Jennifer McAndrews

It's getting harder for me to find good cozy mysteries that are well written, but I enjoyed the first two in this series well enough. Not so much this one. I don't know if the series continues on from here, but I don't think I will be.

Georgia's romance angst was over-the-top, unbelievable, and silly. If you've had a string of relationships end in heartbreak, it would not be entirely irrational to be gun-shy about relationships (although probably not a bad idea to examine one's choices in mates, either), but to have one, ONE, relationship sour and then act like every man, every relationship is out to destroy your soul is ... sorry, I gotta be judgy here... stupid. Childish. And it wasn't just the men in her life Georgia was childish about; the whole sub plot with her mother and new 'stepdad' made my head ache from the eye rolling. Grow up already.

On top of this, the plot was weaker than wet tissue. There were so many things about the construct that were phoned-in it's not even worth enumerating them.

The setting is nice, and the animal love was awesome; even the characters were likeable enough, but none of it was enough to save this one.… (más)

A pretty good first in a series where the editor obviously insisted on a "hook" - food, craft, whatever and they went with stained glass. The mystery itself has absolutely nothing to do with stained-glass in any way and there's only a couple of scenes that actually involve the MC working on stained glass. I'm not complaining about this at all - I think the book is better for not having tried to bend the mystery around the MC's hobby.

I'm frankly not quite sure about the characters yet - the MC, Georgia, is at times little-mouse timid and at other times strong and mouthy. I prefer strong and mouthy, so I'm hoping the little-mouse timid falls by the wayside in future books. Grandpa was an ass, even for an 80-year-old arrested on suspicion of murder. He wasn't nice to her at all and his attitude about her kitten was enough to seal the deal for me - grandpa can go pound dirt. I quite liked Carrie and even Georgia's childhood friend, the cop with "aggression issues". That added a bit of humour I enjoyed.

The murder plotting was obscure enough that I didn't see the murderer before the MC did and I didn't stumble on any obvious holes or inconsistencies. But a lot of questions were left unanswered: what the heck was up with grumpy Grandpa's staff at the movie theater? Why was that even introduced into the story line? Perhaps it's a lead-in to the next book. Guess I'll find out since I liked this one enough to read a second book.… (más)

This is one of those unfortunate reads where I really enjoy the writing, the setting and the characters (except grandpa, he's a cranky goat in a not-endearing kind of way) but the plot was more transparent than the glass the MC works with. I guessed the importance of the first "clue" and the murderer from their second appearance. Add to this the love triangle set-up and I deducted 1/2 a star.

Still, it is one of the better-written new series to come out by a big publisher in awhile and I enjoyed it enough to read the third book.… (más)

Georgia has moved back in with her grandfather, "Grandy," when her job fell apart as an accountant. Now she works making stained-glass, and because of her friend Carrie, who owns an antique shop, she's set to make a nice window for a new B&B that's opening in town. But while there, Carrie gets a call from the police, and rushing to the scene, Carrie sees that her ex-husband's office has been set afire. Unfortunately, the police called her because they can't find Russ. And neither can Carrie. When Carrie's shop is rifled through, Georgia wants to know what's going on and where Russ might be.

I remember reading the first in the series and liking it. But this second book is s-l-o-w. So many descriptions and not enough action. I had a difficult time getting through this book, waiting for something to happen. I read up to page 146 and we still hadn't had a murder, nor did we know who the victim was likely to be.

I really wish I could have given this book a better rating, but it felt as if the author just didn't care enough to write it. There was nothing to pull you into the story, and Georgia just isn't an interesting character, and neither is Carrie. Carrie is dull and meek, and Georgia is afraid of her own shadow and thinks because she left the town she once called home she's an 'outsider,' so won't even stand up for herself.

I know that there is one more book in this series, but sadly, I don't think I'll be finishing it. We have the beginning of a love triangle (which I absolutely loathe) and with as boring as this book was, I really don't care enough to continue on.… (más)