Captain Ava Capp is a pilot with a man in (not quite) every port and a tragic backstory. When her past (and a murderer) comes back to haunt her, she'll have help from an ME called Dr Tom Baker (lol!). Ava's days of casual sex might be over - and possibly her life as well.

This cosy mystery/chick lit/spoof (I laughed at loud at some points, so if it's not a spoof then I consider it time well spent anyway!) was so unexpectedly fun and I had a blast reading it. Davidson combined many aspects that I enjoy about these sorts of books and blended it with humour and weirdness. Probably not a style I'd read often, but it sure put a smile on my face.

Light reading but a bit too flippant for me. I couldn’t get into the characters and decided not to finish the book.

What a charming read! Delightful beach reading. I really enjoyed the banter. Mary Janice Davidson does not disappoint.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Truth, Lies , and Second Dates by MaryJanice Davidson

Ava Capp is a Sexpot and makes no excuses for her lifestyle. She enjoys being single and having control of the aircraft because she had no control of the situation she left behind in Minnesota the state she hates! Her best-friend Danielle was savagely murdered and she questions her role in the death!

Tom the hunky guy from Morgue is he their to scratch her itch or help dissect her & put her life back to together?
The author does a exceptional job at drawing you the reader into the web of her own lists and the character! There are a lot of humorous twists and spicy twists that keep the plot flowing right into the climax! Get it? 😂 I hope you enjoy the book because at first I was not interested, but I kept going and then it just started happening and Ava and G.B. were a great team to follow and then the quips between Ava and Tom were hilarious! So, yes, the book is worth a read!

Thank you to the author and publishers who work hard producing books for us the readers!

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and I am willingly giving my thoughts and opinions.

Davidson is a witty and sharp writer who delights in subverting typical romantic genres while simultaneously embracing them. Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is no exception to this rule.

Ava Capp has taken to the skies after the murder of her best friend. Dr. Tom Baker is set on solving said murder, and equally as set on wooing Captain Capp.

There are enjoyable turns throughout the book, but all fairly predictable - which I believe was an intentional homage to the genre. Fantastic read for those who want to poke fun at romance/murder mystery novels, but not recommended for those who use the genre to lose themselves for a few hours.

I love her books always and forever, but this one was not her best ever. (In some ways. In others, it was amazing, for example I haven't ever read a book with a demisexual male lead before so wow.)

Hopefully this one gets another editing pass before print because this one has a serious math/logic problem going on--the main character is 27? because her best friend was murdered when she was 17 and that was 10 years before. And that means she's been flying since she was 21, which is believable, but Tom, the love interest, is 5 years younger than her which means he's 22, and he's a doctor and medical examiner, and has been at this job for several years which while not impossible is unlikely/exceptionally noteworthy--he would have had to be graduating medical school by 20? And college in his mid-teens, which certainly would have been mentioned, given that Hannah's a prodigy. To me it feels very much like originally the book was set with this being 15-20 years after the death and then for some reason the timing was cut down to a decade without thinking about how that changed people's careers? And I just got to the point where Becka's age is discussed as 'early 20s' which is '8 or 9 years younger' than Ava, so yes, there's some serious math issues going on.

Still, that's not the point. It was good and funny, and while I would have liked it more if my brain hadn't been stuck on the ages so much, it was a light comforting read and makes me want to read more of her. (Like always)

As always I enjoyed the book This one was a nice surprise. I thought it was beautifully written. The attention to detail, was great. The twists and turns this story took were unexpected and kept me on the edge of my seat. I never expected the outcome!

This was a great book to veg out to! I found myself waiting to leave work so I could rush home and read more of MaryJanice Davidson’s writing! I loved reading about self-aware characters and Ava fit that description perfectly. I especially loved how natural the dialogue flowed in this book. I will be recommending!

This book is full of tropes and some are fun and some are exapserating cause that's the way the trope cookie crumbles. I feel like as much as I loved this fun filled rom-com with all my favorite parts of stories together it felt too full at times. Maybe all our tropes aren't meant to go together all in one story. Overall, I enjoyed and was irritated by the plot of Captain Capp's life in equal measure.

I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about it, I think that may have been a mistake. I didnt connect to the characters and the pacing was a little slow for me. But I'm still glad i got the chance to read it!

