Kasey Nottingham needs a splashy idea at her company where they find and develop the next big thing for investors—her job depends on it. Impulsively, she pitches Mags’ Desserts, a beloved small-town business run by her grandma Mags and live-in “best friend” Celia, two women who overcame deadbeat husbands and financial ruin to build a word-of-mouth clientele. Kasey expects her boss to say no. Instead, he sends her home to North Carolina to land the deal…and now she has a problem.
Mags and Celia aren’t interested, which isn’t a surprise, but something else is going on in their kitchen. Locked cabinets. Cryptic conversations. Unexpected notations on business records. The ladies have secrets and whatever they’re hiding is big. As reports of mysterious deaths of abusive men in the area surface—all in households that recently received a delivery from Mags’ Desserts—Kasey worries Gram and Celia have gone into the poison pie business.
As investors start circling, Kasey enlists Jackson Quaid, Celia’s nephew and Kasey’s long-time crush, as her reluctant investigation assistant. Jackson is practical. Kasey has a wild imagination. Together, they dodge Kasey’s boss and gather intel. And kiss. Lots of kissing, though probably not the best idea to start an unexpected romance. Doing it while keeping two feisty ladies from going to jail for knocking off bad husbands—even if those husbands deserve it—might be impossible…but Kasey never shied away from a challenge.
Moorewood Family Rules was one of my favorites last year. However, Dimon’s newest novel was more Dial A for Aunties, and just a bit over the top for me. I really didn’t like Kasey’s character. She just lacked direction of any kind. The poison speculation (which I think was supposed to be funny) just became annoying. The romance was odd. Very off-kilter. I feel like there was a lot about “men are bad”, but then here’s this one male that you can like. It was very off-putting. As the reader, I wasn’t sure if I was cheering on the relationship or wanting Kasey to pull a Wonder-Woman-don’t-need-no-man solution.
Overall, I rate this novel 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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