Summer Book Review: Double Mint (Davis Way Crime Caper #4) by Gretchen Archer

PURCHASE | GOODREADS 

My Synopsis 

Double Mint (#4) takes reins from Double Strike (#3) to tell the story of Davis Way’s mysterious/romantic/hilarious/ undercover life.

If you were Davis Way, here are a few pointers to begin with your (very chaotic) life:

1. You are on the security force of a
casino, sort of a spy on the team.

2. You are not easily ruffled by theft, murder, shooting because that’s what you headbutt on a daily basis.

3. You are the spitting image of your boss’ wife (if you coat an additional heavy layer of foundation, pull on some contacts and spray-dye your hair) and that—unfortunately—makes her your boss too.

4.  Your relationship with your newly-wedded husband is sheer bliss...  if only you could move out from the haunted house causing a few disagreements between you two.

So now that we are settled on your character, let's brief you on your mission for this instalment. One, it's summer get some rest while you can. Two, while you are getting that rest, find out why the casino's Special Events Coordinator has quit her job and is nowhere to be found. Three—you are still supposed to be resting—take on the role as the hotel's Special Events Coordinator organising weddings with guests who can't see eye to eye and have different bands for the different set of families. Four, find out why platinum from the casino's vault has been stolen. While at that, you just stumbled on some incriminating evidence in you and your husband's new home that might lead you both to jail--get rid of it. Last but not least, break it to your boss' wife that she has menopause... and try surviving after that.

My Review. 

I loved this book! You cannot go through summer without a Women Sleuths novel. In this review I'd be like a magazine recommending you go get this book to prevent excessive summer boredom (and accelerate your aging process by acquiring a few laughter lines!).──★

Gretchen Archer doesn't disappoint with another amazing storyline in her Davis Way Crime Caper series. So there's evidence of minting fake platinum coins in your favourite casino/hotel and Davis Way has to get to the bottom of this before she finds herself and a lot others behind bars, and though no one believes her prime suspect for the crime—an old woman who is known to have poor sight (really, there must be an accomplice who has good enough eyes to mint coins)—she has to find a way to convince everyone they are really on to a devious woman who knows (or sees) more than she's letting on. A star!──★★

It's not hard to love Davis Way, really. Besides being funny, and dead-good with a gun, she's your relatable lead who's not sure her maternal instincts has kicked in yet and can even take care of a cat! The Same Davis I fell in love with starting this series, the same Davis I continue to love with every instalment. A star!──★★★

One thing you'd love about series novels is to get to see old characters you got smitten with since instalment one. Bradley, the amazing fiance now turned husband now turned boss who would love it if Davis Way makes dinner more than she makes trouble. You'd love Bianca, the boss's wife who is always getting under the knife as much as she gets under Davis' skin. Fantasy, the partner who always has her shit together, her husband's and children's ... although not anymore. Eddie, Davis' ex-ex-husband who is annoying and the man no woman wants to get married to—twice! This series saw new characters such as Magnolia, the sneaky old lady with presumed poor sight who constantly busts into Davis' old home—which was her previous home—and leaves behind a trail of heavy perfume. And a cat that's so irritating readers would wonder why they love cats anyway (—not me. Hate them).──★★★★

Lots of humor in this title (although not as much as the previous instalments)! Lots of suspense and twists and so many unexpected moments. The ending has massive OMG moments that would make you gasp.──★★★★★

Another five-star read from Gretchen Archer. I'm waiting for the day when I'll fall out of love with Davis Way, but this day isn't happening so I'm giving up.

The only thing I hated about this novel should be, blink and you'd miss something. So fast-paced if you do not keep up you'd easily be Left behind. I worried for my avid-reader friend who blinks a lot and can't help it. This book was not made for Blepharospasm.

Gretchen Archer's Double Mint is available on amazon. If you want to buy the whole series—I recommend this, click here.

I recommend this for anyone who wants a Women Sleuth title this summer. If you want something gasp-out-loud funny, just get this book. No one wants to sit on the edge of their sun lounger, but if you want to, I recommend this!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Chick-LOL Awards 2014: Funniest Books of 2014

 

Everyone who reads this blog knows there’s one thing I never joke with! (Sadly, it’s not punctuation) It’s humour. I love a good laugh. And these books, trust me, start the rumble of laughter way below your belly (——half of the time I do not understand my own expressions so bear with me).

The Chick-Lol Awards celebrates the funniest titles of 2014. (Check out 2013’s winner).

Book Number T

Take Mom Outby Fiona Gibson.

Book Number I

Love andChaos by Gemma Burgess

Book Number L

The BestThing That Never Happened To Me by Laura Tait and Jimmy Rice.

