Ok, I just finished this and was bored out of my skull. Since something is compelling me to read through every book in the series, despite my usual good judgment, I decided I had to do something to make me like this author more. I went to her Facebook page where I discovered a plethora of posts on her most recent trip to England---complete with bits of Chawton Cottage that I'd not yet discovered. She may not be great at keeping her characters or stories consistent, but she's a fellow Janeite so I must grant her more leniency than I have in the past...

I, fellow author and fellow Janeite, hereby and hereafter vow to stop being such a grump when it comes to the scatterbrained musings of Nancy Atherton and her editing team. Though I must, for my own sense of integrity, rate and report honestly my feelings and findings, I vow to do so in a more gracious way and to pick my battles with this series with more thoughtfulness than before. (So if you think my review below breaks the spirit of this vow, you may not want to read any I've written before it...)

I wanted to read this book because it tells the story of Bree---a character I've come to semi-like in the stories following this one. However, the far-fetched goose chase around New Zealand did get ridiculous after a bit and I found myself becoming annoyed that this was more a highlighted travelogue than any kind of mystery. The references to LOTR were sort of ok...except for the fact that so much of the technology the author describes in the settings of this book and those surrounding it doesn't seem consistent with the technology available to the average person in the late 1990s when the film was being made. I also really didn't appreciate the way the author compared getting a meaningful tattoo to the very harmful mental illness involved in cutting.

Again, I find myself asking...is this author really trying to write an unlikable character in Lori? Is Atherton meaning to make her out to be as ignorant, selfish, spoiled, and condescending as she is in every. single. book? Although so many of the details surrounding the village of Finch and its people are significantly inconsistent, the one consistency the reader can always count on is an extreme loathing for Lori. Please Mrs. Atherton, if you're reading this, please tell me! If this is on purpose, it would change my entire perspective regarding these bafflingly addictive books... Among other things, it would allow me to stop feeling so ashamed every time I succumb to the temptation to read another one... ( )

So fun to learn about far off places through a character's adventures.. if nothing else to get a taste of what living down under is like! ( )

I know some people didn't like this one because they didn't think it was really a mystery, but I thought the story of Lori's trip to New Zealand to search for the Pym sisters' long-lost relative was charming and full of interesting lore about an exotic country. ( )

A little different detective story as we are looking for a missing person, but still a good read, which made me want to go to New Zealand. ( )

This was more of a travelogue than a mystery. Lori Shepherd visited New Zealand to find a missing person for the Pyms. he book made me want to visit NZ but contained no mystery. I think the franchise has run out of steam but I will continue to read, at least temporarily, because it is a sweet cozy read. ( )