Devil’s Kiss by Michelle Bennington

Item: Devil's Kiss
Rating: 4
Author: karenbaron

Posted August 15, 2022 by karenbaron in Blog Tour, Contest - Giveaway, Mystery, Review, Series / 1 Comment

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from Great Escapes Book Tours. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Devil's Kiss

by Michelle Bennington

Series: Small Batch Mystery #1
Series Rating:

Published by Level Best Books on May 31, 2022
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 272
Format: Kindle, Paperback
Source: Great Escapes Book Tours
Goodreads
BookBub
Get Your Copy at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Rook Campbell is broke, divorced, jobless, and in desperate need of steady employment, which is hard to come by in the small town of Rothdale, Kentucky. With the help of her friend and neighbor Bryan, she lands a good job at the Four Wild Horses Distillery and meets an attractive co-worker with lots of dating potential. Her life is finally headed in the right direction until a co-worker dies under suspicious circumstances and a shipment of rare small-batch bourbon goes missing. Worse, her personal life begins to unravel as her beloved grandmother falls ill. Normally she can depend on her ex, Cam, for help, but his new fiancée’s jealousy is getting in the way. As the body count rises, Rook becomes ensnared in discovering who’s committing the crimes—or she might be the next to die.

Devil’s Kiss by Michelle Bennington is about a young divorcee who has recently quit her teaching job since it wasn’t paying her a great livelihood.

Can Rook figure out who killed her best friend?

Rook Campbell

Rook Campbell is our protagonist, and she has had a hard life. Now, even more so, a year ago, she got divorced. Her ex is engaged to the lady who caused the divorce. She quits her job, and her best friend gets her hired at a distillery company that he works for as an accountant, and oh yeah, on her first day, her best friend gets killed. Rook is a pretty complicated person.

She lost her mom as a kid, her dad went to jail, and her grandmother was the only person left to raise her. For all of that happening, Rook has a hard time just letting her emotions come to the forefront whenever she deals with intense emotions. I don’t know if I really like Rook as a person. I get everything about why Rook is the way she is, but not allowing her emotions to come out isn’t a good thing.

The Mystery

Rook Campbell is dealing with her first day at work when the guy who owns the distillery screams out because he finds her best friend Bryan dead in Bryan’s office. Now Rook is tasked not only by herself but Bryan’s mom to figure out what is going on. The sheriff guy doesn’t think Bryan was killed, just an innocent heart attack. Rook doesn’t think so because of everything she has overheard on her first day.

Let’s just say that Rook stumbles upon a bigger mess than she initially thought. I got who the players were and who had the best motive pretty early on just by how everyone was acting and how Rook found the evidence and events that tied it all together.

Four Stars

Devil’s Kiss by Michelle Bennington is a great first book in a new series. Ms. Bennington does an excellent job of writing this book. Just realize that with any good Southern mystery book, you should be excepting to have lots of snacks by you. Rook eats a lot of delicious food.

I am giving Devil’s Kiss by Michelle Bennington four stars and recommending it to anyone that wants to try a cozy mystery set in Kentucky.

Giveaway

Prize: (1) Prize Package from Author Michelle Bennington that includes a book, mug, chocolate, candle (made by me), bookmark, hand sanitizer, car freshener, and pen, valued at about $75. The US Only

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Thank you for dropping by! What do you think of Devil’s Kiss by Michelle Bennington?

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

About Michelle Bennington

Born and raised in the beautiful Bluegrass state of Kentucky, Michelle Bennington developed a passion for books early on that has progressed into a mild hoarding situation and an ever-growing to-read pile.

When she’s not creating contemporary or historical fictional worlds full of mysteries, she obsesses over all things British and historical. In rare moments of spare time, she can be found engaging in a wide array of arts and crafts, dance, and attending ghost tours.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges: