Death by Pumpkin Spice by Alex Erickson Review

 Good Morning Sweet Friends :)

I pray today finds you all doing well, and I'm so thankful you've taken the time to drop on by The Preppy Book Princess today for another book review.

I'm Kirby, and I'm happy to welcome you to my little corner of the bookish internet.

My favorite genre to read is Christian fiction, but I do still read across a wide variety of other genres as well, one of them being cozy mysteries. Especially during the ber months, I love to curl up with a warm blanket, a cup of my favorite tea, and an atmospheric cozy mystery.

I recently finished another one of these titles, and today I'm here to share with you all what I ended up thinking about it.

I hope you'll all keep on reading down below for today's full review.

Death by Pumpkin Spice by Alex Erickson:

Source: Libby App

Publisher: Kensington

Publication Date: September 27th, 2016

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Series: Bookstore Cafe Mystery

Synopsis:

Bookstore café owner Krissy Hancock would rather spend Halloween serving pumpkin goodies than wearing costumes with Pine Hills’ wealthiest at Yarborough mansion, especially when the soiree shapes up to be more trick than treat . . .
 
As if a run-in with an old flame and a failed marriage proposal weren’t enough to horrify Krissy for one night, a woman is found strangled to death in a room filled with ominous jack-o’-lanterns. All signs suggest a crime of passion—but when the hostess’s jewelry disappears, malevolent intentions seem way more likely . . .
 
With the estate on lockdown and a killer roaming the halls, Krissy must help Officer Paul Dalton investigate each nook, cranny, and guest for answers—while also confronting a few demons of her own. Someone has lots of skeletons in the closet, and Krissy better tread lightly to expose them . . .

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

Recently I was preparing to go on holiday, and wanted to put some ebooks on my phone that were autumish in theme. I did a quick search for books that had pumpkin in the title, and since I usually adore a good cozy mystery, this one sounded like something that would be right what I was looking for.

Unfortunately, this book was a bit of a mess, and it took me the entirety of our almost two week holiday to get through it. The main character is supremely obnoxious, and both her self loathing and her pulling several men along for the chase grated on my nerves quite early on into the story. She never redeemed herself in my eyes, and seemed to show little to no growth by the time the story wraps up.

Going into this one, I didn't realize that almost the entirety of the plot takes place over the course of one single evening, and it just didn't work for me. The pacing was off, everything seemed either rushed or disjointed, and even the conclusion of the mystery seemed rushed in a way that was hard to be perceived as believable.

The title was misleading was pumpkin spice plays basically no part of the story, and honestly, I didn't think this one even worked well under the cozy heading, as there wasn't much of anything cozy about. The plot was heavily sexualized, and it got monotonous hearing the main character judge the way everyone else was behaving romantically, while never taking a good hard look in the mirror at herself.

Rarely have I found such an unlikeable protagonist in a story ever, and unfortunately this one gets a hard pass from me. I have no urge to read any other titles in this series, and I think if you're in the mood for a cozy mystery, there are so many other better options available than this title.

Final Rating: 2/5.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.