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Jul. 3rd, 2018 06:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyUgh. I should've gone to bed when I originally blathered about it yesterday (so about this time) because instead I finished my last Lowcountry -whatever- mystery and then decided I might as well stay up and go swimming. Which meant a shower when I got home, which was a little later than usual because I didn't realize I'd stayed in the pool for more than an hour until someone else showed up. And then I worked on my room a bit and made a huge ol' pile of laundry to do and of course the dryer conked out again (wtf, we just had your vents ~professionally~ cleaned) but I didn't realize that at the time as I was downstairs debating between ordering a pizza and using the last of the bread to make a cheese sammich.
Somehow we hit 2pm and I decided to watch an episode of Bob's Burgers even though I've now seen most of them numerous times. So I'm almost done with my episode when Widget gets home from work and he mentions the laundry, so I go up thinking I'll just take my towels out of the dryer and throw my clothes in and realize... the dryer did not do its job. Dammit.
So I have to babysit it to try and get at least that one load done and it works okay. I try my second load and it conks out after maybe 10 minutes. We try unplugging it and waiting to see if that reset it and maybe? At that point Widget took my clothes out of the dryer and threw them on my bed, not realizing they might've been hot but they were not dry. I didn't fuss too much but I did let him know he was mistaken but that since he was needing his clothes for work, we'd let his go ahead and be the testers for the "reset" theory. It worked out okay but by this time it's after 4pm and my head is killing me.
I slept a bit, woke up for dinner and my headache had taken over my skull. I took something for it and went back to bed and it worked out okay. I woke up a couple of times and each time I thought, "hey, the headache is go-nope, there she is." Eventually I realized I could try something else because enough time had passed. So here we are. I didn't get to dive into my bookcase because my head is still not happy and I'm still working on laundry. Yay.
And now the dryer won't even start. My only consolation is that I didn't throw in the load that has the blankets Ozma's been using as her nest for awhile as those would never dry. Perhaps when Widget comes home I'll ask him to try unplugging it again, or at the very least making sure it didn't somehow unplug itself. I figure the odds of that are pretty high simply because I did email the landlady already.
G'ah, this headache. And I'm all out of fluffy-ish mysteries and the only library book I have left is The Hate U Give which is a brick in both size and emotional fallout so yeah. I could, I suppose, break into the SV books again but I don't even really feel up to that. Maybe it's a sinus thing. Hrmm.
Welp, let's discuss my fluffy mystery series as I'm six books in and now I have Thoughts and Opinions.
I say sorta because I'm not sure I'll be spoiling the actual mysteries involved in any of the books, but I will be rambling a bit on the characters and their lives and stuff.
So a few months ago I randomly entered a Goodreads giveaway for Lowcountry Boil, which is the first in a series of books set on a fictional island off the coast of Charleston. Stella Maris is only accessible by ferry, which is a big plot point in numerous books (and an ongoing dangling plot thread for a future book to tackle) and I'm kind of divided in how I feel about it. For starters, I can never remember the name of the island and it's repeated about 150 times a book. I remember the Stella and then my brain helpfully supplies all manner of incorrect follow-ups every single time.
Then I wonder about the logistics of the island (the first book deals heavily with how different families have seats on the town council board and how this is Very Important) and yet I can never figure out just how big this place is supposed to be. At first it sounded pretty small, all things considered, and while I could buy them having one school (even if they had different buildings for the various ages) since it's not like I'm not familiar with that concept (hello, area where my parents lived/worked when I was born) but as each book comes out, it sounds larger and larger. Which could work in that we're simply spending more time on the island but... we aren't. It just sounds like the island grew and there's a whole sub-plot now about how what if the island population gets to be too big and oh no, the town architect/contractor couldn't sell his latest spec house so now he's moving and it's just like... Look. You can't convince me that he had enough work the last I dunno, twenty or whatever years to keep him busy on the island alone. He had to have branched out to Charleston and the surrounding areas already, so having one set back wouldn't be enough to make him leave. And yeah, I know, he had help from the friendly neighborhood Colleen but still.
tl;dr version: I can't figure out how big this small town island is supposed to be and I don't think the author can either... despite having a map on her site and in the first book.
