Elise SaxRezensionen

Not what I was expecting...

was a very quick, light and funny read. there wasn't too much character development so I can't say if I liked them or not...

A cozy mystery about a Gladia who lives with her grandmother who says Gladia is destined to be a matchmaker. She also seems destine to be a slueth, but not without causing havoc along the way. A fun, simple read. Goodreads: Three months has been Gladie Burger?s limit when it comes to staying in one place. That?s why Gladie is more than a little skeptical when her Grandma Zelda � who is more than a little psychic ¥ recruits her into the family?s matchmaking business in the quaint small town of Cannes, California. What?s more, Gladie is also highly unqualified, having a terrible track record with romance. Still, Zelda is convinced that her granddaughter has her clairvoyant ?gift.? But when the going gets tough, Gladie wonders if this gift has a return policy.When Zelda?s neighbor drops dead in his kitchen, Gladie is swept into his bizarre family?s drama. Despite warnings from the (distractingly gorgeous) chief of police to steer clear of his investigation, Gladie is out to prove that her neighbor?s death was murder. It?s not too long before she?s in way over her head ¥ with the hunky police chief, a dysfunctional family full of possible killers, and yet another mysterious and handsome man, whose attentions she?s unable to ignore. Gladie is clearly being pursued ¥ either by true love or by a murderer. Who will catch her first?

Very funny. Great characters.

Really enjoyed this book--great characters and lots of humor!

It’s been three years since Gladie married Spencer and settled down as a full-time matchmaker. The three years have been quiet, filled with marital bliss and absolutely no murder. Without a mystery to solve, Gladie has grown bored, even as she has exceled as a matchmaker with more than a little psychic ability. Now, her Grandma Zelda has decided to expand the family business to wedding planning, and Gladie is going to be in charge of it.

Her first customer wants a wedding with all the trimmings, including an axe-throwing room, a tractor parade, and a longhorn bull instead of a limo to the ceremony. When one of the wedding party winds up dead, a freak accident is blamed. But Gladie’s murder antennae are up, and she’s determined to prove that it’s murder and bring the killer to justice.

I don't mind humor in a story. Usually, I find it often adds to the plot and makes the characters more human and likeable, but I found this entire book to be silly and not in a good way. Actually, I didn't really care for the story or the characters. I did finish it hoping that maybe it would get better. No such luck.½

Five stars for a pleasant surprise. My first reaction was 'what the heck?' but it balanced well on hilarious and crazy. Similarly as Abby, I fell in love with Brodie. And last but not least, both Georgia and Latvia were mentioned in the book.

Got this set when it was free on Amazon recently.

Matilda Dare inherits a small town newspaper and house from a relative she didn't know well. Seeking to escape a jailed husband that she hopes will soon be an ex-, one who spread rumors that she's crazy, she relocates to New Mexico only to find that the rumors of her craziness have followed her.

Each book contains its own mystery which is solved but there is also an overarching mystery that is not solved in either of the two books contained in this set. Well, maybe two--why do the Goodnight brothers avoid each other (I suspect it has something to do with the sheriff's late wife) and who is keeping the blondes captive?

I don't buy that Matilda never sleeps (other than one brief 7 minute siesta recorded in one of the books). In real life, a human that doesn't ever sleep would have myriad health issues.

I liked the dogs.

Light-hearted "detective" story with a kindly witch as the detective. I tire of the portrayal of witches as being poor, misunderstood and benevolent creatures...but Sax does it well...with humour to boot. Although sexuality is fairly pervasive, Agatha is not the one at the center of this (and it is not graphic)...she is an innocent. If only this meme was not so popular: witchcraft is not "an amusing fiction". Should anyone be caught in it, it is incredibly evil and destructive, but deliverance is available through calling out to Jesus for His deliverance and salvation.

"I never want to leave this town. Cannes is a village on happy juice. LSD. It's the Wizard of Oz on shrooms."

I want to live in Cannes, California. It's definitely on my list of Fictional Places I'd Like to Live. I'd have a comfy chair and a big bowl of popcorn and I'd park myself on the sidewalk and just watch. It's crazy town in the most entertaining way possible.

I can't move to Cannes, but at least I have these books and I can visit this nutville and it's residents anytime I'd like.

In Love Game there's an ill wind blowing, and her name is Luanda. She's brought a special brand of crazy to Cannes and it's undoing all the good matches Gladys and her grandmother Zelda have made. Add to that a suitcase full of spider infested clothes, Gladys car keys going into a ravine, a group kidnapping and a murder and you have the makings of a very entertaining week in the best possible slapstick style.

