Definitely put-downable.

On short notice Emma is hired as the event planner at a murder mystery party, by old high-school mean girl Tabitha. At the party, Tabitha’s husband Tip is murdered. Fair enough, Tabitha has reason to be upset. But not enough reason to start spreading rumours that Emma and her aunt Nora (who was a guest) are the murderers. If there was any evidence to back up that claim, the police would have arrested them. They would not be walking around freely.

Yet, people are believing Tabitha, because it is hurting Emma and Lucy’s business, a book store. Or perhaps people are not sure what to believe, and are just stepping aside to be on the safe side no matter.

Emma and Nora feel they must investigate. Meanwhile, Emma’s also planning another party: a launch party at her bookstore.

There were too many characters to keep track off, and most of them didn’t seem very nice, so I didn’t want to invest time in remembering them anyway.

I liked Nora, and perhaps I would have liked Emma a little better if she would have stood up to her clients more, rather than remind herself ‘the customer is always right’. No, the customer isn’t. But perhaps that’s easy for me to say; I don’t work as an event planner.

Katharine gets passed over for a promotion she really wanted and decides to quit her job. I can relate.
She comes across the perfect building for her own gallery. She sleeps on it, quits the toxic boy-friend and decides to give it a go for six months.

Except the artist she's set her mind on for her first exhibition isn't being very cooperative. Attractive, though, but not cooperative.

Likeable, relatable characters. I sometimes got a little bit lost in the banter between Katharine and Kit, but overall a very enjoyable book.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Front Page Murder is set during WWII, when the men young and able joined the war effort and the women stayed behind and did their jobs. Irene Ingram is such a woman: she took over as editor-in-chief of the Progress Herald when her father decided to become a war correspondent (it seems he managed to become embedded).

Of the men that stayed behind at the paper 4 out of 5 take some form of issue that a woman in her early twenties is now their boss. One of them is Irene’s cousin Donny who works at the paper to layout the pages. He wants to become a reporter, even asks (almost begs) Irene for an upgrade to that position. When she turns him down, he insults her and says it’s because she is jealous of his talent.

Another is top reporter Moses “Moe” Bauer. Who calls her “doll” and chases after hot tips without telling her what story he is chasing and occasionally without doing the story he is assigned to do. It’s after one such disappearing act that Irene goes to Moe’s house in a quest to find her missing reporter. And finds him at the bottom of his cellar stairs.

The coroner rules it an accident and the chief of police (Irene’s future father-in-law) sees no reason to investigate. Not even after Irene brings him a note left by Moe in which he claims that if he gets killed it is no accident. Frustrated that the police will not investigate based on a note, Irene decides to investigate herself because Moe’s murderer must be brought to justice.

Though I liked the story for the most part, there were things that irked me, such as the conclusion Irene jumped to right there. Despite Moe’s note, it is still possible his death was an accident. Moe’s claim that his death would not be an accident, however, is worth an investigation. What was that story he was working on? As a reporter, Irene should want that story, whether Moe was killed or not.

But she’s young; she probably still has to hone her journalistic nose for a good story. She has a lot of “I should have thought of that moments” and they’re all related to things a reported could have (should have) thought of. Strangely, none are related to running a news paper and it seems she has less experience in that than in reporting.

The scene setting for WWII era is great, but the story couldn’t hold my attention on quite a number of occasions. I guess the urgency of something is going on a Tabor factory wasn’t transferred very well.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

#FollowMe for Murder follows Coco Cline, lifestyle blogger and PR advisor. Slightly early for an appointment with two of her clients Coco stumbles over the body of Stacey, assistent to said clients.

While Coco’s thoughts sway between PR-nightmare and this is so much worse for Stacey, everyone else immediately shouts out: you found the body, you could be in danger!

Why?

It’s not like the body was buried in the woods, so the murderer has got to assume the body would be found sooner or later. That’s probably why they made a quick get away after the murder. So unless the murderer was interrupted by Coco in anyway, they have no reason to silence her. And if they were interrupted by her, it would make more sense had they waited for her and taken care of the possible eye-witness then and there.

Because her clients are on the top of the persons-of-interest list of the local police, Coco decides she must investigate and find if there are any more likely suspects among Stacey’s friends and acquaintances.

The mystery of this was interesting, though the killer is pretty easy to guess. Coco was alright as a main sleuth, though a bit insecure in her relationships. For the life of me, I can’t imagine why she would call Jasper her friend; throughout the story he’s said something kind to her once.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

I’m on the fence about this one.

The mystery is interesting: a book club member is killed and there are plenty of people who disliked her - as in all the other book club members. But what mainly puzzled me was not so much who killed the book club member, but why stay in a book club where you don’t like the other participants? I’m sure at least half the book club members had better things to do with their spare time.

With plenty of animosity between her guests Charlotte slowly picks her way through clues that are piling up. The members of her own book club have some useful information about events both recent and in the past. Charlotte even enlists her friend Gavin to dig some through the databases he has access to through his work (I doubt he is allowed to peruse those out of personal interest).

But, but, I never really got into the story. There is something about Charlotte and her friends that makes me want to avoid them.

The setting reminds me of the Georgie B&B series, and I’d much rather be reading those.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

After their (early?) retirement from their real estate business Daphne Jones became a traveling wedding celebrant. She joins together in matrimony. And she does that traveling from town to town with her husband and a caravan called Bluebell.

The wedding Daphne is booked for in Little Bridges gives her bad vibes. Persons in the wedding party are unkind to her and each other, the groom makes a crude comment to the bride during the ceremony and the family forgot to set up a table to sign the marriage certificate (or Daphne forgot to mention that they should). To top it off, the groom is killed before the newly weds have even had their first dance.

