Living on a farm with four hundred goats and a cantankerous carnivore isn’t among vegan chef Brie Hooker’s list of lifetime ambitions. But she can’t walk away from her Aunt Eva, who needs help operating her dairy. Once she calls her aunt’s goat farm home, grisly discoveries offer ample inducements for Brie to employ her entire vocabulary of cheese-and-meat curses. The troubles begin when the … begin when the farm’s pot-bellied pig unearths the skull of Eva’s husband, who disappeared years back. The sheriff, kin to the deceased, sets out to pin the murder on Eva. He doesn’t reckon on Brie’s resolve to prove her aunt’s innocence.
Death threats, ruinous pedicures, psychic shenanigans, and biker bar fisticuffs won’t stop Brie from unmasking the killer, even when romantic befuddlement throws her a curve.
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BONES TO PICK by Linda Lovely | A Henery Press Mystery. If you love one, you’ll probably love them all.
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Vegan chef Brie Hooker hadn’t planned to start working on her aunt Eva’s goat farm and dairy, but when Eva needs help, Brie is happy to step in. That’s before a pot-bellied pig turns up bones – human bones. The skeleton turns out to be Eva’s husband, who disappeared four decades ago. There was no love lost between Eva and her husband, but Eva didn’t kill him. However, he has too many relatives in the area who are willing to blame Eva, so Brie starts investigating, hoping to clear her aunt. When another dead body turns up, Brie finds herself in trouble with the law as well. Are the two dead bodies related? Can she figure out what happened?
The characters drew me into this book right away; they are fully developed and fun. Their teasing and Brie’s creative meat and cheese curses added a level of humor that I enjoyed. The book was hard to put down with plenty of events to keep me engaged. Unfortunately, I did feel that the events took the place of the investigation moving forward, which frustrated me. However, the climax resolved things and upped the stakes in a major way. This book is a bit edgy for my normal reads, on the border between PG and PG-13, thanks in part of the teasing Brie gets about her love life. Yes, this book does introduce a love triangle. While I am getting tired of them, I do like both of the guys here, so I hope it doesn’t get dragged out for very long. Overall, I enjoyed this book. If you enjoy humor in your mysteries, you’ll be glad you picked up this book.
Fun and entertaining book! Brie has come to help her Aunt Eva at her goat farm after her Aunt Lilly, Eva’s twin, dies in a car accident. On the day of the memorial at the farm, the pet pig digs up the remains of who turns out to be Eva’s husband who had disappeared 40 years ago. Eva, of course, is the prime suspect. Brie sets out to investigate with some help from her new suitors, Paint and Andy, as well as her friend, Mollye. All kinds of things start happening and members of Eva’s former husband’s family also end up dead. It sure seems like someone is out to frame Eva and Brie just may get herself in over her head before she can prove Eva’s innocence. Very fun and entertaining characters. I look forward to reading more of this series and seeing what happens with Brie and her relationships with Paint and Andy.
Bones to Pick by Linda Lovely is a delightful cozy mystery! The characters are fun and the plot was so entertaining. Brie Hooker is a vegan chef who has come home for her Aunt Lily’s funeral. Brie is with her Aunt Eva at Udderly, her goat farm, preparing food to be set out for all the mourners when a skeleton is discovered at the edge of the property. Her Aunt Eva feels it will be identified as her no-good, abusive husband who went missing 20 years before. AND IT IS! Who wanted him dead more that Aunt Eva??
I won’t post spoilers, but this is a wonderful mystery that will have you laughing out loud! And the addition of a tall, handsome vet and a very adorable and friendly Moonshiner will keep you hoping that Brie will ‘do the right thing’. The mysterious events on the farm range from old buried bones to intruders in the night trying to steal old buried bones.
I love the way Brie uses the names of cheeses as she makes exclamations during times of distress.
Oh Good Googamooga! Get this book today, you will enjoy it, but have something to snack on nearby, because reading all the wonderful meals and food items made me hungry..haha!
What a wonderfully fun start to a fabulous new series, and you don’t have to be vegan to love it! In this new series you meet Brie who has moved in with her Aunt to help run her goat farm because her other aunt has died in an accident. While at the wake a precocious pig named Tammy finds a bone who ends up being the missing husband of her living aunt. During the wake Brie is introduced to Andy the local vet and Paint the local moonshine maker. Both men have been friends for years and both are attracted to Brie. They both jump in to help her figure out just what happened all those years ago when everyone thought her aunts husband had just run off. With half of the town being related to the man and most thinking her aunt murdered him for his land will Brie be able to keep her aunt out of jail. This was a well written story filled with eccentric characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. The banter between Brie and her Aunt is hilarious especially when it comes to the food that they choose to eat. I so look forward to what comes next for these two and to finding out if Brie will be able to choose between the two guys. I usually like one guy over another when reading a book but in this case I loved them both so it will be interesting to see who she picks if she even picks one of them.
