Virtual Tour & #Giveaway for Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Joyce and Jim Lavene

Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Tour, presented by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours, for Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Joyce and Jim Lavene.  Please leave a comment or question for Joyce and Jim to let them know you stopped by.  You can enter their tour wide giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.  You can also follow all of the stops on their tour by clicking on the banner above.  The more stops you visit, the better your chances of winning.

Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About

By Joyce and Jim Lavene

Pumpkin Patch Mysteries, Book 1

Publisher:  Joyce and Jim Lavene

Editor:  Jeni Chappelle

Release Date:  August 4, 2015

Genre: Cozy Mystery/Female Sleuth

Format: Print/eBook

Length: 208 Pages

ISBN:  978-1515190134  

ASIN:  B00Z7LUVZQ

Buy Link:  Amazon

About the book:

Richmond attorney Sarah Tucker returns to sell her family’s abandoned farm in Misty River, Virginia despite unanswered questions about her grandparents’ disappearance sixteen years earlier. Sarah was only twelve when she went to visit and found her grandparents had vanished. No amount of searching has brought answers.

Now Sarah is faced with other issues when a man is killed who claimed to have information about what happened to her grandparents. She learns of a Confederate chest of gold that is said to be buried on the property, and treasure hunters who are willing to do anything to get their hands on it.

Were her grandparents murdered for the gold? Sarah can’t sell the land and go back to her life until she has answers. But the cost of the answers may be her life.

Includes farm-fresh recipes!

A cozy mystery set in a pumpkin patch in Virginia, Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Joyce and Jim Lavene is filled with colorful characters, plenty of action and a light touch of humor.  The first book in a new series by the authors, this is a book cozy readers will enjoy, especially those who enjoy reading cozies with recipes.  Having read other books by these authors, I looked forward to reading this new story and was not disappointed.  

A divorced attorney given the task of selling her grandparents farm, Sarah Tucker returns to Misty River for the first time in 16 years.  While waiting for the real estate agent to arrive, Sarah can’t help remembering the good times she had visiting her grandparents as a child and how they all came to an end when she turned twelve and her grandparents literally disappeared from the face of the earth.  Determined to discover what happened all those years ago, Sarah soon finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and a hunt for buried treasure.

The authors do an excellent job introducing us to Sarah, the female sleuth at the center of their new series.  She’s attractive, smart and thinks she can take care of herself, especially since she learned to use a gun and is licensed to carry.  I easily connected with Sarah and enjoyed watching her character develop as I turned the pages.  Good character development is something I’ve come to admire about the Lavene’s and their stories.

The secondary characters, beginning with Jack Collins, a man “illegally” living on Sarah’s family’s property, are well developed and I found myself laughing every time that Jack made an appearance.  Especially since he and Sarah have a backstory she doesn’t completely remember.  The sheriff of the small town and the rest of the inhabitants are also well developed and each contributed something to the story.  I especially liked how everyone had good things to say about Sarah’s grandparents, though clearly some of them have too much time on their hands because they thought they had been abducted by aliens.  It was also nice to have a “surprise visit” from a character in another of the author’s series, it just added an extra element of fun. 

The mystery of what happened to Sarah’s grandparents and why someone gets killed inside the old farmstead within a day of Sarah’s arrival is well developed and takes several twists and turns.  It’s also tied to a legend about Confederate gold that is supposedly hidden somewhere on the property.  The story is quickly paced and my imagination was clearly engaged in the story.  I especially enjoyed how something that was supposed to be simple and take a couple of days at most, turned into a life changing experience for Sarah. 

Will Sarah discover what really happened to her grandparents?  Will she find the Confederate gold that is allegedly buried on her family’s land?  And will Sarah and Jack become good friends?  You’ll have to read Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About to find out.  I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.

My Rating:  4.5 out of 5 Crowns

About these Authors

Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant. They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, Amazon, and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family.

Author Links

Website:  www.joyceandjimlavene.com 

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/joyceandjimlavene 

Amazon Author Page:  http://amazon.com/author/jlavene 

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AuthorJLavene

a Rafflecopter giveaway FTC Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour for a fair and honest review which in no way influenced my opinion of the reading material provided