Monday, January 27, 2020

One Bear's Opinion: In Peppermint Peril

In Peppermint Peril
by Joy Avon

This is the first book in a new-to-me series. It had been on my wish list for a while since a friend mentioned reading it. I finally got it and I read it in 2 days!

In Peppermint Peril was an engaging, clever mystery with friendly, likable characters. It was fairly light and fluffy, but I read books like this one because they are light and fluffy. Books read for entertainment do not necessarily have to be serious and scholarly tomes. Sometimes it's great to have some "escapist fluff."

I liked the characters, though Daisy did get on my nerves a bit. Well, let me rephrase that, Daisy's owner got on my nerves a bit with constantly taking the dog everywhere. The dog was more like a purse rather than a living creature. I like Callie and Daisy, but sometimes Daisy should stay in the house, unless she is going to be a part of the mystery the way Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, & Tee Tucker are, it's perfectly all right, and preferable, to leave her at home sometimes.

On the whole In Peppermint Peril was a fun, quick read. And I enjoyed it so much I bought the next-in-series as soon as I finished reading the first one.

One Bear's Opinion:  Four cups of Lady Grey tea and a plate of shortbread while reading a Brother Cadfael mystery

Happy Reading Everyone, 
Oliver

Sunday, January 12, 2020

One Bear's Opinion: Final Sentence

Final Sentence
by Daryl Wood Gerber

I hate to be negative in my reviews and I do question the value of negative reviews for other readers over hurting the author's feelings. But the truth is this book was just not very enjoyable for me. It was an interesting enough mystery, lots of twists and turns and false starts/leads. There was too much unnecessary name- and title-dropping for my pleasure. The biggest problem though was that I couldn't generate any real feelings for the characters through much of the book, then about ¾ of the way in, it got to the point where I really just didn't care what happened to them. In all honesty, I read to the end only to see if my guess was correct about the killer (it wasn't). I like to support authors as much as possible, but this series is just not for me.

One Bear's Opinion: Two cups of coffee made this morning and left on the desk all day because you got distracted, and a couple of store-brand cookies, slightly stale from sitting out.

Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver