Arsenic in the Azaleas (Lovely Lethal Gardens #1)

This series is a very good thing. I have enjoyed each one and can\’t wait for the next one

I just finished this entire series to date, I’m equal parts bereft at having to wait for the next book and elated at discovering there are currently three more scheduled releases up to August next year. I normally shy away from mysteries that aren’t at least 7+ hours but honestly there are so many side stories and an intriguingly captivating cast of characters both the human and animal variety, all, makes this series a must! There are many characters of import, to name a few, there is Dorenes grandmother, Nan who resides in a retirement community, she and it’s members frequently play an integral role in providing answers which aid in solving each mystery. Nan is so full of surprises she puts any fairy godmother to shame! Dorene, our heroine has just shed herself of a very affluent lifestyle and an overbearing controlling husband. She has moved into Nan’s old home along with her Bassett hound Mugs and Nan’s Maine Coon cat named Goliath and very talkative Gray Parrot named Thaddeus, Dorene’s animal family uncover evidence add hijinks, hilarity and often protection while solving each mystery. Dorene is learning to live life on a budget and discovering many of her own hidden talents with the help of her male friend Mack and he is one of the many side stories. I thoroughly enjoyed each book they are, in a word, Fun! Each book in this series runs a consecutive time line where one book leave off the next one picks up, small story lines take root in one book and are picked up in the next or even the following. This series is so jammed packed, there is just no way to do it justice in a review. IMPORTANT…Start at book one ARSENIC in the AZALEAS this isn’t a series you can start in the middle, you will be totally lost. NOW for me, the wait begins LIFELESS in the LILIES 2-2-2021 kindle version, hopefully Audible won’t be too far behind.

Fun characterization from a talented narrator enhance this warm-hearted cozy. Plotting brings disparate subplots to a satisfying and unsuspected conclusion. Overall a pleasant way to pass time. Looking forward to the next story and the building relationship of the prime characters.

Overall this was an okay book. It’s cute, for the most part. I’ve never been unbelievably rich, so I’m honestly not truly in the know about how they live, yet Doreen seems a little too much of a cliche of a dumb blonde in some respects. Honestly, this woman can’t boil water because she can’t turn on a stove? One minute she’s a dimwit about the teas in Nana’s kitchen, but later she’s an expert. But, I’m willing to try another because it’s lighthearted and an easy listen/read. The narrator was also okay, maybe even pretty good. My only real complaint is she often uses a sing-song cadence to her reading. Thankfully, it’s sprinkled out enough that I’d listen to the next in the series if she’s the narrator.

Doreen goes back to live at her grandmother\’s house for a chance at a new life. Doreen has always called her grandmother Nan who lives in an assisted living facility and Doreen moves into Nan\’s dilapidated old house in picturesque Kelowna and the added job of caring for the animals because Nan couldn’t take them into assisted living with her. Doreen brings her own dog, Mugs a basset hound and now has to take car of Thaddeus, the loquacious African gray parrot with a ripe vocabulary, and his buddy, Goliath, a monster-size cat with an equally monstrous attitude. Things start working out for Doreen, Goliath the cat and Mugs the dog find a human finger in Nan’s overrun garden. And not just a finger. Once the police start digging, the rest of the body turns up and turns out to be connected to an old unsolved crime. It gets more involved every day and the animals are very amusing.

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