Mini Reviews on Two Novellas

At the end of this crazy month of reading, I have fit in two more little tiny books! Yay, that means I could count them toward my overall goal at Goodreads! It helped to catch me up, even just a little. Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick mini review for them both right now.

Book:Deftly Dunne and the Keys of Death by Carmen Wye

Genre: Mystery

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

This one is a first foray into writing by a friend of mine that used to live in the neighborhood and come to book club... until she moved. I had no idea she was writing stuff, but suddenly, her little book (she even calls it a short story, but it's a bit longer than that!) shows up on my Kindle! It's a fun story about a kid named Deftly Dunne who is very klutzy and accident prone, which makes it awfully hard for him to work at his parents cafe. He does have one particular talent though... old typewriters. This leads him to take a writing class where the writers have a thing for using old typewriters. Well, he doesn't show much potential at the writing bit, but when a murder happens right there in class, he is suddenly solving the mystery! 

While the story itself was simple... and a mystery (you know they aren't my favorite!) I did really enjoy the writing! And that's not just because I know Carmen! She's got some funny and spunky writing going on! I totally enjoyed it. 

Shear Luck by Heather Justesen
Genre: Romance
Rating:★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

This is your typical LDS romance squished down into a very condensed version. A girl, who now runs a beauty salon, happens upon a guy who she had a major crush on all her growing up years. Then, he lived next door and hung out with her brother. Now, he owns restaurants and is building one next door to her salon. Well, of course, sparks fly and they get together, yet... his wife has just died and he has a kid and so there are issues to overcome.

This one was just okay for me. It reminded me that this genre of LDS fiction is just not my thing. Too contrived and sappy for me. I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and I'm not one to do that usually. The writing was okay and I would be willing to try another one by this author if it was a different sort of genre.