I couldn't put it down and laughed out loud many times. This book makes a fun, humorous, and entertaining summer read. I got hooked with the first chapter about the zany town. The book is well written, the plot is tight and the characters interesting. I love it when I find a book that is so much better than I expect, and this one certainly was. Ann Everetts' writing style is so smooth and easy to read it just seems to flow.

Great humor and an all-around fun read. I highly recommend this book for lots of laughs to ease the stress of the day away. ( )

'Laid Out and Candle Lit' is one of those books that you don't want to take to the doctor's office to read while you are waiting! That is because you will get stares from the others in the waiting room because you will be laughing so hard!

I am very impressed with Ann Everett's new book. It is so loaded with humor and local flavor and hooks you on the first page through to the end. She puts just the right amount of details to make you feel that you are sweltering in Texas heat, smelling the muffins bursting with blueberries and hear the constant gossip of a very small town. All the main characters are fully developed and the pace of this book is very fast. Ann Everett makes the little town of Brownsboro come alive.

Tizzy Donovan, 25 years old, a widow with a darling daughter, Gracie, talks to the dead in the Jenkins cemetery every morning on her jog. She is stubborn, a great cook, a loving mother and after five years without sex, ripe for cupid’s arrow. On one particular morning she finds a body near her husband's grave.

Ridge Cooper is a new Texas Ranger who has previous law enforcement experience and gets assigned to this case. He wants to prove himself with this case and worries about being attracted to Tizzy as she is one of the suspects. He does see much in the way of stores when he comes to town and thinks to himself that the victim was probably “bored to death”. But as the mystery unravels he finds something very tangled and a lot of the secrets of this small town are revealed.

I don't want to give away who the murder victim is or any of the mystery. Everything fell neatly in place at the end. But I really enjoyed this mystery set in north east Texas with characters such as Bubba, Sugarpie and Pattiecake. There is romance, sex done with a lot of humor and a deep appreciation for the good cooking.

There is a recipe in the back for 'Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie' that I would love to try if I wasn't pre-diabetic.

The next book in this series is 'You're Busting My Nuptials' and I want to be sure to read it.

I recommend this book to cozy mystery readers and anyone who enjoys laughing.

I received this book as a win from GoodReads and that in no way influenced my review. ( )