Happy Monday, is this work week ending in a three-day weekend for you? If you ask me everyone should have a three-day weekend every week. Let's make 4 days works weeks a thing! I'm kicking off this week with a review of the Cozy Mystery Book Club's book of the month. This month we chose from a selection of bookish cozies and the winner was Maggie Blackburn's (aka Mollie Cox Bryan) book Little Bookshop of Murder.
I liked this book more than I thought I would at first blush. I thought that the author does a good job of showing Summer's grieving process. The murder victim in this book is Summer's mom who we do not get to meet, we only learn of her via other people's memories. The killer in this book is pretty easy to figure out, so if being wholly surprised by who did it is important to you, then you might be disappointed.
Maggie Blackburn takes a big risk in this book by making the protagonist a scholar who has no use for popular fiction, especially romance and mystery which she thinks is complete dreck. Readers might be put off by Summer's disdain for the very books they love to read. However, Summer's life in academia isn't all it is cracked up to be, and the bookstore she inherited isn't the terrible navel-gazing place she made it out to be in her youth. I enjoyed Summer slowly having to eat her words and realize that romance and mystery books are quality reads.
Some readers prefer cozy mysteries that don't have a romance component. While this book talks about romance novels, there is not a romance plot in this book. If you love a unique cozy companion, this book features a bird named Mr. Darcy!
You can join us for the Book Club Live Stream tomorrow May 25th at 7pm EST! I'll be in the comments sharing my two cents!
