I had previously started this Tuscan Wine mystery last year and for some reason had not finished it. I selected it as an audiobook when offered as a bonus borrow from Hoopla in Feb. I am glad I did. The MC of the book, Olivia, did seem a bit impetuous and immature but the story itself was well written. The landscape and setting descriptions were wonderful as was the character of Yerba, the pesky goat who adopts Olivia. The author could work on the resolution of the murder a bit as the guilty party really had a peripheral role and kind of felt like an afterthought rather than a logical build-up of the clues.
Another aspect I found a bit frustrating at times was the author used English terms to describe scenes and clothing etc whereas Olivia is American and they were in Italy. For some reason, this really got on my nerves. I am usually not a grammar text critic but for whatever reason, this bugged me. Usually, the only detail of that type that bothers me is inconsistency in timelines. I didn't notice any in this book but often times timing ends up off in cozy mysteries- authors referring to yesterday as today or skipping a day in the timeline when talking about events. I think it's just a symptom of my perfectionism :)
I will try the next in the series to see how the story goes and to determine if I will stick with it. This is a great book for those interested in learning about wine and wine growing.
Aged for Murder by Fiona Grace
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed the setting and the mystery in this book. For some reason though the MC, Olivia, was a bit annoying to me at times. I think the whole pollyanna dreaming of perfect outcomes was just something that struck me as immature. Not necessarily the way a 34 year old Advertising exec would behave in my opinion. Maybe it’s just that her personality is so different from mine and so it felt unrealistic to me. I can totally understand someone having a dream job and wanting to follow the dream it was just more about her repetitive daydreams about different scenarios- romance, jobs, even things she didn’t want to do just seemed over the top to me. Her impulsive behavior made her seem flighty at times rather than vulnerable. I did enjoy the wine industry aspect of the story and will try another one I. The series before giving up but hopefully Olivia isn’t quite so dreamy as she continues on pursuing her dream vocation
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Challenge Prompts
The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:
- Goodreads and Reading by the Numbers #ReadingByNumbers2023 Book # 30
- Library Love #LibraryLoveChallenge Book # 24
- Literary Escapes #LiteraryEscapes Italy
- Stacking the Series #stackingseries2023 1
- Series Catchup #seriescatchup2023 -1
- What an Animal Book #8
- Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2023 Book #26
- Back List Reader #Backlistreader Book #21
- Cruisin thru Cozies Non US #2
- Cloak & Dagger #CloakDaggerChal Book #22
- Craving for Cozies Book #19
- Six Shooter Challenge Target # 97 Shot #1
- Medical Examiner Challenge 1 Toe Tags hit
- Around the Year in 52 Books #16. Three books, each of which is set in a different century: Book 2
- Beat the Backlist #BTB2023 #5 giving an author a second chance
- Cozy Mysteries #2 Cozy companion that isn't a dog or cat
- HP Quidditch 23 #27 Wingtown Wanderers: Includes travel or adventure
- Pick your Poison #51 Go ahead—choose a book because of its cover
- Read with Allison #35 Prettiest Cover on Your TBR
- Unruly Reader Bingo #3 Exchange Student
- TBRChallenge #TBRChallenge Baggage
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