I like Gladys, but I have to admit she's not always my favorite character in the books. I don't think I could be friends in Real Life with someone who has been known to be extremely flighty. But she's still a character you can get behind and cheer on. While each book has presented the entire cast in all it's zany glory, I would have to choose Ruth as my favorite from this book - she's got all the best lines. I should hope to be her when I'm in my 80's. She reminds me of the little old lady cartoons on the Hallmark cards - you know which one I mean? The skinny one that smokes, wears glasses, and has absolutely no filter between her brain and her mouth.

The romantic angle of the book is chaos of the best kind. I normally HATE HATE HATE love triangles, but what Gladie has going on here really doesn't qualify as a love triangle - more like it's raining men. (Hallelujah!) Holden is out of town and out of touch in this book, but we have a new player - Remington Cumberbatch. A detective working for Spencer Bolton, he's around often enough to keep Spencer from a sure thing and Gladys' hormones in overdrive. The chemistry is constant and intense between Gladys and both of these men, and her flirtations are fun without stretching the readers patience.

The kidnapping/murder was excellent - Ms. Sax can write a mystery. I didn't even know who to suspect until the end, when Luanda's denouement puts Gladys in the spotlight, leaving her to piece together the clues and come up with the answer. I'm not sure how realistic the deductions are, but they were fun nonetheless.

I'm hooked on this series and I hope Gladys has a long run full of fun, laugh-out-loud adventures. I'll be looking forward with eagerness for the next one.

Awesome!

I tried this out because a patron recommended it and I’m glad I did! Funny and suspenseful! I can’t wait to read this series!

Funny, charming, and cheeky, Die Noon introduces the quaint town of Goodnight where the locals are friendly, the paper is dedicated, and there's just a touch of murder. It's fun from beginning to end with a joyous ride in between that delivers a suspenseful mystery. Matilda Dare's life has gone through a few changes and this is what brought her to Goodnight, New Mexico where she's inherited a house and a newspaper. She's a fish out of the water but she's determined to awaken her reporter senses and run the paper with a new purpose. A murder later and she finds herself a little in over her head but she's determined to find answers and catch a killer. As if her life isn't complicated enough, the handsome sheriff seems to be looking into her and her handsome roommate has a tendency to show up at suspicious times.

Elise Sax has a knack for a quirky sense of humor and witty dialogue, and Die Noon is one of her funniest stories. The story is funny right from the start with Matilda Dare's tongue-in-cheek wit a humorous highlight of the mystery. Sax opens the story with Matilda's quirky tone using comments such as "I see dead people" and following it with "literal dead bodies." The humor is at times embarrassingly funny with naked torsos that seem to be flung at her and a certain pool incident that left her feeling mortified on her first reporter mission. She's a character that you can easily identify as she's the newcomer trying to fit into this close-knit smalltown, learn how to become a reporter, and run the paper she now owns.

The story has an intriguing subplot that finds a mysterious girl that appears to be a storyline that will thread into other books in the series. Every character in the town serves a purpose from this mysterious girl to every Goodnight that seems to appear. Every place Matilda goes seems to bring out another midnight from the sheriff to her handsome roommate to the youngest member of the paper's staff. Goodnights are everywhere in the town and it makes for a delightful running gag throughout the story. Homage to New Mexico's quirky history is paid with the town having several theories about aliens that come from die-hard believers and some whacky ideas. Sax has created a rich tradition and history for this town that stems from its characters and brings it to life.

Sax has created a town that has a small-town vibe, an alien obsession, and just a slight murder problem that will make you want to return long after the mystery ends. Cozy in its finest element, Die Noon is charming, laugh-out-loud funny, quirky, and delightful.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, bring me a dream... But maybe leave out the murder.

Gladie Burger has a very special calling. You could call it the family business, but all Burger women have the gift of matchmaking. Though Gladie isn't so sure she's inherited her Grandma Zelda's skills when it comes to helping people fall in love. An Affair to Dismember has Elise Sax's usual humor and wit that comes off the page in waves thanks to her charming and larger-than-life characters. Sax has a way of blending humor, mystery, and murder that makes reading one of her books so much fun. Her stories are playful and don't take themselves too seriously which is perfect for reading for the sake of enjoyment, relaxing, and would go great with a cup of tea.

An Affair to Dismember has a variety of characters that have larger-than-life personalities that give eccentricity and exuberance to the story. Sax offers a variety of characters such as Grandma Zelda and Bridget, who are two women that you never know what to expect out of their mouths. Their lines were often offbeat and humorous which showed their personalities to a T. Grandma Zelda was the sort that was a guide for Gladie to encourage and steer her onto her path while also be a source of slight embarrassment with comments about her love life. Though as we got to know these exuberant and delightful women, we found the police chief to possess a great deal of cockiness and ego. His dialogue often served his character well with the amount of ego and attitude that went into each word. His character gave Gladie a sense of frustration as she tried to navigate this path of destiny while also investigating a murder. Dialogue is Sax's best weapon in her stories with it serving the characters well and allowing you insight into their personalities by the way they talk such as Uncle Henry and his 1950s reminiscent way of speaking.

