Rating: 
Summary: Good story but the writing was pretty awful.
Review: The story of Lilly Bard visiting her family for her sister's wedding and helping solve a mystery with her detective boyfriend was pretty good. Not having read any of the previous titles in this series, it was hard to decipher some of the references to things that had gone on before (where exactly are those scars, and how were they inflicted??). My main beef with this book is that the writing is full of nonsequiturs, very choppy, and generally in need of a good editor. It was hard for me to continue reading sometimes because I was thinking how some of the sentences and even paragraphs could have been reconstructed to read more smoothly and make more sense. Am I the only reader who feels this way? Sorry, Charlaine, but St. Martin's Press should assign you a good editor in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Nicer and nicer
Review: This fourth book in the Lily Bard/Shakespeare series continues the trend and is better than the third book. This is the first, and only book, to take place outside Shakespeare, Arkansas. This visit home was a nice way to fill out Lily Bard's character and the action/mystery at home is compelling. A very nicely written story.
Rating:
Summary: Nicer and nicer
Review: This fourth book in the Lily Bard/Shakespeare series continues the trend and is better than the third book. This is the first, and only book, to take place outside Shakespeare, Arkansas. This visit home was a nice way to fill out Lily Bard's character and the action/mystery at home is compelling. A very nicely written story.
Rating: 
Summary: The Holidays Can Be Murder...
Review: This is the third book in the Lily Bard mystery series and it takes the reader out of Shakespeare, Arkansas to Lily's hometown. Lily is less than thrilled about going home for the holidays, especially when her sister's wedding is involved. She loves her family, but things just haven't been the same since she was violently assaulted years ago. To add to her notoriety, Lily manages to nab a purse natcher within a few days of her arrival and then is the first to walk in on a brutal double homicide. Before the buzz even begins to die down, Lily's detective boyfriend Jack Leeds shows up at the wedding rehearsal. Much as Lily would like to think that Jack showed up to offer her his moral support in her time of need, she knows better. Jack is investigating an eight-year-old kidnapping and the trail leads right to Lily's hometown - and her sister's widowed fiance. With only three days before the wedding and corpses piling up all over town, Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister commits...marriage!I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think Charlaine Harris should be congratulated for her fantastic characterization and plot pacing. Many reviewers critized this book for having Lily be too soft and/or too much of her and too little of the mystery. They seem to have completely missed the point. Lily is softer in this book because she is at home and is different there. Everyone acts slightly differently when they go home, especially when they have been away for a long time, as Lily has been. As far as there being too much Lily and too little mystery, I thought that this book gave the reader a chance to learn a little bit more about Lily and what makes her tick. When you are reading a novel that is from a first person point of view, you should expect to hear a lot about the lead character - that is the whole point of having a lead character. Anyway, enough complaining - I just don't understand why everyone didn't love the book as much as I did! Buy this one while it is in print - it is a keeper!
Rating:
Summary: The Holidays Can Be Murder...
Review: This is the third book in the Lily Bard mystery series and it takes the reader out of Shakespeare, Arkansas to Lily's hometown. Lily is less than thrilled about going home for the holidays, especially when her sister's wedding is involved. She loves her family, but things just haven't been the same since she was violently assaulted years ago. To add to her notoriety, Lily manages to nab a purse natcher within a few days of her arrival and then is the first to walk in on a brutal double homicide. Before the buzz even begins to die down, Lily's detective boyfriend Jack Leeds shows up at the wedding rehearsal. Much as Lily would like to think that Jack showed up to offer her his moral support in her time of need, she knows better. Jack is investigating an eight-year-old kidnapping and the trail leads right to Lily's hometown - and her sister's widowed fiance. With only three days before the wedding and corpses piling up all over town, Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister commits...marriage! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think Charlaine Harris should be congratulated for her fantastic characterization and plot pacing. Many reviewers critized this book for having Lily be too soft and/or too much of her and too little of the mystery. They seem to have completely missed the point. Lily is softer in this book because she is at home and is different there. Everyone acts slightly differently when they go home, especially when they have been away for a long time, as Lily has been. As far as there being too much Lily and too little mystery, I thought that this book gave the reader a chance to learn a little bit more about Lily and what makes her tick. When you are reading a novel that is from a first person point of view, you should expect to hear a lot about the lead character - that is the whole point of having a lead character. Anyway, enough complaining - I just don't understand why everyone didn't love the book as much as I did! Buy this one while it is in print - it is a keeper!
Rating:
Summary: The heroine's personal life overshadows the mystery.
Review: This series features Lily Bard, an emotionally and physically scarred cleaning lady with a penchant for solving mysteries. (She lives in a town called Shakespeare-- Shakespeare/ Bard...get it?) As a rape survivor, Lily is a loner with little patience for the everyday human interactions that most people thrive on, and cleaning is part of her refuge (as well as her livelihood). Sound dark? It is. Up to this point in the series, Lily's past has been part of her characterization, part of what makes her interesting and different. In this, the third entry in the Shakespeare series, Lily's past dominates the story as she comes home for her sister's wedding. The neighbors and loved ones she left behind look at her and think "rape victim," not "Lily," and she cannot stand their pity. Add to this drama a visit from Lily's intense boyfriend (with whom the sex is so steamy the two can barely keep their hands off each other), and the mystery plot is simply incidental. One of three little girls was kidnapped as an infant from her true parents, and solving the mystery is more a process of elimination than an exercise in sleuthing. This is not a stand-alone mystery; readers should start with the first two in the series, then read this one to understand the development of the character. Though it was nice to meet Lily's family and explore some of her past, I look forward to seeing Lily return to Shakespeare for the next book.
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