Sunday, July 2, 2017

Weekend Book Reviews

Bad Housekeeping by Maia Chance is the first book in the Agnes & Effie Mystery series.  Agnes is suddenly dumped by her boyfriend and finds her well planned life up in the air.  When her eccentric great aunt arrives in town with plans to makeover the Stagecoach Inn, Agnes reluctantly agrees to help.  When the most outspoken opponent of the inn is found dead on the property, Agnes and Effie must solve the mystery to save the inn and themselves.  I enjoyed this book from the start.  Agnes and Effie are hilarious, and the story is full of action.  The characters are a bit unusual, which made them even better.  I loved this book and look forward to the next one in the series!

Dorothy Cannell's The Trouble with Harriet is part of the Ellie Haskell Mystery series.  Ellie is all set to embark on a trip to France with her husband, Ben.  Her long lost father suddenly appears with an urn of ashes from her beloved Harriet.  What comes next is a comedy of errors.  From her father's refusal to turn the ashes over to Harriet's family to the absent minded vicar, Ellie has her hands full.  I liked this book, but I did not love it.  Ellie's dad, Morley, was more dramatic than a teenage girl.  He had only recently met Harriet, but one would think they had been married 60 years or more.  My second problem was the vicar.  Calling him forgetful is putting it lightly.  He "forgets" that a car is not his own and drives off in Ellie's for over a day.  I find it impossible to believe that he can be a working vicar in his condition.  Those two characters made it a struggle to get through to the end.

Death of a Bachelorette by Laura Levine is part of the Jaine Austen Mystery series.  Jaine is on her way to the tropics with her cat Prozac in tow to be a writer for a new reality tv series.  The fabulous job in paradise turns out to be anything but.  The bachelor on the show is incapable of reading his lines, and the entire crew is miserable.  When one of the bachelorettes is murders, Jaine must solve the crime or be stuck on the island forever.  I guessed the murderer early on, but I still loved the book.  Prozac and e-mails from Jaine's parents continue to add entertainment.  This is an enjoyable summer read.

disclosure:  I received these e-books from NetGalley but was not otherwise compensated for these reviews.  All opinions are my own!

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