No Bones About It – Bones to Pick is a Hit
What the heck is a vegan chef doing on a goat farm? That is what we find out in Bones to Pick, the first installment in a new series by Linda Lovely. A death in the family brings Brie Hooker home and before she knows it she finds herself moving back home to live with her aunt on her goat farm.
When some old bones dug up on the property end up being identified her Aunt Eva’s late husband who mysteriously disappeared years ago, it is up to Brie to solve the mystery and clear the family name.
This book is a nice start to a new series. Full of action, adventure, and cozy fun. Here are my top reasons to check it out.
The Title Fits the Book
So many cozy mysteries have cleaver titles, but they have nothing to do with the book or the story. Bones to Pick is a fitting title for this book and gives the reader insight into the story.
Great Supporting Cast of Characters
I love a good multi-generational family story. And Brie’s family is full of entertaining characters. I especially love Brie’s relationship with her Aunt Eva. Aunt Eva added humor and spice to the book and she kept me entertained from start to end.
Laugh out Loud Humor
This is an entertaining read. The author does a great job keeping things light hearted with lots of back and forth banter between the characters, jokes about Brie’s name (how can you not eat cheese with a name like that?), and Brie using the names of cheeses instead of swear words. It is witty and keeps the pace of the book moving along.
No Bones About It
Bones to Pick is a hit. It is fun, creative, and will keep you engaged until the very end. I enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing where Brie’s adventures take her next.
Review first published at: https://cozyexperience.com/no-bones-bones-pick-hit/
Bones to Pick by Linda Lovely~A cute cozy based around a vegan chef on a goat farm. A first in series introduces delightful characters and sets up the series well.
Brie Hooker, a vegan cook returns to her Aunts
farm called Udderly’s, when one of them dies.
The aunts were twins sisters. She is going to
stay on the farm to help her surviving Aunt Eva
operating the goats and cheese farm. There are
four hundred goats, a mixture of Nigerian Dwarf,
Pyrenean, Alpine, Anglo-Nubian, and La Mancha
goats on the farm plus five Great Pyrenees dogs,
Riley Roo, the roaster with his flicks of egg-laying
hens, Lilly the mule plus Brie’s dog, Cashew joining
them. There is also a pig named Tammy who
happens to dig up part of a dead body while
Brie’s Aunts condolence party is happening.
Turns out the body is Aunt Eva’s husband who
disappeared 40 years ago. He walked out on her
and now we know what really happened to him.
Soon after another Grave is discovered plus a
woman who was Aunt Eva’s husband girlfriend
back when then the woman’s husband supposedly
commits suicide. Who is killing off all these people
and trying to frame Aunt Eva?
Brie along with two suitors plus her best friend,
Mollye decide to investigate.
Great array of artistically create characters and
quirky, colorful, vivid supporting characters
involved in a well plotted, puzzling plot.
Great job in description making the reader a part of
their experiences.
Brie Hooker is a vegan chef who moves in with her aunt on a goat dairy farm to help her aunt with her 400 goats. Brie finds a skull that turns out to be her late aunt’s ex husband. Her aunt Eva is arrested and Brie, with the help of Paint, Andy, Mollye, and her parents, investigates. She has to find an explanation for how all the evidence leads to her aunt even though she knows she didn’t do it. This is a very interesting mystery with a romantic arc as well.
“Bones to Pick” earns 5/5 Delightful Dilemmas and Suspicions Galore!
Thrilled! It’s the first word that comes to mind after reading Linda Lovely’s first book in her Brie Hooker Mystery series. The story jumps right into all the conflicts with which Brie is confronted, and I couldn’t set it down from there. Sadly, her Aunt Lilly died tragically, and she finds herself struggling as a vegan living and working on the Udderly Kidding Dairy farm where she manages hundreds of goats, dairy, of course, she can’t drink, cheese she can’t eat, and eggs she can’t fry, but the worst dilemma is the discovery made by one of the farm’s pot-bellied pigs…bones! Not just any bones. The bones discovered are those of her Aunt Eva’s no-good husband who had disappeared decades before, and the sheriff puts her at the top of the suspect list. Why not? Isn’t it always the spouse!
Brie begs to differ, and Linda sends us along for a well-written ride of threats, fights, lighthearted fun, and a romantic triangle that leaves one perplexed about which side to choose. We are introduced to delightful characters, some quirky, but Brie is endearing and the dynamic between her and Aunt Eva’s bold personality is fun to follow. As with many first books, the background and character introductions take an important role in the story telling, and Linda has done well providing a very interesting world I enjoyed being a member. The clever twists and turns in the murder mystery itself challenged my inner “Sherlock,” and I should have seen the “Watch out!” conclusion coming. The mystery did have a great solution, but enough was left up in the air and the world created makes me wanting more from this series. I loved it!