Laura LevineReseñas

unpleasant-victims, laugh-riot, situational-humor, verbal-humor, amateur-sleuth, cozy-mystery, series, murder, investigation, closed-circle-mystery, suspense

Jaine Austen is a thirty something WFH free-lance ad writer who has this cat. The cat's name is Prozac and Jaine often wishes she had a dose when the cat acts up and talks back. This time she is to ghostwrite a fitness manual (say what?!) for an unscrupulous aging fitness guru. First off she has to join a private train ride with all the best suspects (great characters), but she is the one maneuvered into finding the body. Guess who the law zeroes in on. This is a totally perfect stress buster, and it even has a good investigation. The whole book is too much fun! Absolutely loved it!
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Looking for light reading to pack for your next cruise? This is the first cozy by Laura Levine that I've read, and even though it's #8 in a series, I felt right at home with the character of Jaine Austen (no relation), struggling freelance writer who lucked into a teaching gig on a cruise to Mexico that didn't turn out to be quite the relaxing, luxury vacation she had planned.

I liked all three short stories. The Hannah Swensen story was my favorite, only because I knew all of the characters already. I would gladly read more of the books in Leslie Meier and Laura Levine's mystery series.

Meh. Shallow, mildly funny. Don't know why I finished it. Think I got it for free. That's the only way it was worth it.½

read the one joanne fluke.. might read the other ones near the holiday later this year!

read the one joanne fluke.. might read the other ones near the holiday later this year!

A boring, lackluster mystery full of stupid characters, even dumber scenarios, and a lot of desperately unfunny attempts at humor.

Jaine Austen’s Christmas plans are turned upside down when her ‘best friend’ Lance announces he has accepted a job for the two of them to housesit a ritzy Bel Air mansion for two weeks over the upcoming holidays. When they arrive, they meet the weird next door neighbors—Missy and Scotty. Scotty is a loathsome former child star whose abrasive personality and niggardly ways have made an enemy of everyone in the neighborhood, including his own wives—both current and former. When Jaine discovers Scotty dead, clobbered over the head with a day-old Yule log, she becomes a prime suspect and clumsily sets out to clear her own name.

It is risible to even refer to Jaine Austen as an amateur sleuth because she is such a clueless moron. As Jaine bumbles through the sloppy plotline, she labels all of the characters as ‘the killer’ at some point or another; she is convinced that Every. Single. One. of them just has to be the murderer. Of course, it is the one and only character Jaine pays zero attention to who turns out to be the real culprit. Duh. It really comes as no surprise since everything Jaine does is so idiotic.

Even something as prosaic as Jaine’s eating habits unmask her as a colossal nitwit. The author wastes countless pages expounding on Jaine’s hatred of kale and tofu. (Jaine has an aversion to health food that borders on the psychotic.) At some point, she goes to a (gasp!) vegetarian restaurant (oh, the horror!) & orders an avocado & mozzarella sandwich, which Jaine proclaims is all right except for all of the godawful sprouts that got crammed into it. It never seems to occur to Jaine’s pea-sized brain to ask the restaurant to leave the sprouts off (restaurants will do little things like that, you know), or to even take them off herself after the fact; given Jaine’s limited capabilities, she probably would have needed a diagram and instruction book to accomplish even that minor feat. (I guess one can’t really expect too much from a person with such numskull parents they can’t even spell the name Jane properly.) Seriously, this woman needs to be in a home for incompetents.

Jaine’s inability to ever stand up for herself renders her even more pathetic and unlikeable. Whether it’s her endless (and I do mean ENDLESS) stream of hellish blind dates, or her constant inability to reclaim her own cat, or her refusal to tell Lance to go to hell every time he refers to how ugly she is, Jaine never has any brains, any backbone, or any semblance of self-worth. She is quite literally one of the most dimwitted and useless cozy mystery heroines I have ever encountered, and that is saying quite a lot.

The only character who is even more odious than Jaine is her gay, self-centered, verbally abusive, drama-queen best friend Lance. Lance’s two favorite words are fab & hon, and he uses them with stomach-churning frequency. Lance is a cruel, manipulative liar who is constantly putting Jaine down and reminding her how fat and unattractive she is while simultaneously forcing her into doing things she doesn’t want to do. Lance does things like accepting a Christmas job for Jaine without asking her first, and creating a horrific online dating profile for her behind her back. Isn’t he a peach? Lance is no one’s idea of a decent human being, yet Jaine puts up with all of his crap because he buys her expensive presents. (!?!?!?) And the author treats this behavior as comedic gold that will have readers rolling in the aisles with laughter. Offensively nauseating doesn’t even begin to describe it.

