Title: Marriage and Murder
Author: Penny Reid
Series: Solving for Pie #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance, Cozy mystery
Dates read: 24th – 29th October 2021
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: SmartyPants Romance
Year: 2021
5th sentence, 74th page: The lie.

The Devil is in the details…

Cletus Byron Winston wishes to marry Jennifer Anne Donner-Sylvester (aka The Banana Cake Queen) posthaste! He’s spent the last year wanting nothing more than for the celebrations to be brief, libations flowing, and BYOB (bring your own blueberries). His future mother-in-law has other plans, plans his intended has been willing to indulge, much to Cletus’s chagrin. Therefore, so must he. To a point. But truth be told, he wouldn’t mind if the meddlesome matriarch disappeared, at least until the nuptials are over.

On the night of Cletus and Jenn’s long-awaited engagement party, just when the surly schemer is of a mind to take matters into his own hands, a shocking events upends everyone’s best laid plans and sends the small hamlet of Green Valley into complete disarray. The final months leading up to Cletus and Jenn’s matrimonial bliss are plagued with chaos and uncertainty. Will Cletus and Jenn finally make it to the altar? Or will murder and mayhem derail their happily-ever-after?

And most importantly, who done it?

After the most enjoyable of moments in Engagement and Espionage, I couldn’t wait to pick up Marriage and Murder. Luckily, this was one of those times that I actually had it sitting on the shelf, ready to go. So, of course, I dived right in. And I most definitely was not disappointed. This was an amazing story. love the contemporary mystery feel. Loved the story line. And, as always, loved Cletus and Jenn.

This may make me a slightly bad person… but, personally I love the fact that Kip dies in this story. I mean, death is bad and all. But he is the kind of villain I most fear. The sort that is so deliriously self-righteous that you just… can’t even reason with them. Or bribe them. Or really in anyway do anything. And they’re also the type of person that I fear the most in the world. I mean, someone who has no logic and you can’t have an open, safe and frank conversation with? Yup. That’s scary. So in this story, I appreciated that he can no longer quite torture Jenn and Cletus. Once his murder is solved anyway.

I always love a good mystery in which you can’t quite guess what / who the guilty party is. The facts of this get more and more blurred as there are potentially two different murder methods / villains. I loved trying to piece together all of the bits and pieces as Cletus and Jenn rush to try and do the same thing. I mean, I would love this story just because of the amazing lead couple. But the fact that there is a mystery I spent the whole time trying to piece together? Completely priceless.

This is most definitely one of my favourite books to have read recently. Again, mostly because, well, Cletus and Jenn are awesome. They’re fun and quirky, they’re completely unique and they just leave me with a huge smile on my face from the very beginning. Definitely an impossible couple to forget. And not one that I would want to. I’m so glad that this story ends in their marriage. Now I get to find out about the next part of their relationship when I save up the money to buy Home and Heist.

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Engagement and Espionage
Author: Penny Reid
Series: Solving for Pie #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance, Cozy mystery
Dates read: 22nd – 24th October 2021
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: SmartyPants Romance
Year: 2020
5th sentence, 74th page: What am I going to do about those cows?

Jennifer Sylvester made her deal with the devil… and now they’re engaged!

But all is not well in Green Valley. A chicken choker is on the loose, 61 dead birds most “fowl” need plucking, and no time remains for Jennifer and her devilish fiancé. Desperate to find a spare moment together, Jenn and Cletus’s attempts to reconnect are thwarted by one seemingly coincidental disaster after another. It’s not long before Cletus and Jenn see a pattern emerge and the truth becomes clear.

Sabotage!

Will an undercover missions unmask the culprit? Or are these love-birds totally plucked?

I already know that Penny Reid can write an amazing romance and a wonderful story. Plus, I did fall stupid in love with Cletus and Jenn in Beard Science. But, I was a little intrigued as to whether she could write a decent cozy mystery or not. It turns out, she can. And, like everything else I have read by her. It’s brilliant. And fun. And just all around a really good read.

I love that throughout this story, there is not only the question of who is out to get Jenn, but how Cletus is going to propose. I love that he is sweet enough to have multiple rings and to want to try again and again to get the exact right proposal. He’s incredibly dense, but also completely adorable. A nice balance in my opinion. I mean, I don’t know many people who aren’t kind of dense in at least one area. And the fact that for Cletus, it’s how relationships work… loved it.

One of the hardest things I’ve found about being in a relationship is trying to juggle everything when things get a little hectic. I know that my partner is always in my corner, but I also know that I need to make the time and space to show him that I’m also in his corner. I love that Cletus and Jenn very much go through this. They are madly in love and completely understanding of one another, but they’re not quite meshing completely throughout this story. Something that, realistically, I think most relationships go through at some point.

Jenn and her mother have a contentious and difficult relationship from the very moment that you meet them. I like that Reid acknowledges this and works towards finding a more satisfactory way to live with one another. It’s a difficult line to walk and I found the way that they try and negotiate this to be absolutely brilliant. It’s a reminder that no one is perfect, and all relationships need work – particularly those that have been dysfunctional for far too long.

There are a number of cute moments throughout this, but the part that, of course takes my attention the most – the battle that Jenn and Cletus face. The way that they are racing against the clock to try and figure out who, exactly, is trying to sabotage them. The relationships and the negotiation of their worlds’ just makes this all that much better. And, of course so much harder to put down.

Image source: Goodreads