96) Still Life in Brunswick Stew by Larissa Reinhart

The Blurb :

Cherry Tucker’s in a stew. Art commissions dried up after her nemesis became president of the County Arts Council. Desperate and broke, Cherry and her friend, Eloise, spend a sultry summer weekend hawking their art at the Sidewinder Annual Brunswick Stew Cook-Off.

When a bad case of food poisoning breaks out and Eloise dies, the police brush off her death as accidental. However, Cherry suspects someone spiked the stew and killed her friend. As Cherry calls on cook-off competitors, bitter rivals, and crooked judges, the police get steamed while the killer prepares to cook Cherry’s goose.

My Thoughts :

This is the second book in the Cherry Tucker Mystery series but the fourth book I have read.  You see I read the third and fourth books first and then went back to the first two.  A silly thing to do but sometimes review books are offered/look very good and you don't know or are not informed that the book is not the first in the series.  I have fallen into this trap way too often!

Anyway, I am finally up to date with the series and even though I read these in the wrong order I don't think it made a huge difference.  To be utterly honest I had forgotten the details of the on-going story despite remembering the mysteries.  So there wasn't much for me to get confused about.  I knew who all the characters were and felt very at home with the location and general feel of the series.

This installment came across as slow.  I am not sure if the narrator was purposely slow but I felt she  could have sped up a little.  It all felt very drawn out and it was frustrating and off putting at times.  The mystery was also a little slow but then again I thought it was pretty obvious right from the beginning what had happened.  The when the details came out about the various suspects I also thought it was obvious who had committed the crime.

Cherry came across as slightly annoying in this book in regards to her art work.  I really just wished she would just get her painting done and stop using the excuse of not having a model.  I admit I am not an artist and know nothing of their process but to me it came across as procrastination.  

Still Life in Brunswick Stew was a nice mystery but a poor audio book.  I don't think I would have ever gotten around to getting up to date with this series unless doing so via audio so I am not saying it was the worst but I definitely wouldn't recommend listening to the books.  I think reading them is more fun.  And this series is certainly fun and quirky.

69) Portrait of a Dead Guy by Larissa Reinhart

The Blurb :

In Halo, Georgia, folks know Cherry Tucker as big in mouth, small in stature, and able to sketch a portrait faster than buckshot rips from a ten gauge -- but commissions are scarce. So when the well-heeled Branson family wants to memorialize their murdered son in a coffin portrait, Cherry scrambles to win their patronage from her small town rival.

As the clock ticks toward the deadline, Cherry faces more trouble than just a controversial subject. Between ex-boyfriends, her flaky family, an illegal gambling ring, and outwitting a killer on a spree, Cherry finds herself painted into a corner she’ll be lucky to survive.

My Thoughts :

Somehow I managed to read the third and fourth books in this series and now I am listening to the first and second books in the series so I can cross the series off my list.  I have no idea if there will be a fifth book but I enjoyed the others and wanted to see how things all began.

The audio version was nicely read.  I loved the accent of the narrator and her voice fit Cherry's attitude and personality even if she did sound a little bored now and again.  I have to admit that if I kept putting the book on my to be read pile I most likely wouldn't have go to it any time this decade but the audio version was a blessing and also very cheap.

As mysteries go this wasn't a bad one.  As a debut in the series it was great.  I had to keep reminding myself that this was the first book and that my previous experience with this author/series was more mature. There were parts of the story that made my mind wander and there were others that stood out and got my attention.  Funny, sad and sometimes crazy this was a Stephanie Plum kind of experience without the car explosions.

I already have the second book ready to listen to and hope to get to it soon.  This is a nice series and despite there being some artistic tangents and lots of references to that thing in Vegas, I like this quirky bunch of people and the town.

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60) Death in Perspective by Larissa Reinhart

The Blurb :

In Halo, Georgia, folks know Cherry Tucker as big in mouth, small in stature, and able to sketch a portrait faster than buckshot rips from a ten gauge -- but commissions are scarce. So when the well-heeled Branson family wants to memorialize their murdered son in a coffin portrait, Cherry scrambles to win their patronage from her small town rival.

As the clock ticks toward the deadline, Cherry faces more trouble than just a controversial subject. Between ex-boyfriends, her flaky family, an illegal gambling ring, and outwitting a killer on a spree, Cherry finds herself painted into a corner she’ll be lucky to survive.

My Thoughts :

The Cherry Tucker Mystery series was one I found by accident and so far I have read book #3 and now #4.  I planned on reading the first two in the series before this fourth installment but with Death in Perspective releasing this month, well I just didn't have time.

I enjoyed the third book and was looking forward to this next adventure.  Cherry was a fun character who reminded me a little of Stephanie Plum but with more luck and gossip and less explosions.  It didn't take me long to remember who Cherry was and what her situation was but it did take me a while to get used to her again.  This book had a slightly different feel to it.  I can't put my finger on it and it wasn't anything bad but things seemed more romantic and dangerous this time around.

