Whimsical, Cottagecore and Southern Charm

Initially, the first 2 chapters did not sell this book to me and I crawled through them like a sloth. I don't often enjoy first person narrative and the description of the main murder felt so hollow, so utterly boring and for a second I hadn't realized the character was dead it was so unremarkable. The meet cute was different and kept me reading - one could already guess that he was Detective Hayes as soon as the main character found the body of the murder victim.

That being said - this book grew on me like ivy. I went from huffing and sighing heavily as I rolled my eyes into oblivion to smiling as I read about Maggie the cat, Aunt Fran and Aunt Clara, Amelia, the island-county of Charm, North Carolina, and delicious sweet tea. Honestly, having been raised on John Grisham, Michael Connelly, Robert Harris and so many of my father's favorite authors - Cozy mysteries seemed to be play acting at the whole point of murder mystery. But, this is the year I read anything and everything (within reason) and Cozy mysteries have been beckoning for a while now. This was fun and reminded me of the MeditationMelodies channel on YouTube - there is an Afternoon Tea Party melody that literally sounds like it could be the soundtrack to this book.

What a good read! Looking forward to the rest of the series.