Poor character develpment

This book was different than I expected. I have listened to quite some cozy mysteries, and that made me expect something else. This is not the typical cozy mystery. The setting is a coastal village, and the main character is a girl working on a bed & breakfast whose unique clientele are writers. Although it seemed a bit unrealistic that a B&B could survive solely on hosting authors, it was an original and interesting setting.

What failed for me here was character development. Even the main characters were one-dimensional and cliches, which made me care nothing for them. The dialogs felt forced at times, and the secondary characters felt totally interchangeable.

I was unable to feel the tension and urgency of the mystery. Usually when listening to cozy mysteries, I’m on the edge of my seat looking forward to what’s next. This didn’t happen here for me, and I also missed the duality between legitime and ilegitime investigation.

There was prescindible romance, as in any cozy mystery, which I don’t generally care for, but this time I even cared less due to the poor character development.

Amina Cee’s narration was quite good, but some of the characters sounded exactly the same. I think it was a difficult one to narrate, since the characters had nothing remarkable to make them different from others. Cee’s did great transmitting the character’s emotions’ though, and I think it was a good narration in general terms.

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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I wish I knew Raymond!

I enjoyed the cast of characters in this book. Pippa owns a bed and breakfast of sorts where only authors can stay. They come to write and find inspiration. There was a well rounded bunch with the authors, Pippa, the uncle, Lake & the other town folk.
My favorite character however was Raymond who wasn't really a tie "character" (since he's not alive), but we hear his quotes before each chapter and he quickly became the most lovable of them all.
My one qualm is with Pippa. She acted like such an annoying schoolgirl with Lake and it irked me the whole time. Even when she was facing certain death her priority was "kissing Lake." It felt really silly. She so obsessed and acted like a teenager. So that aspect I wasn't a fan of, but it's my only one complaint.
Otherwise it's a fun story, a fun cast & an interesting murder to solve! I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

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A Fun Experience...

I Enjoyed This Book...The Main Character Is A New Favorite... The Details Are Vividly Described Especially All The Delicious Foods That Were Mentioned But Most Important Were The Scones...The Narrator Brought All The Characters To Life.. Definitely Looking Forward To Another Audio Book From This Series...

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

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A Sweet Mystery!

Smugglers and Scones is an entertaining new cosy mystery by author Morgan C. Talbot. Morgan shows her writing talent as the story draws you in immediately and takes you to a quaint oceanside bed and breakfast with lots of quirky characters. Morgan provides a detailed history for the Moorehaven Bed and Breakfast Inn(catering to mystery writers only), and its former owner, mystery novelist A. Raymond Moore. It was a great idea to make the deceased author Moore present throughout the story, he was a very interesting character (I even looked him up to see if he was real:). The history of the Inn and its previous owner really brought a rich background, as well as a little mystery, to the story. I kept imagining the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Oregon (look it up and check out the fun rooms designed after famous authors) as Moorehaven.

Other fun and interesting additions to the story included the ‘mandatory’ cats (with the names of characters from Raymond Moore’s books), the library with Moore’s manuscripts and the bookstore in Moorehaven (selling the guest writers’ books), the local history of rum running and the old speakeasy under the On the Rocks club, a treasure hunt, the zany Glaze and Gossip crowd and of course the scrumptious scones!

Favourite lines:
‘Donuts are gooey lies, you can trust scones.’
‘That’s the difference between real people and fictional characters. Real people are allowed to be boring.’

Besides the history, the mystery writers were my favourite part of the story. The pop quizzes Pippa gives them where they have to ‘put your MC in this scenario...’ at the dinner table was a cool concept to throw into a mystery novel. Then of course the writers’ joy and ‘helpfulness’ when dealing with an actual crime was pretty fun as well. I wish there had been more focus on the authors and their interaction with the main character/Inn owner Pippa. Great Uncle Hilt was also a great character. I hope there will be more of the writers and Uncle Hilt in her subsequent books. I would like an Uncle Hilt!

Minor quibble: Pippa was a likable, strong, smart character until she was alone with Lake and then she seemed to devolve into a rather vacuous teenage girl. The rest of the book was so good and I liked Pippa very much, so it was disappointing to have these moments where her personality changed. I don’t mind the Pippa and Lake romance, I just wish Pippa’s character had stayed ‘herself’ while relating to Lake. I’m not sure if the narration exaggerated these moments. The dialogue may come across better in the print version.

Narration: Amina Cee had good pacing and a pleasant reading voice, and there were some shining moments in the narration. She did a good job of differentiating between characters and keeping her tone suitable for the action/emotion in the story. She sounds like a fairly new narrator and I think she has a lot of potential to become a strong voice actor.

For those who like to know... Smugglers and Scones is a sweet clean read, no sex, no profanity, and the violence was mild.

I received Smugglers and Scones: Moorhaven Mysteries, Book 1 free in exchange for an unbiased review.

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Smugglers & Scones

This is a fun super fun murder mystery! Just when I thought I knew who was the murderer, things changed up! Of course the characters had come to the same conclusion.... the characters in the story were fun and unique. I look forward to more from this series!

I received this audio in exchange for an honest review.

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Good

This was a good mystery. Kept me very intrigued. Great characters as well. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

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Smugglers and Scones

I love a good cozy mystery and how can you go wrong when there's a bed and breakfast that only caters to crime novelists! I hope to see more Moorehaven Mysteries.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Great Book!

This is a great book with a wonderful story and well developed characters. The story flowed very well and was very enjoyable. This book will keep you reading long into the night and you will not want to put this book down until you finish. This was such a great read and full of surprises. The narrator did a wonderful job with this book. She did a great job with the different voices of each character in this book. It was very easy to listen to and I didn’t want to stop listening until the end. If you are looking for a great book with well-developed characters then you need to listen to this book. I am looking forward to listening to the next book by this author and narrator.

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Smugglers and Scones

Smugglers & Scones
: Morgan C. Talbot

This is an interesting new mystery series. A B&B that only houses writing mystery authors. Pippa runs Moorehaven, home to the late mystery writer A. Raymond Moore. Real life mysteries and murders have everyone working together to solve. Newcomers to the town add suspense and drama. Toss in some romance and you get a fun listen. I'm curious where this series will go next.


The narration was well done. The characters were well portrayed. Amina Cee made this even more enjoyable.



I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Small-Town Cozy with a Literary Twist

When I read the summary, I was intrigued by the idea of a bed and breakfast that catered strictly to an author clientele. And I think that idea made for a good spin on the basic small-town cozy mystery.

I'll start with the narration because that can make or break an audiobook and, for this story, it almost broke it for me. Pippa and Blake were okay, but aside from those two characters, I found the narration of this novel to be barely tolerable. Ms. Cee's choices took characters that toed the line of cookie-cutter and turned them into full-blown caricatures, particularly when it concerned the authors. But none were so bad as the murderer, who had a completely different cadence and tone than when we first met him. Once I finished the novel, I had to step back from the book for a few days so that the narration didn't color my review of the actual story, that's how bad it was.

Setting aside the narrator, the story itself was solid, though not without its flaws. It took some time to get to the meat of the story, but the mystery was interesting and the characters were quirky, which helped keep things light and humorous. And I still love the authors-only inn idea. There's so much that can be done with a rotating cast of mystery and suspense authors that I'm definitely interested in future installments.

As far as critiques go, there were times when the characters came off as a bit more naive than seemed realistic, and there were also some interesting writing choices like lots of cutesy stand-ins for potentially foul language mixed with a ton of wink-wink-nudge-nudge sexual innuendo. And it was a bit odd that two characters decided to have their first kiss almost immediately after discovering a relatively fresh crime scene. Maybe I'm the only one who found this less than romantic, but hey, that's between you and your therapist

However, my biggest critique would be that I hope that future installments rely a little less on some of the more overused tropes, like the exposition ending we received. That just took all the tension out of the moment for me.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Frankly, though, I wish I had read this novel instead of listening to it. I feel the audiobook version cheated me out of a pleasant, fun experience.

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