On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle 3 stars

[Rachel N.]

Clare Cosi returns to new York City to manage the coffee shop The Blend. On the day of her move she finds her assistant manager, Annabelle, collapsed at the bottom of the service stairs. The police can't prove the fall wasn't an accident. Clare is convinced Annabelle was shoved, because Annabelle was a dancer and could therefore never trip, and she takes on her own investigation with the police officers permission. The setup is totally unbelievable and the author dumps tons of random facts about coffee into the middle of the story which was boring and took away from the plot. It was okay for a cozy mystery but I don't think I'll continue on with the series.

I wasn't sure at first if this fit the tag but Clare does successfully manage a busy business. She also doesn't take too many unnecessary risks in her investigation, as a lot of cozy mystery investigators do, and she proves she can defend herself so I decided she was a strong woman.

[Anita]

Ha ha, what does it say about me that a book with lots of random facts about coffee sounds somewhat appealing on the face of it?
If only it was just random facts about coffee . . .