Book boyfriends may do it better, but they're more trouble than they're worth.
A Dead and Stormy Night by Steffanie Holmes is first book in the Nevermore Bookshop Mysteries series. After being passed over for her fashion dream job in New York City and finding out she has a degenerative eye disease that will cause her to go blind, Mina Wilde returns to the sleepy village in England where she grew up. There, she takes a job at the Nevermore Bookshop, where she figures she can heal, surrounded by her favorite books. However, the Nevermore Bookshop isn’t what it seems. There’s a curse on the bookshop that brings classic literature characters to life. The brooding proprietor is Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and his flat mates are James Moriarty (of Sherlock Holmes fame), and a shapeshifting raven named Quoth, from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven. If that isn’t strange enough, Mina’s ex-best friend ends up dead on the eaves of Nevermore Bookshop with a knife sticking out of her back. With Mina as the chief suspect, she and the boys work together to solve the murder and clear her name.
I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook. This was my first dip into the cozy mystery genre. It’s every bookworm’s dream to have their book boyfriends come to life, and A Dead and Stormy Night does not disappoint. Along with the murder mystery, there’s a little bit of spicy romance. This is a fun book, despite the main character suffering with the loss of her eyesight, and murder of her ex-best friend. Steffanie Holmes expertly blends the cozy murder mystery genre with fantasy romance. I look forward to more mysteries and mayhem from the Nevermore Bookshop Mystery series.
- Katie, Reference Librarian