Item: Manuscript for Murder
Rating: 2
Author: Kristin

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Celebrate Lit and was under no obligation to post a review. No compensation was received for sharing this review and all opinions are my own.

Manuscript for Murder by Chautona Havig
Amazon|Barnes&Noble|Goodreads

Series: The Hartfield Mysteries #1
Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform on December 7th 2012
Source: Celebrate Lit
Genres: Christian, Fiction, Suspense
Pages: 309

Alexa Hartfield. Author, local celebrity, fashion connoisseur. She chose Fairbury for its close proximity to Rockland, its small town atmosphere, and its low crime rate.Then someone made her life a literary cliché. A mysterious accident with a light bulb sparked an interesting idea for her latest novel—and for Fairbury's new serial killer. The first replication infuriated her. The second left an even worse taste in her mouth. The third blasted more than her self-confidence, and the fourth beat her down so far she's considering giving up writing completely. Who is killing Fairbury's citizens, and furthermore, why and how are they using her novels to do it?

I adore this author and it killed me (no pun intended) to give this book a two star. I have the pleasure of being in a facebook group with Chautona and she’s so sweet, funny and great.

But, I couldn’t force myself to love this book. I am a firm believer that it is impossible to love every book that you pick up. That’s what happened with this one. Would I read Chautona’s other stories? You betcha.

So, let me explain what I did and didn’t like about this book. I hope that I’m capable of expressing that while this was a two-star for me—it may be a five for you.

My biggest complaint was that Alexa’s wardrobe was its own character. Yes, her wardrobe. At first, I found Alexa’s love for quirky outfits to be an adorable character trait. In fact, I pictured her as a not so goth version of Abby Scuito—one of my favorite NCIS characters. But, the outfits became too much of a focus. I felt that they could have been written into a character guide as their own entity.

Second, some of the sentence structure confused me. It’s not that I’m an incompetent reader but there were times when I was completely lost. An example of this would be when a little boy is discussing Alexa’s pregnancy. I couldn’t distinguish that this was gossip as Alexa didn’t correct him in any way. So, imagine my surprise when pages later she’s popping a hydrocodone.

Last, I wanted to love Alexa. Again, I saw her as this quirky Abby-type but she was so overbearing that I had a hard time loving her. She was like—Crabby Abby. I tried so hard to force myself to adore her. I wanted to and it wasn’t for lack of trying. But, I couldn’t connect with her.

This story is well written and there is a certain Nancy Drew vibe that I did love. I’m interested in future installments to see if she grows on me because I loved Chautona’s humor. I just wasn’t clicking with Alexa.

About Chautona Havig

Author of the Amazon bestselling Aggie and Past Forward Series, Chautona Havig lives and writes in California’s Mojave Desert. With dozens of books to her name, Chautona spends most of her time writing, but when she takes the rare break, she can be found reading, sewing, paper crafting, or sleeping and dreaming of finishing the dozens of books swirling in her overly-active imagination at any given moment.

Posted By: Kristin Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Chautona Havig

Comments

carylkane says

August 5, 2017 at 4:48 pm

Great review! Sounds like a fun series!

Chautona Havig says

August 8, 2017 at 6:48 am

I love that you just laid out what you liked and didn’t and didn’t play around. This review will make me pay especially close attention to your future reviews! I’m so excited about it! :) Thank you!!

Manuscript for Murder|Book Review

About Chautona Havig

Get on the List

Stay Up to Date

About Chautona Havig

You’ll Also Love

Get on the List

Comments

We love hearing from you! Share your comments belowCancel reply

Stay Up to Date

Latest from Instagram