



A high-end wedding on a private island off the coast of Seattle sounds like something out of a magazine. But for bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine, it’s more like a nightmare.
Why Kate agreed to attend her ex-fiancĂ©’s wedding is its own enigma, but she’ll plaster on a fake smile for two nights, with the aid of free champagne, naturally. And because the groom happens to be her editor, she’ll try to finish a draft of her latest Loretta Starling mystery as a wedding gift.
When the bride is poisoned and Kate stumbles across a dead body, she finds herself in a real-life mystery that eerily echoes the plot of her latest novel. And the only person who seems willing to help Kate catch the killer is Jake Hawkins, aka: the Hostralian; aka: Kate’s biggest romantic regret.
As the wine flows and the weather threatens to hold every guest hostage, bitter resentments and long-held grudges surface amongst the colorful crowd. Anyone could be capable of murder, it seems. What would Loretta do? Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t have a clue.
The surprises keep on coming as she races to make the boat that will take her to his bride-to-be’s family compound on a private island off the coast of Seattle. She crash lands on the boat knocking the wind out of the one man she never thought she would see again - Jake Hawkins. Jake is the one that ran away on trans-global adventures. He also mysteriously received an invite and they find themselves having to share a room in a huge mansion, an oddly crowded mansion.
The mayhem ensues when Kate accidentally crashes into the gift table and the bride-to-be. Flustered, Kate settles in to hear the groom’s speech which sounds just like a speech from one of her books. She runs out of the room and proceeds to get drunk. Some time later Jake finds her in the wine cellar over the body of the bride, Kennedy, who they discover has been poisoned. Again, life imitates art as this scenario is also from one of her books. This does not look good for Kate who some see as a jealous ex out to get revenge.
Kate and Jake must weed out who is friend or foe. The guest list spans friends, relatives, fellow authors and business associates. They all seem a bit shady. Kate takes some notes from her heroine Loretta and sets out to find out the truth because now the hostess of the whole weekend Rebecca Hempstead has been poisoned to death. There are quite a few people who may have wanted her dead because she held tightly to the purse strings of the family. The island and expansive manor house become smaller as a whole cavalcade of characters come into play.
I found this book to be full of humor. Amid all this chaos Jake and Kate work through their attractions and feelings. It was a bit hard to follow at times when Loretta’s perspective and parts of her books popped into the story. This may have been in part due to the fact that I was reading an uncorrected digital galley and all the fonts separating the texts from the books were not consistent.
This is also Ms. Moke’s first adult novel. She has several YA books out there. I will be keeping my eye out for more books from her in the future.
Thanks for the review and the introduction to a new to me author. It sounds funny and funny is always important to me.
ReplyDeleteYou'll enjoy this one!
DeleteThank you for the review. This sounds like it might be a fun read.
ReplyDeleteGreat! Happy reading!
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