This book had a promising premise with some mystery-- an everyday woman helping her bff snoop into her boyfriends past & leads to a darker place than either could have thought. However I found that I couldn't get into it. The beginning was a bit slow and didn't draw me in as I had hoped. Pros? The writing was good and I would not mind giving the author another chance. I just don't think this was the book for me.

Such an entertaining read, love it! It moved quickly, the protagonist was compelling, and funny, I've read it in an afternoon. and would recommend it.

This is my first Angela Dyson book and will definitely not be the last!!

Clarry a waitress at Abbie’s Brassiere is asked by her loved up friend Laura, to investigate her new boyfriend Simon Napier. Laura head over heels in love, is worried that Simon is only with her to advance his career.

This book was a pleasant surprise, by the title I thought it was going to be a soppy romance, but it was a gripping mystery that had me hooked.

Clarry is a great down to earth character, she is funny and finds herself in dangerous situations through not thinking first!! She uncovers a major scandal which could put her life at risk,but she is determined to never give up until the truth is revealed. She finds herself mixed up with fraud, murder and trafficking.

A must read book full of humour, fun, action and danger. What more could you ask for?

Looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Fun book. It was a pleasure to read. .

First of all, if you like the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich stop reading this review and just buy this book!

This novel, which looks to happily be the first in a series, is the tale of how Clarry gets involved in being a private investigator. There is a short sight goal of finding out if her friend’s new man is trustworthy that snowballs into quite an adventure. This book is fun, fast, and still has feelings and growth of the character. I would definitely recommend it!

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

To say that this book was not for me would be an understatement. I found it unnecessarily wordy and rambling, and to be honest, the beginning of the story was a bit boring. It does take a dark turn, and the subject matter is quite serious, which was unexpected given the tone of the story. I think that's where this one completely lost me. The book has a cozy mystery feel to it, which doesn't work well with the serious turn it takes. I appreciate wit, sarcasm, and humor and maybe it's because I couldn't connect with the character, but for whatever reason, I just didn't find Clarry particularly witty. In fact, I didn't find many of the characters remotely likable. I did make it through to the end, but given my feelings for this one, I think it's safe to say that I won't be continuing the series.

This book definitely caught me off guard - in a good way!
Check out my review and Q&A with the author here:

https://readwithsam.com/2018/09/26/meet-the-author-angela-dyson/

The cover of this book is quite misleading. I expected something cozy and sweet and what I got was a gripping and rather dark mystery. The book was not really in balance, although written quite well. It is not my cup of tea but I do give it 4 stars for the story. I do think the cover and/or blurb should categorize it a bit better.

The Love Detective by Angela Dyson is a very good thriller deceptively hidden behind the cozy cover.

Reading the short description I had no idea what was in store for me. It started almost as a rom com, developed into cozy mystery and ended as a full blown suspense novel.
I loved the fact that it is written in first person, that it is full of twists and turns and that something is happening on every page.
Clarry is a waitress trying to figure out her true calling when her best friend asks her to look into her new boyfriend just to make sure he is trustworthy. What happens next is a tangled web of deceit, lies, sex trafficking and squatter issues.
I liked main protagonist, her sense of humor, her quirkiness and her courage. She is one of those good intentioned and well meaning women but she often acts on her instincts and doesn't think things through. Her unconventional side kicks are surprising and quite eccentric to say the least.
Real life situations and issues mentioned in this book add to the authenticity however some situations were a bit unrealistic and glossed over and unexpected to say the least.
All in all a great read and I can't wait for the next book to see how it will develop.

I really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed that Clarry got roped into the scheme for reasons of friendship and her Aunt Flan was a fun addition. Unfortunately, I just couldn't bring myself to keep turning the pages and found myself reaching for other titles instead.

Based on the blurb for this book I was expecting it to be similar to the Stephanie Plum and Spellman Files series, so I was looking forward to a lighthearted read. Whilst there is similarities to those series, it's a little more serious, and although still entertaining it wasn't quite as lighthearted as I had originally anticipated. That isn't a critiscism, I enjoyed the book all the more for that.

I like Clarry as a protagonist. She's smart, and has a bit more about her than the hapless, can't do anything right sort of protagonist we usually get in these sorts of books. Yes Clarry is impulsive, which can get her into dangerous situations, but sheactually thinks her way through things rather than accidentally ending up OK. Even simple things like being able to cook for herself, living self sufficiently and not constantly worrying about paying bills made me like her a lot more than other lead characters from similar novels.

The plot is good, it doesn't require huge leaps of faith, and is a believable story. Whilst it is entertaining, and the characters are likeable, it isn't full of silly escapades that detract from the story. It's darker than I was expecting, and whilst it doesn't contain any gruesome or disturbing scenes, the author does touch on a criminal underworld that isn't very nice at all. I like that the author doesn't go into too much detail about that, for me that isn't what this novel is about, but I do appreciate having a story that I can imagine actually happening.

