Rating: 
Summary: Broken Dishes
Review: I have been selling books for 30 years and have owned my own bookstore for fifteen. Bookselling is a very intimate experience. One of my greatest joys that I find fascinating is hearing how and why people are connected to books, especially series. Earlene Fowler offers all the ingredients for good entertainment. The love of characters, a sense of place, humor, and morality. You want to be where the characters are and you want to know the people. I find that Earlene's reader's connect with her charcters more than most mystery series' authors. She affects her readers deeply.
As a bookseller, I find it amusing when people feel they must finish books that they are not really enjoying or are so critical of. What this says to me is that the author has done a fabulous job writing and getting her characters into the reader's heart. In Earlene's case you actually care whether Benni has a sweater on when it's cold.
An aspect of email and Amazon feedback that I don't particulary like leads to people saying things that they would never say to an author's face or write on a card sent to them. When people tell an author, "I've read and loved all your books, BUT . . ." The word "but" erases any good feeling the reader tried to express and that the author loves to receive. The positive comments and praise readers say gives her fuel to be inspired in a very demanding, isolated life. The public will never understand the difficulites, disciplines presented daily for a writer.
The one critique that got me all fired up was when the woman called Benni a ninny. If she didn't like a character as fiercely as this woman expressed, I have a suggestion. DON"T KEEP READING THE BOOK! What I would ask her is this: "What is it about you and your life that is button-pushed by Benni?"
Earlene has done her job well with making her characters real. Keep on writing, Earlene! You are the joy of bookselling and reading. Thank you!
Rating:
Summary: Broken Dishes
Review: I have been selling books for 30 years and have owned my own bookstore for fifteen. Bookselling is a very intimate experience. One of my greatest joys that I find fascinating is hearing how and why people are connected to books, especially series. Earlene Fowler offers all the ingredients for good entertainment. The love of characters, a sense of place, humor, and morality. You want to be where the characters are and you want to know the people. I find that Earlene's reader's connect with her charcters more than most mystery series' authors. She affects her readers deeply.
As a bookseller, I find it amusing when people feel they must finish books that they are not really enjoying or are so critical of. What this says to me is that the author has done a fabulous job writing and getting her characters into the reader's heart. In Earlene's case you actually care whether Benni has a sweater on when it's cold.
An aspect of email and Amazon feedback that I don't particulary like leads to people saying things that they would never say to an author's face or write on a card sent to them. When people tell an author, "I've read and loved all your books, BUT . . ." The word "but" erases any good feeling the reader tried to express and that the author loves to receive. The positive comments and praise readers say gives her fuel to be inspired in a very demanding, isolated life. The public will never understand the difficulites, disciplines presented daily for a writer.
The one critique that got me all fired up was when the woman called Benni a ninny. If she didn't like a character as fiercely as this woman expressed, I have a suggestion. DON"T KEEP READING THE BOOK! What I would ask her is this: "What is it about you and your life that is button-pushed by Benni?"
Earlene has done her job well with making her characters real. Keep on writing, Earlene! You are the joy of bookselling and reading. Thank you!
Rating:
Summary: Earlene Fowler never fails to satisfy.
Review: I have followed this series from the very beginning and the characters just get deeper and more like real friends. I look forward to each book for a new visit with old friends. This book throws Benni together with several old acquaintances and a group of new people who are great fun. But the real fun is the continuing back and forth with Hud. The setting is a Dude ranch that is an attempt to save a family cattle ranch by the younger generation. Old bones are found by the ranch dog and an investigation into who they are and why they are there and if there was a crime insues. In with that is the tensions among the ranch folks, the guests, Benni's family who are helping and of course, Hud. The addition of Hud's grandfather is a wonderful one and getting to know the new characters and catching up with the old ones is what her readers look for. Add possible arson, a crazy goose and lots of color and you've got a great, fun book.
Rating:
Summary: BENNI is UNFORGETTABLE!!!
Review: I have LOVED every book in this series and it seems from the 1st on it keeps getting better and I will be keeping my eyes open for the NEXT one :) Great read couldn't put it down and the humor with "Mother Goose" and "Socrates" added a special something to the story :)
Rating:
Summary: I want more!
