Another cute cozy mystery! This was a very fun read full of lots of coffee drinks that was everything my lil coffee lover heart could ask for.

I read this as a buddy read with the lovely @rosebudreading! We decided we would read lots more cozy mysteries together and we stumbled across this coffee themed one! With both of us being coffee lovers, we could not resist this one.

From the very first chapter there are tons of different coffee recipes and references that shows that the author truly knows her stuff when it comes to coffee. This made it so much more enjoyable and made me love it instantly. I was so excited to see her describe making drinks and the differences in light/dark coffee roasts. Barista Mea definitely approves!

I also enjoyed most of the characters in this story, they all had pretty good character development and were enjoyable to read about. However, there were some moments I felt her best friend, Harley, was a tad bit annoying.

The other thing that seemed a little out of place for me with this one was the amount of background info we got on Sage’s family, yet it seemed to not be expanded or resolved by the end of the book. With this being the first book in the series though, I am hoping to learn more about it in future installments of this series.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book and I will definitely be continuing the series when the next installment comes out! I rate this novel 4/5 stars!

Fun little cozy mystery.

2.5 stars. Portland setting is fun, but the writing was disappointing.

In the interest of full disclosure I know the author and would consider her a friend.

I’m not a huge cozy reader, but I loved this one. Probably in large part because I’m obsessed with coffee and I liked that the protagonists were their own bosses. This book has a lot to say about coffee and Sage and Harley feel like real baristas. But you know, nice ones that don’t make you feel stupid because you don’t know what a latte macchiato is. I genuinely felt invested in their business and wanted them to succeed.

Another thing I liked is that everyone is a suspect and it’s really difficult to figure out who seems the most guilty. The story is complex and has a lot of information to keep you guessing, but not so much that it’s super confusing. Though there are like 20 characters so I did have a few moments where I was like wait who is this again? But I really appreciated the complexity because I’d rather struggle to remember someone’s family tree a little than be bored.

There’s also some exploration of homelessness in America that I felt was well done. It does a good job of tackling a serious subject in what is meant to be a light read.

My biggest gripe is that the person I considered the main suspect is never mentioned as a suspect and I’m like come on, is no one going to say it? No one’s thinking it but me? That really held me back from finding Sage’s thoughts about whodunnit believable. I think we’re meant to see Sage as being in denial about the possibility but I would have liked her to think it at least once, even if just to dismiss the idea.

My smallest gripe is the lack of information about this goat. How’s the cutest character going to vanish half way through the book never to be heard from again?

If he doesn't appear in Double Shot Death I'm going to petition Emmeline write Ground Rules #0.5: A Goats Tale.