This is the first book in a new series called Beloved Bookroom by Dorothy St. James. I loved the South Carolina setting for her Southern Chocolate Shop series and this new series is set in a town called Cypress, South Carolina.
I really felt like I knew the characters pretty well by the end of the book, and I loved the little cat, Dewey that Tru adopted. Never underestimate the talents of a cute cat! I really liked Tru’s friends Tori and Flossie too. I hope Tru becomes better friends with Jace–it did sound like they were making progress toward the end. There were so many great suspects, it made me not want to trust anyone except the key characters!
The book cover shows the secret library pretty much how I would picture it. And of course, Dewey would have been into the boxes they used like the photo I found.
My Goodreads review:
The Broken Spine by Dorothy St. James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
While I definitely hated the idea of a bookless library, I loved Tru’s solution to the problem which resulted in a huge secret and a lot of personal guilt on her part when a guy was killed upstairs in the library while she was downstairs stocking the secret shelves.
Sometimes I was a little confused at what was going on, because a character would ask something, then it wasn’t answered directly and a new thing would come up. But it definitely all got wrapped up neatly at the end. (Maybe I was just excited to find out what happened next and read too fast.) I wasn’t sure about the killer, but it made total sense. There were some great red herrings that fooled me for a bit too. I was just hoping they’d have an announcement they were going back to a regular library, but I guess if that happened, there wouldn’t be any more to look forward to. I’m super anxious now for the next book! This one was very hard to put down!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.
Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery 