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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Another winner from Charlaine Harris; a quirky, single southern girl with class and manners, but in search of a boyfriend. Oh, and she is surrounded by murders!
Good mystery novels with a sensible Southern heroine.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Truthfully, I’m unsure where I stand with this one.
It’s an interesting notion for a book yet for me I feel as though we spend far too much time reading about the personal lives of characters and not enough time solving the crime. I’d been expecting more in terms of an amateur sleuth rather than a female fretting over the stereotypically female worries (seriously, it doesn’t do well to battle off stereotypes at all).
If it wasn’t for the fact that I had brought a pack that contained the next two books in the series I doubt I would have carried on. It really did read like more of a life drama than a mystery.
It’s an interesting notion for a book yet for me I feel as though we spend far too much time reading about the personal lives of characters and not enough time solving the crime. I’d been expecting more in terms of an amateur sleuth rather than a female fretting over the stereotypically female worries (seriously, it doesn’t do well to battle off stereotypes at all).
If it wasn’t for the fact that I had brought a pack that contained the next two books in the series I doubt I would have carried on. It really did read like more of a life drama than a mystery.
Not the type of book I read, and very different from the Sookie novels, but it was a very good story, and typical of mystery books.. Got to figure out who did it and why. I felt a good connection with the characters, but I do hope the connections become more real in the reading of more of the series.
Good little murder mystery. I love Charlaine Harris, and this is a lot darker than her other series. A good mystery, and I really enjoyed it.
I've really enjoyed the movie adaptations of this series and loved the True Blood books so I figured it's finally time to dive into this OG mystery series that is sort of a pre-cursor to cozies, Aurora Teagarden. Not quite as campy as True Blood but still as much of a page turner, I thought this introduction to Lawrenceton and the Real Murders club was a good read and that it still held up for the most part. These books were written in the early 90s, so it was kind of fun to read a mystery where the main character had to get to a landline to make a call and had to research with books and library databases instead of Google. I also thought it was funny that the entire town thinks the members of Real Murders are insane for discussing murders in basically a book club when nowadays true crime as a hobby is sort of expected. I was a little surprised how much grislier and dark the book is than the movie, especially with the cheerful cover, but I thought that set the stakes for Aurora to find the killer much higher.
This series is fun, a little dated, but still enjoyable, and a definite page-turner. Will keep reading and comparing the books to the movies!
This series is fun, a little dated, but still enjoyable, and a definite page-turner. Will keep reading and comparing the books to the movies!
hello fluffy! loved the premise (a murder enthusiast club starts getting picked off member by member) but the characters were undeveloped cliches. ("I am a librarian, i dress plainly, wear glasses and am clueless about men", etc.) the romantic references were downright dippy. BUT it's a short little mindless read, lighthearted despite being about murder. so while i wasn't blown away, i've not yet been discouraged from trying out this author's other series.
I’ve been trying to branch out of the Sookie Stackhouse series to see what else Charlaine Harris has to offer — after all, she started out as a mystery writer before she started the paranormal romance stuff, and I loved early Sookie for its wonderful mysteries and plot developments. So far, I have not been disappointed.
The main character, Aurora Teagarden is a librarian who is part of a group that meets occasionally to learn about famous historical murders and discuss them, so when she finds a dead body mimicking a famous murder, the whole group is put under suspicion. Overall, the premise is amazing. I loved how it just keep getting more complicated and dangerous for all the members of the murder club as more people were killed.
Aurora wasn’t my favorite character, however. I just didn’t know what to do with her. She was kind of boring and I hated the love triangle thing between her and the writer and cop. Like, how does such a boring person end up in a love triangle? She wasn’t even properly distressed about it. I felt like a lot of things about her personality didn’t match up. Since she is the main character, it affected my whole reading of the story. The plot itself is quite good and really just a solid mystery, but Aurora annoyed me quite a lot.
With that said, I still enjoyed myself. This is a quick read — the writing is light and easy, and the plot moves along at a steady pace. I’m definitely planning to read the sequels, if only to see if Aurora ever stabilizes as a character, and of course I’m interested to see what problematic situations Harris puts her in next.
I’d recommend this for mystery lovers and/or Harris fans. This is something quick to keep you interested, but definitely not “you must read this before you die!” material.
Originally posted on Going on to the Next.
The main character, Aurora Teagarden is a librarian who is part of a group that meets occasionally to learn about famous historical murders and discuss them, so when she finds a dead body mimicking a famous murder, the whole group is put under suspicion. Overall, the premise is amazing. I loved how it just keep getting more complicated and dangerous for all the members of the murder club as more people were killed.
Aurora wasn’t my favorite character, however. I just didn’t know what to do with her. She was kind of boring and I hated the love triangle thing between her and the writer and cop. Like, how does such a boring person end up in a love triangle? She wasn’t even properly distressed about it. I felt like a lot of things about her personality didn’t match up. Since she is the main character, it affected my whole reading of the story. The plot itself is quite good and really just a solid mystery, but Aurora annoyed me quite a lot.
With that said, I still enjoyed myself. This is a quick read — the writing is light and easy, and the plot moves along at a steady pace. I’m definitely planning to read the sequels, if only to see if Aurora ever stabilizes as a character, and of course I’m interested to see what problematic situations Harris puts her in next.
I’d recommend this for mystery lovers and/or Harris fans. This is something quick to keep you interested, but definitely not “you must read this before you die!” material.
Originally posted on Going on to the Next.
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No