I thought the book was well written, the characters were likeable and realistic, with enough detail and backstory for you to get a good feel for them. I'm hoping that we will see many of them again in later books.

Overall I'm giving this 4*, and will be looking out for book 2 (due out next year)

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC

Thr title and cover did no justice. This book was a quick read due the book being entertaining and engaging. I slowly fot into this novel but once in was enthralled by the author's great writing. I hope to read more from this author and gave an honest review in exchange for an ARC of the book.

Clarry Pennhaligan is a 26 year old waitress who wants more from her life, but isn’t sure what that more is. With a self-described history of giving up on things and taking the easy way out, Clarry is surprised to find herself deep in danger and intrigue when she agrees to help her best friend Laura find out if her new beau is pursuing Laura for the right reasons. What starts out as a few phone calls, stakeouts, and a small masquerade quickly takes Clarry deep into the criminal underworld where murder, fraud, and trafficking are the name of the game.

I really enjoyed Clarry as a protagonist. She was multifaceted and entertaining. I loved her sense of humor as well as her courage and compassion. However she was also very impulsive and often did not think through a plan before throwing herself into situations. Needless to say this led her into a number of sticky and quite dangerous situations.

The supporting cast of characters really gave a lot to the story as well through their diversity in age, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and general life circumstances. Clarry’s relationships with them provided the author an opportunity to give different perspectives on the story as well as some social commentary on the issues of today. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of social commentary in the book on issues ranging from sexism, class differences, body image, and race. My only bit of criticism regarding this was that I often felt that these points were made by telling the reader what the point was, rather than showing it through character interactions and expressions.

Overall this book was a great mystery read that found the balance between keeping the reader guessing, while still giving enough clues that they felt they might have an idea of what was to come. This book is filled with action and danger as well as humor and fun (if you enjoy Janet Evanovich or Sue Grafton’s books this story will be right up your alley). There were a few loose ends that weren’t tied up but I believe there is a sequel coming and I’m hoping those will be addressed.

I received the Love Detective as an ARC from NetGalley. Based on the title I thought this was going to be more of a chick lit type mystery. The title is not descriptive of the actual story. Clarry works as a waitress and is asked by her best friend to investigate her boyfriend because she's afraid he's not what he seems. This harmless investigation leads to a sex trafficking ring. Not the fun romp I was expecting.

I have just finished “The Love Detective” and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The title is clever as I was expecting a chick lit style book, but in actual fact it was a gripping mystery read, with quite a sinister storyline, unlike what the title would lead you to believe.

The main character, Clarry, was the perfect heroine in this story. She was funny and courageous, and quite often put herself in some rather scary situations due to not thinking before acting. I enjoyed watching her flourish from lacking in career and drive, to uncovering a huge scandal that would quite easily have gone unnoticed, had her gut not told her that something really wasn’t right.

This book had the right amount of humour and mystery and quite honestly I couldn’t put it down. I give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 and I’m so looking forward to the next book in the series.

Angela Dyson’s debut novel The Love Detective follows twenty-six-year-old Clarry Pennhaligan on what should’ve been an easy non-adventure. Asked by her best friend Laura to look into Simon to make sure he’s into her not her job, Clarry accidentally finds a much bigger case than expected for her first time sleuthing. With the help of a diverse ensemble, what starts out as a light romp of a fluffy mystery for our characters quickly becomes much darker. This book was provided to me by Matador Books via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Clarry Pennhaligan is twenty-six, but her inner monologue sounds fifty. If someone told me this story was about a fifty something, I would’ve bought it hook, line and sinker and loved most of it. To some degree, you almost want to buy the older inside than out feeling from the explanation that she was raised by her grandmother (in some unknown capacity), but I’m 30 and I was raised completely by grandparents and I’ve never even felt even a little as old as Clarry sounds at her most immature moments.

Following this thread, let's not mistake bad decisions for being youthful, that’s not the same thing. And boy does Clarry make some bad decisions, except when she’s not and she’s being really smart about things. Clarry figures out how to tail someone almost immediately and, with little to no trouble, finds someone to help with breaking and entering, which she commands as if she knows what she’s doing very well, but very clearly makes the conscious decision to drop her keys on a table. This is not the only time she makes such smart decisions marred by a single conscious bad decision, but I’ll save those for you to find yourself.

My biggest issue with the story is that it’s absurdly light for the topics Dyson addresses. The story itself reads like a grandmothers sleuthing tea party mystery, but the topics go super dark halfway through the book. The Dyson plays around with the issue of refugees, the plight of human trafficking and of course a little quiet (unnecessary) murder, with the murder being the nicer part of things. However, all of this is tackled with the same grandmothers’ tea group tone. Clarry looks at the situation and says, “well it’s changed me, but I’ll be fine” without actually having any lasting issues. If the book had ended on the lighter note with the lesser crime, I would’ve loved it for what it was. Unfortunately, Dyson makes some really deep thorny issues feel trivial in light of the actual trauma people are going through every day.

