Murder Uncorked (A Wine Lover’s Mystery)
by Michele Scott

I only read the first book in this series, “Murder Uncorked.” Had I liked the protagonist a little more I probably would have given the second book a try but, alas, I felt like the characterizations here were very weak and there was nothing about either of these two characters that left me wanting to hear more about their adventures. For the most part, the writing was lackluster and the mystery dull. About halfway through the book, I started skimming sections because I was impatient to get through it and on to something more interesting. There are several books in this series and Michele Scott has Horse Lover’s series of mysteries as well so I know there must be plenty of people who enjoy her writing. Sadly, I’m just not one of them.

Other Series

And on the list of mystery series that got checked out but returned after just one chapter I’ve got L. J. Washburn: Fresh-baked Mysteries and Nancy J. Cohen: Bad Hair Day Mysteries. It’s been so long since I started this post and I’m finishing it that I can’t even pinpoint what it was about these two books that I didn’t like but it must have been enough to lose my attention fast. Unlike television or movies, books are the one thing I won’t finish if I’m not liking them. Too much time goes into reading vs just watching I suppose. Although, quite frankly, I must admit that I’m the type who has to like your characters and me not liking a book could be as simple as me not liking the person I’ll be spending the majority of the book reading about. I seem to recall this might have been the case for the Bad Hair Day Mysteries. From their description alone, I was looking forward to the series but I tried multiple times to get into that first one and could never do it.

by Susan McBride

Now I should have been able to relate perfectly to Andy Kendricks. I mean, I’m not a Dallas heiress and I don’t have a high society mother or a trust fund but I am a website designer and I hate mornings as much as Andy does. And, yet, there’s just something about these books that never worked for me. I kept reading them but, unlike most of the other books on this list, I did not read them in a row. If it took me a little longer to get a hold of the next book in the series, I didn’t get antsy and start searching for other means to acquire. I was perfectly happy to wait and read it when it was available. The series always felt like it should be funnier or snappier or something. While I can applaud Andy’s decision to date a “normal” guy and not the high society guys her mom keeps trying to hook her up with, I can’t say that it added any extra zing to the series itself. Overall, the books weren’t bad but they never left me wanting more. If only they were as fun or as interesting as their descriptions and book covers.

by Cleo Coyle

Ahhh, ok, this should probably be higher on the list of series I enjoyed this summer because I really did enjoy it as I was reading, but I never got excited about it. I think think this is because, while the mysteries were very well done, I never really felt overly connected to any of the characters. The books revolve around Clare Cosi who has returned to the job she loved, managing the historic Village Blend coffeehouse in New York’s Greenwich Village. On her first day back on the job, she finds her assistant unconscious in the back of the store and she’s determined to find out who did it when she disagrees with the police about it being an accident. From that point on in the series, Clare continues to find herself investigating the crimes that keep happening around her. This is complicated by the reappearance of her ex-husband in her life and her developing crush on Detective Mike Quinn.

Like I said, the mysteries here are really well done. And I give Cleo Coyle credit, she never bogs down the story with too much coffee talk. Even as someone who doesn’t care for coffee, I found the discussions about it (don’t worry, they don’t spend the book waxing poetic about coffee) interesting. Plus there are recipes included in the book for when you really want to try that dish they’ve made… and you will. Part of my problem connecting to these characters comes from the fact that their lifestyles were as different from mine as you can get. They live in the city, they’re all older than I am, they have kids, they love coffee, etc., etc. As much as I liked them on paper, I never really immersed myself in their lives because they were just so foreign to mine. This sounds like a funny thing to admit given how different the various characters in these books are but the other characters always had one or two traits that I could relate to and I just never found that in these books.

by Ellen Byerrum

I read all of the books in this series and, in fact, often preferred them over some of the books below them on the list. So it feels wrong to say I didn’t like them. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say there were some aspects of the books I never enjoyed but I liked enough I felt compelled to keep reading? Does that work? I liked Lacey Smithsonian with her quirky name and even quirkier fashion sense. There were times I wished the book came with illustrations or that it were a television series just so I could see the outfit Lacey was wearing. I also liked several of Lacey’s friends and co-workers. It was her love interest I never warmed to and still find hard to like. I know that shouldn’t overshadow the whole series but, at times, it did. I must also admit that these books never had quite as much humor or action in them as the other books I was reading did. I wanted to know more about Lacey but I was never fell in love with her like I did Maddie or the Abbys or Jane. There was just something slightly off about the books that kept me from liking them that much.

by Victoria Laurie

Look! Another Abby to add to my collection! This series is about psychic Abby Cooper and starts off with one of her clients dying not long after she warns her of something bad in her future. Abby couldn’t have known that her advice would have steered her client away from death but that doesn’t stop her for feeling somewhat responsible and wanting to help the police catch the killer. And though the police don’t quite know whether to believe her or not, including the lead investigator Dutch Rivers who likes Abby, they end up seeking out her help on other cases too. Now, I liked Abby and I liked Dutch and I liked the other characters we meet along the way. However, this series didn’t rate higher on my list because there times when I found the need to explain the psychic element bordered on tedious. Almost every mysteries series you read is going to re-explain things in every book. Publishers obviously want new readers to be able to pick up a book and not feel like they are missing pertinent information. I get that. What I dislike is when authors explain things exactly the same way every time or explain it multiple times in the same book. Abby often feels the need to try and make her gift easier for everyone to understand. It was cool the first time, to see how a psychic sees things (as I understand the author, Victoria Laurie, is a psychic as well) but it’s not necessary for us to understand every single time and often ended up feeling like a retread of the same information we already got. I found myself skimming sections of the book because of it and I’m guessing that wasn’t the intention. I’ll also say that the mysteries weren’t always that compelling either. If not for the characters making things interesting, it might have annoyed me more than it did.

