A Good Day for Chardonnay is a bitingly humorous murder procedural and the second book in the series by Darynda Jones. Released 27th July 2021 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 416 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats (paperback due out in 2022). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is such a relentlessly humorous book - honestly more of a slapstick romcom with murder mystery elements. The dialogue can only be described as repartee and is delivered rapid fire and glibly throughout even when (in my opinion) it's unwarranted such as discussing murder, abduction, sexual assault, and stabbing. Protagonist Sun, the titular sheriff of her small mountain town, has more inappropriate intrusive sexual thoughts about potential perpetrators and random passersby than would seem possible or entirely healthy. It's all crotches and abs. To be fair, most of the crotch references were concerning a local raccoon run amok (don't ask) which irritatingly enough was referred to on multiple occasions as a rodent (they're not - they're procyonids and more closely related to kinkajous and coatis).
All that aside, the drawbacks for me personally: the rapid fire funny dialogue, the relentless sexy talk, the bitingly sarcastic writing, and the tough-guy action will be pluses for readers who really enjoy romance mysteries with lots of action and fighting. The plotting is tight and the descriptive writing is competent and readable; the author does know her craft. There are several plot threads which entwine more closely throughout this book, culminating in a satisfying denouement and resolution. Most of the plotlines are resolved in this book so it works well as a standalone, but there's a central background theme which arcs throughout this book and the first one. That plot theme includes abduction and sexual assault in Sun's past, so readers should be aware of potential triggers.
Three and a half stars (for me), likely higher for readers who enjoy humorous romance.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
No comments:
Post a Comment