Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen Mysteries) | List Price: $22.00
Discount Price: $9.75
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Binding: Hardcover
Probably more like 2 1/2 stars -- good enough plot that I kept reading [Posted on 2008-06-17]
But -- a lot of the book I found silly and/or irritating.
I thought the main character, Hannah, was kind of a prig, and her romantic triangle a bit too prim and proper for this day and age and a woman who is clearly well out of her teens.
And -- although I am a major cat lover -- there was WAY too much about Hannah's cat in this book. Who really wants to listen to descriptions of the cute things a cat did, unless the cat is your own cat! And I never did understand the cat tree this cat received as a present, despite an extensive description. I read the cat scenes because I kept thinking the cat had something to do with the plot.
I also think this would be a very bad book to read if you were on a diet, because there are a lot of descriptions of food and recipes -- not in the appendix, but mixed right in there with the book. I found this annoying and distracting from a pretty good plot.
The book needed a copyeditor, including one who would do some fact checking. A character flies from the Central Time Zone to Eastern Standard Time, and there's a conversation about what time is it there. Well, if it's almost 2 pm, it's almost 1 pm in CST, but the character acts as if she's talking to someone in Mongolia. Additionally, the author has already told us that this character is eating pizza so early in the day the parking lot at the restaurant is practically empty -- which is not likely to be the case around 1 pm! I think the Californian author was thinking of PST rather than CST.
Still, the plotting was pretty good, and it's light reading. I'm just glad I was given the book and didn't spend my own money on this.
Pure Fun ! ! [Posted on 2008-06-24]
I love the series - each one seems to be better than the last - and the recipes - I've tried many of them from the different books in the system - so far they have all recieved raves from not only family but from fellow teachers. Thanks for the wonderful recipes! ! !
Meh... [Posted on 2008-09-02]
I just don't have the patience anymore. Initially the series was tight and fun, with recipes thrown in as an added bonus. Now Hannah is getting unlikeable and full of herself and, if she is so concerned with being an old maid, why doesn't she do something about it? It's tiresome and I think an earlier reviewer put it best when likening it to having a high-school crush on two boys at the same time. This isn't high school and it is a bit insulting to "small-town" living in that it's ridiculous to believe that Hannah and only Hannah has this amazing ability to solve crimes whilst her little cult of personality grows by leaps and bounds. Soon there won't be anyone left who hasn't had a family member killed and had to deal with Hannah's crime-solving prowess. Yikes. I get the impression that the author is getting a bit lazy and personally doesn't feel like bringing the triangle to a resolution for fear of alienating either the "Normans" or the "Mikes". Unfortunately, this leads to cringe-inducing moments that just make these books almost intolerable anymore. Perhaps Fluke should take a break from the series, compile a nice cookbook, then just be brutal and be done with it. It's just not fun anymore.
Delicious! [Posted on 2008-10-23]
Another tasty treat from Ms. Fluke. Her Hannah Swenson series is a winner, and I know I really enjoy it. This is a particularly strong book this time. And we have all that we have come to expect from Ms. Fluke-great characterization, a killer plot and a neat little mystery to solve. As well as lots of quite delicious recipes. I read this series because I love Hannah and her friends and family so much, but I truly enjoy the stories too. I am sad because I am caught up now in this series, and now have to wait for the next book which is to come out sometime early next year. This book is set at the Lake Eden resort and Hannah is involved with her business partner Lisa's family reunion, when a long-lost family member returns to the family fold, and then is found dead. Hannah must figure out what has happened, and she does so with the help of her sisters and Norman. This is a great cozy series!
no proofreading [Posted on 2008-11-13]
I've read all the books in this series, but I think I'm finished now. It just seems that the author is just filling in a story around some recipes. Also, I've never read a book with so many typos. Were they trying to get it to the printer so fast they decided to skip this process? All in all, a very dissapointing book.
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