Happily Ever Homicide (Book 1)
Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder by Gracie Ruth Mitchell is a romance story with a murder mystery twist, set in a small town.
Available on Kindle Unlimited.
This book is part of My Fall 2023 Reading List.
My Overview
Juniper Bean is an aspiring romance novel writer. The only thing keeping her from achieving her dream, is that she keeps killing the main characters in her books. How can a swoony romance novel advance, if the main characters keep dying early on? It’s not possible, so Juniper decides to switch to the murder mystery genre. Along with that change, comes her move to her childhood hometown. There, she ends up being roommates with her teenage crush. He, Aiden, isn’t thrilled about it, but they decide to make it work. They think they’ll be able to keep to their own space. However, they encounter an unidentified dead body one night. Immediately, they take it upon themselves to solve the mystery. Before they know it, the space between them keeps getting smaller. Along the way, Juniper also enlists Aiden’s help with researching for her murder mystery novel, and finding out the identity of her father.
Does that seem like a lot? It is. Especially considering that Juniper is also dealing with the aftermath of her mom’s death and trauma related to her upbringing. With so many storylines going on throughout, the story lacks focus. The synopsis mentions the romance novel writing slump, and the murder mystery. I wish the story would’ve stayed focused on those two storylines alone.
Based on the synopsis, I truly expected to love this story. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. As much as I wanted to love this story as others have, it fell flat. Overall, the writing style just didn’t work for me.
My Recommendation
I expected a quirky romance story (based on the synopsis), but this wasn’t it. It’s my first book by the author, and it seems her books are just not for me. Keep that in mind, as I don’t want to discourage anyone from giving this story a try. After all, many have enjoyed this first book of the series.
Have you read this book yet?
Rachel @Waves of Fiction
I love the cover so much. Bummer this didn’t live up to it.
Lucy
I love the cover too. It’s what drew me to the story.
Lark
I haven’t read this one yet. I think it’s pretty funny that she keeps killing off the main characters in her romance novels so decides to write mysteries instead. Too bad it wasn’t as good as you’d hoped.
Lucy
Yes, I thought the switching genres aspect would be funny too. Unfortunately, it fell short.