Book Number K

DoubleStrike by Gretchen Archer.

Book Number C

ShopaholicTo The Stars by Sophie Kinsella.

Book Number I

The List byJoanna Bolouri

Book Number H

CourtingTrouble by Kathy Lette.

As you can see, a letter is missing. Because I am down to only one chick-lit title of 2014 which all the reviews said was hilarious. So I am waiting to read it and see if I could include it on this list or pick another title that fell out of the shortlist.

BUT BY FAR, The Funniest, Rib-cracking entertaining Chick-Lit of 2014, goes to Kathy Lette’s Courting Trouble.

Book Review: Double Strike (Davis Way Crime Caper series #3) by Gretchen Archer

MY SYNOPSIS

Double Strike (#3) takes reins from Double Dip (#2) to tell the story of Davis Way’s mysterious/romantic/hilarious/undercover life.

If you were Davis Way, here are a few pointers to begin with your (very chaotic) life:

1. You are on the security force of a casino, sort of a spy on the team.

2. You are not easily ruffled by theft, murder, shooting because that’s what you headbutt on a daily basis.

3. You are the splitting image of your boss’ wife (if you coat an additional heavy layer of foundation, pull on some contacts and spray-dye your hair) and that—unfortunately—makes her your boss too.

4. Your relationship with you boyfriend-now fiancé is as stable as it can ever be… if your ex-ex husband doesn’t rear his shit-head, his mother doesn’t have a plan up her sleeves to throw you under a bus (literally, if she just knew a bus driver).

5. There’s a wedding date looming, but all you can think is, ‘big yay! Ya-ay! Yay? Oh, crap yay’, when your ex-ex husband drops the biggest bomb that leaves you thinking.

So now that we are settled on your character, let’s brief you on your mission. One, your boss’ son is in connection with the son of drug lords for dealing in boarding school which has gained him a suspension. It’s your duty to solve up this ‘mystery’ which you wouldn’t classify as mystery at all, because as far as you are concerned, he’s bad news, his parents just have to realize that. Two, as if these fucking drug lords aren’t posing enough problems for you on case one, they are trying to close down the casino by gambling with drug money? Find out if their legal tender isn’t legal tender at all and get the FEDs on them before they cause over three hundred employees including yourself, to become redundant. Three, the sight of the newest casino manager gives you the strangest feeling, like you know he’s up to something with his little Strike It Rich Casino within your casino to which he’s hired new staff for. Whatever the hell, he’s doing behind closed doors, it’s your duty to find out even if that means getting on some contacts and a different hair colour to work under a thirteen-year-old shape-shifted into the body of a thirty-year-old whose giddiness makes you want to shoot a bullet through your head and hope someone does the same to her just so no one passes through your plight.    

As if all the above isn’t problem enough, one fucking lawyer is causing a stir in your family by chairing the divorce between your grandmother and her husband, you have to learn how to use twitter like a pro else you lose your job, your boss’ wife is getting you into the most outrageous gigs because apparently playing her in public with her husband (enough to get your hair, which she supposes it’s hers, burnt!) isn’t enough and your boyfriend doesn’t see no future (kids) with him if you happen to keep your (very dangerous job, not to mention) after the wedding (which you are praying Alabama courts would ever let happen).

Welcome to your life… your life as Davis Way. You have big shoes to fill, unless of course your boss’ wife gives you ones twice smaller than your real size.

MY REVIEW

Do I even need to write a review for this title? Aren’t you tired of me screaming at you to go get all Gretchen Archer’s works??

I adored the storyline! Could I not really? When Gretchen Archer throws in moments you haven’t ever read in any title. One of the reasons I love about Gretchen’s Davis Way series is she takes out all contemporary topics contemporary women face on a daily basis (lack of commitment, career-hungry bitching) and puts a whole marvelous spin with lots of action(!) never pulled off that way in any chick-lit title.──★

Davis Way as usual was fantastic! Beautiful voice, humorous voice and a hilarious way of hash-tagging to completely express a thought other writers would have made her waste a whole paragraph on (Hashtag Impressive). Davis Way never disappoints and she leaves you hungry for more in subsequent upcoming titles in the series.──★★

