Your average rom-com. It was a good read, but did not fully captivate my interest as I saw myself being distracted by other things quite easily while reading. When reading the premise, I loved how the author emphasized that she liked putting spins on tropes, which is something quite up my alley. I'll definitely be on the lookout for her future books.

This one really surprised me! I went in expecting this to be your everyday rom com, but I was wrong. This is romance, comedy, mystery, and suspense all wrapped in one. We learn the story of Ava and her best friend Danielle. Danielle was murdered 10 years ago and Ava got addicted to Ambien. Ava turned her life around and became a pilot, but Danielle’s murder was never solved. It’s time for something to be done about that. So, we follow Ava and her fellow sleuths through this mystery. We learn everybody’s past and secrets while continuing to see humor and romance throughout. It’s a very interesting mix, and though I did find some parts a little cheesy and not beneficial to the storyline, I overall enjoyed the story. 3/5⭐️

Captain Ava Capp left her home town in Minnesota 10 years ago and has never looked back. With the death of her parents in a car accident shortly after the murder of her high school best friend, Ava planned to leave it forever. Unfortunately, her best friend’s twin brother is on her flight on the exact weekend of the 10 year anniversary of Danielle’s murder, and convinceds her to go to the memorial. Ava attends, but so does the killer, and soon she is searching for his identity with the help of the local coroner, Tom Baker. Can they find him/her in time before Ava becomes a victim? Or before she falls for the hunky, on the spectrum coroner?

This book brought me pure joy! It was fantastically blunt and real, yet still incredibly hilarious the entire time. Ava and Tom’s chemistry is undeniable and perfect. I highly recommend this book to all readers, but especially to those who love the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich!

"If this was a book, I'd be thinking about how empty and aimless my life as a single woman is and how I need to make a change, if this was a book."

So begins this refreshing ode to all the tropes we love in our romantic comedies and our murder mysteries. Truth, Lies and Second Dates by Mary Janice Davidson is the perfect pallet cleanser if you have been overwhelmed reading some overwhelming dramatic fare.

First our heroine, Captain Ava Capp, is an airline pilot which was was such a nice equal opportunity career choice from the many interior designers or bakers found in cozy mysteries (no disrespect to these careers. I can neither design or bake. Just there is an abundance of them solving murders lol).

Second she has had serious tragedy in her life from at 17 having her best friend murdered to a stint in rehab for drug abuse. Now she is reluctantly returning home for the 10 year memorial for her friend. She is shocked to learn she is now a suspect.

Third she starts to develop an unlikely romance with Tom the younger medical examiner. 

Though the crime is serious the banter and observations throughout are reminiscent of TV greats like Moonlighting, Bones and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I solved the crime and never understood why Ava was every a suspect but I laughed most of the way and truly enjoyed the author's wink to her readers that this was all in fun.

i received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I have known about this author for quite awhile now, but for some reason I have never read her books.  I decided to rectify that and am glad I did so.  This was such an enjoyable story once I understood the author’s voice.  This book is smart, snarky, and most of the time just plain funny.  I love how the author includes the reader into the concept  as if we are all in the plot.  The characters were so different from most romantic comedies but that was the trope that made this so entertaining. If all her books have the same wit with mystery and romance, it will not be the only book I read of this authors now that I know what i have been missing.

A wonderful read the author never feels.Full of laughter romance great characters highly recommend this and all her novels.#netgalley #st.martins books,

I have to admit that when I started this book I wasn’t sure about it but once I realized how Captain Ava Capp thought and talked, I got into the story. The humor throughout the book brought smiles to my face many times. Her best friend was brutally murdered when they were teenagers. For that reason, she hated when her flights went to Minnesota. Her flight crew thought a lot of her and had her back. So ten years after the murder and she found herself back in Minnesota, things didn’t go as planned. There is where she met Dr. Tom Baker, ME. Even though he was young when the murder took place, he never forgot what is now a cold case. Even though he is attracted to her, he kept his distance as he wasn’t sure if she killed her friend or not. When he dug into the reports and got to know her better, he figured out there was a strong possibility the murderer killed the wrong person and was still after Ava. That is when he went into protective mode. The question is who it is, and why.

