This was tough. I enjoyed the books, but at the same time I can see why some people don't. The interludes, while amusing, got old. Some wete just way too long and boring. And the "Buttercup's Baby" extra...I could have lived without it.

I did enjoyed the story and the whimsy. It was full of adventure, romance, and humor. I enjoyed the character developement and learning more of the backstories of everyone. I think I could read this again minus the interludes.

Oh, Geoffrey.

The poor, put-upon Duke of Brittany is one of my favorite middle children in all of literature. 

Over-thinker, unlucky pawn, forever to be disappointed, but how hard he tries, how passionately he rages . . . 

-cg

The last hour or so of this book was the best. I didn't figure out the killer on my own, and the one big fake-out worked on me (there I was, gearing up to be pissed off, and the killer turned out to be someone else). There was a tragic tinge to the ending - the killer's motive, the stuff surrounding it, and Nils finally firmly cutting things off with his ex-wife for his own emotional well-being.

But in order to get to that last hour, I had to deal with my constant annoyance at Nils' love life and the murder mystery that didn't seem to be going anywhere for the bulk of the book. I'm deciding between a final rating of anywhere from 2 to 3 stars. I did at least really like the narrator. I don't plan to continue this series, though.

I now have a good idea who the murderer probably is. Since Nils just stumbled across the person's motive but hasn't once considered it to be a motive and hasn't added this person to his suspect list, there's a good chance I'm correct. The vacuum cleaner bag thing is a little weird, but I could imagine this person deliberately befriending the cleaning staff in order to get what they needed.

Nils' ex-wife is one of the few characters in this book that really seems to have it together. Sure, she still sleeps with Nils, but I think their marriage might have ended because she realized that she preferred not being married (a guess on my part, since readers still haven't been told why they got divorced). I think she figured that Nils was happy as she was with their "friends with benefits" relationship - not taking the time to verbally confirm this with him is one of the areas where she went wrong. Other than that, she seems happy and successful, which is more than I can say for Nils.