I should have gone with my gut and quit reading halfway thru the 3rd book in this series, but I didn't. :( I finished the 3rd and said I'd give the 4th a chance, and that was a mistake.

This was not a mystery. Oh sure, a few people died, but that was just filler for the horrible romance. I don't look for romance, in a cozy mystery (or any mystery), but I don't mind if it's there, if it's mature, and peripheral. If a character is old enough to be sluething about and solving a murder, they are old enough to bring some maturity to a relationship. Sadly, that's not the case here.

So, if this isn't a mystery, what is it? It's the story of what's going on in the mind of Brooklyn Wainwright. I'm assuming Brooklyn is late 20's/early 30's, but in her head, she's a middle school girl with obsessive and immature thoughts and feelings for her boyfriend. This entire book is a look inside her mind, a rollercoaster ride of a school-girl crush. Ugh! There is no way a sexy foreign secret service agent is interested in this little girl, it's so unbelievable, it's distracting. Of course the non-stop gushing, begging, apologizing for nothing and never-ending "thank you for being here with me" is nauseating.

Mind you, I thank my spouse, regularly, for all he does, but he would tape my mouth shut if I thanked him a dozen times a day, simply for walking through the room and gracing me with his presence.

I've only kept on with this series because of the setting(s) and the other characters. This series has the potential to be fabulous! It's just so disappointing that the author wants to take us on childish ride instead of giving us an intelligent mystery to solve.

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I enjoy Brooklyn Wainwright and her bookbinding and book repair business. It's pretty interesting to me that I like the stories as much as I do. Brooklyn is a bit of a silly immature girl with her wonderful, mysterious boyfriend who moves in with her in this book. Oops, this is from a sappy romance novel. I'm a semi-macho, mature 65-year-old guy; how could I like this book? Well, I dunno. But I do like it.

The plot? Weak, weak, weak. It takes some odd twists and truly unlikely turns near the end. Surely that would ruin it for me. Well, not so much. I enjoyed it.

I think that it takes an author with unusual skill to write a book with so many weaknesses that is still fun, still interesting, and still enjoyable to read and to have read.

What can I say? I really liked this book.

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This is a delightful cozy mystery that will definetly hold your interest due to the great character development of each of the characters and a great plot! Bookbinder, Brooklyn Wainwright's friend Robin, returns from trip to India and ask Brooklyn to restore and appraise antique book on the Kama Sutra. There begins the mystery of ransacked apartments and several murders in this exciting who-done-it. Brooklyn's boyfried, British security expert, Derek Stone, is able and willing to protect and help Brooklyn solve the murders while spicing up her love life!
Great book! I highly recommned.

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