Title: The Devil Drinks Coffee (Kate Saxee Mystery #1)
Pages: 358
Source: Book Nerd Tours (Check all the stops on the tour here)
Rating: cute and fun
Kate Saxee returns to her small town of Branson, Utah to work for the tiny newspaper in town. When a teenagers body shows up in the lake, the police rule it an accidental drowning but a hunky and mysterious Hawke makes Kate see that there might be more to the story. With the addition of the town's most elegible bachelor, Dylan Drake, the three of them try to solve the mystery. In a place this small, everything is seen by everyone. Rumors start flying that she is sleeping with not only those two but also her boss at the paper.
It used to be that "cozy" mysteries made up most of my book reading time. I loved reading a light story with fun characters and good mystery. These days I don't read many but this book's summary caught my eye. I'm really glad that I took a chance because it was super cute and fun.
It's very much like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. Stephanie has the completely hot Ranger and Morelli fighting over her and you're not exactly sure why. Kate has Hawke and Drake fighting over her and you aren't exactly sure why. Instead of a hilarious Grandma like in the Plum series, you have Kate's mom getting into all kinds of trouble...burning up a field and killing a cow, among other things.
The characters are fun and the book is enjoyable. Most of the action takes place in the final few pages. The sexual tension between Kate and Hawke and Kate and Drake was good. The mystery was decent and the whodoneit was believable. The biggest thing that took away from it for me was how bad of an investigator Kate was. It took her tons of time to find even the smallest of clues and it was hard to swallow that the police would rule a teenager's death an accidental drowning that quickly. The constant lists of sins that the Mormon church held tended to grate on my nerves a bit. Saying it once got a chuckle but the whole way through was a bit much.
It sounds like I didn't enjoy the book but that's not the case. I thought it was a really fun and quick read with characters I enjoyed reading about. Cozy mystery fans will definitely enjoy it. It's funny in parts and the sexual tension is really good and those two things have me looking forward to reading the next one in the series.
Destiny Ford is a pseudonym for Angela Corbett. Angela graduated from Westminster College with a double major in communication and sociology. She started working as a reporter when she was sixteen and won awards for feature, news, and editorial writing. She has also done freelance writing. In addition to writing, she works as a director of communications and marketing. She loves classic cars, traveling, cupcakes, and U2. She lives in Utah with her extremely supportive husband and their five-pound Pomeranian, Pippin, whose following of fangirls could rival Justin Bieber's.She writes adult titles under the name Destiny Ford, and YA/NA titles under the name Angela Corbett.
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