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ppcfransen's Reviews (563)
I liked this book very much, right until chapter 5. The main character has got spunk.
Sunny Meadows leaves the big city for the small town of Divinity to set up her fortune-telling business. She buys a house with character (and calls her Vicky) and finds that house already occupied by a cat with attitude (and calls him Morty). Soon after she hangs a sign on the door, her first client stumbles in. Sunny reads her her fortune, only to find the woman will be killed. How soon, the tea leaves don't tell her.
Sunny sends the woman on her way with a bag of tea, frets for an hour and decides to call the police. Alas, too late, the woman has already been killed. After being interrogated about her involvement and drinking four double whiskeys, Sunny decides she must investigate and goes to the house of her dead client. Where the investigating police officer finds her trespassing.
I enjoy their banter - I know where this is going. So does Sunny after she reads his tea leaves without his permission after he had a cup of tea at her house. Sunny decides that she must stay out of the way of the detective.
But the chief of police decides differently (here come chapter 5): the mayor wants a quick result so detective and fortune teller must work together. Why? Why does the chief decide that a civilian must work together with the police in a murder investigation? Particularly a civilian that is a person of interest in that murder investigation? No reason is given. Not even that the mayor or chief are big believers in the talents of fortune tellers.
I still enjoyed the narrative after that, but my suspension of disbelieve had been stretched too far.
Sunny Meadows leaves the big city for the small town of Divinity to set up her fortune-telling business. She buys a house with character (and calls her Vicky) and finds that house already occupied by a cat with attitude (and calls him Morty). Soon after she hangs a sign on the door, her first client stumbles in. Sunny reads her her fortune, only to find the woman will be killed. How soon, the tea leaves don't tell her.
Sunny sends the woman on her way with a bag of tea, frets for an hour and decides to call the police. Alas, too late, the woman has already been killed. After being interrogated about her involvement and drinking four double whiskeys, Sunny decides she must investigate and goes to the house of her dead client. Where the investigating police officer finds her trespassing.
I enjoy their banter - I know where this is going. So does Sunny after she reads his tea leaves without his permission after he had a cup of tea at her house. Sunny decides that she must stay out of the way of the detective.
But the chief of police decides differently (here come chapter 5): the mayor wants a quick result so detective and fortune teller must work together. Why? Why does the chief decide that a civilian must work together with the police in a murder investigation? Particularly a civilian that is a person of interest in that murder investigation? No reason is given. Not even that the mayor or chief are big believers in the talents of fortune tellers.
I still enjoyed the narrative after that, but my suspension of disbelieve had been stretched too far.
Enjoyable cozy, though I wouldn't mind a little less making out and heart-flutters between Molly and her beau Sam.
Sam has arranged for the Classic Car Crawl - a travelling car show - to come to Britton Bay. Molly joins him to interview the two organisers. Two friends who could not be more different. One turns out to be quite a jerk and it is not much of a surprise when he is found dead a few days later. There's plenty of people that may have wanted him dead: his young wife, his ex-wife, his old friend and business partner, a couple of regulars in the car show, an old friend of the young wife.
Though Molly is warned off about getting involved (for her safety) and she herself is determined not got involved, not too involved, Molly can't help herself and starts to poke around. The motives and changing alibis were pretty good, making all the possible suspects look equally suspect.
I was a bit disappointed by the reveal of the actual murderer. It was not Molly's snooping that made it necessary for the murderer to come out of hiding. So no reason either to silence Molly. I guess that one was necessary for the author to put the sleuth in the hot-spot with the murderer. (And if felt forced.)
And can Americans - at least the fictional ones - just get over themselves when it comes to saying "I love you"? It's not so big a deal that you have to weigh your words carefully before you say "I love you" to the person you have spent pretty much every free moment with for the past six months. In that situation the "I love you" has been implied for several months already.
I read an ARC through Netgalley.
Sam has arranged for the Classic Car Crawl - a travelling car show - to come to Britton Bay. Molly joins him to interview the two organisers. Two friends who could not be more different. One turns out to be quite a jerk and it is not much of a surprise when he is found dead a few days later. There's plenty of people that may have wanted him dead: his young wife, his ex-wife, his old friend and business partner, a couple of regulars in the car show, an old friend of the young wife.
Though Molly is warned off about getting involved (for her safety) and she herself is determined not got involved, not too involved, Molly can't help herself and starts to poke around. The motives and changing alibis were pretty good, making all the possible suspects look equally suspect.
I was a bit disappointed by the reveal of the actual murderer. It was not Molly's snooping that made it necessary for the murderer to come out of hiding. So no reason either to silence Molly. I guess that one was necessary for the author to put the sleuth in the hot-spot with the murderer. (And if felt forced.)
And can Americans - at least the fictional ones - just get over themselves when it comes to saying "I love you"? It's not so big a deal that you have to weigh your words carefully before you say "I love you" to the person you have spent pretty much every free moment with for the past six months. In that situation the "I love you" has been implied for several months already.
I read an ARC through Netgalley.
Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Café starts with the same basic premise as loads of other cozies: woman breaks up with her boyfriend (after he cheated on her) and runs off to some far away place to start a tea room or bakery or some other place where you can by pastries. The difference: Andorra Pett (Andi) went to a mining station near Saturn. The planet, that is.
With no sense of running a café - Andi used to work in a clothes shop - takes over the lease of the café on the mining station. The previous tenant had completely disappeared about a month previously. Andi soon finds out why: the man is in her freezer. By this time Andi has already befriended Tina, a welder, and Lou and Terri a set of blond and skinny twins. They advise her against informing the authorities.
