Welcome to book review forty-seven of fifty-two for this year’s virtual coffee shares. I’ve picked books related to the Brewing Coffee, Twisting Words & Breaking Pencils theme—coffee, books, and puzzles.

Title Review
I don’t have a review for you this week. After I veered off my reading track last week with Blueberry Muffin Murders, I reviewed the titles I’ve shared so far this year and which ones are pending.

Books we’ve discussed:

1. Murder by the Book
2. Visions and Vanilla Cappuccino
3. Coffee Self-Talk
4. Spells and Spiced Lattes
5. Death by Coffee
6. Death by Tea
7. The Ghost Writer
8. The Lost Bookshop
9. A Bookshop to Die For
10. Coffee and Corpses
11. Southern Magic
12. Spellbound in the Stacks
13. Coffee Magic for the Modern Witch
14. Death by Pumpkin Spice
15. The Absent Author
16. Death by Vanilla Latte
17. On What Grounds
18. Death by Espresso
19. Puzzle Box
20. Murder at a Cape Bookstore
21. A Page of Murder
22. Sleighed
23. Bookshops and Bonedust
24. Before the Coffee Gets Cold
25. Meet Me at the Cupcake Café
26. Wake Up and Spell the Coffee
27. Murder by Page One
28. Death by Café Mocha
29. Coffee Shop Girl
30. Murder at the Library
31. The Pumpkin Spice Café
32. The Jigsaw Puzzle
33. Murder in the Library
34. Bread, Coffee, Magic
35. Coffee, Cream Pies, and Crimes
36. Books Can Be Decieving
37. At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities
38. Murder at the Bookstore
39. That Old Witch: The Coffee Coven’s Cozy Capers
40. Death by French Roast
41. Death by Hot Apple Cider
42. Death by Hot Cocoa
43. Death by Spices Chia
44. Death by Iced Coffee
45. Death by Peppermint Cappuccino
46. Death by Caramel Machiatto
47. Blueberry Muffin Murders

Remaining books to discuss in 2025, in no particular order:

• The Puzzled Mystery Adventure Series: Books 1-3
• Puzzle House
• The Writer
• The Book of Chaos
• The Writing Retreat

---

If we were having coffee, I would share a bit more about my tarot reading journey. A couple of weeks ago, I shared a picture of my first tarot deck. I’ve been getting to know the deck for a while, but struggling to apply what are traditionally understood meanings to the cards. The Rider-Waite Tarot is sort of the gold standard for readings, but it never called to me, so . . . Anyway, my progress with my deck has been slow and sometimes frustrating. I joined a Facebook group a few weeks ago and shared about my deck. Through my conversations there, I realized that although tarot reading can be done using traditional symbolism and meanings, it doesn’t have to be. My deck is better suited to intuitive readings. From that knowledge, I signed up for an online class called “Intro to Intuitive Tarot” by Victoria Maxwell just to supportively nudge myself in the right direction. My first learning point from this course is that there are clone decks to the Rider-Waite, and I found one that called to me: The Modern Witch Tarot. So, I have ordered a deck, and my goal is to learn to read both traditionally and intuitively.

If we were having coffee, I thought I would share a collage of images from my Illustrated Life Journal.

By Shari Marshall – 2025