Member Reviews

I enjoyed the first book in this series and this one was just as fun. As a Christmas Present to his Aunt Lela Quinn and Tucker are digging a Fire Pit in her backyard. When they uncover the body of a local girl who disappeared years ago Aunt Lela is the prime suspect. Quinn, Tucker and Delilah set out to see if they can solve this cold case. I really enjoy the characters and the Savannah Setting. I like the way they were able to unravel the clues in this cold case just by talking to people, even though a lot of people were lying and had something to hide. The mystery was good and there were plenty of suspects. It was a quick fun Holiday read. I am looking for word to reading Book 3. Enjoy

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An enjoyable mystery. I loved the Bed and Breakfast setting of the mystery. I think this may have been the first one that I've read with this setting. It was almost like taking a vacation while reading the book.

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What a fascinating book. I was impressed by the storyline and the characters were all well written and complex. Where there are complex storylines combined with intriguing characters the reader experience is magnified tremendously. To have a book that is well written as well as entertaining is a delight. Reading is about escaping your world and entering another one. Here I forgot about my own life and was immersed in the world created by the author. I would recommend this book.

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Most people imagine old Southern towns to be quiet and subdued—maybe a little sleepy. That’s where people are supposed to spend long afternoons on porch swings, sipping sweet tea. But in Southern Harm, the second Southern B&B Mystery by author Caroline Fardig, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

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Quinn Bellandini, while helping to manage her grandfather's B&B in Savannah, is also helping her boyfriend, Tucker, on a project at his Aunt Lela's house. Digging in preparation of installing a fire pit in the backyard, Quinn and Tucker come across a skeleton. The police determine that it was a young woman that disappeared 30 years ago, who was well known to have been interested in any man she could find, including Aunt Lela's husband. Quinn along with her sister, Delilah, set out to solve the murder before Aunt Lela is convicted on circumstantial evidence. It doesn't help Quinn and Delilah when their parents, schoolmates of the victim, won't cooperate.

Tucker is torn between wanting to see his aunt exonerated and being sure that Quinn and Delilah stay safe.

Fun little mystery and the characters are developing nicely.

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This was a fun read.  Quinn and her boyfriend are helping his eccentric aunt with some landscaping in her Savannah backyard and dig up a skeleton.  That, obviously, leads to many questions.  Is it the remains of a high school neighbor who went missing over three decades ago on her graduation night?  Is Aunt Lela responsible?

Quinn and Tucker start asking these and many other questions and shake trees that people don't wake shaken.  

This was a fun read and the outcome is not so obvious.  It held my attention the entire book.

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Quinn and Delilah Bellandini help run Papa
Sal’s (their grandfather) Bed & Breakfast
in Savannah, Georgia. Besides helping
with the B&B, Quinn has an all girl band
named Sister Wildfire while Delilah performs
in the community theater productions.
Tucker Hayward is Quinn’s boyfriend. Tucker
is a contractor by trade and as a Christmas
gift for his Aunt Lela, he and Quinn are making
a patio with an in-ground fire pit.
While digging Quinn uncovered a human skull
buried in Aunt Lela’s yard. And so the adventure
begins.......the two Detectives on the case, Rufus
King and Steve Flynn determine foul play then
arresting Aunt Lela for murder.
The body turns out to be that of a young girl who
went missing on the night of her graduation thirty
years ago.
Tucker hire a lawyer to defend his aunt while
Quinn and Delilah start their own investigation.
A thrilling mystery filled with secrets, lies,
multifaceted and quirky characters with very
interesting backstories, class conflicts, bullying
add drama, tension and intrigue for an gripping
read. There is even a ghost in the B&B that gives
clues.
This is book # 2 in the Southern B&B Mysteries
series. It can be read as a stand alone.
I volunteered to read Southern Harm. Thanks to
Alibi via NetGalley for the opportunity. My opinion
is voluntary and my own.

