Really, that’s probably how I feel about mystery/thrillers in general. They are a dime a dozen and it takes a lot to really blow my socks off. Good Bad Girl (that my brain insisted on calling Good Girl, Bad Girl and I kept trying to figure out which character was supposed to be the good one and which the bad) was perfectly satisfactory. There was a bevy of secrets and reveals and even though I (and most of you) will probably know the big picture of what is going on right away, the “twist” was one I did not see coming. ...more
Those of you who follow my reviews are probably saying to yourselves “for a bitch who talks about how she doesn’t like sequels/series she sure is doubThose of you who follow my reviews are probably saying to yourselves “for a bitch who talks about how she doesn’t like sequels/series she sure is doubling down hard lately.” In my defense, I am nothing if not contrary – but also I am admittedly addicted to the Stephanie Plum series and have picked up Sunshine Vicram and Finlay Donovan looking to potentially make some new pals like I did with her and her band of misfit toys.
It might be time for me to break up with dear Sunny, however. This series is a whole lotta schtick and not a lot of substance. At the base of it there’s the mystery (that is instantly solvable as soon as you are introduced to the whodunnit character) of a young Jane Doe who was found dumped off the side of a ravine and remains unconscious throughout the book while Sunshine deals with the local flasher, petty thieves and the love lives of herself and everyone else around her. It’s chock full of a lot of “hyuck hyuck” type of humor, way too many pages are invested in Sunny’s “precocious” (a/k/a annoying) daughter and an ending that never ends due to action scene after action scene all crammed in for the big finale. And this time around it even left me with an unforgiveable earworm . . .
So there’s my take, but this currently sits at a 4.59 rating at the time of me typing my review meaning I’m obviously the outlier and you will probably love this if you like light mysteries.
2.5 Stars but with the acknowledgment of the title/cover perfection and the realization that I’ll most likely forget that I didn’t love this one and be first in line when #4 gets announced.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!...more
I requested the library to purchase a copy of Bones of Hilo when I saw it as a recommendation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. I requested the library to purchase a copy of Bones of Hilo when I saw it as a recommendation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. By the time I finally got my hands on a copy I had long since forgotten where I originally saw the list. That’s too bad too, because I would really love to be able to name them by name if only to say . . . .
Now don’t get me wrong, this fella from Seattle is more than welcome to write about anybody and anyplace he would like. The people who create lists specifically in order to promote a particular race/culture/heritage/whathaveyou, however???? They should be pointing out own voices works.
So now that I got that out of my system let’s talk about the book . . . .
It kind of fell under the “Hallmark Murders and Mysteries” category of detecting and sadly for Detective Kawika Wong there may only be room in my heart for one male lead in this kind of story and that is Jeff Jackson . . . .
Maybe Wong would have stood a chance if he hadn’t immediately banged the first new piece of ass who offered herself to him despite him being in a long-term committed relationship. As someone who has been married 25 years I don’t take random affairs being dropped in to “spice things up” very lightly. It also didn’t help that none of the characters were well developed or that the aforementioned girlfriend was an expert in Hawaiian culture and artifacts, but her advice was sought out for about twelve seconds. People complain that Carl Hiassen rarely fleshes out his female characters, but hell he’s a regular Ron Swanson compared to this guy . . . .
The good news is the mystery part was actually pretty okay. There were plenty of suspects without a bunch of crazy twists and turns. It’s a shame the unnecessary cheating was thrown in and immediately put a bad taste in my mouth. I’m here for the stabby, Detective, keep your pecker in your pants!
Sarah has returned to her hometown just a couple of weeks after her husband’s passing in order to help clean and inventory the family owned
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Sarah has returned to her hometown just a couple of weeks after her husband’s passing in order to help clean and inventory the family owned Whitetail Lodge. She expected to find cobwebs and hoarder caliber stuff to sort through. What she didn’t expect was to find her high school friend using the place as a hideout and another former schoolmate dead.
I noticed this author has quite a few cozy mysteries in at least a couple of different series. I need to try one of those - I think maybe I would have better luck. This wasn’t awful and I read it over the course of a couple of evenings, but it didn’t seem to quite know what it wanted to be. There was a lot going on with the rapey dead guy, potential ghosts, a secret society, the family business(es). It was just a bit all over the place. Good news is I never figured out whodunnit - bad news is it’s because I was looking for a darker outcome.