Sax always offers a delightful array of characters in her books and this one is no different. They're well-written and are the sort that you would want to spend the day talking to. The author has a knack for dialogue that fits the characters and sets them apart easily from each other. While Gladie deals with murder and matchmaking, she's facing her own crisis of destiny in trying to determine if the family business is even for her. Her first match to make is with the neighbor that so happens to be a perfect match for herself and creates an inner conflict for her as she initially tries to steer herself away from any feelings. Every great mystery series is filled with romantic tension and a love interest that is charming. This story has both of those things with her neighbor being a suspect, a conflicted first match, and her love interest.

The pacing was fantastic as you never knew what was going to happen and nothing ever happened just as you'd guess. The story revolves around matchmaking and Grandma Zelda trying to help get Gladie onto the path of her destiny by pointing out to her at one point that she has matchmaking but maybe even something else, referring to what she considers to be an extra knowing. All in all, we greatly enjoyed reading this and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys lighthearted, humorous, and charming mysteries.

Elise Sax has created a unique mystery that is zany, whimsical, funny, romantic, and features the perfect blend of knitting, ghosts, and murder. Agatha Bright has her work cut out for her trying to calm down the knitting club, mediate between two bickering aunts, dealing with a complicated relationship with a ghost, and facing a strong attraction to a handsome cop.

Our Thoughts:

1.) Bickering Aunts

Agatha's two aunts are constantly bickering and pulling Agatha into the middle of their squabbles yet their dynamic creates a comic relief throughout the mystery. They both clearly love Agatha and though they argue constantly, they're both Agatha's support system which helps ground her among these eccentric characters. We always love to see characters that have strong familial bonds and to see those connections so we were completely on board for this crazy dynamic.

2.) Love Triangle

The love triangle is subtly woven throughout the mystery with her complicated history with a ghost named John and the handsome cop Remington. She has a very complicated relationship with the ghost that gives us some mixed feelings. Agatha has been in love with him for quite a while and he's chosen to disappear for 'her own good' while being old-fashioned, protective, and harboring quite the reveal. Remington is new and handsome, shaking things up for her with a teasing personality and a strong attraction with her that comes with the chemistry of something new. With the way this book ended, we're curious to see what happens in book two.

3.) Power of the Bright Women

One of our favorite moments in the book is when Agatha goes to her aunts for help and together they draw upon the power of the Bright women. Female empowerment along with familial empowerment is one, among many, reason we enjoyed Sax's "Fear Hunter." We always navigate towards stories that are zany, eccentric, whimsical, funny, and women-powered.

We recommend "The Fear Hunter" for those that enjoy cozy mysteries, murder mysteries, and paranormal mysteries. It also makes for the perfect read for those that like zany stories and romantic plots.

Not much mystery, then finally, a solution. Main character seems gullible.

Review of eBook

Summer Island journalists Millie Mossberg and Cade Reed spend all their time working together . . . and trying to one-up each other. They both work for the “Summer Island Gazette” and today they’re sparring over a tell-all exclusive with deposed dictator Olivier Samba [who owns property on Summer Island]. The catch? Samba wants to do the interview while floating aloft in the basket of a hot air balloon.

Both journalists end up in the balloon basket, soaring over the countryside with Samba [who lied about the exclusive] and, in an escape worthy of a superhero movie, jumps out of the basket, leaving Millie and Cade aloft, with no idea of how to operate . . . or land . . . the balloon.

Can the journalists figure out how to land the balloon? Will Samba continue to elude capture [and prison]?

The story, told from Millie’s point of view, is, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. Destined to leave readers with a smile, the outrageous plot stretches the limits of believability, but the telling of the tale is filled with snarky repartee and bickering destined to wring a smile or two from readers as the two colleagues struggle to cover their true feelings while they explore their relationship.

Recommended for readers looking for an easy read filled with chuckles and sexy fun.

The premise is fun. The first couple chapters are fun. Then the muddle hits: Agatha is centuries old (she says this in the first chapter) and a virgin (see above) and her Aunts are even older, apparently immortal, but one of them dies somehow. And Agatha has to go run the stereotypical wacky-neighbor small town's soup shop-cum-book store.

And the wack continues...there's an Area 51 analogue called Area 38 that everyone knows about, a bunch of basement-dwelling conspiracy theorists, a hot boxer-cum-police detective (in a rinkydink little town?!), I will now bring up the NINE (9) w-bombs the author drops, a couple of dirtbags with a clear criminal plot get murdered (so what?), and the ghost who lives with the Brights does something at the very end that is just so...damn...squicky.

It wasn't well organized, the author lost sight of aspects of her premise, the title relates to absolutely nothing that I can see, and the whole Salem Witch Trials thing at the ending wasn't making the squicky actions of the ghost better in any way.

