Where to start with why I didn't like this book. Let's start with the fact that I was invested in the characters from the beginning. I cared about what happened to them and after the last book I felt confident that things would work out as the author led this reader to believe. Then she yanked t...
I love Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper mystery series, but shied away from this book for years because it sounded sappy. It wasn't sappy, but I still didn't like it much. Even though I knew from reading the acknowledgments in her Benni Harper books that she is a vocal Christian (not in a bad way - j...
Reading this now - 7 years after the first read - I wonder if Fowler's editor convinced her she'd overplayed Gabriel's machismo in the last book and recommended toning it down. Gabriel isn't perfect, in this 4th book, but he's nothing like the horse's ass he was previously. There's a lot of fam...
Re-reading this 7 years later, this book did not hold up as well as the others. My impatience with series books with 'away' settings reared its ugly head and I struggled with impatience. And Gabriel was an ass throughout most of this book. Not a misogynist, not a men-are-smarter-than-women ass, b...
I could have done without the massive relationship angst in this one, but in spite of this my original rating stands. I loved the tie-in to the history of Japanese Americans during WWII; a part of American history that needs to be remembered and acknowledged. The mystery plot of this one was ex...
Benni is trying to move on after being widowed and moving off her husband's family ranch, taking a job in town as director of the folk-art museum. 3 months into the job, she finds a co-op artist dead in one of the museum's studios and her cousin fleeing the scene. Her family loyalty and her natural...
Benni Harper Ortiz just can't help getting involved in mysteries, it seems. She's caught someone sneaking in and out of the house she shared with her first husband, Jack. She's determined to help figure out who is shooting at local law enforcement officer -- especially since her husband, Gabe, is th...
I've been reading Earlene Fowler's cozy mysteries for a number of years. Each is named after a quilting pattern that relates to the subject matter. In this case it's the Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles, just outside the fictional town of San Celina (which is fairly obviously San Luis Obispo).Benni's a...
The style is smooth enough, and Benni Harper, our narrator, is sympathetic enough to have kept me reading for about 150 pages, but she acted stupidly one too many times, so that not even the resolution of the mystery or romance or Arts and Crafts theme could make me keep going. I hate mysteries wh...
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