If you are like me getting your Fall reads all lined up and you too like the Hallmark mystery movies in front of the fireplace on a Sunday night, this might be a winner.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ...more
I’m fairly certain I could have a mukbang channel when it comes to consuming Chinese food. I am also a lover of the cozy mystery. Fatal Fried Rice features the murder of a community school teacher who is instructing an intro to Chinese food cooking class that our leading lady Lana (who just so happens to run the family restaurant with absolutely zero culinary skills) has signed up for in order to at least be capable of doing more than just making rice.
This is a series that I have zero complaints about. I love the MC Lana, I love her gambling/buffet addict mom and grandma, I love that her boyfriend is just a bit player (despite him being an actual detective while Lana is the one doing all the sleuthing), I really love over-the-top Kimmy. Most of all I love that they only take a couple of hours to read and you can easily skip books 2-6 and pick up feeling like you didn’t miss a beat since they work so well as standalones. I am 99.9999% sure I have #5 on the Kindle as well, but fried rice was calling my name and I must appease the gods . . . .
If the items in the cast-iron skillet hadn’t burst into flames just as Gram was dunking the coated chicken breast into the hot bubbling grease, we If the items in the cast-iron skillet hadn’t burst into flames just as Gram was dunking the coated chicken breast into the hot bubbling grease, we might not have found the dead body so soon.
^^^That right there, kids, is what you call . . . .
And staying on theme with books that take place in the Show Me State. I am all about the occasional cozy mystery and my go-to guilty pleasure television viewing (when I’m not watching all those Housewives) is the Hallmark Murders and Mysteries channel. This story of Betts, her Gram, the hunky old high school sweetheart turned Deputy, a dead body and . . . . a ghost (????) was just the type of series I could see easily translating to my fave cable channel – and starring . . . .
And your family might love you when you offer to go get some Popeye’s for dinner in order to take an Instagram book pic. Love that chicken from Popeye’s, yo . . . . .
Welcome to the latest installment of Cletus and the Queen! Wait, that’s not what these are called? Well, it’s what I call ‘em because “Solvin2.5 Stars
Welcome to the latest installment of Cletus and the Queen! Wait, that’s not what these are called? Well, it’s what I call ‘em because “Solving for Pie” is stupid. Anyway, in case you aren’t familiar – this series features the aforementioned Cletus . . . .
What can I say, I dig the terrible Hallmark Murders & Mysteries movies and these read exactly like watching one of those. Lower marks this time are earned because there is a formula to these cozies. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) – so one red herring and then let’s get on with the damsel in distress getting kidnapped, the hero saving the day and just get ‘er done. It also helps to have a fairly small cast of characters, but since the Winstons have 17,000 family members now between all of the brothers, the sister and their respective counterparts that’s kind of impossible to do. But the main thing that needs to be worked on??? Brevity. There’s not enough story here to extend much beyond 250 pages. Also, while I know other perverts are there for the smex, I could definitely go for a lot less detail when it comes to this series . . . .
The one positive? Reid has placed this timeline firmly prior to Roscoe meeting his lady love. And thank god because if you want an example of “how to be woke” written in the most whitesplaining way possible, his story is one that can’t be missed. Yikes. ...more
Yesterday the wind was blowing about 100 miles per hour and I had potato soup bubbling awFind all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
Yesterday the wind was blowing about 100 miles per hour and I had potato soup bubbling away in the crockpot so it was the perfect set up for a lazy Sunday and something in the “cozy” department . . . .
This was the first selection in the “Jane Doe Book Club Mystery” series featuring a group of gals who gather monthly for wine and fictional mystery/thriller discussions with a side of true crime. The cold case the women have been focusing on involves the “dumping ground” up I-85 where murder victims have been found and apparently one of their own members got a little too close to the whodunit when she turns up dead as well . . . and on our MC Lyla’s front stoop in a suitcase to boot!
I really look forward to reading more of this series (although I pretty much knew who was going to be the bad guy immediately – but I blame the fact that I’m addicted to the Hallmark Murders and Mysteries channel). Lyla was no shrinking violet and her new job working at her uncle’s PI company gives a little more validity to her being involved in more cases to come. I also like the idea of potential suitors in the future that was hinted about in this one, but appreciate the fact that the idea of loooooove didn’t distract our heroine. And most of all I love anything that reminds me of . . . .
So this one is getting 4 Stars. (Please note I judge genre for genre so don’t come at me how this isn’t “literature” or how dare I give so many stars when I only gave such and such 1. Apples get compared to apples when it comes to my ratings and I could give a hoot about an award – I rate on how much I enjoyed something and how quickly I turned the pages.)
