Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Book Publishing for giving me an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Lately, I've been in the mood for cozy mysteries and what's cozier than a small-town bookstore? Unfortunately, this book just wasn't it for me. I couldn't connect to the voice of the book and was confused by the pacing issues. At times, it's both too abrupt in some places and too expository in others. The first chapter is where it's the most jarring but it just persists throughout. On page two, I'm told all about the town and a "quick" recap of the last book but later, when a character has a panic attack due to past trauma. Understandable but this happened over halfway through the book, is over in 2 pages it's over halfway through the book and nothing really comes of it? I don't feel the weight of it but I'm also not sure if I'm supposed to. It's a little confusing
I did like the setting and the characters and the murders/murder attempts were truly chilling. I do wish we spent more time with the mystery itself. Half of the fun of a mystery series is the characters themselves but I did want some more sleuthing from our duo. It felt like a small snippet of mystery and then personal drama.
I give this book 1 stars.
TW: On-page murder, brief depiction of a panic attack, snakes, discussion of religion, brief anti--Semitism, spiders, car accident
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