A Red Flag

Red Is an Attitude by Kathy Lynn Hall

Cozy Mystery

This is the 2nd one in the 'Red Mojo Mama' series.  You really should probably read these in order.  I didn't and the entire plot, and all the characters, seemed so absolutely and utterly ridiculous that surely the first one would have caused this red hot mess to make better sense.

This book has some serious reality issues.  Red's late husband has been reincarnated as her Great Dane puppy that she then takes on a romantic vacation with her current beau.  Does anybody else find that super creepy? 

First of all, a puppy on a cruise?  That they then leave for long stretches for time in a small cabin?  Then, when they get tired of him, they have the steward walk him?  While that is really stretching the limits of what I will believe as a reader, when Red and Joe get intimate in front of the dog (who they ALL know is Red's late husband), shivers of pure grossness ran up and down my arms.  Ick!

On this cruise, Red finds herself in some sort of quasi-mystery when she comes across a philandering husband and his mistress, who has something up her sleeve.  Red takes pity on the jilted wife (who is also on the cruise) and brings the woman home to the trailer park that Red runs.  I'm not sure if that even counts as a quasi-mystery.  And, there is some type of ghost aunt.  Very random.

I found the characters to be stiff and ridiculous and Red, absolutely exhausting.  I hope to never meet anyone remotely like her in real life.

And, so, my review probably sounds like I hated the book, but I didn't.  I just didn't like it very much.  The cover was pretty, though.