Dana Dratch

Alex is now a freelance writer, and is trying to finish a story, but finds it difficult when her brother Nick is in the middle of having her kitchen redone into a professional kitchen. So when she receives a phone call from her sister Annie, who owns a modeling agency and is a model herself, Alex is torn. Annie is in Miami at her condo for an emergency board meeting, and wants Alex to keep her company. With a little coaxing from her brother Nick, and her best friend Trip, an editor at the newspaper, she heads off with Nick's dog Lucy in tow to the airport. After arriving in style on a private plane, she thinks it will be a chance to catch some sun and write her story - due to Nick's idea of making it about Lucy's visit to the city instead - Alex is going to have a nice vacation...or will she?

When she meets the board's president, Leslie McQueen, it's not a pleasant one. She also learns that there isn't anyone who likes Leslie, and she begins to wonder why. But when Leslie is found dead, more questions arise: was it an accident? Or did someone finally have enough? Where is the association's money? And, with the help of the omnipresent Gabby, who seems to show up at opportune times for Alex, she discovers that Leslie was up to no good, and there's more at stake than just finding her killer...

This is the third book in the series and I have to say that I'm enjoying it more and more as I read each one. Alex is quite a character: not quite sure of herself as a person, but she's willing to put everything out there to save someone or get a story. She's intelligent and doesn't walk into situations that could get her put in jail (again), yet she's kind and trustworthy, and loyal to those she cares about.

And what she cares about right now is saving the people of the building, even though she doesn't know them well. But she also needs to take Lucy out and about and get pictures for the newspaper while she's at it, and she can't understand why her sunscreen isn't helping and her skin is turning red and peeling, when her sister, who's using the same sunscreen, looks like the model she is. Alex is personally miserable, but professionally on the job.

The mystery is one of the best that I've read in awhile, and the tale was thoroughly entertaining, peppered with characters that were humorous, especially when Baba showed up and Annie tried to turn her into a "Miami senior" and almost succeeded. We also have the fact that Alex is struggling with her emotions for Ian Sterling, owner of the B&B across the street from her, but hopefully, she'll come around eventually.

What Alex discovers is truly despicable of Leslie, and gives us one more reason not to mourn the woman's death (not that we would have, anyway). Yet there's enough action on the part of the three women (Alex, Annie, and Gabby) to keep us invested in the story and wanting more. It's a sprightly narrative that's more fun than it should be.

When the ending comes and we finally learn the truth, it wasn't all that unexpected, but getting there was half the fun, and looking forward to the next in the series is the rest. Highly recommended.… (más)

Alex Vlodnachek is a freelance writer who's just taken a temporary job as an advice columnist for a local newspaper while the columnist is on a six-week vacation. What she doesn't know -- and soon finds out -- is that the columnist is a crochety elderly man named Marty, who's just escaped from the local hospital. When she returns him, they hit it off, and he agrees to let her cover for him.

She also has a house guest in the form of her younger brother Nick, who's a whiz in the kitchen and has been making pastries for local businesses, including the new B&B across the street. It doesn't hurt that the owner of the B&B, a Brit named Ian Sterling, has taken a liking to her, too.

But things don't come easy in Alex's life, ever since she was fired from her last job and accused of murdering her boss (she didn't). So the morning after the party at Ian's, she goes into her kitchen and finds a baby on the table, strapped to his car seat. First believing Nick knows something about it (he doesn't); they try and figure out what to do. Neither has experience with babies, so they're basically flying by the seat of their pants. Eventually they figure that their grandmother, Baba, can be some help in this situation (she is), so they invite her to stay. But it doesn't end there.

First there's the body in Ian's basement. Then Marty shows up at her house unannounced, stating he's the target of a killer. Then there's another body...and the crises just keep building up until Alex thinks she's in some kind of a warped video game and can't escape. Now Alex not only has her hands full, she thinks things can't get any worse...but she's wrong (isn't she?)...

This is the second book in the series and I have to say that I enjoyed it much better than the first. The pages have been trimmed down from the first in the series and there's no extraneous information that isn't needed. What's left is a delightful, humorous tale of murder, thievery, and Alex and Nick getting a crash course in baby sitting. It's fun, rollicking, and full of mystery that never takes second place, which is exactly how a mystery should be.