ARC provided Crooked Lane in exchange for an honest review....more
I freaking created LIFE (on accident) in our compost heap. But look how perfect it is!!!! I’m pretty sure the ‘Rona has given me superpowers and this is just the first I’ve discovered so you better stay on my good side.
For me, Autumn also signifies the start of Cozy Mystery season. Sure, you can read cozies all year long, but the entire term “cozy” conjures images of fireplaces and snuggly blankets and those thoughts in July or August here in flyover country? Well, when the temps are like this . . . .
The last thing you want to think about is a blanket.
But come September 1st I just crank up the AC and let ‘er rip. Hahahaha! I keed I keed. Come September 1st we usually get a teaser 60-something degree day around my neck of the woods that gets you breaking out the sweaters and picking a light and cozy to read . . . only to discover the next day is going to be back to Satan’s ballsack degrees outside with one trillion percent humidity and a bonus negative one trillion air quality due to the combo of ragweed and forest fire. Yay Fall!
Anyway, I was all over this release as soon as the idea of it was mentioned and made sure to get my grubby little mitts on it as soon as it was seasonably acceptable. If you aren’t familiar with the Winstons . . . well, you’re really missing out because they are absolutely splooshtastic . . . . but this could probably work as a standalone. It certainly would benefit you to read Cletus/Jennifer’s book prior simply for their backstory, but hell it’s a porny not rocket surgery so you could probably decipher what’s going on with little to no brain power.
Anyway x2, this spinoff is the start of a new series where Cletus and his fiancé Jennifer are apparently going to become small-town sleuths. This time it’s about all the local farmers being sabotaged by someone for some reason. If you are addicted to the Hallmark Murders & Mysteries like I am, you’ll love it. I wasn’t a Jennifer fan (to say the least – poor gal probably still is feeling the smackdown I gave her fictional ass back in the day when I read their book), but she’s okay in this one and the rampant case of blueballs both Jen and Cletus have going due to various interruptions was pretty fun. I’ll certainly be first in line for the next one of these....more
The Tuesday Night Club is a super shorty-short by Agatha Christie about a group of six foFind all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
The Tuesday Night Club is a super shorty-short by Agatha Christie about a group of six folks (Miss Marple included – in her debut before she became the focus of her own book series) who decide to create a club that will meet weekly in order to discuss unsolved mysteries. The first case covered being . . . .
After a supper of canned lobster and a dessert of canned trifle, three people become ill and Mrs Jones is found dead.
You’re probably thinking what I was thinking – no mystery to be solved here, pretty simple answer . . . .
Confession time: I picked this up because I am addicted to the stupid-as-hell-so-please-don’t-judge-me Aurora Teagarden movies that can be found on the Hallmark Murders & Mysteries channel (I’ve read a goodly chunk of the book versions as well). At some point I noticed the credits naming this little story as the inspiration behind Charlaine Harris’ series so I had to check it out. Obviously at less than 30 pages this wasn’t any sort of life changer, but it was a fun way to spend 15 minutes and discover where one of my favorite guilty pleasures sprouted from. ...more
It’s a little hard to ignore a series that has been around for 25 years. That being said,Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
It’s a little hard to ignore a series that has been around for 25 years. That being said, the “In Death” train is one I never boarded. When offered a freebie of this FIFTIETH book in the series with the tagline “there’s never been a better time to discover [Eve Dallas’] world than right now,” I figured no time like the present to give it a whirl. Mainly to see if my theory that readers can jump in at any time to books like this (or Stephanie Plum or Kinsey Milhone or a vast amount of others) and not be completely lost is accurate. The answer????
J.D. Robb actually spends less time than anyone else I’ve read summarizing the whos and whens of her series, so obviously she’s pretty comfortable that her fans are ones who have been invested from the start. A newbie who knows zilch before beginning would need a minute to realize that people rely on their “link” rather than their phone, but the same principal applies . . . .
And once they figure out these books are set in the future they might be like me and need another minute to realize it’s not going to be all Demolition Man . . . . .
In the case of the In Death books, they are police procedural types of mysteries with Detective Eve Dallas being the mastermind who gets the bad guy. This time around Eve is trying to figure out the whodunit behind a series of poisoned envelopes . . . .
Really the only disappointment I had was that Eve’s husband Roarke who I always thought was supposed to be a real panty-dropper came off as an L-7 Weenie who wasn’t really necessary at all unless it was to give Eve a quick fade-to-black bang session.
