2 out of 5 stars.
I would like to thank Henery Press for providing me with a free ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange or an open and honest review.
Please don’t take my low score to mean this was a terrible book… it wasn’t. It was also, to me, not an amazingly brilliant book either. It was… okay. Just way too slow in places – to the point I went off and read several other books in between chapters to break up the monotony.
The setting was good, the concept was good and the plot was good. But the pace was slow, it had a LOT of filler and padding in it that just wasn’t needed and seemed to me to be added to get it to the required word count and all in all there was just something there I felt was lacking. Which is a shame as the interesting bits did make out to be a good little cosy crime in the making.
I really am hoping this is just ‘first book of the series’ jitters, as I have a lot of faith in Ms Tyson’s writing and feel it should settle out and find its footing in the next book or so. And, in saying that, if I was asked to read the next book in the series, I would. As, you know, the book, writing and story weren’t that bad… just REALLY drawn out and long winded. Obviously I need a little bit faster a pace than the one offered here.
Would I recommend this book to others?
I might. As I keep saying, it had the promise to be a great little cosy crime. Maybe I just needed something a little faster paced at the time, I don’t know. If you like small town America, farming, cosy crime murder mysteries, you might like this book. But don’t say I didn’t warn you about the padding and snail’s pace plot.
Would I buy this book for myself?
No, I don’t think so. I see it as library quality… as in, if I saw it on the library shelf, I’d possibly read it again, maybe not. If I saw the next book in the series at the library, would I read it? Yes I would… I see good writing skills, a good imagination and some great ideas… hidden in all the extra plot padding. So I won’t rule Ms Tyson out as a cosy crime writer to look out for just yet.
In summary: Good idea, pace and excess plot padding made it too slow for me to really enjoy all in one sitting. Not ruling out the series though as this could really just be ‘first book of the series jitters’.
Until next time,
Janis.
Janis's Journal 