There are a whole bushel of subplots uncomfortably shoving each other aside in A Good Day for Chardonnay. Despite that issue, the great and unusual characters keep me coming back to this series. That and the zany, laugh-out-loud humor.
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Small town New Mexican Sheriff Sunshine is still investigating her own kidnapping. The kidnapping that resulted in her amnesia and a charming daughter named Auri nine months later. Fifteen-year-old Auri is investigating an eighty-year-old widow who she suspects is a serial killer. She is also investigating her feelings about her best friend Cruz while trying to avoid touching her “devil’s doorbell” (don’t ask). A local man is almost killed in a bar fight. Sunshine’s love interest Levi is looking for revenge. Levi’s family is confessing to murdering one of their own and plotting to take down one another. The mayor forces Sunshine to uncover the Dangerous Daughters who are rumored to be surreptitiously running the town—since the 1950s. Plus there are at least five other subplots too.
I just love Sunshine, Auri, and the gang! However, A Good Day for Chardonnay feels like four book plots forced between two covers. Also, I hate, really hate, cliffhanger endings, of which this book has a humdinger. I highly recommend this series anyway but for goodness’ sakes, read the first book before beginning this one. 4 stars!
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.