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planreadrepeat's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Murder
Minor: Infidelity, Alcohol, Car accident, and Confinement
lady_of_the_labyrinth's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Sexism
Minor: Car accident, Gun violence, and Infidelity
heather667's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Murder, Violence, Car accident, and Sexism
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicide, Mental illness, and Rape
vanesst's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Body shaming
Moderate: Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Car accident, Infidelity, Murder, Death, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Gun violence, Pregnancy, Stalking, and Suicide
missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault and Car accident
Minor: Misogyny and Gun violence
tangleroot_eli's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- 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.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Misogyny
Moderate: Car accident, Body shaming, Murder, Death, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Fatphobia, and Alcohol
Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy
helalost's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Car accident, and Ableism
Moderate: Alcohol and Abandonment
Minor: Infidelity
strawberrydolly's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
A fair warning that this review contains slight (vague) spoilers.
I’ve heard some say it’s slow-paced and I can’t argue with that too much, but I’d still say it was more of a medium pace. The plot never slowed down or went off track. Lots of different events kept things interesting and even the side love story made some contributing points to the overall mystery. The reason behind the murder itself, confused me at first, but after the entire situation was explained a few times, I understood it.
I definitely loved all the characters. They were all diverse and different. I only had a problem with June and sometimes Nora who said Hester was young and naive several times throughout the book. It just seemed unnecessary and was a tad bit annoying to hear it. It wouldn’t have bothered me otherwise, but it definitely had that kind of feeling in the cases of boomers muttering, “kids these days,” under their breath. Other than that, The characters were great and lovable, despite their past. Estella was my favorite and I hope to see more of her in the next book, considering what happened to her in this one. I also loved Jed and am excited to see his and Nora’s relationship grow.
I did enjoy how the characters had depth to them and everyone, even minor characters had secrets and a hidden past.
Another notable mention is there were SO many literary refences that a few have to go over your head. Luckily, most of them don’t hold any significance to the major plotline and if it does, its throughly explained. It’s simply a more enjoyable read if you understand them. I enjoyed the twist this book gave, I truly wasn’t expecting it. The afterword definitely got me hooked into reading the next book (which I was planning on anyways). Overall, 4.5/5.
Graphic: Death, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault
Minor: Alcohol and Medical trauma
kibbles15's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Car accident and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Grief, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Murder, Medical content, Infidelity, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Death
Minor: Pregnancy
cozyspookyreads's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
If you’re a heavy mystery reader I wouldn’t recommend this first book though! The mystery itself wasn’t interesting to me, but the characters and their stories was what kept me going.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Car accident and Violence