I love a good romance mystery mashup, (yes, I know ‘romantic suspense’ is the term, but I don’t love it. Mash up is more fun.), so when I heard about Cara Tanamachi taking a stab at it (haha), I was intrigued. We had talked about the potential of being on each other’s podcasts many moons ago, so I was eager to say yes when Forever offered a copy and to set up the interview (see below).
Kiss, Marry, Kill [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] follows a disgraced true crime podcaster named Ella. She pointed the finger at the wrong person for the Cancelled Killer case, and lost her job. She heads home to a small resort town in Wisconsin to figure out her next steps, but the killer might have followed her home. But, she has plenty of company from three men: a hot cop, a Spider-Man stunt double from the apps, and her brother’s best friend. However, signs are pointing at all three of them as potentially being the canceled killer.
Writing a novel that blends romance and mystery is not easy. They each have distinct beat patterns that don’t always line up. This is a case where the story took a bit to get going for me. The first 100 pages or so didn’t quite hit the way I wanted it to for either side of the genre structure. Part of that was also introducing three love interests along with the case gave the reader a lot to digest at once. (Or maybe it was just the impending deadline of the interview that made my brain not want to read. Idk.)
However, after those first 100 or so pages, things picked up. Things started coming together better, and that led to a fun final twist. While parts of this are predictable in my eyes, the conclusion was unexpected while not being far fetched, and brought a nice little message to the story.
I enjoyed Ella as a character, mess and all. She’s going through a tough time in losing her job, which is something I understand personally these days. When you’re in that struggle, it does impact how you see other parts of your life, so I felt like that aspect of her made a lot of sense. Plus, I love the juxtaposition of a girl who can fight (she’s a Krav Maga blackbelt) being in dangerous situations and not needing to fully rely on her love interest for protection. That might not be everyone’s vibe, but I love it.
Overall, it’s a fun ride and Cara is such a delight that I’ll read whatever is next.
Literary Hypewoman 
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