After the death of her husband Felicity Koerber decided to open the bean to bar chocolate shop that she had her late husband dreamed about. In addition to single origin chocolate bars and sweets that can be made from them, Felicity also wants to sell (rare) books she picked up on her travels or at estate sales. Such as a possible first edition of Sense and Sensibility.

Other than finding the Jane Austen at a bargain, Felicity does not have much luck. She catches one of her employees stealing from her and after the girl promises she will pay everything back, she suddenly dies. During the festive grand opening of Felicity’s shop. Soon enough, Felicity finds herself a suspect in the eyes of former boyfriend and current investigating detective Arlo Romero.

Afraid he’s only going to believe she didn’t do it if she produces the real killer, Felicity sets out to investigate the death of her employee, helped by Logan Hanlon - a former cop - she hired for private security because the real killer seems to be after her.

I loved the cover of this book, the gray and the pink. I’m not so enamoured with the story.

Arlo the detective is an idiot. Not only does he tell Felicity that by sharing incriminating stories about others she is making herself look more guilty, because that’s what the bad guys on Columbo do (a cop that takes his que from TV-detective, no, just no), he also chides her for not sharing certain information about a roommate of one of her employees (What? He should have known this already. It’s called a background check and TV-detectives use them too), plus he was unable to find any information on Logan Hanlon more than a few years back. Logan explains this away by saying he used to go by his middle name, but the police should have been able to find that out.

Felicity isn’t too bright either. She jumps to conclusions a lot. Points fingers before finding out there is a much simpler explanation for the supposed evidence. And she spends about as much time questioning her attraction to both Logan and Arlo (oh, but I can’t, my late husband was the love of my life; he’s not my type; he’s in a relationship) as she thinks about investigating a murder that threatens her business.

The plot is alright, though, and if the cop had been less of an idiot and the former cop more skeptical of the conclusions Felicity jumped too, I would have enjoyed this story more. Now my enjoyment came in part from writing alternative dialogue in the margins.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.