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shamiebooks's review against another edition
4.0
A really fun (and also funny!) read, for sure. And, admittedly, I didn't see the end coming, which I usually do in these books.
krisrid's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my goodness - I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
It has everything you could want in a cozy, plus more.
First off, I liked that the situation the characters find themselves in is actually believable. The set up and the location make how everyone ends up together completely plausible. I can live with an author stretching things to make the plot work, but it's even better when the writing and the conception are so well-created that you don't have to stretch to believe it.
The Literary Ladies are hilarious! The personalities are so unique and quirky, and I can totally see how they would get on each others nerves, but the interplay between them as they are forced to spend time together and get to know each other make for some VERY funny situations and lines. Bea especially as the narrator is so likable. She is smart and sassy and really nice in spite of everything she's dealing with. The "transplanted New Yorker" aspect really works to add some snap to her interactions with the people in her new small town home.
I also loved how cleverly the author weaves in aspects and homages to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express with the murder the characters are trying to solve. It was really well done and I enjoyed the combining of the two stories very much.
Literally everything about this was excellent! I can't wait to read future installments of the Literary Ladies mystery series. Highly recommended! I am pretty sure this is going to be a new favourite series for me - Yay!
It has everything you could want in a cozy, plus more.
First off, I liked that the situation the characters find themselves in is actually believable. The set up and the location make how everyone ends up together completely plausible. I can live with an author stretching things to make the plot work, but it's even better when the writing and the conception are so well-created that you don't have to stretch to believe it.
The Literary Ladies are hilarious! The personalities are so unique and quirky, and I can totally see how they would get on each others nerves, but the interplay between them as they are forced to spend time together and get to know each other make for some VERY funny situations and lines. Bea especially as the narrator is so likable. She is smart and sassy and really nice in spite of everything she's dealing with. The "transplanted New Yorker" aspect really works to add some snap to her interactions with the people in her new small town home.
I also loved how cleverly the author weaves in aspects and homages to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express with the murder the characters are trying to solve. It was really well done and I enjoyed the combining of the two stories very much.
Literally everything about this was excellent! I can't wait to read future installments of the Literary Ladies mystery series. Highly recommended! I am pretty sure this is going to be a new favourite series for me - Yay!
dollycas's review against another edition
5.0
At a local Chinese restaurant, it’s the owner who gets taken out…
Ex-Manhattanite Bea Cartwright, hippy cat lover Chandra Morrisey, and winery owner Kate Wilder may be neighbors but they are definitely not friends. They end up in Community Court to voice their complaints against each other and the unusual ruling leaves them having to spend time together each and every week. Since the local library is about to lose its funding because it doesn’t have a book discussion group, they are sentenced to start one. The League of Literary Ladies is born.
They choose Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express as their first book. They quickly learn that they all love to eat the exact same thing at the new restaurant in town, The Orient Express. It may be the only thing they agree on. They all meet up there after their first book group meeting. Their appetites disappear rapidly when they arrive to find owner, Peter Chan, has served his last meal ever. Some one has permanently taken him out.
Now with detective Hercule Poirot for inspiration, The Ladies have a really mystery to solve. Hopefully they can catch the killer before they kill each other…
Dollycas’s Thoughts
What a fun idea for a mystery series!! I loved it!!
These ladies are as fantastic characters. Quirky, bright, feisty, and engaging. Even Chandra who would rather watch the movie than read the book is someone I want to know better. A fourth woman, Luella, joins the group which is good because sometimes the other three need a referee.
Logan sets the book is a small tourist town that adds it own elements to the story. Where else would a book club be punishment for neighbors that just can’t seem to get along? Then there is a snow storm that knocks out power and that brings all the woman and their suspects together. Just like Christie’s classic mystery.
A fabulous story unfolds with several twists that keeps the reader entertained and the pages swiftly turning. Plan to read this one all in one sitting.
I can’t wait to see the book the League of Literary Ladies pick next!!
Ex-Manhattanite Bea Cartwright, hippy cat lover Chandra Morrisey, and winery owner Kate Wilder may be neighbors but they are definitely not friends. They end up in Community Court to voice their complaints against each other and the unusual ruling leaves them having to spend time together each and every week. Since the local library is about to lose its funding because it doesn’t have a book discussion group, they are sentenced to start one. The League of Literary Ladies is born.
They choose Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express as their first book. They quickly learn that they all love to eat the exact same thing at the new restaurant in town, The Orient Express. It may be the only thing they agree on. They all meet up there after their first book group meeting. Their appetites disappear rapidly when they arrive to find owner, Peter Chan, has served his last meal ever. Some one has permanently taken him out.
Now with detective Hercule Poirot for inspiration, The Ladies have a really mystery to solve. Hopefully they can catch the killer before they kill each other…
Dollycas’s Thoughts
What a fun idea for a mystery series!! I loved it!!
These ladies are as fantastic characters. Quirky, bright, feisty, and engaging. Even Chandra who would rather watch the movie than read the book is someone I want to know better. A fourth woman, Luella, joins the group which is good because sometimes the other three need a referee.
Logan sets the book is a small tourist town that adds it own elements to the story. Where else would a book club be punishment for neighbors that just can’t seem to get along? Then there is a snow storm that knocks out power and that brings all the woman and their suspects together. Just like Christie’s classic mystery.
A fabulous story unfolds with several twists that keeps the reader entertained and the pages swiftly turning. Plan to read this one all in one sitting.
I can’t wait to see the book the League of Literary Ladies pick next!!
stefhyena's review against another edition
2.0
I was disappointed. I expected humour and cool, slightly nerdy references to the Christie classic (not crude pretentiousness with 2D characters). I knew there was a cat but he disappointingly barely figured.
