If you love the Stephanie Plum series or you love a cozy mystery set in New Orleans, you have to give this book a try! Brandy Alexander (love that name!), a New Orleans native, is attending a Mardi Gras parade when she receives a kiss from a stranger that sweeps her off her feet. At the end of the parade when she meets him for a second kiss, he is shot. And, the fun begins!
The author obviously knows the culture of New Orleans very, very well and her descriptions of the area, the parades, the French Quarter and the way that a really big city is really just a small town add a lot to this book. I loved her descriptions of the characters, ranging from the family maid who knows it all to a lawyer who once was a crime fighting duck. "Where did you go to High School?" is the recurrent question when people first meet and only those familiar with the area understand the reason behind this question.
When Brandy, her newly found beau, Jif, and his dog, Isabella, are kidnapped, she escapes to find help. She ends up at a gay bar full of stereotypical drag queens and the descriptions of this adventure had me laughing out loud. The characters in this book really come alive with the great dialogues and descriptions.
The inclusion of Brandy's love for rescuing Schnauzers added a lot to my reading pleasure as well. The dogs made the story even more enjoyable. I will definitely be reading more books in this series when I want a light-hearted, often LOL cozy mystery.
The narrator, Alyson Krawchuk, does a great job and her pronunciations were perfect (not an easy task!). The only complaint that I have with the book is the extremely long pauses at the end of each chapter. These pauses were so long that I thought my device had malfunctioned!
I was given the chance to listen to the audiobook version of this book by the narrator/publisher/author and chose to review it.