Rach's Reading Club

So I just wrote up part of this review and the whole page suddenly closed. Gah. We really need an auto save feature here.

Anyway... Here's the Amazon book link: https://www.amazon.com/Egg-Nog-Aloha-Chicken-Mysteries/dp/1950529266/ref=tmm_pap...

WDC product reviews are still not working for me. I am very sick so I apologize if this review isn't up to my normal.

Egg Nog is the 12th book in the aloha chicken mystery series by Josi Avari. You know I'm loving this series. This book seemed shorter than usual .. actually they overall seem to be getting shorter? Not every book, but generally. I think it was 184 pages. I think the first few were a lot longer so decided to check. Yes. Book 1 was 280 pages. Anyway, probably people are mostly reading from book one in order and book one had to explain Saffron's color vision and introduce us to the egg farm and all kinds of chicken facts. Now we mostly just get into the mysteries and learn a few new chicken facts or introduce a new chicken or two.

It qualifies as "paranormal" because it involved Santa Claus and of course, he's got supernatural powers. There were two books earlier in the series... I think I read them in January, before this started this year... they involved a Hawaiian belief about animal protectors and in one some tiger sharks saved a native Hawaiian man who was currently active duty military. So that one could have gone for Supernatural or Military. Anyway, it hardly matters. I don't know why I'm rambling at you.

Back to "Egg Nog." This book was the second Christmas one in the series, I think. And she made it very different from the first, which I appreciated. It was one of the more predictable books as far as the plot goes, but it was enjoyable to me anyway because of the Christmas in Hawaii aspect and some of the lovely moments Saffron had with characters from previous books and the cuteness of the kids in the walk through Christmas pageant. Some of the kids' antics made me laugh out loud.

The person who got murdered... I must admit that I thought he'd be killed off long ago so it wasn't surprising that it was his turn this time. The only problem was that almost everyone in the small community hated him so there were lots of suspects. Once again, Saffron's color vision and excellent reasoning skills solved the case (along with the one police officer the community has, who is very indulgent of her and respects her unique talents). The romance isn't going in the direction I'd like but other than that it was a fun Christmas cozy mystery to read.

I'm glad I read it before I got sick because I don't think I could read it now. All the food descriptions... she does a LOT of food descriptions it seems to me, though that may be because I can't eat most of what she's describing. It does all sound delicious when I'm healthy. But just thinking of the 12 flavors of Christmas malasadas (Hawaiian custard filled donuts) makes my stomach flip. Never mind the buffet descriptions etc.

Anyway, it was a fun read. I'm looking forward to the next book. But I'm going to wait until I'm feeling better to read it.