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Quinn Bellandini and her sister, Delilah, run their grandfather’s bed and breakfast place in Savannah, Ga. But lately, they seem to be tied up in a murder investigation. Quinn had sworn off solving murders after a recent one at a local restaurant, but when she and her new boyfriend, Tucker Heyward, discover an old skeleton in his aunt’s backyard while doing some landscape work, Aunt Lela becomes the prime suspect.
It seems that the dead woman was a former neighbor, and she and Lela never saw eye-to-eye. No way is Quinn going to let Tucker’s aunt go to jail, especially if she didn’t kill the woman.
As it turns out, many people didn’t get along with the deceased, so Quinn, Tucker and Delilah go to work to questioning everyone they suspect.
A nice cozy mystery series

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This is a fun addition to the Southern B&B Mystery. I enjoy the Belladini sisters and think they make a great pair of amateur sleuths. They help their Papa Sal run the family B&B, but Delilah comes alive when they are investigating. In this story, Quinn is now dating Tucker, the boy who grew up across the street from the Belladini's and has recently returned to Savannah. Working together to build a firepit in his Aunt Lela's backyard, Tucker finds a locket. While taking it in to show his aunt, Quinn discovers a skeleton. Lela quickly figures out who it is, as there is a picture of her teenaged neighbour in the locket, a neighbour that disappeared 33 years earlier. Of course, Aunt Lela had had problems with this young girl and is immediately suspected and arrested for her murder. Enter the Belladini sisters and their amateur investigating to get to the bottom of the situation and get the police to set Aunt Lela free.

I love theses stories where the victim is such a mean person, that there are a plethora a possible suspects. As the girls and Tucker begin to nose around, there are some complaints that lead to the police threatening Quinn with a harassment charge. She does not give up, especially when a couple more arrests of people she knows and cares about occur. You have to admire the tenaciousness of these two, they seem to know just who to talk to and what to ask. As they get closer to the truth, more strange things start to happen, there are accusations from other citizens, another death and cryptic messages from the ghost of Uncle Frank. A fun, well written cozy mystery that I enjoyed.

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I read and enjoyed all the Java Jive books and am glad Caroline Fardig is starting a new series. I love to stay at B&Bs so this book really grabbed my interest. All the characters are well developed. They are so varied you're never sure what is going to happen next. The plot keeps you guessing until the very end. It was a delightful book that I would recommend to anyone who likes a good cozy mystery. I received this arc from NetGalley for an honest review.

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A cute little cozy mystery. It is fairly straightforward, yet the ending is still surprising! It is the second in a series of books, featuring the Belladini sisters. The sisters are like an adult version of Nancy Drew. They solve a local mystery, even though they are merely B&B owners. I love that there is intrigue, without there being an excessive or unrealistic amount of sex or action/fight scenes. I also like that this book is fine as a stand alone. Even though there was clearly a previous book, I did not feel that I missed anything in reading this one first. Overall, I think this is a good mystery for anyone who doesn't want to deal with too much sex, blood, or gore.

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Sisters Quinn and Delilah Bellandini are happy to be back to normal and running the family B&B after solving a murder in a local restaurant in Savannah (Southern Discomfort). At least Quinn is happy, having nearly lost her life in the investigation. Delilah, on the other hand, misses the excitement and longs for more. There is plenty of excitement to come when Quinn and her new boyfriend, Tucker Heyward, are digging in his Aunt Lela's yard to build a firepit and discover a long-buried body. When the body turns out to be Esther Sinclair, who supposedly left town for good after her high school graduation, Aunt Lela is in big trouble. She and Esther had quite a history that hasn't been forgotten in the intervening thirty-three years. In fact, Esther had more secrets than any 18-year-old girl should have, along with the members of her high school clique, the "Magnolias." Tucker, who is very close to his Aunt, changes his tune against Quinn's sleuthing and even participates. When the sisters' aging hippie mom and absentee father get dragged in as suspects, the chase is on to find out just who, of the many who might have wanted to kill Esther actually did.

I found the byplay between the two very different sisters particularly amusing. Two more different sisters could not be imagined, but those differences complement each other. I was very much "in the dark" as to who exactly could have killed Esther, and why. Southern Harm is an entertaining and enjoyable read. Thanks to NetGalley and Alibi for an advance copy. The opinions are my own.

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Another great read by Caroline Fardig. I started with her Java Jive series and loved the characters and how they grew and intertwined within each novel. I admittedly have not read the first in this series, but I do not think it has held me back from enjoying Caroline’s writing style, characters development or the great little plot twists right up to the very end.

Overall an easy read, which I love!

