Shop Till You Drop

Cozy mystery series featuring Helen, a woman on the run from her moocher ex-husband. She works off the books at a boutique called Julianna's, and the women there are the feature of the story, as they plot hits, plan marriages, and buy pills from the store manager. Moves a tad bit slow for my pace, with not a whole lot of immediate characterization, but it picks up as the book goes on, and the characters start to mesh better together. A good read though, and I'm very interested in the rest of the series - a funny, light mystery, just what you need sometimes.

Helen is on the run from something, and forced to work "off the books" on deadend jobs. That's why she continues to work at an exclusive dress shop, even though the clients are shallow, surgery-obsessed, and vaguely nasty. The story involves fraud, murder, the Mob, drugs, embezzlement, and sugar daddies. The story is told with a light touch - but it seems dead on.

This was a new series for me. I’ve been trying to make an effort to read more cozy mysteries, since that’s sort of what I’m trying to write. And this was a winner!

Helen is hiding out in Fort Lauderdale for reasons that aren’t especially clear for a while. Needing to stay off the radar, she’s stuck with whatever job she can find that will pay her under the table, and that has left her at Juliana’s, an exclusive clothing boutique where the clothes are tiny and expensive and the customers are more plastic than flesh.

But things at the store aren’t quite what they seem, and when Helen’s coworker disappears and the police start nosing around, Helen knows she needs to do something or her cover will be blown.

I enjoyed Helen and show more her supporting cast at the apartment complex where she lives. The author gives you a good taste of the different sides of Florida, from South Beach to snowbirds. I’ll definitely be continuing this series, and I look forward to seeing what Helen will do next! show less

This was the second book that I have read in this series. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to read them in order. This was a book my sister found in a used book store. I want to try to find them all.

I absolutely fell in love with the characters. The writing is superb. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the story is set in Sunny South Florida (which is where I live).

This was one of those cozy mysteries that you just can’t put down. It really keeps you guessing because there are so many red herrings thrown into the mixture.

The description of the “plastic” women who shop at those upscale boutiques in Fort Lauderdale was right on the money. I know many women who are exactly like that. I know at my last job, we would sometimes show more sit and try to figure out which of our clients had which plastic surgery.

I definitely recommend catching her books. She also has another series of cozy mysteries out that I am going to hunt for as well. show less

Helen has run away from a past that included a job with a six figure salary and a cheating husband to land in Florida doing a "Dead End Job" as a sales clerk in a ritzy women's boutique. It is an interesting premise and once the story actually starts to develop entertaining. As the story precedes, Helen overhears a murder for hire plot, sees drug sales, and finds blackmail plots all while trying to avoid discovery by her ex-husband and exposure by the police. She has to travel this mine field while trying to solve the murder of her former employer. Entertaining not great.

I so wanted to like this book. The premise sounded appealing and fun, but I found myself disappointed almost immediately.
The writing is far from great. The author manages this annoying 1st/3rd person POV. The book is written in third person, but comes across as a first person perspective where the main character refers to themselves by their first name. Not fun.

Plus the story just didn't have that fun snap that you expect from a cozy chic lit/mystery. I never cared about any of the characters and ended up not even finishing the book (something I never do).

This book was cute and very funny. I enjoyed the light hearted mystery and the fact that the characters made this a great read.