Customer Reviews

The Look of Love: A Piper Donovan Mystery

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Piper Donovan, our main character in this great read by, Mary Jane Clark, is set for another adventure. Piper is asked to make a wedding cake for, Jillian Abernathy. Jillian's family owns the luxury spa, "Elysium," in California. Of course that would mean Piper would have to leave home for a while, but maybe that would be a good thing. After all, Jack and her were having some misunderstandings, and her mom and dad were getting too use to her being around. Yes, Piper would accept.

Of course, where Piper goes murder follows and this is still the case at the swanky Elysium. Not one murder but several take place and Piper is right in the heart of the matter. How could all of this happen in such an exclusive establishment and why? And so the fun begins!

This is the second book I have had the honor to read and review in this series and I love them. I find the character of Piper to be a darling. She is spunky, fun and smart, even though she allows herself to be drawn into things she would be better off not to. This mystery was great because the murders kept happening and I found myself trying to figure out who out of the characters would want to kill all of these people. I loved the way the author brought the spa to life in the story. I enjoyed reading about the local, the beautiful cottages, delicious meals, sitting around the pool, and of course let's not forget the massages. Who would have thought such a thing would happen to woman in a place like, Elysium. Shocking!

This was a great book. It was entertaining, quick paced, great characters, great local, and had a twisting exciting mystery plot. Yet, it was light and airy as well. and down to earth in character development. I felt as if I knew personally every character in the story. Not easy for a book to do all that, but this one did. I love the Piper Donovan Mystery books and look forward to the next one. Well done, excellent read.

"The offer seemed too good to be true. Round trip airfare to Los Angeles and an all-expenses-paid stay at one of the most luxurious spas in the country. But there was a catch....."

Actually, more than a catch. Well, you know what they say - if something seems too good to be true it usually isn't. But the heroine of the second Piper Donovan mystery didn't have murder in mind. In exchange for the trip and spa stay all Piper was asked to do was create a unique wedding cake for the upcoming nuptials of Jillian Abernathy, the spa's director. Easy. However, almost as soon as Piper arrives there is a murder.

Jillian is one of those golden girls - her father, Vernon, is a famous plastic surgeon, and her fiancé, a psychiatrist, adores her. She has always led a privileged life, but why would anyone want to kill her? She had postponed her wedding once before when her housekeeper opened a door only to have acid thrown in her face. Jillian knew the acid had been meant for her. But by whom and why?

Piper knew about the acid attack but didn't believe there was anything to worry about until she arrived. Once there she found an absolutely gorgeous setting, attractive guests - but what did all this beauty hide?

Those who like a good mystery without attendant gory details will be happy with The Look Of Love.

- Gail Cooke

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Mary Jane Clark creates a pert, intelligent and inquisitive character in Piper Donovan. In this second "wedding cake mystery", Piper discovers her talent at baking wedding cakes can lead her to exciting places of luxury, danger and intrigue. She agrees to fly to Hollywood to design a nuptial confectionary art for Jillian Abernathy, director of the famed Elysium spa and plastic surgery resort. Piper is in between acting jobs, lives in New York with her parents and helps in her mother's bakery. This "working vacation" seems like the perfect opportunity to have some time to herself and to think over her growing feelings for FBI agent Jack Lombardi.

She arrives at the spa on the heels of a tragedy that leaves an employee with severe acid burns. As Jillian and her fiancé, Dr. Benjamin Dixon, continue to plan for their wedding, shadows darken and secrets abound. There's even a connection with a nearby cloistered convent where nuns support themselves baking a special pumpkin bread that's available for sale to the public. The author introduces many characters, all who may have a vested interest in and motive for the series of events that lead to a murder in one of the bungalows at the spa. The wedding is in jeopardy and Piper's life in danger.

Will Piper really get to bake another celebrity cake? Will she entangle herself with the murderer? Does Hollywood offer a chance for a new screen test for her? How will the events she witnesses affect her feelings for Jack? The answers to these questions provide interesting and fast-moving entertainment. I recommend this new "Piper Donovan Mystery."

I selected this book because the name of the author rang a faint bell, and it wasn't until I Googled her that I realized a) why and b) uh oh. I was, of course, thinking of Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark. While I enjoy the vintage MHC much more than anything more recent, finding out that this author, Mary Jane Clark, is the former daughter-in-law of MHC, sounded pretty ominous. Add in the cover blurb about the celebrity wedding-cake-maker and actress getting a trip to an exclusive spa to plan a cake and stumbling on murder and it sounded like a recipe for disaster.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. The baker/hopeful actress/sleuth was an individual with actual depth and empathy, and her observations about the glamorous situations in which she found herself were thoughtful. In particular, her interactions with a young woman whose cosmetic surgery has gone horribly wrong were quite well done, I thought.

