The Year of Having Fun With Reading - Arsenic with Austen + Slightly South of Simple

 

Goodreads:  Arsenic with Austen by Katherine Bolger Hyde

Blurb:  When Emily Cavanaugh inherits a fortune from her great aunt, she expects her life to change. She doesn't expect to embark on a murder investigation, confront the man who broke her heart 35 years before, and nearly lose her own life.
Emily travels to the sleepy coastal village of Stony Beach, Oregon, to claim her inheritance, centered in a beautiful Victorian estate called Windy Corner but also including a substantial portion of the real estate of the whole town. As she gets to know the town's eccentric inhabitants--including her own once-and-possibly-future love, Sheriff Luke Richards--she learns of a covert plan to develop Stony Beach into a major resort. She also hears hints that her aunt may have been murdered. Soon another suspicious death confirms this, and before long Emily herself experiences a near-fatal accident.

Meanwhile, Emily reads Persuasion , hoping to find belated happiness with her first love as Anne Elliot did with Captain Wentworth. She notices a similarity between her not-quite-cousin Brock Runcible, heir to a smaller portion of her aunt's property, and Mr. Elliot in Persuasion , and her suspicions of Brock crystallize. But as she and Luke continue to investigate and events speed toward a climax, Emily realizes that underneath the innocent-looking rocks of Stony Beach lurk festering jealousies that would have shocked even the worst of Jane Austen's charming reprobates.

My Thoughts:  Oh I wanted to love this!  It has so many elements that I love - a bookish character, an unexpected inheritance that includes a big (and furnished) old house, and of course a murder mystery.  Unfortunately, it was just okay.  I loved the introduction of Katie and Lizzie and I liked the cats and the glimpses we saw of the house.   The mystery was okay - a bit predictable but fairly interesting.  I didn't like Emily.  It was hard to believe that she was a widowed woman in her 50s and not the 16 year old girl she keeps talking about.  The romance was hard to believe and distracting and some of the aspects of the investigation just seemed like a stretch.  This one just fell about flat to me.  I didn't feel the need to DNF it but I won't be revisiting this author's books.  My Rating: Just Okay (2 Stars)

Goodreads:  Slightly South of Simple by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Blurb:  Caroline Murphy swore she’d never set foot back in the small Southern town of Peachtree Bluff; she was a New York girl born and bred and the worst day of her life was when, in the wake of her father’s death, her mother selfishly forced her to move—during her senior year of high school, no less—back to that hick-infested rat trap where she'd spent her childhood summers. But now that her marriage to a New York high society heir has fallen apart in a very public, very embarrassing fashion, a pregnant Caroline decides to escape the gossipmongers with her nine-year-old daughter and head home to her mother, Ansley.
Ansley has always put her three daughters first, especially when she found out that her late husband, despite what he had always promised, left her with next to nothing. Now the proud owner of a charming waterfront design business and finally standing on her own two feet, Ansley welcomes Caroline and her brood back with open arms. But when her second daughter Sloane, whose military husband is overseas, and youngest daughter and successful actress Emerson join the fray, Ansley begins to feel like the piece of herself she had finally found might be slipping from her grasp. Even more discomfiting, when someone from her past reappears in Ansley's life, the secret she’s harbored from her daughters their entire lives might finally be forced into the open.

Exploring the powerful bonds between sisters and mothers and daughters, this engaging novel is filled with Southern charm, emotional drama, and plenty of heart.

My Thoughts:  I really enjoyed this one. I loved the small coastal Georgia town and the townspeople.  I really enjoyed the characters.  Caroline was a bit difficult to like at first but as the book progressed, I did really like her and feel connected to her though I don't think she would always be the easiest person to interact with.  Sloan and Emerson weren't explored quite as much but also were good characters ad I really liked Ansley.  The book is more complicated than I expected for such a summer-y looking read.  Life is complicated and people have shades of gray which I think was shown really well.  The characters all felt like real people - albeit really pretty people - that could live down the street.   The book ends kind of open ended but even if it hadn't, I'd want to read the next one to spend more time with this family and the world of Peachtree Bluff.  My Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars)