This was a fun light read with interesting characters that do seem like you could run into them in Portland.

I didn’t love it… It was one of those books that I had to convince myself to finish reading just to find out what happens. There were several typos and I just didn’t love the writing in general. The storyline was pretty cheesy and often annoying to try to follow.

2.5 stars

This cozy was so fun! A fresh new entry into cozy mystery land, Fresh Brewed Murder by Emmeline Duncan takes place in Portland, Oregon which right off the bat is a fresh location for a cozy series.
What I loved about this book:
*Coffee Talk! I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of how various popular coffee drinks are made. Good coffee is a science and an art.
* Emmeline Duncan did a great job writing dialogue that sounded like people actually talk.
* Our amateur slueth Sage acted and sounded like an actual 27-year-old.

I also enjoyed that Sage because of her unusual upbringing, is good at reading people, it's like a little superpower that will help her solve murders in all the Ground Rules Mystery books to come. In cozy mysteries, you have to suspend a little disbelief because often the potential suspects the sleuth speaks with share more information than would likely happen in real life. In Fresh Brewed Murder, Emmeline Duncan addresses this dilemma by having an amateur slueth who was taught from an early age how to act and she uses those skills to get people to confide in her early and often. So Clever! It puts me in mind of one of my favorite P.I's Veronica Mars.

All in all this book is a solid 4, very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. I would like to know Sage's thoughts on PSL's so I'm hoping the next book takes place in the fall.

This is a cozy murder mystery that was light on the murder mystery and heavy on the coffee pours.

Sage and her friend Harley opened up a coffee truck only for Sage to find a guy dead at their door a few days later. Sage gets thrown into the investigation because she's a suspect - turns out the dead guy knows her mom, and her mom is a shady character. Sage wants to clear her name and figure out whodunnit.

Like I said, this book mostly focused on Sage's new business and there was a lot of detail put into the kinds of coffee drinks she would make while working. She didn't do too much investigating, but she would ask the other food truck owners some questions and try to put some puzzle pieces together. The murder mystery is definitely more going on in the background though as Sage gets her business and social life going.

Sage wasn't my favorite character ever, but she wasn't terrible. Almost every guy in the book who is around her age, not married, and not related to her was interested in her one way or another. She did insert herself into other people's business but it felt off because like I said, she didn't really investigate the murder or try to make any logical conclusions. She didn't have a running list of suspects or anything like that. So this is good if you're looking for a very easy breezy murder mystery that resolves itself and if you like coffee!