Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781643852881
Crooked Lane Books
$26.99; $12.99 Amazon
February 11, 2020
⭐⭐
Callie Aspen can't think of a more appropriate place to spend Valentine's Day than her adopted hometown of Heart's Harbor, Maine. When she's not helping out at Book Tea, her great-aunt Iphy's vintage tearoom, Callie's adorning Haywood Hall with hearts and roses for the big Valentine's event, where townspeople will fall in love with sweet treats, heartwarming music, and delightful books. But tension is brewing: The librarian argues with the expert who is on hand to appraise precious volumes. And Iphy is shocked to recognize the baritone who's slated to sing at the event as an old acquaintance - one she'd hoped she'd never meet again. And then, when a dead body is discovered, the stirring spoon of suspicion points at the many people who has reasons to want the victim dead.
When Iphy's old acquaintance draws the attention of Deputy Ace Falk, Callie finds herself in a spot. Ace, as usual, doesn't want Callie involved, but how can she ignore Iphy's anguish over the fate of a man she cares for more than she will admit? Bringing the killer to justice may endanger Callie's budding relationship with Ace - and, quite possibly, her own life.
Callie and the Book Tea crew may think they have this case in the bag, but un-kettling truths are yet to be decanted.
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Callie Aspen is looking forward to the Valentine's Day event that is being held at Haywood Hall, an historical mansion in Heart's Harbor, Maine. Everything is going well and she's excited about the way it's turned out. However, it seems that the town's librarian, Miss Forrester, has persuaded a television antiques appraiser to appraise books at the event, and he seems pretentious to her.
Then, the baritone who was scheduled to appear has been replaced by another man - Sean Strong - and her Aunt Iphy seems shaken by this fact, but won't tell her why. Everything else seems to be going along swimmingly, until the librarian's assistant comes to her and asks her to call the police, stating as how the appraiser is dead. What Callie doesn't know is that Mr. Strong and her aunt have a history, Deputy Falk's sister is having issues of her own, and now it's all beginning to cause problems for Callie herself. Will she be able to find the truth or will her questions put herself or someone else in danger from a killer?...
I was looking forward to reading this third book in the series, but I'm left wondering exactly what was going through the author's mind when she wrote it. The reason I state that is the fact that this book is nothing like the first two in the series, and it seems as if an attempt is being made to create an entirely new series after only two others have been written. Why, you ask?
However, I have hidden the entire thing in a spoiler due to the fact that not only has this book not as yet been published, but there are people who probably have not read the first two in the series and so will have not noticed the changes. I have, and I did. Please be aware that this spoiler not only contains major plot points, but major points regarding the ending (although not of the murderer or the reason why the victim was killed. So please do not read unless you don't mind the ending exposed.
First, there are the little things (which really don't need to be in a spoiler, but I added them anyway: For the people who had their books appraised - in this day and age it's so easy to get to a computer (and I'm sure local libraries have them even if you don't), why didn't any of these people check beforehand to get an idea of what their books were worth? Even if they didn't exactly know for sure, they would have gotten a rough estimate. Sorry, but they deserve to be cheated. NEVER would I sell a book without checking its worth online. Plus, anyone who worries about what other people will think really are morons.
The police hear from several people that they were cheated out of their books and they just shrug their shoulders and say, 'Oh, well, not our problem?' They don't look into it to see if they're telling the truth or what kind of history this guy might have had? I'm sorry, but if there was a con man out there with the history this guy had, the FBI would have been all over it. Is the author attempting to make police officers look inept? Chances are the police would have already been following everything he'd been doing and would welcome these people to give their stories so they could catch him.
Ace is a complete ass in this book, but maybe he was meant to be so we'd be glad to get rid of him. In the first two books, he was nice, and was obviously attracted to Callie and it didn't make him crazy that she was doing her own 'side investigating' because well, that's the way she's wired and who wants to change someone, anyway? Why would Ace believe the worst of Callie without listening to her side of the story regarding Peggy instead of jumping to conclusions? Why didn't Peggy tell him the truth instead of allowing him to treat Callie that way? Well, thanks a lot. You invest two books in teasing us about the relationship between Callie and Ace, but then Ace, who's supposedly an intelligent police officer, now all of a sudden decides he "can't handle" the fact that his girlfriend reluctantly involves herself in the investigations? What kind of wimp is he? Has he no emotional intelligence at all? He also doesn't know if he can handle everything thrown at him because the sheriff has been ill? Seriously? He needs to retire from the force right now...and Callie needs to find herself a real man. Ace needs to disappear altogether (which the author seems to want him to do, anyway) and bring in a man who can handle whatever the world throws at him and doesn't resent a woman for being who she is. Who wants a police officer boyfriend who has a meltdown if he has an 'emotional crisis?' He may as well put on a dress right now.
Then, what the hell is up with Peggy? She practically chased Quinn in the last book, almost begging Callie to talk to Ace and keep Quinn from leaving town and didn't want him to go.
Now she's trying to convince us that she only wants 'friendship?' What. A. Crock. She suddenly decides she doesn't want to get involved after she's already sort of involved with him and introduced her kids to him - and even left her kids with him while she ran off somewhere? What kind of mother is she, anyway? Allows her kids to get close and then decides to change her mind? Then she decides to get a job out of town to get away from the man she wanted to be around in the last book? We're supposed to buy this stuff?
To top it off, what's wrong with Iphy? She spends her life building her business and just walks away without a care in the world to run off with an old boyfriend for three months. She doesn't even ask Callie if she wants to stay and run the tearoom. How is Callie supposed to order supplies and pay bills? And since Iphy was the one who was doing the cooking and baking all of the pastries, what is Callie going to serve? One can only assume that the tearoom will close shortly and Iphy will have lost everything, since there is no alternate baker in place, Callie more than likely isn't on Iphy's bank account or supplier list, etc. Little things like this add up.
I didn't like the ending at all. Why? Well, here's a recap: Iphy runs off and her business more than likely will shut down due to just leaving and not having a contingency plan in place. Peggy runs off and leaves after letting everyone know that she wanted Quinn in her life. Ace runs off and leaves when he decides (after two books) that he can't handle his job and can't handle the fact that Callie is who she is. Why didn't the author just put Callie back on the road again as a tour guide if she was going to eliminate the other major characters in the series? What's next? Callie and Quinn fall in love and decide they were meant for each other all along? Because they're really the only two people left in the book that matter at all. You can't write two books establishing characters and relationships and then just get rid of everyone except Callie in the third book and expect people to be pleased (I seriously have no idea how it got any five star ratings unless those people didn't read the first two books.)
Needless to say, this book completely disappointed me. The ending was bizarre for the reasons I've named above. If this is the way the series is going to go, then I won't be reading any more of these.
Having enjoyed the first two in the series, I really wanted to like this book. However, with the way it was, this was not possible. Sorry.
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