kbranfield's review
4.0
Careful What You Wish for by Hallie Ephron is a tautly woven mystery about a professional organizer who unexpectedly finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.
Emily Harlow is thrilled to leave behind her teaching career for her growing business with her best friend Becca Jain. They are professional organizers who help their clients de-clutter their lives. Unfortunately, Emily's long time husband Frank is a compulsive garage sale shopper. Although his hobby grates on her, she is mostly successful in her attempts to ignore his weekly purchases. Their marriage is also in a bit stressed due to their infertility problems. With Frank unwilling to work on their marriage, Emily busies herself with expanding her and Becca's business.
Emily and Becca's newest client, widow Ruth Murphy, hires them to clean out her deceased husband's storage unit. Since Ruth is in a hurry to get his belongings cleared away, Emily immediately heads over to the unit so she can work up an estimate. While in the midst of the task, Frank's best friend and business partner, Ryan Melanson III, begs them to work with his friend, Quinn Newell.
With Becca busy with family, Emily reluctantly heads over to Quinn's house. Bonding over several glasses of wine, Emily and Quinn find common ground as they commiserate over their irritation with their husbands' collecting hobby. Their joking takes a bit of a macabre turn, but the conversation is nothing but a lark for Emily. Unfortunately, Emily's two newest jobs are soon intertwined when she discovers a body in the storage unit and she becomes a murder suspect.
Emily has good reason to be concerned when the police interest in her takes a bit of an ominous turn. As the evidence against her starts to pile up, Emily begins to wonder if someone is trying to set her up to take the fall for the murder. But will she uncover the real killer's identity before she is arrested? And as she inches closer to finding out the truth, will Emily becomes the murderer's next victim?
Careful What You Wish is a suspenseful mystery that is quite engrossing. Emily is a surprisingly clever amateur sleuth but can she trust her own instincts as she pursues her investigation? With unexpected twists and adroit turns, Hallie Ephron brings this ingenious mystery to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.
Emily Harlow is thrilled to leave behind her teaching career for her growing business with her best friend Becca Jain. They are professional organizers who help their clients de-clutter their lives. Unfortunately, Emily's long time husband Frank is a compulsive garage sale shopper. Although his hobby grates on her, she is mostly successful in her attempts to ignore his weekly purchases. Their marriage is also in a bit stressed due to their infertility problems. With Frank unwilling to work on their marriage, Emily busies herself with expanding her and Becca's business.
Emily and Becca's newest client, widow Ruth Murphy, hires them to clean out her deceased husband's storage unit. Since Ruth is in a hurry to get his belongings cleared away, Emily immediately heads over to the unit so she can work up an estimate. While in the midst of the task, Frank's best friend and business partner, Ryan Melanson III, begs them to work with his friend, Quinn Newell.
With Becca busy with family, Emily reluctantly heads over to Quinn's house. Bonding over several glasses of wine, Emily and Quinn find common ground as they commiserate over their irritation with their husbands' collecting hobby. Their joking takes a bit of a macabre turn, but the conversation is nothing but a lark for Emily. Unfortunately, Emily's two newest jobs are soon intertwined when she discovers a body in the storage unit and she becomes a murder suspect.
Emily has good reason to be concerned when the police interest in her takes a bit of an ominous turn. As the evidence against her starts to pile up, Emily begins to wonder if someone is trying to set her up to take the fall for the murder. But will she uncover the real killer's identity before she is arrested? And as she inches closer to finding out the truth, will Emily becomes the murderer's next victim?
Careful What You Wish is a suspenseful mystery that is quite engrossing. Emily is a surprisingly clever amateur sleuth but can she trust her own instincts as she pursues her investigation? With unexpected twists and adroit turns, Hallie Ephron brings this ingenious mystery to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.
lucyreadingbooks's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.75
jfbfsf's review against another edition
3.0
This was fun. A murder mystery, but not too dark. Not entirely believable, but it moved along lightly and well, and at no point did I want to roll my eyes or put it down. Solid mystery, that, despite the subject, isn't too heavy.
dillybar's review against another edition
1.0
I’m sick of books where the woman makes bad choice after bad choice. I skipped to the last 2 chapters after reading someone else felt the same way in one of 5e reviews.
lisaeirene's review
2.0
Pretty mediocre. The plot, the idea, the story, the characters, etc were all predictable, rather juvenile and unrealistic. I guessed the entire plot immediately. It was all pretty dumb.
leebeeloves's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
readingsloth33's review against another edition
3.0
Well written and kept me engaged the whole time.
l1brarygirl's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.25
*Book Club Read* with my sisters -- this was good with some unexpected twists but it did start out slow, I wanted more character development (especially with Becca) and thought the ending was rushed. I'd probably read more from this author but I wouldn't go out of my way to do so.
cassies_books_reviews's review against another edition
3.0
Emily Harlow is a professional organizer whose husband is a hoarder, he doesn’t see a garage sale or flea market he won’t stop at. Emily has left her career as a teacher behind and her friend Becca has left her career as a nurse as well and now they have created their business of professional organizers. They help their clients declutter. So When Emily is called by an elderly woman who needs her help organizing a storage unit that her late husband had rented without her knowledge, And at the same time a young wealthy wife calls Emily asking her help with her husbands antique hoarding, Emily thinks her business is finally taking off. Soon Emily finds herself involved in a murder investigation when a body is found and possibly aiding a thief soon she’s asking herself who is setting her up? This was a fun easy read for me. There were some twists that I didn’t see coming and some decisions made by the main character I found myself asking what are you thinking??