Jen is a barista with two big secrets. First, the homeless guy who keeps coming by the cafe where she works and who she keeps giving day-old baked goods to is really her paranoid schizophrenic father. And second, she has an ability known as automatic writing – someone or something writes messages to her via her left hand. Her latest message: “Dear Jen, Arthur is screwing Misty.” Arthur is Jen's cop boyfriend, and Misty is Jen's half-sister and nemesis.

Jen dumps Arthur after confirming that he did, in fact, sleep with Misty. Then she decides to get back at Misty with some dog poop. It's a spur of the moment thing, and it isn't until after she lobs the poop into Misty's apartment that she realizes that Misty is lying dead on the floor, her throat slashed.

As my description indicates, Jen isn't the most mature person ever. I really, really didn't like her. It was more than just the dog poop incident – it was nearly everything about her and the way she interacted with the world.

After she read the message to herself about Arthur cheating on her with Misty, she went to Arthur, took his loaded gun, and pointed it at his crotch while she interrogated him. I get that she was angry, but what sane person does that? Later on, they both demonstrated their incredible grossness and stupidity by sleeping with each other after Jen, in a bout of fear and worry that her dad might have been involved in Misty's death, called Arthur. Who sleeps with a person who recently pointed a loaded gun at your crotch? Who sleeps with a person who made you so angry that you pointed a loaded gun at them? Why did these characters have to be so awful?

I also didn't like the way Jen bashed the cafe's part-timers for being skinny. Her comment to one of them: “Grab a muffin or three. Put some meat on your bones before you cut someone.” (51) And no, she didn't mean it in a snarky friendly way – she didn't even consider the part-timers worth the effort of remembering their names. Even Mitch, her coworker, thought her treatment of the part-timers was a bit much.

Speaking of Mitch, I spent a good chunk of the book wondering if he was going to be Jen's obligatory love interest. On the one hand, books like this often have a love interest, and he seemed like the most likely one. He was good-looking and willing to let Jen cry on his shoulder if she needed to. On the other hand, I disliked Jen enough that I couldn't help but think that Mitch was too good for her. He was even a better barista than she was. His only failings were that he teased her for taking baked goods to the homeless guy near the cafe (he didn't know the man was Jen's father, but that still didn't excuse the teasing) and that learning about Jen's automatic writing freaked him out. The relationship between him and Jen petered out before it even began. I'm not sure why the author bothered, unless there are plans to turn this into a series.

The most appealing thing about this book was the mystery. I genuinely had trouble figuring out who the killer might be, although I had suspicions that turned out to be correct. The killer's efforts to cover their tracks were very messy and unfocused. The aspects that initially caught my attention, the coffee shop stuff and the automatic writing, were so-so at best. Like I said, Mitch was a better barista than Jen was. Also, Jen's automatic writing only cropped up a few times. It was briefly mentioned that the spirit that spoke through Jen was probably someone close to her, but nothing ever came of that – another indication that this might become the first book in a series.

However, even if a second book gets published, I'm not planning on reading it. Grounds to Kill already gave me more of Jen than I really wanted. I'd rather not subject myself to more.

 

(Original review, including read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

It's kind of fun to play "guess the love interest." (I have no idea if this book is going to have a love interest, but so many of them do.) At the moment, there are three possibilities.

 

First, Jen's ex-boyfriend. He's a good-looking cop and he's the only guy Jen has had sex with during the course of the story, but he also cheated on Jen with her half-sister, so he's probably out.

 

Second, Jen's coworker. He's hot, willing to let her cry on his shoulder, and he and Jen have had sex before, but she decided he wasn't really interested in more than that.

 

Third, there's the private investigator. He and Jen have a past - he humiliated her in high school by announcing in public that he'd slept with the school's last three virgins, one of whom was her. Now, years later, he has apologized for this and is attempting to help her with recent events (a murder, a burglary, etc.). He hasn't really been around much yet.

 

Jen's coworker seems like the most likely option. He seems too nice for her though, so I kind of hope that he ends up with one of the cafe's part-timers.

I try to do one book in each format at a time, not counting library books. I figured a quirky cozy mystery would be a good choice for my next e-book. Now I'm not so sure. Why did I buy this? If I could go back in time, I'd tell the me of the past to pass this one by.

 

It's first person POV. So far the main character has told readers that her mentally ill father, who can't properly feed himself and who barely responds to her presence, has chosen to be homeless. He doesn't seem to me like he has the ability to choose to do much of anything. Also, her first response upon learning, via her psychic powers, that her cop boyfriend was cheating on her was to pull out his loaded gun and point it at his crotch. I get that she's mad, but holy crap.

Grounds to Kill - Wendy Roberts rounds To Kill by Wendy Roberts is a quirky mystery with a little supernatural to make it more fun.

Jen Hanby is a café barista at Merlot’s, she may not be earning a lot of money or have the perfect life but she is content with what she has. Except for the fact that she gets an itch on her left palm and the writes messages from the beyond with it, especially as she is right handed and the messages are from her spirit guide.

Now when she thinks everything is going perfect with her boyfriend and her life, she gets a message saying “Dear Jen your boyfriend is cheating on you”. Read More...

Grounds to Kill - Wendy Roberts Jen is a barrista in an independent coffee shop in Seattle and has a few problems: Her father has some mental issues and decided to live on the streets and won't say a word. Plus she fears to either become nuts as well or to be developing a brain tumor since her left hand keeps scribbling little messages to her. Usually they are silly little predictions, but no matter what it was, it always came true. Now they turn into more concrete warnings, like when Jen is being alarmed by her hand that her boyfriend is sleeping with her (hated) half-sister, which turns out to be true. When the half-sister turns up dead shortly after, Jen finds herself to be suspect number 1.

The crime story isn't bad but a bit foreseeable. The way the protagonist gets messages through her hand is an interesting twist and the way the messages appear was always a good motor to give the story a new kick. I really liked the characters, especially the heroine. The whole atmosphere and the setting of this novel is lovely, maybe a bit too lovely and cute for my taste. The tone is light and funny and makes a good and comfortable read.

I enjoy a bit of a love story in a crime novel, but here it felt like it would have been better to either skip it or invest more time to build some sparks and get the reader really wish for them to become a couple. The way it was done here felt a bit half-hearted to me.

There is a great humor throughout the story. Even though the story is a bit less surprising than I wished, it is still good and solid entertainment. I devoured the novel in one day and will surely look out for the sequels.

(I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley.)