This is a gorgeous intro to Charm and Everly. I laughed out loud more than once, and suspect more than a few people as our killer, so I count it as a good mystery as well.
The first book in a delightful new beachside cozy mystery series!
Trouble is brewing in Everly’s new café. Can she bag the culprit?
Life hasn’t been so sweet for Everly Swan over the past couple of years, but now that she is back in her seaside hometown and the proud owner of a little iced tea shop and café right on the beach, things are finally starting to look up–until a curmudgeonly customer turns up dead on the boardwalk. With one of her hallmark glass tea jars lying right next to him and an autopsy that reports poison in his system, it doesn’t look good for Everly or her brand new business.
As the townspeople of Charm, formerly so welcoming and homey, turn their back on Everly, she fights to dig up clues about who could have had it in for the former town councilman. With a maddeningly handsome detective discouraging her from uncovering leads and a series of anonymous attacks on Everly and her business, it will take everything she’s got to keep this mystery from boiling over.
The first book in a delightful new beachside cozy mystery series!
I had one overriding thought when I saw Live and Let Chai was set in town and cafe right on the beach, I was: YES. This is where I need to be.
Everly is someone you would love to have as your best friend. I will say there are times her imagination does get away from her, but she is warm, loyal and underneath the humour and puns, there’s a woman who can be very astute when she wants to be — especially when it comes to the people closest to her.
Granted, when it comes to solving mysteries, she may err on the side of jumping to conclusions, but this being the first of a series, I am sure Everly will learn, and I am ready to follow her on this learning curve.
When the book opens, Everly is broken hearted — a relationship she gave her all to, only to discover the cowboy she loved didn’t feel the same, and study at a culinary school ended before it should have. She’s returned to her home town, bought a house and is restoring it, while running Run, Sand and Tea — her new sweet tea cafe. She’s proud of it, her family’s recipes are famous, and business is looking okay. She’s close to her aunts, and she’s working on getting her life back together — even in the face of Mr Paine, a town resident who tried to prevent her from opening her cafe in the house where she was living — and insisted she list her ingredients, which were family secrets according to her.
So when Mr Paine ends up dead, and a jar from Everly’s store close to him, the new cop in town, Grady, ruins her day and possibly her business by announcing her tea killed him.
Everly and her aunts and Charm
These lovely ladies and the small town goodness give me such a vibe of Practical Magic. They really do — especially the aunts. They are her grandmother’s sisters, and they’ve taken care of her. Their family, the Swans, has a bit of a reputation in the town — for always experiencing heartbreak, and losing the men they love. Not to mention, Swans never leave the town, and when they do bad things happen. So Everly is half convinced she’s screwed.
When someone starts making attempts on her life after she found Mr Paine’s body, at least one of those legends seem to be coming true. As Grady isn’t moving fast enough to investigate the murder, and clear her as a suspect, and her business is dying slowly, Everly takes it upon herself to investigate — and that’s how we learn more about Sam, her best friend who owns the bookstore and the aunts of course. But more than anything, it’s the town that grabbed my attention — the people who know each other, and who stand up for each other, while most of the town might suspect she killed Mr Paine. There’s the fair that happens every year and the sun and warmth that radiates through the town — and the book.
Everly and Grady start to rotate in each other’s orbits as her investigation places her in danger, and slowly we learn more about him and why exactly he is curmudgeonly when we meet him. It’s a love story in the making and it is just adorable — don’t get me wrong, they’re both stubborn and determined, so imagine a few arguments in their future.
What I liked too was that the author managed to throw suspicion on more than a couple of people to keep readers guessing right to the end.
Like I said, I am here for it all. From this, the first in the series, I found myself enraptured by a funny, determined main character and the characters and town around her. You know how some books just hit the spot in everything? This one does as a cozy.
Ooh, I love the setting, too – a cafe on the beach sounds perfect right now!
100000000% agree!!
It does sound like the perfect place to be. (Maybe not the murder part, but the rest of it!) I would really like to be beachside myself right about now. 🙂
I totally agree – the beach and some sunshine right about now sounds wonderful – it’s been raining all day here!
This sounds super cute Veruska and I absolutely love a cosy mystery! I’m really digging the more atmospheric reads lately, it’s cabin fever and being in lockdown. I’m so glad you enjoyed this one, beautiful review darling!
I think you’ll love the setting, Kelly. It absolutely helps with the cabin fever and just you know, such a lovely place to get lost in!
Sounds fun. I’ve been wanting to try a new cozy mystery series.
Well, this sounds absolutely wonderful! I have a feeling I’m going to segway from light & fluffy romances to cozy mysteries as the weather gets cooler here so I will definitely keep this one in mind. 🙂