"Dairy Dairy Quite the Contrary" initially caught my attention with its intriguing setting on an Amish farm and the very cute dog on the cover, but unfortunately, my enthusiasm waned as I delved into the story. I found myself disengaged due to a lack of compelling characters and a storyline that failed to grip my interest. I thought the characters in this novel lacked personality (with the exception of the insufferable aunt). Also, the writing style of "Dairy Dairy Quite the Contrary" did not resonate with my personal preferences. Regrettably, my disengagement grew to the point where I made the decision to discontinue reading the book about one-third of the way through. It becomse apparent that cozy mysteries are not a genre that resonated with me.

"Dairy Dairy Quite the Contrary" may appeal to those seeking a cozy mystery in a different setting.

Thanks to Kensington Books and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange of my honest review.

Dollycas's Thoughts 

Sissy Yoder and her family left Yoder, Kansas several years ago but just when Sissy's life implodes she hears her aunt needs help with her café. She thinks is a great way to get out of Tulsa and restart her life far away from her ex cowboy boyfriend. Since she can do her newspaper advice column from anywhere she loads up her car and her Yorkshire terrier Duke and hits the road to Yoder.

Her Aunt Bethel was not really happy to see her but knows she can't do everything by herself with a broken leg, so she reluctantly accepts Sissy's help. Plus her daughter Lizzie's pregnancy hasn't been easy and has been put on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy and Sissy would be able to help her past the time.

It takes a couple of days to get settled but soon Sissy finds her place at the café. Then on a quick trip to the kitchen, she makes a terrible discovery. The milk deliveryman is dead on the floor with a knife in his back. When the sheriff arrives he doesn't take long to decide the newcomer, Sissy, is guilty of murder. He just needs to pull together the evidence. Sissy realizes to save herself she needs to find the killer and fast or her short visit to Yoder is going to lead to a long stay in prison.

______

Sissy is a fine main character who inserts herself quite well into the lives of her Amish relatives. She is open and friendly and ready to help in any way she can while working to clear her name. Her Aunt Bethel is a strong, independent woman who doesn't like having to depend on anyone for anything. Bethel's best friend, Lottie works at the cafe and convinces Bethel to accept Sissy's help. Bethel's daughter Lizzie is very happy to have Sissy around and she loves Sissy's dog Duke. Deputy Sheriff Earl Berry is a café regular and bain of Sissy's existence. He thinks she is guilty and he reminds her of that every day. All these characters and the others that we meet within the pages of Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary develop nicely over the course of the story. I found it very easy to become invested in their lives.

The murder takes place early in the book and there are several suspects, people that actually knew the victim, unlike Sissy. The deputy drove me crazy because he wasn't doing anything. The case was pretty straightforward. I had a theory about midway through the book and had two suspects in my sight. It took longer to choose the right one. I liked that Sissy realized that with her being new in town she needed help from another resident and they worked well together. I hope the author doesn't wrap them up in a full-fledged romance too quickly though.

I love that Sissy is the voice behind septuagenarian Aunt Bess and that very few people know it. Quotes from the columnist appear at the beginning of each chapter. Several times I thought Sissy should take some of Aunt Bess's advice herself but I enjoyed the way she didn't give up on finding the killer and helping her aunt and cousin. I also loved the unique place she found to live.

Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary has set this series off to a fine start. An interesting mystery and engaging characters made it a very enjoyable read. I am looking forward to returning to the Sunflower Café when A Murder of Aspic Proportions is released on June 27.

I received this book for free from netgalley for an honest review.

Really well thought-out book with amazing characters and excellent setting. Love the cover

Book wasn't meant for me . Hopefully someone will enjoy it more. I will look into renting it in the future

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dairy, Dairy Quite Contrary is a nice little cozy mystery where a woman named Sissy Yoder comes to the town of Yoder to help her aunt Bethel run her café. A murder promptly ensues and Sissy needs to find out who actually did it in order to clear her name. This was such a cute, charming cozy mystery! Well-crafted characters and a quick, fun read.