Many thanks to the Macmillan Reading Insiders Club for the advanced copy in exchange for this review....more
You know what’s better than Hallmark Christmas movies? Hallmark COZY MYSTERY movies. BecaFind all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
You know what’s better than Hallmark Christmas movies? Hallmark COZY MYSTERY movies. Because those suckas play all damn year long. And Candace Cameron Bure stars in one batch of those too (Real Murders series - books by Charlaine Harris – if curiosity is killin’ yo cat). So does Aunt Becky and I’m soooooo sad that there will be no more Sunday editions of . . . .
Alright, here’s a little confession. Last Christmas I picked up The Twelve Slays of Christmas from the library and then saw that there was a book two – and immediately got butthurt and complained whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy didn’t the library have it and on and on because I am horrible. And then I turned around and looked in my “basket of shame” full of ARCs that I keep not reading despite always asking for more ARCs and . . . . .
Like I said, I’m horrible. Anyway, if you like cozies and you like Christmas this is sure to be a winner. This time the dead body is found stuffed in a “guess how many mints are in this big ol’ glass” and the suspect is the leading lady Holly’s bestie. And maybe Santa is in it. Or maybe not because that would just be crazy, right? I mean, everyone knows he’s not real.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a very untimely review.
When we last met up with the Steele family they had all returned to the United States toFind all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
When we last met up with the Steele family they had all returned to the United States to recuperate from the shock of dealing with (a) a dead husband/father, (b) a McMansion in St. John no one knew about, (c) a love child (samesies with the no one knew about her part), and (d) various potential romances. In book two it’s pretty much a given there’s going to be a bunch of other crap pop up that wasn’t disclosed in #1. It’s also a given that these folks are headed back to island life ASAP or else there wouldn’t even be the need for a continuation of the story.
If you are familiar with me you know I spend about 95% of my time on Goodreads talking about how I don’t read past the first book in a series. And yet here I am finished with #2 here and anxiously awaiting #3. What can I say?????
In my defense I will say I probably would have never picked up Winter In Paradise if I knew it was going to be a series (and a cliffhangery type of one to boot – GRRRR). But what’s done is done and when I saw this release on the new and notable shelf on a day where it was 30 degrees rather than the near 70 degrees it was supposed to be I said . . . . .
Don’t even come at me when I decorate for Christmas this weekend. If it can fucking ice storm before Halloween I can Clark Griswald the crap out of the interior of my own house before Thanksgiving.
Anyway, I’m new to the Elin Hilderbrand Kool-Aid drinkers club, but I assume this is pretty much her typical fare (only set on a different island than her older stuff). This is also pretty typical book two content. These are always what I call the “filler” books. You need additional info to move the story along, but there’s not a whole lot of real action until book three. It also would not work at all as a standalone, but it was a great way to escape reality and didn’t require a lot of thinking on my part which is always a plus. Bring on #3. ...more
Not everything ends up being a winner. My mediocre reaction to this one can probably be blamed on the fact that I have read quite a few stories revolving around . . . .
And, unfortunately, when it comes to stories of caretakers who just up and went “poof” in the night, I kinda liked The Au Pair better.
This book was perfectly fine - it just didn’t blow me away. The premise is as I said before – Jocelyn’s beloved Nanny Hannah left one night never to be heard from again. When Jo finds herself in a financial pickle after being widowed, she has to move back in to the family estate with own daughter. Human remains are discovered in a lake on the property and Jo immediately thinks it must be Hannah. Until Hannah shows up at the same door she walked out of 30 years ago.
The Nanny takes this sort of approach when it comes to storytelling . . . .
And also I love the occasional cozy mystery so I knew I had to check it out. Then I did what I do best and let my library checkout expire not just once, but nearly three times before finally reading it. In my defense, these types of books are definitely “right place/right time” reads for me. Yesterday not only was I suffering from . . . .
But it was also NEGATIVE TWENTY-FIVE DEGREES OUTSIDE. WTF? Today is Fat Tuesday. How the eff am I supposed to swing my tatas around for beads if my nurps instantly freeze and fall off upon removing my shirt (and in case my children should happen upon this, Mommy is joking – even your daddy doesn’t get to see her nurps so strangers sure aren’t going to).
Anywho, the above amounted to the perfect day for something light.
