Review: Vitamin Sea by Maia Ross

Vitamin Sea (Beaver Island #1)
written by Maia Ross
narrated by Petrea Burchard and Deborah Balm

My Rating: 3 stars

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

Blurb:
A retired intelligence agent still wants to save the world. Her nerdy houseguest just wants to survive her vacation.

Former spy Irma Abercrombie wasn’t looking for drama when she invited Violet Blackheart—a brainy, sun-deprived acquaintance—for a visit at her island home. But after an armed robbery in town goes terribly wrong, Irma gets pulled into an island intrigue: Was it a simple snatch and grab, or are there darker forces at work?

Irma’s hands might be deadly weapons, but she’s all thumbs when it comes to computer problems. How will she convince Violet to investigate a technology puzzle masterminded by someone with a taste for murder? And if Irma’s so retired, what’s up with the dead guy in her driveway?

Violet embraces a budding cupcake addiction while Irma grapples with a bomb threat and wonders how she ended up with a pug as a sidekick…and whether Violet might be hiding a few secrets of her own. They’re headed for a showdown at a luxurious island estate—but they can only flush out a killer if they work together.

Perfect for fans of Jesse Q Sutanto’s Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age.

My Review

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

Vitamin Sea caught my eye with it’s fun title and interesting blurb. I’ve been in a big cozy reading mood and was excited to start this one. Vitamin Sea is told from two points of view, Irma is a retired spy who has trouble adjusting to civilian life and Violet is the nerdy co-owner of a tech company and needs a break as she’s nearing burnout. Violet decides to take Irma up on her offer to stay with her on beaver Island. The two team up to solve a mystery. I did feel this book reads like there is a story before it and I did find out there is a prequel novella set before it. It can be easily read without it, but I did feel like I missed a bit of background at the start.

I liked the dynamic duo vibe, but I wished they had been closer and worked more together. Now it’s mostly Irma doing her thing and her asking Violet to help with the tech stuff, while Violet mostly focuses on that and gives Irma the highlights. I liked the dynamic duo vibes and wished that had been utilized more as Violet’s pov didn’t feel as necessary now. I did like the difference in age and personalities of these two, but I just wanted to know more about them. The characters felt more like a collection of easy remember traits and their personalities didn’t fully come to life with me.

As I had expected the typical cozy mystery vibes I had expected more cozy island vibes in this one and more daily life scenes and I felt like those were missing. I wanted more cozy scenes with either of them or the both of them and seeing more of their daily life. I did realize the cover actually classifies this as humorous mystery and I think that term fits better than cozy mystery. Sadly I didn’t really find it very funny. I also thought the vibe was a bit more suspenseful and dangerous than most cozies with multiple victims who are shot, security, danger and armed people. It just isn’t my preferred type of mystery.

The book is very mystery focused and it feels very plot focused, which would’ve been good if the mystery had actually hooked me, but I struggled with it. This mystery starts with a robbery and when the cousin of one of Irma’s friends get hurt her friend asks her to help. Then there is a mysterious dead body that shows up at Irma’s house and an kidnapping and accidental overdose of a side character. Violet jumps in to figure out whether the IV stands have been tampered with. Then later dead threats are added and more danger.

It just felt like this mystery was all over the place, nothing seemed to make sense or be connected. The characters did a lot, but it didn’t feel like they were getting anywhere until the end. I have to say I did really like the reveal and wrap up, it all fell on it’s place and the jumble of a mystery finally made sense. It just felt like all the reveals were all packed into the last few chapters and the rest of the book it didn’t feel like the characters got anywhere and I like a bit more progression throughout a mystery book.

I listened to this one on audio and both narrators were awesome. I already knew Petrea Burchard from the Nightmare Arizona series and enjoyed listening to another book narrator by her, although I did get a bit confused at first when I got reminded of all the characters in that other series with the way she did the voices. Deborah Balm was a new to me narrator and I enjoyed listening to the chapters she did. I thought the dual narration was a nice touch and both narrators did a great job with the different voices and the whole audiobook was pleasant to listen to, so I can definitely recommend picking it up in audio.

To summarize: This one had a fun premise with a dynamic sleuthing duo involving a retired spy and a nerdy tech company co-owner who team up. I really wanted to like this one and there were parts I did like, but this book just didn’t fully work for me. I wanted more depth to the characters personalities and more cozy scenes and daily life parts. The mystery felt more suspenseful and dangerous than I usually prefer. And I didn’t really find the book funny despite it being marketed as a humorous mystery. The mystery felt all over the place and the two sleuths each seemed to do their own thing and then telling the other about it instead of working together. The reveal for the mystery was great and I liked how it all made sense and fell on it’s place, but I would’ve liked more progression throughout the book. The audiobook narrators were both great to listen to and I liked the dual narration. Both narrators did the various voices well and I can recommend the audio version if you want to pick this one up.

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

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.