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A review by nicrtay
The Tell Tail Heart: A Cat Cafe Mystery by Cate Conte
4.0
"I knew cat people. We were all a little bit crazy."
Caution: tough love ahead.
Let me first say that I thoroughly enjoy this series and will follow it until the end. I've grown attached to a lot of the secondary characters (#stillreadingforcraig), and the mysteries themselves - although sometimes quite transparent - always keep me perfectly entertained.
Re-enter Maddie (more on this later). For the second time in no more than a few months, a client from JJ's House of Purrs leaves the café in a huff and immediately gets murdered. Not only that, but blame seems to be pointed at one of Maddie's friends, Daybreak's residential Rum Tum Tugger.
And then there's Leopold Mancini/Maloney (I use both last names because it seems to change depending on what novel in the series you're reading --). He seemed really sweet in the first novel, but I'm beginning to like him less and less. He's pegged as a man that will do anything for his family, but every novel he seems to do more things that put his family members' lives at risk (the thing with Cole last novel, the thing with the notebook this novel). This isn't a flaw in the author's writing (maybe the last name thing...), but more of the emergence of a complex and shady character.
This is the part where I make recompense for the remainder of the review.
Maddie. Oh boy. Maddie is easily one of the most cringy-ist heroines I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. This is not a slight against the book, nor is it a slight against the author's craft. A whiney, stupid heroine does not a bad novel make. There are people exactly like Maddie out there. A good heroine is one who has a story you're interested in following. It doesn't matter whether or not I would hate her in real life.
So let's have a little fun, shall we? (I promise I liked this book).
Top three cringe-worthy Maddie moments:
3. Maddie goes looking for an available store front so she can open up a new location for her juice bar, despite the fact that she states outright that she knows there is absolutely no demand for it on the island. You already own a food service location. Why not try putting juice on your café menu to test if there's a demand for it first? On that note, who's running the original location?! You're both in New England and you never talk about it.
2. Throughout the novel, Maddie is pained that her grandfather is keeping something from her. She's pained because, according to Maddie, he always confides in her and never keeps things from her. They trust each other. Girl. Your grandfather has hidden nearly everything that's happened to him since you moved back to town. What's Grandpa hiding from me now? has literally been the most recurring conflict since the beginning of the series. What are you on?
1. Finally, my personal favourite quote from Maddie: "I hated anything that used animals to make money."
…
"I hated anything that used animals to make money."
*presses fists into temples so hard my skull breaks*
In case I didn't make my point clear earlier, this book was really good. Despite… so many things, I'll be following this series really closely. Because apparently I'm addicted to secondhand embarrassment.
(This book was good.)
Caution: tough love ahead.
Let me first say that I thoroughly enjoy this series and will follow it until the end. I've grown attached to a lot of the secondary characters (#stillreadingforcraig), and the mysteries themselves - although sometimes quite transparent - always keep me perfectly entertained.
Re-enter Maddie (more on this later). For the second time in no more than a few months, a client from JJ's House of Purrs leaves the café in a huff and immediately gets murdered. Not only that, but blame seems to be pointed at one of Maddie's friends, Daybreak's residential Rum Tum Tugger.
And then there's Leopold Mancini/Maloney (I use both last names because it seems to change depending on what novel in the series you're reading --). He seemed really sweet in the first novel, but I'm beginning to like him less and less. He's pegged as a man that will do anything for his family, but every novel he seems to do more things that put his family members' lives at risk (the thing with Cole last novel, the thing with the notebook this novel). This isn't a flaw in the author's writing (maybe the last name thing...), but more of the emergence of a complex and shady character.
This is the part where I make recompense for the remainder of the review.
Maddie. Oh boy. Maddie is easily one of the most cringy-ist heroines I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. This is not a slight against the book, nor is it a slight against the author's craft. A whiney, stupid heroine does not a bad novel make. There are people exactly like Maddie out there. A good heroine is one who has a story you're interested in following. It doesn't matter whether or not I would hate her in real life.
So let's have a little fun, shall we? (I promise I liked this book).
Top three cringe-worthy Maddie moments:
3. Maddie goes looking for an available store front so she can open up a new location for her juice bar, despite the fact that she states outright that she knows there is absolutely no demand for it on the island. You already own a food service location. Why not try putting juice on your café menu to test if there's a demand for it first? On that note, who's running the original location?! You're both in New England and you never talk about it.
2. Throughout the novel, Maddie is pained that her grandfather is keeping something from her. She's pained because, according to Maddie, he always confides in her and never keeps things from her. They trust each other. Girl. Your grandfather has hidden nearly everything that's happened to him since you moved back to town. What's Grandpa hiding from me now? has literally been the most recurring conflict since the beginning of the series. What are you on?
1. Finally, my personal favourite quote from Maddie: "I hated anything that used animals to make money."
…
"I hated anything that used animals to make money."
*presses fists into temples so hard my skull breaks*
In case I didn't make my point clear earlier, this book was really good. Despite… so many things, I'll be following this series really closely. Because apparently I'm addicted to secondhand embarrassment.
(This book was good.)