Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Hyde Snodgrass is a vampire who runs Between the Leaves. The town is populated by only paranormal people, and it’s a place that’s known for collecting misfits and oddballs. So Hyde fits in because they don’t fit in. They love their life, running the bookshop and hosting a knitting circle. Until one of the elders of the coven doesn’t show up to knit one night.
Teresa Vega refurbished a double decker bus that’s now her taco truck, and she loves that she’s finally found a place for herself in this tiny town. And Theresa adores Hyde. When Florence doesn’t show up for knitting, Teresa and Hyde head over to her place only to find her murdered on the floor. An investigation begins, but Hyde and Teresa can’t help but look for clues too.
But the mysterious happenings don’t end with Florence’s murder. Things start to go strange and dangerous around Hyde and Teresa too. With a couple of shady characters showing up in town, they need to be on high alert. But it isn’t until the threat comes knocking on Hyde’s door that the culprit is discovered. With lives and their love on the line, Hyde and Teresa are just trying to survive.
I snapped this one up because I loved the idea of a cozy paranormal. But almost from the start, I had issues with this book. I did enjoy the MCs, and liked their banter as they got closer to each other. I liked that there was disability, mental health, and multiple sexuality representations. But I found the whole thing to be very surface level, and much of the story is glossed over instead of explored with any kind of depth.
As I said, the MCs are great and are the driving force in this story. They are good friends, but they both are pining, and I liked seeing them finally taking that leap. But the romance wasn’t very well developed, and I wished for more between them.
And that was the theme for me throughout the book. The murder and the mystery that ensues were very predictable, and I easily identified the main suspect. Even though the author tried to throw in a red herring, it was quite obvious. But when the killer was revealed, the motive wasn’t entirely clear. I just felt like there needed to be more development and exploration throughout this whole plot line.
There is also a huge cast of secondary characters, and though each one gets a minor introduction, there were far too many people and it bogged down the narrative. It almost felt as though I should have known who these people were already. It was just too much, and too many people. Many of the relationships were already established, and so the inside jokes and banter came off as a bit flat. The humor in this book and the banter between characters was another thing that didn’t work very well for me, but this is definitely subjective.
Overall, this book had tons of potential that, for me, was never really realized. It had its good moments and things I really liked seeing. But as a whole, it missed the mark for me. I’d only recommend this to readers who are looking for a quick read that don’t mind if the mystery isn’t a surprise.
