Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is a must read for any romance reader! It's fun, charming, and sexy. The characters feel real and as the reader, I wanted them to win.

3.5/5

I listened to this as an audiobook and I think I actually enjoyed it a lot more than if I'd read it as a physical or digital copy. The narrator did a great job and the writing style was very much like a friend was talking to you, which made for the perfect road trip companion for the last few hours of my trip.

This was a fun, wacky ride from start to finish. It wasn't super memorable, and it's not a style I'd want to read too often because it's a little bit too silly and ridiculous for me, but for an occasional easy read it was a great palate cleanser. I never knew what to expect and it was very entertaining.

This was my first book by MaryJanice Davidson and I wasn't disappointed. I'll definitely keep her in mind the next time I'm on a long road trip alone and need something to keep myself awake!

This was my first time reading this author. I was so excited to dive into this, it felt like it’d be a really good match for me. So I picked it up when I suddenly was in the mood for a romcom and hoped for the best.

I couldn’t really connect with the characters and their behaviour oftentimes. They felt a bit childish to me? And while the author was trying to keep things light and funny, it didn’t really fit the story most of the times, it wasn’t really coming to fruition in the right way I think?

I always find it difficult to review a book that I have more ‘negatives’ to say about than ‘positives’. I always try to point out the positives as well of course, but for me the positives were far an in between. There were moments I really enjoyed, the writing was sometimes really good but overall it was messy to me in a lot of story elements and the writing.

Thanks for the published for gifting me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. As always, I recommend to still pick up this book when it looks fun to you. Reading is such a personal experience and what I might not like, someone else does and vice versa. So I always advice people to really find out for themselves if they like something, if they’re interested in a book.

It was surprising good as the romance, murder mystery you couldn't tell from the title. Plenty of funny inner voice antics from the main character, Ava. Her best friend was murdered 10 years ago, her parents killed in an auto accident, now a pilot who pulls off a belly landing as the pilot went into cardiac arrest while she was a passenger helping the co-pilot who has worked for 3 months. Really good. I will look for other books from this author.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my copy of Truth, Lies, and Second Dates by MaryJanice Davidson in exchange for an honest review. It published December 15, 2020.
I think this book requires reading the previous books before this installment. I did not like the subject matter or the main character, and I was unable to develop much empathy for her. I did not enjoy the coarse language.

This was a fun book! Captain Ava finds herself back home for the first time after many years. There’s an unsolved mystery. There’s a new romance. I enjoyed the amusing conversations throughout the story.

This book was fine. I enjoyed the pilot behind the scenes and the Minnesota setting, but it felt really slow and the writing style was not my favorite. I also didn’t realize this was part of a series… whoops!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy of this book.

I thought this book was really cute! I really loved the humorous romantic mystery storyline. Davidson made sure to poke fun at romantic and mystery tropes, which I absolutely loved and thought clever. Overall, a cute read!!

*Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Review not posted to Amazon because less than 4 stars.*

Hello

Apologies for the late notice, but I have decided not to review this title. While I am certain it's obvious by now, I wanted to also clear this off NetGalley, so it's not showing as open for either of us.

Thanks,
Laura

My favorite thing about this quirky romantic mystery was the way it turned so many of the romance tropes upside down. Ava is the pilot, with a spunky and funny flight attendant sidekick G.B., my favorite guy in the book.

I felt that this book couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be when it grew up (mystery, thriller, romance, comedy). In many cases those elements can be blended well, but they fell flat in this attempt.

This was such as fast fun read that constantly kept me guessing. Every time I thought I had figured out who the true killer was I was very very wrong. I also have to commend the author in her ability to add the perfect amount of humor to keep the storyline from getting too dark. This book was the perfect combination of humor, romance, and mystery; this added to the amazingly written characters made this a book I just could not put down. I highly recommend it to all readers.

Truth, Lies and Second Dates
Danger, Book 3

I Picked Up This Book Because: #NetgalleyNovember.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: Scribd
Dates Read: 11/18/2022 - 11/19/2022
Stars: 3 Stars
Narrator(s): Morgan Hallett

The Characters:

Ava Capp:
Tom Baker:
A bunch of people

The Story:

Writing: It was okay. Well I should say the writing was good, the story was okay.
Forward Motion: It did move along at a good clip.
Overall Interest: I won’t lie, I was a bit in and out. I would say I was in for about 88%.
Length of Reading Time: Good.
Re-read-ability: No.

The Random Thoughts:

To be clear I have a netgalley copy but I’m doing much better with audiobooks these days so I listened to this via audiobook on Scribd.