Certain that she has useful insights, Daphne is quite upset that the police don’t base their investigative decisions on her witness statement. So Daphne decides she must investigate herself. She’ll show them.

I don’t like Daphne. Her husband John is infatuated with her, though, and so is the author. Many words are used to describe how kind, emphatic, resourceful and all round wonderful Daphne is. It seems, before she came to Little Bridges, Daphne has never been insulted before in her life. Here she gets called old and overweight. It is quite upsetting.

Daphne’s wonderfulness is all tell, not show. “Daphne was one of those rare humans who truly did care about other people’s feelings and put their needs before her own.” If that is the case, the story does a poor job of showing that. Daphne came across as judgmental and inconsiderate. When Bertie, the bride’s grandfather, who considering his age and his actions could be suffering some form of dementia, goes missing, Daphne doesn’t want to go looking for him because “finding a rude and grumpy man was not on her to-do list.” Not a good example of putting Bertie’s needs before her own. Later, Daphne does consider that Bertie has dementia, but her treatment of him does not improve.

Where most amateur sleuths try to talk to all the persons of interest, Daphne prefers to spend as little time in their company as she has to. Instead her investigation is based on a few overheard conversations and digging through old news papers and a genealogy website (this digging is done by John). Based on this she is certain she has worked out who and why.

With all the persons of interest gathered in one room, the police decide to indulge Daphne and let her throw her theories around. Why? When did she upgrade from meddling lady to someone that carries clout with the police?

I like the concept of a travelling celebrant that does some sleuthing on the side. But I prefer the sleuth to be less self-absorbed and more interested in the people she is working with. A celebrant comes into people’s lives at a time they are most willing to share their emotions. The celebrant would have the unique position of becoming everyone’s confidant. Sadly, that angle is not used here.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

What you'd expect from a chicklit.

Frankie George has one ambition: a promotion at the magazine where she works. A promotion that comes with a salary increase so she will be able to afford a flat and move out of the house share she lives in. Alas, because of dwindling sales a new editor is put in charge, and she hates all the things Frankie wrote about before. But a pitch - made up on the spot - for an article about meeting the old fashioned way (or as people do in romcoms) gets the support of this new editor. But every meet cute she tries to set up runs disastrous.

Meanwhile, she keeps running in to Max, a writer for a webazine based in the same building. One day over lunch Frankie mentions to him how she needs a break, and he suggests she'll go on holiday with him. The friend he's supposed to go with can't make it. Frankie accepts, but it turns out there are a few things Max forgot to mention.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Too many unlikeable characters.

It’s a couple of months after the events of the first book. Lexi Jones has only just recovered from the injuries she sustained when she tried to catch a killer that time. When Lexi hears of the death of real estate agent Marilyn she is a little disappointed it is not a suspicious death; she wants to sleuth again! Though a 37 year old woman that suddenly dies of heart failure, that doesn’t sound entirely natural to me either. The coroner rules it such though.

A few days later another woman is found dead. This time it is considered a suspicious death by the police - something to do with finding the body in an unusual place.

Shortly after, Lexi’s friend Dash is arrested for the murder of the second woman, Rachel. And while I do get why the police like to question him thoroughly (the body was found in his garden and he was dating the woman), I don’t get why Lexi and her friends find anything of the following suspicious:
- Rachel was at Dash’s bar the night before she died;
- Rachel’s underwear was found in Dash’s hamper.

Dash’s owns a bar, lot’s of people hang out there. Rachel and Dash used to date. The fact that Rachel was at the bar, or her underwear in his hamper are the least incriminating elements.

Lexi enlists her book club, the Macaroons, to help investigate this case. Which they all have time for, or are willing to throw their busy schedules around. Lexi gives them tasks to investigate possible suspects and they all come back with interesting ‘juice’. When the Macaroons compile a list of suspects half the town is on it. All the women wanted to kill Marilyn because she slept with their husbands. All the men wanted to kill Marilyn because they could not have her all to themselves.

Meanwhile, Lexi is striking up some kind of rapport with detective Berg, after he’s stopped give her tickets for minor infringements of local code.

I just couldn’t get into this book. There are too many characters, their dialogue is all a bit hyped up, and most of the characters don’t sound like actual likeable people. I wouldn’t want to spend time in a waiting room with them, let alone in a conversation. I also didn’t care for the dog that dominated every scene it was in.

And I very much don’t like the ‘romance’ part of this book (note the quote marks). It wasn’t cute when Berg picked up Lexi at the police station. That was assault. As was banging on her door in the middle of the night to apologise and definitely when he came round to prove a point.

Oh, and if the sleuth doesn’t figure out who the killer is,

Spoiler

until after the killer tries to kill them too, the sleuth did not solve the murder. The killer solved it for them.

Don't think I will pick up this series again in the future.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Bit of a slow start, but good once the romance gets going.

Journalist Saffie Ackroyd and friend/co-worker Milo Cook are suffering from a dating slum. When at a speed dating event they each run into one or more of their exes, they decide to sign up for the 24 Dating Agency. This agency costs a bundle, but it promises to set you up with your soulmate and you really get to know them because your first date is set to last 24 hours.

The story is follows Saffie, Milo and Tamara (Milo’s sister and editor of the magazine where they all work). I liked the Saffie parts best. I think the Milo parts were underdeveloped - his main problem is when to say “I love you” to his boyfriend - it lack the usual bang chicklit romances have.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.