Raining Cats and Killers: Cozy Mystery (Country Cottage Mysteries Book 17)

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Raining Cats and Killers: Cozy Mystery (Country Cottage Mysteries Book 17) Page 18

by Addison Moore


  “I get a wicked wedding dress to call my own?”

  “No, it means you get a wicked wedding night to call our own.”

  “I like that much better,” I say as he scoops me into his arms and a laugh bubbles from me. “Guess what? Ophelia’s dress wasn’t cursed after all. Her fiancé dumped her for a bridesmaid, and the two of them were killed on the way to their honeymoon.”

  He inches back. “This doesn’t sound like a good story.”

  “It wasn’t for him, but Ophelia found her happily ever after, so I think Emmie’s in the clear, too. Not a single thing has gone wrong tonight.”

  A wild jag of lightning explodes overhead, followed by earsplitting thunder as buckets of water pour down onto the cove all at once.

  The guests run in twelve different directions, and Jasper charges us away from the cove, away from the inn, and straight to our cottage as Sherlock, Fish, Snuggles, and Bingo race along with us.

  Jasper and I make it a wedding night to remember despite the storm raging outside our window.

  We lie fast asleep in one another’s arms, only to be startled back to life when my phone pings from the nightstand.

  I reach over and pull it between us. “It’s three in the morning,” I say, clicking onto the screen and a text pops up. “It’s from Emmie. No need to panic, we’re alive. We had a minor freak accident. Our car plunged off the bridge. Miraculously we were able to get ourselves and the dogs to shore. No injuries to any of us. The car is toast. Warm and safe at a nearby all-night café. Need a ride. Are you up for it?”

  Jasper and I throw on our clothes and run out the door.

  “You don’t think they left Ophelia’s dress at the inn, do you?” Jasper asks as we’re about to get into the car.

  “Here’s hoping they didn’t.”

  We glance back at the inn just as a shard of lightning lights up the sky and hits a window on the top floor, illuminating the inside as if it were noonday.

  Standing in the window, we see a woman in white, her hair long and flowing, a shimmering aura glows around her and we know exactly where Ophelia’s dress is.

  “I think I’ll make a few donations to a thrift store tomorrow,” I say.

  “I’ll go with you. I’ve got bullets.”

  “Something tells me they’ll need to be silver, and we might need holy water. And don’t worry. I’m attaching that note.”

  “You might want to add an addendum to it.”

  “Good thinking. Thank goodness we’re not cursed,” I say, pulling him close just as another jag of lightning strikes no less than ten feet from us.

  We jump into the car, and Jasper takes a moment to land his lips right where they belong—over mine.

  We do our best to outrun that curse all the way to that all-night café where our besties are waiting for us.

  Leo and Emmie are worth going toe-to-toe with a curse or two.

  Here’s hoping the future holds nothing but sunshine and rainbows from here on out—and not a trace of another homicide.

  Somewhere out there the wild cry of a woman fills the sky as that ghost haunting Ophelia’s dress cackles into the night.

  Something tells me that’s one woman who always has the last laugh.

  ***Thank you for reading!

  Need more Cider Cove? Head back right now —> Death Takes a Holiday (Country Cottage Mysteries 18)

  My name is Bizzy Baker, and I can read minds—not every mind, not every time but most of the time and believe me when I say it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

  The summer heat is pressing down on in Cider Cove as Bizzy’s relatives descend on the inn for a family reunion. But not everyone is thrilled to see one another. Bizzy’s mother, Ree, is forced to confront her estranged sisters and the man that came between them all those years ago. And when that man turns up dead, there are one too many suspects—and three of them happen to be sisters. Summer in Cider Cove is proving to be deadly.

  Don’t miss out! Grab yours here —> Death Takes a Holiday (Country Cottage Mysteries 18)

  Recipe

  Country Cottage Café

  Butterscotch Cookies

  Hello, Bizzy here! Emmie has really done it this time. In fact, if I was stranded on a desert island, and could only take one cookie with me, it would be this one. These butterscotch cookies are the stuff that dreams are made of. And the best part? You can and should double the batch because these are going to disappear fast. So what are you waiting for? Get baking!