Review: I have read all of the Benni Harper books written by Earlene Fowler and have enjoyed every single one of them. When I finish one of Earlene's books I always feel a little sad knowing that these characters I have read about have almost become friends and I want to continue to learn more about them and their lives.
I love the fact that Earlene keeps quilts as a theme and find it amazing that she can weave a mystery with so many threads! Great job Earlene! Until we meet again.! Watch out for the duck!
Rating: 
Summary: not as good at the others!
Review: I LOVE THIS SERIES, but this book is not good. I read a lot of mysteries, and I could swear I have read this plot about the bones and the story behind them before in another book??? I agree with the other people who have reviewed this book - the other main characters whom I love are missing for most of the book... Ms Fowler seems to have thrown them in for a chapter or two just to say "hi," which is not good enough for me. I too am tired of Hud. I want Benni to remain faithful to Gabe, and the silly flirting with Hud is a waste of space. I was disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Time to send Hud on his way!
Review: I'm a great fan of the Benni Harper series. It's one of the best mystery series around. However, I was disappointed with this book. Benni, of course, was great, but the mystery was kind of nonexistent. And Benni's husband, Gabe, was barely present, and when he was there, he was merely a shadow of himself. Also, wasn't anyone else bothered by Deputy Sheriff "Hud" Hudson's blatant attempts to destroy Benni's marriage by trying to seduce her to commit adultery --a kind of in your face to Gabe. Please, Earlene, send Hud packing and get back to Gabe and the rest of the wonderful characters you created (Dove, Elvira, Sam, etc.), who had only cameo roles here.
Rating: 
Summary: PERHAPS ANOTHER AWARD FOR THIS AUTHOR
Review: If mysteries can be warm, satisfying, and exciting, Earlene Fowler does it with her Benni Harper series. For those who haven't met Benni yet, she's quite a protagonist; she's a cowgirl, a quilter, a sometimes detective, and the happily married wife of handsome San Celina , CA Police chief Gabe Ortiz. Beginning with the cowgirl part, Benni lives on a ranch on California's Central Coast. Moving on to the quilter, Agatha Award winner Fowler has titled this book, the 11th in her series, "Broken Dishes," which is also the name of a quilt pattern. Described as a simple pattern made up of triangles "arranged in a four-patch square," it achieves the effect of broken dishes by placing the square at different angles. Now, while the quilt pattern may be simple the problems faced by a ranch familiarly known as Broken Dishes are not. This is a 5,000 acre spread once owned by Joe Darnell, Benni's father's best friend. Joe had mortgaged the ranch to the hilt, wishing to save land that had been in his family for half a century. His idea was to turn the place into a dude ranch. But, then Joe had a heart attack and died. Now, the ranch is in the hands of his daughter, Shawna, and her husband, Johnny. Unfortunately, it looks like the dude ranch may become a dud unless something turns business around - Benni to the rescue. Her idea is to lure customers with the promise of real Western hospitality, home cooking, hunting, fishing, trail rides, barbecues, and rodeos. Good plan and all goes well until the first guests discover a skeleton in a poorly made grave. Of course, someone's been dead and buried for quite a while. Nonetheless, it's up to Benni to keep the guests happy and feeling safe. Her nemesis, "Hud" Hudson shows up and it's discovered that the late whoever was murdered. To complicate matters further there are whispers that a well known travel writer is among the guests. None of this will look well in print. Fowler fans know that she stitches a well connected plot with both surprises and fun along the way. "Broken Dishes" may well win this author one more Agatha. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: Spend some time at a dude ranch
Review: Set at a guest ranch with a group of quilters and a group of hunters, Benni helps her friends begin their new enterprise. All our favorite characters come into play in this book. Dove and Sam are there to help with Gabe, Elvia and Emory coming for the weekend to do their part. Even Benni's cousin Rita is back, avoiding work as much as possible. Fowler brings the reader into the dude ranch world. It's a fun, lively experience with storms, a goose in love, and, of course, a murder...
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