Lethal Lifestyles

by LynDee Walker
Book 6 of A Nichelle Clarke Crime Thriller

I'm having a hard time deciding how to feel about this book.  On the one hand, this was an exciting, fast-paced read where the action just keeps the story moving forward.  On the other hand, you once again get Nichelle spending a lot of her time racing against the clock, the upper administration, her rivals, and now other mysterious higher powers, to find the truth in a murder mystery.  And once again, law enforcement is conveniently absent with no power to do any true investigating.

While I love that Nichelle is such a strong, resourceful heroine, I'm also exhausted after reading this book (and not only because I kept at it when I probably should have been sleeping).  There was SO MUCH going on in this book, and so much going on in Nichelle's life already, that I'm frankly kind of getting tired of the constant upward battle that she's facing off with with her weasel-y publisher.  And while I understand that the rivalries are fierce and probably necessary between her and other ambitious reporters, sometimes the battles get a little too catty for my liking... and maybe too repetitive.

BUT, on the other hand, I really DID enjoy the mystery in this book; sans all the office drama, I think I would have really loved all the action, the investigation, and all the strange twists that were thrown in.  I also loved that Nichelle and Kyle could team up and investigate the case together without romance or hurt feelings getting in the way--they DO make a pretty good team.

Unfortunately, speaking of the romance, I'm STILL not feeling Joey, the mysterious mafia love interest, now serious significant other.  I just don't see enough of him and don't know enough of him to care about this love story.  It's been six books into the series, and Joey is really taking the tall, dark, mysterious, and handsome love interest trope to a new level.  At some point, I feel like we need to start getting to know Joey more if I'm to believe that Nichelle and Joey are having a serious relationship outside of physical attraction.  And because of that, I'm actually warming up to Kyle a little bit more... even if I still like Nichelle's co-worker Grant Parker more.

At least we get to see Kyle on a more personal level and we're getting to know him better with each book.  His cockiness is also starting to grow on me, even if his over-protective streak is a bit tiring.

Apparently I'm hard to please.

As far as the series itself goes, I'm still very much enjoying it, so I'll definitely continue reading, even if I'm not planning on jumping into the very next book right away.


***

Booklikes-opoly 2019

Roll #20:
Square: The Stay-cation 6 | Read a book set in your home town, state, or country, or that you checked out of your local library, or that has been on your (physical) bookshelves since last summer.

How it fits:  This book takes place in my home country (U.S.A.)
Page Count: 372
Cash: $3

I've been a HUGE fan of this series from the word go, and I keep waiting for a mediocre book because statistically, every series has at least one.  Lethal Lifestyles wasn't it, although at the beginning, I thought it might be.

I'm not a fan of friend-in-peril storylines; they are the most used trope in cozy mysteries and I was over them years ago.  I'm also not a fan of weddings as a setting, so when chapter 1 starts with a dead guy at a rehearsal dinner and the friend is in peril by the end of chapter 3, I figured I was going to have to work at this one.

Uh-uh.  Not even a little bit.  The wedding theme was tucked firmly to the back after 5 or 6 chapters and what came next was just more of a thriller than a cozy mystery.  Not in the non-stop, bullets flying, TSTL kind of way, but thriller in sense that this is an incredibly complicated mystery and one of the first ones I've read that comes close to how difficult I imagine it must be in real life to solve a crime.  Nichelle would find one thread of the mystery, follow it, and find instead of an answer, another thread that took of in another direction.  This was NOT a linear plot, - there were at least 4 motives for this guys death - but man, it was NEVER boring.

I deducted a half-star because there was one small moment that felt way too coincidental, so it stuck out, and because there was a pivotal moment when the motive (if not the killer - had no idea about that until the end) became clear and it took Nichelle much longer to clue into it than it should have.  But these were small things.  The editing was, as far as I could tell, perfect.

In general, I can't say enough good things about this series; as a crime reporter Nichelle is in the perfect position be an amateur sleuth and she gets most of her facts from following the paper trails and doing legitimate interviews with people she reports on.  She has a lot of strong female friendships and a great romance in the making.

The only drawback is having to wait another year for the next one.

www, Nicey is back. I just love these books. I think she is one of my favorite characters. She has a lot of testosterone around her, but she still seems to find trouble. However, she always gets the job done and usually beats the her cohort "Charlie" from the rival network with the scoop.

Shoes, this girl is all about the shoes. That's definitely something that I like about her as well. She has ethics and is genuinely caring and always tries to be there for her friends.

This book has more plot twists than a bag of pretzels and the character development is above par. I fell in love with Nichelle in book one and she hasn't let me down yet. I haven't missed a book yet and don't plan to do so in the future. This is a great series and I highly recommend it.

Thanks Henery Press for this and all the requests you have so graciously approved and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review. I can honestly say that there are not many Henery Press books that I've read that I would not recommend. That hen house has definitely got their coop together.