I wish I could say I loved this book, but I actually couldn't finish it. The beginning of the book had me feeling like I had been dropped into the middle of a story and I was missing something important that came before chapter one. The cover and the blurb had me wanting to love this book. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I will not be reviewing this book on retail sites at the moment. If I'm able to finish it at some point, I will do so. I will try again after the holidays, but I was not feeling this story at all right now. And I always hate when that happens.

Truth, Lies and Second Dates is the most tropetastic thing I have ever read. And it’s by design! The author, MaryJanice Davidson, made a list of SIXTY tropes and weaved them into the story. (It was great fun going through the list afterwards.)

This whole book was just fun in general and I loved that it didn’t take itself seriously. The author flirted with breaking the fourth wall through the use of entertaining and quite informative footnotes and I felt that the set up worked quite well. 

But what is this book about, you ask? 

The heroine, a heroic commercial pilot, rather inexplicably becomes suspected of murdering her best friend when she goes home for the 10-year memorial. The hero starts investigating the case and also falling for our dear irreverent captain. He starts trying to clear her name and becomes more and more convinced that she’s a target for the killer as the heroine starts experiencing a number of threatening (but rather hilarious) mishaps. 

I honestly could not pinpoint WHY she became a suspect in the first place and there were other inconsistencies in the story that irked me a little. An example of an inconsistency is the hero is a doctor/coroner and several years younger than the heroine who is 27. HOW? Unless he’s some sort of medical prodigy /Doogie Howser, the math doesn’t line up. I was ultimately able to put that aside to enjoy the story, but ymmv. 

The best part of the book was the largish cast of quirky characters and the fast paced ping-ponging dialogue that was just full of snark and witticisms. The tone reminded me of the fast-talking scattergun cadence used in the Gilmore Girls and I think it worked quite well here as the reader puzzles through the subtext of dialogue. 

The romance between the MCs was sweet and slow-burny but the main focus of the book was definitely the mystery. However the romance reader in me was largely still quite content. 

All in all, a light frothy read despite murders, plane crashes, and addictions.

What a ride!  Loved this sassy, snarky, turn around romance. The humor abounds, in spite of the stalking, evil murderer, who throws in wrenches and anything else possible to muck up our heroine’s life. Awesome fun, laugh out loud fun, with a side of steam. Don’t miss this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. 

🌟🌟🌟💫 3.5/5 stars 

Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is a mash-up of a romcom and a suspense thriller with a slightly deceiving cover. I went into the book (despite reading the synopsis) expecting a romcom and, while it does have the banter of a romcom, it also throws in a cold case murder that adds more suspense and weight to the story. 

Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is about Captain Ava Capp, a pilot who is back in the hometown she never wanted to return to. M.E. Dr. Tom Baker remembers Ava, as well as the cold case that caused her to leave town. Of course sparks fly and Ava is finally forced to confront her past. 

While I love the interesting mashup of genres and how this is not a typical romcom or a typical romantic suspense, the genres never fully gelled for me. The book never quite decided what it wanted to be and instead was an odd mixture that at times worked and at other times did not. However, I had fun reading it and it was an entertaining read with plenty of laugh out loud moments. I do think that readers who want a new spin on a romantic suspense novel would enjoy this one. 

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Although a romantic crime drama, I found this book difficult to get into.  I started reading it three times before I was finally able to get to the meat of the story.  Even then, despite the humour and really good plot, I found it difficult to follow the storyline, which was continually interrupted by the characters' inner dialogue. The characters for the most part are interesting and complicated and I did not see the end coming.  I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I was not so distracted by the inner chatter. I received a copy of this novel as a gift through NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.

Captain Ava Capp has been running away from life for a long time. She has created her own family in the airline industry. It is time to go home for a memorial that is 10 years in the making. The way she gets through things is with a sarcastic sense of humor. Only this memorial has not gone as planned. Tom Baker is a forensic county coroner. The crazier the death, the more he is intrigued. When the two of them meet, they discombobulate each other. One thing is clear, someone is trying to kill Ava just like Danielle. It is going to take them both to solve this mystery and get their HEA.

This book made me giggle with all of the tropes and kept me enthralled with the mystery of who killed Danielle ten years ago and why was it resurfacing?

I had read a previous book in this "series" that was ok, not horrible but not great. So I was a little hesitant to read this book but am glad since I was pleasantly surprised. I loved Hannah, the precocious niece of Dr. Tom Baker, the ME for the town in Minnesota. She is just a little too smart for her own good, but she helps keep Tom grounded...most of the time. I loved the nerdy talk from Tom and Hannah and even Ava.

