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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

COZY WEDNESDAY - With Author Kylie Logan(Giveaway too!!)

Welcome to Cozy Wednesday.  I was blown away when I received the guest post from today's guest.  The author information is curiously missing from today's featured book so I knew it was probably an author I knew using a pseudonym.  The question was who was it? You will find out below! 

Button Holed (Button Box Mystery) is the first installment of a brand new series and I loved it!!! My full review will follow Kylie's Guest Post.  Please help me give a warm welcome to Kylie Logan!

Welcome Kylie!! 

Thank you so much for the invitation to blog on your site.


Not everyone is lucky enough to not only have more than one personality, but to be able to celebrate it. As Casey Daniels, I write the Pepper Martin mystery series about a cemetery worker who investigates for the ghosts in her cemetery. The seventh book in that series, "A Hard Day’s Fright" came out in April and book #8, "Wild, Wild Death," will hit shelves on January 3.

But I’ve got a new alter-ego, and she’s just recently made her first official appearance.

She’s Kylie Logan, author of the Button Box mystery series. Book #1, "Button Holed," hit store and virtual shelves early this month.
Cover Illustration
by Jennifer Taylor
Cover Design
by Annette Fiore Defex

It’s been an interesting road to publication for Kylie and it all started, quite simply, because I like buttons. As Josie Giancola, the heroine of the new series comments, buttons are little bits of history, and tiny works of art. They say something about a person’s style, and that person’s social class. Many antique buttons display incredible workmanship, dazzling jewels and even say something about a wearer’s love life; back in the nineteenth century, it was fashionable for a young lady to have a photograph of her beau put on her coat buttons!

Still, I never thought about actually writing a mystery series about buttons until a couple years ago when I visited Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’d just finished lunch at a charming coffee shop and I was alone on the front porch, sipping coffee and knitting, when a couple sat down at the table next to me. There are a couple operative words in that last sentence, namely, alone and next to. You see, they decided to pick that very moment to break up.

I listened to it for ten minutes or so and honestly, I expected them to apologize. After all, there was no doubt I could hear everything they were saying. They didn’t. Instead, they went on and on and I’d had enough. I gathered up my knitting and went next door to an antique shop.

What I didn’t know until I opened the door was that it was an antique shop that specialized in buttons.

Thousands and thousands of buttons.

I was in heaven, and the nice lady who owned the place was only too happy to tell me stories and answer my questions.

It was that encounter that gave me the idea for the Button Box mysteries. Josie owns an antique button shop, too, though hers is in a Chicago brownstone. It’s there that she meets a famous actress who’s come to Josie for the buttons she’ll put on her wedding gown when she marries a European prince. And it’s that actress who is murdered in the shop. When Josie’s cleaning up, she finds an unusual button–one she knows didn’t come from her collection.

As for those multiple personalities of mine . . . readers who enjoy the Pepper Martin mysteries can expect much the same light and airy reading experience and the same sort of humor and intricate plotting. However, there are no paranormal elements in Kylie’s books as there are in Casey’s.

Because Kylie is a new person, she has her own, new blog. You can find her at:

Email her at:

or friend her on Facebook.


~Kylie

Thank you so much for being here today.  You are always welcome to come back no matter what alias you are using.  Kylie also shared with me that she also writes as Miranda Bliss, author of the Cooking Class Mysteries, another of my favorites.  She has other nom de plumes as well but I won't give out all her secrets here today. J

A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
The Berkley Publishing Group
Published by The Penguin Group
A Brand New Series
Josie Giancola is known as a button expert for all kinds of buttons and has even worked in Hollywood.  Today she is opening  her new button shop, The Button Box, set up in a Chicago brownstone. She also has an appointment with a well known Hollywood starlet who wants to find the perfect buttons for her perfect wedding dress.  Josie arrives extra early on her opening day to make sure everything is ready for her appointment only to find that her store has been broken into and ransacked.  There are buttons everywhere.  Buttons she had spent many days sorting and categorizing and displaying with flawless precision.

Things don't get any better when the next day the starlet is found dead right in the middle of The Button Box.  The homicide detective seems to be looking for clues in all the wrong places and the murderer has now set his sights on Josie.   She has no choice but to follow the clues she has and get this murderer all buttoned up before she finds herself "Button Holed"!

My Thoughts
This story could not have been more perfect.  Wonderful characters, a delightful complex plot, and thoroughly engaging humor.