But, don't worry, there is definitely lots of fluff -- this would be a great beach read for that mid-winter getaway.

Plenty of good reviews fill in the details. All that's left to share is my personal experience.

This is my first MJC novel. It's an entertaining read with a storyline that keeps you guessing until the end. It's not extraordinary and doesn't grab the reader to drive on. MJC choses the strangest chapter-ization style I think I've seen. Most writers simply use paragraphs or sections and segment story with chapters. I have no idea what MJC's 1-2 page chapters value add to the story.

It's an OK read to carry and read as you want to fill time.

Piper Donovan is asked to provide a cake for the wedding of a spa owner in California. She's invited to spend a week at the very luxurious spa while preparing the cake.

Soon after she arrives there is a murder and it appears that Jillian, the bride, is in danger. There are several people who have a reason to harm her or via her, her father, who dotes on her.

Piper gets to know some of the guests and helps one of them to try and uncover possible foul play (maybe unrelated to the murder). Meanwhile she also auditions for a commercial and has a friend back home who would like to get more involved with her, if she lets him.

This was a fun, easy read. First I expected this to be a cozy mystery, but it wasn't really. Piper doesn't try and solve the murder or is involved with finding out who is after the bride. She's just present when things happen and curious about the situation.

This was my first book by this author, but apparently there are more books with Piper Donovan as protagonist. I didn't warm to her much and wondered whether this was because I stepped in half-way a series and would have known and loved Piper had I read the other books. In any case, the author didn't introduce Piper in much detail and so I missed a connection with her. On the other hand, it was not at all necessary to read other books in the series to understand this book. It was definitely an independent story.

I enjoyed the setting: a luxurious spa in a warm climate. A nice place to spend some time, even if it was only in a book. The mystery was fun, as was the secondary story in which Piper helped another guest finding out what dirty goings on were happening in one of the treatment rooms.

The story had some rather unlikely parts (such as hiring someone to do a wedding cake only a few weeks before the wedding, without ever having tasted one of her cakes) but all in all it was a fun story. Ideal for when you're on holiday in a lounge chair at the pool in the sun, but actually, also quite a good read when on the sofa with the heating on while it's gray and miserable outside. Short chapters, aeasy writing.

Piper Donovan's second adventure is an easy-breezy read that feels like a TV show; actually, two TV shows, a cooking program about wedding cakes and a standard, light mystery. The chapters are short. The pacing is snappy. The dialogue is sparse.

Mary Jane Clark's whodunit saves the killer's identity until the end of the story, making quick cuts from scene to scene. Clark builds her story like layers on a wedding cake. My wife said The Look of Love stands out among its competition because it is relatively easy to relate to Piper.

Clark's book settles into a comfortable middle ground between Sue Grafton's detailed police procedurals and Janet Evanovich's eccentric Stephanie Plum comedies. For my wife, it was a nice change of pace from her recent run of non-fiction (read: dry) mysteries. Her only complaint is that the book's fast pacing at times turns choppy.

My wife had not read Clark's first installment of the Wedding Cake Mysteries, To Have and to Kill, but intends to pick it up soon - that's a solid endorsement.

Rating: Four stars

Piper Donovan has traveled to an exclusive spa and plastic surgery center in Los Angeles to create a one of a kind wedding cake. The job also offers Piper the time she needs to figure out what her feelings are for FBI agent Jack Lombardi.

The luxurious spa caters to the rich and famous in need of a little nip here and tuck there Botox or a little time to detox. Elysium seems picture-perfect: the grounds, the staff, even the guests. But no sooner does Piper arrive than a guest is brutally murdered in one of the private bungalows. Someone wants to make sure Elysium's beautiful director, Jillian Abernathy, never gets to walk down the aisle. Piper soon discovers that beneath the glamorous surface of this idyllic oasis lies an ugly truth--and a cold-blooded plan for murder. Part of the problem lies in the fact that no one is what they really seem to project for themselves.

I liked The Look of Love better than the first Piper Donovan book To Have and to Kill. There was a little bit more to the mystery this time around and I liked the spa setting better than the soap opera set of book one. I wouldn't put it in with other great mystery writers by any means, but it's a easy read and Piper grows on you until you can't help but root for her. The plot and characters get a little hokey in spots, but I still enjoyed it. It's one of those books you read on a plane or a beach and I'd bring the next one on vacation. I would really give Look of Love 3 and half stars. Hopefully the series will continue to improve with each book.

This is the second of these Piper Donovan Mystery books that I've read. I neither love or hate it -- it's rather average. The story isn't terribly compelling, nor did I have much interest in the characters. If it were a tv show, it would appear on the Lifetime channel or maybe Hallmark. It's just not my style.

The main character Piper is an actress and baker. Somehow she finds trouble or it finds her. As the story progresses, she somehow becomes involved and helps piece things together.