Monday 19 June 2017

Review: Diamond Rings are Deadly Things

Diamond Rings are Deadly Things (Wedding Planner Mysteries #1)
Rachelle J Christensen
4.5*

Following a traumatic experience, wedding planner Adrielle Pyper has relocated to Sun Valley, Idaho and is busy establishing her fledgling business with the help of her friend Lorea.  They have already managed to land two celebrity clients – one a sweetheart and the other a bridezilla.  A shipment of speciality wedding dresses imported from China is vandalised and soon Adri and Lorea have a whole host of problems on their hands.  Adri’s aren’t limited to her wedding business alone though, as she has two men vying for her attention.  Shy waiter and realtor Dallas Reynolds is determined to take her on as many dates as she’ll allow him, but she also keeps crossing paths with the gorgeous Luke Stetson.  There is never a quiet moment in Adri’s life!


This first book in the Wedding Planner Mysteries series comes highly recommended to lovers of the cozy mystery genre.  Ms Christensen tells an enjoyable story with an easy-to-read writing style.  She constructs her tale well with a good balance between the details of wedding planning, the mystery, and Adri’s personal life.  The characters are well-defined and likeable (well, the ones that are supposed to be) and there is plenty to keep a reader's interest.  What was the trauma that happened to Adri before the start of the book?  Which of the two men will win Adri’s heart?  And, of course, who is behind the attacks on Adri’s business?  To add the icing to the (wedding) cake, readers are also treated to a craft idea or recipe at the start of each chapter.  What makes these unique is that they come from an actual website run by “Adri and her mother”.  Although the mystery is solved by the end of the book, readers will doubtless want to continue to follow Adri’s story into the next one.

Friday 10 March 2017

Introducing the Behest Indie Novelist Services Blog

Welcome to Behest Indie Novelist Services' blog, which I hope you'll find interesting, useful, and maybe even entertaining, whether you're a booklover or an author.

I plan to cover a variety of different areas on the blog, and to share helpful hints and tips to assist those of you who are writers in polishing up your work.  I'll look at commonly confused homonyms and some of those niggly little grammar points that can present difficulties.  I'll discuss the origins and usage of various words and phrases to help authors to iron out some of those anachronisms that creep into historical fiction.  And, being British, I'll share things about different areas of British life and culture that, if you're a writer of fiction set in the UK, past or present, will hopefully help to make your settings and characters more authentic.  I have plenty of examples from my own reading, as well as from working with clients, that I hope will be enlightening.


Finally, just because I love to read and write reviews, I'll be posting some professional reviews of books on my current reading list.  It's likely that, as these will be books that I'm reading in my own leisure time for pleasure, they will mostly be given a good rating.  Life's too short, after all, to spend time reading books you don't enjoy!  It's not that I rate every book highly, it's just that the ones that aren't going to make the grade never reach the finish line.


I hope that all of you, authors and readers alike, will enjoy the blog.  If you ever have any questions or ideas for a subject for a post, no matter how small, I would love to hear from you on heather@behestins.com.  


Thank you for reading and please do come again.