Book Review: On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle

Author: Cleo Coyle

Title: On What Grounds

Series: Coffeehouse Mystery #1

Genre: Cozy Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Chick Lit

Format: Ebook

Pages: 292

Published: September 1, 2003

Where I Got It: Borrowed from library

Summary: 

Clare Cosi used to manage New York City’s historic Village Blend coffeehouse, until she opted for quieter pastures and a more suburban life. But after ten years away she’s back in action and back to the grind, serving up steaming hot caffeine one cup at a time.

With a sprawling rent-free apartment directly above the coffeehouse, her cat Java by her side, and plenty of redecorating ideas, Clare is thrilled to return to work—until she discovers the assistant manager dead in the back of the store, coffee grounds strewn everywhere.

NYPD Detective Mike Quinn finds no sign of forced entry or foul play and deems the whole thing an accident. But despite the attractive investigator’s certainty, Clare isn’t convinced. Now, if she wants to get to the bottom of things she’ll have to do some sleuthing of her own—before anyone else ends up in hot water...

Review:

Gotta love random library finds! I was looking and looking for some nice October reads. This popped up and I had to check it out. 

We follow Clare Cosi who is back to manage New York City's historic Village Blend coffeehouse. With a sprawling rent-free apartment directly above the coffeehouse, she and her cat have lots of plans for the future! However, things go sideways when she discovers her assistant manager dead in the back of the store. When the NYPD found no sign of forced entry or foul play, Claire wasn't convinced. Things do not add up. If she wants to find the truth, she will have to do some sleuthing of her own. 

I won't lie but reading this made me want coffee really, really bad. Lots of talk about different types of coffee and how to prepare. I could taste and smell the coffee brewing! All the coffee feels!

The mystery was done well. I thought I had an idea, but there was a final twist at the end which made sense. Thinking back...yes....I can see it. 

Claire was okay. She seemed sweet enough, but I can for sure see her being a snob in her past. She seemed like a recovering snob. There were things she would think or say that made me cringe a little bit. Maybe that is why her ex and she got along so well back in the day. He's def a snob. King of the Snobs. I hated his face. Hopefully, she doesn't go back to him. There seems to be a sniff of a love triangle in the future. Eeee I hope not. Matteo is an ass.

My only real issue was the long-winded explanations of things. It felt like everything was overexplained. Honestly? It felt like filler sometimes. Get back to the mystery! Or show us the hot detective again ;) hehe. 

All-in-all, this was a nice mystery with some coffee thrown in. I am curious about book 2. Maybe. We shall see. I have a bunch of stuff I borrowed from the library so we'll see if this is the next cozy series of my future ;). I'll give this 3 stars.