Mike, the dead man in the freezer, turns out to have had a lot of enemies. He was known for sleeping around and it is rumoured he kept a book on all his conquests. Suddenly, women seem to be throwing themselves at Andi and her partner Cy for a chance to work at the café and - Andi suspects - a chance to search for the book.
Andi decides to look for the book herself to get everyone off her back. Or at least out of her quarters at night when she's trying to get some sleep.
Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Café is an amusing story. The emphasis is more on how the mining station works than on the mystery of who killed Mike. But then, Andi didn't know Mike, so why should she care, really? I did miss the sleuthing for clues as to who did it, though.
I read a copy through Netgalley.
With no sense of running a café - Andi used to work in a clothes shop - takes over the lease of the café on the mining station. The previous tenant had completely disappeared about a month previously. Andi soon finds out why: the man is in her freezer. By this time Andi has already befriended Tina, a welder, and Lou and Terri a set of blond and skinny twins. They advise her against informing the authorities.
Mike, the dead man in the freezer, turns out to have had a lot of enemies. He was known for sleeping around and it is rumoured he kept a book on all his conquests. Suddenly, women seem to be throwing themselves at Andi and her partner Cy for a chance to work at the café and - Andi suspects - a chance to search for the book.
Andi decides to look for the book herself to get everyone off her back. Or at least out of her quarters at night when she's trying to get some sleep.
Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Café is an amusing story. The emphasis is more on how the mining station works than on the mystery of who killed Mike. But then, Andi didn't know Mike, so why should she care, really? I did miss the sleuthing for clues as to who did it, though.
I read a copy through Netgalley.
Fine story. Lasted too long for me. I'm fine with the heroine getting together with her love as a couple with some new goals set. I don't really need to know she manages to make a success of all those goals as well. (Rather not, I miss my relatable screw up.) So, after Uncle Terence's video message, the story kind of dragged on for me.
The title is a bit of a misgiving: there is way more than à secret. I guessed pretty much all of them before they were properly revealed. What bothers me a little, though, is that most of these secrets were not mich of a big deal in the story. When they were revealed, they did not change how people behaved towards each other. Which is a bit strange, 'cause they were proper secrets, things that could really impact on how people feel about eachother. Damn Ollie is just too loveable and understanding.
I read a copy through Netgalley.
The title is a bit of a misgiving: there is way more than à secret. I guessed pretty much all of them before they were properly revealed. What bothers me a little, though, is that most of these secrets were not mich of a big deal in the story. When they were revealed, they did not change how people behaved towards each other. Which is a bit strange, 'cause they were proper secrets, things that could really impact on how people feel about eachother. Damn Ollie is just too loveable and understanding.
I read a copy through Netgalley.
They blow stuff up, or crash it, or burn it. A lot.
I like the stories where there actually was a resolve to the investigation better than the stories that ended with a maybe next time.
I read a copy of this book through Netgalley
I like the stories where there actually was a resolve to the investigation better than the stories that ended with a maybe next time.
I read a copy of this book through Netgalley
Much better than the first book, although the policeman is still a bit of an idiot in the way he runs his investigations. I had figured out who dunnit pretty much before the first clue against this person was dropped. If only Crew had had my vantage point.
In a ski resort, up a mountain, during a snowstorm, the owner with a controlling interest suddenly drops dead. The guy was a jerk to pretty much everyone, even his friends, so finding a person who didn't want to kill him would probably be harder than finding the one who did. When asked, everyone denies of course, often citing the man's few good qualities. Fiona, apparently asks better questions than Crew, as someone pushes her out into the cold. This makes Fiona only more determined to find the murderer.
Some things that bothered me:
* why would a premed student, that has wanted to be a doctor since she was a kid drop out of college (postpone her studies) to become a ski-instructor and perhaps try out for the national snowboarding team? It makes her seem fickle about her dreams.
* why didn't Fiona entertain the thought that the murderer might have already tried to get away on the missing snow mobile? She knew one had gone missing around the time of the murder. In stead, like everyone else she kept assuming the murderer hadn't left the lodge yet.
* why would the mayor - who likes things to run her way - would have a parade of dogs at the start of her moment to shine? There's a risk of the dogs running amok (not something the mayor would appreciate) and the dogs had absolutely no relation to the venue (which might have been a reason for the mayor to accept the amok risk). It seems, the only reason for the dogs to be there, is so that the author could have Fiona's pug Petunia in the story.
* and where were the titular chocolate hearts?
In a ski resort, up a mountain, during a snowstorm, the owner with a controlling interest suddenly drops dead. The guy was a jerk to pretty much everyone, even his friends, so finding a person who didn't want to kill him would probably be harder than finding the one who did. When asked, everyone denies of course, often citing the man's few good qualities. Fiona, apparently asks better questions than Crew, as someone pushes her out into the cold. This makes Fiona only more determined to find the murderer.
Some things that bothered me:
* why would a premed student, that has wanted to be a doctor since she was a kid drop out of college (postpone her studies) to become a ski-instructor and perhaps try out for the national snowboarding team? It makes her seem fickle about her dreams.
* why didn't Fiona entertain the thought that the murderer might have already tried to get away on the missing snow mobile? She knew one had gone missing around the time of the murder. In stead, like everyone else she kept assuming the murderer hadn't left the lodge yet.
* why would the mayor - who likes things to run her way - would have a parade of dogs at the start of her moment to shine? There's a risk of the dogs running amok (not something the mayor would appreciate) and the dogs had absolutely no relation to the venue (which might have been a reason for the mayor to accept the amok risk). It seems, the only reason for the dogs to be there, is so that the author could have Fiona's pug Petunia in the story.
* and where were the titular chocolate hearts?
