Author: Maria DiRico
Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496744623
Kensington Cozies
304 Pages
$8.99; $6.99 Amazon
March 26, 2024
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Mia Carina has steered her Italian-American family's Astoria, Queens, catering hall, Belle View Banquet Manor, into becoming the borough's premiere party site, and nothing could make her happier -- except her boyfriend proposing. There's just one presumed-dead obstacle in the way...
A strong, independent woman and respected entrepreneur, Mia never imagined she's pine for a marriage proposal. Yet lately, with her beloved Shane, she's on tenterhooks. It's especially surprising, considering Mia's first husband, Adam, was a philandering grifter, assumed lost-at-sea after a boating disaster. But everyone knows what happens when you assume...
While working a huge wedding expo in Manhattan, Mia is shocked to spot the man who nearly destroyed her life. The one who's supposed to be sleeping with the fishes. But she loses him in the crowd. And when it happens again the next day, it's time for an emergency meeting with the family -- and the Family. Because if Adam is alive, Mia is still married.
Everyone wants Adam dead. Everyone except Mia. She's dealt with enough police for a lifetime. Mia needs to be a divorcee, not a widow. But someone out there disagrees, and if Mia doesn't discover who, she may never be free to marry Shane -- or anyone else...
✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽
Mia Carina's family is going straight -- and the mob boss who owns the banquet hall where she works is proud of what she's been able to accomplish. When she and her friend Cammie go to the wedding expo to promote their business, Mia thinks she sees a familiar face -- that of her late husband, Adam Grosso, who is supposed to have died in an accident at sea. But if he's dead, how can she trust her eyes?
The next day she attends a baseball game with her fiancé Shane and sees Adam again. But he disappears just as quickly. Now she's called a meeting with both her family and the Family to try and find Adam. But she doesn't expect it when he shows up at her home late at night. He says he won't divorce her, and she wants to marry Shane. But not enough to kill Adam. Although there are others who would happily see him dead...
Then there's the problem of the House. Her grandmother had purchased the home across the street from hers as a wedding gift for Shane and Mia. Unfortunately, it's filled with memorabilia from the person who lately lived there -- a comic artist -- and he has followers who want it declared an historical site, so now Mia has that fight on her hands as well.
Between trying to run her business, save her new home, and try to find suspects in the latest murder, life is killing her. How could things have gone so wrong so fast? And how can she set them right in time to marry the love of her life...
This is the fifth book in the series and I have loved them all. I've become attached to the characters, even the quirky ones like Cammie and her long-suffering police detective ex-husband, Pete. Mia is sharp, independent, and takes care of her family as well as running the day-to-day operations of her business. Unfortunately, she wishes she didn't have to find her husband to get a divorce. It's kind of hard to get married when you're still married to your supposedly late husband.
Where has Adam been all this time, by the way? He feeds her one story and someone else another. And when she goes looking for clues, all it does is give her more questions, along with finding out just how low a snake she really married. She wants him out of her life, but not dead. If she can only convince the higher-ups of that...
But this book is a fun ride. Probably the best in the series so far. There's a lot going on, and not all of it surrounding Adam and his whereabouts. Enough action to keep you reading -- and I read this in one night; that's how good this book is. (Now I'm tired and barely functioning, but hey--).
When we discover the killer, it really does come as a surprise. And I loved it. But that's not the end of the story. There's more to come, and it's delightful. Please keep this series going, as it's one of my favorites, and it's so much fun to read. Murders included. (Plus, great recipes in the back). Highly recommended.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Maria DiRico's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/maria-dirico/
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