This review will be published 9/24 - feel free to use the above material in the meantime.

"Why confidence in men so often displays itself with a sexual edge, I don't know. Women instinctively recognise it and the suggestion of threat that can lie beneath its surface."



Clarry Pennhaligan is a waitress for Abbe's, she doesn't really know what she wants from life until she finds her true calling: snooping. When Clarry's best friend Laura asks her to find out if her boyfriend is cheating on her, Clarry gets a little too involved, and finds herself in real danger. When she discovers some deep dark secrets that the Greek community were hiding, Clarry, turned private investigator, has to switch to the tenable instincts she has as a woman; her survival depends on it.

Sounds like a warm, fuzzy crime series, right? WRONG.

I read the synopsis and thought it would be a bit of a bad ass chick lit, woman supporting woman style. Instead, it went from a girl asking her best friend to find out if her boyfriend is cheating on her, into an unforeseen escalation of a horrifically detailed Greek mafia sex trafficking ring. WHAT. To say I wasn't expecting that would be the understatement of the year.

It's actually interesting how the author has dictated this; when I saw that the cover looked fun, and read the synopsis of a girl asking her best mate to find out if her boyfriend was cheating on her, I immediately assumed it would be a light and fluffy read. My own subconscious pre-judgement stereotyped this book into the chick lit/crime genre, subconsciously I must have thought how because it would be a female detective leading proceedings, that this novel wouldn't necessarily be dark, pegging this book as harmless fun due to the leading female role, I let the synopsis become seminal, that will show me to literally judge a book by its cover.

However, I didn't particularly like this novel, and not because of how it threw me off, I was not intrinsically immersed into this novel, even when the story would dip into gruesome paroxysms that I wasn't expecting, I felt like the story was long-winded, it was a bit lustreless in its depth, and my ambivalent feelings after finishing the novel meant that I wasn't sure if I had enjoyed it or not.

Although, there was some positive body image activism thrown into these pages; which are welcome to my reading eyes. It was one of my favourite parts of this novel. Clarry is an unconventional heroine to say the least, but the way the author depicts her - and other female characters - is inspiring to any woman.

Unfortunately, to me, it felt a little messy, and the ending left a lot of loose ends, which isn't my favourite. The writing was good, but it didn't save the story.

Thank you to Net Galley and Matador Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hmmm, I wanted to love this book. Parts of I did especially with aunt Flan. I was expecting a more comic type mystery after looking at the cover and reading the blurb. It seemed like this would be a more light hearted novel. In the beginning we met Clarissa, Clarry for short. She was just living a normal existence but wanted something more, something different. A lot of can relate to that, right? Well, her adventure was going to have her investigating her friends new boyfriend at the request of her friend who is a solicitor for England. It seemed that Clarry was going to enter a terrible part of town where sex trafficking and homelessness, All in which Clarry takes in stride. A little too much stride if you ask me. The books concept was great I just felt that the protagonist needed to be a little less carefree. The characters were likeable as to what the reader was given about them. Overall, I would say that I felt this book was somewhat all over the place and hard for me to read. I really did want to like it.

Thanks to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.


3 ⭐️ out of 5

I received this ARC via Netgalley in return for an honest review. This book is well written, told from the POV of Clarry (short for Clarissa). She's 26, a waitress, lives in a cottage left to her by her grandmother, and wondering about making changes in her life. Her best friend, a lawyer (solicitor in England), asks her to check out the best friend's new boyfriend. This starts Clarry on an investigation that she survives (barely). This is the first in a series of books (an excerpt from the second book is included at the end). I liked Clarry and her friends. The story delves into dark parts of human nature and what humans do to each other. While Clarry emerges physically unharmed, she's exposed to some things that most of us only read about. So, this definitely isn't a cosy mystery, with the classic murder and solution. The author tells a very good story and builds it well. If you like your books to deal with difficult situations and engaging heroines, this is worth reading.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and Matador Books for an honest review.

I'll admit, this book is a bit difficult for me to review. With its cover and blurb, I had anticipated a much different novel, and found myself confused more than once throughout the book. I often read amatuer sleuth books, as well as cozy mysteries, and was excited for another addition to the genre. However, I soon found this novel was far from light-hearted. Yes, occasionally there was an amusing scene, especially with Aunt Flan's scenes, but overall, this book had a somewhat somber feel I did not expect. Furthermore, I found the lack of character building to be frustrating. I wanted to like Clarry, but found her apathy and lack of motivation to be a direct contradiction of her curiousness, and I also didn't understand how she could help a friend that I found to be kind of a jerk.

Overall, I truly believe that if someone were to go into this novel expecting a more earnest-feeling mystery, they may really enjoy it. However, I expected more laughs and light-heartedness, so it just wasn't for me.

2.5/5