Oh, I did love the comeback of the characters that I fell in love with in Double Dip (#ThrowbackThursday) and the introduction of some fun, funky characters that made this book #VeryEntertaining. No Hair, the team leader who is always getting pissed at our lead for having the tendency to give everyone a nickname. Fantasy, the ex-women’s prison guard who could slap a fugitive into calming down even when they knew a life-sentence was breathing down their neck. Baylor, the five-year old partner shape-shifted into the body of an adult who would never get serious on assignments. Bianca, the boss’ wife with very high standards for whoever wasn’t willing to impersonate her. Eddie The Ass, the ex-ex husband who’s always in time to remind our lead girl how much of a bitch she is. Bea, Eddie’s mother who hasn’t quite forgiven our lead for splitting the world into #TeamDavis and #TeamEddie in their blood-boiling nasty divorce battle (which to her dismay, led to her son’s fanatics defeated). Hashtag Elspeth, the twitter-nutter who would stop at nothing to teach our lead just how to create the right hashtag topics in her tweets. It’s a characterization party in this novel. #Amazing #JadoreDior!──★★★

Humor, check. Suspense, check. #LolRead #VeryGripping──★★★★★

My rating is obviously a five star! And I am very sure I’d keep giving a hundred-percent to all the books in this series before they are even conceptualized because… #GretchenFuckingWritesGood!

Double Strike as part of Henery Press’s mystery Davis Way series, “if you like one, you just might (really, really, they mean it,) like all.” Is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle.

I recommend this book to anyone who’s been a spy or not. Anyone who loves a good mystery in their chick-lit. Anyone who’s turned on by Women Sleuths. And anyone, just anyone who wants anything to keep them laughing out loud. If you very much hate sitting on the edge of your seat during your leisure time, warning, this is not a novel to relax to! But really, how can you relax with a title so fast-paced if you blink you might have to start all over!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Review+INT Giveaway: Double Dip (Davis Way Crime Caper series, #2) by Gretchen Archer

If Gretchen Archer keeps up with this Davis Way pace, I suspect humor, touches of delightful romance, extreme doses of action, masterpiece plots and loads of best-selling accolades to her name.

Blurb: “A smart, snappy writer who hits your funny bone!” – Janet Evanovich
It’s Davis Way’s first slot-tournament season. And it may be her last.
Things are dicey at work. A personal assistant goes missing, a little old lady goes on a suspicious winning streak, and a Bellissimo executive goes gaga for Davis. She follows a disappearing slot-tournament player trail to the So Help Me God Pentecostal Church in Beehive, Alabama, then jumps headlong into a high stakes holy scandal.


She’s on a losing streak at home, too. Her days, nights, and dinners run together, as Davis juggles a revolving door of uninvited guests, namely her rotten ex-ex-husband, Eddie Crawford. And Bradley Cole thinks three’s a crowd.

The worst? Davis doesn’t feel so hot. Maybe it’s the banana pudding, or maybe it’s a little bundle of something else. DOUBLE DIP. A reckless ride in the fast lane, and Davis Way can’t find the brakes.

MY SYNOPSIS

Double Dip takes reins from Double Whammy to tell the story of Davis Way’s mysterious/romantic/hilarious/undercover life. If you were Davis Way, here are a few pointers to begin with your (messed-up) life:

1. You are on the security force of a Casino, sort of a spy on the team.

2. You are not easily ruffled by theft, murder, shooting because that’s what you combat on a daily basis.

3. You are the splitting image of your boss’ wife (if you coat an additional heavy layer of foundation and change your hair color) and that makes her your boss too.

4. Your relationship with your boyfriend is on the rocks because your shithead ex-ex husband is always in the picture.

5. You might be pregnant so you would want to tone down on all the action stunts… only if you have convinced yourself enough there might be a due date.

So now that we are settled on your persona, let’s brief you on your mission. One, your boss’ wife has fired her Personal Assistant, I mean, really fired her with a gun and she’s missing. No body, no trace of the last bullet, nothing and she wants a new P.A, even. It’s your duty to find her a new one, find her old one, make sure the old one is alive and probably keep the new one from being shot. Two, there’s a mystery old lady signing into a lot of competitions on the slots in your casino, and your boss, No Hair, wants you to be in charge of ruining what might be the happiest moments in the life of this senior  citizen. You have to investigate on her in order to spoil her fun. But quit with the guilt trip, you are not alone on this, your partner, Fantasy, will be there to help. Three, you and your man are moving into a new, big space to cater for your grandmother’s reluctance to give you (two) some much needed privacy. And you must make this a positive move for the two of you, indicating a promising future, but if only your man wouldn’t arrive every time to see you in a very compromising (as well as complicated) position with your ratty ex-ex husband. Four, you haven’t told your boyfriend you are pregnant (because you haven’t told yourself you are pregnant), get it over with. Five, on the case of the old woman, during an undercover mission as one of the casino players, you pass out in the casino (Google symptoms of anemia associated with pregnancy) only to be caught by the casino’s Mr. Microphone, the slovenliest emcee alive. He wants you, you can refuse him, but your boss gives you no chance to, so date him. Six, your boss is holding out info from you, find out. Seven, a man-stealer/an almost-home wrecker wants to dig her claws into your man. No, I mean literally dig her claws into your man, stop her before she gets him. Eight, as if I haven’t briefed you enough and you are really exhausted by now from all your personal problems (your mother, your sister, your ex-ex’s mother), your boss’ wife wants you to be in charge of all her social activities. No, I mean really be in charge, take over her, become her double. All the charity events to make fashion statements and good public impressions are your duty, she might even demand you to get a boob job considering she’s contemplating one. Everything in outfits that barely cover your ass or your boobs or your every inch of skin, because she says so, and you might want to lay low on the carbs else you would get fired. Goodbye blueberry pie and Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream. Welcome your new life…

