The commissary is now offering Halloween candy ... so I was not surprised to received a package from Kensington with an ARC for Laura Levine's DEATH OF A NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH. Laura Levine the Jaine Austen Mysteries - Jaine is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles who finds herself in the middle of murder, mayhem, and cat hair. Jaine's cat, Prozac, has no patience for Jaine's sleuthing. Prozac may be on the cover of DEATH OF A NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH, but it is Jaine who creates the havoc:
Halloween is just around the corner, and between cauldrons of candy and a deliciously cute new neighbour, Jaine Austen is struggling to resist her sweet tooth. But this year, her once humdrum neighbourhood seems to be handing out more tricks than treats.
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| The Wicked Witch from THE WIZARD OF OZ |
My mother, Barbara, read DEATH OF A NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH on our trip to Kauai. She offers her thoughts:
Reading Laura Levine's latest book was like being reunited with an old friend Jaine Austen. Although I've missed a few books in the series (I intend to catch up), I fell right back into the Jaine's life. This book was thoroughly enjoyable. One has to laugh out loud at Jaine's antics. Her neighbors, friends, and even parents (emailing from Tampa) make for such an amusing time as if one is there in Los Angeles with Jaine. It is easy reading for a person who perhaps doesn't have all day to read in one sitting. It was the perfect book for traveling. My fellow companions were quite alarmed at my laughter! Laura Levine wrote a surprising ending that makes this my favorite Jaine Austen book. All in all, DEATH OF A NEIGHBORHOOD WITCH was a very happy experience.
Mahalo, Barbara, for your review. I am holding onto the ARC to read it myself (and post my review at SOS Aloha). Since Barbara read this book in Kauai, I am giving away a Kauai 2013 calendar. To enter the giveaway,
1. Do you celebrate Halloween - dress up? give away candy? brew up apple cider in your cauldron?
2. This giveaway is open to all readers.
3. Comments are open through Friday, September 7, 10 pm in Hawaii. I'll post the winner on Saturday, September 8.
Mahalo,
Kim in Hawaii
To learn more about Laura and her books, check out her website at www.lauralevinemysteries.com.
| Here is Prozac's Hawaiian cousin .... |
I love Halloween, but don't dress up unless I'm going to a party.
ReplyDeleteYes, I only dress up when I'm attending a party. :D
ReplyDeleteWe don't celebrate Halloween in Australia. I'm actually rather glad. Too scary for me.
ReplyDeleteWhen my kids were little, I went all out for Halloween. We would all get dressed up. It was fun.
ReplyDeleteI don't dress up. I used to give out candy but the kids don't seem to be coming around anymore. It's an older neighborhood now.
ReplyDeletei have not join any HAllowen party yet
ReplyDeleteWe don't celebrate Halloween here in Indonesia. But i love watching movies about Halloween ,i know it's scarry but i like it. Love the custom n pumpkin too.
ReplyDeleteWe stay home on Halloween and hand out candy. Every other year my friend has a big Halloween party at her house that is tons of fun, and this is one of the years she is having it...on the weekend before Halloween, so we will be attending it.
ReplyDeleteI always give out candy and when my children were young I've dressed up for school parties, adult parties and just to hand out the candy sometimes. Our American Legion always has a party and dress up is optional - sometimes I do and sometimes I don't lol.
ReplyDeleteI don't decorate or celebrate Halloween anymore. We live out in the country so we don't even get any kids trick or treating. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing 'cause there's no candy hanging around!
ReplyDeleteI give away lots and lots of candy.
ReplyDeleteI love Halloween. We put up outdoor decorations. When we're invited to a party, we dress up. When we're at home, we give away lots of candy to trick-or-treaters.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim!
ReplyDeleteWe still decorate the house with orange and white steamers, carve a pumpkin for the front porch, give away candy and celebrate Halloween (but don't dress up anymore) but each year there are less children trick or treating in our neighborhood!
I must admit I miss the Holloweens of the past. When I grew up we all made our own costumes and stopped at each house on our street. "Back in the day" we got homemade donuts or apples that had picked fresh off the trees and put in the cold storage room down in the neighbor's cellars to keep fresh just for Halloween! We rarely got candy and actually looked forward to all the homemade "treats". To be honest we did on occasion stop more than once at the neighbors' house with the homemade donuts! Other neighbors would give us a cup of warm homemade cider to drink and to warm us up on a cold Halloween night which wa always a special treat!
Of course we all thought we had done such a wonderful job on our costumes that no one would ever recognize us but without a doubt "Uncle Al" (no actual relative but that's what all of us called him) would invite us inside to warm up and play us a record on his old gramaphone!
Nowadays most families keep the children at home and there are very few who venture out to walk around the neighborhood and gather treats. I often wonbder when things changed so much and how so many no longer feel safe to going house to house in their neighborhoods!
We don't celebrate Halloween.
ReplyDeleteI do celebrate halloween. I actually have more boxes of halloween decorations than any other decorations. We carve pumpkins, decorate and buy candy. Of course we buy candy we like because we don't get many kids trick or treating so we know we'll be eating what's left. My daughter is short...lol so she's been dressing up and going trick or treating each year even after she got to be a teenager. No one knew because of the make up or masks because like I said, she can pull it off being short.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite way to celebrate halloween though is by watching the Horror movies all month long. I've already seen an increase in scary movies and have been recording them on my DVR to watch later. I love this time of year.
Our kids are grown so no taking kids around the neighborhood but we do give out candy.
ReplyDeleteI always give out candy to the neighborhood kids. I sit outside with a huge bowl. I love to see what the kids have dressed up as. I always end up with candy leftover, plus numerous mosquito bites.
ReplyDeleteWe buy candy we like to give away just in case there is going to be some left over. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). There have been fewer children over the years because fewer houses participate and it is a long way to walk for such poor returns. I don't dress up but I enjoy seeing the costumes and I drive the kids nuts because I demand a 'thank you' in return for their candy!
ReplyDelete