The tropes are what kept me in stitches - yes everything was expected when it came to the characters, but it all worked in my mind. G.B. and India are two hoots on top of everything else.

The romance between Ava and Tom took time to grow but when they finally came together, sparks galore.  They had some missteps but it worked well into the storyline.  It was interesting that they were both interested in the macabre of Minnesota.

"Who knew the capital of Minnesota was such a hotbed of exotic/weird murders?"

There are remnants of the previous book at the beginning and the end involving Blake from the 2nd book. I like how it was tied together to create a flow from one story to the next even though they were not intertwined.

We give this book 4 1/2 paws up.

I did not realize this was a third novel in a series.  I prefer to read series in order just in case there is character growth or secondary characters appear in another book.  I tried to get the first two books in the series but didn't have luck at the library so I am not going to read this one.  Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this one.

I will leave a review on Amazon or B&N on Dec 15, 2020

Overall I found Truth, Lies, and Second Dates to be a pretty easy read, at times it was funny at times it had a serious side to it. I enjoyed the Ava character, but found Tom to be a little to ditzy for my liking. This was my first book by this author, and I will try more of her books. I would recommend this book to others.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and was under no obligation to leave a favorable review, all opinions expressed here are my own

Finding a Killer 3.5*
Took me awhile to get into this book, and by that I mean over a third of the way through, but then I started to enjoy it. Rather than the romance or the mystery, it was the insights into being a pilot and the banter between Captain and flight crew (particularly GB) that I found the most interesting bits of this story. I would consider reading something by this author again.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is my 1st Davidson book! I was excited to dive in, and I didn't really look into the book much before starting.

The cover and title made me think this would be fluffy. There are certainly light, fun times, but there was a darker side as well that was unexpected (but not unwelcome). Ava has a tragic past that is haunting, but her current life is vibrant, funny, and full! I really loved the side characters in the story; it reminded me a bit of the side characters in a Stephanie Plum book-zany! After many years away, Ava returns to her hometown and the source of her painful past. It is there she connects with the ME, Dr. Tom Baker. Together with Tom, she begins to solve the mystery of what happened years ago, find love, and learn to forgive herself.

Personally, the romance is light. Its not bad or anything, but as a hard core romance reader, I categorize this more women's fiction with a romance than straight up romance. The driving force of the story is in Ava's growth as a character-accepting her past, coming to terms with it, putting it behind her, etc. Ava and Tom are great, but their romance isn't the focal point.

Fans of Kristen Higgins, Janet Evanovich, and Christina Lauren will enjoy this comedy of errors and find it a delightful way to pass a weekend in front of the fire!

To be really honest, I'm a little confused with this one. There were many times when I didn't know where the characters were or how they ended up in a certain place and why they ended up in a certain place. It was a weird but witty murder mystery, and I didn't really get why the mother of the deceased, Danielle, was now, after ten years, accusing Ava of having committed the murder of Danielle. The dialogue was funny at times, and I actually did like Ava and Tom, most of the time, but my favorite character in this story was Tom's niece, Hannah, a precocious and funny child. I loved her. I don't know, I didn't dislike this book, I think perhaps this writing style just didn't jibe with me.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy.

Calificación: 2.5

Hace 8 meses leí la segunda parte en la serie Danger sin saber siquiera que era parte de una saga. La historia se me hizo bastante exagerada pero interesante. Y ahora que leo la tercera parte me entero que la autora buscaba precisamente eso, extrapolar esos clichés que encontramos en la literatura. Y qué bueno que leí eso al inicio de este libro porque sino hubiera puesto los ojos en blanco cada dos páginas. 

Ava Capp es una piloto con un oscuro pasado y Tom Baker es un médico forense que quiere resolver un viejo asesinato. Hay tantos libros con esta temática donde gente que no debería, está investigando algo y eso siempre se me ha hecho raro pero uno termina aceptándolo como parte necesaria de la historia y su progreso. En este libro la protagonista por lo menos le pregunta al forense si es algo normal que personas civiles hagan este tipo de cosas pero al final son ellos los que tienen que descubrir al asesino.  

Desafortunadamente no me gustó tanto la historia. los protagonistas no lograron engancharme y la historia fue demasiado exagerada para mi gusto. Siento que si no hubiera sabido de antemano que esto era lo que la autora quería en la historia me hubiera gustado aun menos.