Cozy Wednesday with Morgan C. Talbot – Author of Smugglers & Scones – #Review

Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!

I am excited to welcome Morgan C. Talbot to Escape With Dollycas today.
Her book Smugglers & Scones is available until April 8 for just 99¢ on
Amazon, kobo and B&N.

The Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast might not seem like an intuitive choice for a getaway—whether romantic, adventurous, or what-have-you. But you’d be surprised what lies shrouded in its often-foggy vistas.

On a geological level (which isn’t actually level very often, thanks to the Juan de Fuca Plate diving under North America), the Oregon Coast has a lot of basalt, which makes for excellent craggy headlands and all those mysterious rocks you see rising majestically out of the surf—such as Haystack Rock. All the coolest lighthouses—and we have a lot of those—sit on basalt outcrops, high above the foaming sea. And under the right conditions, boy can it foam! In between our dark and brooding cliffs, the shore spreads wide and smooth with long stretches of golden-gray sand. In some places, the sands are strewn with shells. Other beaches bear antique glass remnants, roughly polished to a smooth gleam, and long kelp strands that would make Indiana Jones jealous on behalf of his whip. And yes, you can absolutely ride horses through the foamy surf at sunset!

Historically, the coast has only been occupied by settlers from back East for a short while—less than two hundred years. Native tribes would trade with trappers, settlers, and sailors hunting for the Northwest Passage. Even the odd Spanish Galleon got blown off course to the Oregon Coast during the heyday of trade between the Philippines and Mexico. Many of the place names along the coast reflect a myriad of local tribes, and museums dot the coastal highway, preserving vital information about those who lived along the coast before us. We even have a few buried treasure mysteries just lying around, all unsolved and everything. What are you waiting for?

The left edge of the North American Continent is a uniquely beautiful spot, especially on the Oregon Coast. You can watch sea lions from shore and whale migrations from viewpoints and boats. Sprawling aquariums showcase creatures from the Giant Pacific Octopus to seals, otters, seabirds, and fish. Hiking, kayaking, boating, camping, fishing, nature photography—it’s all here where the land meets the sea. Oregon’s outdoors is truly great.

A quirk of the Pacific Ocean brings cooler currents in summer and warmer ones in winter, so the average temperature has even less variance than many coastal locations. Weather is delightfully unpredictable, though. I once drove through a rare and honestly scary thunderstorm on my way out for a research trip. Twenty minutes later I reached the coastline, where I basked in sunny, 65-degree temperatures—in November. That was a glorious weekend!

Whether you enjoy wildlife, untamed nature, the endless stretch of the Pacific’s horizon, a good dip into history, or just tooling along to see what catches your eye next, you can’t go wrong visiting the Oregon Coast. Just remember to bring both an umbrella and the sunscreen.

Pippa Winterbourne runs Moorehaven, the Oregon Coast’s quirkiest bed-and-breakfast and former home of world-famous mystery writer A. Raymond Moore. Guests come there to write their own crime novels. When a real-life murder takes a local’s life and washes a handsome boat pilot into her arms, Pippa is yanked into a deadly plot of her own. A tangle of secrets crashes past into present, and Pippa must uncover clues dating back to Seacrest’s Prohibition days, including a secret Moore himself hid from the world.

Juggling her book-writing guests, small-town intrigues, secret club agendas, and a possibly fatal attraction, Pippa must sort fact from fiction to know who to trust before a desperate killer claims a final revenge nearly a century in the making.

About the Author

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”