Search - In the Dead of Winter (Ivy Towers, Bk 1)

I loved this book. The inspirational message was good, the town history element was interesting. The entire story was well done, building a base for stories to come. Not one word of foul language, plus light romance, perfect for this type of mystery. I thought it to be well thought out and well written. A lot of small loose ends tied up very neatly in the end. I look forward to the next story. Fun stuff, great cozy.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. The actual mystery wasn't bad, the characters were ok and I wasn't opposed to the Inspirational Mystery part. The problem was that for pages at a time the Inspirational part took over the mystery part. The religious comment as part of a conversation works even some religious thought as Ivy does some soul searching is appropriate but there were passages that seemed to drag on that had no purpose other than to preach. There was a page about the church that the main character didn't even go to and pages on the history of the town. It was just to much extra detail and it stopped the flow of the story. I don't think I will read another book from the author. As an inspirational story it may work but as a mystery it certainly doesn't.