Recent Reads: The Secret of Poppyridge Cove by Rimmy London

The Secret of Poppyridge Cove by Rimmy London

Series: Poppyridge Cove #1
Publisher: n/a
Publication Date: June 4, 2020

 

Format: Ebook
Source: Freebie during a Stuff your Kindle day.

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

A hauntingly beautiful seaside mansion has been abandoned for decades... and for good reason.

When Abby stumbles on the crumbling estate, she's uncommonly drawn to it. Not even the chilling sight on the back porch or the two million dollar price tag can keep her from wondering... what if it were hers?

A cozy mystery and on-again, off-again romance that will have your toes curling in delight. This series starter promises to have pages turning and hearts warming, and will leave you anxiously awaiting your next trip to The Inn at Poppyridge Cove.

Review: 

If you have been here long enough, you know that I judge a book by its cover and this cover won me over. During a recent Stuff your Kindle day of freebies, that is the first step... looking through all the covers and titles then doing a deeper dive into the synopsis so I can pick a few. Always a hard decision with so many great books available. 

The Secret of Poppyridge Cove is a cozy mystery about a young woman named Abby that stumbles on a vacant mansion in the woods and cannot stop thinking about it. Sadly there are a bunch of murdered animals on the porch and no one knows why. 

The book is cute and shorter in length, but felt more like a jumbled romance than a cozy mystery. They mystery dynamic was 2-fold, who / what is killing things at the house and who/ why did this random relative leave Abby all this money. I enjoyed the book and it pushed forward easily but in the end felt a bit rushed. Abby as a main character was an interesting one, it was like the author wanted a lot of cahracter development along the way but was stunted a bit by the plot and how to feed it to the readers. While Abby moves through her emotions and wonderment about the house, the reader is on that journey but it feels like a whirlwind. 

I also hated the male lead, her boyfriend, Chase. He gave me red-flag bad vibes, even though he was supposed to be the 'nice' guy in the book... yes, there was another... even more ick. 

I am intrigued that this is a 7 book series thus far and how the author spins out more tales about this location, but I am good with just this one for now. 

If you are looking for something short and a start of a series, this might be for you. But be prepared for a lot of animal death and blood in this first one.... but the cover is super cute.