Source: Publisher
Description: It’s the holiday season on Daybreak Island, and Maddie James is looking forward to stepping out of the limelight, watching the island’s Christmas decoration competition from afar, spending time with her boyfriend and family, running tours for visitors as part of the festivities and spreading holiday cheer through cute cats in jingle bell collars.But trouble hits close to home when word gets out that Donna Carey, the publisher of the island’s only daily newspaper where Maddie’s best friend Becky is editor, may be selling the business. Becky is a diehard journalist and to her, selling the only newspaper on the island is a fate worse than death. She publicly opposes the potential sale, wreaking havoc on her relationship with her big boss.Maddie is sympathetic, but she has her own problems - like getting pulled into a role on the Christmas event committee despite her best efforts to stay far removed, and solving the case of a mysterious cat breeder trying to sell expensive designer cats as holiday gifts on the island. But then Donna winds up dead—electrocuted by her own Christmas decorations—and it appears to be more than an accident. To make matters worse, Becky becomes suspect number one. Maddie is thrown into another murder investigation in order to save her best friend from a Christmas behind bars.
Genre: Mystery - Cozy
Why I Picked This Book: I loved the sound of the blurb and this is a series I've had my eye on for awhile.
My Impression: I love the setup for this series. I mean who doesn't love a cat cafe? I'm allergic but I would Benadryl myself up to go play with kittens now and then - especially if coffee and baked goods were involved. There's also a Christmas lights competition with big prizes and high stakes. But while the results are brignt and sparkly not everything is going smoothly.
I liked the mystery and how the investigation played out. One of my favorite things about cozy mysteries is the community aspect and this series has that in spades. I'm looking forward to going back to the beginning of the series and reading these relationships from the beginning.
My only issue is with the heavy handed anti-breeder stance throughout the book. I don't know much about the cat world but I teach obedience classes and show in several different dog sports competively. Through that I've dealt with a large number of dogs and handlers both rescues and pure-bred. It kind of annoyed me that the stance was just breeders are bad without talking about the difference between unethical and ethical breeders - and that difference is HUGE. This is one of those specific things that probably wouldn't have bothered me if this wasn't a world I work in on a daily basis.
This was an entertaining mystery with a good group of characters The ending was a bit abrupt but I enjoyed following Maddie along for her investigation.
Would I Read More of this Series/Author? Yes. I'm looking forward to going back to the beginning of the series and will keep an eye out for other books.
Would I Recommend this Book? If you enjoy cozy mysteries and like cats this would be a great series to try.
* I received this book in exchange for an honest review. As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *
Would I Recommend this Book? If you enjoy cozy mysteries and like cats this would be a great series to try.
* I received this book in exchange for an honest review. As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *
That title totally made me laugh!
ReplyDeleteThis does sound like a fun series; I'm making a note to look into it on my next cozy-mystery binge. From your description, though, I agree that a little more nuance would be nice in regard to breeders. A friend of mine breeds dogs on a small scale, and she is highly ethical in her practices. Her breeding dogs (two or three, all female) are basically family dogs; they have the run of the house and get plenty of time in the yard. My friend keeps in touch with the people who buy her pups, to see how the dogs are doing physically and emotionally/socially (as well as how they are performing, if they compete in dog shows.) On the other hand, another friend got an older Sheltie as a rescue. She had been a breeding dog in a larger dog-breeding operation, and she had basically always lived in a large-ish cage. She's sweet and thankfully healthy, but it took her a long time to learn to be around people, and she had never been in a house.
ReplyDeleteWell if you want to go back to some of the previous books then its a good win. Hope the breeders issue doesn't go all through the series.
ReplyDeleteI love this series and have to read this one.
ReplyDeleteI have never read anything by this author. This sounds like a good book!
ReplyDelete