A frivolous Bon Bon of a mystery - decently written, nice atmosphere, interesting characters. Short, not deep. But enjoyable. ( )

Summary: Dixie worked on the police force until a personal tragedy left her devastated. Unable to return to her previous life and work, Dixie has become a pet sitter. One day, Dixie goes to care for a cat whose mom is away on business and discovers a dead body. She doesn't know who the mystery corpse is or what relationship they have to the cat's mom but she needs to find out for the well-being of the cat in her care.

My Rating: 4/5

I loved Dixie's story. She felt real to me and the difficulties she had in everyday life rang true. She struggles to function after the tragedy that happened and I could see myself being the same way if I was in her shoes. Her pain and back story were authentic enough that I cried a few times for Dixie.

I loved how devoted Dixie is to the animals in her care. Dixie isn't just a casual pet sitter who is feeding animals to make money because she can't cope with a regular job. Dixie loves the animals in her care and gives us all kinds of animal info throughout the book. I felt like the author either is very into animals herself or did a ton of research about animal behaviors.

While I loved many aspects of Dixie's character I didn't always like her. The book is told in first person and sometimes Dixie said something that just made me cringe because it was unnecessary and often crass.

I did love Dixie's brother and several of the other side characters in this book.

The mystery was fine but not amazing and after the mystery ended the book had a too quick for my tastes wrap up.

I liked the character development Dixie went through in this book but things also didn't go how I was hoping and for all the hope in Dixie's healing I felt let down by the end of the book because I felt like she hadn't come as far as I hoped she would. I do hope she continues to heal in future books and some of the story lines that were started by not finished or fully fleshed out are tackled in the sequels.

I absolutely plan to read more books in this series.

If you love animals and mysteries I recommend you give this book a try. ( )

My 4 yo was drawn to the pink cover at the library and chose this for me while we were wandering down the mystery section. I thought the cover looked kind of silly, but actually I liked this novel quite a bit. While many Goodreads readers have objected to the unnecessarily crass language, this didn't detract from the book for me. I was annoyed however by the stereotyped people of color in the book and found the ending very fast with a melodramatic turn of events. Still, I really enjoyed the main character and the Florida setting, and I may even pick up the next one in the series. ( )

A really good series that I have read before and as always the true proof in the pudding is I can read it again and enjoy it as much or more than the first time. Meanwhile, I was checking other reviews and one really stumped me. The review gave the impression that when Dixie's husband and daughter died that she spent her time in bars drunk out of her mind and that was why the sheriff's department let her go. I wonder about people sometimes...did that person read the same book I did because there was absolutely nothing in book one to indicate Dixie had ever had a problem with alcohol. Depression and anger yes but substance abuse nothing. That kind of review is misleading. ( )

Delightful read and from the 1st page you like Dixie Hemingway. All the characters are likable, or "evil", or deliciously nuts, and story is well plotted--Blaize Clement gives nothing away, and not a word is "filler". Look forward to the rest of the series and will probably add to my personal library. Terrific for the beach, cold winter night in front of the fire, or just a quiet time with a good book. ( )