This was the first book I read in the Hedgehog Hollow’s series, and because of that it took some getting into to. There are a lot of characters to get familiar with and past events referred to. Which took away some of the enjoyment of this book. Definitely cannot be read as a stand-alone.

I got into the story lines eventually, but at some point I got annoyed that every heart-ache, every panic and every onset of trauma was resolved with a good heart-to-heart. If only Shaun had known that at the time; Lauren wouldn’t haven been left with a cryptic note and 26 years of questions of why.

I read an ARC through NetGalley

In Murder is Revealing Myaisha tries to find out who killed her friend Candance, but the more she learns about the business dealings of Candance, the more she wonders if she really knew her friend.

The plot sounds good and Myaisha is a likeable protagonist. She’s smart, successful in her work, and compassionate about her friends. There were two things that kept me from enjoying this story.

The first was the POV switches. Myaisha is the main protagonist, but sometimes the story switches to Detective Gamble, Candace’s husband Adán or another character to reveal some secret Myaisha is unlikely to find out. Because the POV lime light wasn’t shared equally, these side steps felt forced. As if there would not have been enough story to tell if only Myaisha was followed.

The other thing that made this story hard work was the narrative style. Its verbosity: hardly anyone in this story walks. They amble (15 counts), saunter (19), traipse (3) and even lumber rather than walk. The sentence structure to avoid the word she/Myaisha: “Typing resumed” On it’s own? (as a side note: Myaisha can type up patient notes while holding a conversation about a completely unrelated topic?) And sometimes the just plain odd choice of words: “she almost urinated when some rapped on the door” When you almost wet your pants when you get spooked, it’s a figure of speech. When the word urinated is used, it sounds more like a medical condition.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Dewey Decimated is the sixth in the series of the Haunted Library series and it’s another trip to the small town library with the big town budget. Clover Ridge Library has acquisitioned the building next door and hired a contractor to refurbish the building for the library’s needs. Carrie Singleton has her heart set on a room with stadium seating for 320 people for her events.

The builders are off to a bad start when they find a corpse in the basement. This does not stall the work much as the police come to collect the corpse soon enough. Next thing, the builders (I really should use air quotes with that) break through an adjoining wall, unscheduled and in the wrong place.

The builders put up some tarp and clear up the rubble and continue their work. What? No! The construction work should be shut down until a proper investigation into the incident is done: how did this happen? Is it likely to happen again? And was the structural integrity of the building damaged? (i.e. is it still safe for patrons to use the library?) Breaking through a wall unscheduled is not a “oopsy” event and should not be misnomered a “mishap”.

This is not my only eye-rolling moment at how local government in Clover Ridge works. I’m not sure how Carrie got on the local counsel (it seems she was asked rather than elected, but I guess that’s properly explained in a previous book), but it seems the counsel holds meetings all over the place and never ever is there someone present to take minutes. Then how are the citizens of Clover Ridge to check that their local counsel is working in the best interest of the town?

Such technicalities do detract from the main mystery.

Because there is a main mystery. It turns out the corpse is the body of Carrie’s fiancé Dylan’s uncle. An uncle he hasn’t seen in at least eight or ten years. An uncle who’s ghost is now also hanging out at the library. While Carrie is determined to let the police handle it, another ghost at the library, a reporter that’s harassing her and finally the murder of fellow counsel member and contractor for the library, pull Carrie in to find out the truth.

I never really got into this story. The technicalities bothered me. I didn’t really care about either dead man and who had killed them. I didn’t care much about Carrie either.

And can Carrie please put up a visitor’s chair in her office so people can have a seat without her assistant vacating the room?

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Despite my opinions on the last book, I decided to read Making It Write. At first I was pleasantly surprised. I liked this book a lot better than the previous one. It had better pacing and the mystery was interesting.

Veronica is hired to help write the memoirs of Maeve Winslow, an art teacher married to a famous painter. Maeve promises there will be a surprise at the end. Before that, she gives Veronica all the bits and pieces she has written herself up to that point. Veronica takes home the notes and a big check and gets to work.

When she returns to Maeve’s home for their next meeting, she finds the front door open. She goes up the the attic room, Maeve’s room for her artwork and meeting people. Maeve’s not there, but when Veronica turns around she knocks over a teacup and breaks its ear. Veronica decides to hide her crime. She wraps the broken cup in some paper stuffs that in a cupboard and puts another cup from the set on the table. Veronica owns the same teacups and decides to bring one of her own in to replace the broken one the next time she’s at Maeve’s.

Why Veronica thinks Maeve is not going to notice one of her teacups is missing or that someone has stuffed something in one of her cupboards, I don’t know. We’ll never know if Maeve would have noticed, because when Veronica goes down the back stairs in further search of Maeve, she finds her body at the bottom step.

Maeve’s publisher wants Veronica to continue with the memoir; she has all Maeve’s notes except for the surprise at the end. Maeve’s husband wants her to stop with the memoir and even suggests to the police Veronica killed Maeve because Maeve asked for the check back.

Veronica continues with the memoir and with the help of her friend Tizzy, one of the aspiring writers in her writers’ group, she tries to interview other persons of interest.

I’m happily reading along until two things happen. Among the notes Veronica finds a postcard and on the back of it she reads something that makes everything fall into place for her. What’s on the postcard is not yet shared with readers. I hate it when authors hide information like that.

The other is that the next day, Veronica passes Maeve’s house and sees an opportunity to fix the thing with the broken teacup. She had not told the police about the teacup, because she thought Detective Janowski would consider it tampering with evidence. Why she thinks a broken teacup suddenly appearing will not be considered tampering with evidence, is unclear. Besides, she hid it in Maeve’s attic room. The teacup may have already been found.

I had to put the book down for a few days to work up the courage to continue.

Three stars, because for the most part I did like this story.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Sappy.

Another book by Jessica Redland that has no real conflict in it.

Fizz has a big secret from her childhood, but once she tells her family about it, the weight of it slides off her and she can focus her attention on her soon to be love of her life.

The lightness with which heavy topics were dealt with just doesn't seem to do these topics justice.

I guess I'm just not cut out for this sort of feel-good novel.

I read an ARC through NetGalley

Looking forward to a nice, quiet Christmas?

So was Billie May, but then her mum sold her house before the new one was ready, her sister broke up with her boy-friend, and her dad and his wife flooded their house. All find their way to Billie's house. Desperate for some me-time, or at least time away from her family, Billie signs up for a bunch of events hosted by members of a dating app.

Funny and relatable.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Evelyn leads a rather empty life at the hotel her father owns. Her daily activities include lounging by the pool, going for beauty treatments and shopping through catalogue. (By the way, a roof top pool in New York?) Evelyn doesn’t have a job at the hotel, but she sometimes helps out finding things.

When a hotel guest is killed she decides she must find out who did it.

I didn’t find Evelyn endearing. I found her too vapid, always dressing in pink and looking out for photographers to snap her for the society pages. I didn’t care for the murdered man either, or for the man that was first arrested.

As such, I wasn’t compelled to read all the way to the end of the story.

I received an ARC through NetGalley.