The Secret, Book & Scone Society

ADVANCE APOLOGIES FOR THE LONG RANT POST- Lots to unpack…if you don’t want to read the full review, scroll to the last paragraph to see why I gave this 2 stars!

I so badly wanted to like this book.

The ‘cozy mystery’ genre is one that I have recently discovered and occasionally use to cleanse my reading palette every now and then, as they are usually easy to read and not terribly complex. So far, I’ve only read one series and thought this would be a great one to try that was out of my usual scope!

Boy, was I wrong.

If I had been reading this book, I likely wouldn’t have made it past page 50…

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Cris Dukehart. Cris was an enjoyable narrator and I would listen to one of her narrations any day.

This book follows the typical cadence of a cozy mystery – usually set in a quiet town (Miracle Springs in this instance), there’s a protagonist (Nora) who leads a relatively normal life (bookshop owner) who somehow gets sucked into the whirlwind of a murderous who-done-it and ultimately comes face to face with the perpetrator.

The setting of this novel is very quaint and sounded lovely. I loved the idea of Nora running a bookstore (as it has always been a dream of mine) and her use of books as therapeutic treatment. The local bakery is run by Hester, who has an uncanny ability to bake delicious scones for each individual that is somehow able to launch them back to a happy memory.

Nora and Hester are originally roped into the murder mystery after the victim was found dead shortly after he spoke to each of them on separate occasions. One thing leads to another, and before long, there’s a small group of women trying to solve the mystery of the man’s death.

The overall storyline was decent. The main characters started off as likeable and relatable, but that quickly fell to the wayside.

Throughout the book, we’re told that Nora has received severe burns to one side of her face and lost part of a finger in the same accident that gave her the burns. We, as the reader, are reminded of these flaws once every page it seems, just in case you forgot.

The women that come together all have a secret they are ashamed of that are slowly revealed over the course of the story. Starting with this – none of the secrets revealed were anything I personally believed should be something of shame…except Nora’s story. Each woman revealed slowly that they were a victim of circumstance or one minor decision led them to the moment of which they are most ashamed…except Nora.

Nora’s character was very annoying. For one who was so worried about her looks and how the world perceived her, she sure took the time to judge others on a whim. She constantly obsessed about her appearance and how others didn’t like her because of how she looked, despite the fact she was a very successful bibliotherapist – in my opinion, it would take a very strong person to take life advice from someone they didn’t like. Not to mention, it takes a very shallow person to only judge someone on their appearance, deformed or not.

All of the male characters in the story were laughably exaggerated, and all but the victim and Nora’s very creepy love interest (Jed) were cast as the villian at some point in the story. It was almost as if Adams hated all men and wanted to write about how terrible they all are. Listen, I’m all for calling out a man (or a woman) for bad/unacceptable behavior, but saying that one pig-ish guy makes all guys pigs is like saying one bitchy woman makes all women bitches…I don’t respond well to broad generalizations.

The love stories that are introduced throughout the book are either forced, creepy, or both. If any man said to me the things Jed said to Nora, I’d file for a restraining order. He was way too much way too soon. At one point, I was convinced he was actually the bad guy because of how creepy he was.

But enough is enough…to summarize the remainder of my complaints:

• It felt like Adams challenged herself to see how many book references she could make in one novel
  • She treated each reference as something that needed explanation as well. At one point, a character to whom she gave a minor in English needed an explanation of who Sherlock Holmes was and what the story of Hound of the Baskervilles was all about…an English minor would know Holmes and one of the most famous books he features in (head pound)
• The dialogue was stilted and forced
• There was too much explanation which made me feel as though I was being talked down to, or that I was too stupid to put together the very obvious point she had just made
  • Example: Nora asked Jed a question about his mother. He was described as saying “oh yeah. I don’t want to really discuss it further” accompanied by the description of a look of clear discomfort on his face. This scene was then drawn out by two or three additional sentences of Nora’s thought process “oh this must be a tough topic for him. There’s a painful story there. Something he doesn’t want to discuss. Something painful about his mother”. Like…NO WAY REALLY?!

To end this rant-fest (apologies, I just had A LOT I didn’t like about this book), it receives 2 stars because the story was entertaining enough to keep on in the background while I worked since I didn’t have to apply a large amount of brainpower to follow along, and I will admit, the villain-reveal scene had two twists to it that I was not expecting. As I’m a sucker for a twist ending, I will give props where props are due.