Second issue: We begin the series with Liz, our P.I., moving back to the island after her grandmother's death. She's stayed away for so long because she married someone after her True Love (and I swear he was mentioned as her high school sweetheart) broke her heart and hooked up with her cousin. Her marriage is now over and she's torn between being ecstatic at the thought of seeing Micheal again and freaking out because he's still married to the evil cousin. Naturally, we also know (even though Liz doesn't) that her partner (who happens to be the ex-husband's brother) is crazy in love with her. She spends the whole goddamn book pining over Micheal and the absolute second he makes it clear he is totally leaving his witch of a wife (and I'm pretty sure this is before he knows just how awful she is) for Liz, she's no longer interested. Instead, she's all TRUE LOVE with Nate, her partner. Or, at the very least, realizes she might be and that maybe her lasting feelings for Mike were simply because she couldn't have him.
The second book opens with her being totally, completely over Mike even though she hasn't told him or Nate this. Part of me was thrilled we would be spared the customary love triangle that cozy mysteries do love to push on the reader but at the same time... she had an interesting dynamic going on. I liked the idea and I think it would have been better suited to have gotten to see things play out instead of simply being told that nope, Mike wasn't for her but Nate totally is.
I have issues with the second book in general though I think it's best summarized as your interest in the actual mystery will be proportionate to how much of a shit you give about Marilyn Monroe.
I think this is also the one where we find out that Liz apparently has endometriosis and it was so bad she had a hysterectomy and thus cannot have children and she fears this is going to keep Nate from wanting to be with her FOREVER. Y'know, because kids and whatnot. Which would've been fine except this apparently happened between books and y'know, I'm pretty sure if your Endo is that bad, it might've come up at some point prior to "oh yeah, and now I can't have kids because Plot Requires This." I dunno, as my familiarity with it is limited to someone who mentions her Endo at every opportunity. There's got to be a happy medium, right?
Issue 3 is tied to random important info just appearing out of nowhere. Callista, who is introduced in book 2 (she's the titular Bombshell), is mentioned as dating Liz's brother. Later, in book 5 I think, it's mentioned that the woman who owns or runs (can't remember which) the local diner that is pretty much the only place to show up in every single book and thus she does, has a big ol' crush on Liz's brother and always has. Only it's not mentioned at all when Callista is dating him and the ladies hang out and are implied to be friends. Not once is this potential source of conflict or I dunno, interest, mentioned until he's dating someone else. You can't go back and pretend this is a thing that always was if you've never shown any sign of it prior... and you'd had numerous opportunities to do so.
Issue 4: Everyone is stupidly rich. Which is fine, it's a thing, and I'd imagine any and all of Liz's clients would kind of have to be, but at some point there's a throwaway line about how Nate and Liz could set up an office in Charleston but they have enough trouble paying the bills on the house she inherited from Grams. The house she's spent the last four years or however long using as both her home and her office. The house on an island where numerous people seem to own property in downtown Charleston. Nice. Property. It ain't cheap, guys.
Anyway, they're stupidly rich but no one ever mentions that this is how it is. But it is. Also, if you're having issues breaking even, maybe don't eat out every other day at places like 82 Queen. Seriously. Work meals I get for tax write-offs and things (I mean, I can buy it's a reason) but even taking into consideration how often they seem to eat with her family, it's still fucking expensive, ok?
