Book Review - the Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs

I just finished the second book in the Tea Shop Mysteries, Gunpowder Green, having previously read Death by Darjeeling. I'm not sure I'm going to read any more of them, not that they're bad; they're just not that great.

I do enjoy feeling like I'm in a cozy tea shop and have been learning more about various teas and how to properly prepare them. I also like the recipes included in the back of the books, like scones, apricot tea scones, and Earl Gray sorbet. The characters are fun and nice to get to know.

But...the writing just doesn't grab me. It's sometimes pretentious as is the dialog. The lead character doesn't seem to really know what she's doing as she tries to solve murders and why she would hide information from the police is beyond me. The crime investigations just don't seem realistic.

So, if you want to mindlessly escape and don't much care about the quality of writing, give this series a try, but I'm going to take a break from it and then maybe revisit to see if it's improved.

Here are the links to the first two if you want to give them a try and let me know what you think: Death by Darjeeling and Gunpowder Green. They have lovely covers, don't they?