Author: Wendy Corsi Staub
Series: A Lily Dale Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (October 11, 2016)
Description: New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub is back with the second in her critically-acclaimed cozy mystery series.
After agreeing to stay in Lily Dale through the winter as caretakers of the Valley View Guesthouse and its feline residents, widowed mom Bella Jordan and her son Max are looking forward to the peaceful off-season after a hectic summer. That is until the medium next door, Odelia Lauder, recruits Bella to host a destination wedding for the world’s most petulant bride, Johneen Maynard, a friend of Odelia’s granddaughter.
Things take an even more stressful turn as the wedding day looms amidst an October blizzard, when suddenly the Spirits start giving Odelia a major heads up that the bride might be fated for death. And if there’s any truth to her premonitions, the wedding is off—and that’s the least of their problems.
It's a race to figure out who would want to kill Johneen before her attacker has a chance to strike in Something Buried, Something Blue.
My Thoughts: Recently widowed Bella Jordan and her son Max have survived a busy summer as caretakers of an inn in Lily Dale - home of spiritualists. Bella is looking forward to a quiet off-season doing some renovating and remodeling of the inn for the absentee owner. However, she soon finds herself planning a destination wedding for a friend of one of the other resident's granddaughters.
Johneen Maynard is a college friend of Odelia's granddaughter Calla. She has been convinced by her fiance Parker Langley to have the wedding in Lily Dale. Johneen is a rich young woman who is estranged from her family. She is also really hard to get along with and very fussy. But Bella and Odelia throw themselves into wedding planning.
Bella is also busy with her cat's eight kittens and an unexpected - and unwanted - visit from her mother-in-law. She and Millicent have never gotten along. In fact, she calls her Maleficent when she thinks about her. Millicent is convinced that Bella and Max have become brainwashed by a cult and are in need of rescuing. She is determined to take them home with her to Chicago.
All along the way, the Spirits who communicate with the various spiritualists in Lily Dale are sending messages about the wedding. And none of them are predicting a happy outcome. Bella isn't sure what to believe in regard to the spirits but odd things are happening. When the bride is taken ill at the wedding reception, Bella needs to follow the clues to find who what happened and who might have wanted her dead.
This was an entertaining mystery except the actual mystery didn't happen until rather late in the book. There was a lot of build-up with kitten problems, mother-in-law problems, strange messages from the spirits, and even potential boyfriend problems before the mystery started.
Readers of the first in this series would be the best audience for this one because they would care about all the extraneous things that happened before the mystery began. The prologue does rather telegraph what is going to happen though.
Favorite Quote:
Bella thought it would get easier with time, that every day would be better, brighter than the one before. Some of them are. But every so often, she finds herself engulfed by a fireball of anger, sorrow, and disbelief -- usually on days when she doesn't have enough to do.I got this one in exchange for an honest review from the publisher. You can buy your copy here.
I put in a request at the library for this one. No way could I not read this one. I love her books!
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