After Everyone Else by Leslie HootonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Bailey's ex husband, a Chef, is murdered and she's a prime suspect. She's quite busy and has to now focus on proving her innocence.
As a foodie, I enjoyed the restaurant/design themes. The story is told in a THEN and NOW format which can be helpful especially in mysteries, ideally moving the story along quicker. AFTER EVERYONE ELSE balances murder mystery with relationship/family drama pretty well, yet lengthy. This book was too long at 325 pages. There was A LOT of dialogue throughout which hindered the pace of the read. This author's writing style was choppy. I came away neutral on Bailey's character; she certainly held strong ties to her family and was a protector. Her type career was interesting and fostered a nice distraction.
Overall it was a solid 3 star read but perhaps if the author focused on either mystery or family drama it would've delivered better - been shorter and moved faster for this reader. Having too much jam-packed in the story makes it all a jumble somehow if not done well.
The cover of this book is so busy - much like the story itself. It took me a few tries to delve deeply into this read. I usually prefer books to grab me from the first page, or first chapter because I'm such a picky/mood reader and this one took several chapters for me to sink in.
Thank you to Wunderkind PR for bringing this author to my attention and sending me an ARC to read and review.
View all my reviews AFTER EVERYONE ELSE releases June 28, 2022.
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