Tag: cozy

Excellent read, but really, in comparison to the first two books, I’m calling this a 3.5 star read.

 

If you haven’t yet dived into the Mace Bauer series, the characters are great, sassy, smart, witty, but still, old-time Florida – and most definitely not the postcard Florida one thinks about when thinking about a beach vacation.  This is cattle country.

 

The plot of this one was well done; the author does a very good job keeping the reader too busy to really speculate too heavily about who the killer is. At least one plot twist kept me from being at least entirely right when I did guess.

 

So what cost it the half star? Mama got on my last nerve with the Bridezilla bit and the constant one-track song she played about Mace’s looks, about her ability to keep a man, about her sister Maddie’s weight. She went on and on and ON, and she wasn’t ever listening to anything anyone else tried to say. She was too busy listening to the sound of her own voice.  Mama came off vain, shallow and narcissistic instead of eccentric, quirky and charming as she has in previous books. Still it was a small blip on in otherwise entertaining read. We see more of Carlos in this book and that was a definite bonus – I like learning more about this man and I like his less antagonistic interactions with Mace. The scene on the lake was the best part of the book for me.

 

I’m looking forward to reading Mama Sees Stars.

Meh.

 

I really like to the two main characters, Olivia and Maddie. And Olivia’s mother is a joy. The dialogue between these three is really well written and there are more than a few good one-liners. Del is sweet and I think he could be a great character if he was around more.

 

The plot of the mystery, at it’s bones, was well done. Old clues, new clues, lots of suspects and an ending that wasn’t the total cliched ‘cozy ending #2’. I liked the ending.

 

So what was the problem? The story just didn’t flow well at all. It felt disjointed and clunky; disorganised. And while I’m an animal lover to an extreme, if I had to hear one more time about Spunky’s days on the ‘mean streets of Baltimore’ or his begging eyes I was gonna scream. It was too much.

 

If the next book came out right now, I wouldn’t pick it up. We’ll see how I feel X months from now when it does come out.

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.

So, I liked this book. It was a good, entertaining read. But I didn’t love it. Or really like it. I really liked the first one.

 

The characters are great – likeable, unique, sassy in some cases, sweet in others. A wide range of ages in the posse keeps things interesting – I want these people to be my friends. If the author has designs on making Cole the romantic interest in the future, I hope she soon shows another side to him, cuz he’s an ass and I was only sorry Kath didn’t punch him in the nose again in this book. Joe’s an enigma – I wanna know more about him.

 

I wish the ghost was less of a mess – she’s really unlikeable and not a sympathetic character because she’s just, well, a mess (and incredibly self-centered). She’d be a much more interesting character if the author gave her some depth; some dimensionality. Some Xanax.

 

The setting is awesome – small town set in the Tennessee hills, and I’d like to move into the Weaver’s Cat.

 

The plot was solid, well done, and not one of the clichéd cozy-mystery plots that authors can buy 5 for a dollar. I truly didn’t see the villain or have a hint of the villain until the giveaway clue.

 

I’m not really sure why this wasn’t a four star read for me except that it felt choppy; like it didn’t flow as well as it should or as well as the first one. That can be a subjective thing – maybe it would be smoother if I read it again at some point – so I’d recommend this one to anyone who has read the first one. And I’ll be eagerly awaiting the third book…

A series that just gets better with each book. Death Rides Again was great. I love the witty, dry, tell-it-like-it-is dialogue that doesn’t hold back. I love the sarcasm used judiciously by the main character Jocelyn. I’m loving the new love interest. The only thing I didn’t love was the overall theme of hunting – I hate hunting animals with a fervent passion. Luckily, most of it was talk and no animals were overtly harmed in the story.

 

This one takes place at the family’s ranch over the Thanksgiving holidays and while I usually don’t care for mysteries that take place ‘away from home’ none of the mysteries in this series have taken place in the same place, so no real sense of a permanent setting has ever really been established.The plot was complicated, twisted, and well done. While I suspected I knew who the villain was, I was only a tiny bit right in the end.  A fun, fast-paced, hard-to-put-down mystery and I’m really looking forward to more books.

Small southern town with small-town southern charm. A lingerie store that specialises in vintage lingerie. A world travelled aunt and a good looking love interest. A perfect setup. Sadly, the perfect setup is hopelessly marred by really bad plotting and, although to a much lesser degree, stilted writing.

 

This town the author has created (I know, Paris, TN really does exists, but this Paris is a creation of the author) is great: interesting and fun characters you find yourself liking. But the writing itself comes across stilted and un-natural, and it lacks the flow of authentic conversation a lot of the time. In a really well written book, I don’t even notice the ‘he said’ or ‘she said’, but I found them really noticeable in this story.

 

As to the plot, well, as with the first book, I knew the murderer and why from the very first moment possible.

 

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When Jessica first told her ‘story’ and the murderer denounced it as gossip. And please, Emma sees the cupcake boxes all tied up on the counter in the kitchen, sees the murderer come in as she’s leaving the kitchen, and the next thing that happens is the woman comes out of the kitchen with the cupcakes unboxed and on a platter. How Emma missed that one is a mystery for the ages. And the police – no one thinks to ask ‘who un-boxed the cupcakes and put them on the platter?’ ‘who served them?’

INSERT SPOILER TAG HERE

 

It was just so obvious that the fronting of additional suspects just wore my patience thin and I wanted the book to be over with.

 

It’s a shame, because I really want to like these books – they have all the earmarks of what would normally be fun, enjoyable reads. But unless the plotting gets much more sophisticated, this will be a series I’ll have to pass by.

An excellent read – but I have a beef. The last book Mama Does Time, ends with Mace saying she’d had gone on ‘a date’ with Carlos, but that he had needed to move back to Miami to sort things out. A. Date. At the beginning of this book, it’s all about how they’d had a full-on relationship and he’d broken it off to move back to Miami. I hate when author’s re-invent their character’s histories like that. Drives me nuts.

 

Now that that’s off my chest – I’m loving this series so far. As a fourth generation Floridian myself, I thoroughly enjoy this visit to the Florida I grew up in and miss fervently. I get a huge kick out of Mace and her sisters – and I appreciate the reality of family life Ms. Sharp allows when one of the sisters (usually Mace) puts their Mama in her place – and Mama often needs it! It is a refreshing change of pace from those books where the Mother can act like she ought to be riding a broomstick but no one would dare speak a disrespectful word to her.

 

As much as I like Mace, I have to admit to liking Marty just that little bit better. And I love the pacing and dialogue when the three are playing off each other.

 

The plot was excellently done – a really well crafted mystery with an ending that I didn’t see coming.

 

I’ve been suffering a string of books lately that have been flat, disappointing, and lifeless. Mama Rides Shotgun was a delightful cure and a breath of fresh, slightly horsey-scented, air.