A review by endemictoearth
Heart First by S.B. Barnes

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was really lovely and did the

mid-book internal to external conflict transition 

nicely. It's a mystery with a dash of romantic suspense featuring a professor/mechanic couple burgeoning throughout the story. Not straight up investigator husbands; they get together during the time of the investigation and are both close to the case, but aren't intently trying to solve it. (Daniel, the professor, has a few thoughts that Tony, the mechanic,

might be involved, but those are dispelled around the 60% mark

.) 

The third person limited POV (present tense but I barely noticed) follows Daniel, and I really enjoyed his character voice/observations. I got an ARC of the second book and am very much looking forward to spending more time with these characters.

(I've lost my ability to write reviews with any regularity or coherence, mainly save up my good wording efforts for the ARC reviews, so maybe I'll have something more interesting to say about book 2, lolsob)