This is the first book in a so-far two book series by well-known Ohio author, Amanda Flower. I absolutely love her Amish Candy Shop series so I just knew I’d fall in love with the characters in this book as well…and I did!
My Goodreads review:
Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was another book I’ve been wanting to read for awhile now because I really enjoy another series that this author writes. I’m so glad one of the online book clubs I’m in chose it for the May discussion!
Violet Waverly was a grad student called suddenly to her hometown of Cascade Springs NY by her Grandma Daisy who was faking being ill. Grandma had a very important job to tell her about. Vi’s plan was to go directly back to Chicago where she was going to the university but finding a dead carriage driver in her grandma’s driveway sort of put a damper on that. Violet was determined to exonerate her grandma of any suspicion in this death and despite handsome police chief Rainwater’s warnings, she continued to investigate hoping that she’d find the killer before that person found her.
I am in love with these characters already and I even dug out the second book to start. I’m not sure how I would have felt in Violet’s shoes if I’d driven like crazy for seven hours to find my grandma healthy and fine. Probably relieved but since Daisy was such a sweet lady, Vi couldn’t possibly hold this against her. I loved the cat that sort of adopted Violet. He was the perfect cat for a magical bookshop, very intuitive, appearing at places when Vi could have sworn she’d locked him in the house. The shop crow Faulkner was hilarious at times. All I could picture was the raven on the Munsters that kept saying “Nevermore!” lol.
The story about Violet’s past was interesting and I was glad to see her get some closure from what happened twelve years ago. I like the new friend she met–Sadie was a very enthusiastic person with nothing but kind words for everyone. And she wasn’t really annoying about it either. The two men interested in Violet both seem awesome but for some reason, I tend to be Team David Rainwater. He seems to have more of a connection with Vi. Nathan seems to really care for her too so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next book. I sure hope the author is planning to write a third book–maybe someone at the discussion will ask her that.
Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery 