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A Good Day for Chardonnay by Darynda Jones
Sunny’s got a bar fight gone bad, a teenage daughter hunting a serial killer and, oh yes, the still unresolved mystery of her own abduction years prior. How can she get it all solved?? Tune in to:
Title: A Good Day for Chardonnay
Author: Darynda Jones
Series: Sunshine Vicram #2
Publish Date: July 27, 2021
Source: reviewer received from NetGalley
Publisher’s Description: Running a small-town police force in the mountains of New Mexico should be a smooth, carefree kind of job. Sadly, full-time Sheriff–and even fuller-time coffee guzzler–Sunshine Vicram, didn’t get that memo.
All Sunshine really wants is one easy-going day. You know, the kind that starts with coffee and a donut (or three) and ends with take-out pizza and a glass of chardonnay (or seven). Turns out, that’s about as easy as switching to decaf. (What kind of people do that? And who hurt them?)
Before she can say iced mocha latte, Sunny’s got a bar fight gone bad, a teenage daughter hunting a serial killer and, oh yes, the still unresolved mystery of her own abduction years prior. All evidence points to a local distiller, a dangerous bad boy named Levi Ravinder, but Sun knows he’s not the villain of her story. Still, perhaps beneath it all, he possesses the keys to her disappearance. At the very least, beneath it all, he possesses a serious set of abs. She’s seen it. Once. Accidentally.
Between policing a town her hunky chief deputy calls four cents short of a nickel, that pesky crush she has on Levi which seems to grow exponentially every day, and an irascible raccoon that just doesn’t know when to quit, Sunny’s life is about to rocket to a whole new level of crazy.
Yep, definitely a good day for chardonnay.
Nervous Nellie’s nervousness necessitates knowledge of the novel. In other words …SPOILERS. *BEWARE*
Nervous Nellie says…
Book #2 in Sunshine Vicrum’s series does not disappoint. You’ve got blood, stabbings, murder, mystery AND mayhem! Oh, and we can’t forget the hunky “book boyfriends” that are all running rampant through the book. Oh, yeah – those guys that are watching out and protecting and looking gorgeous while doing it.
I loved this book. It was a bit slow at first which had me down, but the ending was fantastic. The writing style is similar to Charley Davidson, but the premise is not. No supernatural or paranormal. Just plain police work and romance mixed in. Don’t miss it.
Like I said, the first half of the book was a bit slow – not bad, just a bit.
So, Sun is still trying to remember and solve her kidnapping case and subsequently gets Wynn Ravinder to talk about it, since Kubrick Ravinder is the one who kidnapped her. She finds out some more information AFTER she remembers more bits and pieces. Man, that was a ride!
Sun is also handling a case of a stabbing in her town where Levi happens to get hit (run over) with a car. Levi is mad at what happened to his friend and will BY GOLLY find out what’s going on. Levi should be an investigator too, since not much gets past him. They finally figure out the whole mess, but it incorporates a different kidnapping that happened years ago, where Sun was the head on the case.
On the back burner, Sun has to figure out the Dangerous Daughters before she’s fired for not being an effective Sheriff. Whoever heard of a bunch of people who run a city so it’s not taken over by corruption? I guess Del Sol has!
Auri is conducting her own investigation regarding the Del Sol serial killer. This is one of the most dangerous investigations she’s ever conducted. She is a trouper and keeps plugging away until she figures it all out. The problem is that she isn’t a seasoned investigator and trouble keeps popping up.
It’s a great book. Give it a read after you’ve read book #1. This is a good series, so far, and I hope Sun has many cases yet to come.
Here’s the review I’ve done for book #1
A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones
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Abandoned in Death by J.D. Robb
Homicide detective Eve Dallas must untangle a twisted family history while a hostage’s life hangs in the balance.
Title: Abandoned in Death
Author: J.D. Robb
Series: In Death #54
Publish Date: February 8, 2022
Source: purchased by reviewer
Publisher’s Description: Homicide detective Eve Dallas must untangle a twisted family history while a hostage’s life hangs in the balance—in the new In Death novel by #1 New York Times bestselling J. D. Robb.
The woman’s body was found on a bench in a New York City playground. She was clean, her hair neatly arranged, her makeup carefully applied. But other things were very wrong—like the tattoo and piercings, clearly new. The clothes, decades out of date. The fatal wound hidden beneath a ribbon around her neck. And the note: Bad Mommy, written in crayon as if by a child.
It seems clear the killer’s childhood was traumatic—a situation Eve is all too familiar with herself. Yet the clues point to a perpetrator who’d be around sixty, and there are no records of old crimes with a similar MO. What was the trigger that apparently reopened such an old wound and sent someone over the edge? When Eve learns that other young women have recently vanished, the case grows even more urgent—and to solve it she’ll need to find her way into a hidden place of dim light and concrete, into the distant past, and into the depths of a shattered mind.
Nervous Nellie’s nervousness necessitates knowledge of the novel. In other words …SPOILERS. *BEWARE*
Nervous Nellie says…
You know I love me a good story with Eve and Roarke. I waited and waited for this book because…well…you know, Eve and Roarke. This story starts out a bit differently than some of the other books with the spotlight on the killer as a child. A creepy little brat of a kid. The mom is at the end of her rope and that’s where the mom and kid’s lives take a turn.
I saw the core group in the story plus Mavis, Bella, Leonardo, Nadine and special appearances by Quilla, Morris and Jamie. I enjoyed spending time with them but I have to tell you that I wasn’t all that glued to my seat. I could really see the “bones” of the book as I read. Eve getting called on to investigate, rattling Dickhead’s cage, Roarke working e-man, Roarke giving the same look when Eve asks if he could find out something, Roarke picking the locks, the gratuitous sex scene and then the breakdown in the box with people watching in observation. I’m not saying that it was a bad story – it was ok but it lacked the usual edge of my seat anticipation. I’ll read it again, maybe I’ll change my mind.
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One Book Two 