Deadlines and Valentines: A Jules Keene Glamping Mystery by Heather Weidner

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Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Deadlines and Valentines: A Jules Keene Glamping Mystery by Heather Weidner. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Deadlines and Valentines: A Jules Keene Glamping Mystery
by Heather Weidner

Deadlines and Valentines: A Jules Keene Glamping Mystery
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Setting – Virginia
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Level Best Books (October 15, 2024)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 264 pages

Fern Valley, nestled in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is ground zero for all things romance. The town has pulled out all the stops for the first Valentine’s Day “Love is in the Air” Book Festival with events like Death by Chocolate, author speed-dating, a character masquerade, and a male cover model fashion show.

Everything is candy and roses until the sparks start to fly. Jules Keene and her team at the glamping resort spend their time trying to tamp down fiery tempers because opposites may not always attract.

When a popular author with a heart of gold is found murdered in the barn at the resort, Jules has to find the culprit before more than just hearts are broken.

Character Guest Post – Jules Keene of the Fern Valley Camping Resort

By Heather Weidner

I’m Jules Keene, owner of the Fern Valley Camping Resort, and I spend most of my days answering guests’ questions, telling them about the history of our vintage trailers, and getting our visitors settled into their posh vacation digs. I also spend a lot of time trying to find ways to bring new visitors to the area. Recently, I’ve planned a wine tasting get-away, a crafters’ retreat, and writing retreat. Marketing and promotion are never-ending tasks for a small business owner.

The resort is nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Fern Valley is a few miles west of Charlottesville, Virginia. My parents bought the traditional campground back in the 1970s before I was born. After my divorce from the Idiot, I returned home and helped my dad update the campground and restore vintage trailers. We saved a bunch from the scrap heap. I love that we were able to preserve their history and create some upscale places for our guests to visit. I used my background in interior design to theme and decorate each one. For example, we have a 1947 Westcraft Coronado that I decked out in a wildflower motif. My 1953 Redman New Moon is decorated in honor of Lucy and Desi’s classic movie, “The Long, Long Trailer” that featured the same model camper. My favorite is the 1959 Sunliner Caravan. That’s the same year that Barbie debuted, so this one is decorated in pink, white, and black as a homage to the classic doll.

My boyfriend/maintenance/security guy, Jake Evans, helped us restore the campers, and now we’ve partnered to build a little village of tiny houses in the empty field by the vintage campers. I’m fascinated that people live in these amazingly tiny and functional spaces. I’m hoping these will be the perfect addition to the resort. Each one of these is themed for an author and has some kind of surprise inside. In the L. Frank Baum one, there is a revolving bookcase. On one side, I filled it with black and white books, and when it’s turned, all the books are brightly colored. It’s my little nod to the 1939 movie classic, The Wizard of Oz. Also, Jake made a reading nook under the staircase in the J. K. Rowling house. These are just a few of the fun little surprises for our guests.

We had some excitement around the resort lately, and it has kept my team and me quite busy. I’m partnering with our town’s business council to bring the “Love is in the Air” romance book festival to Fern Valley. We’ve pulled out all the stops for the festival that includes events like a Death by Chocolate tasting, author speed-dating, a character masquerade, and a male cover model fashion show. Everything was candy and roses until the sparks start to fly. I had to spend a lot of time trying to tamp down a bunch of fiery tempers because opposites did not attract in this case. And then to make matters worse, a popular author with a heart of gold was found murdered in my barn. I had to find the culprit before anything else happened.

Check out all the Jules Keene Glamping mysteries for more about all the adventures in Fern Valley. (Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers, Film Crews and Rendezvous, Christmas Lights and Cat Fights, and Deadlines and Valentines.

My review of Deadlines and Valentines

I absolutely love the Jules Keene Glamping Mystery series, and Deadlines and Valentines, the fourth book in the series, did not disappoint! Though you don’t need to read the other books in order to enjoy this mystery, I’d suggest you do. It helps when you have a prior knowledge of the main characters as well as the setting. Each book contains its own mystery which is solved within the book, so you really can jump in anywhere!

In Deadlines and Valentines, Jules and the town have set up a “Love Is in the Air” book festival featuring several romance authors. Fern Valley is a small mountain town that is popular during the summer and fall months, but winter was always a hardship on small business owners. When Jules became the leader in the town council, she suggested several ways to boost the economy, and this was one of them. The festival sounds like so much fun, but as is the case in a cozy mystery, someone had to go and get themselves murdered!

This was such a fun read! If you read, and you obviously do if you’re reading this review, I’ll bet you’ve wanted to go to an event like the “Love Is in the Air” one. This event is even better than what you’d normally find since it takes place over two weeks, and the accommodations are in the cute glamping ground that Jules owns and runs with her aunt. It has vintage themed trailers and themed tiny houses! I’d love it!

The romance authors at this event were a trip! There was a LOT of drama! As I was reading, I kept wanting to ask the author if this is how cozy mystery conferences are! Even though there are probably authors who don’t bond with each other, I’m sure they’re not going to murder each other! Figuring out who murdered the victim in Deadlines and Valentines was exciting! Most of the authors had the opportunity to do it and some had motive. But whodunit? You’ll find out!

I highly recommend Deadlines and Valentines as well as the other Jules Keene books! The romance themed author event was a lot of fun to read about. As always, I loved the main characters and enjoyed getting to know the authors and trying to figure out who the “bad guy” was. The setting is charming, and the food sounds amazing! If you love small town cozy mystery books with great characters and puzzling mysteries, you’ll love Deadlines and Valentines by Heather Weidner!

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

About Heather Weidner

Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, and the Pearly Girls Mysteries.

Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.

Author Links

Website and Blog: http://www.heatherweidner.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherWeidnerAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather_mystery_writer/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8121854.Heather_Weidner

Amazon Authors: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HOYR0MQ

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-weidner-0064b233?trk=hp-identity-name

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/heather-weidner-d6430278-c5c9-4b10-b911-340828fc7003

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@heather_mystery_writer

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heather_weidner_author

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/HeatherWeidner1

Purchase Link – Amazon