with the lack of a fathers influence. It is so wonderful to see these guys take the time from their lives to spend time with their daughters.

Right now, Maeve is just getting out of the shower and I have to get her fully dressed, hair and make-up and into one outfit for practice at 1:40 then she has her other dance at 3:20. Like I said, it;s a dance, dance, dance day.

It is also a boy scout day, as Tiernan is going to the Boy Scout lock-in at the armory today, and he has to be there at 1pm. So it sounds like dad is going to be driving to the South end of town to the armory to drop Tiernan off while I am driving to the wet side of town to the fairgrounds for Maeve's dance practices.

Next weekend will be even more of the same as Maeve has regionals at Beech Grove saturday. It'll be my first experience with this, I was never in dance or dance competitions growing up, so I am learning all the time!

Missing In Action

WOW! Has it really been 8 months since I have been on this blog?! How can that be?

I have to say that life has been hectic! I am getting into a daily routine, but then Maeve auditioned for Narnia: The Musical and got cast, so we had practices in November and december, with opening night December 31st, and it ran through January 9th. It was a wonderful show, but the week before opening night, I did nothing but sew costumes, find props and work on the show, from 10am to 10pm, everyday, and then on show days, I was there early fixing costumes, or props or whatever else, and it felt like I had no life but that theater. Oh the things we do for our children! I loved it, in the respect that I was there with her, this is something she loves and I got to see her in her element.

Things have slowed down a little, but Maeve is still looking for summer theater to audition for, she has Dear Edwina coming up April 30th and May 1st, two shows both days at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington, and then competition dance season starts next month! WOW! That leaves little time for anything else.

Add to that, Maeve and Molly are both in Girl Scouts, Maeve in the troop that I am leading, and Molly in a Dasiy Troop, and there are outings and events coming up with those, along with cookies. The orders are placed, in fact I am picking up 110 cases of cookies this afternoon, but cookie booths are still to be had, so alot of time involved there.

And for me....i just want to write! I feel more alive, more me when I write and when I take that little bit of time for myself. So I am figuring out how to schedule the time, between laundry, dishes, dance, girl scouts, church, homework and everything else, to have a little time to write. I had to face the fact that when I don't write, I get depressed and my moods get unbalanced. It's just a fact of life, I am a writer at heart, and I need to write, even if it is just a imple daily journal, I need to write each day or I am not as good of a wife, mother, or woman as I could be, or am when I am writing.