1⭐

It was so hard for me to get through this book. I had to force myself to finish. I found the story to be uninteresting and predictable. I didn’t care for the writing style. There was a lot of unnecessary detail that felt like filler but didn’t add anything to the story. Transitions were awkward. The climax was utterly anticlimactic. ( )

Just ok. This was a simple read. Not a lot of mystery for who dunnit. A lot of characters and the narration skipped between characters a lot. This made it so I never truly got attached to any particular character. Not a bad read for an easy summer day. ( )

This is a cozy mystery set in a quaint small town with some quirky characters that live there. Like Rosie who writes a blog and gives advice on how to grow poisonous plants! The writing is a bit dry but still a good summer read. ( )

This mystery has the markings of a series. Lots of small town characters, each with their unique personalities and many of them with some secrets. Or at least, they think they have secrets, but you know a small town - everyone knows everything ... almost. I was picturing the small beach town in my mind and then got sidetracked that the murder victim in the book is from my real life hometown! Our storyteller nailed it describing Bakersfield and many of its inhabitants. This may have endeared me to the story more because I could really picture everything in my mind. However, I do look forward to another mystery in the Luna Beach area to get to know the characters even better. From our leading citizen detective, Rosie and her cat to the teenager who will be saving the world someday and everyone in between. ( )

I liked it - especially the cast of characters - and would read more of a series that contained them. I thought this book bogged down a little in the middle but then picked up and had a satisfactory ending. ( )