Wishbones

I was really disappointed with this book. I have previously loved the series. In this the main character, a southern ex-daddy's girl, moves to Hollywood for her second chance at making it as an actress. The setting of Hollywood didn't translate well for the southern lady. It was awkward and her "Southerness" was displaced. It wasn't this fun charming story about her roots, and the ties that she has. It became this forced plot, and awkward dialogue. What works in the south for these books doesn't seem to work as well set someplace else, at least for this book. I'm hoping it was a fluke.

Sarah Booth Delaney is living her dream as she is cast at Matty in a remake of Body Heat. She leaves her beloved Mississippi home for Los Angeles and Costa Rica for the filming. She also leaves behind a love for a man who has returned from her past. But she just can't leave behind mystery and murder and a corpse shows up before the filming even starts.

I really like this series. I had my doubts about moving away from the southern setting but Haines manages to pull if off. I find that I have grown attached to the characters and we are left with a sort of cliff hanger that has me anxious for the next installment. The only complaint I have is the name dropping that I guess sort of goes with the Hollywood theme of the story, but I could show more have done without it. show less

I am a great fan of this series about Sarah Booth Delany, and this book is quite readable. But it is not up to the standards I have come to expect, so if you're new to the books about Sara Booth Delaney, go back and start with any of the earlier ones. This one just didn't ring true. Part of the book is about shooting a film in Costa Rica, but no real flavor of the country came through. Some of the middle of the book seemed repetitive, making the same plot points in slightly different ways. And sometimes Jitty was just plain mean to Sarah Booth.

I really enjoyed reading how Sarah Booth went out to Hollywood and tried to act again. This to me is the best book in the whole series so far. We get to see another ghost where she is staying and her friends come to see her in Costa Rica as well. I hope the author will be putting out a new book soon.

Fast paced, fun read. Kept me interested from beginning to end.

Ok, I expected to really dislike this book, based on the reviews of others who reported it to be the weakest book in the series. But even though I dislike taking characters out of their setting most of the time, I still really enjoyed this book. I think it was underlying question of 'is there a ghost or not?" that sort of kept me interested. The author did a great job of leading you to the murderer - giving you enough clues at the right time. Great series.