A timid traveler. A New Orleans adventure. A Mardi Gras murder…Roxy believed that life never gives you more than you can handle. But when she’s fired from her wage-slave job, bullied by her co-workers, and her boyfriend abandons her, she decides she’s handled quite enough. Eager for a change of scene, Roxy with her white Persian cat Nefertiti head off to New Orleans.The exotic sights, smells, … Orleans.
The exotic sights, smells, and food of Mardi Gras coax the shy young woman out of her shell. Booking a room at a rundown guesthouse, Roxy is surrounded by a colorful cast of local characters. From tattooed waitresses to mystical tarot card readers, she quickly makes new friends and leaves her old life behind.
But she soon discovers that the Big Easy isn’t all beignets and jambalaya. A wealthy developer is eager to buy the guesthouse where Roxy lives and tear it down… until he turns up dead as a doornail! Before she can say ‘Mon Dieu!’, Roxy is caught up in a diabolical murder mystery… and her new friends are the prime suspects!
Roxy is determined to protect her pals, and save her new home. But is this anxious adventurer up to the challenge of solving a murder? Or will she become the killer’s next victim…
Cozy mystery fans will love this delicious new series from author Alison Golden. No foul language, no sex, and no gore…Just quirky characters, Cajun food, and a puzzling mystery that will keep readers guessing. Grab your copy today!more
Roxy Reinhardt is fired from her wage-slave job, bullied by her co-workers, and her boyfriend abandons her, she decides she’s handled quite enough. Eager for a change of scene, Roxy with her white Persian cat Nefertiti head off to New Orleans.
This is a big change for Roxy and I think this is just what she needs. Roxy gets the whole New Orleans experience of exotic sights, smells, and food of Mardi Gras. Roxy is coming out of her shell by booking a room at a rundown guesthouse, Roxy is surrounded by a colorful cast of local characters from tattooed waitresses to mystical tarot card readers, she quickly makes new friends and leaves her old life behind.
This was a nice read to travel in reading to New Orleans with Roxy.
Roxy decides to start life over and moves to New Orleans with her cat ,Nefertiti! This book is the first in the new series and it is fantastic. It’s a quick, fun, cozy murder mystery! I love the new characters and the original plot! Alison Golden is a superb storyteller. I enjoy all her series and I think this is going to be my new favorite! I highly recommend this book and this new series!
Mardi Gras Madness (A Roxy Reinhardt Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Alison Golden is a wonderfu story to read. This is book number one in this wonderful start to a brand new series that I have loved reading. I highly recommend this story to everyone who loves reading about cozy mysteries.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book
I really enjoyed this book and it looks like it will be a great series. After her boyfriend leaves her and she is fired from her dead-end job, Roxy Reinhardt up and moves with her cat to New Orleans. She booked online to stay at a lovely looking guesthouse. It wasn’t exactly as the photos showed it to be, but she stayed anyway. From there on it was a roller-coaster ride, with a dead body and everyone suspecting each other. Of course Roxy decided to try and solve the murder herself with very mixed results.
Wonderful characters that charm you and draw you in to a fascinating who done it book. I loved every minute of this book and look forward to the next episode.
