Hop 'Til You Drop

Hop ‘Til You Drop (A Jules & Bun Mystery; Book 3 in the Series by J. M. Griffin 288 pages

I fell in love with Bun, a telepathic Dutch rabbit, during his first outing, in “Left Fur Dead.” And now in this, the third book in the series, little Bun and his owner Juliette “Jules” Bridge continue to be a wonderfully loveable pair of sleuths.

Jules primary source of income is children’s parties that she attends where she brings several of the rabbits she has at her rescue, Fur Bridge Farm. All the rabbits live in hutches in the barn, but Bun has his own room in the house. The conversations Bun and Jules have are sometimes hilarious.

In this episode, Jules has agreed to help out her New Hampshire communitywith the first, and hopefully annual, Hop ‘Til You Drop Easter Egg Hunt. Jules has been assigned to hide the eggs and she takes Bun along…he would never let her end the end of it if she didn’t. After all, Bun’s an expert at finding great places to hide eggs.

As they scout their sector, Bun hops across a dead body. It’s not just any body, but the deceased is Della Meany, a very unpleasant woman who is spearheading the event. Our dynamic duo know that Sheriff Jack Carter would prefer that the not nose around in his investigation. As the bodies begin to pile up, he turns to Jules for help in snooping in places his uniform can’t get him into.

I love the interaction between Bun and Jules. Bun is a super confident little dude, who knows his worth and is incredibly nosy.

Hop ‘Til You Drop receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Left Fur Dead

 

Left Fur Dead (Book 1 in the Jules & Bun Series) by J. M. Griffin 368 pages

When a librarian friend emailed me the covr of this book, there was no way tha I could pass it up. If the bunny was gray, it would look a lot my sweet rabbit, Gracie.

Juliette Barnes and operates Fur Bridge Farm where she cares for rescued rabbits. I’m sorry to say that there are two major errors in the story’s beginning that made me cringr. First, rabbits don’t get yearly shots. They do need to go to the vet twice a year though. Second, rabbits should never be given a drip bottle for their water. They can’t enough at one time, which can lead to frustration/aggression and dehydration, which if gets too severe can lead to death.

Those two points weren’t enough to deter me from what ends up being a delightful read. Bun is a black-and-white rabbit, and if he’s the one on the cover, he’s of the Duthc breed. Of all the bunnie in Jules’s care, Bun is the only one who lives indoors. He has a special talent that makes their bond even more special. Bun can communicate, telepathically, with Jules. And he is quite the opinionated little dude.

Life is going just fine until one afternoon, while on their walk, Bun and Jules find a dead body. They are shocked to learn that they know the man; someone Jules works with on occasion. While that doesn’t scare them too bad, it’s not until Jules is attacked in the barn one night by a unknown person who’s features she can distinguish, that the plot heats up. The attacks continue, although Jules is never badly hurt, and the rabbits are never harmed (whew!), the intruder is bent on freeing the bunnies.

Who, and more important, why would someone want to hurt Jules. Could it be the high school kids who work for her sometimes. Or the young girl she has just hired to run  Fur Bridge’s gift shop. Or maybe it could be that homeless man who is living in the woods and seems to be keeping an eye on the place.

Except for those two errors I mentioned earlier, this cozy was a fun read. That’s why “Left Fur Dead” receivs 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. Regardless, I can’t wait for Book 2.

Mind Game

Mind Game by Iris Johansen           Audio Book:  13 hours, 59 mins.      Mass Market Paperback:  464 pages                

I expected better writing from a New York Times best selling author, but, this book was torture for me to push through.    All I kept thinking was, she must be getting paid by the word.   There is so much drawn out absurd dialogue that is so nonsensical it was one of the lamest books I have read.    Real people would not stand around arguing over b.s. when they are in dire straights.     When you are running for your life from a potential attack from a killer you are not going to waste precious minutes or in this case what felt like hours, talking about meaningless drivel when your life is on the line or the life of people close to you.   It was just rubbish.    The themes in this book intrigued me, Scotland, Telepathic Communication, the ability to control blood flow in others which bordered on some vampiric themes at times, creepy Highland mist so thick that even Flashlights and lanterns couldn’t penetrate,  hidden treasure, but the writing just didn’t cut it.   This book reminded me of a highschool creative writing class where the students are given a notebook and told to write in it every day all semester long anything you want and this student wrote a long story.   It feels disjointed in many places.   I checked to see if this was considered a juvenile book because it just didn’t sound like an adult had written it.   There are two sexual encounters depicted, again, in a disjointed way like someone younger was trying to describe a sexual scene but not with any genuine emotion.   Like that person you kissed when you were a teenager and they seemed to slobber all over you because they thought you would like “wet” kisses.  Yuck and that sums up this book for me, “Yuck.”    It had so many good things going for it,  there were so many directions this could have gone in and even if this story stayed on point instead of detracting from the interesting to the long dull bouts of boring dialogue that had nothing to do with what was going on it could have been a good story, it just wasn’t.    Very disappointing book. I would NOT recommend this one to anyone.

Two If By Sea

Two If By Sea by Jacquelyn Mitchard, 401 pages

“Just hours after his wife and her entire family perish in the Christmas Eve tsunami, former police officer Frank Mercy pulls a little boy from a submerged car. Not quite knowing why, Frank doesn’t turn Ian over to the Red Cross. Instead he makes up a story about where the boy came from and takes him home, where Frank realizes that Ian has an otherworldly gift—an extraordinary ability to transform lives beyond anything he’d ever imagined. Awed and confused, Frank confesses Ian’s secret to Claudia, a beautiful champion rider who is training for the Olympics. They join together to fight the sinister forces gathering to take Ian back. In a final confrontation, Frank and Claudia will risk everything—their love, their family, their very lives—to save this boy they now love as their own son.”  I really liked the book, even though it was kind of dark and the ending was a little unsatisfying.  However, I would give this to people who like thrillers and supernatural books.