Another light mystery with the whole gang from Arts Bar and Restaurant. A little bit of who's on first, what's on second. Some fun plot twists with an HEA. This series is like comfort food for your mind. ( )

More murderous fun and games for the denizens of Arts as Aunt Ruth's relationship with Sam moves into a higher gear.

The awful Dianne was more caricature than character, but I had fun with the rest of the gang. ( )

I usually prefer to start a series from the beginning, but in this case my feelings are mixed: I really liked the main character Tim Snow and I’d love to read about him in the previous 3 books, but I have also learned some info on his past that make me reluctant to revisit it. I will not going into specifics since it would spoil who is willing to go back to that 3 books, enough to say that at the beginning of this book, Tim is in a long-term relationship with Nick (they are talking of getting married) and I suppose they met in Russian River Rat (Nick is from up there) and Tim is recovering from an accident that, again, I think was part of the previous book plot.

It’s really easy to like Tim, even if he is a spoiled vain gay boy; he has a wonderful boyfriend, Nick, who took care of him during his recovery, a boyfriend who, when he has to go back for only a week to Russian River, he goes with regret and taking with him Tim’s picture; he is so nice that it seems really impossible that Tim is even considering to betray him. But that is, when Nick goes north, Tim goes south towards California, in search of “distraction”, and sincerely, even if he is not consciously planning to betray Nick, he is open to possibilities. But don’t be scared romantic readers, fate likes too much these two soul mates, and it will intervene in a way that everything will click right.

What I didn’t expect, and was quite appreciated, is that the mystery part of the story is not so front stage, and, on the contrary, it’s almost detached from Tim and Nick. I was expecting for Tim to be yet another of those wanna-be private investigator, always putting their nose into danger; and instead, when Tim finds out about the murdered body someone dumped behind the restaurant where he works as waiter, he is on vacation and has no intention to cut it short for that reason. He comes back not to investigate, actually he has no intention to do so, but to try to mend his relationship with Nick, since, even if Tim is a little spoiled vain brat (and how I like him like that) he is also able to understand what and who is good to him.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1590211421/?tag=elimyrevandra-20