Smart and sassy, a bit spooky, wonderful characters, great dialogue, and best of all, the value of friendship. ( )

I don't really know how I feel about this. I loved most of it but what I didn't love definitely stood out. I am going to give this four stars but I might drop this down to a 3.5 after a couple of days. ( )

*Actual rating 2.5/5*

Well, this was... messy? I don't even know anymore... Tuesday Mooney Wore Black started from a great premise: billionaire treasure hunt with a quirky and mismatched groups of people? I was sold! Unfortunately, the more I read the less I enjoyed it, and by the time I got to the end I was speechless and not in a good way.

The idea for this was absolutely brilliant, and I loved the initial set up and mystery. As the story progressed, however, it started to get more and more complicated. I usually enjoy a good complex mystery, and even mixing up elements from various genres in one story, making it more original and avoiding the usual tropes. Here, though, it felt like the book was trying to do too many things at the same time, and didn't leave itself space to do any one of them fully.

Character development was also hit-and-miss for me. Tuesday and her neighbour Dorry were definitely my favourite characters and they both grow loads throughout the book, which I loved to see. The rest of the cast... meh. There were way too many characters, some of which really felt like little more than placeholders, so much so that I could hardly remember their names let alone why they were there in the first place. And even with the most important supporting characters, by the time we finally got to the ending they fell completely flat.

Like, I'm sorry but HOW did no one do anything when Nathaniel attacked Tuesday?? I would have been waaaay more upset at my so-called friends if they'd reacted the way Dex, Archie or any of the other finalists had than Tuesday seemed to be.

Overall, I was really sad not to have liked this more, but there were too many inconsistencies for me to fully enjoy it. I definitely seem to be in the minority here though, so if the blurb intrigues you give it a go and see what you think!

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. ( )

2023 book #33. 2019. Tuesday is a loner in Boston with a decent job but few friends. Then an eccentric millionaire dies and leaves behind a citywide puzzle to solve and Tuesday gets in the game and finds happiness. Read for my book club. A good mystery and a fun read. ( )

Kind of campy and overdone, except that sounds delightful and I think this book didn't quite hit that mark either. I had a skim through the other reviews and hit on twee, and oh yes that is the correct word. With half attention and in the right mood it's entertaining and cute, but I have wishes for what any one of the many ingredients could have been. ( )