I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Author. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Friends and Foes
by Laina Turner
Series: Read Wine Bookstore Cozy Mystery #1
Series Rating:
Published by Five Seas Ink on February 21, 2012
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 75
Format: Kindle
Goodreads
BookBub
Get Your Copy at: Amazon, Audible
In this series prequel, Trixie is ecstatic that she is about to reach her lifelong dream of owning a shop which is a combination bookstore, coffee shop, wine bar. It's the best of all worlds. To make it even better she's doing it with her best friends Sally and Cora.
Everything is going smoothly until strange things start to occur. Someone trashes their store mere days before they are to open. Then Sally gets stranded when someone puts sugar in her gas tank.
Who has it in for them? Is it Sylvia, Sallys ex-husbands new girlfriend or is someone trying to sabotage Read Wine?
Friends and Foes by Laina Turner is a short read that tells us how the bookstore with a coffee and wine bar came to be.
Who is sabotaging the opening of the used bookstore?
We have a few sleuths in this book. So, let’s start with our point of view character.
Trixie
Trixie is one of the partners in the used bookstore with a wine bar and coffee bar inside. What a unique idea. I love it. Trixie is the local librarian; she is divorced with a young boy. Her ex-husband is about the worst ex you can have, but he is a good dad. So, Trixie forgives him for things that I don’t know if I could. However, Trixie is a sweet person, and she has the idea for the used bookstore, which she says is her dream. Although she is one of those overly cautious people with the help of her friends, she may be able to pull this whole plan off.
Sally
Sally is also a partner in the used bookstore. She is unemployed and currently divorcing her cheating husband. Oh, Sally is getting everything that she can from him, like the building that the bookstore will be in. However, she is still very bitter about her unfaithful spouse and his current girlfriend. She needs the bookstore to be her outlet, or she may explode.
The Mystery
This story is how the ladies set up the partnership for the store, all of the issues and sabotage that they encountered on the way to opening day. It is fast-paced, and the culprit is easy to figure out if you follow the clues.
Four Stars for Friends and Foes by Laina Turner
I think Friends and Foes by Laina Turner is great. But, I just wanted more, so I guess now I will have to read the rest of the series. I am giving it a rating of four stars. Oh, and I recommend this to all you wine-loving cozy mystery lovers out there.
Read Wine Bookstore Cozy Mystery Series
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Friends and Foes by Laina Turner.
Until the next time,
About Laina Turner
As a child, Laina thought she would either be a truck driver (thanks to Jerry Reed in Smokey and the Bandit) or work at Taco Bell (her favorite restaurant as a child). As she grew older, she realized her talents lay in other areas, and for the last several years has been a college professor teaching business and English.
Through all her career choices, she has continued to have a passion for writing stemming from childhood, where, as an only child, she developed a vivid imagination.
She is proud of her vast experiences in life from barrel racing, to being on the dance team for a semi-pro basketball team, to being a mom of 2 amazing kids.
She decided to follow her dream as an author in 2009 and has worked her way up to having 5 fans (maybe 6 now). She often tells her family and friends that no one is safe from his or her ventures slipping into her books. Her blog, In Pursuit of Fabulous, was launched to share the daily fun in her life as a Real Midlife Housewife of the Midwest.
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