Brew or Die

I liked this better than book 3. Some of it played out the way nearly the way I expected, which was good. I felt like it needed to go the way it did. So the ending was good and I really hope that good personal trajectory continues with Juliet. Hopefully this is creating a network of people that Juliet can go to for help with cases and not just a string of past boyfriends. So hopefully book 3 and book 4 are building characters and back stories and then I can look back on these books and see how smart the author was to build it this way.

Because if not, I can not keep reading all this romantic drama. I want to read a cozy mystery and not a romance novel. This book pushes some of those boundaries for me. So as I was reading, this drove me nuts. A large portion of the novel was a slog but in the end, it was worth it.

My only other complaint is the odd way these books seem to connect to other cozy series. There is a series I know whose main character is Josie Prescott, which is the name of Shane's fiancee. That could just be a complete coincidence, but I wondered. Also the fact that Juliet is a red headed barista with strong connection to the man from her past and a cop boyfriend is oddly similar to another cozy series I have read. Maybe these are Easter eggs or nods to other interesting cozies. I just don't know how to take that.