Helpful Score: 4
A few chapters into this book, I almost gave up on it, but I'm glad I didn't. It turned out to be a really good read. In a nutshell, the main character comes in to take over a diner for a good friend who has to have surgery. A local news personality is murdered in the diner and there are a lot of suspects and questions. On top of that, the diner's business is in a slump and the main character needs to change things up. That's where the Ethnic Eats part comes in. As to the mystery, the motive and the villain weren't a total surprise, but I hadn't worked out all the details either. I look forward to reading French Fried, the next book in this series.
I have finished reading this first book of a new series and I just loved it. Happily for me I have the second book already and am well into that one. The series is called 'An Ethnic Eats Mystery' and the first book is "Irish Stewed." The MC comes to the sleepy town of Hubbard, Ohio because her Aunt Sophie who owns a restaurant there, is having a knee replacement surgery and will be away for at least 6 weeks. Laurel, the MC, has a long career as a personal chef for a huge Hollywood star, and Aunt Sophie yells for her help. Laurel has been receiving pictures over the years of Sophie's restaurant, white linen tablecloths, a wine cellar, maitre'd, etc. The fact that the restaurant turns out to be something very different than the pictures is just problem #1......
I enjoyed this first in a series, by Kylie Logan. You'll think your in Ireland, if you don't focus on on the reference to small town Ohio. But that's okay. The main character,Laurel, has some real issues with stating right up front, in fact, over and over, that she cares deeply for no one and nothing. Doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve, and no man can get to her. Shes one calloused woman for being young,single, beautiful, smart and talented. Yeah, that got annoying. Fast. Her counter stars, the man: Declan, was portrayed as one would expect, delicious, available,built, smelled good, amazing in every way. But even that was acceptable. The female co star:Sophie, the owner of the dumpy restaurant that Laurel was fetched from Hollywood to rescue, well, Sophie kind of stole the show, she had a magic of her own. The draw for me was the restaurant and the foodie theme. I would have loved to read more on the ethnic food theme that they started to incorporate by infusing Irish stew into the menu. But it did not get to far into that. The restaurant, in an old train terminal was the most intriguing aspect of the book for me, along with the supporting castf of characters, especially the cook. He was cool. not to say the murder, that of a semi celebrity News man was not notable. It was a tough one to zero in on, as to- the who done it. All in all, a pretty good start to a new series, and imho well written. More foodie material would push it to 5 stars for me, but im moving on to the next one. One recipe included.
