I have read random books out of this series for years, usually the holiday themed ones. So, I am going back and filling in some of the earlier books I haven't read and they have been hit and miss. This one was a good one with lots of background on the characters and the town which is half of the reason I like cozies. The mystery was darker than most cozies with lots of horrible abuse allegations but it is a topic that's important to cover. This series has been going on a long time so it was fun to see Lucy still pregnant as opposed to the newer ones where she is a grandmother! I tend to like these more than the Joanne Fluke ones but, sadly, no recipes (which is another thing I love about cozies). ( )

Ballet, pregnancy, and a disappeared former dance teacher… Lucy’s summer is off to quite a start! Add that to a mystery at the local hardware store and a punk teenager whose grandfather swears is a saint, and this was a doozy. The mystery, as always was good. The twists kept me guessing. I ❤❤ Lucy’s home drama. Too funny. This one did contain a few graphic scenes that come up out of the blue. I've read the entire Lucy Stone series, and this is the only book that contains this sort of content, so I'd advise not judging the whole series based on this one book. It's absolutely one of my favorite mystery series.

Trigger Warnings: graphic sexual assault of an infant, sexual assault, domestic abuse

Though some of the story deals with the ordinary and hectic life of Lucy Stone and her family, I hesitate to call this mystery a cozy. The protagonist, who wants to help the police solve the murder, is an amateur. But the story is a gritty one, dealing with spousal abuse, child abuse, and cold-blooded murder. Lucy loans a video camera to a friend who wants to catch a thief in the act. It becomes a murder weapon, but in whose hands? In addition to looking for a murderer, Lucy puts herself in danger to help save a friend and keep a child safe. The story is well written, as are the characters, and there is more than one mystery involved to keep readers engrossed in the story. ( )

Lucy Stone is pregnant with her fourth child and trying to keep it together juggling ballet lessons, Little League practice, putting meals on the table, and anything else as it comes up. She’s worried when her friend Caroline Hutton goes missing, but her husband Bill assures her that the police will do their best and to stay out of it, telling her that it’s none of her business and she has other things she needs to take care of instead.

One of Lucy’s friends, Franny, works at a hardware store in town as cashier and clerk. She’s not happy when the owner’s grandson comes to work, discovering that he’s the probable thief who’s stealing from them — but his grandfather thinks it’s her, and demands repayment in a few days. Franny, determined to give proof, begs Lucy for the use of her video camera to catch him. But when she’s removing the camera a day later, he sees her and thinks she stole the money to buy it. Now she needs to tell Lucy that he has the camera and won’t give it back. So Lucy goes to the store to retrieve the camera and finds the body of Morrill Slack. Now, Franny’s been arrested for the murder and Lucy’s sure she’s innocent.

Then Lucy and Tatiana, her daughters’ ballet instructor, decide to go through Caro’s scrapbooks to see if they can find a clue as to where she might have gone. But what she finds connects more than one person and one event, and when it all comes together for Lucy, it could be worse than she at first believes, and could change her life forever, or even get her killed...

This is the second book in the series and while this is labeled as a cozy and they can touch on dark subjects, this one was way too dark in its handling of domestic abuse and its aftermath; and while not an easy subject to address in any way for any person, it was graphic and violent and shouldn't be considered a cozy. Once someone has experienced it (as I have, firsthand), it’s not something you want to revisit, nor even remember; but it’s not something you ever forget. Therefore, there were passages that were difficult to read and I probably wouldn't have read this book if I had known beforehand.

While I never really connected with Lucy’s life — I did feel that Bill didn’t give her enough slack when she was pregnant and the hormones keep pushing at you no matter what you do; I felt that yes, although he’s working full-time, he helped make those kids and should have reached out a bit to help his pregnant wife when he could, not just come home and pop open a beer and decide that’s it’s for him. A good husband would at least allow her time to rest before the baby’s born, so there was that.

Anyhow, the rest of the book seemed to come together nicely without any problems, and when the ending comes and the murderer was revealed, although I didn’t find it too compelling it was fine, and I will read the next in the series to see if I will continue with it or not. ( )

Please see all of my reviews on my blog at www.robinlovesreading.blogspot.com.

When retired dance instructor Caroline Hutton disappears, the search is intense for just a short period of time. But then the search fizzles and comes to an end as no clues turned up. Her disappearance is especially suspect because her beloved dog was left behind. With three young children and pregnant with her third, and during an agonizing heat wave, Lucy hardly has time to play amateur sleuth again as she did during the holidays, but, as before, she just cannot help herself.

The scene changes with the cantankerous owner of the local hardware store is found dead in his office. Just as with the missing woman, Lucy becomes embroiled in this case as well. When her friend Franny is arrested as a suspect in the murder, Lucy steps in to save her. Franny became the primary suspect because she was fired by her boss shortly before his murder. Meanwhile, Lucy is as busy as can be between family life and all of its connected activities.

Tippy-toe Murder was a rather intense read as it dealt with more serious topics other than the typical initial murder we see in these cozy mysteries. As with the first book in this series, Mistletoe Murder, it was a quick and engaging read. I am rating this book a four instead of the four and a half I would have liked to give it. I must say that the reason why is that there is a particularly disturbing scene, albeit brief, that I feel could have been left out of the book that I had to gloss over. Other than that, this is a solid read.

In this book we see the Lucy we've already come to love, her growing family, and other characters that we met and more we will no doubt see again in future installment of this series. Although the first few titles in this series may have been written in the early 90s, the stories seen quite relevant to me. The only problem that I have is not with the author, Leslie Meier, but with my busy schedule. I have an overfull review queue and only just heard about this series just yesterday. I hope to sneak a book a day until I finish all of the titles. ( )