Monday, November 10, 2014

BOOK REVIEW: Kicked to the Curb


SYNOPSIS

Cara Mia Delgatto’s cup runneth over with worries. Her ex-husband is refusing to pay their son’s college tuition, her evil sister is pulling mean pranks, and her old boyfriend has broken her heart. And that’s just the personal stuff. She’s also concerned about keeping the cash register ringing at The Treasure Chest, her retail store specializing in upcycled, recycled, and repurposed décor items with a coastal theme. The media event that Cara plans turns nasty when reporter Kathy Simmons threatens to share unsavory details from the shopkeeper’s past. Things get really dicey when Kathy mysteriously disappears. Cara’s other problems seem trivial in comparison to…a murder investigation!


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REVIEW

Poor Cara Mia ('my heart') Delgatto.  In the first book of this series, "Tear Down and Die", she moves to the Treasure Coast of Florida where her grandparents lived, buys a small apartment building and finds a corpse in it.  Something tells me that wasn't in the listing.

Well in this 2nd book, "Kicked to the Curb", Cara gets dropped in it rather quickly.  This time around, she is a proprietress of 'The Treasure Chest'.  The day after her big VIP Event, a part-time reporter who was aggravatingly insistent upon purchasing an old photo that evening, and wasn't above attempting blackmail to do it, was found dead, stuffed in the trunk of a car behind the building next door.  (Take a breath, that was a long sentence.)

That's one thing I love about cozies.  Whether they are based on pets, food, crafts, car racing, or whatever, there are many, many threads of intrigue that go into the stories.  Ms. Campbell Slan's, "Kicked to the  Curb" is an excellent example of how to weave together these threads of story lines into a cohesive whole.  I appreciated the fact that at the beginning of the chapter, a name is listed.  It is through that person's eyes that we then read and interpret the story in that chapter.

And the Old Florida Photos are important as well.  They are the link to something that happened in the area long ago.  And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I liked the emphasis at The Treasure Chest on recycling, upcycling and the like.  Kicked to the Curb is just the 'spoonful of sugar' we need to help the medicine of reclaiming lost or wasted resources to help our planet stay around a little longer.  

I am looking forward to reading the first book in the series, the short story that relates to the series and any future installments!

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AUTHOR INFORMATION




National Bestselling and Award-Winning Author Joanna Campbell Slan has penned 26 books, including the popular Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series (Agatha Award Finalist). Her new series featuring Cara Mia Delgatto is a spin off from those books. Joanna writes about spunky women who get by with a little help from their friends. A crafting junkie, Joanna lives on a nearly deserted island in Florida with her dog, Jax, who is making a career out of stealing women’s lingerie.



Click the above link for the rest of the tour schedule, including more reviews, as well as interviews, guest posts and a Rafflecopter giveaway for one of : 3 e-copies of Kicked to the Curb, 2 print copies of Kicked to the Curb or a $50 Amazon gift card!

(Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book from the author and publishers via Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.)

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