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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
I tried really hard to get into this, but just couldn’t.
I wanted to try since I’ve watched some of the Hallmark series that these books are based off of and found them likable enough, but the book just wasn’t speaking to me.
The writing is pretty simplistic which isn’t necessarily bad, but it wasn’t really doing much to draw me into the story or endear me to the characters.
It’s not bad by any means, but it’s definitely just a solid ok read, nothing earth shattering.
This book touched a lot of hot topics, murder aside. Domestic abuse, sexual assault, and fat shaming, to name a few. The whole time I'm sitting there wondering if any of that was necessary. I had a particular issue with the mention of sexual assault--spoilers ahead-- For reference, there is a scene where Hannah and her sister find old photographs of dentist patients where they are naked and drugged up. Hannah responds to this crime by saying,
"First, we're not going to tell anybody about them. Norman's father is dead. It's too late to do anything about them now. Making this public would just mortify his mother and embarrass the women."
Then Hannah proceeded to destroy the evidence! Obviously she had no authority to do this, and this was not a decision for her to make. She robbed those women of truth and justice, and is allowing this disgusting man to rest in peace with everyone believing he was a good man and a good dentist. It is insane to me that her justification is that the wife of this sexual predator would be mortified by his actions.
Another heavy topic mentioned in the book was domestic assault. Hannah bugged the absolute shit out of me during this scene. She was insensitive and judgmental to this poor lady instead of offering true support. Hannah is portrayed as being kind and well liked in her community, but she was the most selfish, narcissistic, single minded character. She did not care what this woman was going through, she only cared about preying on her for answers to her own benefit.
Lastly, the fat shaming was laid on thick. Literally. There is one character that suffers this abuse over all others, and she is mentioned twice, with only one of those interactions being in person. So, keep in mind that the following quotes are all within one meeting.
"...heavy-duty. She weighed close to three hundred pounds and wasn't known for her grace on the dance floor."
"Someone must have once told her that they were slenderizing and they might have been, for someone less bulky."
"...but that didn't stop Betty from resembling the side of a circus tent."
"As she walked closer, Hannah made a mental vow to go on a diet..."
You could tell me someone is a little thicker in many, many less words. I felt like the description of her size went on forever, and that's what truly put me off. It's okay to describe someone and mention their weight, but when it's this extent there is no doubt about it-this was fat shaming. I know this book is a little older, and these kind of things weren't frowned upon as much at the time this was written, but I was still uncomfortable reading this and really wished it hadn't been in this book.
Hannah herself is a self righteous and narcissitic character. She is extremely judgmental and looks down on everyone around her while simultaneously judging others who do the exact same thing. She criticizes her sister constantly, which is truly sad, because anytime Hannah needed any sort of help Andrea was there no questions asked. She was constantly breaking laws- She destroys evidence, steals, breaks into homes and businesses, impersonates an officer, and more. She's trying to solve a crime while committing half a dozen of her own! But of course there are zero repercussions for her because she's so great at solving crimes and baking cookies (side note: am I really expected to believe this girl is making a living by just selling cookies in her small town?)
Here's my last hot take; nothing against Bill, but don't you think that if he needs to have a baker solve his crimes for him, maybe he doesn't deserve the detective promotion? If he is not capable of solving the crime for himself, then someone else deserves a shot at that promotion- he didn't work for it, and he didn't prove himself. Just pathetic.
Overall, this was not the read for me. I was mildly entertained the whole time, and that's why I'm giving two stars rather than one. This story fell short, it wasn't believable and it handled all of the extra topics very poorly. I wouldn't recommend this one, which is a shame because I was looking forward to all the other books in the series.
