The third book in the series starts with the opening day for the beach festival and Lucy Berberian has volunteered her help for several chores. Her best friend has a couple of loud arguments with one of the vendors who is shot to death. This closed the festival early causing the town business financial problems. Best friend, Katie Watson heads the lists of the suspects in the murder. Lucy with the aid of Katie explore the suspects and uncovers several unknowns. Lucy's romance with Azad continues. Will Lucy finally find the answer so the festivities can continue. I highly recommend this book and series.
Recipes from Kebab Kitchen are included.

Disclosure: Thanks to Kensington Books for a copy through NetGalley.The opinions expressed are my own.

Please Don’t Feed the Mayor by Sue Pethick is a contemporary story with a bit of romance and mystery. This would be a book that is the perfect example of please don’t read the blurb as it makes no sense to the book that I just read.

Melanie MacDonald has been trying for four years to revive her little town of Fossett, Oregon when she comes up with the plan to bring publicity into town by having her trained Border Collie Shep elected mayor. Not everyone in town is behind the publicity stunt though so Melanie finds that she actually needs to go through an actual campaign and election to get Shep the title.

Not knowing much about politics Melanie makes a call to her ex-husband, Bryce MacDonald who is a lawyer to find out just what she needed to do. Bryce had recently received his own disturbing news that a convict had escaped custody that Bryce had helped put away so the opportunity to head to Flosset to help Melanie couldn’t have come at a better time.

Please Don’t Feed the Mayor starts off as a rather cute story with a second chance romance happening between Melanie and Bryce while a not so happy puppy does his best to run Bryce off. I wasn’t a huge fan of the ex when he arrived but as the story went on he got a bit better and then the second half of the story picks up the action and intensity to really keep the pages turning. Considering the majority of the story is pre-election I’m not sure where the blurb came from but I do think readers will enjoy this one regardless of the differences.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

What drew me to this book was the cover. I have owned three Border Collies, so there wasn’t much that was going to stop me from picking up a book with a Border Collie on the cover. I didn’t expect to enjoy this book quite as much as I did.

Melanie lives in small town Oregon with her dog Shep. Shep is a rescue, having been let go by a family that simply couldn’t tolerate his herding their kids. Shep, like most Border Collies, needs a job. Fossett, Oregon needs something to bring it off life support. Melanie thinks she has a brilliant idea to have Shep be the mayor. Another resident of Fossett feels that he has the right to run for mayor as well, and that’s where the fun comes in.

Melanie’s ex-husband is a high end lawyer in Portland. Formerly a prosecutor, he now works for a private firm as a defense attorney. Melanie and Bryce have been apart for several years, but Melanie needs help with the campaign and election, so she reaches out to Bryce. Bryce needs to escape Portland for a bit, and this gives him a great excuse to do so.

This book has a little bit of mystery, a little bit of romance, a lot of doggie fun, and some great storytelling. Pethick gives us a good, clean, fun read that’s hard to put down. I was easily wrapped up in Melanie’s and Bryce’s stories, as well as getting to know Shep, the little furry devil. Shep is a very talented herder and performer. I only wish my Border Collies had been so well trained.

I have to say I am very confused. The book I downloaded in my BlueFire app did not match the description given when I requested it. So... I am not sure what book I just read. What I’ve been reading has been about the same characters but all the action Took place before the dog became the mayor. So this review is about the book I read, not the book that is described here. I enjoyed it for the most part especially at the beginning and especially at the end. But for a big chunk of the book I felt it dragged and I found myself skimming pages instead of reading carefully. The Climactic scenes at towards the end were very very good as was the tension and then resolution between the two main characters.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.