Litsy

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#cozy
Ally McKellar flees NYC back to her mountain,small, home town of Calendar & opens up the restaurant of her dreams, Bella Rose. The apparent murder of a food critic shuts down her restaurant & turns her life upside down. Impatient with the police she decides to turn amateur sleuth & discover who is the killer.She is joined by her sous chief & dessert maker extraordinaire,Jack Harper.A little mystery, murder,& romance makes this a fun cozy.

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Crinoline_Laphroaig

Death in an English Cottage | Sara Rosett

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This was a much better #SeasonalCozies read @julieclair! I had read 1st in Series and been meaning to get back to it. Enjoyed the settings, mystery, and we bit of romance. Will be continuing.

StolenBookmobile Excellent series 💕 2d

36 likes1 comment

Robotswithpersonality

Bayou Book Thief | Ellen Byron

so-so

Don't get me wrong, the writing, the character development is a LOT better than Murder at Pirate's Cove, but I did find myself drawing parallels: cozy mystery involving person new to the area just taking on the position of book shop proprietor, introduced slow burn love interest, protagonist kind of clumsy in amateur investigating, more up front with police than one might expect, 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? and another series where I won't totally rule out picking up the next book in the series but...not feeling the urge immediately.
There are some fun characters here but there's also hints of some features which I tend to think of as 'Southern romance' tropes: 4d

Robotswithpersonality 3/? ~The protagonist is self-effacing/insecure, and proven to be more virtuous the more crap she suffers through without calling someone out on it. Others may do so on her behalf.
~The male love interest is partially identified by more bold (and by insinuation automatically less attractive 🙄) women hitting on him. 4d

Robotswithpersonality 4/? ~ Some minor villiains are identified clearly not just because they are involved in shady dealings, but because they are uncouth, dress cheaply, look untidy, speak crassly, have disintegrating environs (kind of feels like people forget economic disadvantages are a thing?). 4d

Robotswithpersonality 5/5 There are characters introduced just to be a friction point, which, okay, conflict is part (necessary to?) of a lot of plots, fair, but I have a certain threshold for asshole behaviour in my escapist reading and this kept pushing the red line.
So, yeah, going to have to weigh the cons before I consider picking up another in the series. 🤷🏼‍♂️ 4d

8 likes4 comments

BookmarkTavern

Fudge and Jury | Ellie Alexander

so-so

It‘s time for Ashland‘s annual springtime chocolate festival! Everything‘s going great for Juliet‘s bake shop when a rival baker seems to die of an allergic reaction right after sampling her wares.

This was charming! I loved the relationship between Juliet & her mother, & the fact that the centered romance was actually Juliet‘s mother & her new beau. Loved the descriptions of food, & I would have loved more of the 2ndary characters. 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

BookmarkTavern #SeasonalCozies @julieclair (edited) 3d

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Gryffleclaw95

The House Witch 2 | Delemhach

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely loved “The House Witch” and procrastinated starting the sequel as I was afraid that the second book wouldn‘t live up to the first. I enjoyed the plot, characters, and humor just as much as the first book, and I will be diving into the final volume right away.

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