Mama Gets Hitched by Deborah Sharp

Mama Gets Hitched (Mace Bauer Mystery, #3)

by Deborah Sharp

According to Mama, a Gone with the Wind-themed wedding—complete with Scarlett O' Hara bridesmaid gowns and a ring-bearing Pomeranian—is fine and dandy for her fifth trip down the aisle. But what's a bridezilla to do when her caterer is murdered? 

Thanks to the nonstop gossip train in their small Florida town, Mama's gator-wrestling daughter Mace is getting the dirt on who did it. Unfortunately, the suspect list is longer than the gift registry. Right at the top are the groom's East Coast Yankee cousins—who may have Mafia ties. 

With her on-again, off-again beau, Detective Carlos Martinez, Mace must track down the killer before Mama's Special Day turns especially deadly.

Reviewed by MurderByDeath on

4 of 5 stars

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Excellent read, but really, in comparison to the first two books, I'm calling this a 3.5 star read and rounding to 4.

If you haven't yet dived into the Mace Bauer series, the characters are great, sassy, smart, witty, but still, old-time Florida - and most definitely not the postcard Florida one thinks about when thinking about a beach vacation.

The plot of this one was well done; the author does a very good job keeping the reader too busy to really speculate to heavily about who the killer is. At least one plot twist kept me from being at least entirely right when I did guess.

So what cost it the half star? Mama got on my last nerve with the Bridezilla bit and the constant one-track song she played about Mace's looks, about her ability to keep a man, about her sister Maddie's weight. She went on and on and ON, and she wasn't ever listening to anything anyone else tried to say. Mama came off vain, shallow and narcissistic instead of eccentric, quirky and charming as she has in previous books. Still it was a small blip on in otherwise entertaining read. We see more of Carlos in this book and that was a definite bonus - I like learning more about this man and I like his less antagonistic interactions with Mace. The scene on the lake was the best part of the book for me.

I'm looking forward to reading Mama Sees Stars.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 21 July, 2013: Finished reading
  • 21 July, 2013: Reviewed