The beginning of this book started off clunky for me – I really struggled the first few chapters to figure out the characters’ voices and as a result, the dialogue really didn’t flow at all. And the first half of the book was overly peppered (ha! cooking reference!) with specific examples of how Jenna was an ace marketing executive in her previous career. Yeah, I get it. Enough. These stuck out and felt horribly awkward to me and were quite a turn-off.
But about half to 2/3 of the way through the book, the story found it’s groove, the dialogue started flowing better, the awkward horn-blowing stopped and I found myself really interested in the book. I’m withholding judgement on the characters until the next book, as their personalities didn’t feel established. The two exceptions being Rhett and Tigger – both charmers from the get-go! Oh, and someone needed to drown Pepper before the book even started.
The plot of the murder mystery was well done: some symbolism, a few red-herrings, lots of suspects. I wasn’t able to guess the murderer until the author wanted me to – right along with Jenna.
I’ll also say that I found there to be too much internal dialogue, but I think that’s just my personal cross to bear since I think just about every book has too much internal dialogue. I’ll be looking for the next book to see where things go from here.