Finally, we have issue 5: Colleen. I gather for people who start the series, Colleen is either the moment you're kind of hooked or you nope the fuck out of there. Colleen is Liz's childhood best friend. Who died when she was 17 and is thus aghost guardian spirit for the island. She can help Liz by reading people's minds, occasionally physically manifesting to divert attention or shove Liz out of harm's way and also knowing when Liz is in mortal danger. Because keeping Liz alive is important to the island's ongoing survival. In book 6, Nate (who finally finds out about Colleen after he and Liz marry), is shot and both Liz and Nate wonder where Colleen is when this happens. She appears in time to possibly keep him from dying (it's never explicitly said, though I do think she was just keeping things from getting worse rather than saving his life) and to say she's been told that perhaps Nate and Liz rely too much on her and that she might've goofed when she told Liz about her mission way back in book 1. Both Liz and Nate deny that they rely on Colleen but they run headlong into danger because they reason that if they were going to die, Colleen would show and save their bacon. Guys, that is the very definition of relying on her to your detriment. Good lord.
I lied. There's one more issue. I originally thought the series would deal more in Charleston, but then thought it would be more Stella Maris (yes, had to think about it very carefully to come up with the correct name again) based once the guardian spirit mission was mentioned but it's somehow not scratching either itch for me, aside from book 2 where we spent some time not downtown or at one of the plantations/cemeteries down beyond my place. I kind of want to know more about the island, if only so I can figure out the size and it's deal. I also would like to not haunt the same three places downtown.
Allllllllllllll that said, I do enjoy the books. I like Liz (though her constantly running hot for Nate is not a thing I enjoy because I want to shout "get a room that I don't have to read about!" each time), I like her family, and I want to know more. Thing is, six books in and I couldn't tell you too much about anyone beyond Liz, Nate, and Liz's parents, particularly her father. Maybe her brother. But her sister's been quietly off page since the wedding, and even then she wasn't there much, and the islanders just appear and disappear at whim.
Sometimes I get the mystery right, sometimes I get it wrong, and few of them are what I would consider actual cozy mysteries. Book 1 definitely doesn't feel like one and neither does book 3. I like being able to ID places she mentions and I think her grasp of the area is miles ahead of Laura Childs who routinely has her heroine running around downtown like it's safe, or zipping across the area without a word on traffic or travel times being anywhere near accurate. (The last Theo mystery had Mom and I calling out ridiculous travel moments like, "Oh, look, she managed to get from downtown to John's Island in ten minutes despite doing all of this during the absolute height of rush hour!" )
Some of these things are probably either my own fault (perhaps I skimmed past something) or pettiness, or simply it being a relatively new series. But in any case, I needed to babble.
Off to find something to eat and take my chances with a Benedryl coma.
Oh yeah, and birthday is officially a week away! (Today, for those who play along at home, was my due date. But my childhood summer best friend and I swapped birth days so she was born early and I was born late. Huzzah!)
Somehow we hit 2pm and I decided to watch an episode of Bob's Burgers even though I've now seen most of them numerous times. So I'm almost done with my episode when Widget gets home from work and he mentions the laundry, so I go up thinking I'll just take my towels out of the dryer and throw my clothes in and realize... the dryer did not do its job. Dammit.
So I have to babysit it to try and get at least that one load done and it works okay. I try my second load and it conks out after maybe 10 minutes. We try unplugging it and waiting to see if that reset it and maybe? At that point Widget took my clothes out of the dryer and threw them on my bed, not realizing they might've been hot but they were not dry. I didn't fuss too much but I did let him know he was mistaken but that since he was needing his clothes for work, we'd let his go ahead and be the testers for the "reset" theory. It worked out okay but by this time it's after 4pm and my head is killing me.
I slept a bit, woke up for dinner and my headache had taken over my skull. I took something for it and went back to bed and it worked out okay. I woke up a couple of times and each time I thought, "hey, the headache is go-nope, there she is." Eventually I realized I could try something else because enough time had passed. So here we are. I didn't get to dive into my bookcase because my head is still not happy and I'm still working on laundry. Yay.
And now the dryer won't even start. My only consolation is that I didn't throw in the load that has the blankets Ozma's been using as her nest for awhile as those would never dry. Perhaps when Widget comes home I'll ask him to try unplugging it again, or at the very least making sure it didn't somehow unplug itself. I figure the odds of that are pretty high simply because I did email the landlady already.
