Book Review: Vows, Vendettas and a Little Black Dress

Book: Vows, Vendettas and a Little Black Dress (A Sophie Katz Murder Mystery book #5) by Kyra Davis

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

This was crazy but in a good way. Sophie and her friends are never far from trouble or danger and it hit home even more so in this story. When Sophie, Dena and Mary Ann were over at Mary Ann's apartment celebrating some good news something awful happened. Dena had been shot while Sophie and Mary Ann had left the living room. The excitement they all enjoyed moments ago celebrating Mary Ann's engagement was now replaced by fear, anger and worry. 

With Dena undergoing surgery all Sophie could think about was who could have shot her? Whoever did it, Sophie is not going to let them get away with it. Although she's a mystery writer, Sophie has solved her fair share of mysteries despite finding herself in immense danger.

Who could have done it? Well, that's exactly what Sophie was planning to find out. Clues point to several different people including one who has an insanely huge grudge against Dena. And could one of Dena's lovers in her polyamorous relationship be the shooter or is there a possibility that Mary Ann's ex-boyfriend Rick did it, he's definitely acting strange lately.

Meanwhile as Dena recovers, Sophie's sister Leah is trying her best to not only get Mary Ann to hire her as a wedding planner but also to change nearly everything about her wedding.

The story was fun but I'll be honest the mystery solving took a bit of a back seat. Sophie didn't investigate as much as she did in previous books but clues did turn up with some being revealed by her boyfriend Anatoly, a private investigator.

There were two issues that put a damper on the story, the first is Sophie and Anatoly's relationship drama. These two have a tumultuous relationship, you never know what's going to happen between them. Sophie is a passionate, impulsive and emotional person, so she sometimes leaves logic at the door and acts on every feeling she's having resulting with her and Anatoly either in some kind of an argument or having sex.

The other issue I had was with everyone trying to subtly and not so subtly make Mary Ann change her mind about how she wanted her wedding to be. So what, if she wanted to get married at Disney Land and have the bridesmaids wear peach taffeta dresses. It's what she wanted and they should have been a little more understanding about that.

I really did enjoy this story not only for how the characters interact but that the mystery actually kept me guessing. There were also some really funny scenes that had me laughing out loud at all the zany things that go on in this book.

This is something that I rarely get to say but I have completed this series, well the main books that is. There is one Christmas short story that I have not read but I did add it to my wishlist.