A big, fat, resounding nope, I managed to get through 21% and gave up. As if it wasn't bad enough that the author managed to put down the Buffalo area by labeling it as, "bitter cold for most of the year" (it's not.) but the whining got old very quickly. Yeah, I get it, your husband cheated on you with the town bitch and you're a klutzy, chubby Italian girl that melts everyone's heart. But reiterating that on every damn page makes for a crap book. As if that wasn't bad enough, all of her friends and family constantly gave her pained looks and sympathetic pats because life is soooooo terrible because said no-good-louse-of-a-cheating-husband is a no good louse of a cheating husband and well, you get the point. Unfortunately, it was the town bitch who got bumped off. I'm surprised no one thought to poison the MC's cookies. (No, that's not a euphemism.)

DNF, zero stars and a PLUNK as it lands in the trash basket. If I could rate this lower than zero stars for mocking my beloved WNY, I would.

Good. I enjoyed it better than the first one. This is listed as book #3 in the series but there's novella that came out between the 2 and frankly, I'm not sure it's worth the read. The transition between book 1 to this book is seamless and no other references are made, save for the murders in the first book.

I enjoyed the plot, it moved along pretty well and the ending, although not a complete surprise, was still entertaining enough to be satisfying. There wasn't much forensic-y type stuff going on, except for an autopsy or 2.

Overall, an enjoyable read and I look forward to reading the next.

Just...meh. I'd give it 1.5 stars if I could. The plot was ok, but I figured it out fairly early in the book. The main character needs to learn spells on How To Get Over It and Not Going To Answer Your Stupid Questions. The reporter isn't very good at his job if he goes around badgering random people for no reason by peppering them with personal questions. The "romance" was forced and clumsier than a virgin nerd at a porn convention. Note to authors: bringing up some event in a character's past over and over and over without a)explaining it or b)having it relate to the plot is really a annoying and detracts considerably from the book. So just stop it. Brainstorm some better plot ideas and character development rather than resorting to this ineffective and lazy plot device.

Enjoyable read, and I thought it was better than the last one (although I liked the last one pretty much.)

I liked that the character development moved along a little bit (although I still suspect a looming love triangle) and the plot was pretty good. I figured out the who fairly early on in the book but not the why. Actually, truth be told, I had other suspicions:

Spoiler

I thought Ethan had killed his father, since it was never mentioned in the book how he died. Still kinda wondering.

Delaney Nichols, recently let go from her museum job in Wichita, Kansas, answers a newspaper ad for a job at a bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland and is hired on the spot. Soon after she arrives, her new boss's sister is murdered and a valuable, historic manuscript goes missing.

After setting aside my intense envy of Delaney for landing a dream job in a dream town (no mean feat) I settled into this book easily. I loved the Scottish locale (including the vernacular. I read all sorts of Tartan Noir and hearing characters speak in their native accent really sets the scene.) and the characters were easy to relate to, inviting and realistic. I thought the characters and their relationships were well defined without feeling like a lot of information is dumped in your lap. I would've liked to have seen some scenes with the victim, just to give some perspective, but with so little information about her, I really didn't connect with her death. But that's okay, I was already heavily involved with the other characters.

The plot was also very well crafted, with many red herrings, twists and turns to keep me guessing. While a lot of the story was background and setting up the characters, it didn't detract (or distract) from the really great plot and I admit I didn't expect the ending.

If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would. It was a really great read from start to finish. I can't wait for the next book!

Ugh. Just ugh.

DNF. Hated it right from the opening, but tried to give it a chance. Made it to chapter 3 and it was already so inane that I gave up.

What really pushed me over the edge was when the MC fished a paper out of the cop's back pocket because she thought it could be incriminating towards her sister. Who does that? And then, when the MC and the other person who found the victim left the bar to give their statements to a detective, they instead wandered over to a group of people and started whispering about what they'd found. I couldn't imagine this would get any better so I gave up.

1/2 a star and that's generous. This was a real stinker.

I knew I'd love this book when the opening lines concerned seeing penguins on the front porch that turned out to be nuns. And so started a new mystery for The League of Literary Ladies, full of murder, betrayal, secrets and lies. I really enjoyed the intricate plot, with so many twists and turns that it was impossible to finger the real killer.

I enjoy how Bea and the other Literary League ladies have formed such a tight bond. Their squabbles always remind me of how sisters argue all the time but always have each other's back. I would like to see more of the ladies develop as time goes on. They're a little more than one dimensional but are still nothing more than wallpaper. Levi was better utilized in this book, you get a tiny bit more of a back story, but not much. I have to say, the whole Levi story line was my least favorite part of the book. It just seemed a little...melodramatic. I'd like to say that Bea's reactions were out of character but it occurred to me that I really don't know if it's out of character. The backstories really haven't been well developed. Then it occurred to me that I liked the stories the way they are and adding in a lot of backstory would just bog the books down, so, you know what? It's all good.

A fantastic read in a stand-out series, and the only disappointment was that the recipes for the really tasty dishes were not included at the end. *sigh* That super duper Special Day Hallelujah cake sounded pretty darn good.

Just...okay. I just didn't connect with the plot at all and the ridiculous ending didn't make any sense to me.

I'm really kind of bummed. This series has been consistently good up until now and this book (as with the author's other series, The Markham Sisters) just felt like not a lot of effort went into it. Very disappointing, and I sincerely hope the author pulls it together for the next book.

This would've easily been a 5 star book if not for 2 things: endless repetition of all the story's details every couple of pages and the ridiculous rescue plot.

This series has always had a lot of internal dialogue to it, but it just seemed to make this book drag. It added nothing to the story and felt like filler. In fact, I skipped 2 or 3 chapters in the middle because the story just wasn't moving along.

The plot to rescue the missing farmer nearly made me stop reading the book. Seriously? As a plot device, it stinks. Just implausible and ridiculous.

Overall, not a terrible book, but this series definitely needs to move a few plot lines forward (can we do away with the the whole Mick/Sean/Clueless Maura thing now, please??)

Too wordy for me, lost interest by the second chapter and just sort of flipped through the rest.