Book Review: Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi

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Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi  was published on March 11, 2025 by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Bantam. It opens with Claire finding out that her fiancé, Noah, isn't working where he said he was and is now ghosting her. Claire must find out why. Book Review: Claire, Darling by Callie Kazumi Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine / Bantam for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Claire Darling by Callie Kazumi for free in exchange for my honest review. I was absolutely thrilled when my request for a copy was approved because the synopsis was so good. From the beginning, I absolutely loved the main character of Claire and her work friend named Sukhi. Throughout the novel, we learn about Claire's past and how terrible her mother was towards her. I kept hoping that somehow we would learn who Claire's father was and would eventually connect with him. It's really no wonder Claire had no self confidence as an ad...
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Book Review: Mother of the Bride Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #29) by Leslie Meier

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book review mother of the bride murder lucy stone 29 leslie meier

Mother of the Bride Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #29) by Leslie Meier opens with Lucy Stone, Phyllis, and a customer at the newspaper discussing children getting married.  Shortly thereafter, Lucy receives news from her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, that she is engaged and getting married in France.  Things go awry at the wedding and Lucy sticks her nose into the investigation making things much worse.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for approving my request to read an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Mother of the Bride Murder by Leslie Meier.  I was thrilled when I learned I was approved as this has become one of my favorite book series.  I received this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

This latest installment in the series started off a bit slow for me, but eventually, the pacing picked up, and I ended up enjoying how the story ended.  I enjoyed the tidbits of French conversation as I took some French in high school and college, and I was easily able to translate what was being said.  Even if readers don't speak French, I think they'll be able to get the gist of what is being said.  I disliked some of the negative things said about the French culture . . . an example of this is when Lucy tried to retrieve a piece of mail that the postal worker had already picked up, she went on a diatribe about the Napoleonic Laws, how Napoleon was an awful person, and didn't understand why she couldn't have the letter back.

Something that took me by surprise was that Lucy's husband Bill and their adult son Toby didn't want to fly to France for the wedding.  This is hopefully something that is going to only happen once, so why would you want to miss such a monumental milestone in an immediate family member's life?  I've never really liked Bill, but this made me dislike the character even more, and it didn't make me like Toby very much either.  Yes, I know airplane tickets there are expensive, but they were getting free room and board all but one night as well as getting a family vacation out of it.

Unfortunately, Mother of the Bride Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #29) by Leslie Meier was a bit of a let down for me, and I was so excited to read it.  I gave it three out of five stars.  There are going to be times where I just don't connect with a novel, and unfortunately, this was one of those times.  However, this will not deter me from continuing to read this series as I normally love the author's books.


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