Truly, Madly
*****
Heather Webber
I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC from the publisher of truly, madly a novel written by Heather Webber. I'm not sure why I received this book, (contest?, gift?) but I'm not complaining. This was a fun book to read, and I'm glad I was able to read it.
I'm not sure which genre this book will be marketed under, the spine of the ARC simply said "novel". Reading the back cover, I kind of got the impression that it was going to be a romance, with some mystery thrown in. The opposite is more like it. This is a mystery, with a little bit of romance, and a touch of paranormal thrown in.
The main character, Lucy Valentine comes from a long line of matchmakers, who rely on psychic abilties that they keep quiet about. Only Lucy doesn't quite have the same psychic gift that her family has. There is also a curse thrown in that affects the family members (Cupid's Curse). Lucy gets put in charge of her father's business, something she would rather avoid. She meets a man, Sean, who is learning his brother's PI business. The two are thrown together trying to solve an old murder, while Lucy is also trying to keep her father's matchmaking business in business while her father and mother go on a sudden trip.
There are a couple of interesting supporting characters. More than a couple, really. There is Lucy's grandmother Dovie, who is quite a character-always trying to set Lucy up on blind dates, no matter how many times Lucy tries to get out of them.
Lucy has two lifelong friends, Marisol and Em. Marisol is a veterinarian and Em is a doctor who is planning a marriage. These two friends are interesting and I hope to see more of them in future books.
Lucy also has a pet cat named Grendel, who is very attached to her. There are a few other animals that make their appearance - a hamster and a puppy, and they are mentioned here and there throughout the book. I loved this added feature.
There is a detective that Lucy meets, Aiden Holliday whom at first suspects Lucy of something.
Her stand-in "father figure" Raphael, her father's driver (they're rich, rich, rich)
All the characters add extra flavor to the novel and will hopefully be in future books. They are all likeable characters, though not too sweet - Dovie is in fact a little manipulative, in a loving way. She means well.
What I liked about this book was the main focus was a mystery. Lucy finds a body, one that has ties to the present. She ends up to be a person of interest and has to avoid being brought in for questioning while trying to figure out what's going on - with the help of her new PI friend, Sean. There was a slow build-up to a romance building, or romances building. There were some laughs. So we have mystery, suspense, light romance and laughter all tied up in one easy to read book.
I would recommend this book for light mystery reading. I'm going to be on the lookout for the next novel in this series - Deeply, Desperately which according the the excerpt in the ARC of Truly Madly is "coming soon".
Book Challenges
2010 Countdown Challenge (12 out of 55 so far)
Cat Book Challenge, 2010 (woohoo! 1 out of 12!)
