Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 292

Review: A FAIR MURDER by Gillian Larkin

Julia Blake owns a cleaning business. As a last-minute request, she decides to help clean up the school grounds for a fair.


The whole thing was pretty slow. I was just waiting for a dead body to show up. Nothing but proper jibber-jabber.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: CHECKED OUT by Abby Matthews

Ricki Rydell is a successful romance author, but, lately, she’s burnt out. The well is dry. She’s tired of writing the same thing over and over again, and she wants to try something else, like mystery. Unfortunately, she has three more romance books in her contract.

To shake up her boredom, Ricki volunteers at the library, where she encounters a hyperactive fan/aspiring writer. Oy!
On her first day as a volunteer, her overeager fan has a heart attack and dies enroute to the hospital. The first thing Ricki notes is how hateful everyone seemed toward the deceased. Could her death have anything to do with her manuscript? Could the victim have left clues in the books?
This was an okay mystery. The pace was somewhat lagging, yet carried a casual and easy-going tone. It still held interest, but I wasn’t too taken by it. The conclusion wasn’t very satisfactory.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: HAMMERED, NAILED, AND SCREWED by Kathleen Hering

My thoughts: One phrase I love and it correlates well with this book was: “You know where I can get nailed?”

Of course, that phrase is not in the book, but I expected the same witty repartee.  

Laura is a widow from a cheating bastard and now has the wealth from the life insurance. The mystery revolves around the death of that husband? And the Mexican government is involved? Property scam? Insurance jargon? Boring!
And it doesn’t get any better when Laura gets a job for a construction company as an interior decorator no less. This story was just not interesting. 


My rating: 2 stars

Review: MURDER MY SWEETS by Sylvia Selfman

Izzy, along with her senior friend, Flo, opens up a detective agency. She overhears a shady conversation at a pancake house. Were these guys plotting murder?


Ah, Izzy, you gotta stop snooping around and not get mixed up with all these misunderstandings.


Simple read and witty. Izzy was relatable in the sense that she, too, didn’t get technology. I mean, needing a tracking to find a tracker. Ah, to get old and deal with technology.


I thought we had the original mystery from the start, but then it goes to a woman thinking someone’s trying to kill her. Was there a connection between this and the two guys talking previously?


Overall, the mystery is pretty slow—like the old ladies. And not only does Izzy talk to her cat, but she makes the cat talk back! Crazy old lady.


I guess this can be a quirky read, but it was just too slow for me.


My rating: 2 stars

Review: MIXING UP MURDER by Emmie Lyn

Dani works at Little Dog Diner, which was owned by her grandmother. After the fake funeral to a guy she despises, she and her friend find a dead body in the kitchen. The dead body just happened to belong to the guy that had the fake funeral; he was also Lily’s ex. The murder weapon: Dani’s favorite rolling pin. Needless to say, the two were possible suspects in the murder. But it turns out there were several suspects—people that wanted Ray dead.


This was an okay mystery, but it was kinda slow most of the time. The girls mostly bake—it’s all they seem to do. It started off okay, but I wasn’t overly impressed with it.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: FRENCH VANILLA AND FELONIES by Erin Huss

Cambria was unemployed and had no choice but to take a job as an apartment manager. Seems easy enough, right?


The apartment complex was described too much in detail, and managing apartments doesn’t really make for interesting reading. When is the dead body coming already?


Needless to say, I couldn’t get very far in this and I won’t be continuing the series.


My rating: 2 stars

Review: THE SALTY TASTE OF MURDER by Christine Zane Thomas

Allie is a restaurant critic. She gives a local restaurant a bad review (2 out of 5 forks,) and the same day, the owner turns up dead. Allie never felt so guilty about a review. Was it really murder?


I thought this might a quirky, cozy mystery with food and murder. Mostly it just talks about blogging and food with not much focus on the mystery. Kind of dull.


Like Allie’s review, I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.


My rating: 2 stars

Review: THE SCARLET LETTER OPENER by Linda M. Au

Nice illustration on the cover!


Maggie is a freelance proofreader with a strange sense of humor. For example, “I had been lapsing into a comma.” I guess this was a mockery statement on the proofreading job that was overloaded with commas. Lame, if you ask me.


The character tended to go off on endless monologues, often deviating from the story line and making the reading a bit stale. Just like the cover displays, she finds the new editor-in-chief slumped over his desk, dead, stabbed by a letter opener in his back. The thing is we don’t get to this pivotal scene until chapter 4. And even in the midst of this terror, she still annoys readers with her over analytical mouth.


Just not worth the read.


My rating: 2 stars

Review: LOVE BY THE SLICE by Heather Young-Nichols

Bianca’s Italian family owns a pizzeria on the beach front. The new recently hired cook is a gorgeous one. The whole thing starts off as an awkward crush between two bland adults. The characters weren’t really interesting and nothing stood out. The budding romance was kinda cute, and, of course, the whole thing revolved around the pizza place. I’m sure this can be an okay read for some, but it just wasn’t for me.


My rating: 2 stars

Review: THE WIFE OF REILLY by Jennifer Coburn

A woman juggles a husband and a boyfriend. The mission of the soon-to-be ex-wife was to find a replacement for her lonely husband once the divorce settles. To find a new wife for Reilly.


Book starts off talking about the array of characters—uppity, prissy characters, if you ask me. I liked the concept, even though it sounded too far-fetched and harebrained. It didn’t really go anywhere. It just seemed like nothing but inane yakking.


My rating: 2 stars