Color Me Murder by Krista Davis debuts as the first installment in the Pen and Ink cozy mystery series.  As an added bonus the front and back covers are colorable.

Florrie Fox enjoys working and managing the Color Me Read bookstore.  She takes delight in helping the customers and making them happy with their book finds.  After a long day at work, Florrie loves to unwind with her cat, Peaches and design adult coloring books.  

Living in Reston, Virigina, Florrie is looking for a place closer to work. When the owner of the bookstore, Professor John Maxwell offers his empty carriage house rent free, Florrie jumps at the proposition, but she must take residence right away before his "good for nothing" nephew, Delbert takes claim on it.  One morning after opening up the bookstore, Florrie finds Delbert dead and the evidence points to dear, old Professor Maxwell.  Florrie knows he didn't kill his nephew and with paper and pen in hand, Florrie sketches out the clues to free Professor Maxwell.

Color Me Murder is a quick, enjoyable read.  The chapters are short and the pages are colorful, sprinkled with a little humor.  The author vividly describes each character and scene. My image of the bookstore is vintage and musty with tables of books in the center aisles and a sliding book ladder.  The characters are lively and well portrayed.  Florrie is my favorite character.  She's giving with a dash of spontaneity.  There are many characters in this cozy mystery, but they're easy to follow and each play an intricate part.  Both the plot and subplot are fast paced, yet smoothly flow into each other.

In the future, I'm looking forward to reading more of the Pen and Ink series.  I recommend Color Me Read to cozy mystery lovers or not who love to read book-themed mysteries.

Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Books for the ARC.

I wanted to love this, because who can't resist an entire pet friendly town, cute pets and a great mystery? I know I can't.  Unfortunately, this one just didn't live up to my expectations. I've read the earlier books in this series and enjoyed them, but I just couldn't get in to this one.  The matchmaker storyline just felt...forced.  I wasn't feeling it any more than Holly was.  While the plot was intriguing and interesting, I felt like it just dragged on too long, there were parts in the middle where it just lost my interest, and it took me a few tries to get through it. While I'll continue to read this series, this book just underwhelmed me. 

I didn't realise I had another book in this series to read until it arrived the other day; nor did I remember it being a Christmas themed one.  One it showed up in my mailbox, of course I had to move it up the top of the TBR pile and get it read before Christmas.

In my post about her previous book, Mission Impawsible, I complained about the additional character and the emerging love triangle.  Now, I don't know if a lot of other people felt the same way or what, but this book neither included that character nor referred to him in any way.  Davis simply acted as though Mission Impawsible never existed in the Wagtail timeline, and as things end in this book, I doubt he'll be popping back up.

The mystery was much better plotted too, although the murder a horribly sad one, something not typical of cozies.  All in all, it was a very solid cozy read with lots of effort at Christmas spirit (the murder in this one makes it hard to feel like the effort succeeded).

Not sure if I'll use this for a festive square or not, but if I do, I'll update my post accordingly.

Not bad, but not her best.  I was in a mood today, and nothing set right with me except this book, so Davis gets huge points for that, but she's doing something weird with love interests in this series in much the same way she's done in her other one (the Domestic Diva series), that resulted in my giving up that series out of sheer frustration.  Even though I don't read mysteries for the romance, it's still annoying when the author acts as though she can't make up her mind, and Mission Impawsible smacks of a love triangle setup.  

Still, who amongst us wouldn't like to live in a town where the pets are treated as equals with their own menus at restaurants and their own play parks all over town?  The matchmaking event was an interesting concept as well, and the strong theme of animal rescue and adoption went a long way towards compensating for the odd human story line.

Not a bad read, not a great one, but definitely adequate to the needs of my grumpy self today.

Book themes for Bodhi Day:  Read a book set in Nepal, India or Tibet, –OR– which involves animal rescue.

Either these books are getting better, or I’m getting desensitized to them and less inclined to be nitpicky. Either way, I was able to enjoy this adorable little mystery full of adorable pets (DOGGIES!! KITTIES!!) and their indulgent owners, even though my brain was probably only 60% engaged with the story for the majority of the book. Although I couldn’t have figured out the murderer from the clues revealed along the way, it wasn’t too difficult since

Also, How could they have been so clueless about the thievery since

Anyway, it was a cute story, and I enjoyed it very much.

Audio version, borrowed from my public library via Overdrive. Jeanie Kanaley’s performance has not improved at all over the first two books. Her pacing and tone of voice do not vary, regardless of whether she’s narrating the consumption of pancakes or the main character stumbling over a dead body.