And amongst all of this horrifying drivel, we are subjected to thoroughly irrelevant emails from Jaine’s parents about the Caribbean cruise they are taking with their cult-like HOA. I have no clue what the point of that was, except to say that it was utterly pointless nonsense.

Run, don’t walk, away from this horrible series!

Did not finish. I tried, I really did. I liked the protagonist all right, especially her passionate love for the dessert buffet. (100% relatable.)
Other than that the humor fell completely flat for me and there just wasn't enough depth to any of the characters to keep me interested.

2.5***

Three short novels make up this anthology. Candy Cane Murder (Fluke), The Dangers of Candy Canes (Levine) and Candy Canes of Christmas Past (Meier).

The first is a typical Hannah Swenson cozy. Her sisters and mother help her investigate the murder while her two boyfriends, dentist Norman and policeman Mike either help or warn her to stay out of the investigation. I have to wonder how this woman makes any money when she’s always giving cookies away. The story comes with some tasty recipes, though.

Levine’s entry comes next, and it was the weakest of the trio. Freelance writer Jaine Austen is asked to check into an “accidental” death; seems a suburban neighborhood’s holiday decorating contest has turned deadly. I didn’t like the heroine, I didn’t like the plot.

Candy Canes of Christmas Past revolves around Lucy Stone, her husband and son, who have left the high-stakes world of New York City finance to move to Tinker’s Cove, Maine. But things aren’t going well with the renovations of their farmhouse, and money’s tight. When she spots a sign for a yard sale, Lucy takes a chance and finds a unique artifact – a glass cane. Trying to find out more about it, she heads to the library and uncovers a family mystery. The story was pretty light on the mystery, but was a sweet and charming holiday tale.½

Synopsis:
Janie Austen is a struggling writer who gets hired to help write a stage play based on a popular zombie movie. While she is working one of the actresses is murdered and she has to help discover who done it.

Rating:
3/5 Stars

I have read every book in the Janie Austen mystery series and overall I really enjoy the humor and the characters in the stories. Unfortunately, sometimes the mysteries let me down and I felt like that was the case with this book.

One of my favorite characters in the series is Janie's cat Prozac and this book had a lot of great Prozac in it. In this particular book there is a subplot about Janie trying to help Prozac get the stimulation and exercise she needs by getting her a leash and zany antics ensue from that and I was totally there for it.

There is also a subplot where Janie gets to go to a bachelor auction and she accidentally bids on a date. That was a fun subplot but one of the issues I have with this series that I felt was really highlighted by this subplot is that Janie doesn't really have much change or growth throughout the series. She is at a similar place in her personal and professional life from book1 to the current book. You can pick up any book in the series and not much will have changed for Janie. I think on one hand that makes this series super accessible because every book is an entry point. However, as a long term reader of the series I think I would like to see Janie's life changing and improving with relationships that aren't just one offs in the series and meaningful successes in her career. This was another book where Janie really doesn't change from start to finish. If you have never read this series I think you could easily pick up this book and enjoy it without feeling like you were missing any character story.

As for the mystery itself, I thought many characters had strong motives to want to murder the victim but at the reveal I felt like the actual killer had a fairly flimsy motive compared to all the other potential suspects. I also thought that a lot of belief had to be suspended for so many people to have a past with the woman and also end up involved in the play she was in. I live in a small town and doubt I could cast a play with such interconnected people even taking everyone from a small town let alone LA where the book takes place.

This was a fun read but not a very satisfying mystery.

Death of a Bachelorette/Laura Levine Freelance writer Jaine Austen thought working for a knock-off reality show in the tropics would be paradise. But when she and her kitty Prozac find themselves trapped between a dimwitted leading man, catty contestants, and a cold-blooded murderer, the splashy gig becomes one deadly nightmare... Jaine's life has been a royal pain since she started penning dialogue for Some Day My Prince Will Come--a cheesy dating show that features bachelorettes competing for the heart of Spencer Dalworth VII, a very distant heir to the British throne. As if fending off golf ball-sized bugs on a sweltering island wasn't tough enough, Jaine must test her patience against an irritable production crew and fierce contestants who will do anything to get their prince... But Jaine never expected murder to enter the script. When one of the finalists dies in a freak accident, it's clear someone wanted the woman out of the race for good--and the police won't allow a soul off the island until they seize the culprit. Terrified of existing another day without air conditioning and eager to return home, Jaine is throwing herself into the investigation. And she better pounce on clues quickly--or there won't be any survivors left...
 
While this book was pretty outrageous and at points juvenile, it was still a fun read.
Strange would probably be the best way to describe the concept of this book. From strange natives with strange ceremonies to strange producers with strange ideas of success, the story was riddled with oddities and unexpected absurdities.
 
