This is the first book in a new series, Halloween Bookshop Mysteries by Emmaline Duncan who cozy mystery readers know from her Ground Rules Mysteries which I’ve read from the beginning and really enjoy as well. This series might take another book or two to totally convince me, but I did like the setting and the 24/7/365 idea of Halloween.
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My Goodreads review:
Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop by Emmeline Duncan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I loved the concept of an all-Halloween town 24/7/365 and did like the key players. But somehow the book just didn’t speak to me like the author’s other series did at the very beginning. The addition of a possible guy for Bailey was cool, but I wished it could’ve been a little sooner in the book. The murder seemed to drag on forever without any action or that something that usually compels me to keep reading. I took a few breaks from the book but not because I didn’t like it, it just wasn’t moving at the usual cozy mystery pace I’m used to.
Since it’s the very first book, I’m definitely willing to give it a chance and read the next book when it comes out. I liked the side mystery of finding out who Bailey’s bio dad was—I was actually right in my guess and from sheer dumb luck I guessed the killer correctly too.
As far as characters went, I really wished we could’ve had more of Bailey’s grandpa around and in the picture. He apparently lives with her but aside from a couple scenes, he just wasn’t in it like half of the couple who’d ended up raising her. I hope he’s in the next book a little more. On the other hand, I didn’t like her brother at all and was just as happy he wasn’t in it much, lol. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the truth comes out about the bookshop, so maybe that’ll be touched on more in the next book too.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Kensington Cozies via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.
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