Pallas Poppies

I really wanted to like this one. Sounded like so much fun, cozy mystery set in Dublins drag queen world. A drag queen cozy and it’s Irish, I’m there, take my money.

But it was poorly written. I started thinking it was self published with all these odd sentences and bad pace and threads here and there feeling so off and ugh. And I didn’t like the characters either, our MC never listens to everyone “Huh, sorry?” whenever someone is talking to here and the fight with her roommate felt like kids.

A drag queen, walking in someone elses heels on a very rainy night slips and falls? No, that could never happen, never, it must have been murder. Okay.

I do believe there’s a decent story there but this is bad first draft that needs work. It was a mess.

Blix Windway (yeah that’s her actual name) is off as a travel companion to Egypt, she’s also carrying a book for her uncle that he as promised to a friend.

Crossing the channel, makes her way to Paris, has a car race before getting herself to Egypt, minus her traveling companion but she’s found a new one so no worries. Then she gets into the desert and over to the pyramids and finally she stumbles over a dead body. The local police insist that a native did it and wants the case to just go away, Blix is of an other opinion.

I might be becoming a grumpy old lady but, the MC has a car race through Paris which I assume is fun but all I see is her putting other peoples lives in danger, very little concern for others and I didn’t like it.

The murder happens pretty deep into the book, first in a new series so you do need some space to build it up and present the MC, I get it, but 13 chapters?

Never really warmed up to Blix or her new travel companion. Not getting a proper mystery or sleuthing from this one. Won’t continue the series.

Blix Windway (yeah that’s her actual name) is off as a travel companion to Egypt, she’s also carrying a book for her uncle that he as promised to a friend.

Crossing the channel, makes her way to Paris, has a car race before getting herself to Egypt, minus her traveling companion but she’s found a new one so no worries. Then she gets into the desert and over to the pyramids and finally she stumbles over a dead body. The local police insist that a native did it and wants the case to just go away, Blix is of an other opinion.

I might be becoming a grumpy old lady but, the MC has a car race through Paris which I assume is fun but all I see is her putting other peoples lives in danger, very little concern for others and I didn’t like it.

The murder happens pretty deep into the book, first in a new series so you do need some space to build it up and present the MC, I get it, but 13 chapters?

Never really warmed up to Blix or her new travel companion. Not getting a proper mystery or sleuthing from this one. Won’t continue the series.

There was something missing here for me. The MC reads a little young, she’s 27 and maybe I have forgotten how young that is or she’s a bit immature.

Her mother really wants her to get a boyfriend (I’m so over this trope) and even the MCs best friend wants her to find a boyfriend. Because men solves all problems.

The love interest is detective Trudeau so my brain flashed an image of Justin Trudeau every time he was on the page and it was not good. I found him annoying and obsessive and treated her as a child, they’ve just met a few times and of course he has treated her as a suspect at first and then he’s just telling her what to do and gets angry she doesn’t. One times he catches her and her best friend sleuthing and starts yelling at the MC and when her best friend tells him off, “Don’t even get me started on you, young lady.” Half expected her to shout back, “You’re not my dad, you can’t tell me what to do!” but luckily that didn’t happen.

Not much of a mystery or sleuthing and what I want from a cozy mystery, is a mystery, I’m always looking for a puzzle.

Netgalley read.

I didn’t expect it to be a list of comebacks, I expected a little more text but it made me think of those magazines I bought as a teen, there were always lists like this in those. Feels like a book many will get for their birthday, “Not that you need any help in this area but I thought of you when I saw it.” Did trees deserve to die for this? Not sure. I had the audiobook for this and the author/narrator does a good job but feels that this book should be TikTok videos. He does address that men reacting with angry is a second emotion from something else happening inside, I found that interesting.

I was attracted to this book because I like the painting (which I first saw on Tumblr of course), it’s In a Roman Osteria by Danish painter Carl Bloch.

We get to follow a group of women working at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, all under the leadership of Mrs. Skogh. The year is 1901 and things are different, especially for women.

There is a feel good feeling in the book but, everything just chugs along smoothly. Even something bad happens there no really problem that needs to be solved, no big obstacles that they need to figure out, no consequences… It does make things dull.

