Murder in the South of France Book Review

Writing Tuesday -

2016 Reading Challenge

7. Murder in the South of France by Susan Kiernan-Lewis
    Topic: a murder mystery

Synopsis:
Maggie Newberry is sheltered, privileged but also a whip-smart advertising copywriter who's fast on her feet and a little stunned to realize that she's 34 years old and still hasn't found "the one." When her long-missing sister ends up dead in Maggie's trendy Atlanta condo, Maggie finds herself flying to the south of France to find the little niece that up until then no one in the family even knew existed. Along the way, she finds handsome Laurent Dernier, a sexy if nefarious Frenchman who it's not clear is there to help or hinder Maggie's search for the girl. Meanwhile, her sister's murderer sets his sights on the little girl - and Maggie.

My Review:
I'm going to start this a little different. It's not really a secret, but the synopsis part of my book reviews are the book blurbs (you know the part on the back of a book that sums up what the book's about). Sometimes I'll redo it or what not and sometimes I keep it the way it is. Anyway, the synopsis of this particular book is a little misleading. I didn't want to adjust it because then I'll be basically giving the full story away.

I've got two words to sum up my thoughts: badly written. There were several discrepancies throughout the book, as well as inconsistencies. That combined made the story and plot drag on. I always try to come up with something positive about each book that I read, but I really can't think of anything that was good about Murder in the South of France. Even though the title suggests that most of the story takes place in France, it actually takes place more in Atlanta. I originally chose to read this book for a book that takes places in Europe, but had to change that theory after only reading the first couple of chapters. France isn't really described that well both times that Maggie was actually there - it seemed more fake. I had French in high school and learned a lot more about France than what was not even half decently described in the book. Setting and description are really important to the story, but it was lacking in that department. Choices made by Maggie and other characters were surprising and out of place.

I read this book on my Kindle app. One of the things that I most disliked is that the story ended around 85%. The remaining 15% of the book was a preview for the next book of the series. My problem is that it included four or five chapters before ending in a climax. To me, I want to be sold into a story in the first chapter or two. I did have another book in this series in my library (with Kindle) as well, but there's no way I'm reading it after how horrible this book was. Both were free when I got them and I now understand why.

Happy Reading and Keep on Writing!

Meg