Plot wise this was a good one and once things got going I was very interested in finding out who the bad guy or girl was.  However I did get a little confused along the way because so many characters were involved.  It wasn't easy keeping them all in their place and remembering what connection they had with the mystery.  I managed to follow everything well enough that I was rewarded with a nice clean wrapped up story.  An interesting and clever one at that.

If you are a cozy mystery lover then this is one you may want to try.  It certainly has a certain something and the on-going love triangle/relationship woes etc are a nice background story to follow.  As I mentioned, I haven't read the first two books yet but I don't think it really mattered much.  The author mentions the needed information to keep the reader up to date and I don't feel like I missed anything important.

I am looking forward to visiting this series again.  I am definitely going to go and read the previous books and will be keeping my eyes open for a fifth adventure.  I am quite interested in what happens to Cherry Tucker!

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Contest Reminder

My guest author a couple of weeks ago was cozy mystery writer Larissa Reinhart.  Her third book in the Cherry Tucker series is out now and I was lucky enough to get a copy!

Check out my review!

Did you read the excerpt and enter the contest? 

You could win a gift voucher!  So make sure you go and add your entries to the Rafflecopter giveaway!  You still have loads of time left to enter but if you do it now you won't forget!

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Humor, Hijackings and a Handful of Hunks . . . 

With a classical series sold and a portrait commissioned, Cherry Tucker’s art career is in Georgia overdrive. But when the sheriff asks Cherry to draw a composite sketch of a hijacker, her life takes a hairpin as the composite leads to a related murder, her local card-sharking buddy Max Avtaikin becomes bear bait and her nemesis labels the classical series “pervert art.”

Cherry’s jamming gears between trailer parks, Atlanta mansions, and trucker bars searching for the hijacker who left a widow and orphan destitute. While she seeks to help the misfortunate and save her local reputation, Cherry’s hammer down attitude has her facing the headlights of an oncoming killer.

Contest Reminder

My latest author guest was cozy mystery writer Larissa Reinhart.  Her third book in the Cherry Tucker series is out now and I was lucky enough to get a copy!  Check out my review!

Did you read the excerpt and enter the contest? 

You could win a gift voucher!  So make sure you go and add your entries to the Rafflecopter giveaway!  You still have loads of time left to enter but if you do it now you won't forget!

----------------------------

Humor, Hijackings and a Handful of Hunks . . . 

With a classical series sold and a portrait commissioned, Cherry Tucker’s art career is in Georgia overdrive. But when the sheriff asks Cherry to draw a composite sketch of a hijacker, her life takes a hairpin as the composite leads to a related murder, her local card-sharking buddy Max Avtaikin becomes bear bait and her nemesis labels the classical series “pervert art.”

Cherry’s jamming gears between trailer parks, Atlanta mansions, and trucker bars searching for the hijacker who left a widow and orphan destitute. While she seeks to help the misfortunate and save her local reputation, Cherry’s hammer down attitude has her facing the headlights of an oncoming killer.

15) Hijack in Abstract by Larissa Reinhart

The Blurb :

With a classical series sold and a portrait commissioned, Cherry Tucker’s art career is in Georgia overdrive. But when the sheriff asks Cherry to draw a composite sketch of a hijacker, her life takes a hairpin as the composite leads to a related murder, her local card-sharking buddy Max Avtaikin becomes bear bait and her nemesis labels the classical series “pervert art.”

Cherry’s jamming gears between trailer parks, Atlanta mansions, and trucker bars searching for the hijacker who left a widow and orphan destitute. While she seeks to help the misfortunate and save her local reputation, Cherry’s hammer down attitude has her facing the headlights of an oncoming killer.

My Thoughts :

A copy of this book was given to me by Buy the Book Tours when the author was a guest on my blog.  I try not to take on too many review books lately because I just don't have the time to read them all but this one sounded interesting and I do love a good cozy mystery.  When I finally got around to reading this one I noticed it wasn't, as I thought, the first in the series.  This put me off a little but the excerpt I had already read made me want to give this one a chance even if I had missed out on the first two books.

I instantly liked Cherry and she reminded me a little of Stephanie Plum but slightly tamer.  The mystery was interesting and well written but it was the wit and quirky background story that kept me reading. Cherry was trying to solve a murder while having a full house, trying to keep her ex-boyfriends under control, do her job and also stop a smear campaign against her not so good name.  There were a few other things going on too and it made for fun reading while Cherry tried to figure out who the bad guy really was.

This was a nice cozy mystery and I will be adding books one and two to my wishlist.  I am sure some of the surprises have been ruined for me by not starting at the beginning but I really want to see how things started and find out more about the whole situation that has developed up until this third installment.  Also I found Cherry to be such a cool character that I want to have some more adventures with her.

If you are interested in finding out more about this book, series and/or author then make sure you check out the guest post Larissa wrote for Amberkatze's Book Blog and also make sure you enter the giveaway.  It is open for another 25 days while she completes her book tour.  So don't miss out on the chance to win a gift voucher!



 

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