Sissy Yoder’s life has fallen apart in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has broken up with her boyfriend, moved out of her apartment, and her life seems to be up in the air. When her aunt breaks her leg and needs help in Yoder, Kansas with her café, Sissy decides life has just handed her a second chance or at least a break so she can figure out what to do next. When she arrives in Yoder, her aunt is not happy to see her. She doesn’t need help with the café, even if she has a broken leg. Just when things couldn’t get worse, Sissy finds the milk deliveryman dead behind the café, with a knife sticking out of his back. Being the newest member of the community, the police chief is dead set on her as the main suspect. He is constantly watching her and waiting for her to make a mistake. She is determined that she must solve the crime on her own, before she ends up wrongfully accused of murder.

In this fictional small town of Yoder, the Amish are a huge part of the community. They eschew electricity, drive tractors instead of cars and have their own ways of living among the English. Sissy enjoys the quiet life in the small town and it takes some adjustment coming from a big city to such a slower pace of life. She finds it peaceful except for the cloud of suspicion of murder hanging over her head. In a small town where everyone has known each other since birth and the ties are strong, she must clear her name at any costs.

This book is the first in what appears to be a promising cozy mystery series. I love the Amish and how they prefer to live simple lives and the author did a great job of researching and painting the scene for the reader. I really enjoyed Sissy’s character and hope that she decides to end up in Yoder despite the increasing crime rates. This book has a lot of promise and it was a nice quick little cozy read that was perfect to read on a rainy Saturday. A fantastic read that deserves more attention in the future. So glad that I got to read this and cannot wait to see what happens next in the small Amish village of Yoder.

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars
Author: Amy Lillard

Series: Sunflower Café Mystery #1

Publisher: Kensington Books

Publication Date: June 28, 2022

Pages: 306

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Get It: Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.

I found this book extremely slow to read and was not able to finish it. Maybe others will enjoy the book however personally this was not for me.

This book was cute! I love a good cozy mystery. I thought it started off pretty slow, but it picked up. The town setting was super cute and I enjoyed all the characters and their banter.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This is the first book in the brand new series A Sunflower Cafe Mystery. I really enjoyed reading this cozy mystery. I enjoyed the characters and can't forget Duke. I enjoyed the plot of the story. I was laughing at different times. Once I started reading it was hard to put it down. I can't wait to read the other books in this series. I know they are going to be great.

Amy Lillard starts the Sunflower Cafe mysteries with Dairy, Dairy Quite Contrary. Sissy dumps her boyfriend and retiurns to Amish country that her mother left many years ago to help her aunt Bethel who runs a cafe but has broken her leg. Sissy reconnects with her relatives and childhood friends whilst pursuing the murderer of a man in the cafe. Small town life crossed with deadly violence. Good cozy.

There were parts that I liked about this book, and then there were parts that just didn’t stand out to me from a cozy mystery.
I liked the familial relationships and unique aspect of the Amish (though they sounded more Mennonite to me, but what do I know) but I felt that the crime itself and the resolution was lackluster.

This is the first in a series and I enjoyed it even if it's not my cup of tea as it's too slow and my attention waned.
The characters are likeable and the setting is interesting. I liked the humour and the mystery was quite solid.
i think a faster paced novel would have been a solid 5 start.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary is the first in the new Sunflower Cafe cozy mystery series by Amy Lillard.
Sissy Yoder moves to the mostly Amish town of Yoder, Kansas to fill in for her cousin Lizzy at the Sunflower Cafe.
When a local is found murdered Sissy has her hands full dealing with her prickly Aunt Bethel and a suspicious town Sheriff who is convinced she's involved with the murder.

I enjoyed the details about Yoder, such as the Chicken Coop B&B made from an actual chicken coop and the delicious sounding fresh cheeses that Sissy is frequently sampling. The book is also sprinkled with charming pearls of wisdom from Sissy's advice column that she writes secretly under the guise of being an elderly grandmother.

