Vegan Brie Hooker lives and works with her feisty Aunt Eva at Udderly Kidding Dairy, a hop, skip, and jump away from South Carolina’s Clemson University. Brie’s fun farm outreach attempt backfires when religious extremists decide goat yoga is a form of devil worship. Believing one of the zealots might be persuaded to see reason, Brie’s free-wheeling friend Mollye convinces her they should call on … should call on the young woman. Big mistake.
Picketers at Udderly’s gates soon become the least of Brie’s troubles. Not only is she accused of murder, she worries the death might actually be her fault. Danger mounts when an old family friend’s visit ensnares Brie in a high-stakes feud between a U.S. Supreme Court nominee and the woman determined to expose his secrets.
In her personal life, Brie’s still torn between the town’s two most eligible bachelors. While she’s edging toward a decision, she must first survive a cunning killer adept at crafting murders that look like tragic accidents.
Will Brie be another “accident” victim? Pay a visit to Udderly Kidding Dairy and find out!
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BAD PICK by Linda Lovely | A Henery Press Mystery. If you like one, you’ll probably like them all.
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An overzealous religious group targets Udderly Kidding Dairy as their next protest site – all because Brie and her friends want to start up the highly popular goat yoga. Insistent that goat yoga is a form of devil worship, the religious cult begins picketing outside the gate of the farm. Brie’s Aunt Eva is mostly annoyed but when one of the members who ambushed Brie and friends winds up dead, things get a bit more serious. Add in the food tasting event Brie has planned and things begin to turn ugly.
Brie has plans to open a B&B that caters to vegans and vegetarians. The time has come to test her menu on the most discerning of pallets – her mom, a judge friend, other restaurateurs, and food bloggers. Shortly after the tasting, several of the attendees wind up in various stages of illness including no symptoms, light symptoms, violently ill, and dead. Brie knows she didn’t do anything wrong and when toxicology reports come back, she knows someone was tampering with her food. Now – she just has to prove it before she’s sued or convicted of murder.
Amid Brie’s turmoil, one of her mother’s friends is embroiled in a situation involving a Supreme Court nominee, who also happens to have ties to the religious group. The book also continues the multiple suitor storyline. Brie is certainly busy in book 3 of the Brie Hooker Mystery series.
Bad Pick is another intense, edge-of-your-seat cozy mystery set in the world of a vegan working her family’s goat dairy farm. The South Caroline world of Brie Hooker created by Linda Lovely is spectacularly written. The images of each scene in the book were not only vivid but easy to get immersed in as you read. The world and characters were written well, and I felt like I was there at the farm, on the climbing trails, or in the middle of the scuffles.
Brie’s character is down-to-earth, enjoyable, and a completely likable character. It really is no wonder she has two suitors vying for her attention and affection. Paint and Andy, men on complete opposite ends of the spectrum, are well-written and caring, each wanting Brie for themselves. Aunt Eva is a quirky yet strong woman who demonstrates the ability to be independent and self-sufficient. Brie’s quirky friend Mollye (yes, it ends with an “e”) rounds out the character list quite nicely.
The author did a wonderful job weaving everything in this book together. The book contains religious fanaticism, murder, and a tangled web of events, carefully explained, envisioned, and played out. Add those elements to simmering romances, secrets, a vegan working on a dairy farm, and one shady Supreme Court nominee and his family, and you have one spectacular tale in Bad Pick. The plot is solid, and I didn’t see the conclusion coming. There were several ways this story could have gone. Bad Pick is a great novel that drew me in, kept me engaged, and continued to pique my curiosity from the very beginning. I can’t wait to see where Linda Lovely takes everyone next.
Bad Pick
A Brie Hooker Mystery, Book #3
Linda Lovely
5 Stars
Synopsis:
Vegan Brie Hooker lives and works with her feisty Aunt Eva at Udderly Kidding Dairy, a hop, skip, and jump away from South Carolina’s Clemson University. Brie’s fun farm outreach attempt backfires when religious extremists decide goat yoga is a form of devil worship.
Believing one of the zealots might be persuaded to see reason, Brie’s free-wheeling friend Mollye convinces her they should call on the young woman. Big mistake.
Picketers at Udderly’s gates soon become the least of Brie’s troubles. Not only is she accused of murder, she worries the death might actually be her fault. Danger mounts when an old family friend’s visit ensnares Brie in a high-stakes feud between a U.S. Supreme Court nominee and the woman determined to expose his secrets.
In her personal life, Brie’s still torn between the town’s two most eligible bachelors. While she’s edging toward a decision, she must first survive a cunning killer adept at crafting murders that look like tragic accidents.
Will Brie be another “accident” victim? Pay a visit to Udderly Kidding Dairy and find out! (Goodreads)
Review:
The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read. The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and she created a setting that pulled me right into the story. I could picture the farm, barns and animals very clearly in my mind. And her description of a lot of the food within the story was mouthwatering, and I am not a vegan!