I was not Jaine's biggest fan--she's not the brightest, and she's pretty ditzy at points. However, she was the fun type of ditzy and I was amused by her antics and by her drama queen attitude that somehow managed to be less obnoxious than that of the remaining few competitions.
 
This isn't necessarily the book for you if you're a huge fan of reality TV shows as there was surprisingly little to do with the show actually mentioned. The plot was insane, however, and there was definitely drama within love that was quite entertaining.
 
I wasn't the biggest fan of this book. There are chick flicks out there with more character building and believable premises. But if you're into super absurd things, you might enjoy this.
 
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
 

I’m not a superfan of cozy mysteries, but some are fine in a pinch. This one was possibly the worst I’ve ever read. Read my full review here.½

This book is a hoot. Mystery and humor vie for the front seat - both are equally entertaining. Jaine gets tapped to punch up a dismal script for a play based on a bad TV show. The producer/director/leading man won the lottery and now gets to live his dream. Unfortunately, one of the cast members doesn’t. Jaine sets out to find the killer, but there are so many suspects it’s hard to narrow down the playing field. The star of this cozy is Prozac the cat who steals every scene she is in. Well written with delightfully quirky characters, this mystery is fun from beginning to end.

Three authors = three mysteries

“Twelve Desserts of Christmas”—
Joanne Fluke is well known for her Hannah Swensen series. This time Hannah does solve the mystery, but she’s no directly involved.

It’s Christmas break at Lakes Academy. Six of the students would be spending Christmas break at the school – three girls and three boys. This means there needs to be two adults to stay as supervisors. The two newest teachers are assigned the job; Julie Jansen and Matt Sherwood. As bad as it sounds, Julie and Matt are far from disappointed as there seems to be a little romance developing between the two.

To make the break time fun and interesting for the kids, Julie asks them what they’d like to do. Running in the halls, talking loud in the library, having food in their rooms and other actions that go against the rules are the kids choices. To add to this Julie has the kids make a list of baked goods they’d enjoy and contacts her hold classmate, Andrea Swensen, who is the sister of Hannah — owner of The Cookie Jar and the top baker in Eden Lake!

Things seem to go fine, but shortly something strange starts happening. In the evening after the children have been put to bed and Julie and Matt plan to spend a little time together watching a movie, the boys seem to constantly have problems requiring Matt’s attention. They aren’t serious but they are annoying. What is going on?

“Nightmare on Elf Street” by Laura Levine, involves the wearing of an elf outfit and assisting Santa at the mall.

Jaine Austen, a copywriter, goes for an interview at an upscale mall in answer to a job lead. She winds up working as one of the Santa’s elves as a step to the copywriting job. It wouldn’t be so bad but…Jaine isn’t built to elf size as her bigger form isn’t pixie-ish to see. But it is supposed to lead to the job she wants…

She works with two different Santas — one seemingly sincere and the other an handsome, egotistic, wannabe actor with a serious drinking problem. When drunk, Santa #2 is foul mouthed with a rotten attitude yet somehow seems to keep his job. He and Jaime do not get along, and when he is found murdered in his Santa chair, Jaime is suspect #1.

“The Christmas Thief” by Leslie Meier finds Elizabeth Stone working in a posh hotel in Florida. She is given a job of assisting in the arrangement of a fancy gala. It is part of a reveal of a collection of jewels the sponsor has just purchased for his wife. When the stones go missing, Elizabeth is first in line for suspects.

Elizabeth can’t go home to Maine for the holidays, but when her mother finds out why she takes the first plane south. Lucy Stone (of the Lucy Stone series written by Leslie Meier) has solved a number of cases on her own and plans to solve this one. Miss Tilly has also accompanied Lucy for the same reason.

Elizabeth has met a nice young man names Chris Kennedy. He claims to be an attorney involved in environmental cases, but is he? The police think he is in partnership with Elizabeth in the theft.

nothing memorable, I'll try the next...

Things are looking up for Jaine Austen...sort of. She has been hired to do revisions on a really awful play, I Married A Zombie, based on an equally awful and thankfully quickly cancelled TV show by the same name (Jaine had solved the murder of the star of the show in a past book). As bad as the play is, the woman hired as lead actor somehow manages to make it worse. She has no discernible acting skills beyond the ability to twist the director/producer around her little finger and she uses this to make constant demands, one of which is that she is allowed time every rehearsal for her favourite smoothie. No surprise to anyone when she is murdered by said smoothie. The only problem is who dunnit and a whole cast of suspects who seem to have been more than willing to play the role of murderer.

Death by Smoothie is the nineteenth in A Jaine Austen Mystery series and it is a fast, fun, and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny cozy mystery and I'd like to thank Netgalley and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review. There's plenty of twists and turns and it kept me guessing. But I'll admit the best part of the novel for me were the antics of her cat Prozac and the emails of her parents. Loved it!

