loribonesscaswell

Dollycas’s Thoughts
Just a quick trip from Colorado to Texas, sign some papers, get out of town and get back to teaching those kindergartners. Big problem, Charli Rae Warren is only in town a few minutes and she finds a dead body. The woman she was meeting to put Hazel Rock in her rear view mirror permanently is deader than a door nail and the cops think she did it. When they find Charli’s dad is missing too, they both share the top a very short list of suspects. To get out of this mess she needs the help of the people she left behind. She also needs to make some money so she can afford her trip back to the new life she has made for herself.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, her father has a pet armadillo named Princess, and that is what he used to call Charli. He has renamed The Book Barn by adding the name Princess at the end. The inside may look like what she envisioned before she left town but the sign outside has that darn armadillo picture right on it.

The story was so funny and unique and has a great mystery too.

Kym Roberts takes on this small Texas town and gives us such rich characters. In this first installment she needs to reunite our main character with the people in her past. Some she barely recognizes and others she remembers way too well. She gives us enough back story to understand how much has changed and how much has stayed the same since Charli left town. She also creates a clever mystery that brings all the characters together. She fills the story with southern charm too. I mean seriously, a pet armadillo, maybe only in Texas.

I enjoyed the way that even with the years the characters have been apart they rally together to help not only find a killer but reinvent the Book Barn so Charli can make money to go home but also help her dad out so that when he returns he may not have to sell the place. They bought out a real sense of community that small towns are famous for. My favorite character was Scarlett, a high school classmate of Charli’s, who stepped right up to help Charli from the moment she arrived in town.

The pace was perfect, the twists are sharp, the hint of romance was just right and the humor was blended throughout the entire story with skilled precision. This is an absolutely delightful start for this new mystery series. I am excited to see what the author has up her sleeve for us and these characters next.