TAL

Not Impressed

Revisado: 10-14-24

When I listened to the first book in this series I really enjoyed it. I liked the main character Carly and I liked the town of Balsam Dell and the other characters in the book. I was also kept on my toes and actually did not see the "bad guy" until the very end. I was excited to continue this series.
Sadly, books 2 & 3 have been a huge disappointment. Ms. Reilly seemed to have lost steam as the books progressed and they are not nearly as interesting. I was somewhat disappointed in Book 2 mainly because I figured out who had done it fairly early on. But, the rest of it was not so bad. But, now having read book 3 I am just disappointed. It was obvious from the outset who the killer was and their motivation.
Another annoying problem with the books was that Carly has become one of those main characters in a Cozy where she thinks she is smarter than the police. It did not matter how many times she was asked by her friends and the police to stay out of things she would go right out and start questioning people and sticking her nose in places and creating problems. And, this time, it made no sense why she was getting involved. She did not know the victim and she barely knew the people involved. Yes, she knew of them from her high school days, but they were not friends of hers. It just made her “investigating” even more perplexing and annoying. And, there were times I kept thinking “just tell the police”, had she done so they might have figure things out faster.
Also, in this book, she conveniently hired a manager to help run her grilled cheese shop which made it so she could leave whenever she needed to because there was always someone to cover for her. I am not sure why she even bothers having a business. Her high school hire Grant is the one who comes up with all the recipes and ideas for the food and now she has a manager that can basically runs things. Carly being there makes no difference. She is not creating new menu items (Grant does that) and the place can run without her (thanks to the new manager).
Lastly, other than the main characters from books past, I had no empathy or like any of the people involved in this mystery. They were all so dysfunctional and unlikeable I did not care what happened to them in the end. Everyone came across as either whiny and needy or just rude and dislikable.
I am not sure I am going to go further in this series if this is how things are going to continue.

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Not What I Expected

Revisado: 10-03-24

I want to begin by saying I can't say this is a bad book. I like the narrator even though she was a woman and the main character was a man. She did an excellent job. Also, the story was OK. The only issue for me was that it was not what I was expecting by the description and cover (yes I know, never judge a book by its cover). Lately I have been on a Cozy Mystery kick needing a bit of lighter fare. This book with the cat on it's cover and the description made it seem like it was going to be another cozy mystery with a fun cat in the mix. Sadly, this was not the case. The beginning was not bad, I did like Diesel the cat but the rest of the story seemed lacking. The main character came across as if he was much older than he was. I thought he was close to retirement age or older, but he was not quite 50 so that made things a little off. The thing that bothered me the most was that there was much more violence etc... than I was expecting in this book. Abusive father hitting his child, graphic descriptions of the murder etc... I don't expect such heaviness in a "cozy mystery". I tried staying with the book even after the violence and the darkness in the beginning, but once I had to endure the graphic description of the murder (smells and the sight) I decided this books was not for me.
The book might work for someone else, it just did not work for me. I admit I want a lightness to my mysteries and this was not it.

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esto le resultó útil a 11 personas

I wanted to like it

Revisado: 09-17-24

I was introduced to Paige Shelton when reading another book series she wrote Dangerous Type Mysteries. I really enjoyed these books and was hoping for another fun series. Unfortunately I could not get into this series. The biggest problem is that the whole reason for the mystery was so ridiculous and made no sense. First, the main character has a job interview over the phone and decides to pick up and leave her life in Kansas and move to another country on a whim. OK, I could let that one go- even if it was not probable on any level. Second, once she gets there, everyone is so secretive and weird but this does not make her question her choices. This one is getting a little harder. And then Third, you find out your boss has to be one of the dumbest people alive to give his former drug addict sister (and she has not been clean for that long) a priceless object to care for and protect even though he has a big high security vault in his bookshop because he wants her to feel he trusts her and wants her to be part of his life. Who does this? Even everyone around him thinks it was a dumb idea. I could not understand why the author decided to go this route. The person murdered and the missing object could have still happened with a much more plausible scenario. I could not get past the stupidity and the ridiculous reasoning behind the bookshop owners choices that I gave up. It was a dumb story line and so implausible that even I could not suspend that much belief. I finally had to give up after listening for 2 hours.

