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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
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
A professional baker who doesn’t measure by weight? Absolutely not. Also Black-and-Whites are a specific kind of cookie!!! The black and whites in this book are not that cookie. Wtf.
Too much “you’re right, Hannah.” Also what cop asks his civilian sister in law to help him investigate??? Just way too much disbelief.
Dated but fits perfectly on the hallmark channel. Maybe that version is better?
Ok the more I think about this the more annoyed I am I read it. I wanted a cozy mystery but why did I struggle through this boomer author’s fat phobic, sexist, and straight-up dumb novel?? How are there over 20 of these books??
Too much “you’re right, Hannah.” Also what cop asks his civilian sister in law to help him investigate??? Just way too much disbelief.
Dated but fits perfectly on the hallmark channel. Maybe that version is better?
Ok the more I think about this the more annoyed I am I read it. I wanted a cozy mystery but why did I struggle through this boomer author’s fat phobic, sexist, and straight-up dumb novel?? How are there over 20 of these books??
Ugh. I was hoping for cozy, instead I got hyper judgmental characters, unlikeable characters, small town stereotypes, and rounds of stupid choices. Never mind the rampant sexism, poor shaming, fat shaming.
Yuck. I forced myself to finish it, in hopes that it might get better? No such luck.
Yuck. I forced myself to finish it, in hopes that it might get better? No such luck.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought this book was fun and cute. Now all I want is to eat some cookies! Might have to try some of those recipes listed in it.
This is a 2.5 rounded up to 3. Cozy mysteries are my guilty pleasures - especially ones that include recipes to try. But this one felt like it fell just a little short. The timing of the story wasn't fully believable and I couldn't get behind the brother-in-law being completely incompetent at his police job. But it was still an enjoyable ride! And I will continue to read this genre.
I thought I would start my year of "operation reading rut revolution" by reading a book in the genre I like the least. Mysteries. Cozy mysteries are on the Book Riot challenge and Joanne Fluke is a popular author at my library so I thought I had hit the trifecta of awesome choices for my first book of 2019.
In the small town of Eden, Minnesota Hannah Swenson owns and operates a cookie shop. She's pretty good at it and the local folks are happy to stop in for the latest gossip and order cookies from her for all kinds of events. When Hannah finds one of her favorite regulars shot dead in his truck close to the store and solving the crime will help her brother-in-law Bill get promoted to detective she can't resist helping the guy out.
I mean, she may be a cookie maker and not have any of the training and skills he possesses but he sure is going to be grateful for all her sleuthing. I'm serious here. He is genuinely grateful and thinks she would make a good cop. He says this repeatedly. Who in their right mind would ever think this and if they did perhaps they should not be a detective? EVER? And thus started my hatred of this incredulous piece of crap book. I yelled at this book. Multiple times during my commute. I ranted at my mom, my coworkers and the love of my life when the story went off the rails and that was OFTEN.
I did like her cat.
Other areas that are seriously problematic:
In one scene, Hannah has convinced her sister to work with her to secretly go through the local dentist's office files while Hannah talks to him. From this completely illegal adventure, they find multiple pictures of naked women in the dentist chair. They were knocked out, assaulted and then photographed. Hannah determines that they are from the dentist's father-who is dead-and decides to burn them without telling anyone to save the women in the photos any embarrassment. Embarrassment? They were assaulted you dolt. Also, this is not your decision to make.
There is also a lot of fat shaming for someone who peddles cookies for a living. Poor Bill can't do his job but also needs to lose a few pounds and one of the women she pretends to gossip with to get information out of she makes sure we know will never land a man because of her size and her choices in striped fashion. It went on from there...
If you think we are done destroying evidence, you aren't paying attention! :) Not only does Hannah continue to plow through manipulating everyone around her to get answers she keeps on breaking in to places and finding dead bodies there. Does this give her pause? Oh, hell no. She happily continues to explore and contaminate crime scenes. Then, when she is convinced she knows who did it(she was totes wrong) she confronts the person that actually DID do it in an attempt to further manipulate the situation instead of...wait for it...going to the authorities. In the end, Bill rescues her sorry ass but I really wish he hadn't.
This was written in 2000 and that might give Hannah Swenson a little slack but not a lot. There are plenty of amateur sleuths out there that aren't wreaking havoc on the entire process in devastating ways that should be unrecoverable. I'm not going to even bother getting into the poor writing and character development. There are so many better things to read out there if you like cozy mysteries. Please don't pick this one. It sucks.
In the small town of Eden, Minnesota Hannah Swenson owns and operates a cookie shop. She's pretty good at it and the local folks are happy to stop in for the latest gossip and order cookies from her for all kinds of events. When Hannah finds one of her favorite regulars shot dead in his truck close to the store and solving the crime will help her brother-in-law Bill get promoted to detective she can't resist helping the guy out.
I mean, she may be a cookie maker and not have any of the training and skills he possesses but he sure is going to be grateful for all her sleuthing. I'm serious here. He is genuinely grateful and thinks she would make a good cop. He says this repeatedly. Who in their right mind would ever think this and if they did perhaps they should not be a detective? EVER? And thus started my hatred of this incredulous piece of crap book. I yelled at this book. Multiple times during my commute. I ranted at my mom, my coworkers and the love of my life when the story went off the rails and that was OFTEN.
I did like her cat.
Other areas that are seriously problematic:
In one scene, Hannah has convinced her sister to work with her to secretly go through the local dentist's office files while Hannah talks to him. From this completely illegal adventure, they find multiple pictures of naked women in the dentist chair. They were knocked out, assaulted and then photographed. Hannah determines that they are from the dentist's father-who is dead-and decides to burn them without telling anyone to save the women in the photos any embarrassment. Embarrassment? They were assaulted you dolt. Also, this is not your decision to make.
There is also a lot of fat shaming for someone who peddles cookies for a living. Poor Bill can't do his job but also needs to lose a few pounds and one of the women she pretends to gossip with to get information out of she makes sure we know will never land a man because of her size and her choices in striped fashion. It went on from there...
If you think we are done destroying evidence, you aren't paying attention! :) Not only does Hannah continue to plow through manipulating everyone around her to get answers she keeps on breaking in to places and finding dead bodies there. Does this give her pause? Oh, hell no. She happily continues to explore and contaminate crime scenes. Then, when she is convinced she knows who did it(she was totes wrong) she confronts the person that actually DID do it in an attempt to further manipulate the situation instead of...wait for it...going to the authorities. In the end, Bill rescues her sorry ass but I really wish he hadn't.
This was written in 2000 and that might give Hannah Swenson a little slack but not a lot. There are plenty of amateur sleuths out there that aren't wreaking havoc on the entire process in devastating ways that should be unrecoverable. I'm not going to even bother getting into the poor writing and character development. There are so many better things to read out there if you like cozy mysteries. Please don't pick this one. It sucks.