Meet Lana. She’s a recently single 27-year old who became such after running into her boyfriend Christmas shopping . . . . while he was accompanied by his other girlfriend. She also has found herself working at her parent’s restaurant due to her former employer taking her “take this job and shove it” recommendation to heart. On about page 5 you hear in passing that one of the characters really has it coming to him and by the 5% mark he’s a stiff. Unfortunately the cause of death just so happens to be a severe allergic reaction to shellfish in some dumplings from, you guessed it, Ho-Lee Noodles – the family business . . . .
This had everything a cozy mystery is supposed to have – the “maybe you can go back home again” trope, a bazillion characters who all reside/work in a tightknit little community, MC/family/friends as the lead suspects which equates to the butting in of noses where they don’t belong, and a potential love interest (or two) for future books in the series.
Really the only problem I had with this debut was my own since the Ho-Lee family owned a Chinese noodle shop that my brain wanted to turn into a Thai noodle shop thanks to . . . . .
3 Stars is about as good as these get for me, so Vivien Chen has definitely made her mark and there’s a chance when it comes to book 2 (and 3 and 4) in this series, one day I may say . . . . .
It’s 30 below today – perfect time for another overdue book review. Especially one that iFind all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
It’s 30 below today – perfect time for another overdue book review. Especially one that is set in the wintery wonderland known as Mistletoe, Maine.
Holly White finds herself the exception to the rule of the old adage “you can’t go home again” after being dumped by her fiancé right before her wedding. However, there’s no better place to turn a frown upside down than her family’s Christmas tree farm and café. In fact, the only downside to the entire town is the President of the Historical Society who spends her days . . . .
And fining people for atrocities such as “failing to use a historically accurate paint shade” when they attempt to spruce up their homes/businesses. Yep, Margaret Fenwick is a thorn in everyone’s side. The question is, who in town decided she was more than a nuisance and determined it was time to . . . .
When Holly’s own dad is labeled suspect numero uno in Margaret's murder she goes sniffing around – only to receive some very clear messages that she better stop or . . . .
Okay, this was a pretty good cozy mystery. If you follow me, you are well aware that I am an addict a lover of all of the Christmas things so the title, cover, location, etc., etc., etc. were all perfect. I wasn’t annoyed by Holly’s curiosity since her own father was involved, and really she didn’t go as far over-the-top as some other leading ladies in books like these I have read – plus she did her snooping with the local authorities being in the loop for the most part. Speaking of local authorities, Sheriff Evan Gray is a pretty good choice when it comes to a potential love interest. Oh, and dare I forget the icing on the cake when it comes to a “cozy” – the MC’s career. Always cutesie, always the most speshul of all the speshuls that ever speshuled, Holly’s handmade jewelry simply FLIES off the shelves . . . .
Yeah. That’s pretty much this book. After all, it is the story of the local cookie shop owner who gets recruited by her brother-in-law (who just so happens to be Barney Fife a policeman) to help solve the first murder Eden Lake has ever had. I mean, I haven’t experienced something this ridiculous since . . . . . well, actually just about a week and a half ago . . . .
Anyway. If you’re willing and able to leave reality 100% at the door, Joanne Fluke might have the series for you. These light and cozies are working out great for my commute so I have a feeling I’ll gobble up whatever else the library has to offer . . . .
“I never look for trouble; things just seem to happen.”
My name is Kelly and I’m addicted to the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel. (Psssssst – this is the part where you all say “Hiiiiiiii Kelllllllllly.”) Seriously, though, it’s 100% true and the Garage Sale Mysteries have quickly become a fave. Imagine my delight when the entire month of August was dedicated to my latest obsession. Sadly August came to an end – but then I remembered these made-for-TV movies were based on books and of course my homies at the library weren’t about to let me down . . . I just had to wait for my turn to come up. It just so happened that my time came on the PERFECT day! The temps dropped so low I got to break out my sexiest loungewear . . . .
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(Trust me, I could barely keep my husband off of me once I put these on.)
And I snuggled in with only the most necessary provisions . . . .
Like many book-to-film conversions, there was some artistic license taken in transitioning this series to the screen (since there are only three books but umpteen movies, I figured as much before diving in). The main difference is with the leading lady herself. Book version Jennifer Shannon is a 60-something, stay-at-home, mother of five grown children and a bevy of grandkids. Movie version is younger, mother of only two (one still a high schooler/one in college) and owner of “Rags to Riches” – a quaint little antique store. The thing the two have in common is that Jennifer somehow finds herself involved in a mystery – or in this case a couple – a possible hidden treasure along with a potentially dangerous duo of grifters who have set their sights on Jennifer’s mother as their target. Like the quote above indicates, both print and film leads Jennifer to things like . . .