Jaine is at it again and thrills and chills follow per usual.

In this Jaine Austen mystery, set right around Halloween, Jaine gets involved with her eccentric neighbor after a freak accident causes the death of her parakeet (involving Prozac the cat, of course.) Lance and Jaine compete for the attentions of a cute guy, with hilarious results. And of course, there are the emails from Jaine’s parents, which are always a hoot. This time around, Jaine’s father is determined to win the neighborhood’s Halloween lawn decorating competition.

Jaine and her cat Prozac are off to a relaxation spa as a treat, courtesy of her neighbor, Lance. Unfortunately, when she gets there she discovers it’s a forced diet spa. Diets are so not Jaine’s thing. Worse, they force Prozac on a diet, too. I’ll admit, I was sooo hungry reading this book with the descriptions of how they were starving the program participants and Jaine completely unable to find nourishment, so fair warning, read this book with a hearty plate of carbs in hand. This being a murder mystery, someone at the resort turns up dead of course, and Jaine has to figure out who the killer is because the police will not allow anyone to leave the premises until they’ve cleared them as suspects. Meanwhile the reader just continues getting hungrier… This also had a fun subplot with her parents involving their emails, a HOA, and garden gnomes.

In this 9th book in the Jaine Austen series, Jaine is after an advertising gig from a mattress company, and the company’s owner has some sticky personal entanglements in the form of an ex-wife who he works closely with and owns half his businesses, and a new wife who throws herself shamelessly at him at work. (Jaine just wants to write ads for mattresses so she and her cat Prozac can eat. Meow.) When Bunny the new wife turns up dead, and Lance, Jaine’s neighbor, is blamed, she goes on the hunt for the killer. I especially loved the emails back and forth with Jaine’s parents in this one.

Jaine Austen has been hired to do some advertising for a cruise line, and so gets to go on a free cruise. While she’s trying to leave her apartment, she semi-accidentally smuggles her cat Prozac into her luggage, and winds up taking him onboard the ship (for many hilarious cat moments.) This one had some hilarious scenes, including Jaine being blackmailed by her room porter into keeping the secret of the stowaway cat if she would edit his terrible manuscript, and of course, her teaching memoir writing classes while on board. As always, the funny emails with her parents were a hoot. The murder in this one didn’t take place until nearly halfway along in the book, which worked out okay, as there was other stuff happening. I’m interested to see where things go next!

This was one of my favorites in the series so far. Jaine is hired to write a script for the wedding of a woman she knew back in high school who is turning out to be a total bridezilla. Lots of great horrific high school memories, mean girls (and boys) and terrible dates to go around. The Starbucks scene was the best. When the bridezilla turns up dead, Jaine tries to figure out whodunnit to get an old classmate off the hook. Unfortunately, she was so terrible, the suspect list is long. This one was especially funny because of all the side plots. The emails with her parents were hilarious. There was a dog side plot to go along with cat Prozac, who I always enjoy. The terrible dates were funny. Just a great book in this series.

In this sixth book in the Jaine Austen mystery series, writer Jaine Austen falls on tough times and is forced to take a not so lucrative gig writing jokes for an unfunny stand up comedian whose punchline is pantyhose. Unfortunately, someone turns up dead and Jaine feels obliged to help find the killer. Also, while Jaine’s love life is heating up, her nemesis and competition is out for blood (I absolutely cackled at some of the scenes in this one.) As always, Prozac the cat and Jaine’s emails to her parents make for wonderful interludes between the sleuthing.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.

Jaine and her neighbor Lance are house-sitting for a wealthy lady with a house full of antiques. Jaine tries to board her cat Prozac in a ritzy boarding place, but things go awry and they’re forced to depend on the neighbors of the lady they’re house sitting for, who turn out to be quite odd. After several strange interactions between both Jaine and Lance, and also several other couples in the neighborhood, someone turns up dead and Jaine, who is a suspect, feels compelled to investigate to clear her name. I enjoyed the mystery in this one. In terms of how much Christmas and holiday-themed stuff there was in this book, I would probably rate it 3 candy canes out of 5. Overall, I liked the mystery and characters (and as always, the emails from Jaine’s parents.)

Jaine Austen is back to solve another mystery. She’s hoping to land a job working for a bank (where of course the CEO expects her to share in her love of salads while all the men eat delicious steaks and fries) and her cat Prozac is on a kitty-diet, which isn’t going well. While hanging with a new group of friends, Jane witnesses a murder… and becomes a suspect. This had all of Jane’s usual snarky antics and fun interludes with her writing group.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.