Wicked Charms

Wicked Charms by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

Lizzy and Diesel are back, this time on the hunt for the Avaritia stone--the third of the powerful SALGLIA stones. Their search is complicated by an insane billionaire and his rabid acolytes, pirates, fires, kidnappings, obsessed treasure hunters, Diesel's cousin Wulf, and Wulf's loony minion Hatchet.

Fun romp of an adventure. Someone called it a "palate-cleansing" book, and I totally agree. It's just silly fun with ridiculous characters, rapid-fire patter, and fast-paced action.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, language (humor) secondary. Plenty of sexual banter and innuendo, but no explicit sex scenes. Also plenty of mild swearing. The violence comes off as more slapstick than anything, even when people die.

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A Tale of Two Kitties

A Tale of Two Kitties by Sofie Kelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kathleen Paulson, head librarian for the Mayville Heights Free Public Library, is sadly accustomed to encountering dead bodies. The bright yellow, catnip-filled, Fred-the-Funky-Chicken versions that her cat Owen likes to decapitate are a nuisance, but the human ones who've departed the earth as a result of violence are infinitely more disturbing. This time the deceased is a relative of her youngest employee, which hits too close to home for Kathleen, so she and her preternaturally clever cats start sleuthing to help Marcus close the case faster and bring the killer to justice. Thank goodness for Owen's superpower saving the day once more!

I really enjoyed how Sofie Kelly carefully wove together the seemingly separate storylines about the Janes brothers' estrangement and the future library exhibit of 20-year-old photos and mail found inside a post office wall. Some of my guesses turned out to be accurate, and yet I didn't put all the pieces together until the end.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of this volume in the series, however, was that Marcus and Kathleen's relationship was secure enough to withstand the potential love triangle Kelly hinted at in book #8 and developed in this one. What I don't understand is what is taking the two of them so long to get engaged & married!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character secondary. No sex or onscreen violence. Except for a smattering of mild swear words (mostly "damn" or "damned"), it would count as a "clean read." The series is best read in order, but you wouldn't have to read the first 8 books in order to understand what was going on in this one.

My advance reader's copy came with the novella "A Cat Burglar" at the end, but I don't know whether the published version will or not.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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