Happy Friday! Are you ready for the weekend to start? A Christmas by the Sea by Melody Carlson comes out on September 4. I look forward to reading her new Christmas book each year. If you like to read historical mysteries, pick up A Tale of Two Hearts by Michelle Griep on September 1. It is the second book in Once Upon a Dickens Christmas.
Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies by Darci Hannah is the first story in A Very Cherry Mystery series. Whitney Bloom lives in Chicago, Illinois
where after creating a disastrous Superbowl commercial, she finds herself blacklisted
by ad agencies as well the laughingstock of the advertising world. To make ends
meet, Whitney has started the online business Bloom ‘n’ Cherries! selling her
baked cherry creations. She has been corresponding
with a man online who calls himself C-Bomb and seems to know Whitney from home town
of Cherry Cove, Wisconsin. Whitney gets a frantic phone calls from her
mother. The manager of their orchard,
Jeb Carlson has been murdered and her father, Baxter is the prime suspect. Whitney rushes home where the annual Cherry
Blossom Festival is in full swing and is dismayed when she finds that Jack
MacLaren, her old high school nemesis, is in charge of the investigation. Not trusting Jack, Whitney declares that she
will find out who killed Jeb. Whitney
will have to deal with her past while sifting through the clues to identify Jeb’s
killer. Someone, though, is intent on destroying
her families’ inn and reputation. Can
Whitney track down the culprit before it is too late?
Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies has a
cute cover and I like the setting of Door County, Wisconsin. The town sounds charming and the acres of
cherry trees in bloom sounded beautiful (I would be sneezing up a storm with my
allergies). It was interesting to learn
more about cherries and the running of an orchard. To get through Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies,
though, you need to suspend your disbelief (from beginning when we find out the
content of the commercial to the end when Whitney shoots off a gun with no clue
who she is shooting at). The world in
the book is not one in which normal people live. My mother can enjoy these types of books, but
I find myself annoyed, rolling my eyes and becoming exasperated (my mother
states I lack a sense of humor). I
thought there was an absence of character development and the story
rambles. When Whitney is with her
friends, she tends to act like a nincompoop.
She is told to keep certain key details about the murder to herself, and,
within a short time, Whitney is telling her friends. Whitney could be categorized as TSTL. In the story, there is the cliché high school
nemesis and, of course, the men who appeal to Whitney are “hunky”. I found many items repeated throughout the
book and speculation abounds. The
mystery is the best part of the book, but identifying the guilty party is a no
brainer. Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies
needs rewriting and editing as well as proofreading. As you can tell, I did not enjoy reading
Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies (I had a rough time finishing this time and there
was skimming involved). I highly suggest
that you pick up a sample for your e-reader and judge Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies for yourself. My rating for Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies is 2 out of 5 stars (not for me). Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies is Darci Hannah's debut cozy mystery.
I appreciate you stopping by today. Tomorrow I am featuring The Girl on the Doorstep by Lindsey Hutchinson. It is the fifth novel in A Black Country Novel series (each book in series can be read alone). I hope that your day passes swiftly so your weekend may begin. Take care and Happy Reading!
Kris
The Avid Reader
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