“Mardi Gras Madness” by Alison Golden and Honey Broussard is a delightful fast-paced book readers will not be able to put down. It tells the story of Roxy Reinhardt, a shy young woman, and her one true friend, her cat Nefertiti. After a horrific day in which she is told to leave her job as a service rep and then, comes home to find a note from her live-in boyfriend informing her that he has left her, choosing to move in with his new girlfriend, Roxy sees an ad for New Orleans. On impulse, Roxy decides that New Orleans might be the answer to her problems and packs her things, puts Nefertiti into her cat-carrier, boards a bus and goes there. She has given a one month’s deposit to a beautiful, inviting, pet-friendly place called Evangeline’s Guesthouse. When Roxy gets to New Orleans and sees the guesthouse, she starts to worry. All she sees is a run-down exterior with pealing paint and a balcony that looks like it is about to fall off. She is very disappointed, realizing that the picture she saw in the ad must have been taken many years ago. The guesthouse is on a very narrow street that ends at a cemetery. Roxy goes inside and is even more disappointed because no one is at the desk to welcome her and there are huge cobwebs on the ceiling. As she is looking around at the beautiful antique furniture, probably left over from years past, she meets Louise, a guest returning from a run, who tells her that she is an interior designer from New Jersey who has been living there for three weeks and has to run everyday to take off the pounds she has been gaining from Evangeline’s wonderful Creole cooking. Nat, a female with a British accent, a diamond stud in her nose, multiple piercings in her ears and dressed all in black, comes from another room and leads Roxy up an old wooden staircase to her room. She finds more beautiful antique furniture in her room and is told the time to come down for dinner. At dinner, Roxy meets Nat again, this time as the helper to Evangeline who is the very old guesthouse owner and the cook, Sam, the handyman and owner of a laundry, Sage Washington, an African American female who works the computer for Evangeline and also does Tarot card readings and Elijah Walder, who is the owner of the bakery across the street and the bearer of wonderful beignets and pastry. Roxy, who has always been shy and never had very close friends, finds herself welcomed by these people and starts enjoying her stay until Richard Loman, a property developer who Evangeline makes leave her house because he keeps returning, wanting to buy the guesthouse and tear it down, replacing it with modern apartments, is found murdered in the cemetery. I really enjoyed Roxy’s interactions with the various New Orleans characters and wanted to find out who killed Richard Loman, hoping it wasn’t any of the characters who took Roxy into their fold. I know other readers will enjoy this book and end up reading it into the wee hours of the night just as I did.
A great new cozy mystery series set in mystical and magical city of New Orleans!
I enjoy every cozy mystery series that Alison Golden writes. I have followed her writing for years and anxiously await the release date of the next story in each of her series. This new series must be the best one yet! The characters are intriguing. Every character has such a colorful or mysterious backstory. Blend all these characters together into just-the-right mix and it yields a great whodunit.
This is a clean and easy read. If you are a lover of cozy mystery stories, then you must read this book!
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. Exciting new series! We are introduced to Roxy as she is working a dead-end job and suffering the abuse of her boss and coworkers. With the loss of her job and her boyfriend, she packs up and moves to New Orleans. As she adjusts to life there, we get to meet her new quirky friends. When the hotel she has been staying at is up for sale and the man who wants to buy it is found dead, she quickly becomes involved in the search for his killer. Surprising and heartwarming conclusion! I can’t wait for the next book in this series!
Fun, easy to read, fast paced. Can’t wait for more Roxy!
I am a huge fan of Alison Golden’s books. I love all her cozy mysteries and when I was given the chance to read her latest new series I just had to. Roxy Reinhardt is having a really bad week and she just packs up her cat and heads for New Orleans. This series has a good start with this book. At first I was wondering where the main character was going to develop but I love the way the author is letting Roxy slowly develop. I look forward to more in this series.
I absolutely loved it! A new awesome series! I can’t wait for the next book! This is a must read series!
This is a wonderful introduction to Roxy and her new friends. The environment is delightful. The details add wonderful depth. I enjoyed it greatly.
I received a copy of this book as a gift. This is my honest review.
Mardi Gras Madness is the first book in the new Roxy Reinhardt series. This series is set in New Orleans with all its ambiance: the French Quarter, Jazz music, mysticism, and Creole cuisine. It is populated with a new group of characters, each with different but winning personalities.
After losing her job and her boyfriend in the same day, Roxy is quite depressed, not knowing what she is going to do with her life, then she noticed that something had captured her cat’s attention. Curiosity makes her go see what and she discovers a commercial on tv promoting Mardi Gras. Suddenly, Roxy feels a desire to go to New Orleans. It feels so right she immediately starts making arrangements to go. She gives notice to her landlord, sells her car and off she and her cat go on a life changing adventure.
Roxy will find new friends, murder, deception, and a whole new life.
I enjoy all of Alison Golden’s series in varying degrees and this one is worthy of her as well. I look forward to future books to discover what else is in store for Roxy and her new friends.
Roxy is a customer service operator for a washing machine company. She gets a call from a very abusive customer who has her almost in tears. So she says just a minute and puts him on hold to collect herself. When she gets back on line he has hung up. She gets a new call and within minutes her boss comes storming into the room glaring at Roxy. The man from the last call told the boss she hung up on him and is dismissed for the day and told she would be called if she decided to keep her on. At home later Roxy saw a TV as for New Orleans and decided to go for awhile and check It out. She stays at a place that looked good in the ad but was just not what the ad showed. She got to know the people there and was glad to be there even though there was talk about the owned selling out and the building was going to be torn down. The group from the hotel and friends went to a parade and found out the next morning the developer who was going to buy the hotel was found dead in the graveyard near there. Lots of twists, turns and speculation on who did it. The sheriff and the hotel owner had history for not getting along and he made it sound like he suspected her when questioning the people. This book was hard to put down wanting to know who really did it. Another great book by Alison Golden. Looking forward to the next one.