by Laura Durham

I liked this series about wedding planner Annabella Archer and the murders that keep happening at her events. Laura Durham, the author, is an actual wedding planner herself and it’s obvious from the tiny details in these books. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as in your face as some other books I’ve read but you can tell in the creative ways the mysteries unfold. Annabelle is likable as are her close friends in the book, particularly Richard Gerard a caterer who sometimes works on Annabelle’s events. The mysteries in the books are not only fun but they provide a little glimpse into the competitive world of event planning that you don’t see in too many other books. There’s also another cute detective in these books although you’ll have to be very patient if you have hopes of seeing that develop. If I have one complaint about this series, it’s Laura Durham seems to have disappeared after the last book came out and I was quite disappointed to think that would be the last we’d ever hear of Annabelle Archer.

Killer Mousse (Della Cooks Mystery)
by Melinda Wells

I read this book because the author entered my Burn Notice giveaway on Ramblings and, in her entry email, talked about why she enjoys the show. I can’t remember if she specifically mentioned her book or if it was just in her signature block. Either way, her email intrigued me and I decided I’d give her book a shot. And I liked it. A lot. In the book, Della Carmichael has just landed a new cable cooking show on the Better Living channel. This doesn’t make Mimi Bond, whose show Della’s is replacing, very happy. So, when Mimi dies after taste testing Della’s very first on-air dish of mousse, Della and crime reporter Nicholas’ D’Marino are determined to solve the crime. Melinda Wells does a great job of setting up this cast of quirky characters that you want to get to know better and her twists and turns to the mystery will keep you turning pages right up until the very last one. A tend to judge a book by how well I can remember the characters after I’ve read several other books and Melinda’s characters passed the test admirably. I’ve read several other series, most of them with several books overall, and Della and her friends still stand out. I’m eager for the next book in this series.

by Nancy Bush

When I first started this post, I had only read the first book in this series. Now I’ve finished all three and I’m happy to say that I’ve bumped this series up the list a few notches. Perhaps an argument for never judging a series by just one book? (Don’t tell that to the last series on this list!) In the first book of the series, we met Jane Kelly. Jane followed her ex-boyfriend, Tim Murphy, to rural Lake Chinook, Oregon only to be dumped by him not long after. She’s just agreed to work for Dwayne Durbin, a private investigator. As luck would have it, her first case revolves around Tim’s best friend from high school and the very reason for their break-up. Like I said, the first book is kind of rocky. It doesn’t quite deliver on the promises it makes both with the cover art and the description. I was expecting Jane to be a little pluckier or the mystery to be a little meatier. Something. I expected something more. However, I liked Jane and wanted to see more of her friendship with Dwayne enough that I kept reading. The second book was everything I’d expected the first one to be and more. Once we out from under Jane’s past, everything got a lot more interesting. I just recently finished the third book and am already impatient for the fourth. In other words, I’m quite the Jane Kelly fan these days.

by Leann Sweeney

Yet another series that was made all that more enjoyable by having a strong protagonist at the center of it. Weirdly enough, she’s also an Abby. Although, I actually read the Yellow Rose Mysteries before I read the Flower Shop Mysteries and started a few other series in between them so it didn’t bother me as much as it could have. Abby Rose is, in a way, similar to Abby Knight in that she’s also a strong woman who has a tendency to stumble upon murder every time she turns around. In the first book, she’s recovering from her father’s death when their gardener is poisoned. Intrigued by the mystery surrounding him, Abby gets drawn into the search for his killer. Naturally she has the help of a cute detective from the Houston Police Department… although he may describe the situation a little differently. These books are another example of the perfect mix of humor and mystery and romance. The last couple of books in the series aren’t quite as strong as the first few but well worth the read if just to find out more about your favorite characters in the series. From Leann Sweeney’s recent posts and her talk of a new series, I suspect we’ve seen the last of the Yellow Rose Mysteries, if not for ever, at least for a little while. This jives with how the last book in this series reads. There wasn’t much further to take Abby without making the mistake other series do in just repeating a lot of what we’ve already read. Still, I’ll definitely be checking out what Leann does next. She’s got a fan in me.

by Kate Collins

My next favorite mystery series this summer was this seven book (with more to come, presumably) series. So much so that I couldn’t wait for my library to get the latest book in stock and, after failing to find it at any of my local bookstores, ordering it online. I’m so patient, aren’t I? In this series, Abby Knight has just moved home to run Bloomers Flower Shop after flunking out of law school. And, yet, everywhere she turns she runs into murder. Murder she can’t help herself from wanting to solve. Abby’s a recipe for disaster really. Hilarious disaster but disaster nonetheless. Luckily the bar next door is owned by the hunky Marco, an ex-cop turned PI, who is more than happy to help Abby out of the jams she seems to get into every time he turns around. These books… ahh, they just make me laugh. You can’t help but love Abby even though you want to shake your head every time she manages to get herself into another fix. Her family and the other characters will make you laugh out loud consistently and the light touch of romance was just enough to keep me wanting more throughout each of the mysteries I’ve read so far. A new book in this series came out at the end of the summer and I was chomping at the bit to get it in my hands. My bookstore didn’t have it the day it came out so I had to wait for Amazon it to me and I was going crazy waiting for it to arrive… huh, wasn’t this book reading quest supposed to be saving me money?