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afox98's review
3.0
3 1/2 stars. A fun light read with a snarky amateur investigator looking into the death of a friend of a friend. Josie is a food critic with stomach issues who stands in as a bridesmaid for a friend and is caught up in the mystery of a connected death shortly thereafter. Slow start to the action, but once it moved on a bit, I got caught up in the clever dialogue and interesting characters.
aleryan's review
5.0
I seriously loved this book and the main character, Josie! I already bought the rest of series because I think I'll be reading it more than once.
the_bee_writes's review
5.0
What a great read
If you like mystery with characters and storylines that grow on you this is your author and book. I have come to love Josie and can't wait for the next book to come out. Such a joy to read
If you like mystery with characters and storylines that grow on you this is your author and book. I have come to love Josie and can't wait for the next book to come out. Such a joy to read
daisymama's review
3.0
Overall, I enjoyed The Bride Wore Dead, and will probably read more in the Josie Tucker series.
That being said, there were definitely things that bugged me about this book; stupid things, like typos and weird inconsistencies, that dragged me out of the story. For example, when Josie is at a wedding and walking across the room to the restroom, she gets stopped by the bride's mother, then during their conversation the author mentions a place card in front of Josie, as though they're sitting at the table. Wait, what? I had to go back and re-read the first part because I thought maybe I had misunderstood what was happening. And later on, she meets someone and notices upon shaking hands that not a trace of black nail polish is left... but we (Josie included) don't actually know about the black nail polish until a few paragraphs later, and, chronologically speaking, the black nail polish should still be there when they shake hands. Again, I went back to re-read, trying to figure out why we were talking about black nail polish, and what reference I must have missed, but there was nothing.
The whole book is sprinkled with that type of annoying situational/scene inconsistency, which is really the main reason the book didn't get more stars from me. That, and I sometimes had a hard time figuring out what conclusions I was supposed to draw or impressions I was supposed to get from the dialog or Josie's observations, which was frustrating. And there were some really thin plot points that I just didn't buy, and had to actively choose to suspend my disbelief in order to keep going.
But I was compelled to push past these annoyances, I guess because Josie and her story really drew me in. The characters were interesting, and Josie's snarky nature was appealing - although, all too often I thought the author was telling me Josie was prickly, rather than just letting her spoken words BE good and prickly. But the narrative had a lovely snarkiness to it, which seemed like a reflection of Josie's personality. I kept wanting to know what would happen next, and I was up until the wee hours to finish the book... and that's always a good sign.
That being said, there were definitely things that bugged me about this book; stupid things, like typos and weird inconsistencies, that dragged me out of the story. For example, when Josie is at a wedding and walking across the room to the restroom, she gets stopped by the bride's mother, then during their conversation the author mentions a place card in front of Josie, as though they're sitting at the table. Wait, what? I had to go back and re-read the first part because I thought maybe I had misunderstood what was happening. And later on, she meets someone and notices upon shaking hands that not a trace of black nail polish is left... but we (Josie included) don't actually know about the black nail polish until a few paragraphs later, and, chronologically speaking, the black nail polish should still be there when they shake hands. Again, I went back to re-read, trying to figure out why we were talking about black nail polish, and what reference I must have missed, but there was nothing.
The whole book is sprinkled with that type of annoying situational/scene inconsistency, which is really the main reason the book didn't get more stars from me. That, and I sometimes had a hard time figuring out what conclusions I was supposed to draw or impressions I was supposed to get from the dialog or Josie's observations, which was frustrating. And there were some really thin plot points that I just didn't buy, and had to actively choose to suspend my disbelief in order to keep going.
But I was compelled to push past these annoyances, I guess because Josie and her story really drew me in. The characters were interesting, and Josie's snarky nature was appealing - although, all too often I thought the author was telling me Josie was prickly, rather than just letting her spoken words BE good and prickly. But the narrative had a lovely snarkiness to it, which seemed like a reflection of Josie's personality. I kept wanting to know what would happen next, and I was up until the wee hours to finish the book... and that's always a good sign.
jenndian's review
5.0
This book was suspenseful, humorous, and just wonderful! It has so many incredible elements, that it keeps you reading; even if you need to get some sleep! The characters are interesting and well-written. The antagonist is likable and believable and the villains are truly sinister! I got chills reading this! Such amazing writing! Can't wait for the second book!
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