Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Strong main trio of characters; fun infused mystery
Cons: No cons RSVP’d for this book
The Bottom Line:
Wine country, murder
In this fast moving delight
Sure to entertain
Kelsey Finds Herself Wrapped Up in a Vine of Trouble
One of my favorite books from last year was Marla Cooper’s
debut mystery, so naturally, I was anxious to return to the world of
destination wedding planner Kelsey McKenna.
I’m pleased to announce that Dying on the Vine is another delightful book.
While Kelsey specializes in weddings at far flung locations,
she knows that not everyone can afford them, so she also does some weddings
closer to home, in the wine country of Napa, California. Still, she’s not planning to pick up any
clients when she heads to the Wine Country Wedding Faire since she’s there to
help friend and go to photographer Brody Marx at his booth. Still, she winds up taking on a couple who
need help with their wedding since they’ve had to switch wedding coordinators
just a few weeks before their big day.
Their former wedding coordinator was Babs Norton. While Babs is professional about her clients
switching to Kelsey, Babs’s assistant is much less so. Stefan Pierce is quick to accuse Kelsey of
poaching clients. However, the last thing
that Kelsey expects when she arrives at Babs’s office to pick up the couple’s
file is a dead body on the office floor.
With the police looking at her as a suspect, Kelsey figures it is only a
matter of time before the accusations start affecting her business even if she
isn’t behind bars. Can she find the
killer before her reputation is ruined?
While I don’t drink wine, I grew up in Sonoma County (next
door to Napa County), and it is always fun to return home via the pages of a
fictional book. There are so many
wineries up there it is easy to picture the settings where the various scenes
take place. As with the first book, I
could easily get lost in the setting.
Kelsey has an assistant, Laurel, who only appeared via a few
phone calls in the first book. She’s
around much more in this book, and I loved getting to know her much
better. Between Kelsey, Laurel, and
Brody, we have an awesome threesome.
These are great characters, and I loved spending time with them. We meet many suspects here, and they are as
well developed as the series leads.
Naturally, this means that it isn’t easy to pick out the
villain. I had fun sitting back and
watching Kelsey try to distinguish clue from red herring until she landed upon
the truth. Naturally, when she did
arrive at the truth, it was logical based on the clues she had found. And the climax was wonderful.
I can’t leave out the humor.
Kelsey, Laurel, and Brody share plenty of banter between them that had
me smiling if not laughing and underscores their friendships, an aspect of the
book I absolutely loved. Kelsey’s first
person narration adds some great humor and infuses the mystery with a sense of
fun that make the pages fly by all too quickly.
As I turned the final page of Dying on the Vine, I was sorry to be saying goodbye to Kelsey again,
and I’m already ready to attend her next mystery. Be sure to crash this wedding, I mean book,
for a delightful time.
NOTE: I received an eARC of this book.
Yay! I'm so glad to see you liked this one! I loved it too and this is probably my favorite new to me series this year. I'm glad to hear the first book is good too though sad that there's not as much of Laurel. I agree that the friendship between Kelsey, Laurel, and Brody was one of the best things about the book!
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