So, in a nutshell, not so much. I won't be reading more in the series. Darn it!½

Sweet, reasonably forgettable, easy to read, a bit steamy - over and done pretty quickly, interlinking characters throughout the five wishes books

Sweet, reasonably forgettable, easy to read, a bit steamy - over and done pretty quickly, interlinking characters throughout the five wishes books

2.5 stars

I read this for the Cozy Mystery square for Halloween Bingo

Something was definitely fishy about Randy Terns’s death, and at least one of his children thought he deserved to be murdered.

Cozy mystery isn't a genre I usually spend a lot of time in but I've dabbled and the ones I've dabbled in, tend to have a "cozy" calm, mysterious but relaxing feel to them, not so here.

The only time the heroine isn't on the go or jumping here and there, is when she is asleep, which doesn't last long. She's in town to take over her grandmother's matchmaking business but doesn't quite have the touch but doesn't matter since she only focuses on that for about 3% of the story. One of her neighbors was found dead in the kitchen and she thinks (?? I guess but she never seems totally sure even though she is running around trying to solve the "murder") he was murdered.

What follows is a story that felt incredibly manic and held together with rubber bands and flimsy plot threads. Why does such a small town, I don't think they even have a 20 person police force (they don't have their own 911 call center) have a multi-million dollar new station? This is the first in the series but like my complaints about Angelfalls, you still have to craft story that provides depth in regards to characters and plot in book one.

There is a love triangle but with one guy that barely is a pencil sketch and the heroine only seems to like because he is hot and the other that seems like the clear future winner. I'm not quite sure what the heroine saw in the pencil sketch (besides good looks) and I'm not sure what either guy saw in the heroine. The murder mystery was convoluted as all get out and had a reveal dump at the end.

This was so manic and jumbled I felt like I was lost in a bouncy castle. I don't think I'll be continuing on in the series, especially since I am not a fan of love triangles, they always seem to be dragged out way to long.

Bonus point for having Rottweilers in the story but point deduction for having them be growling frightening beasts.

Man Candy is another hilarious book from Elise Sax. Raine has been in love with Wade since they were kids but he doesn’t even know she exists. He’s coming home in 3 weeks and since he likes thin women – which she’s not – she starts training to lose 30 pounds by then. She over-does her training and faints. Lucky for her, Dirk was there to catch her. Oh yeah, Dirk is a gorgeous movie star who was vacationing in town.

Raine had low self-esteem. She loved a man she didn’t really know well but had built him into the man of her dreams in her mind. Meanwhile, Dirk actually likes her for who she is but she doesn’t see it.

Fans of fun, sexy romance will love this book.

This was absolutely hysterical!

How can a story about an unexpected pregnancy be funny? It's the inner thoughts of the woman that does it. I was laughing so hard in the first chapter that I had tears streaming down my face and could hardly catch my breath. And that happened several times throughout the book. OK, there was serious stuff in there, too. Like how she was going to break the news to the daddy. That was hard enough but they had known each other since kindergarten and been rivals and playing pranks on each other all that time. So how was she going to get him to take her seriously? Then there was the deposed dictator in a hot air balloon. Now the balloon was funny but frightening, too.

If you want a good laugh, read this book. But a warning. Don't read it in public.

The style of writing is not for me. I kept reading for a challenge … as there were several tea drinking scense and the writer seemed to be channeling Lewis Carroll’s writing style which I thought was appropriate for this particular challenge titled The Madhatter’s Tea Party..

This had most of the elements I enjoy in a light mystery, but I did not find it especially enticing. In fact, I debated dropping it unfinished at least twice.

I am bored with the trope of the single woman all of a sudden becoming catnip to ALL the MOST attractive lads in the vicinity. She is clearly Not ALL That- especially since she seems to be a bit dim-witted- so why are 2 hunks panting after her all of a sudden?

Also, she refuses to keep her word, even when it's for her own good. She does stupid things and regularly requires rescue from one or another of the hunks.

The deaths were often gory, but fortunately not described at length.

All in all, though- it just went on far too long, and by the time of the "twist" at the end, I really didn't care anymore.

I found this mystery/matchmaking story to be totally unique. It was silly, sexy men all the time, and granny (like me) loves to eat out at fast food joints, all the time!!!!! You never knew from one moment to the next who the murderer was. It was really funny when you find out.

There is a sick-o family across the street that the granddaughter gets involved with after the dad had an "accident" and had his head bashed in. The family insisted he was murdered even though the cops said it was an accident. The whole book is how they keep bugging Glady non-stop, every time she turns around. When she is not with them, she is usually with the oh so hot police chief, Spencer. Then there is the hot new next door neighbor, Holden, who loves kissing her. This is a rip roaring good time. I surely loved reading this!