The characters are well rounded and well developed. Brie is very funny and I love the way she cusses, I smiled everytime I read her curse words. Her and her aunt, Eva, love each other very much and I enjoyed getting to spend time with them again. And Brie’s friend, Mollye, is a real hoot and the interactions between the two had me laughing me out loud. I enjoyed my time spent with Brie, her aunt and her friend, I felt it was time well spent.
The mystery is well plotted and moves along at a nice steady pace. There was a plethora of suspects and clues to consider. The mystery was not easy to solve and I was not sure of the culprit until the reveal at the end.
I would recommend this book, and series, to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. If you enjoy a little grittier cozy with great characters, the you should read this book. If you are new to the series, I would suggest you read them all.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher, Henery Press, and Edelweiss, which I greatly appreciate.
I enjoyed the previous books in this series as Brie is figuring out her life, alternating weeks with two potential boyfriends, attempting to raise funds for rehabbing a big old house her aunts purchased for her, possibly by catering events and holding goat yoga classes at Udderly Kidding.
Unfortunately at every step there are obstacles, some severe, as discovering dead bodies, and others emotionally difficult as having religious fanatics picketing the farm.
This third book of the series is equally enjoyable with humorous moments and phrasing mixed in with the dark and deadly deeds. Brie is also trying to clean up her language and creating colorful swear words featuring food terms.
Coincidentally, and sadly, as I was reading this book, food poisoning made an appearance in my own home. I got to live with the real life effects as I read the book!
This third book brought up very controversial yet timely topics, from politics and religion to some more salacious. All are handled tastefully and provided twists and turns in the investigations.
Brie’s father is known for growing poisonous plants and one of her Beau’s is a veterinarian, with access to drugs. When a food blogger dies after tasting Brie’s food creations, and Brie’s home is subsequently vandalized, with any evidence cleared out, things are not looking good for her future.
What is the connection between her mother’s college friend and a political candidate and these vocal religious fanatics? Everything gets tangles together and lives are endangered before Brie has to make some difficult decisions.
I can hardly wait to see what happens next!
Brie Hooker is a great character. Warm, caring, and tolerant of others who do not share her vegan outlook on life. When someone somehow poisons the food she has prepared for food critics, Brie has to find out who did it – if only to prove her own innocence and protect the reputation of the business she is in the progress of launching. She does so with the help of two good-natured and protective guys – best friends, both of whom she happens to be openly dating at the same time.
I really enjoyed this book. It was a nicely paced and entertaining read, with just the right balance of humor, romance, and mystery.
I really enjoyed this witty mystery Bad Pick. There are plenty of quirky characters. I adored Brie. The story had plenty of twists and suspects. I did not figure it out which I consider a plus. With religious zealots, goat yoga, a B&B for vegans and vegetarians, politics, food poisoning and more, there is plenty to keep the reader engaged in this well written book.
BAD PICK by Linda Lovely
The Third Brie Hooker Mystery
Looking to add more interest, and money, to Udderly Kidding Dairy, Brie Hooker decides to hold goat yoga on the property. Not everyone is smitten with cute kids, and members of the Temple of True Believers descend on the dairy vowing to put an end to the devil worship. It’s one of their own that’s found dead, however, in most unusual circumstances. Was it a tragic accident? When the daughter of the prime zealot is also found dead, after eating a meal prepared by Brie, the church declares holy war accusing Brie of murder! Will Brie and her devoted family and friends be able to withstand food poisoning, religious extremists, and dirty politicians? Or will Brie lose her B&B before it even opens? Worse, will she find herself the victim of yet another “accidental” death?
Holy Havarti! Brie Harper is back with her unique curses, two beaus, cute goats, and murder and I’m happy to read another of her adventures. Wealthy men doing what they want and stopping anyone who tries to stop them, or hold them accountable for their actions, is a sad reality today and Linda Lovely tackles the subject in this mystery. I love the idea of goat yoga and thought that was a brilliant addition to Udderly farm, and amazingly, a motive for murder. I find Utopian societies and cults fascinating and some mind boggling. How anyone can associate yoga with Satanism and baby goats with devil worship is beyond me. The fictional Temple of True Believers found in this book believe just that and while there is some humor in the pages, sadly these beliefs aren’t as funny when held by people in the real world.
While I enjoyed the climatic scenes at the end of the book, I left feeling as if this mystery wasn’t over. The answers were too pat and I don’t believe a certain character. Brie shares my suspicion and I wonder if we’ll hear more about the people in a future book. Otherwise, I think someone just got away with murder. I appreciated the other conclusion, that of the romantic triangle. While I like both Andy and Paint, I’m pleased Linda Lovely didn’t allow the triangle to go on too long and had Brie choose. I just hope the title doesn’t reference this choice!
BAD PICK is a character driven mystery with plenty of humor that also deals with topics that are quite relevant and timely most notably the ability of wealthy young men to abuse women with no repercussions. I had fun reading this book and look forward to Brie’s next adventure.
FTC Disclosure – The publisher sent me a copy of this book in the hopes I would review it.