Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams

13 reviews

bel017's review against another edition

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  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Loved the focus on positive female friendship, and the comfort scones sound amazing. Sign me up for both of those.

Didn't like Nora's relationship with Jed. He's the perfect book boyfriend: handsome, considerate, thoughtful, rearranged his life to take care of her, always turns up to save her in the nick of time; you know the type. She thinks he's hot and leads him on to get information out of him. Not cool Nora.

 It's a cosy murder mystery. The goodies are good, the baddies are bad, the books are quotable and the scones are still warm.
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planreadrepeat's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This cozy mystery has a quartet of ladies who each have their own mysterious past. They form a friendship when they resolve to find the cause of death from a recent acquaintance. 

The characters are complex and intriguing. The town sounds adorable and serene. Who wouldn’t like a place with a spa, bakery, book shop and a good hair dresser. The story was good and nice and twisty.
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heather667's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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vanesst's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

2.0

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missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition

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3.0

I read this for APL’s April book club. The mystery pulled me in, but the writing style left a lot to be desired. It is unrealistic and pulled me out of the narrative when characters often used flowery language and spoke in long, poetic passages about things ranging from dramatic to even mundane. I am definitely not the target audience, I will admit; all of the characters are over 35. I still enjoyed this book but I am not incentivized to read the sequel.
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tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
First, a couple things I appreciate about this book:

  • Our Heroes are pretty bad at sleuthing, and they admit it. A nice choice in a subgenre full of amateur detectives who’ve never investigated so much as a checkbook register but can suddenly solve a murder
  • A group of women! Who are friends! And support each other! Rather than constantly tearing each other down!
  • Adams has attempted to give the Society members “tragic pasts” and really seems to have considered the ramifications of that for their interpersonal relationships 

So those things are good! And then there’s… the rest of the book.
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espressoreader's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I would love a group of friends like this.
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kibbles15's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I liked this book, but I did not love it.  I felt that the plot was slow and the characters themselves were not developed as much as I would have liked. I also feel that the sexual content, while mild, was more explicit than necessary. Note while this is considered a "Cozy murder mystery",  several hard topics are discussed in the process as the four main characters get to know each other.  These include domestic and child abuse, teen pregnancy, drunk driving...to name a few.  That being said, I do think the theme of friendship through adversity was a nice touch to the story.  
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misse3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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alex_delart's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

You can tell the author loves books very much and if you like me have been stuck in a reading rut, this book might be the one for you (it also includes many namedrops and recs so it may be a gateway to other lovely titles). The mystery solution is quite satisfying, the book had me guessing all along. I felt inspired by the courage of the members of the secret club, they are people of no big influence or power and yet they risk their livelihoods for whats right, and they listen to their intuition. Im so glad that there is a sequel as I would miss the characters very much. 
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