Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780451239501
Berkley Publishing
320 Pages
$7.99l; $2.99 Amazon
January 4, 2014
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Izzy's own beloved pets are dressed to the nines for the grand opening of Trendy Tails. Feisty feline Jinx is large and in charge, and happy mutt Packer is lapping up the attention. Izzy and her best friend, Rena, have their hands full meeting Merryville's menagerie and serving tasty pupcakes and kitty canapés from their "barkery." The last thing they need is Sherry Harper, the town's local activist, scaring off customers and getting tongues wagging by picketing the event.
The two manage to stop Sherry's protest in its tracks, but the trouble for Trendy Tails is just beginning. Sherry is found murdered in the back of the shop, and Rena is immediately named as the lead suspect. Now Izzy and her furry friends have a new pet project - collaring a killer.
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When Izzy McHale's life falls apart because her doctor boyfriend decides to hightail it out of town with another woman, she decides to open a pet clothing store and 'barkery' with her friend Rena Hamilton, and she thinks everything is going to be fine. But she doesn't count on Sherry Harper, trust fund baby and local activist, who thinks it's cruel to dress up pets, picketing on opening night.
When there is a set-to outside her store during the opening, she finds Sherry and her ex-boyfriend Nick in the middle of a heated argument. After Rena successfully ends the fiasco, the party continues. Later in the night when Izzy is taking out the trash she sees something near the dumpster...which turns out to be Sherry, quite dead indeed.
When Rena is suspected of the crime, Izzy realizes her best friend couldn't possibly be guilty and since she thinks the police aren't even looking for anyone else she opts to find the killer herself rather than see her friend jailed for something she didn't do...
Well, this book started out interesting enough with a conversation between Sherry and Izzy. But the more I read, the more it seemed rather silly. A store dedicated to dressing up your dogs and cats? Honestly, I own cats (and have owned dogs) and I can't imagine trying to put clothing of any kind on my cats. Just trying would have me paying for it for months, if you know what I mean.
And to tell the truth, I've never really liked the idea of people clothing their dogs. They're pets, for goodness' sake, not people. While you think they may love being dressed up, they're dogs. They only know they're getting attention, and are probably wondering what you're doing to them. It's rather silly to see a dog in a tutu and makes me wonder about the person who did it - but enough about that...
Anyway, it is the first in a series and that always makes me want to give a book a chance, because you never know what you might find. Sadly, it wasn't much. Why did she decide to design for pets? Especially in a small town? She trained to be a clothing designer, and she could just as well have made clothing for people, even in said small town. If the designs were nice enough, she could have started small and worked her way into a high-end boutique. This would have made the series much more interesting.
Anyone who's read any of my reviews knows I'm a stickler for details, so to that end, this is where the book lost me: early on in the book we are told (as I've mentioned) that Sherry is a trust fund baby. Then later on - and this isn't much of a spoiler since it also occurs fairly early in the book - Rena tells Izzy how during a protest in Minneapolis Sherry hid a can of spray paint (she had used to deface a building) in Rena's backpack to hide it. Rena then goes on to say that she got arrested for it and didn't have bail money, so spent three weeks in jail and had to sell plasma to pay for a bus ticket home. (Not to mention that's a lot of plasma; I don't think they pay that much for it). Hmm...Sherry was the reason she went to jail in the first place, and knew it. Again - Trust Fund Baby. So why didn't she pony up the bail money for Rena? Why didn't she pay for the ticket home? Rena just took the rap and didn't even do anything about it? Really? We’re supposed to buy this? Rena is either the stupidest person in the world or the author thinks her audience is if they don't even question this.
Anyone knows that the incident in Minneapolis wouldn't have come to light as it was previous and had no bearing on the case. She killed her because of three weeks in jail years ago? Not plausible; so why it was even considered is beyond me.
Unfortunately, once a book loses me it's very hard to take anything else in it seriously, so I won't be reading any more of this series.
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