Book Review: Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder - Gracie Ruth Mitchell

 

Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder - Gracie Ruth Mitchell - 4.5 Stars - What a GREAT clean rom-com cozy mystery all in one!

WOW - I loved this book so much! It truly was GREAT! The audiobook was FANTASTIC with a male and female narrator and that truly added to my experience while listening. This has so much I love in books - a cozy mystery with a rom-com twist - AMAZING.

AIDIPER/JUNIPAIDE FO EVA. (Loved those couple names in this!)

We have Juniper Bean who is a fun, pink-haired quirky author with an awesome yellow car who has been through a LOT over the last 10+ years of her life. Her mother passed away several years ago, she never knew her father, she was in foster care due to her mother's neglect - it's been a tough time for our girl here. Her life was completely changed because she met Aiden - and let me just say -- HE IS THE BEST BOOK BOYFRIENDDDD! I truly loved his character. He is 5 years older than Juniper and they have quite the past together. They haven't seen each other in years when it turns out, they are actually going to be roommates! (Forced proximity trope, but completely clean romance!) Aiden doesn't want anything to do with this new living situation because he never saw himself being romantically involved with Juniper after their past together and just how different they are. He's definitely grumpy and she's the sunshine! But things change quickly as they are forced to be around each other, get to know one another and work to solve the murder of the person who was supposed to tell Juniper about her real father she never knew. Aiden is a teacher at the local high school and he is helping Juniper figure everything out surrounding her father and the murder of this missing girl. 

The story takes off here. 

This book made me laugh, feel all the emotions, and Aiden stole my heart! I loved how he was truly a caring guy and involved in the food bank organization, and his past with Juniper was so beautiful. Juniper and him have so much fun back and forth banter - it really reminded me of my husband and myself! I cracked up a lot! 

The mystery element comes in around the 20% mark when we have gotten to know our characters pretty well and I was like WHAT with the ending. I did NOT guess who it was! GREAT ending. I can't wait to read more of Gracie's books. I will be thinking about AIDIPER for a long time! One of my favorite couples now.

The only reason this is not quite a 5 star read is there were some things I didn't love in regards to the fate discussions, higher power, yoga stuff mentioned but it really didn't impact my reading experience and in a secular read it wasn't something I really discredit the book for. Just a personal preference in content. 

Overall, I highly recommend this for my rom-com cozy mystery lovers!

Here are some trigger warnings and content information:
This is a cozy mystery technically, but it did have a bit more intensity, specifically in the end, then some others may have. I would say it was very minor gore related to a murder / attempted murder. I was fine with it personally, but want to mention. There are mentions of grief, visiting her mother's grave, parental death, parental neglect, alcoholism, mentions of a previous sexual assault and food-hoarding. The sexual content is completely clean - the characters do live together but nothing happens other than kisses. No language that I recall. 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3FuLESC

YouTube Review Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt-U-nf5HX8


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