Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Dressed to Kill - Blog Tour Review + Giveaway


Dressed to Kill by Lynn Cahoon

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Source: Blog Tour
Description:  Jill Gardner - owner of Coffee, Books, and More in the tucked-away town of South Cove, California - is not particularly thrilled to be portraying a twenties flapper for the dinner theater murder mystery.  Though it is for charity...
Of course everyone is expecting a "dead" body at the dress rehearsal... but this one isn't acting!  It turns out the main suspect is the late actor's conniving girlfriend Sherry...who also happens to be the ex-wife of Jill's main squeeze.  Sherry is definitely a master manipulator...but is she a killder?  Jill may discover the truth only when the curtain comes up on the final act and by then it may be far too late.  (from Goodreads)

Genre: Mystery

Why I Picked This Book: This is a series I've been reading since the beginning and have always enjoyed it.

My Impression:  This is my fourth visit to South Cove to spend time with Jill, Greg, Jackie, Toby and the rest of the group.  As usual I was not disappointed.  There's a little bit more going on than I usually prefer in a mystery with Jill and Greg's relationship, running the business, dealing with her aunt and just the rest of the small town politics.  However, in this series I really enjoy the side plots.  Part of it is that I really like Jill and everyone else (especially Toby.  I love Toby).  The other part is the pacing is quick and breezy so it never feels like I'm getting bogged down in details.  The mystery itself is interesting with a good scattering of clues and I wasn't exactly sure what was going on until it wrapped up at the end of the book.
My main problem was Jill's relationship with Sherry.  I felt like more people should've stood up for Jill.  Sherry would say or do something really nasty to Jill and everyone would be really dismissive and tell Jill to be nice.  I wanted to jump into the book and give Sherry and a few other people a good talking too!
Overall, this is a fun mystery set in an interesting place with quite a varied and (for the most part) likable  group of characters.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Absolutely!  I've already got the next book and am looking forward to reading it.

Would I Recommend this Book?:  Yes, if you enjoy cozies this is a fun one!  While it's not necessary to start at the beginning I think it'd be more fun that way.

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Challenges Met?

22 comments:

  1. I'm afraid I jumped to your review's conclusion because I'm reading it too ^^

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    1. Oh I understand! Mysteries are especially tricky when it comes to reading reviews!

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  2. Books like this can be so much fun! I love the whole mystery dinner/theater turn real murder theme. I will have to look for this one.

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    1. So far I've really enjoyed the series! The dinner theater was such a fun idea and really I just South Cove in general!

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  3. Your review led me to check out the series on Goodreads. I got sold and added the first book to my TBR and yay! They have it in Kindle book form on my library site.

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    1. Oh yay! I really enjoyed the first one in the series and so far the rest of the series has been strong!

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  4. Quick and breeze is a description that sounds very appealing to me. And I love when a book keeps you guessing to the end. I love the sound of this series.

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    1. So far I've really enjoyed this series and it's a perfect lazy day read!

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  5. Looks fun! I like the sound of the quick pace, and the theater mystery sounds fun. The town sounds interesting too. Will have to watch for this one!

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    1. I definitely recommend this series. It's been a fun series so far!

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  6. I am so behind..I still need to read the 3rd book! :)

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    1. And to make it even better #5 is coming out next month!

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  7. Such good reads!
    Kathleen Bylsma h5apby@yahoo.com

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  8. Despite your issues with how folks treated Jill this does sound good, and I am glad to see you will continue the series. I adore the setting!

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    1. The setting is awesome! I've really enjoyed this series so far.

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  9. I'm part of this blog tour too. I loved this book.

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  10. I love cozies and wish that I could read more of them. What a great review, I have to check this series out.

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    1. Oh I know! I could read 24 hours a day for a year and still have more cozies I want to read!

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  11. Looking forward to reading this one.

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