I fell for Josie on the very first page. I come from a family of seamstresses and they all had button bowls and boxes. As a child I spent hours sorting, stacking and separating my favorites.  I have my own button box around here somewhere from my sewing days and I know there are some buttons in there from my ancestors as well. Button Holed (Button Box Mystery) and The Button Box brought back some wonderful memories. Thankfully none of my memories include a dead starlet.

There is also a very interesting thread throughout the story about some very special buttons that I really enjoyed.  

I was truly entertained from the first page to the last!  I am patiently waiting for Kill Button, the next book in The Button Box Mystery Series coming soon, but never soon enough!!

Your Escape With A Good Book Travel Agent

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” 


NOW ARE YOU READY FOR A GIVEAWAY!!
Thanks to Berkley Prime Crime 
I have 2 copies to share!!
U.S. and Canadian Residents Only
Followers will receive
2 Bonus Entries
Leave a comment for Kylie and
receive 5 Bonus Entries
Publicize this giveaway and
receive 5 More Bonus Entries
Contest will end October12 at 11:59 p.m. CST
Good Luck!!


24 comments:

holdenj said...

Looks like a fun new series! I certainly wish Kylie all kinds of success. I'm familiar with the Bliss mysteries (which I really like) and will have to check out the Pepper Martin series! Thanks!
JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com

Becky said...

Sounds like a fun read. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks.

Liz V. said...

Have read such nice reviews and such interesting comments on button collections.

Best wishes Kylie.

Booklady said...

I love the Miranda Bliss series and this new button one sounds very interesting. Thanks for always introducing us to great new series.

Beverly aka Booklady

http://twitter.com/#!/Bookworm307/status/119029639090941952

Beth(bookaholicmom) said...

I love antique buttons. I own a jar full of them! When I saw what that this series was about an antique button store, I was sold! I have shopped for buttons at the flea market from a very nice woman who only deals in antique buttons but have never seen a store devoted to antique buttons. Sounds like a bit of heaven to me! How fun to have different aliases to go with the different series you write! I look forward to reading this cozy!

bthgordon(at)yahoo(dot)com

I am a follower also

Unknown said...

Sounds like a fun new series! I too love buttons (and mystery):)

kissyjensen at gmail dot com

dollycas aka Lori said...

The entry form was loading properly this morning but I have added everyone to this point manually.

Sorry for the trouble.

dollycas aka Lori said...

That should have said was not loading right.
Jeesh!

dollycas aka Lori said...

Kylie is having trouble getting my blog to load so she can comment. I hope others are not having the same problem. You can always contact me at dollycas79@gmail.com if you have any problems. Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

Love the idea of a series with antique buttons. I have buttons from my Mother, Grandmother, GreatGrandmother and Great GreatGrandmother. Also a family freind made a piece using som of my Great and Great GreatGrandmother's buttons. They show so much about how these wwomen dressed.

Can't wait to read this book.

LuAnn said...

I love the title of this series. Makes me smile every time I think about it!

Anonymous said...

Awesome review, I love your article.

www.zojirushibreadmachine.com

samantha35 said...

Love the Pepper Martin series- cant wait to start this series!


drakebdog@gmail.com

Donna @ The House on the Corner said...

Those look awesome!!! I've been looking for another author to follow. I love Janet Evanovich but I have loooottts of reading time left over between her publications!!! Can't wait to go find these books!!!

Carol M said...

This sounds like a great series! I had no idea that there were shops that sold antique buttons! I love the cover and I'm looking forward to read the book!

Linda Kish said...

This book sounds like a big hit. I look forward to reading it.

lkish77123 at gmail dot com

katsrus said...

What a cute book cover. Sounds like a great read.
Sue B

cyn209 said...

i can't wait to read this book!!!!! we used to have a cigar box that held all of these buttons!! i remember as a child, going through the box, running my hands into buttons!!!

thank you for the giveaway!!!

orchid7 said...

I'm always looking for a fresh new series! Good luck with your new series, and thanks for the giveaway.

Literary Chanteuse said...

Sounds like a great series! I love mysteries with a fashion twist! I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Lisa Richards/alterlisa said...

Nothing I like better than curling up with a great cozy.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the giveaway. Sounds like a wonderful new series. Tore923@aol.com

Carol N Wong said...

My mother taught sewing in high school before she had me. She was constantly making draperies, slip covers, suits, you name it!!! She had a wonderful green tin button box that I just loved. There were antique, new, sparkling, dull ones. She had them all. I would love to read your whole series!

CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

Darlene said...

I love complex plots! I like to be kept on my toes!! Sounds like a great series - thanks for the giveaway!

darlenesbooknook at gmail dot com