Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 mystery and scrapbooking November 17, 2008
I really enjoy Laura Child's writing style. Enough detail to paint the scene but no overkill. A quick read and enjoyable. I prefer her tea novels to the scrapbooking novels mainly due to the characters (don't like the hubby/exhubby). But I still enjoy the scrap novels. I like the setting of the novels.
 Not as good as the first - mediocre at best. November 9, 2008
I read this book after reading the 1st in the series. I enjoyed the 1st book, but this book wasn't as good.
Carmela, owner of the local scrapbook store (LSS), holds an all-night crop. During this crop, the neighboring furniture store owner is found dead in the alley. Now Carmela is out to find the killer, even though she really doesn't want to. In the interim, Carmela has to deal with her estranged husband coming in and out of her life. (I found this part unnecessary and annoying).
She encounters various interesting characters along the way of her investigation. She becomes involved in an Arts gala as well.
The book started off mediocre, but entertaining enough. As the plot "developed", it lost it's mediocrity and became worse. The book read like the author was tired of the story and looking for a quick wrap up. The dialogue toward the end between the characters became like a movie script and too predictable - nothing original, nothing creative. When you read it, you will understand what I mean. It reminded me of a B movie screen play for your average, stereotypical whodunnit.
I have the 3rd and 4th book in the series and plan on reading them, but I hope they will be much better than this sequel.
Scrapbooking and murder August 18, 2008
Carmela Bertrand owns Memory Mine, a scarpbooking store in the French Quarter of New Orleans. During an all-night scrapbooking session, Gabby, her assistant, discovers Bartholomew "Bart," owner of the neighboring Menagerie Antiques, dead in the ally with a pair of scissors in his chest.
Carmela believes Bart was a shady businessman and is appalled when Billy Cobb, his young assistant, becomes the police's prime suspect. She decides to do some investigating of her own to find the real killer. Can she do that without putting herself in harm's way?
This is the first in this series that I've read. It definitely won't be the last. I like Carmela and her scrapbooking buddies. I especially like the New Orleans setting! I am not a scrapbooker, but I have an interest in the craft, so that really appealed to me.
If you like cozy mysteries, you will like this book. I highly recommend it!
 Scrapbookers delight! October 29, 2007
I think most of us like a light mystery to read when we just want to escape. Laura Childs books do that for me.
A nice read for a scrapbooker or crafts person July 15, 2007
The 1st three books in this series were gifts to me (I had never heard of them)from my mother who knows of my love for the scrapbooking craft/hobby. I dove into the first one and moved right on to the second and third ones without delay. I really have enjoyed them. I will say, however, that I can't even remember who exactly the murderer ended up being in this book. That must say something either about the book or maybe just about my faulty memory. But the mystery is secondary to me as I just enjoy the idea of the stories surrounding this scrapbook shop owner trying to make it on her own after being abandoned by her husband of one year. I really like her feisty best friend and have enjoyed getting to know her shop regulars (it does take time, though, because they're not that involved in the stories.) I like the scrapbooking projects she gets into but I don't embellish quite the way she does in her work but it's still interesting and helps me brainstorm ideas for my own projects. I also like that she includes recipes mentioned in the story. I am frustrated by Carmela's estranged husband, Shamus, as well as with Carmela as she doesn't say the things most people would say (scream) to Shamus and his annoying sister. But there's still a strangely likeable quality to Shamus and some potential there for the marriage to survive. I do like series in general (getting to know characters) and with the scrapbooking link here, I am sure I will continue to seek out these Laura Childs books as they come out. They make me smile so that's worth something.
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