Opening up new vistas. - I was contacted by a marketing company and asked if I would like to review Janice A. Thompson's book, Gone with the Groom (The Bridal Mayhem Series #2) (A Heartsong Cozy Mystery). The publisher is Barbour.
I said yes because I like mysteries, I like Christians novels, and it sounded like it would be an interesting read.
I'm not being paid for the this review. The book was given to me.
That said lets get to my short review.
Gone with the Groom is what many in the industry and what I would refer to as "Chick Lit." You're first clue would be that this is book two in "The Bridal Mayhem Series". You're second clue would be that it is a "A Heartsong Cozy Mystery".
From this we can deduce that it is not a dark mystery in the sense that there will be car chases, murders, and daggers with notes stuck menacingly in the heroine's door.
My friends who know me, are well aware that I'm not a big fan of chick lit, in fact one of my best friends laughed when she saw me reading it. Sigh... oh how I had to live that down ;-)
My excuse of course could have gone something like, I was broadening my reading material and that I was checking out the competition. But I think I simply said I was reviewing it. She still laughs whenever she asks if I finished the book.
On that note, it took me a while to get into this book. Though Thompson begins right away with the missing groom, the story meandered and never really pressed in upon me that it was a dire situation. Actually, that may be the reason that the characters, primarily the mystery solving heroine, Annie Peterson, never seemed to me certain that any foul play was involved during the first part of the book despite enough evidence to the contrary. The plot is that Annie's soon to be Son-in-Law has gone missing in the weeks leading up to the wedding to her daughter. Annie must find him. Though it's not till half way or more into the book that Annie finally decides he's missing under foul play and not cold feet.
This sometimes left me feeling rather frustrated with the heroine and her off again/on again approach to crime solving.
Another thing that bothered me in the beginning chapters was the use of hyphenating words to comically stress a point. It just annoyed me, but this may be a personal opinion. Here's an example:
I thought for a few seconds there that my daughter had been shopping at the Don't-Bring-This-Boy-Home-to-Mama Store of Potential Boyfriends.
I don't mind these kind of constructions when used sparingly, but enough of them appeared early on to annoy my reading. Plus the mere length of such a construct is troubling to my reading mind. Thankfully, the hyphenating seemed to disappear soon enough into the book for me.
Those negatives aside, this is an easy book to read, fitting the "Cozy" reading motif. It is light reading. A little over half way into the book it started to grab my attention and hold me to the end. Admittedly, part of the problem here is probably my male mind, it is after all a book marketed towards women. :-)
Thompson portrays a Christian mother and father getting ready to marry off both their adult daughters. So the mother, the main character and sleuth, Annie Peterson, is dealing with the ideas of getting older and becoming an empty nester. I did enjoy the relationship that Thompson conveys between her and her husband and her soon to be In-Laws.
The writing is good, though there was some use of cliches (an admitted pet peeve of mine). The plot behind why the groom went missing was pretty solid. Thompson certainly has the ability to plot out some intriguing criminal possibilities and I expect that as she continues in the challenging craft of writing that she will mature and show greater ability at translating those plots into good stories.
Also, I love the cover design for this book. It fits well with the story.
Giving my rating of Coffee Cups, 5 being the best and 1 the worst, Gone with the Groom , earns 2.5 Coffee Cups out of 5.
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