The Mother's Day Mishap

by Kathi Daley

[Mystereity Reviews]

Why these books aren't a Hallmark series, I don't know. It fits the Hallmark theme perfectly; a quaint small town where everyone knows everyone else, romance in the air for the main character, her friend and her family and just enough mystery to keep you interested. I can just see Candace Cameron Bure and several love interests who all look alike - you know what I mean, same low fade haircut, just enough beard to not look like heavy stubble but not enough to look like a lumberjack. Get on this, Hallmark, I need another cozy mystery movie series.

Anyway, this was cute, and the mystery was heartwarming - while delivering mail, Tess is given a misdelivered Mother's Day card without a return address that was sent to the recently deceased owner from her estranged son looking to heal the rift that pulled them apart. Tess, with Tony's help, tracks down the location where the card's sender was hoping to reunite with his mother so that Tess and Tony can notify him of his mother's death.

This was a sweet book and I really enjoyed it. My only issue with this series (as I've read so far) is that important scenes are only related after the fact to other characters while scenes that really don't have much bearing on the story get more attention. For example, there's several scenes about building planter boxes but when it came to the big moment, meeting the Mother's Day card's sender, it was cut off as Tess and Tony were approaching the man and then later related to Bree after it happened, which was a bit of a let down. I read this whole story and you're going to steal the big payoff?

Overall, this was a quick, light and feel-good read and the story really drew me in. I'm going to give this series a new genre - RoCo = Romantic Cozy. While the theme of the book is firmly cozy mystery, a lot of the suspense comes from the will-they-or-won't-they-get-together romantic tension. There's no real romance other than hand holding and kisses on the cheek, but it's a prominent theme to the books, at least so far.

And why was Tess so shocked when Mike took Bree out for a date? Is mean, I know she's oblivious to literally everything but really, Tess. Get a grip.