Review: A Very Woodsy Murder by Ellen Byron

A Very Woodsy Murder (Golden Motel #1)
by Ellen Byron

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
New motel owner Dee Stern has checked out of the familiar comforts in the Studio City and checked in to the quaint village of Foundgold. Running a rustic getaway in the woods sure beats LA traffic—until murder ruins the peace and quiet . . .

Down-on-her-luck sitcom writer Dee Stern is flipping the script. Twice divorced and wasting her talents on an obnoxious kids’ show, the lifelong Angeleno embraces the urge to jump in her car and keep driving. It’s a road trip with no destination—until she pulls into a mid-century motel filled with cobwebs and retro charm. Nestled in the shadow of a national park, it’s a time capsule of a place that, like her, could use some work. So, in the most impulsive move of her life, Dee teams up with best friend, Jeff Cornetta—who happens to be her first ex-husband—to transform the aging ranch into the Golden Motel-of-the-Mountains, a hiker’s oasis on the edge of the wilderness . . .

But Dee and Jeff soon realize there couldn’t be two people more unprepared for the hospitality business. There’s also the panic-inducing reality of prowling bears and a general store as the only shopping spot for miles. Living and working in the middle of nowhere takes some getting used to—especially when a disrespectful guest ends up murdered! Now, with the motel duo topping the suspect list, Dee must steer clear of a meddling park ranger, face her past in show biz, and determine if the killer is a local or tourist. Because as she quickly finds out, there are many things worse than a one-star review.

My Review

I received a free copy from Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.

I was so excited for this book, the nature rich setting and the main character running a motel sounded so fun. And I did like the setting as well as the running the motel but there wasn’t as much of running the motel yet and the rest of the book just didn’t quite work for me. I picked this one up in a stressful week so that probably didn’t help either. I just didn’t get into this book. I didn’t feel like DNF’ing it, so I continued, but just ended up feeling very meh about the whole thing.

Main character Dee decides to take her life in a different direction when she and her best friend Jeff buy a motel. When their first guest gets murdered they get involved in trying to solve the mystery. It made sense why they got involved and I liked how even the sheriff encouraged them to help with the investigation.

Sadly this book just didn’t fully work for me, despite liking some of the set up and setting for this book, I just never felt fully engaged and invested in what was going on. I didn’t really care about what was happening, but also somehow managed to keep listening and didn’t mind it enough to actually DNF it. I was a bit sad there isn’t more about the motel but due to their first guest dying and the bad reputation that causes they mostly do some preparing for guests. The book also could feel a bit silly at times, I think parts were supposed to be funny, but not much of it actually was to me.

I didn’t really care about the mystery. There was plenty of progression and some twists along the way. I didn’t really like Dee and the way she investigated didn’t always work for me, she could be a bit too accusing to some people that could be her friends and neighbors. I did like her friendship with Elmira who runs the general store. The narrator for the audiobook was okay, not my favorite, but I managed to listen to the whole book so that counts for something.

To summarize: This book just didn’t fully work for me. I liked the setting of a motel in the middle of the woods as well as the running the motel theme, but it didn’t fully grip me. I also picked it up in a stressful week, which didn’t help, and I never really cared about what was happening. I didn’t really get invested in the mystery and I had hoped for more motel and forest related scenes. I never fully warmed up to the main character and didn’t always like how she acted. I really wanted to like this one and am sad that didn’t happen.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– Audible
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.