Guidebook to Murder (Tourist Trap Mysteries #1) by Lynn Cahoon

Guidebook to Murder by Lynn Cahoon

My Rating: ★★

After settling down in South Cove, Jill Gardner is spending her days running her shop and enjoying the town she fell in love with enough to restart her life in. Things are going well until Miss Emily passes away. In her heart, Jill immediately knows it was murder because Emily’s derelict house was sitting on an extremely profitable piece of land. When it turns out Emily left everything to her name to Jill, poor Jill finds herself trying to solve a murder before she becomes the next victim.

I really wanted to love this book. Unfortunately for me, I did not like Jill, so I had a hard time getting into the story. I found her to be extremely dull and had a hard time believing that she was ever a lawyer. The longer I read the book, the more I found it hard believe she was supposed to be living the fast life with a big career let alone be a former lawyer. Even her own aunt was light years ahead of her. I also didn’t care for the romance because Jill kept focusing on how her beau was a married man. The pair could’ve been on fire, but Jill was the only one who failed to notice that the man is clearly divorced and very single.

That said, I did enjoy the supporting characters, particularly Aunt Jackie. I loved Jackie from the moment she was introduced and found myself wishing I was following her instead of Jill. She’s such a vibrant and fun character who seems to have gotten all the brains. I also loved Amy, so I was sad when she went missing early in the story. Emily was also a wonderful character that we got to know well through everyone’s memories as well as the mementos she left behind. I think that, at the core, there’s a great cast of characters here.

The mystery itself was okay. I think that there was a little too much going on between the house repairs, the history of the property, the mysterious treasure, various characters pressuring Jill to sell the house, Amy’s disappearance, Emily’s late son’s secret kid and grandchild… The list goes on. I think that some of these things could’ve been saved for future books because it felt like we just kept getting hit with something new while Jill was bumbling around trying to investigate.

I do think that, overall, it’s a cute story with several funny moments. I just had a hard time getting into it because Jill is such a flat character. The mystery itself was a little overwhelming at times, but I think the author was onto something and that her mysteries will likely be tighter as the series continues. I’m not sure if I’ll read the second book since I don’t like Jill, but I loved the supporting characters, so we’ll see.

The Diseased Ones (The Hollis Timewire Series #1) by Danielle Harrington

The Diseased Ones by Danielle Harrington

My Rating: ★★★

I received a copy from Acorn Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s 2647 and Hollis Timewire has been waiting her entire life to finally enter society. Living in a world where people with superpowers and human emotion have been eradicated, all she has to do is take one simple blood test on her sixteenth birthday to prove she’s just an average person. Once she passes, she can start her first work assignment and become an official citizen. Unfortunately for Hollis, there’s just one major problem: she just failed the test and it turns out she’s one of the so-called diseased ones.

I think that this book has an interesting premise. I’d love to find out more about how the society Hollis grew up in became so devoid of emotions. It seems like such a bleak world to live in, especially if you’re one of the people who are full of life, emotions, and superpowers that make one a moving target. I would imagine it was hard for Hollis to keep as emotionless as possible for her entire life when it’s not something that comes naturally to her.

While I loved the premise, I found that I didn’t care for Hollis. I understand why she doesn’t believe her newfound family and friends. It would be extremely difficult to find out that your entire upbringing and everything you’ve ever believed was a lie. However, I found it difficult to believe that she’d flip flop from one extreme to the next at the level she does at the end of the book. I feel bad for her, but I didn’t care for her as a character.

That said, I loved the characters at the superpower filled society she lives with for majority of the book. I found them far more interesting and multi-dimensional compared to Hollis, which made me wish that this book had at least two different narrators. I think that there is so much to this world but that it’s stifled by being viewed purely through a confused and close-minded point of view. Not that I blame Hollis. She’s trying to overcome a lifetime of brainwashing, which is difficult to do, especially when you don’t have any family or friends from your old life to support you along the way.

Ultimately, it’s not a bad book. There’s a great story in there and I do want to see where it goes from here. I just found myself wishing that we saw more after seeing how vibrant the other characters are in addition to the world that Hollis never knew existed. It was interesting to see glimpses of the cast of characters and their backstories. It’s something I hope to see more of in addition to the story unfolding on a larger scale as the series continues.