G'ah, this headache. And I'm all out of fluffy-ish mysteries and the only library book I have left is The Hate U Give which is a brick in both size and emotional fallout so yeah. I could, I suppose, break into the SV books again but I don't even really feel up to that. Maybe it's a sinus thing. Hrmm.
Welp, let's discuss my fluffy mystery series as I'm six books in and now I have Thoughts and Opinions.
I say sorta because I'm not sure I'll be spoiling the actual mysteries involved in any of the books, but I will be rambling a bit on the characters and their lives and stuff.
So a few months ago I randomly entered a Goodreads giveaway for Lowcountry Boil, which is the first in a series of books set on a fictional island off the coast of Charleston. Stella Maris is only accessible by ferry, which is a big plot point in numerous books (and an ongoing dangling plot thread for a future book to tackle) and I'm kind of divided in how I feel about it. For starters, I can never remember the name of the island and it's repeated about 150 times a book. I remember the Stella and then my brain helpfully supplies all manner of incorrect follow-ups every single time.
Then I wonder about the logistics of the island (the first book deals heavily with how different families have seats on the town council board and how this is Very Important) and yet I can never figure out just how big this place is supposed to be. At first it sounded pretty small, all things considered, and while I could buy them having one school (even if they had different buildings for the various ages) since it's not like I'm not familiar with that concept (hello, area where my parents lived/worked when I was born) but as each book comes out, it sounds larger and larger. Which could work in that we're simply spending more time on the island but... we aren't. It just sounds like the island grew and there's a whole sub-plot now about how what if the island population gets to be too big and oh no, the town architect/contractor couldn't sell his latest spec house so now he's moving and it's just like... Look. You can't convince me that he had enough work the last I dunno, twenty or whatever years to keep him busy on the island alone. He had to have branched out to Charleston and the surrounding areas already, so having one set back wouldn't be enough to make him leave. And yeah, I know, he had help from the friendly neighborhood Colleen but still.
tl;dr version: I can't figure out how big this small town island is supposed to be and I don't think the author can either... despite having a map on her site and in the first book.
Second issue: We begin the series with Liz, our P.I., moving back to the island after her grandmother's death. She's stayed away for so long because she married someone after her True Love (and I swear he was mentioned as her high school sweetheart) broke her heart and hooked up with her cousin. Her marriage is now over and she's torn between being ecstatic at the thought of seeing Micheal again and freaking out because he's still married to the evil cousin. Naturally, we also know (even though Liz doesn't) that her partner (who happens to be the ex-husband's brother) is crazy in love with her. She spends the whole goddamn book pining over Micheal and the absolute second he makes it clear he is totally leaving his witch of a wife (and I'm pretty sure this is before he knows just how awful she is) for Liz, she's no longer interested. Instead, she's all TRUE LOVE with Nate, her partner. Or, at the very least, realizes she might be and that maybe her lasting feelings for Mike were simply because she couldn't have him.
The second book opens with her being totally, completely over Mike even though she hasn't told him or Nate this. Part of me was thrilled we would be spared the customary love triangle that cozy mysteries do love to push on the reader but at the same time... she had an interesting dynamic going on. I liked the idea and I think it would have been better suited to have gotten to see things play out instead of simply being told that nope, Mike wasn't for her but Nate totally is.
I have issues with the second book in general though I think it's best summarized as your interest in the actual mystery will be proportionate to how much of a shit you give about Marilyn Monroe.
I think this is also the one where we find out that Liz apparently has endometriosis and it was so bad she had a hysterectomy and thus cannot have children and she fears this is going to keep Nate from wanting to be with her FOREVER. Y'know, because kids and whatnot. Which would've been fine except this apparently happened between books and y'know, I'm pretty sure if your Endo is that bad, it might've come up at some point prior to "oh yeah, and now I can't have kids because Plot Requires This." I dunno, as my familiarity with it is limited to someone who mentions her Endo at every opportunity. There's got to be a happy medium, right?
