10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Installment, August 10, 2006
Overall, One Hex of a Wedding, the latest (and possibly the last?) installment in the Chintz 'n China Mystery series kept my interest throughout and was quite enjoyable to read (especially the last chapter).
Since I don't want to waste a lot of time ranting about the various aspects of the book, I'll just list some "good" and "bad" things about it...in my opinion, of course!
The Good:
**I like the fact that they finally changed the cover (it was getting a bit repetitious with the 'tea pot,' or whatever that was, theme). While I do like the change, it could have been better...the cover does not really fit the mood of the book and the bride on the cover is not all that representative of the main character.
**The story kept my interest...that's always a good thing when it comes to fiction! The author knows how to finish a chapter to make you wanna read more.
**Overall, most of the characters are well developed. (Except maybe Joe, Em's fiance, who seems like the main character from some mediocre romance novel.)
**I loved the last chapter...it was a pleasure to read. (Although, unless I missed it, there wasn't any mention of Rose's necklace.)
**The sexual references were finally where they should be in a book like this. There wasn't any "going-too-far" that some of the previous books had.
The Bad:
**This was not a murder mystery. There was no murder to be solved.
**Some of Emerald's 'psychic' impressions seemed more like common sense to me. After your friend's house was intentionally set on fire by some crazy person, wouldn't you feel something 'negative' around their property?
**The amount of bad stuff that happens to these characters can be a bit overwhelming. Is this the only way to move the story along? (This technique was much better used in the second novel, Legend of the Jade Dragon...which happens to be my favorite of all the five books.)
**The "f" word was used somewhat liberally throughout this novel. While I didn't mind it that much (since it made the dialogue more realistic), it might bother some readers who take this to be a total "cozy" mystery.
**For a woman who owns a tearoom, Emerald sure is addicted to coffee. While mentioning this obsession a couple of times throughout would not have bothered me, the fact that almost every page has some coffee reference was annoying...it made me cringe every time she would order some triple-shot-whatever coffee. I felt like I was reading an ad for Starbucks or something.
**Just for fun, here's a line from page 183: "Harlow paled beneath her exquisitely airbrushed tan." I don't know about you, but I find that sentence impossible to visualize...especially since it comes from a first-person point-of-view.
In conclusion, One Hex of a Wedding was one of the better installments in this series. And if it is the last, then it ended on a perfect note.
-Ater
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very satisfying!, October 26, 2006
I am pleased to write that this offering in the C 'n C series completely exceeded my expectations...and more importantly, made me anxious for more. Ms. Galenorn has allowed the main character, Emerald, to grow into a more realistic 21st century powerful pagan. The previous novels had left me just a bit annoyed with Emerald's somewhat self-centered personality. "One Hex of a Wedding", though, offered some credible glimpses of vulnerability and willingness to reexamine long-held opinions -- just like a real woman as she grows older and, hopefully, wiser. The cast of supporting characters is becoming more fascinating to me, and they seem to have more dimension now. Heck, I even cried at some of the truly poignant moments in the book!
If you've not read any of the previous books, this could definitely stand alone. But do yourself a favor and read the earlier four anyway. If you find yourself, like me, vaguely annoyed with Emerald O'Brien by book three, don't worry -- you'll grow to love her again in "One Hex of a Wedding", a wonderful treat of a novel.
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