I called this my first foray into “cozy mysteries” over on the Instagram. That’s probably not accurate because I’m fairly certain the Aurora Teagarden books (and another Hallmark Mystery fave) fall into that category as well. (I guess Roe got a pass since she was written by a lady who I originally discovered when I was addicted to vampire and werewolf sex books.) The one thing that stood out for me here was the amount of detail provided as well as the way the dialogue was written. I have no idea if this is the case or not, but it just seemed to shout “this is the way these types of books are supposed to be” to me. I also discovered that this author got her first book published at the ripe young age of 76 to which I say . . .
I thought I was done with Charlaine Harris after finishing the debacle known as . . . .
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(You totally heard that in his voice didn’t you? Samesies.)
But then we changed our T.V. provider and got the Hallmark Mystery Channel as part of the new package and I discovered that D.J. Tanner played the part of Aurora and like a crapload of these movies had been made and they often play on Sunday nights which is my most mind-spinny night of the week and I find stuff like this happening quite frequently . . . .
And … again, you get the picture. Now I’m kind of addicted to them and keep re-watching them like a pathetic nutcase (shut up, Ron). I even picked up #9 in the series after taking a looooonnnnnng hiatus. Then this one shows up on NetGalley (another addiction which I cannot quit) and well, hell, that’s like waving a baggie of meth in front of ol’ Jesse Pinkman. Especially when I found out ROE AND ROBIN HAD A BABY! and also ANOTHER DEAD BODY IN THE BACKYARD!
I really should know better at this point. These books are the literary equivalent of a meal like this . . . .
They aren’t “good” per se, but you still want to shove them in your face anyway. At this point Roe is like an old friend I don’t see very often and even though her stories of breastfeeding and the most recent color of reading glasses she purchased are going to bore the holy hell out of me, I still want to hear them. 2 Stars because according to Goodreads that means "it was okay" and that's what these are. Perfectly okay and a decent couple hour time suck. I guarantee if the next one gets dangled in front of me for free, I’ll read it too. I mean, really, who wants to eat healthy all the time anyway? Just look what it did to this poor chick . . . .
About a hundred years ago I went through a phase I like to refer to as the “summer of vamFind all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
About a hundred years ago I went through a phase I like to refer to as the “summer of vampire.” I read all about the sparklies, the ones from Morganville, the ones teenage girls write diaries about. I read everything I could get my hands on except those written by She Who Shall Not Be Named. Eventually a friend took pity on me and informed me about the wonderful world of adult vampire stories which featured actual peen rather than an endless case of blue balls and a leading lady whose milkshake most definitely brought all the bloodsuckers to the yard like . . . .
But it was good while it lasted. Since I hopped on the Sookie train waaaaaaay early I was pleasantly surprised to see Charlaine Harris had written several other series and read all of those as well. And that’s how I met Aurora Teagarden . . . .
Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn! Mystery solver by night – and also day – pretty much whatever time she can put her nosey ass into someone else’s business.
It had been years (as well as several skipped over books) since I had picked up this series, but due to Lifetime Television For Women and my maybe not so healthy girl crush on Candace Cameron Bure, Aurora had maintained a place in my heart. When All the Little Liars popped on my “recommended to you” shelf at both Goodreads and my library’s websites I figured what the hell. The weather had taken a turn to the chilly and it was a bit moist dreary outside making it the perfect night to break out my super sexy Mr. Rogers sweater I wear while reading cozy mysteries. The sight of said sweater caused a reaction in my husband that went something like “OH DEAR GOD, I THOUGHT YOU FINALLY GOT RID OF THAT UGLY FUCKING THING!” To which I responded “NEVAAAAAAAAAAAAH! and also . . . .
Sadly, much disappoint. After my failure with the final Southern Vampire books I should have just left well enough alone when it comes to Ms. Harris. There just wasn’t much of anything to this story. The premise of missing/dead teenagers was good, but even though All the Little Liars checked in at a measly 229 pages at least 100 of those could have probably been left on the editing room floor . . . unless you’re interested in reading about Aurora’s grocery list when she goes to the local Piggly Wiggly or what she’s wearing/eating for dinner/etc. All filler with no substance makes Mitchell an angry boy . . . .
Kelly (and the Book Boar)
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