I am sorry, I wish I would have liked this book. Especially since there are quite a few. But, I can only suspend so much belief before I just can't.

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Narrator Ruins It

Revisado: 08-25-24

I started listening to the Noodle House Mysteries a while back and was so sad when the audio versions ended at book 3. But recently, I found that the rest of the books were recorded and now available on Audible and was exited to dive back into the stories on my long commute. Problem was that the narrator of the first 3 books was gone and replaced by Ms. Kay. I am sorry to say, after an hour of listening I don’t know if I can continue. Ms. Kay is not a great narrator. She has no range. The men all sound the same with a low gravelly voice that is forced and just sounds like a female trying too hard to talk like a man. The ethnic accents are all but gone and the female characters have slight range but not much. I guess this is the last audio version I will be downloading since sadly Cindy Kay reads all the newer audio books.
The stories are fun, so when I have time to actually read the book I will do that, but no more audio for me.

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Fun Listen

Revisado: 06-18-24

I have to say I really enjoyed this book. I liked the main character Kate and the cast of characters that surround her. Maxi who becomes her best friend is hilarious and Oliver the dog were my favorites. It was an interesting story and had a smart twist on the whodunit.
Only two things were a little bothersome for me. 1st - Kate is supposed to be this amazing pastry chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America yet the one thing she seems to make all the time are cookies. While I understand this is a cookie themed story- to have someone of her caliber talk about cookies 24/7 seemed odd. And the book could have been a wee bit shorter. It did drag in spots- but honestly the cast of characters did make it fun to be in that world so it wasn’t terrible.
Also I really enjoyed the narration. It really elevated the story. The French accents needed some work- at times you could not tell whether they were French or someone from a southern state- she could not master that dialect. But other than that she did pretty well.

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Kept me guessing

Revisado: 06-02-24

This was a fun book. I liked all the characters and while the descriptions of grilled cheeses got a little over much at times (maybe because I was hungry)- the story was good and I honestly did not figure out who the killer was until the very end- which often times in cozy mysteries the killer can be easy to spot early on.
I would definitely recommend this for Cozy Mystery readers.

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I Could Not Finish

Revisado: 04-25-24

I really liked the story idea behind this series and so I decided to listen to the first book “Body and Soul Food”. While the story seemed intriguing, the two main characters were hard for me to get behind once the story progressed and the mystery got underway. They were the stereotypical male and female characters. Koby (male) was strong, observant and confident, smart and social. Keaton (female) was an introvert, who only observations had to do with peoples outfits. She was also smart but sheltered which tended to make her do stupid things. He was calm and collected and she tended towards the hysterical. The first book was a bit of a slog until the last quarter of the book where things got better – enough so, I decided to try this book.

I thought that because the first book ended a bit stronger than it started, the second book might be better, I was wrong. Instead, the characters seemed to have gotten worse (especially Kobe). Kobe became across as down right obsessive and pushy. He seemed to lack boundaries when it came to questioning people and he decided he could bulldoze people into answering his questions. He acted like a crazy person. Keaton was back to her somewhat hysterical right from the beginning although she did seem to realize that her brother was often going to far with his actions and did her best to stop him.

The final straw for me was when Koby decided to continue to harass people at Mama Zola's church and went to the pastors office. Keaton tried to get him to stop but he insisted. When he got to the office there was a woman crying and he just walked in. Keaton, thinking him crazy, stayed outside. She could see the woman crying because the door was slightly ajar, but there was also another woman Keaton could not see behind the door she could not see - and the first thoughts that popped in Keaton's head was “I wonder what she is wearing” – really? This is what is important to you? It just seemed so unbelievably shallow and again such a stereotypical "girl" thought I rolled my eyes and could only get through a little more of the book before I just gave up. I knew with these two main characters I was not going to enjoy the journey.
I will say the other characters like Mama Zola, Pete etc... I did not mind. They were entertaining. I just could not get behind Keaton and Kobe.

