Allergic To Death

This is the first in a series and I really enjoyed it. I will definitely look for others in the series.

Gigi runs her own Gourmet Diet Meal business after moving to a small upscale Conneticut town after a divorce. One of her clients dies from anaphalctic shock after having peanut oil on her food. Gigi knows she did not ute peanut oil, so assumes someone killed her. The police closed the case as an accidental death, but Gigi will not give up. This could ruin her business. She ends up adopting a Westie named Reg, whom I loved, who belonged to the deceased. There is also a bit of a love triangle with Gigi, Carol a restaurant owner and the detective investigaing the case. The supporting characters are a delight as well. Definitely recommended!

Gigi Fitzgerald has left a disastrous marriage and left The Big Apple and moved to Woodstone, CT. In this little idyllic little community she starts Gigi Gourmet De-Lite, where she prepares three meals a day for the calorie-conscious customers.

Gigi is dropping off the lunches for her clients at the local playhouse. They winding up rehearsals for their latest production. One of Gigi's customers is Martha Bernhardt, a restaurant reviewer, who Gigi hopes will like her meals to provide a very positive review and really get her new business off to fast start. After dropping off the lunches on a rainy day, she offers to drop Martha at her car. As they are heading into town, Gigi notices that Martha's car is starting to swerve and ends up show more crashing into a tree. Martha dies and the cause is an allergic reaction to peanut product.

Gigi is sure that this could finish her business off. Not only will she not get the review she was hoping for, but she was also in line for a contract with food processor would package her products. In looking into how this could have happened and who might have wanted her dead, Gigi finds that Martha had quite a few enemies that would have like to see her out of picture. Adora is the lead in the play and in the past has had some run ins with Martha. Barbie, the trophy wife of Martha's ex would like her out of the picture, too. But then Martha had been in Al Forno, a restaurant owned by Emilio, a waitress had the misfortune to spill a glass of water on her. Would the possibility of a bad review that could ruin Al Forno be enough of a reason for Emilio to murder.

When she begins to look into who might be the killer, she heads to The Silver Lining who are having a showing for a new crafts-person, as she knows that some of the people she is interested in learning about, will be there. As she about to enter the shop she notices an adorable Westie tied to the parking meter. She soon learns that Reg used to belong to Martha. Winston Bernhardt is now taking care of Reg and offers him to Gigi, who gladly accepts. Besides, while walking Reg in the evenings she will be able to search for clues.

There are a wonderful set of supporting characters in the book, too. Sienna, who a bookstore in town is always there to bounce ideas off. We have Carlo, who is Emilio nephew, who Gigi might think about becoming better friends with. But then, what about Detective Mertz, who may not be such a bad guy even if he is a policeman.

Looking forward to the next book and am looking forward to learning where Gigi's business will go. Of course looking forward to the further adventures of Reg. show less

Gigi has started her business - Gigi's Gourmet De-lite providing diet meals for numerous residents of her new hometown. When one of her clients dies from an allergic peanut reaction, Gigi is forced to try to find out who put the peanut oil in the food, because she didn't.

There are some very interesting characters and some yummy sounding foods and fun circumstances that run through the tale.

looking forward to the next one!

Gigi Fitzgerald has left a disastrous marriage and left The Big Apple and moved to Woodstone, CT. In this little idyllic little community she starts Gigi Gourmet De-Lite, where she prepares three meals a day for the calorie-conscious customers.

Gigi is dropping off the lunches for her clients at the local playhouse. They winding up rehearsals for their latest production. One of Gigi's customers is Martha Bernhardt, a restaurant reviewer, who Gigi hopes will like her meals to provide a very positive review and really get her new business off to fast start. After dropping off the lunches on a rainy day, she offers to drop Martha at her car. As they are heading into town, Gigi notices that Martha's car is starting to swerve and ends up show more crashing into a tree. Martha dies and the cause is an allergic reaction to peanut product.

Gigi is sure that this could finish her business off. Not only will she not get the review she was hoping for, but she was also in line for a contract with food processor would package her products. In looking into how this could have happened and who might have wanted her dead, Gigi finds that Martha had quite a few enemies that would have like to see her out of picture. Adora is the lead in the play and in the past has had some run ins with Martha. Barbie, the trophy wife of Martha's ex would like her out of the picture, too. But then Martha had been in Al Forno, a restaurant owned by Emilio, a waitress had the misfortune to spill a glass of water on her. Would the possibility of a bad review that could ruin Al Forno be enough of a reason for Emilio to murder.

When she begins to look into who might be the killer, she heads to The Silver Lining who are having a showing for a new crafts-person, as she knows that some of the people she is interested in learning about, will be there. As she about to enter the shop she notices an adorable Westie tied to the parking meter. She soon learns that Reg used to belong to Martha. Winston Bernhardt is now taking care of Reg and offers him to Gigi, who gladly accepts. Besides, while walking Reg in the evenings she will be able to search for clues.

There are a wonderful set of supporting characters in the book, too. Sienna, who a bookstore in town is always there to bounce ideas off. We have Carlo, who is Emilio nephew, who Gigi might think about becoming better friends with. But then, what about Detective Mertz, who may not be such a bad guy even if he is a policeman.

Looking forward to the next book and am looking forward to learning where Gigi's business will go. Of course looking forward to the further adventures of Reg. show less

I enjoyed this story and look forward to book two. A sweet heroine, two competing men at the very beginning of their rivalry. I look forward to more of Gigi and Reg.

Not a bad first outing or first book in a series. Not great though either. I suffered through an immediate introduction in the first chapter of almost all the suspects, which made the first third of the book a bit of a bear, trying to remember who was who and keeping them from running together in my head. There was a bit - not a lot - of calorie counting that felt a bit unhealthy to me. Obviously, calorie counting is part of the protagonists job, but a few times when not doing her job, it's mentioned. Also, her reasons for "investigating" didn't feel realistic to me: she worries if she doesn't find out who really committed the crime, her business will suffer - but it never actually does, save for a contract from a big food company that show more she wasn't counting on anyway.

The protagonist, Gigi, kept having a running internal dialogue about Carlo, another character, that left me feeling completely confused: is she interested or not? I literally could not get a feel for what the author was trying to get across here.

Finally: a scene where one of the characters claims he can help her because his restaurant is closed for lunch do to plumbing issues, then in the very next scene, the Gigi is having lunch at that same restaurant that same day. Stuff like that bugs me.

There are things I did enjoy: I love the small town the author has created; she has introduced some interesting characters that could play a bigger part in future books. I like the detective she's introduced here too - although he wasn't around much throughout the story, she dropped enough hints of possible romantic tension that I'd like to read more. I love that the best friend plays a role and owns a bookshop. And I really liked the little twist at the end that had nothing to do with the plot, but left a smile on my face regardless. The mystery itself was interesting, with lots of suspects who had good reasons for wanting the deceased dead. I liked the final conflict as well, it was a nice twist on the heroine-in-peril.

I'll look for the next one and see which direction the series is going in before deciding to follow or not. show less