We get to follow a group of women working at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, all under the leadership of Mrs. Skogh. The year is 1901 and things are different, especially for women.

There is a feel good feeling in the book but, everything just chugs along smoothly. Even something bad happens there no really problem that needs to be solved, no big obstacles that they need to figure out, no consequences… It does make things dull.

Feels like we are back to normal after book 16 which was very dark. Normally I want mystery books to be about mystery and the love life of characters are dull. But here I want to know what all the characters are up to. A little slow on that but I assume next book will pick up on a lot of that.

Feels like we are back to normal after book 16 which was very dark. Normally I want mystery books to be about mystery and the love life of characters are dull. But here I want to know what all the characters are up to. A little slow on that but I assume next book will pick up on a lot of that.

Jenny is 77 and feels she hasn’t accomplished enough in life, she has a “silly” dream to the popular baking show. On a whim she applies and she gets on the show, it starts to stir up some old memories, a secret.

I didn’t really get this. Everything just chugs along, nothing really happens. Nothing is thrown Jenny’s way, no big hurdles. And there are other characters in here but it feels like she never really interacts with them, everything feels very superficial.

I would have loved a book about a woman doing something for herself, maybe some ageist people standing in her way and she saves the day because of her age and experience.

Jenny is 77 and feels she hasn’t accomplished enough in life, she has a “silly” dream to the popular baking show. On a whim she applies and she gets on the show, it starts to stir up some old memories, a secret.

I didn’t really get this. Everything just chugs along, nothing really happens. Nothing is thrown Jenny’s way, no big hurdles. And there are other characters in here but it feels like she never really interacts with them, everything feels very superficial.

I would have loved a book about a woman doing something for herself, maybe some ageist people standing in her way and she saves the day because of her age and experience.

Lila is moving back home to her small town to help her auntie with the family restaurant and get away from her failed relationship. Her former high school sweetheart has turned into a nasty food blogger and while at her restaurant he dies right in front of her, face down in the food. Such bad table manners.

Didn’t love this, felt that some proper sleuthing was missing and it was a little slow. And there’s a cute dachshund on the cover but the dog is barely in the story, why write a dog into the story if it’s not actually in the story? Felt robbed. But there were some things I liked so I might give the second book a chance.

Lila is moving back home to her small town to help her auntie with the family restaurant and get away from her failed relationship. Her former high school sweetheart has turned into a nasty food blogger and while at her restaurant he dies right in front of her, face down in the food. Such bad table manners.

Didn’t love this, felt that some proper sleuthing was missing and it was a little slow. And there’s a cute dachshund on the cover but the dog is barely in the story, why write a dog into the story if it’s not actually in the story? Felt robbed. But there were some things I liked so I might give the second book a chance.

Danika is forced to move back home to Long Island for reasons I can’t remember to take over her uncles malt shop. She runs into her old high school boyfriend that broke her heart on prom and is confronted quickly by his wife, so of course she later stumbles over the wife dead in the malt shop…

This was not for me, it read too juvenile for me. She’s 25 but felt like she was a lot younger than that, too stuck up on her ex and it was a little dull. However, there was a little twist to a common scene in a cozy that I really liked.

So you try to be cool and tip a dancer at a club only for them to accidentally kick you in the face but it actually works out and you leave together to head for their place only to wake up with the cops knocking on the door and the guy is missing.

Fun even if I didn’t always buy their reasoning for not going to the cops.

I like Hayden and his new friends and I’ll give the second book a try.

So you try to be cool and tip a dancer at a club only for them to accidentally kick you in the face but it actually works out and you leave together to head for their place only to wake up with the cops knocking on the door and the guy is missing.

Fun even if I didn’t always buy their reasoning for not going to the cops.

I like Hayden and his new friends and I’ll give the second book a try.

Well isn’t that convenient, oh what a coincident…

Where do I start, dull characters, everything feels very rushed and there are no twists or turns. No shocking reveals, no brilliant detectives working it out, no amature sleuth… this is dull and I will never read a book by this author again. Seriously, why is she popular? This was so dull.

There’s just stuff happening in a neat convenient order and no obstacles for anyone.