Two Hexes Are Better Than One: A Lesbian Cozy Mystery by Zoe Spell

⭐⭐⭐★

Review-lite

…because…

• This is nice, as in the not-too-exciting but inoffensive and unmemorable meaning of the descriptor: nice
• Has a very strong start i.e. good creating of the crime and the accused
• Plus: plenty of red herrings
• Minus: Inexplicable behaviours and unexplained events
• Plus: Waiting-to-grow attraction between MC Rowena and her high school crush, Noelle, that promises to become more interesting as the series continues
• Minus: Tension of solving a murder distinctly missing
• Plus: Interestingly developed characters: Rowena, Evelyn and Debbie (the most interesting of the three)
• Minus: Doesn’t grab interest and hold you there

⭐⭐⭐★

Original Sin (Joanna Mitchell Thrillers #3) by Barbara Winkes

⭐⭐⭐

Joanna Mitchell, one time detective, arrested for murder in the past but exonerated is on the verge of getting married to her girlfriend Rue. Before heading back home, Joanna wants to meet her mom, Mary, who’s left her as a young child and disappeared on the family never to be heard from again. Mary, the lead singer with a middling cover band seems to be happy and excited to meet her daughter but is evasive about giving any answers. Things take a weird turn when people around Mary start getting murdered.

This is a fast-paced, no nonsense, taut crime mystery which is part of a series but can be read as standalone though there are a lot of references to past events. The crime / mystery aspect are exclusive to this book but the previous books become important for the backstories of the leading ladies.

The lead characters, especially Rue and Mary, are extremely likeable. There are very well etched out secondary characters also. The big reveal is interesting and fairly convincing.

Basically a quick, involving read. 

⭐⭐⭐

Say Her Name by Stefani Deoul

⭐⭐⭐

We feel that YA novels usually are more layered and tackle many more subjects than the regular novels for not-so-young. There is also more idealism in the characters, which is always nice.

Sid Rubin, a nerd and coding-queen, has a group of five close friends – Imani, Jimmy, Ari, and Vikram. When Sid sets eyes on her Mystery Dream Girl (MDG), the group gets behind her effort to find the green-eyed beauty. MDG is Ava who turns out to be deaf. A determined Sid decides to learn sign language and Imani accompanies her for the classes. The ‘posse’ is with Sid every step of the way till Sid and Ava start dating – and Sid is unable to balance her romantic and friendship relationships. A snowball fight in Central Park which includes Sid, Ava, Sid’s friends and Ava’s bestie, Joe leads to Imani tumbling down and landing on a skeletal hand. Turns out to be eight skeletons literally chained together and the group sets out to find out who they were even as Ava leaves Sid and Sid struggles to get back her footing with her friends – especially with best friend, Imani.

Though the books starts off with the romance, the mystery and group dynamic is more the focus. However, Ava is an intriguing character. We’d love to know her better and so, so want a happy romance and life for her. Though Ava leaves Sid, we empathised with Ava more than with Sid. We found Ava completely justifiable and justified. The other character that we totally loved was Imani. (A side note: we are expected a romance between Imani and Sid soon.) And yes, the whole ‘posse’ of friends is also cool. We loved the writing style. YA novels tend to have youth-speak, created new words, lots of pop culture references, and in this case a huge amount of extra bits of interestingness thrown in because of Sid’s propensity for digressions which make them highly readable and entertaining. We loved Imani’s sentiment of returning respect to the unknown people they’ve literally stumbled upon (that’s the idealism we spoke about earlier).

This is a fast moving, very entertaining YA read.  

⭐⭐⭐

Body of Work by Charlotte Mills

⭐☆

Given that we’d thoroughly enjoyed Mills’ Payback, we wanted to like this one. Like really, really wanted to. But alas! That was not to be.

Noa Stevens is a London-based artist struggling to cope with the loss of her wife, Kim. Plus she has not yet dealt with her brother’s disappearance thirty years ago. Her agent, Marcus Greenly is supportive but now finally pushing her because she has an upcoming show looming and there are no paintings from her because she’s not produced any new work in the past four years. As an intervention, Marcus takes her to a place in Woodbridge, Suffolk, to get back her groove. What Marcus doesn’t share with Noa is that there are mildly disturbing messages addressed to her referencing her brother that he has been receiving. Paige Clarke, a district nurse, was unceremoniously dumped by her partner, Cass. Leaving just a note for Paige to find, Cass had driven away with their son, Isaac, towards Isaac’s sperm donor, but an accident killed both, Cass and Isaac. When Paige meets Noa, she is drawn to the socially awkward (to the point of rude) almost-recluse and makes an effort to bond with Noa despite Noa. While the two women are building a relationship, the notes to Noa continue and at the opening of her show, one of the notes finds its way to Noa, completely derailing her.

The prologue was exciting setting stage for something exciting. But that was about it. The mystery aspect and the whole build-up with the notes was a complete fail. Noa is neither likeable nor someone we could understand or empathise with. We totally failed to see her appeal to Paige, who wasn’t half-bad. Noa never really committed to her relationship with Paige which was evident in all her actions particularly towards the end. Paige surely deserved better. This one fails on every count including as a romance and as a mystery.

You can safely skip this book altogether.

⭐☆