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lisaluvsliterature 's review for:
Marriage and Murder
by Penny Reid
Now normally I don’t really read a lot of cozy mysteries. But pretty much anything that Penny Reid writes I will read, and probably love. Of course I loved the first book in this series, Engagement and Espionage, so I was extremely eager for this second book. One thing that I know is different, I think, from most cozy mysteries, is that we still have the romance aspect with Jenn and Cletus, and I mean the sexy romance aspect, like we get in Reid’s romance stories.
What’s perfect is how we get the recap of the first book and it’s not really an info dump, instead it works out naturally through a conversation with characters that might not have been much in the first book and characters who were there. And because I adore Cletus so much, having more books from his and Jenn’s point of view make me happy. What was a little unusual for Cletus in this book was how he didn’t know a lot of things. It seems his time with Jenn is maybe keeping him from some of his “nefarious” activities that kept him abreast of all things going on in his town. Not that he was completely out of the loop or anything, he just had some blind spots.
The murder in this one was a tough one for the main characters to deal with. Because while it might have been someone that we all loved to hate, they still had direct emotional ties to Jenn and her family. But we got to hate some other people even more than we had before. And I have to say that I’m really irritated that the police/FBI whoever it was didn’t accept who the real murderer was at the end, causing at least one character’s life to have to change.
Then we had Jenn’s mom who really got a chance to live and find some happiness in some way in this story. I also loved when Jenn was doing her own sleuthing or figuring things out and caught Cletus unaware that she knew more than she was letting on.
It’s hard to say much about the story without giving things away, so I’m going to stop here with anything specific to this story. Instead I’m going to talk about how I really really can’t wait for Jackson James story now, and I’d also like Jenn’s brother Isaac’s story too! Now to sit and wait for the next book in this series. Another whole year?
What’s perfect is how we get the recap of the first book and it’s not really an info dump, instead it works out naturally through a conversation with characters that might not have been much in the first book and characters who were there. And because I adore Cletus so much, having more books from his and Jenn’s point of view make me happy. What was a little unusual for Cletus in this book was how he didn’t know a lot of things. It seems his time with Jenn is maybe keeping him from some of his “nefarious” activities that kept him abreast of all things going on in his town. Not that he was completely out of the loop or anything, he just had some blind spots.
The murder in this one was a tough one for the main characters to deal with. Because while it might have been someone that we all loved to hate, they still had direct emotional ties to Jenn and her family. But we got to hate some other people even more than we had before. And I have to say that I’m really irritated that the police/FBI whoever it was didn’t accept who the real murderer was at the end, causing at least one character’s life to have to change.
Then we had Jenn’s mom who really got a chance to live and find some happiness in some way in this story. I also loved when Jenn was doing her own sleuthing or figuring things out and caught Cletus unaware that she knew more than she was letting on.
It’s hard to say much about the story without giving things away, so I’m going to stop here with anything specific to this story. Instead I’m going to talk about how I really really can’t wait for Jackson James story now, and I’d also like Jenn’s brother Isaac’s story too! Now to sit and wait for the next book in this series. Another whole year?