Feta Attraction by Susannah Hardy - Review, Guest Post and Giveaway

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Feta Attraction by Susannah Hardy

A Greek to Me Mystery #1

ISBN: 9780425271650

Mass Market Paperback

Synopsis: Georgie Nikolopatos manages the Bonaparte House, a Greek restaurant and historic landmark in beautiful upstate New York rumored to possess ghosts and hidden treasure. But when her husband disappears and her main competitor is found dead, it’s up to Georgie to solve a big fat Greek murder.

With her husband, Spiro, inexplicably gone for days, Georgie has her hands full running the restaurant and dealing with the crew of the TV show Ghost Squad, called in by Spiro to inspect the house for haunting. So when she has a chance to take a boating excursion on the St. Lawrence River with her friend Keith Morgan, she jumps on it. But their idyll is quickly ruined when they discover the body of rival restaurant owner Domenic “Big Dom” DiTomasso floating in the water.

When the police start asking questions, it doesn’t help that Spiro can’t be found—and with Georgie on their suspect list, it’s up to her to find her missing husband and find out who killed Big Dom before someone else’s order is up.

Includes delicious Greek recipes!

My review: I love a good cozy mystery so I jumped at the chance to give this new one a chance. This was a fun book to read. It was cute how she used the play on words in her title, I love feta cheese and will think of this book each time I eat it now. You can not help but love Georgie and her typically Greek mother in law Sophie. The author kept me going with the inclusion of history of ghosts in the story. These are two of my favorite things to read about. There are enough twists and turns that kept me reading long into the night. The only thing that left me wanting more was the end of the book and what I want more of is more books in this series. I can't wait to read the next one. Don't forget to check out the delicious recipes in the back of the book. 

Link to all the stops on the blog tour

Guest Post by Susannah Hardy

Hi, Griperang! Thanks for having me here today to talk about my debut mystery novel, FETA ATTRACTION, book 1 of the Greek to Me Mysteries.

People often ask me how I got interested in the mystery genre. I’d have to go back—way back!—to elementary school, where I read every Encyclopedia Brown book I could get my hands on. Oh, how I loved to match wits with Donald J. Sobol’s boy detective. I didn’t always figure it out before reading the solutions—but sometimes I did, and that was all it took to hook me.

My second influence was, of course, Scooby-Doo. Saturday mornings in my house were spent in front of the television with a bowl of Cap’n Crunch (crunchberries and the peanut butter kind were preferred varieties), trying to figure out who the bad guy was before my sisters did—which wasn’t exactly fair, since I (a) was older and (b) had the Encyclopedia Brown training. To this day, I have a thing for stories about people in disguise with big secrets—and meddling kids. I’m still trying to figure out how to work a witch doctor and an abandoned amusement park into one of my books.

It didn’t take long for me to move on to Nancy Drew, who probably influenced every mystery writer and reader out there. Nancy is a young woman who had pretty much everything my young mind wanted: money of her own, a cool car, a devoted boyfriend in Ned Nickerson, stalwart friends in Bess and George, and a father who gave her the freedom to gallivant about the countryside solving mysteries and helping people along the way. Nancy (despite her many incarnations and updates over the years) has stood the test of time.

No list of influencers would be complete without a mention of Agatha Christie. I’ve read and reread her stories and would, if I could, move to St. Mary Mead. Although, I would hope that as a stranger, I wouldn’t be the first one to be dispatched by the local vicar or some disgruntled relative. Obviously, Miss Marple is a favorite character of mine. Poirot and some of the others, less so, but that’s understandable given that Miss Marple is the patron saint of the cozy mystery.  The genre as we know it today would not exist were it not for Dame Agatha.

And finally, I must give a shout-out to the late Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters. Her gothic standalones and mysteries—especially her Amelia Peabody Emerson Egyptian mysteries—are brilliant, and her work is probably the single biggest reason I can point to for my own desire to become a writer. Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters died in 2013, and there is one more Amelia Peabody mystery due to be released (The Painted Queen, April, 2015, according to Amazon). After that, I’ll have to go back and reread the series to get my fix and continue to learn from the master.

It’s been a pleasure to visit here today! Did any particular series of books influence your early reading life? I’d love to hear about them.

Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Feta-Attraction-Greek-Me-Mystery/dp/042527165X/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1419969013&sr=8-1

Website: www.susannahhardy.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004162515783

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SusannahHardy1 @susannahhardy1

Bio:

Susannah Hardy thinks she has the best job in the world: making up stories and inventing recipes to go along with them. A native of northern New York, where she attended St. Lawrence University, Susannah now lives in Connecticut with her husband, teenage son, and Elvira the Wonder Cat.

Giveaway

There will be two giveaways on my blog today. The first is from the author - she is giving away a $10 gift card to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts - winners choice. The second is a copy of her book Feta Attraction. This giveaway is for the US only. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email with their address or a new winner will be picked. They will be a rafflecopter giveaway. See below to enter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway