Book 47, 2015
I finished reading Romeow and Juliet, by Kathi Daley, last night. It's the first book in her "Whales and Tails Mystery" series.
Eh, it was okay. The main character is Caitlyn Hart, who lives on a fictitious island off the coast of Washington state. She and her bff Tara are planning to buy an abandoned cannery and turn it into a coffee shop/book store/cat haven called...
Coffee Cat Books
When Cait and Tara visit the cannery to take some measurements, they stumble across the dead body of the realtor, whom they've been working with.
I was on board with the premise. It was interesting and fun. However, the execution fell flat. For one thing, more disasters befall Caitlyn over the course of a week than would befall any other human during a lifetime, methinks. For another, there was almost too much going on, and far too many characters introduced. I can understand wanting to people a series with lots of lively characters, but save some of them for later books. It was confusing!
In addition to the murder, we have a big council election going on, which is made more dicey by the fact that one member was just killed and another has abruptly announced his resignation. On top of that, Cait's aunt is in failing health, and they learn (SPOILER ALERT!) that she is being poisoned with arsenic.
The book was a bit of a hot mess. I figured out who the murderer was with one tidbit of information, innocently dropped. But, the person responsible for the (SPOILER ALERT!) blackmail of the resigning council member was never "in" the book! This person was only ever off-screen. What the...? And, we never did learn who was poisoning the aunt. Perhaps in a later book? I don't know.
The most annoying scene happened when Caitlyn told her mother that the man she'd been on a blind date with was "a douche". Her mother got angry and made Caitlyn go into her old bedroom and say five Hail Mary's!
Um...
This is a 26 year-old woman. Now, her mother had a right to be upset, but Cait should have apologized for being disrespectful in front of her mother and left it at that. Adults are allowed to use "grown up" words without being punished by their parents. Good grief.
I do have some other books in the series, and I can only hope they get better.
Note to self: STOP BUYING BOOKS IN A SERIES UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE FIRST ONE!
Guh.
This gets a score of three for being average.
♦♦♦
Eh, it was okay. The main character is Caitlyn Hart, who lives on a fictitious island off the coast of Washington state. She and her bff Tara are planning to buy an abandoned cannery and turn it into a coffee shop/book store/cat haven called...
Coffee Cat Books
When Cait and Tara visit the cannery to take some measurements, they stumble across the dead body of the realtor, whom they've been working with.
I was on board with the premise. It was interesting and fun. However, the execution fell flat. For one thing, more disasters befall Caitlyn over the course of a week than would befall any other human during a lifetime, methinks. For another, there was almost too much going on, and far too many characters introduced. I can understand wanting to people a series with lots of lively characters, but save some of them for later books. It was confusing!
In addition to the murder, we have a big council election going on, which is made more dicey by the fact that one member was just killed and another has abruptly announced his resignation. On top of that, Cait's aunt is in failing health, and they learn (SPOILER ALERT!) that she is being poisoned with arsenic.
The book was a bit of a hot mess. I figured out who the murderer was with one tidbit of information, innocently dropped. But, the person responsible for the (SPOILER ALERT!) blackmail of the resigning council member was never "in" the book! This person was only ever off-screen. What the...? And, we never did learn who was poisoning the aunt. Perhaps in a later book? I don't know.
The most annoying scene happened when Caitlyn told her mother that the man she'd been on a blind date with was "a douche". Her mother got angry and made Caitlyn go into her old bedroom and say five Hail Mary's!
Um...
This is a 26 year-old woman. Now, her mother had a right to be upset, but Cait should have apologized for being disrespectful in front of her mother and left it at that. Adults are allowed to use "grown up" words without being punished by their parents. Good grief.
I do have some other books in the series, and I can only hope they get better.
Note to self: STOP BUYING BOOKS IN A SERIES UNTIL YOU'VE READ THE FIRST ONE!
Guh.
This gets a score of three for being average.
♦♦♦