Issue 3 is tied to random important info just appearing out of nowhere. Callista, who is introduced in book 2 (she's the titular Bombshell), is mentioned as dating Liz's brother. Later, in book 5 I think, it's mentioned that the woman who owns or runs (can't remember which) the local diner that is pretty much the only place to show up in every single book and thus she does, has a big ol' crush on Liz's brother and always has. Only it's not mentioned at all when Callista is dating him and the ladies hang out and are implied to be friends. Not once is this potential source of conflict or I dunno, interest, mentioned until he's dating someone else. You can't go back and pretend this is a thing that always was if you've never shown any sign of it prior... and you'd had numerous opportunities to do so.
Issue 4: Everyone is stupidly rich. Which is fine, it's a thing, and I'd imagine any and all of Liz's clients would kind of have to be, but at some point there's a throwaway line about how Nate and Liz could set up an office in Charleston but they have enough trouble paying the bills on the house she inherited from Grams. The house she's spent the last four years or however long using as both her home and her office. The house on an island where numerous people seem to own property in downtown Charleston. Nice. Property. It ain't cheap, guys.
Anyway, they're stupidly rich but no one ever mentions that this is how it is. But it is. Also, if you're having issues breaking even, maybe don't eat out every other day at places like 82 Queen. Seriously. Work meals I get for tax write-offs and things (I mean, I can buy it's a reason) but even taking into consideration how often they seem to eat with her family, it's still fucking expensive, ok?
Finally, we have issue 5: Colleen. I gather for people who start the series, Colleen is either the moment you're kind of hooked or you nope the fuck out of there. Colleen is Liz's childhood best friend. Who died when she was 17 and is thus a
I lied. There's one more issue. I originally thought the series would deal more in Charleston, but then thought it would be more Stella Maris (yes, had to think about it very carefully to come up with the correct name again) based once the guardian spirit mission was mentioned but it's somehow not scratching either itch for me, aside from book 2 where we spent some time not downtown or at one of the plantations/cemeteries down beyond my place. I kind of want to know more about the island, if only so I can figure out the size and it's deal. I also would like to not haunt the same three places downtown.
Allllllllllllll that said, I do enjoy the books. I like Liz (though her constantly running hot for Nate is not a thing I enjoy because I want to shout "get a room that I don't have to read about!" each time), I like her family, and I want to know more. Thing is, six books in and I couldn't tell you too much about anyone beyond Liz, Nate, and Liz's parents, particularly her father. Maybe her brother. But her sister's been quietly off page since the wedding, and even then she wasn't there much, and the islanders just appear and disappear at whim.
Sometimes I get the mystery right, sometimes I get it wrong, and few of them are what I would consider actual cozy mysteries. Book 1 definitely doesn't feel like one and neither does book 3. I like being able to ID places she mentions and I think her grasp of the area is miles ahead of Laura Childs who routinely has her heroine running around downtown like it's safe, or zipping across the area without a word on traffic or travel times being anywhere near accurate. (The last Theo mystery had Mom and I calling out ridiculous travel moments like, "Oh, look, she managed to get from downtown to John's Island in ten minutes despite doing all of this during the absolute height of rush hour!" )
Some of these things are probably either my own fault (perhaps I skimmed past something) or pettiness, or simply it being a relatively new series. But in any case, I needed to babble.
Off to find something to eat and take my chances with a Benedryl coma.
Oh yeah, and birthday is officially a week away! (Today, for those who play along at home, was my due date. But my childhood summer best friend and I swapped birth days so she was born early and I was born late. Huzzah!)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-07-03 11:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-07-03 11:31 am (UTC)I take forever to remember and then it's there for life.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-07-08 09:34 pm (UTC)It's always dangerous when you're familiar with the setting of a novel and can make an educated guess about whether or not the author actually knows what they're talking about. It definitely breaks the suspension of disbelief when you're all, "that could never happen, this is ridiculous" and then you start realizing all of the plot holes that are equally ridiculous. I had a similarly hard time with the Gilded Newport Mysteries. A great series completed wasted on the main character/protagonist and the way-too-obvious lopsided love triangle.