Alex is trying hard not to lose her sanity while she's trying to figure out why there was a dead man in the freezer (and then wasn't) -- and figure out who the baby belongs to without social services figuring that out, and decide what to do with Marty. Alex's soft heart is tempered by her solid brainpower, and she never once gives in to hysteria or anything close to a breakdown (which might bring lesser people to the point).

Although I can't say that I like Alex's mom (too harsh, and doesn't listen to her kids), I do like Baba and the rest of the secondary characters that pepper this book, including Marty, who's actually a hoot and a half.

At any rate, I loved the mystery and how everything presented to us tied in together nicely, and the story was woven in a way that you never lose sight of one subplot in favor of a different one. Each one brings something to the story, and watching each thread slowly weave into each other was definitely worth the journey.

In the end, when the murderer is discovered, it was definitely unexpected, and the ending itself was a surprise. But the book was written well and the characters are definitely growing on me, so I will continue with this series. Recommended.… (más)

Alex Vlodnachek was a reporter who recently went into P.R. because the CEO offered her a salary she couldn't refuse. What she could refuse, however, is his offer to sleep with a client. After a very vocal argument at a local restaurant where she told him no, she discovers that he's been murdered that same weekend. Now she's not only on the hot seat, she's been fired from her job and the new CEO has threatened her with being sued and ruined her chances of ever getting another job. If Alex is to save her own career -- and life -- she needs to find out who killed the man and why...

This is the beginning of a new series and a hefty book for a cozy running at 428 pages. Which isn't to say that I didn't want to read it, because I did. But I also felt that a lot of it could have been trimmed down a tad since a lot of it wasn't needed to add to the story.

This book also had a lot of situations that were there to provide 'comic relief,' but just seemed off in the story, and because of that I had a hard time getting through this book. Turning off her electricity, a new sister-in-law who's a thief, a grandmother who cooks inedible, grey food -- most of it just wasn't needed to get to the meat of the story, of which there was very little.

Alex's life was being sabotaged at every turn by employees of the P.R. firm, including an ex-boyfriend who made up lies to get his fifteen minutes of fame -- and she didn't even confront him about it. However, there was a very funny scene at the unemployment office which I thought should have set the tone for the rest of the book, it didn't.

Actually, the character I liked best was the British neighbor, Ian Sterling, but we will have to wait and see if he is in any of the other books. I will say that while I wasn't enthralled with this first one, I will read the second -- but only if it isn't the heft of this one, since we don't need the extraneous information to carry a mystery.

In the end, I had already known the murderer, because it wasn't difficult to figure out who was setting up Alex to take a fall, although it just wasn't all that intriguing, to be honest. The way the murderer was captured also wasn't all that intriguing, and there wasn't really a decent climax, but again, I'll probably pick up the next to find out in which direction the series is going to go.… (más)

Alex Vlodnachek is an investigative reporter. At present she is freelancing but fortunately has friends and resources with two major newspapers.
The only "flaw" I found in this story was a bit dated reference to putting one's subscription on hold when going on vacation. It is necessary to the story, but do people still do this?

Alex has a thing for the devilishly handsome Englishman across the road who happens to run a B&B type Inn. At the moment, Alex's own house is feeling more and more like an inn every day.
Her brother has moved in while attempting to start up a bakery business. As the book unravels, any available space to sleep at Alex's house gets taken. One very cute (yet difficult) resident is a young baby, requiring round the clock care. Care neither Alex nor her brother Nick is proficient in supplying. There is a second cute resident in the form of a dog who also has her moments.

With the grand opening of the B&B across the road, and the disappearance of the main employee, who happens to be the owner's father, things begin to get tense. Strange things are happening faster than Alex can blink. As if she doesn't have troubles of her own. A baby discovered on her kitchen table, despite a quality security system, trying to figure out her new assignment as an advice columnist, and family moving in, or trying to, are just the tip of this iceberg. There is much more happening but I don't want to spoil your fun as each complication piles on.

Fast paced and entertaining, with wonderful characters, this book has more mysteries than expected. As one gets solved, another two come into view!… (más)