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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
fast-paced
“When you press grapes, the skin and stems are included with the juice. It's the imperfections that give wine tannins, and ultimately add to the flavor and texture. Maybe that's how life is. It's the extra bits, the so-called imperfections, that make it truly special.”
Entertaining debut of a new cozy series set in a Boulder, Colorado, winery with a winning heroine. This series is one to watch.
Cute story, love learning about wine and food pairings. I would read another to see if I want to keep going with this series.
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
3.5, rounded up. I'm new to the cozy mystery genre, so I'm still getting used to the plotting, but this was a very pleasant read (especially in the midst of the craziness happening now).
Parker is a strong character; I appreciate that Lansing highlights her business acumen--she clearly did her research on wine and wineries. Lansing also does a nice job with the side characters; they feel reasonably fleshed out. As a Colorado resident, I also reveled in Lansing's descriptions of Boulder and the surrounding areas. While I predicted the murderer early on, the mystery was still compelling enough to keep me reading. The love triangle is hastily established at the end, but I look forward to seeing what Parker decides in subsequent books.
Also, as an added bonus, there are recipes and wine pairings at the end of the book!
3.5, rounded up. I'm new to the cozy mystery genre, so I'm still getting used to the plotting, but this was a very pleasant read (especially in the midst of the craziness happening now).
Parker is a strong character; I appreciate that Lansing highlights her business acumen--she clearly did her research on wine and wineries. Lansing also does a nice job with the side characters; they feel reasonably fleshed out. As a Colorado resident, I also reveled in Lansing's descriptions of Boulder and the surrounding areas. While I predicted the murderer early on, the mystery was still compelling enough to keep me reading. The love triangle is hastily established at the end, but I look forward to seeing what Parker decides in subsequent books.
Also, as an added bonus, there are recipes and wine pairings at the end of the book!
Honestly I would feel weird giving a cozy mystery more than 3 stars, so don't take my typically harsh rating as a criticism! This was a very solid cozy with a good sense of place and details of the wine industry (nothing I hate more than inaccurate "details" about something I know) and a touch of romance... A lovely escape from heavier reads or a fun pick for vacation. I will definitely have a second glass! :)
The fine print: Received ARC from NetGalley. Also, I was already behind and didn’t write reviews for a huge chunk of the pandemic, so anything I read from February-July was reviewed in August or later… hence the lack of details!
The fine print: Received ARC from NetGalley. Also, I was already behind and didn’t write reviews for a huge chunk of the pandemic, so anything I read from February-July was reviewed in August or later… hence the lack of details!
Another great debut!
The characters in Killer Chardonnay are just gold.
The mystery in this one held me all the way through. A lot of times with this genre I tend it get caught up in the characters and not so much the mystery itself (go figure). However, this mystery was set at a really ideal difficulty: not blatantly obvious and also not completely out of the blue. But I suppose that's all relative.
The only thing that bugged me a little was the heroine's reaction to the murderer reveal. I know answers have to come out for the sake of the reader and exposition is sort of necessary. However, it always makes me cringe when heroines are literally inches from being murdered and they spend it trading snarky remarks with the murderer. I'd love to read a cozy with a heroine that acts naturally when she has a weapon pressed against her person: sob and scream and blubber and plead. Is that too much to ask?
Overall, an amazing start! I'll be continuing the series as soon as I can get my hands on the next ones.
The characters in Killer Chardonnay are just gold.
The mystery in this one held me all the way through. A lot of times with this genre I tend it get caught up in the characters and not so much the mystery itself (go figure). However, this mystery was set at a really ideal difficulty: not blatantly obvious and also not completely out of the blue. But I suppose that's all relative.
The only thing that bugged me a little was the heroine's reaction to the murderer reveal. I know answers have to come out for the sake of the reader and exposition is sort of necessary. However, it always makes me cringe when heroines are literally inches from being murdered and they spend it trading snarky remarks with the murderer. I'd love to read a cozy with a heroine that acts naturally when she has a weapon pressed against her person: sob and scream and blubber and plead. Is that too much to ask?
Overall, an amazing start! I'll be continuing the series as soon as I can get my hands on the next ones.
It had been a while since I'd picked up a true cozy mystery and so I figured I'd give this one a try. This was really fun and a change of pace for the cozies I've read this year. I really enjoyed the setting of Boulder, Colorado. It's not a setting I've read a lot and it was fun to mix it up a bit with this one.
I also really liked that our main character was opening her own urban winery. It was fun to follow her trying to solve the murder while pushing through the trouble it causes her freshly opened winery. There were also tons of rich descriptions of gourmet food and wine. And it had my mouth watering. By the end I wanted to go to a local winery and order a charcuterie board with a tall glass of wine.
Overall, I found this to be a fun first in a winery based cozy mystery series and I'll definitely be picking up the next book.
I also really liked that our main character was opening her own urban winery. It was fun to follow her trying to solve the murder while pushing through the trouble it causes her freshly opened winery. There were also tons of rich descriptions of gourmet food and wine. And it had my mouth watering. By the end I wanted to go to a local winery and order a charcuterie board with a tall glass of wine.
Overall, I found this to be a fun first in a winery based cozy mystery series and I'll definitely be picking up the next book.