Miss Frost Cracks a Caper by Kristen Painter

Miss Frost Cracks a Caper by Kristen Painter

When Jayne Frost’s ex-best friend (Lark) shows up in Nocturne Falls apologizing for having broken Jayne up from the love of her life back in college and wanting to make peace between them, Jayne proves herself to be both too kind and too naive to be the winter court princess Painter has described. She goes out of her way to not nix Lark’s chance of being DJ at the Black and Orange Ball and in doing so, sort of makes herself responsible for the criminal acts that occur at the party. It was totally unnecessary, but I think Painter can be forgiven as there would not have been a story without this bit of stupidity on Jayne’s part.

 

Throw in that Jayne’s two boyfriends both have to bail on her for the ball and you have the excuse to introduce a third love interest for Jayne – a necromancer who makes his living baking tasty treats at Zombie Donuts. Jayne is immediately smitten and the reader is left to wonder if Painter is going to further complicate the princess’ love life or is getting ready to break off the cutesy love triangle of the first three books.

 

The mystery – theft of a lot of important and pricey jewelry –only starts about halfway through the book and is more interesting for the problems the thefts cause Jayne than for the problem itself. All in all, this is an okay addition to the series, but far from its best.