Which is Davis Way’s hell summed up for your entertainment.

MY REVIEW

In my life, there are three authors of one chick-lit sub-genre I’ve put on a pedestal. Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum series), Sarah Strohmeyer (Bubbles Yablonsky series) and now, Gretchen Archer for Davis Way Crime Caper series (applause, applause), so even if I end now, my review looks just complete.

The first thing that makes this book deserve a star, is Davis Way. I simply wanted to pull her out for a lunch date (mostly to force her ingest something for the baby she was carrying). Like all the other leads of my favorite, favorite series, she’s independent (one thing that draws me to a woman), she’s sassy, she’s sexy. We all want to read books about chick-lit heroines who make us feel secure, that no matter how the plot is twisted and turned they’d emerge victors (with perhaps a bullet wound to make them look hotter).──★

I like authors who take a topic we’d all run away from and make it look chic. We might not relate to the lead girl’s current dilemma , but sometimes reading a book that makes you feel the hottest accessory to finish off your outfit are red Manolo Blahniks and a holster (in case you can’t get licensing done quickly), is just worth it.──★★

I’m a fan of humor. So to make your book a really laugh-out-loud number is so sinister an attempt to give your book my ultimate rating score. This book was high-larious, hit my head against the bed post on one occasion. Davis’ voice is a plus, very funny, very lighthearted. It’s these books that make me wish everyone would stop using the term chick-lit loosely. We all know if it isn’t humorous (as Double Dip) it should be mama-lit. This is one of those books that make you crack a rib in the face of your toughest, lowest moments.★★★

The characters in this book added to this book’s humor and would make anyone have a blast. From Fantasy──for we all need a partner who would dive into a dumpster, for us, to retrieve a dead body; Bianca──’cause we all don’t need a boss who might shoot a hole through us right when we go against her orders (for a boob job); Meredith──sometimes reluctant sisters who would just take charge for whenever we have to move and our job gives us no time to organize, are important; Granny Dee──nothing like a grandma who loves the slots, speaks like a narcissistic bitch but you know if she didn’t have an ear problem  she’d actually whisper to sound like normal people do when whispering; Bea──an ex-ex mother-in-law might always come in handy in case you do not want to submit your own grandmother for a makeover and an undercover mission; No Hair──we need a boss who is annoying, yet adorable but wished he had a strand of hair, even if it fell from someone’s onto his; Bradley Cole──oh, who we’d kill to get a boyfriend who’d get back with us when caught looking up from our ex-ex husband’s crotch; Eddie──ugh, who would help get rid of the ex-ex husband. These and so many other characters I fell in love with, Mr. Microphone, Davis’ Mother, Cyril, Baylor/Cowboy──★★★★

This novel’s plot is a masterpiece. I like that Gretchen starves you then hits you in the face with the hot towel right when you think things are getting too fast for you to catch up. Perfect.──★★★★★

It’s obvious I’m giving this book five stars!

Get Double Dip, the second book in the Davis Way crime-caper series here. In any case if you want Double Whammy, get it here too (though you don’t need to read book one to get an understanding of book two)

 Enter to Win one SIGNED copy of Double Dip. Contest Going INTERNATIONALLY a Rafflecopter giveaway

I don’t know about your feelings after this review, but I know I am continuing the Davis Way Crime Caper series.

I recommend this to anyone who wants to read a book in their Manolo Blahniks holding onto their holster on their thigh.  Anyone who wants chick-lit with mystery, fun and suspense. Anyone who loves the big two, Janet Evanovich, Sarah Strohmeyer should get this. And if you want a book that you can get a follow up on, a chic series you want to keep up with, and a heroine you want to keep seeing, get Double Dip(ped).

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.