This was a fun little short read, it was a little slow paced in some parts and that really made the book drag for me. But overall It was not a bad book. Thank you Netgalley and publisher

I really enjoyed the humour in this book, making what could have been a very serious and dramatic plot into a lighter and more fun read. Don’t get me wrong the plot was also great, but the little snarky comments ere great, and the nots at the end of each chapter were both insightful and funny too. Makes me want to read more from the author and also the story!

I received an ARC of this novel from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I should start by saying that I really wanted to love this. A badass female pilot and a quietly ripped ME on the spectrum has the makings of a perfect romance. And, I think this book is very close to being there? I know ARCs aren't necessarily finished copies, but this felt like an early draft of a really fun novel rather than a close to publication copy.

Through a series of unfortunate events Ava Capp ends up trapped in her hometown just in time to attend the memorial service for her best friend who was murdered ten years prior. Then the killer comes back. It's an okay plot on paper, but the mystery isn't really executed well. There is next to no foreshadowing when it comes to the ending and the pacing is all over the place.

I really liked the characters and the banter, but the plot cut into my enjoyment of that.

Life lesson learned - this just isn't my style of book. I went into it excited by the premise, but the writing style just doesn't work for me. I know that this will work for lots of readers. I just wasn't one of them.

Ava Capp may or may not be a little messed up. Ten years ago, her best friend Danielle was brutally murdered. Traumatized, Ava took to the skies...literally. Now a pilot, Captain Capp avoids anything resembling emotion beyond some lighthearted flirting and easy friendships. Caught by an old crush, she has no excuse to avoid attending Danielle’s ten year memorial. Something happened and the next day—nine hours before she needs to report to pre-flight—Ava is stuck getting interrogated and has to relive the exact event that she’s been trying to forget all these years.

On the other side of the interrogation is Dr. Tom Baker who, coincidentally, also happened to make out with Ava last night. He’s straightforward and honest (almost to a fault). He’s set his mind on solving the murder and bringing the perpetrator to justice. He’s hoping to do this with the help of a particular pilot who he finds attractive (even if she could be a suspect).

This wasn’t my favorite book. There was nothing necessarily “wrong” with it, but the storyline—although a murder mystery with romance—did not really capture my attention. A third of the way through I decided to continue because I had already gotten that far. I don’t think I would recommend this book, but if you need another checklist to read, this will do the trick.

Thank you so much to netgalley for sending me a copy of this book. I was really looking toward to it but I ended up not enjoying it. You might like it.

I probably should preface this review with the fact that I usually hate mysteries. It is one of my absolute least favorite genres right of there with men’s fiction. Instead of being turned off by this book, which is defiantly more mystery than traditional romance, I was thoroughly delighted.

The writing was a hoot and a half. Seriously, it’s funny (half the notes I saved are just “lol”. The constant third person writing style did take a bit to get used to but once I caught the rhythm I didn’t mind it. I loved the foot notes at the end of each chapter though I did find that I missed a lot of the ones featuring the * and would have to go back and find them. The chapters were short which made me feel like I was making progress and fit into my read for 5-10 minutes before falling asleep lifestyle.

Since the book isn’t coming out for 6 more months I don’t want to give too much away but I will give some of my favorite quotes with no context (quotes subject to change between the version I read and publication):

“Blake was awake and was doing that thing where he ran a finger up and down her spine like an erotic chiropractor.”

“That’s the building where the accountant was strangled with his ex-wife’s bra.”

“You napped in one of the (morgue) draws again, didn’t you, Doc?”

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a lot of fun reading this! I don’t think i ever read a book with characters that are so funny! It was part romance, part murder mystery book! Such a fun book

Unfortunately, this book was just not for me! On paper it should have been - it was snarky and sarcastic, played with tropes and had a strong and smart female lead.⁠

A sassy pilot who can't deal with her emotions and keeps a man in several ports, returns home, and ends up going to the celebration of life for her best friend who died 10 years before. She ends up getting involved with the medical examiner who is investigation the unsolved murder.⁠

I had a hard time following the story and it jumped all over the place. Although I appreciated the diversity of having the male lead being on the spectrum, the book was just awkward with half of the things they did simply not making sense and I couldn't get into it.⁠
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I'm sure there are others who will enjoy this book, but the writing simply wasn't for me.⁠

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the advanced copy that I received in exchange for an honest review.⁠

Great flip on the story, having the main character be someone Tarbell adjacent. Loved Ava and Tom,this will be a great " brain break" romcom mystery. I hadn't planned on the mystery part, it was a nice surprise. I'll be able to hand sell to both romance and mystery readers and I'm looking forward to it.