Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Killer Chardonnay

 This is the first book by Kate Lansing and it is a wonderful cozy set in Colorado.  Parker Valentine is opening a winery in Boulder and is trying to grow her business and the wine business in Colorado.  Unfortunately a death at her grand opening does not inspire many new customers and has her facing many negative social media posts.  As she works to figure out who killed the food and wine critic, Gaskel Brown, and save her store, Vino Valentine.  Interspersed with the mystery is her relationship with her best friend, Sage and her family, particularly her brother, Liam.   Those relationships have ups and downs and are realistically portrayed.  You cannot help but root for them to right themselves and for Parker to solve the mystery behind Gaskel's death before her business fails.   

It is wonderful to see a strong female protagonist pursuing her dreams and opening a business.  The descriptions of the wines and winemaking process are wonderful as are those of the food pairings her friend Reid prepares for her VIP party.   I look forward to reading about more wine escapades in the next installment of the series, A Pairing to Die For.

Killer ChardonnayKiller Chardonnay by Kate Lansing
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wonderful cozy centered around the wine business. This book centers around an unexpected death at the grand opening of Parker Valentine's new winery; "Vino Valentine" I enjoyed the premise of a woman following her dreams to open a business and then struggling to over the problems that ensue after the bad break. Parker is a likeable character and her relationship with her BFF, Sage, and her brother Liam are well constructed and realistic. I soused out the guilty party about halfway through the story despite the misdirects the author set forth. I enjoyed the book and the descriptions of Boulder and the Colorado mountain atmosphere. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

View all my reviews


Challenge Prompts

The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:  


  1. Library Love  #LibraryLoveChallenge  Book #28
  2. Literary Escapes  #LiteraryEscapes CO
  3. Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2021   Book #36
  4. Back List Reader  #Backlistreader  Book #41
  5. Calendar of Crime  #CalendarOfCrime2021   
  6. Cruisin thru Cozies  # 19  FC11
  7. Cloak & Dagger  #CloakDaggerChal  Book #29
  8. Craving for Cozies  Book #25
  9. Around the Year in 52 Books #1. A book related to “In the Beginning...”
  10. 52 Book Club  #the52bookclub2021  #5 Published By Penguin
  11. The Unofficial Magnus Archives Challenge  #TMARC21  #27. Filth: with fruit on the cover
  12. NJM Book Challenge  #NJMBookChallenge2021  #18 debut author
  13. Nerd Daily  #NERDREADING2021 #13. TITLE STARTS WITH 'G' OR 'K'
  14. Bookworm  #58.) Read a book (fiction or nonfiction) involving mental illness
  15. Magic in the Books Book 4 #1 Read a book involving a sport
  16. Pick your Poison #21-1 A cozy mystery with a beverage in the title
  17. Medical Examiner Challenge  2 Toe Tags
  18. Beachcomber Challenge  
    • Crime Scenes 
      • Row 2
        • Lawn
      • Row 5
        • Bathtub, shower, bathroom
    • Weapons
      • Row 1 
        • Poison, poisoned food
    • Detectives- Parker Valentine/ Eli 
    • Victims- Max/ Gaskel Brown
  19. Six Shooter Challenge  Target #54  Shot #1



No comments:

Post a Comment