Brew or Die by Caroline Fardig

This series is starting to redeem itself for me a little bit, a very little bit. Rather than Juliet Langley just bungling about, getting involved in murders, she's now a trained investigator. Her first job doesn't go very well (the man she's been trailing claims she's attacked him rather than the mistress he just dumped) but she is starting to get the hang of it when Shane, one of the coffee shop's workers, asks her to investigate the death of his fiancee. She apparently died of a drug overdose but Shane claims she's been clean for years. So Juliet (and, of course, Pete) jump into the world of party planning, once again even going undercover to help solve the case.

I still wish we didn't have the love triangle... which may not actually be a love triangle? This will-they-won't-they is cute enough for the span of a book, but not more than that. And we're now six books into the series. This is what got me off of Joanna Fluke and this series is heading that way for me. At least Juliet was slightly less ditzy in this book.

Three stars

This book comes out April 25

Follows A Whole Latte Murder

A Whole Latte Murder by Caroline Fardig

Juliet and the Java Jive crew are back. After the events of the last book, Juliet's best friend, boss, and probably the man she'll end up with, Pete, is surly. Super surly. It's a good thing there's a serial killer on campus who is helping to shake things up. Well, maybe it's not that good since Juliet's boyfriend has just been promoted to the homicide division which means that he's going to be chasing someone really dangerous. Oh. And Juliet, along with her friend Trevor, discovers the first body. And the body is of a girl who Trevor adored and he was the last person seen with her. More and more stress is heaped on Juliet as one of her employees is the next woman to disappear and one of her old friends gets dragged into the case.
I said this in the last book but I have to repeat it. Caroline Fardig is somehow magic. She took a character that I really, really, really don't like (Juliet) and made a book that was worth reading. I mean, Juliet really is TSTL. I barely made it through the first third of the book as Juliet yelled at her POLICE DETECTIVE boyfriend for... doing his job, she helped with a B and E, vacillated between doormat-ship and being a "red-headed she-devil", and basically proved that she is in love with Pete but dating someone else. I am just so irritated by this will they/won't they that has invaded so many contemporary cozies. Frankly, I hope that she takes the job offered at the end of the book and gets out of the Java Jive so she can finally get over Pete and go to just being friends. I am glad that I finished this book but hope that Juliet starts to get a bit smarter in all areas of her life.

Three stars
This book comes out November 8
Follows Mug Shot
Followed by Brew or Die

Mug Shot by Caroline Fardig

Juliet Langley is only just beginning to recover from finding a dead body and a murderer in the first book and now she's found another! At least she finds it with her ex, cop Ryder (though why this somehow clears her of suspicion seems odd to me.) The book actually opens with Juliet hanging out with Stan at his grandmother's funeral. She doesn't really like Stan but her best friend Pete is also there with his super snotty girlfriend, Cecelia who is also Stan's sister. Cecelia is a bitch but that doesn't mean it's okay for someone to stick a coffee thermometer in her neck. And it's really not okay that the police seem to think that Pete did it. So Juliet dives feet first into trying to help her friend out so that he can leave jail.
I really didn't like Juliet in this book. She made a lot, a LOT of stupid (I started with "questionable" and then realized that wasn't quite right) choices that made me question what kind of idiot she is. And it wasn't just the typical "oh, isn't she kooky" sort of trouble that most contemporary cozy mystery heroines get into. The woman is thirty years old and barging into murder situations all while lying to herself and everyone around her about what she's doing. Even after being physically assaulted and getting not one but two friends in trouble because of her investigations, she still keeps on keeping on.
Even with my dislike of Juliet growing as the book went on, I still mostly enjoyed this book and will probably still read the next in this series because I do like Ms. Fardig's overall style. I just really hope that A) this love triangle finally gets figured out because, really, why? It's just annoying and B) Juliet stops putting herself in such stupid situations.

Three Stars
Book comes out April 19
Follows Death Before Decaf
Followed by A Whole Latte Murder

Death before Decaf by Caroline Fardig

This seemed like almost any fun and fluffy mystery that I've read lately. Main character is down on her luck, her last man (in this case, fiance) left her in the lurch, she's picking up the pieces of her life with the help of friends (potential love interest, Pete, who has her managing his father's coffee shop where she worked in college) but has to solve that pesky murder that she's suspected of perpetrating.

I think I need to get off the cozy-mysteries-with-a-cute-but-quirky-narrator train for awhile. I've read a LOT of them lately. Maybe cleanse my palate with some romance novels.
So, Juliet returns to the coffehouse near Vanderbilt where she quickly gets herself in trouble by reprimanding the staff rather harshly (and then trying to apologize later which I thought was dumb, she had good reason to say what she did and that staff needed a wake-up call). The one who gives her the most grief, Dave the cook, is, of course, the one who winds up dead in the dumpster. But, luckily for Juliet, Dave wasn't a very nice person (when are they ever?) and had lots of enemies.
A good book but nothing new under the sun. Will still probably try to read the next one to find out what happens with Juliet and Pete.
Comes out Nov. 17, 2015
Three stars

Followed by Mug Shot