While I enjoyed the characters, the book didn’t give me any butterflies, bursts of joy or have me smiling with bounding joy and enthusiasm. Perfect for those recovering from breakups, illness or terrible days at work, when you need to forget the world for a bit, and live in a different, more comforting world but one that is exciting and engaging enough to distract you from your present day troubles. This book is a glorious bit of candy floss – sweet and exciting, but not necessarily healthful or something that you’ll wish to reread or treasure forever. It did have enough suspense to distract me from the day’s petty troubles, though, which is exactly what I needed. Despite the mystery elements, at no point did I burn my way through the contents of my adrenal gland. His reveal wasn’t completely fabricated-unlikely-impossible nor was it clunky-Duh!-obvious. I wasn’t able to guess the baddie’s identify, and when the baddie was revealed, I realised I’d missed a few subtle clues to his identity. I really would like to be her friend.Īs a mystery, it has a nicely balanced plot. She can be abrupt with people and gets irritated easily, but she has a loyal and loving heart. She feels fear and love and faces the clusterfuck that is her life with bravery and honesty. She is smart and capable, but never perfect.

Maryse is someone that I would happily befriend. He wants to support Maryse, but never crosses that line into thinking that she needs to be protected from herself or any of that trite nonsense. The hero is a rather pleasing mashup of ‘noble knight’ and ‘emotionally intelligent man aware of fundamental feminist ideals’. It doesn’t take long for their mutual attraction and verbal banter to overshadow their initial suspicions and irritations. He is there to investigate Maryse’s status as a ‘whistleblower’, but she is not the person he’s looking for… OR IS SHE?! Maryse is, of course, innocent of any wrongdoing, and completely oblivious to his purpose in Mudbug. She sees this alleged scientist primarily as a space-invader and irritation. The book tells the story of her Very Very Bad Week: her awful (yet endearing) mother-in-law comes back as a ghost, someone is trying to kill her for unknown reasons, and the DEA has sent A Very Attractive “Scientist” to work in her office for a few weeks. She is a single woman with an estranged husband, a cat and a house in (on?) the bayou. The heroine is Maryse Robicheaux, a botanist living in Mudbug, Louisiana. The first book in Jana DeLeon’s Ghost-in-Law series, Trouble in Mudbug is currently free! FREE! As I am both partial to a cosy mystery/romance led by a woman sleuth and perpetually broke, this book and I made a very happy pair. Genre: Paranormal, Mystery/Thriller, RomanceĮN: Reader Lara was so taken with the cozy mystery, Trouble in Mudbug, that she wanted to share the joy with all of you! Right now, the book is currently free at most online vendors, with the exception of Barnes & Noble and All Romance.

Trouble in mudbug series