I received this book for free from the author as a free story in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the author as a free story
A Dead End Thanksgiving Disaster
by
Alyssa Day
paranormal fantasy, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Holliday Publishing LLC on 2024 and has 43 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Wild Thing, Atlantis Rising, Atlantis Unleashed, Atlantis Awakening, Atlantis Unmasked, Atlantis Redeemed, Atlantis Betrayed, Vampire in Atlantis, Heart of Atlantis, Dead Eye, "Travelling Eye", Private Eye, Evil Eye, Eye of Danger, Eye of the Storm, Eye on the Ball, Apple of My Eye, Blink of an Eye, “William's Witch”
A novelette, 9.5 in the Tiger’s Eye Mystery cozy paranormal mystery series and revolving around Tess Callahan and her family and friends as they gather to celebrate Thanksgiving.
My Take
We can all sympathize with Tess who’s cooking her first Thanksgiving dinner. Especially when her overly protective Aunt Ruby wants to come over and do the cooking!
”’We have this,’ I told my cat.”
”Note to reader: We didn’t have this.”
Do read this before Thanksgiving, as it will make your own dinner seem like a piece of cake. And you’ll be laughing along the way. I do enjoy Jack and Uncle Mike’s give-and-take.
Day uses first person protagonist point-of-view from Tess’ perspective, so we only get her thoughts and feelings while the action is all seen by her.
Leroy makes for an interesting “character”, at least in an aid in emphasizing how old Grandpa Jed is . . . some 300 years. It makes sense that he’d consider providing that turkey his way. And y’all know how nerve wracking it can be to time dinner around that turkey.
”It’s Dead End. These things happen.”
I had to laugh at all these side notes Day included.
Part of the culture shock for Grandpa is women and children, ahem, participating in life, lol.
I do like the custom of saying what you’re thankful for.
It’s very much a cozy story with a loving, supportive, and quite unusual set of characters.
The Story
Grandpa Jed is in charge of providing the turkey. Only, he’s late and the expected turkey snares Shelley’s attention — to the detriment of dinner.
Worse, that bowl Tess brought home from the pawn shop has its own ideas of what’s appropriate food.
Add in the pixies wanting revenge for invading their own dinner party, and that’s all she wrote.
The Characters
Tess Callahan, who sees a person’s death if they touch her, has inherited Dead End Pawn in the town of Dead End, which is outside the governance of Florida and the US. Lou is the cat Tess rescued. Aunt Ruby (the mayor of Dead End) and Uncle Mike are the people who raised Tess. Shelley is Tess’ newly adopted, magic-using sister rescued in Dead Eye, 1.
Jack Shepherd, a Bengal tiger shifter, is Tess’ boyfriend who loves to eat. Jack’s many-greats Grandpa Jed was released from his unexpected prison in A Dead End Christmas, 9.
Leroy is the turkey.
The pixies include Frazzle (Eagle Eye, 8); Cranberry, who is Frazzle’s true love, well, besides the hideous Jell-Os; and, Lou — along with hundreds of their family. That hunt scene was a crack-up!
The pixies remind me of Toot-toot from Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files.
The Cover and Title
The cover is definitely a harvest theme with a brown textured background and the surface of a wooden table. A pumpkin on the left is beside a basket tipped on its side, spilling out a Savoy cabbage, potatoes, yams, and onions. The basket’s top edge has a garland of autumn leaves. Peeking out from the right is a cartoon graphic of a pilgrim-hatted Leroy. All the text is in white, starting at the very top, on the left with an info blurb. The author’s name is below this. Across the middle of the pumpkin, overlapping the veggies, is the title with the series info at the bottom of the page.
The title is definitely A Dead End Thanksgiving Disaster with an unexpected recovery.