  Ingredients

  2 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour

  Cup Packed Brown Sugar

  ½ Cup Granulated Sugar

  Egg

  1 Cup Butter, Softened

  Teaspoon Baking Soda

  1 ½ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

  1 Teaspoon Salt

  ¾ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

  1 Package of Butterscotch Chips (11 ounces)

  Directions

  Preheat oven to 350° (after step 2 is complete)

  In a large bowl (Emmie prefers her stand mixer) cream together butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and vanilla extract. (about 3 minutes) Add eggs and blend well.

  In another large bowl mix together the rest of the dry ingredients—flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda. Slowly add dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture, and blend well. Incorporate butterscotch chips by folding them in. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.

  Scoop out walnut-size balls of dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes.

  Enjoy!

  Books by Addison Moore

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  Paranormal Women’s Fiction

  Hot Flash Homicides

  Midlife in Glimmerspell

  Wicked in Glimmerspell

  Cozy Mysteries

  Meow for Murder

  An Awful Cat-titude

  A Dreadful Meow-ment

  A Claw-some Affair

  A Haunted Hallow-whiskers

  A Candy Cane Cat-astrophe

  A Purr-fect Storm

  A Fur-miliar Fatality

  Country Cottage Mysteries

  Kittyzen’s Arrest

  Dog Days of Murder

  Santa Claws Calamity

  Bow Wow Big House

  Murder Bites

  Felines and Fatalities

  A Killer Tail

  Cat Scratch Cleaver

  Just Buried

  Butchered After Bark

  A Frightening Fangs-giving

  A Christmas to Dismember

  Sealed with a Hiss

  A Winter Tail of Woe

  Lock, Stock, and Feral

  Itching for Justice

  Raining Cats and Killers

  Death Takes a Holiday

  Copycat Killer Thriller

  Country Cottage Boxed Set 1

  Country Cottage Boxed Set 2

  Country Cottage Boxed Set 3

  Murder in the Mix Mysteries

  Cutie Pies and Deadly Lies

  Bobbing for Bodies

  Pumpkin Spice Sacrifice

  Gingerbread & Deadly Dread

  Seven-Layer Slayer

  Red Velvet Vengeance

  Bloodbaths and Banana Cake

  New York Cheesecake Chaos

  Lethal Lemon Bars

  Macaron Massacre

  Wedding Cake Carnage

  Donut Disaster

  Toxic Apple Turnovers

  Killer Cupcakes

  Pumpkin Pie Parting

  Yule Log Eulogy

  Pancake Panic

 
Sugar Cookie Slaughter

  Devil’s Food Cake Doom

  Snickerdoodle Secrets

  Strawberry Shortcake Sins

  Cake Pop Casualties

  Flag Cake Felonies

  Peach Cobbler Confessions

  Poison Apple Crisp

  Spooky Spice Cake Curse

  Pecan Pie Predicament

  Eggnog Trifle Trouble

  Waffles at the Wake

  Raspberry Tart Terror

  Baby Bundt Cake Confusion

  Chocolate Chip Cookie Conundrum

  Wicked Whoopie Pies

  Key Lime Pie Perjury

  Red, White, and Blueberry Muffin Murder

  Honey Buns Homicide

  Apple Fritter Fright

  Christmas Fudge Fatality

  Murder in the Mix Boxed Sets

  Murder in the Mix (Books 1-3)

  Murder in the Mix (Books 4-6)

  Murder in the Mix (Books 7-9)

  Murder in the Mix (Books 10-12)

  Murder in the Mix (Books 13-15)

  Murder in the Mix (Books 16-18)

  Murder in the Mix (Books 19-21)