I loved the idea of the female pilot. An how the other includes so many different tropes into her story. The ending was good and I never saw it coming. It’s just that the book wasn’t that emotionally grabbing for me compared to others I have read recently.

This was a fun book with a suspense added in. Captain Ava Capp, AKA Captain Belly Flopper (read the book for the story, it is told more than once) loves to fly and she is an extraordinary pilot. She will do anything, and I mean anything to stay away from her home state of Minnesota. However, it is the 10-year anniversary of her BFFs death and they are having a memorial for her and she is tricked into going. Now is is back in Minnesota and Dr. Tom Baker (ME who has not met a cold case or any death he doesn't want to talk about) seeks her out. These two have off the charts chemistry but when Ava is poisoned, her lotion is dosed, and her drug screen is tampered with, all at the same time, it is evident something hinky is going on. Add in a genius Hannah (I adored her) and her grandfather (the one who holds it all together) and this team is solid. Was it a comedy or a suspense or a bit of both? Yeah, it was just plain fun.

I met this author many years ago when she travelled to Australia. Her sense of humour shows in this story, slightly whacky and very entertaining.
Great chemistry between the main characters despite their awkwardness they came alive in the story.
An entertaining read, I really enjoyed it.

This book has everything, humor, mystery, and a strong heroine who lost her way and is now a pilot. It's a recommended page turner.

Unfortunately this one was a DNF for me. I enjoyed the plot and I think it had a good storyline, but personally, I had a hard time getting past the use of language throughout the book. I feel like a lot of it was unnecessary and I had a hard time getting through it. I really tried, and made it about halfway through the book before setting it aside.

This was my first MaryJanice Davidson novel, and I’m not sure if it was just me or not. After reading through, I realized that I was just straight up confused.

The writing was very choppy and that made it very difficult to read. The characters also made it very hard to read. They were childish and their dialogue was just not my favorite. It was all over the place.

I hope that if I give this author another try that I would like it better!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for honest feedback!

The good:
This book caught me off guard. It was my first time reading anything by this author, and I had no expectations going in except the mainstay assumptions derived from the cover and publisher reputation. Right from the first chapter, I was captivated by the whip-smart narration and unique sense of self in the heroine. Her voice was interesting, fresh, and entertaining to me, and by the end of the book, I had laughed out loud over ten times -- which, for me, is about nine times more than most rom-coms that taut being "hilarious" or "laugh-out-loud funny". Even though the murder mystery was somewhat transparent to me, it didn't at all detract from the enjoyment factor of the story. I still enjoyed watching how everything played out, including the super cute love story, which also caught me off guard (I originally thought the love interest would be someone else). I so appreciated seeing how two people who are very socially awkward yet not totally inept fit together in a way that was surprisingly realistic. Overall, the writing was just plain fun, and the story was a ride I thoroughly enjoyed. Even though this was kind of a cozy mystery, I'd recommend it for fans of Sally Thorne and Rainbow Rowell; the narrative style and characterizations have a similar vibe.

The bad:
Let's do a Prudie™ breakdown, shall we? 10 is atomic bomb, 0 is none to speak of.
-> Language: 6/10
An overabundance of the F-bomb, lots of instances of "sh-t", and a number of smaller words.
-> Steaminess: 3/10
The racy scenes were scattered, smallish, and not super detailed (in fact, there may have just been the one actual scene and multiple references to previous events) -- definitely easy to skim or skip. But be aware, Prudies, the actual sex scene, though not very detailed, is explicitly clear nonetheless. There is also a casual reference to a vibrator.
-> Positive theme(s): 7/10
Found family, meaningful friendship, emotional healing, the intentional practice of personal growth, hard work ethic, complementarianism, honesty and trust, vulnerability and developing close connection, consideration of others, boldness, controlled risk-taking, teamwork, healthy work community, critical thinking as a daily practice.
-> Political correctness: 3/10
"Sex-positive" (promotes premarital relations and masturbation), periodic alcohol consumption coupled with the frank discussion of alcoholism and the need for rehab, frank discussion of drug use and rehab, a few brief comments regarding various darling social justice movements and progressive stances.
-> Violence: 4/10
Lots of talk of cadavers, odd and sometimes gruesome ways to die, the desecration of a cremated body, some physical beat-downs of attackers, several mentions of blood (one being in a murder victim).
Overall score for enjoyment/appreciation: 7/10 for 4 out of 5 stars.

I unknowingly read this out of order from the previous books in the series -- whoops! But it didn't make a lick of difference in my understanding of the characters or story, so it totally works as a standalone, in case you were wondering.