Dixie Divas by Virginia Brown

Rating 2 out of 5
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 483 KB
Print Length: 316 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0982175655
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books (December 31, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004HO5M44

"You found my philandering ex-husband?" Bitty asked. "Where? Mexico? Paris? In Tupelo with a cocktail waitress?" "In your closet," I answered. "Dead." 

Break out the hoop skirts and the zinfandel. The Divas are on the case. Wine. Chocolate. Transvestite strippers. Just another good-time get-together for the Dixie Divas of historic Holly Springs, Mississippi, where moonlight and magnolias mingle with delicious small town scandal. But Eureka "Trinket" Truevine, the newest Diva, gets more than she bargained for when she finds her best Diva girlfriend Bitty Hollandale's ex-husband in Bitty's hall closet. He's dead. Very dead. Now Trinket and the Divas have to help Bitty finger the murderer and clear her name.

Sounds good right? It certainly got my attention and I thought this could be fun. However I really struggled with this book. As you know I don't really like giving bad reviews, so I decided to use the good old lol cats style of reviewing to help make it easier.

One plus was the book was short. Thank goodness. Otherwise I would have given up. I nearly did, I seriously considered putting it down just-after-the-next-page. Why did I still persist? I have no idea. I gave this book so much leeway when normally wouldn't. The second half of the book was better, and I think that is why I stayed (in the end, well I tell myself that) but seriously it took half of the book for me to even get into it. I skipped most of the first half, and skimmed a big chunk of the bits I didn't skip.

I didn't get the characters. The ladies were supposed to be in the fifties but honestly I thought they were written to be in their eighties. Now I have knowledge of the "South" of America and how ladies were raised in the 1950's, but I know plenty of fifty year olds and they act nothing like these ladies. To be honest it irked me....a lot.

The only characters I liked were Bitty and Trinket's parents.  The main character Trinket bored me, and I didn't care what happened to her really. I would have preferred the book have been told from Bitty's point of view, as she was hilarious (and I don't think it was just because Trinket was so boring that anyone would look freaking awesome).

So this review is short and sweet. I just couldn't get into it or really enjoy it. However it has gotten plenty of good reviews elsewhere so maybe it was just me.

On a weird side note while searching for lol cat pictures to put in this post, my google image searches were turning up the most bizarre things. The kind of things eyes (innocent or otherwise) should not be seeing. Google must have been on the good stuff when I was doing my searches that's all I can say.

Ghouls Just Haunt To Have Fun (Book 3 Ghost Hunter Mystery Series) by Victoria Laurie

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Signet; Reprint edition (March 3, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451226305
ISBN-13: 978-0451226303

First Sentence: "Here's some free advice: Never go into business with your best friend."

Ghost hunter M.J Halliday returns for another mad cap adventure. In this installment she and Gilly travel to San Fransisco to star in a new tv show. Everything is going well until the knife appeears. Then all hell breaks loose with a demon on the rampage. Now M.J must defeat the demon and send it back to hell where it came from.

This is a wonderful light hearted series. You will find yourself chuckling at the antics of Gilly and MJ. Most of the humour comes from MJ and Gilly themselves. A few of the scenes had me chuckling. I particularly loved the scene after they encountered the demon and were covering up their encounter with the hotel manager.

I enjoyed the introduction of Heath and Detective MacDonald. Heath compliments MJ very well and they make a good team. Detective MacDonald makes a refreshing change, being open to what MJ does and how she works. Most of the time she encouters skeptics, but MacDonald lets MJ go with it and assist with the investigation.

The series I think is going in an interesting direction that will set it apart from other paranormal detective series. The introduction of the tv show and twist on the whole paranormal tv series is an interesting one. It could either work really well with the series or not work at all. Only time will tell. For this book it worked well.

I had read three post apoclyptic books in a row and while they were good I need something fun and light to read for something different. This book is it. A delightful, fun series that should not be taken seriously. You can knock it over quickly but thats the point, its not supposed to be taxing just silly brain candy fun.

Dog On It: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn

Rating 4 out of 5

Opening sentence: "I could smell him - or rather the booze on his breath - before he even opened the door, but my sense of smell is pretty good, probably better than yours."

Dog on it is a delightful and humourous animal detective story. This is the story of Chet the mix breed mutt whose human is Bernie the down and out PI. In their first adventure, Chet and Bernie are hired to investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl.

The story is revealed from the point of view of Chet. Anything that happened to Chet the reader knew about it for instance if Chet fell asleep, you don’t get to know what is happening, if Chet finds a particularly tasty looking chip under a piece of furniture the reader gets to know about the chip. While this may seem a random way of telling the story it works well and the author did a great job of not losing the reader. The gaps are filled in from Bernie who like most pet owners talks freely with his canine buddy about what is going on.

There is great humour in this book. I definitely had some “laugh out loud and dislodge the sleeping cat from tummy” moments (would that be LOLDSCFT?). I’m convinced that Chet has Labrador or some sort of scent dog in him as he acted exactly like every Labrador or Beagle I’ve ever known.

" 'Let’s begin by asking one simple question. Of everyone we’ve met on this whole case, from the moment Cynthia Chambliss came driving up the street, who’s the least trust worthy?'

Hey Anylizing turned out to be a snap. The answer to the least trustworthy question was obviously Cap’n Crunch; one glimpse of his tiny wicked little eyes and you knew that.”

Needles to say I loved Chet he was a great character and extremely dog like. He was random and funny; his dog perspective absolutely hilarious at times. Bernie was a fun character if a little sad. His horrible wife has left him taking their child and nearly every penny Bernie owns. He isn’t very good finances wise and has a big soft heart. Not all bad things but not great for running a business.

The best part is that Chet does not seem to have supernatural abilities, human intelligence, or a weird psychic connection with his owner who can understand dog bark. He is no Lassi or Benji. Chet is a dog, and acts like a dog. He doesn’t always understand what his owner is saying and likewise Bernie does not understand always when Chet tries to tell him something. I liked this as it is a fresh way of telling the animal PI story.

This is a delightful light read that will easily win you over. If you like cozies, PI detective stories and animal detective stories you will probably like this.

Extra Stuff
If you would like to read an extract Ullen & Unwin have a copy here.
Chet also has his own blog you can find here.

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