mini_johnson's review

3.5
lighthearted mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

thoff's review

5.0

Do you like mystery? A little romance, perhaps? Then I have the book for you!

I am a book series girl. There's something to be said about investing your time and energy into a well-written character. One of my favorite characters over the past year has been Mia Connors from Julie Anne Lindsey's Geek Girl Mysteries. Additionally, Julie Anne Lindsey wrote the Patience Price series, which I also read and enjoyed--yes, that's a grand total of six Julie Anne Lindsey books in 2016.

I flew through the first book, *A Geek Girl's Guide to Murder*, and then immediately bought the second book, *A Geek Girl's Guide to Arsenic*. The main reason for my obsession with these books? The relatable every-geeky-girl characters.

Mia Connors is a geek girl to the extreme, and her reluctance to be around other people intrigued me, since I am much the same. Admittedly, her male romantic partner, Jake, was a hunk-a-hunk of burnin' love, too.

I don't want to give too much away, in case you haven't read the first two books, but I will try to convey the story line as best as possible. NO SPOILERS! I promise!

**WHAT I LIKED:** Mia and Jake, duh! No, I liked the plot as well. Each of these stories has a murder intrigue to it in order for Jake (a Deputy Marshal) and Jake's brother Dan (a homicide detective) to keep showing up in Mia's life. But the best part is that Mia likes to stir up trouble with her insatiable curiosity. She's everything that I wish I could be, but real life gets in the way.

**What I DISLIKED:** Mia's twin sister, Bree, annoyed the crap out of me. I suppose she was supposed to, as she is a definite foil for Mia, but as a girl who has never had a sister, I couldn't understand Bree's desire to have Mia do everything with her.

**RATED:** 5 Stars

If the author were to continue the series, even with minor characters taking over the helm as narrator, I would be first in line to read the book. In fact, I intend to go back and read some of Julie Anne Lindsey's other work as well.

NOTE: This is also posted on my personal book review website: T. Hoffmeier: The Reading Maven. Additionally, I bought and paid for the book on my own, and did not receive any compensation for this review.

jbrooxd's review

4.0

Because I adore the characters that anchor this series, I enjoyed this book. But the mystery was disappointing for me - none of the suspects seemed strong possibilities. I didn’t think they were as well constructed as they might have been, or as the ones in the previous books were. That being said, if the author ever published another book in this series I would snap it up. The characters are completely worth it and I’d give the mystery another try because I enjoyed the first two so much.

ljpbooks's review

3.0
funny mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
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yetanothersusan's review

4.0

Mia must have more than 24 hours in her days as she juggles 3 jobs along. However, this issue of time comes to a breaking point when she can't seem to find time to plan her sister's baby shower, have a date with Jake, and solve the murder of her grandmother's friend. Oh! And deal with squirrels chewing through her new wireless net at Horseshoe Falls. No wonder it takes several missteps before our favorite girl geek figures out who did it! The story line is fun but I started getting sidetracked by how Mia could possibly fit it all in. (Thankfully, this issue is somewhat resolved by the end of the book in the most Mia way possible.) This is the third book in a series. Do yourself a favor: read them all and read them in order. Between Mia's many activities and her crazy family, the series is a great little escape.

A preview copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Carina Press in exchange for an honest review.
adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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birdieandthebooks7's review

5.0
funny fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

artemisblack's review

3.0

This book was cute and fun, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the last two. My biggest issue is that while the mystery was fun, I spent most of the book wanting to smack Mia and tell her to grow a pair. Her sister is being a mom-zilla about her baby shower and Mia just rolls over and lets her do it! What happened to our smart, strong heroine?! I get it that you'll put up with a lot of drama from family, but at some point it's gone too far. Plus, there wasn't as much of the fun banter and chemistry between Mia and Jake which didn't help. When MIa wasn't stressing about the baby shower she was obsessing about clothes. Maybe I slept through this in the last book, but when did our entrepreneur gamer become a fashonista? Bring back my strong geeky heroine!!

bookgyrl's review

4.0

Third in this series and I was happy to get a chance to read an ARC from Netgalley.

Mia once again stumbles across a body, this time it is a friend of her grandmother's. She rescues him from the lake at night, but he is already dead and her grandmother wants to know who killed Dante and bring him/her to justice.
And although Mia is super busy she takes this task on as well. She already jumbles several jobs (her job as IT girl, playing Guinevere, building a solid business for the game REIGN and organizing her sister's baby shower) and she has hardly any time to go on dates with Jake Archer
.
Another solid mystery, but I wished there was a little more romance. It looks like this is the third and last book about Mia and the ending was great, although a bit out of the blue.

*** I received an ARC from Netgalley. ***