What made this book worse was L. Malaika Cooper's narration. She was truly awful. Maybe if I would have read the book Keaton would not have come across as so hysterical, but when Ms. Cooper read her parts she always seemed to talk in a high panic ridden voice. The rest of the voices were not much better- She just does not have range.

I honestly wanted to like this book, and I know many people did- but this was just not for me. I needed Keaton to be a little more grown up and use her smarts and I needed Kobe to be less pushy and creepy.

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Loved this Book

Revisado: 02-27-24

I have to say I really enjoyed this book. It captured my interest from beginning to end. I really enjoyed learning a little bit about Filipino culture and I also liked the fact that Ms. Manansala had many different cultures and life styles represented in the book with well fleshed out characters.
I love Cozy Mysteries, but there are times I can guess the "bad guy" fairly early on but this mystery kept me guessing until almost the end and even then, I only knew who it was but not the reason or the how.
The only issue (very minor) is that the reveal and climax happened fairly quickly compared to the rest of the book. I am not saying this was terrible, I would not have wanted it to drag on either, but it felt a bit fast for me.
I am looking forward to listening to the next installment!

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Not impressed

Revisado: 02-12-24

I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, the most important aspect (the protagonist-Robbie) was extremely dense and annoying. She was supposed to be 27, but she acted like she was 17. She was incredibly immature which made it difficult to root for her because she would do things that were so stupid you wondered how she was able to build, open and run a restaurant. I should have known that things were probably going to go south when right at the beginning of the book she started to pine for a man and acted like a love struck teenager who had never been on a date (even though she was previously married). Her inner monologues were so childish I found myself rolling my eyes. I could almost ignore that (although difficult) if there were not other instances where her immaturity was baffling. It seemed like the author wanted Robbie to be a strong independent woman, but did not know how to accomplish this.
The other problem with this audio book, as many others have pointed out, is the narration. I am going to sound ageist and I am sorry, but the woman reading is in her more mature years which was great when she was narrating older characters, but for the younger characters it just seemed awkward. At first, I thought some of the characters were much older until later in the book I found out that they were not much older than Robbie herself. It is not that I don't think that someone older can't narrate a younger character- but in this case, it really doesn't work.
I am sorry that I did not enjoy this book. I liked the premise. But, unless the main character has a life altering personality shift, I can't see myself reading another one in the series.

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Boring and Terrible Narration

Revisado: 08-07-23

This title seemed interesting from the description and I thought it might be a fun listen. Sadly, this was anything but. First off, I am not sure if the book would have been better if Mr. Cronin was not the narrator. The main character was the only one that had any emotion or more than a monotone voice. All the women characters sounded like bored robots with. There was little to no emotion to any of the characters which made it almost unbearable to listen to much of the time. I cannot for the life of me figure out why people think Cronin is a good narrator, he really isn’t. Listen to books narrated by Travis Baldree, Jim Dale or David Colacci and you will see how truly awful this narrator is.
Narrator aside, this book also had other issues that did not make for a fun read. First and foremost, the main character Grimsby, was extremely unlikeable. I honestly wanted to root for Grimsby, but it just seemed when he was on the verge of being likeable, he would do something so irritating it would leave me feeling frustrated. At times, I found myself rooting for the bad guys. The other characters in this book were not much better to be honest. I did not mind Mayflower the other protagonist as much at least he was more relatable. There was also a character that continuously used the term she-b*tch to the point that it was uncomfortable, insulting and frankly unnecessary.
Another problem was the lack of explanation when it came to this world and how things worked. How exactly did the magic work? What exactly was the Elsewhere and why did anyone who wielded magic have to wear a “mask” to separate themselves from it? What were the rules of this world and what was its history. There was no explanation at all as to why things were the way they were. It was just like we were supposed to inherently understand.
The last thing I will say is this book was about 3 hours too long. Things just seemed to drag on when they could have been over and done with much faster. The main character’s constant inner monolog droned on forever and was mind numbing. Truth be told, Butcher really needed a good editor or someone to tell him to go back expand on some things but shorten others. The idea for this book was not bad, it was just not well executed.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas