Monday, June 1, 2020

Muffin to Fear (A Merry Muffin Mystery #5)

Author:  Victoria Hamilton
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; [Audio CD]; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425282595; [9781515914174]
Berkley Publishing; [Tantor Audio]
304 Pages
$7.99; [$39.99}; $6.99 Amazon
July 25, 2017

⭐⭐


While Merry is distracted by her quickly planned marriage to Virgil Grace and a blissful honeymoon in New York, her friend Pish invites the ghost-hunting crew from the TV show Haunt Hunt to investigate Merry's home, Wynter Castle.  Merry soon discovers that not only is the crew out of sync, there are so many feuds and squabbles, it's a miracle they get a show produced at all.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

I was disappointed in the way this book ended.  It made me feel like I wasted my time reading any of the series in the first place.

Following is a major spoiler, so please don't read any of it if you've planned on reading this book at all:

Throughout the entire series Merry has been running a muffin business and trying to decide what to do with her castle - first she wants to sell it, then they wants to find a way to keep it.  So of course, we're thinking she'll figure out something, maybe renting to people and actually hiring a manager to run the place, or turn it into a B&B, etc.; but noooo...she, of course, marries Virgil (no spoiler there, it's in the beginning of the book), so now she has someone to help her run it.  But instead she decides to use the castle for a winter home for a symphony orchestra!  Then, she buys a dilapidated house and moves it onto her property and decides to live there instead.  I like music as much as anyone, but who wants to listen to a bunch of musicians practicing all winter?  Also, why didn't she ever make Becket an indoor cat?  If she knows there are coyotes, that's just irresponsible.  (There's no reason at all for him to have been an outdoor cat.  Changing a litter box isn't that difficult).  I don't even know why the author brought in Becket; through the entire series he wasn't a major presence, more of a means to bring in readers who liked cats - a convenience to the story line occasionally.  Anyway, the ending felt like a cop-out to me.  Honestly, if there were any indications it would have ended this way, I never would have read the series at all.  I don't care if others don't agree; I really disliked it.

I also felt that if the author was even going to hint at the castle being haunted, it would have made the series so much more interesting if it was done from the first book.  Sorry, but it just wasn't that good and I don't know whether I'll continue with this series or not. 

https://www.amazon.com/Muffin-Fear-Merry-Mystery/dp/0425282597/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2438006102

More on Victoria Hamilton's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/victoria-hamilton/

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