The "literary ladies" disappointed me. They are hardly "literary" at all, being in an enforced book-club for acting like shrewish fish-wives. Yawn. Stereotype. The husband of the librarian sentences them to go to book club in a scene where the rational man has to deal with three harpies :( really this should have warned me about the gender yawn-inducing tropes ahead.
Chandra fits the word "literary" least, she doesn;t even read and takes an odd sort of pride in only watching the video. She is irrational in a tired and half-hearted sort of a way. From her name you could think she has some ethnic depth or something? But no she is just a hippy who thought her real name "Sandra" was too normal.
Kate is a scornful capitalist. She looks down on everyone and has a cruel streak. She admires nothing as much as business-sense and making money. The "good" thing about her is she doesn;t know anything good about herself.
Bea is a toasted marshmallow. She has a Great Secret but she hides behind dressing like a frump. She is supposed to be the intellectual of the group but I didn't see any signs of this. She protests that she does not have the hots for Levi, does not, does not, does not, does not until the reader who was apathetic both about the tiresome Levi and about her hormones says "just shag him already this is boring". Her friends are more obliging than the reader and actually care enough to tease her constantly about him. The many descriptions of Levi and his curly hair and tan or whatever are a great cure for insomnia, I'll give them that.
Every girl has a guy she desires in the book. Every girl-boy relationship has something creepy about it (Hank and Chunder are possibly the worst ones). There's a homophobic joke at one point but it would be a spoiler of sorts to say more about that. If there was actual humour somewhere I blinked and missed it but there is plenty of awkward slapstick and terrible dialogue.
There's a saying about falling off a turnip truck which at first I was going to put up with as an idiosyncrasy of one of the characters but by golly EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the book uses that odd phrase. They all speak the same.
I suspect the book was written in a tearing hurry. I expected more from an Orient Express spoof but never mind. I've got a horrific cold and needed something mindless to do and possibly this was less offensive than TV.
Probably.
Maybe.
The "literary ladies" disappointed me. They are hardly "literary" at all, being in an enforced book-club for acting like shrewish fish-wives. Yawn. Stereotype. The husband of the librarian sentences them to go to book club in a scene where the rational man has to deal with three harpies :( really this should have warned me about the gender yawn-inducing tropes ahead.
Chandra fits the word "literary" least, she doesn;t even read and takes an odd sort of pride in only watching the video. She is irrational in a tired and half-hearted sort of a way. From her name you could think she has some ethnic depth or something? But no she is just a hippy who thought her real name "Sandra" was too normal.
Kate is a scornful capitalist. She looks down on everyone and has a cruel streak. She admires nothing as much as business-sense and making money. The "good" thing about her is she doesn;t know anything good about herself.
Bea is a toasted marshmallow. She has a Great Secret but she hides behind dressing like a frump. She is supposed to be the intellectual of the group but I didn't see any signs of this. She protests that she does not have the hots for Levi, does not, does not, does not, does not until the reader who was apathetic both about the tiresome Levi and about her hormones says "just shag him already this is boring". Her friends are more obliging than the reader and actually care enough to tease her constantly about him. The many descriptions of Levi and his curly hair and tan or whatever are a great cure for insomnia, I'll give them that.
Every girl has a guy she desires in the book. Every girl-boy relationship has something creepy about it (Hank and Chunder are possibly the worst ones). There's a homophobic joke at one point but it would be a spoiler of sorts to say more about that. If there was actual humour somewhere I blinked and missed it but there is plenty of awkward slapstick and terrible dialogue.
There's a saying about falling off a turnip truck which at first I was going to put up with as an idiosyncrasy of one of the characters but by golly EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the book uses that odd phrase. They all speak the same.
I suspect the book was written in a tearing hurry. I expected more from an Orient Express spoof but never mind. I've got a horrific cold and needed something mindless to do and possibly this was less offensive than TV.
Probably.
Maybe.
daisydil's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
natesbookstack's review against another edition
4.0
I was a little suspicious at first about this novel and found the pacing at the beginning to be off but I absolutely adored Bea, Chandra, Kate and Luella! I cannot wait to read more in the series! Grab this one now!
yoshi83's review against another edition
3.0
This was a decent cozy mystery. The characters and their interplay worked for me. I was not convinced at the end that the murderer's impersonation was plausible, especially in such close quarters as the characters were in during most of the story. Bea's feelings for Levi were repeated with different variations almost constantly, and that grated on me. There was enough good here to justify three stars, but I will not be returning to this world anytime soon.
slammy90's review against another edition
4.0
Popsugar reading challenge A book about a book club
Around the world in 52 books A prompt from a previous ATY (book about books)
Around the world in 52 books A prompt from a previous ATY (book about books)
moondance120's review against another edition
3.0
If it weren't for Jerry Garcia peeing on my pansies, I never would have joined the League of Literary Ladies.
Bea, Kate and Chandra find themselves in front of the local magistrate because of petty fighting between them. His sentence is for them to join the local library book club to keep the library's funding .A number of people become snowbound in Bea's bed and breakfast following a murder and a freak spring snowstorm. The ladies use their current book assignment of Murder on the Orient Express as a guideline to solve the murder.
Although this was a quick easy read, I never quite felt that I clicked with the characters. I'm not sure if I will read the next book in the series or not.
Bea, Kate and Chandra find themselves in front of the local magistrate because of petty fighting between them. His sentence is for them to join the local library book club to keep the library's funding .A number of people become snowbound in Bea's bed and breakfast following a murder and a freak spring snowstorm. The ladies use their current book assignment of Murder on the Orient Express as a guideline to solve the murder.
Although this was a quick easy read, I never quite felt that I clicked with the characters. I'm not sure if I will read the next book in the series or not.