*[Blog Tour Review] Trapped By Revenge (A Shelby Nichols Adventure #5) by Colleen Helme

 

 

Summary:

 

With summer over Shelby is looking forward to having some time to herself while the kids are back in school. A phone call from Uncle Joey ruins her plans, but she manages to take it in stride. After lunch with her friend, she promises to meet with the private investigator who was spying on Uncle Joey, but this simple task turns into a disaster. Not only does she find the P.I. dead, but a slip of paper with her name on it under his lifeless hand implicates her for his murder. Desperate to prove her innocence and find the person who killed him, Shelby begins a frantic search. She enlists the aid of the local mob boss, Uncle Joey, his hit-man, Ramos, and her police detective friend, Dimples, but soon finds that nothing can save her from becoming entangled in a sinister plot. With her life on the line and no way out, she finds herself trapped by revenge, and realizes it will take all her skills to escape. Now she must choose where her loyalties lie, and hope she doesn’t trade something bad, for something even worse.

Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com

Length: 193 pages (Kindle)

Source: Review Copy

Available Formats: Print/E-book

Publication Date: November 12th 2013 by Createspace (first published November 11th 2013)             

 

This was my first read by Colleen Helme and while the book is the fifth installment in the Shelby Nichols and I haven't read the previous four books in the series I still enjoyed trying out a new author that has been on my to read pile for awhile.

 

I thought Trapped By Revenge was a good, quick cozy mystery to curl up with. I read it in about 2 hours while I sat on the couch the other night snuggled in with the cats. I liked Shelby as a character. She wasn't uppity and I thought she had a really good sense of humour. Plus the fact that she's able to read minds really added that little touch of something different that set this cozy apart.

 

Trapped By Revenge is the story about Shelby trying to figure out who killed a local P.I. as well as trying to figure out the who and why behind her being prime suspect in the murder all while working for who Uncle Joey whom I gather is a local crime boss in her neck of the woods. She has to do all of this while shielding her mind so she doesn't get bombarded by everyone's thoughts but also balancing her life as a boss, wife and mother.

 

While I did enjoy the story overall and thought that it was written well with a plot that was both easy to follow and entertaining, I at times felt very lost because I hadn't read the 4 books before this one and I kind of wish that there was a bit more of a recap in the storyline for readers who don't realize this is part of a series or haven't read the previous ones for whatever reason. The one main problem I had though was I felt like it bounced around from scene to scene a little to quickly for my tastes and I was sometimes left with questions about things.

 

Overall though, I enjoyed reading Trapped By Revenge. Though it is book 5, I can't wait to go read the rest of the books in the series very soon. The story was well written and enjoyable with minor issues and I can't wait to see what led up to the events in this book by reading the others.

 

I would recommend Trapped by Revenge for fans of the Shelby Nichols series, fans of cozy mysteries with lots of laughs, and a mind reading female sleuth. I would recommend reading the series in order though to avoid any confusion.

 

 

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my free and honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are 100% my own.

 

Liked It!
★★★1/2

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