  Mystery

  Little Girl Lost

  Never Say Sorry

  The First Wife’s Secret

  Romance

  Just Add Mistletoe

  3:AM Kisses

  3:AM Kisses

  Winter Kisses

  Sugar Kisses

  Whiskey Kisses

  Rock Candy Kisses

  Velvet Kisses

  Wild Kisses

  Country Kisses

  Forbidden Kisses

  Dirty Kisses

  Stolen Kisses

  Lucky Kisses

  Tender Kisses

  Revenge Kisses

  Red Hot Kisses

  Reckless Kisses

  Hot Honey Kisses

  Shameless Kisses

  The Social Experiment

  The Social Experiment

  Bitter Exes

  Chemical Attraction

  3:AM Kisses, Hollow Brook

  Feisty Kisses

  Ex-Boyfriend Kisses

  Secret Kisses

  Naughty By Nature

  Escape to Breakers Beach

  Breakers Beach

  Breakers Cove

  Breakers Beach Nights

  Escape to Lake Loveless

  Beautiful Oblivion

  Beautiful Illusions

  Beautiful Elixir

  Beautiful Deception

  A Good Year for Heartbreak

  Someone to Love

  Someone to Love

  Someone Like You

  Someone For Me

  A Totally ‘80s Romance Series

  Melt With You (A Totally ’80s Romance 1)

  Tainted Love (A Totally ’80s Romance 2)

  Hold Me Now (A Totally ’80s Romance 3)

  Paranormal Romance

  (Celestra Book World in Order)

  Ethereal

  Tremble

  Burn

  Wicked

  Vex

  Expel

  Toxic Part One

  Toxic Part Two

  Elysian

  Ephemeral Academy

  Ephemeral

  Evanescent

  Entropy

  Ethereal Knights (Celestra Knights)

  Season of the Witch (A Celestra Companion)

  Celestra Forever After

  Celestra Forever After

  The Dragon and the Rose

  The Serpentine Butterfly

  Crown of Ashes

  Throne of Fire

  All Hail the King

  Roar of the Lion

  Acknowledgments

  Thank YOU, the reader, for joining us on this adventure to Cider Cove. We hope you’re enjoying the Country Cottage Mysteries as much as we are. Don’t miss Death Takes a Holiday coming up next. It’s summertime in Cider Cove! Ree’s family reunion heads to the inn and so does murder. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for taking this journey with us. We cannot wait to take you back to Cider Cove!

  Special thank you to the following people for taking care of this book—Kaila Eileen Turingan-Ramos, Jodie Tarleton, Margaret Lapointe, Amy Barber, and Lisa Markson. And a very big shout out to Lou Harper of Cover Affairs for designing the world’s best covers.

  A heartfelt thank you to Paige Maroney Smith for being so amazing in every single way.

  And last, but never least, thank you to Him who sits on the throne. Worthy is the Lamb! Glory and honor and power are yours. We owe you everything, Jesus.

  About the Authors

  Addison Moore is a New York Times, USA TODAY, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine. Previously she worked as a therapist on a locked psychiatric unit for nearly a decade. She resides on the West Coast with her husband, four wonderful children, and two dogs where she eats too much chocolate and stays up way too late. When she's not writing, she's reading. Addison’s Celestra Series has been optioned for film by 20th Century Fox.

  Bellamy Bloom is a USA TODAY bestselling author who writes cozy mysteries filled with humor, intrigue and a touch of the supernatural. When she's not writing up a murderous storm she's snuggled by the fire with her two precious pooches, chewing down her to-be-read pile and drinking copious amounts of coffee.

  For up to the minute pre-order and new release alerts:

  *Be sure to subscribe to Addison and Bellamy’s mailing list for sneak peeks and updates on all upcoming releases!

  ✦Follow Addison on Bookbub

  ✦Follow Bellamy on Bookbub

  ✦Follow Addison on Amazon

  ✦Follow Bellamy on Amazon

  *Want to chat about the books? Hop over to Addison’s Reader Corner on Facebook!

  Or click over to Addison’s WEBSITE

  Or click over to Bellamy’s WEBSITE

  Feel free to visit Addison on Instagram.

 

 

 


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