Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass (Exotic Pet-Sitter #1)
by Heather Day Gilbert
My Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: MF
Blurb:
When exotic pet-sitter Belinda Blake moves into a carriage house in tony Greenwich, Connecticut, she’s hoping to find some new clients. Instead she discovers a corpse in the garden—and a knack for solving murders . . .Pet-sitter Belinda Blake doesn’t rattle easily, but move-in day has been eventful, to say the least. The python in her care tried to slither to freedom—just as she met Stone Carrington V, her landlords’ disarmingly handsome son. With the constrictor back in its cage, she heads out to the garden, only to discover a designer shoe poking out of the boxwood hedge—attached to a woman’s dead body.
The victim, Margo Fenton, was a Carrington family friend, and no one in their circle seems above suspicion. Between client trips to Manhattan and visits to her family in upstate New York, Belinda begins to put the pieces together. But though she’s falling for Stone’s numerous charms, Belinda wonders if she’s cozying up to a killer. And soon, daily contact with a deadly reptile might be the least dangerous part of her life . . .
My Review
I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.
I was sold on the premise of this one. A cozy mystery with an exotic pet sitter as main character. I hit request almost immediately after I read the blurb on Netgalley. Sadly this is one of those books that didn’t quite hit the mark for me. It had a lot of potential and parts I did like, but the story as a whole failed to fully grab my attention and keep it. In the end I was curious who had done it, so I continued onward even tough after the first chapter I knew this wasn’t going to be a book I would fully enjoy.
Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass follows the story of exotic pet sitter and video game reviewer/ article writer Belinda Blake. Belinda just moved to Greenwich to a carriage house. At the end of the book I still have no clue why she insisted on only wanting a carriage house as her house, but this was important to her for some reason. She meets the son of her landlord Stone the fifth when she’s out walking Rasputin the snake. Then later that day she stumbles upon a dead body and Stone the fifth ask for her help to figure out who murdered her.
From the first page there was just something that wasn’t quite working for me and I am still not quite sure what. Something about the way it was written and the pace and the way the plot continued. It felt almost rushed, but not quite, but things did progress quite quickly and not always in a way that made sense to me.
And all these little things that just didn’t work for me and each thing is small in and of itself, but it adds up over the course of the book. Like how she was an exotic pet sitter without much knowledge in said area so far, she seemed afraid and hesitant about the snake at first. I didn’t feel her passion or drive for anything and I had a hard time understanding her actions. Then there’s the way she gets involved in this mystery that involves people she hardly knows. And then there are things like Stone the fifth and Stone the fourth, somehow it just got on my nerves to have that number behind their names all the time.
There is a bit of potential romance that developed quite quickly, but then she does get annoyed when he didn’t tell her something, while one date and one visit to a friend was hardly enough time to get to know someone enough to divulge the kind of information she wanted. She’s a game reviewer, but some of the terminology struck me as odd. Maybe it’s an attempt to not date the book, but it just made it sound odd and like the author or character didn’t know enough about gaming.
I wanted more about her gaming, her exotic pet business and who she was a character. Only later in the book we get a bit of a feel for what she has done in the past, but I just had a hard time getting a good feel for her character and it made it hard to get invested in the story. I also was a bit surprised how Belinda could make enough money while she hardly worked and rarely spend time building her business or anything. She did take care of the snake and gamed a bit, but she mad more than enough time to focus on other things too. I guess I would’ve liked a bit more focus on her business as a pet sitter and game reviewer as those were parts I was interested in.
The mystery was actually what kept me reading as I was curious to know who was the murderer. I think this is the reason why I haven’t DNF’d a cozie yet as there is still a part of me that wants to know the answer. I thought the way Belinda got involved in the mystery felt a bit off, she doesn’t know anyone yet in her new town except maybe Stone the fifth who she just met. Then someone gets murdered next to her house and there is not even talk of the police at first, but Stone the fifth goes off talking to everyone and see what they knew. I am not even sure why he got so involved instead of leaving it to the police. As the police actually did seem mostly capable in this book. Anyway so we have Stone the fifth who wants to figure out who is the murderer and Belinda who sort of goes along with him and finds him charming. It just felt off and I didn’t really feel that she cared as much about solving this murderer, until later in the book. She gets more involved with the characters involved in the case and by the end it did feel more clear why she was involved.
Then there is the mystery itself, which was pretty decent. There was a big clue very early on in the book that no character seemed to catch and which ruled out a bunch of people for me. And later on another big hint that Belinda missed which solidified my guesses. But besides that there was some solid progression and they did do some smart things. One of my two guesses turned out to be the murderer. There was a great twist when the murderer gets revealed and when the whole truth comes to light. I also liked that there were some moments when you start doubting everyone, but I think that also was easy to do as I didn’t really care for many of the characters.
I liked how some of the characters and relationships developed over the course of the book. It was fun to see Belinda visit her parents and her home town as well, although I think a bit more build-up and depth could’ve been there. I also liked how Belinda grew to like the snake more throughout the book, although she still didn’t really strike me as an animal person somehow. I also though there was an interesting development with some of the characters she met during the murder investigation and some of the characters really surprised me with the characters.
To summarize: Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass didn’t fully work for me, but I there were also parts I did enjoy. The set-up was a fun one and I liked the idea of an exotic pet sitter. I had a multitude of small things that didn’t work for me as well as the pacing and story progression being a bit off at times. It felt a bit off how Belinda got involved in the murder investigation as she hardly knew anyone in town yet. And she goes to help as someone she hardly knew was investigating the murder and asked for her help. And I am still not clear why he didn’t leave things up for the police. The mystery itself was quite well done. By the end I had two suspects and one of those was indeed the murderer, but there was an interesting twists that I hadn’t anticipated, that did make sense. There also was a point where I could suspect almost everyone, which was interesting, but partly because I didn’t really care about anyone. I liked how some of the characters developed and seeing how Belinda interacted with them. And there were characters who ended up going in a different direction than I had anticipated, which was interesting. I just had trouble getting a good feel for Belinda and caring about any of the characters. The house, her business and the town also didn’t fully come to live for me. All in all this was a decent start to this series, but it wasn’t quite the book for me, even tough I did enjoy parts of it.
Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo
You can also read my review on Goodreads, Bookbub and Amazon.
It does seem to offer some fun elements with her exotic pets and gaming reviewer connection. But to be vague on those elements and then not have solid character background development or plot points to support all that along small things that don’t add up well would make it tough to really like the book and not get distracted Glad it wasn’t a complete disappointment.
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It had some nice parts, but all those things that didn’t quite work for me just added up sadly.