Nancy J. Parra

This is the 2nd book in the Wine Country Mystery series written by Nancy J. Parra. I didn't read the first book, but I didn't have any problem following the story. "Taylor O’Brian, founder of “Off the Beaten Path”, takes small groups on wine country tours of romantic Sonoma County." She isn't as big as she would like to be, but honestly, when does she have time to lead tour groups when she's solving murders?

I love cozy mysteries and love discovering a new (to me) series. This was a fun one with likeable characters and an engaging plot. I felt like I learned a bit about wine making as well, which was a plus.

I enjoyed this foray into wine country with a side of cozy mystery, and look forward to going back and reading the first book in the series.

4/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and Nancy J. Parra for the opportunity to read and review this book.… (plus d'informations)

A good concept, likeable characters and pretty good plotting, but some incredible moments of bad writing, including most of chapter 17. Also, what is up with MC's with wild, red, frizzy hair? 3 books out of the last 5...

Recently made redundant from her event-planning job, Pepper sets the stage for a perfect marriage proposal as a favor to her soon-to-be brother-in-law and he's impressed enough to suggest she start her own business planning proposals and engagement parties. But after the happy couple fly off for a romantic weekend, Pepper finds a dead body in the bathroom and her sister's finance is the prime suspect.

Pepper comes within a hair of sledgehammer investigative tactics and I don't know if the author wants us to think Pepper has the naïveté of a 5 year old, or just dropped the ball with the dialogue but there were quite a few moments about half-way in that were just...I don't know - dumb. This is when I envy e-books, because I'd be able to highlight the passages that had me saying "are you kidding me?!?" out loud and I could paste them here. Instead I'll just point out that I don't like Pepper's mother, and Pepper herself needs to learn that police investigators do not get their badges from the bottom of a Cracker Jack box.


It's easy to rattle on about things that didn't work, but mostly the book did work for me - much more than I thought it would (I'm not a fan of engagement "productions" or, actually, weddings) and a lot of the book is very readable. The murder plot itself was really well done too - the author was steering me one way while she was taking the murder another way entirely. It's because of the 75% of the story that is good that the other 25% stand out so starkly.

I'll read the second one - hopefully the kinks are worked out by then.… (plus d'informations)

Taylor O'Brien and her Aunt Jemma live in Sonoma, CA. Aunt Jemma owns a small winery. Her home is located nearby, along with a pool and a building for wine tastings, weddings, etc. Taylor lives in the pool house. She moved back to Sonoma six months before after her Aunt had a heart attack. She loves the winery and helping her aunt run her business, but she's getting a bit restless. So, she buys a van and starts planning her own Wine Country Tours as a side business. "Off the Beaten Path'' tours will take people to some lesser known, but fabulous, small wineries in the area. Her first tour is booked by a group of local yoga instructors. The first tour might just be the last, however. One of the instructors is found murdered during the tour. Even worse -- the murder weapon is Taylor's corkscrew. Who bumped off Laura Scott? None of the others who were on the tour seem too broken up about her death. In fact, Laura's husband remarries just days after the murder. Then another body turns up.... Can Taylor discover the identity of the killer before anyone else dies? Or before the murderer comes after her!

The background theme of California wines and wineries was interesting,and gave a nice depth to this book. I don't know a lot about wine so the little facts about wine sprinkled throughout the book were interesting to me. The mystery moved along at a nice pace with some great twists and action at the end. I didn't figure out the murderer ahead of time....it was an exciting surprise. And the case led to some interesting developments for Taylor's tour business. I would have liked a bit more character development, and at times some of the characters and situations seemed a bit trope-y (pretty but snooty yoga instructors for example). But, all in all, this is a nice start to a new cozy series. I am interested in seeing how the characters and locations continue to develop in the second book.

Nancy J. Parra also writes as Nell Hampton and Nancy Coco. For more information on the author and her books, check out her website: http://www.nancyjparra.com/

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**… (plus d'informations)