A Beauty Queen's Guide to Murder and Mayhem (A Dakota Green Mystery Book 1)

A huge thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing this book for me to listen to and review! I absolutely adored this novel, even though it started off a bit slow. The cast of characters is epic and hilarious, and I am obsessed with Aubergine, Virginia as a location and a character of its own. Bird allows the reader into this world of pageants and strong women, while taking us on a wild ride of a mystery as a bonus. Sevilla’s weird malaprops made me belly laugh every single time, and even though I knew they were coming, they were all so clever that I couldn’t help it. The narrator was perfect, and she brought such a homey quality to Dakota that you can’t help but love her. The mystery itself was satisfying and smart, adding what I consider to be a very necessary addition to any cozy mystery: a weirdly specific hobby that is essential to the crime! A triumph of the genre! It was incredible that the author was able to floor me all the way to the last minute of the epilogue!