Author: Joy AvonSeries: A Tea and Read Mystery #3
Narrator: Laurel Lefkow
Audience: +18
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Length: 6 hours and 55 minutes
Release Date: February 11th 2020
My Rating: 4 Cups
Source: Spotify, Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):
Just in time for the holidays, In Cold Chamomile is sure to be a cupid's arrow aimed straight for your bookshelf.*Disclaimer: I received an eARC from Netgalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or the content of my review
Tea party organizer Callie Aspen learns that Cupid's arrows can be deadly when a Valentine's Day soiree ends in murder.
Callie Aspen can't think of a more appropriate place to spend Valentine's Day than her adopted hometown of Heart's Harbor, Maine. When she's not helping out at Book Tea, her great-aunt Iphy's vintage tearoom, Callie's adorning Haywood Hall with hearts and roses for the big Valentine's event, where townspeople will fall in love with sweet treats, heartwarming music, and delightful books. But tension is brewing: The librarian argues with the expert who is on hand to appraise precious volumes. And Iphy is shocked to recognize the baritone who's slated to sing at the event as an old acquaintance--one she'd hoped she'd never meet again. And then, when a dead body is discovered, the stirring spoon of suspicion points at the many people who had reasons to want the victim dead.
When Iphy's old acquaintance draws the attention of Deputy Ace Falk, Callie finds herself in a spot. Ace, as usual, doesn't want Callie involved, but how can she ignore Iphy's anguish over the fate of a man she cares for more than she will admit? Bringing the killer to justice may endanger Callie's budding relationship with Ace--and, quite possibly, her own life.
Callie and the Book Tea crew may think they have this case in the bag, but un-kettling truths are yet to be decanted.
One of the genres I've always meant to delve more into has been cozy mystery. I've read a few over the years, but this is the first time when I've read more than one in a month, and I'm very happy that I started delving deeper into the genre. The first one I read this month has been In Cold Chamomile by Joy Avon. It's also my first book by this author and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Let me tell you all about it.
In Cold Chamomile is book 3 in the A Tea and Read Mystery series, but you can totally read it as a standalone, like I did. I do plan on reading the first two books in the series after ARC August ends, because I quite enjoyed this story.
Callie is running a fundraiser for Valentine's Day, but things are about to get messy. The guy they called to help with book appraisals is found dead, and as of yet, there are no suspects. I liked Callie. She was very curious, and she didn't jump to conclusions, and she just wants to help her great aunt. I couldn't fault her for that, because we all have that one family member we just can't say no to. I love how open minded Callie was. She had a hunch and she followed her gut, and it turned out she was right.
Deputy Ace Falk is convinced he has the right guy, and he keeps telling Callie to stop interfering. I really didn't like Ace that much. I felt as if he did just the bare minimum to get to the truth of who killed the appraisals expert. He was sure that since the evidence pointed at one person, then he didn't need to investigate more, which bothered me. He didn't even want to listen to Callie's reasoning, even if, based on what he himself said at one point in the book, he should have known better than that. Because apparently it's not the first time he jumped to conclusions, only to be proven wrong. So I felt as if he was kind of trying to do anything Callie wasn't doing.
The ending was very surprising to me. I definitely didn't anticipate who the killer might be, which is always good for me. I was mostly surprised by how things are left between Ace and Callie. Again, I feel like Ace needs to do some soul searching, and I hope there will be a book 4 so that we can see his journey.
I was lucky to have found this book on Spotify and I had a lot of fun listening to it. Laurel Lefkow is the narrator and she does a really great job bringing the book to life. It was my first time listening to her narrate, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I can't wait to listen to her narration of the first two books in this series.
All in all, I really enjoyed this story, and I hope there will be more books to come in this series.