Roxie is at a crossroads in her life, having lost her job and her boyfriend all in one day! So she heads out for a new adventure in New Orleans with her cat. She finds a cheap boarding house to stay in and makes friends with these neighbors. But she may soon be homeless again since the owner is too tired to fix it up and a developer wants to tear it down. Very engaging book!
Roxy Reinhardt is done with her current life. She’s unhappy with her job and her boyfriend walked out on her. It’s time for a new start. I loved that she’s willing to change everything based on an unusual TV commercial. New Orleans and Evangeline’s Guesthouse opened up new possibilities for Roxy. I loved how she and her cat settle in immediately. She met so many new people who quickly became friends. The only downside was the murder of an aggressive developer who was going to buy Evangeline’s property. Did one of her new friends kill him because of his plans? I liked the magic woven into the story. It was easy to care about the characters. There were numerous suspects and motives for the murder. Roxy decided to investigate. It was such a brave thing for her to do. The story had unexpected twists as well as a sweet touch of romance. This book is a great introduction to this new series. I’m looking forward to Roxy’s next adventure.
Roxy having recently lost her job and her boyfriend left her for another woman decides to start anew somewhere else. Roxy and her cat Nefertiti head to New Orleans for exotic sights, sounds, and food. When Roxy arrives she finds that the guesthouse she rented is run down. Although the house appears to be falling down the people staying there are quirky but nice and the food is wonderful. Soon Roxy finds out the there is more to NOLA than food and parades when the body of a real estate developer who has been trying to buy the guest house is found dead.
This is a great start to a new series. The mystery is full of well-placed red herrings to keep the reader in suspense and guessing whodunit. The characters are wonderfully quirky and lovable. The storyline is well-plotted and moves at a quick steady pace. The descriptions of the setting are vivid, I had no problems picture exactly what Roxy and the others were experiencing. I recommend this book to cozy mystery fans, fans of author Alison Golden, and New Orleans.
I received a copy of this book at my request, and I have voluntarily left this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and in no way have been influenced.
I enjoyed reading this book! This is a little different from her usual writing but it was interesting. Based in New Orleans, there are some different types of characters in the story. Since it is a mystery there are clues found as some different ideas are thrown around while they try to figure out who killed the man. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a little mystery.
Roxy Reinhardt feels really down. Her co-workers constantly torment her, her boss is a terror and her boyfriend has left her for somebody else. On a whim, she leaves Ohio and heads to New Orleans.
In New Orleans, she has booked a room for a month at Evangeline’s Guesthouse. The Guesthouse is in desperate need of repair, but Roxy loves the atmosphere, as well as the people who run it, Evangeline and Nat. Like Roxy, Louise is another guest recovering from a relationship disaster. Elijah runs a bake shop and Sam is a handy man who also runs a laundry facility. Together, they give Roxy a feeling of camaraderie and friendship she has never known before.
Just as she is starting to feel comfortable, Roxy’s whole world is turned upside-down again. Evangeline is thinking of selling the Guesthouse to a developer, Richard Lomas. The situation goes from bad to worse, when Lomas is found dead in a nearby cemetery, from a gunshot wound. The detective on the case, Detective William Johnson, seems to have a grudge against Evangeline.
Who killed Richard Lomas? Why was he killed? Will Detective Johnson let his feelings for Evangeline sway his investigation? What will happen to the Guesthouse now? What can Roxy do to help solve the mystery and help Evangeline?
Alison Golden has a fantastic start to this new series. There are wonderful characters, with vivid descriptions and situations that we can all relate to. The mystery is guaranteed to keep you guessing clear to the end and with short chapters, the book is an easy read, but difficult to put down.
No worries Alison Golden, I enjoyed this first book in your new series!
Roxy Reinhardt has lost her job and her boyfriend. So on a whim after seeing a commercial, she decides to start over in New Orleans. Seeing a picturesque hotel on line she immediately books a room and takes off for a new life. But what she doesn’t expect to find is a town that never sleeps, a house full of colorful characters and murder. I received an ARC from the author and the comments and review are my honest opinion.