Customer Reviews

You May Now Kill the Bride (Carnegie Kincaid)

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3 star:		(3)
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Carnegie is planning her good friend's wedding, which will take place on one of the islands off the coast of Seattle -- a lovely area made lovelier for Carnegie by the fact that she's staying at the fabulous waterfront home of her mother's boyfriend. The only problem is that the boyfriend's adult children are rude and obnoxious to Carnegie and her mother (things are getting serious and they don't want to share Daddy or his money). Carnegie goes for a walk and discovers a corpse -- murdered. She's kind of a suspect, and then finds herself getting the attention of a local policeman. Her boyfriend Aaron (injured in the last book in the series) is being difficult and she doesn't know the status of their relationship so she's sort of receptive. Of course, it's difficult to plan her friend's wedding when she's a suspect in this murder...

It's a picturesque setting and a quick-paced mystery. A great book to take on vacation or to read on a rainy day. I like Carnegie, the wedding planner motif, and the whole series. OK, this is a light and breezy mystery, but what's wrong with that? It's entertaining.

I like this series a lot, and I enjoyed reading this installment. However, when I was finished with it, I had to wonder if I really did enjoy it after all.

The supporting cast that makes this series so much fun, mainly Boris and Eddie, were either non-existent or just a blip on the radar. Aaron, who I can't stand on a good day, was even more loathesome than usual. I was so hoping that Carnegie would finally dump his sorry butt for the cute police officer, so I was extremely disappointed by the ending of the book.

I also felt there were a lot of loose ends. We know why the main murder took place, but we never really got much of an explanation for the second one. If Carnegie wasn't really a suspect, why was her date wired and why was the tracking device left on her car? If she told the sisters that she didn't want to be called "Carrie" and they kept doing it, why didn't she start calling Kimmie "Kimberly," which she was told not to do early in the book? What was the big secret being whispered about behind closed doors when she first arrived at the lavender farm? A few loose ends are fine, but there were just way too many questions when this book was done.

I'm not sure I'll continue with this series based on the way this book ended. I'm very disappointed about that.

After being so disappointed with the last one of this series, I was glad I stuck with it for this book. Granted Boris was missing and there wasn't much Eddie but the plot more than made up for it. It was very straight forward and I would have to say my favorite in the series. And the ending was touching in a corny romantic way. I loved it.

Set on beautiful San Juan Island, YOU MAY NOW KILL THE BRIDE has all the elements of an entertaining whodunit: an intelligent and witty sleuth, a spooky mausoleum, two snarky soon-to-be stepsisters, and a couple of dead bodies. While trying to figure out who killed gorgeous Guy Price, Carnegie must sort through her feelings about her maybe-boyfriend Aaron, deal with attentions from a cute cop, fend off an annoying reporter, and plan her best friend's wedding. The romantic ending suits the story perfectly.

Here she is again, Carnegie Kinkaid, Seattle's favorite wedding planner, but this time she is completely out of her element.

Her best friend Lily the Librarian, is marrying her long-time fiancé, Mike Graham, of the Seattle PD, but they are holding the festivities in the San Juan Islands at the organic lavender farm run by the elderly Norwegian brother and sister who raised him. This is one wedding Carnegie wants to go flawlessly, but she doesn't know what she's up against.

The first snag is in the person of her mother's boyfriend, fabulously wealthy Owen Winter, who has offered his "cottage" as a place to stay until her room at the B & B becomes available. After a hair-raising plane ride with one of Owen's daughters and a pulse-raising encounter with Guy Price, a handsome Jack-of-all-trades, Carnegie is ready to enjoy the benefits of the San Juans.

Unfortunately, that the handsome fellow isn't nearly so appealing when he's dead. She quickly uncovers his omni-sexual reputation with the locals, but because she was the first person on the scene, Carnegie is the prime suspect. To make matters worse, she is unable to reach her special friend, Aaron Gold, the reporter who had been so cruelly hurt in Idaho (Death Takes a Honeymoon) a few months earlier.

Owen's two daughters, whom she calls "The Bitch Sisters" don't make things any easier, as they see her sweet widowed mother as a gold-digging seductress. Of course she can't leave well enough alone, so by Lily's wedding day, Carnegie's maid-of-honor dress is to die for...

Author Deborah Donnelly is a skilled author who has created yet another witty, involving "Who-done-it."

I love the Deborah Donnelly series about the Seattle wedding planner. The characters are interesting and the plots are well written.

But I do get irritated by Carnegie's snarlly romance with Aaron. They do more nasty bickering than romantic exchange. It's time for Carnegie to get a new man in her life.

I have tried very hard to get into this series. I like them enough that I keep reading them as the come out, but not so much as some of the other current authors. I really wish there were more Barbara Jaye Wilson books available. She writes a good humorous book.

In Seattle someone knifes wealthy Owen Winter shocking visiting wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid, who was soon to be his daughter-in-law when he married her mom. The San Juan Island, Washington cops assume the killer is a family member, business associate or friend with a grudge.

Carnegie agrees with their assessment, but still ponders who the killer is even as she really knows no one except her best friend whose wedding she was working on and her mom. She rules both of them out as she could never love a killer. However, she considers Owen's obnoxious daughters or his former lover in between consoling her mom, working with a horde of unknown support players needed for a successful wedding, and pondering her future with boyfriend Aaron Gold (see DEATH TAKES A HONEYMOON).

As usual the mystery tales a back seat to the zany cast especially the heroine whose diatribes are worth the price of admission even without some of the usual suspects performing in the fun story line. Carnegie competes with the police investigating the who-done-it with her as a stumbling bumpkin vs. their professionalism. That and her asides make for a terrific Puget Sound cozy.

Harriet Klausner