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Southern Harm by Caroline Fardig was the first book I read. I was able to get this book as an ARC copy, but it was already published. I picked it because I had read other books by Caroline Fardig before and enjoyed them. (She wrote the Java Jive series) I also have a soft spot for books that take place in the South. There usually is an entirely different set of rules for those Southern ladies. Generally, they are portrayed as very polite and a bit nutty. This book did have its share of characters. The main plot revolves around the body that Tucker and Quinn find when they are digging a new firepit for Tucker’s Aunt Lela. The body turns out to be Esther Sinclair, who was Aunt Lela’s neighbor. She was thought to have run off years before to escape her rather religious parents. Aunt Lela is a bit outspoken and has a penchant for drinking. While Tucker’s “proper” relatives don’t want anything to do with Lela, Tucker has a soft spot for her. Quinn doesn’t want Tucker (her new love interest) upset about his Aunt nor does she think that Aunt Lela killed the girl. (Even though Lela had set the girl’s car on fire years before…) So Quin and her sister Delilah set out to discover who killed Esther Sinclair.

This book was the second in the Southern B&B Mystery series. I did not read the first in the series and while it was referred to in the book, it did not put me at a disadvantage. The book was okay. It was certainly not a “WOW, you need to read this book!” but it was fine to take my mind off the plane ride.

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Southern Harm by Caroline Fardig is the second book in the Southern B&B Mystery series. I enjoyed this book - even a little more than the first one in the series. I love Caroline Fardig but the first book threw me off because 90% in she adds in a supernatural twist. Now that I've gotten over the shock of that I am back to being committed to this series. Supernatural was not so much a part of this book as it was two characters in the book believing they are getting advice from a dead relative - that I can get on board with. Anyways, this book is about a body, long buried, being discovered many years later. It is interesting to see a murder investigation unfold on a 30 year old murder vs. a current murder. I enjoyed seeing a different take on the usual cozy mystery. I also liked this story because you learn a lot about Quinn and Delilah's family life and start to understand the characters more. While the mystery was not a super hard one to figure out, I still enjoyed it very much.

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Quinn's boyfriend Tucker, while digging in his Aunt Lila's yard to make improvements discovers a body. Lila is accused and imprisoned for the murder. Quinn, her sister and Tucker set about to clear Lila's name. An enjoyable read with great characters who become ready suspects. This had me guessing right to the very end.

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The first half of this book was a bit too slow and chatty for my taste. The mystery is about a death that happened thirty years before the book opens. Because the characters have a lot of catching up to do, they spend a lot of time catching up instead of getting things done. When enough suspects finally get lined up things start happening and the second half of the book feels more like the kind of book I like to read. The mystery does come together and is played very fairly and makes for a satisfying ending. Readers looking for a talkative mystery of Southern manners and murder should enjoy this book.

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I loved this latest addition to the series! I was excited to get back to theses characters and they did not disappoint. I enjoyed all of the quirky characters that were introduced in this book and I like seeing Tucker and Quinn's relationship grow. The mystery was well done and kept me guessing until the end. If you are a cozy mystery fan then I definitely recommend picking this up.

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Princess Fuzzypants here: Sometimes digging up a garden for landscaping can dig up a whole lot more. It can dig up long buried bodies and long buried secrets. Delilah and Tucker learn this the hard way as the uncover the corpse of the popular girl who went missing after the HIgh School Prom when her parents and his aunt were young.
Along with the corpse there was jealousy, anger, betrayal and deceit that first leads to Tucker’s aunt and then to Delilah’s parents. Her parents are nothing if not unorthodox but does that mean either one of them is capable of murder. If not, who is trying to frame these three for the long ago murder.
It’s an interesting story of high school cliques and romances that lead to murder. There is a lot of dirty laundry aired before the final reveal but hopefully the killer will be found before the body count increases. Four purrs and two paws up.

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Quinn Bellandini is settling in and running her Bed &Breakfast with her grandfather and sister in Savannah, Georgia. She has a new boyfriend, Tucker, and all is going well, until she does some landscaping and digs up an old skeleton. She learns that the skeleton belongs to a young woman who went missing thirty years ago.

When Tucker’s aunt Lela is arrested for the old murder case, he’s more than a little upset and asks Quinn to help him clear his aunt’s name. With the help of her sister, Delilah, the three of them begin their own investigation.

Quinn and her crew learn that the dead woman had many enemies and a few that hit a bit too close to home for their comfort. They vow to find the truth no matter where it leads them.

This is the second book in the series and I loved this one even more than the first. I don’t think it hurts to read this one without reading the first one, but it’s so much more enjoyable to read the series from the start. I felt like I was visiting old friends.

The characters are really coming alive with each book and the relationships are blossoming. The story moved at a fast-pace. The author kept me guessing until I was close to the end of the book. I kept changing my mind as to who the killer was. Keeping the reader guessing is always a good thing and the author hit all the right buttons for me. I’m looking forward to the third book in this fun series.

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