Review: The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton

Title: The Cracked Spine
Author: Paige Shelton
Pages: 304
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: Free ARC from St. Martin’s Press

Rating: A

Note: As stated under the Source (above), I received this book for free from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review (and trust me, honest is always what you’ll get).

Review: A cozy murder mystery set in Edinburgh, Scotland? With a female protagonist who also happens to be a highly educated, previous museum worker from the States who has immigrated to Scotland to work in a rare books store? Yes. Count. Me. In.

I’ve never read Paige Shelton before. And somehow, despite having read all of Charlaine Harris’ “Aurora Teagarden” series (that’s cozy mystery, right?), I feel like this genre is pretty new to me.  And I’m loving it. There are SO many options out there, there is always a series involved so you can keep going back to characters you love, and they are interesting and clever, but light-hearted and easy reads. If you are looking for a “palate cleanser” after a heavy read or if you are in one of those spaces where you are on the verge of a reading slump and need just the right book, a cozy mystery fits the bill for me. And that is definitely true of The Cracked Spine.

The characters were easy to connect with, the storyline is very smartly written, the flow of the story is smooth and natural, and it definitely held my interest the whole way through. In fact, I blasted through the last 2/3 of the story in one night. That is not something I often have time to do, and there is rarely a book that draws me in enough to keep my interest for more than an hour at a time – especially when I have a bad cold and it’s past my bedtime. Sniffle.

The only complaint I have about this book is that it is the first in a series and now I have to wait for the next one. Sniffle.