3 out of 5 stars
I would like to thank Henery Press for a free ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an open and honest review.
Gosh, what is there to say about this book? I had a REAL love hate relationship with it, I can tell you that!
I liked the tone of the cosy crime that it set out to be. The pace was good, the characters mostly engaging and that side of it – it was great.
But I just can’t get over the whole crab dip incident. Throughout the book we are warned of one of the main characters seafood/ shellfish allergy (it kept chopping and changing between the two). But, right near the start of the book, the woman hired to be that character’s chef (our main protagonist) and someone who knew all about the allergy tells her about CRAB DIP in the fridge… Uh, okay? You can get shellfish free crab dip these days? And please don’t say it was to warn the person with the severe allergy so she wouldn’t eat it – it was her house. If it was such a bad allergy, those items would be nowhere NEAR the house. Trust me on this… allergies and intolerances rule mine and my family’s life. The whole crab dip incident just really put me off enjoying the book.
Yes it could be first series jitters, but seriously, where was the editor/ proof reader on that one? As it was an ARC I really do hope that and the other typos and spelling mistakes were tidied up… but that one was a real clanger to me.
All the same, I did enjoy it mostly and got to the end of it wondering if there were more books in the series… so it wasn’t all bad.
Would I recommend this book to others?
Maybe. It really did have its moments and a lot of it was fun and entertaining reading. It just got me off on the wrong foot and I couldn’t settle in and enjoy it as much after that and so can’t say for sure whether I truly would suggest it.
Would I buy this book for myself?
No. Yes I saw potential in most of it, and yes I would consider looking for the next book in the series to see if it got any better… but not enough to race out and buy it. Maybe if I saw it in the library and didn’t have a mountain high TBR pile – maybe then I would borrow it. Maybe not.
In summary: It had all the right things to potentially make it a great little cosy crime mystery. It just needed a proof reader to clean up that mess at the beginning that put me off enjoying the rest of the book as much as I wanted to. I will say, this series has potential… but I can’t see myself racing out to confirm it.
Until next time,
Janis.
Janis's Journal 