In re-reading this review before posting, I am not sure that I did it justice. In total, this was not an awful book. The heroine was endearing. Her klutziness was amusing and her disbelief at the situation she found herself in was real. The scenes with her family were actually pretty funny. I think that the author just overshot the goals for the plot; there were two characters who had similar names that I had trouble keeping straight, and I am still unsure about the motivations of a couple of others.
It is the first in a series, all in the theme of “Corpses,” which is a play on words for “Courses.” It is entirely possible that future books will clarify some of the characters and the motivations will become more apparent. As I say below, the characters were enough that I would give the second book a try to see where it goes. Below is my Goodreads review.
First Corpse: The Appetizer by Carie Toeller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have mixed reactions to this book. On the one hand, I liked the premise: Highly recognizable TV personality gets involved in some international intrigue and has her life taken over by the FBI investigation. There was a good balance between amusing and exciting moments. However, I thought that it took too long to get to a reason for all of the FBI involvement. There were several chapters at the beginning where I felt lost because enough wasn’t revealed in a timely manner. Even when I got a handle on the plot, there were still some murky international connections. The big reveal of the reason for the international intrigue also felt a little bit heavy-handed; I didn’t think there was enough build up to have it make sense. That being said, I liked the main characters enough to probably read follow up books in the series. I’ll give 3.5 stars for a hunky FBI agent and a likable heroine. Tightening the plot would have made it a solid 4.
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