The story was slower paced and Sissy's investigating sometimes felt repetitive. I also felt like I had trouble connecting with some of the characters. But I liked Sissy and her pet Yorkie Duke and I look forward to reading more of their story in future books.

i was really excited to read the first installment of this new cozy-mystery! i don’t always start series from the very beginning so i enjoyed being able to get to know each character as they were being introduced. duke, the pup, instantly caught my eye when i saw this cover and, as a dog lover, i fell in love with this energetic ball of fur! i definitely didn’t see how the ending was coming so i was in for quite the surprise! but i felt that everything came to an end too quickly. all this tension was building up and within the last few pages, everything was resolved without me having enough time to piece things together myself.

for a rookie sleuth, sissy was extremely patient! on the other hand… yoder’s sheriff and sissy’s aunt bethel weren’t as even-tempered and didn’t give the small town welcome i expected. they seemed very cold towards sissy and i couldn’t figure out what they had against her! throughout the plot, sissy is determined to clear her name and continually emphasizes how her encounters with the sheriff always end with her seeming as a wrongfully accused suspect. i thought this was repetitive and could have done without their conversations going in circles. all in all, i thought this was a great debut to the series and i’m excited to see what else is in store for the sunflower cafe!

This was a pretty good start to a new series. I liked the writing and the mystery, the setting was nice and there were some good characters. The story was a bit slow in parts and I could feel my attention slipping. There were a ton of characters in this book, which I understand because its the start of a series but it felt like there were too many to keep track of. Overall this was a good read and I look forward to trying out book two.

I thought I would give Amy Lillard another try since I didn't care for her other series and sometimes it's the content and not the author. Unfortunately this time it is the author.

I found this book to be OK in terms of plot but once again found her style to be slow moving (plodding if you will) and the characters to only be mildly engaging.

I learned my lesson, no more Lillard books.

Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary: A Sunflower Café Mystery
By Amy Lillard
Kensington
June 2022

Review by Cynthia Chow

The call from cousin Lizzy asking for help with the family’s Sunflower Café in Yoder, Kansas couldn’t have come at a better time for Sissy Yoder. Having recently broken up with her boyfriend and out of the apartment they shared in Tulsa, the reporter and columnist was more than ready to return to her family’s town in the mostly Amish community. There’s a lot of Yoders in the town of Yoder, but not all of them are related to one another. After more than 15 years away Sissy barely recognizes the woman who actually is her aunt, and Aunt Bethel isn’t exactly eager to give up control of the Sunflower Café to an outsider despite the fact that she’s on a crutch while her part-time worker and daughter is about to give birth. Despite this, and not believing that Sissy’s teacup Yorkie Duke of York is an actual dog, Bethel reluctantly gives in to reality and accepts her non-Amish niece. Yoder isn’t as conservative as it used to be, and not being shunned allows Sissy to find a home in the tiny Chicken Coop B&B made out of an actual chicken coop. Sissy barely has a chance to settle in with local diner food and jargon before she discovers the body of the milkman Kevin Saunders in the storage room with a knife sticking out of his back.

Deputy Sheriff Earl Berry has an unwavering belief that Sissy’s arrival must be linked to Keven’s death, and it doesn’t help that the officer feels unjustly jilted by her mother for another Englishman. Feeling the need to return Yoder to its usual peaceful setting and completely unnerved by Earl Berry’s glare every morning at breakfast, Sissy decides to investigate why Kevin the Milkman met such a gruesome end. He wasn’t the only one with secrets, as the 29-year-old Sissy is the columnist known as Aunt Bess, a supposedly 70-year grandmother of eight. Using her mother’s formerly-Amish wisdom, Sissy gives out wise advice while using that practical mindset for her own murder investigation. The deceased father of ten had connections that may have been more Family than just family, leading to motives involving gambling and possible money schemes simmering within the quiet community.

This first in the series introduces readers to a fun setting in a more contemporary Amish town that still adheres to its unique beliefs. While the Sunflower Café is fully electric and whipping out hearty Amish and diner delights, most of the homes are without Internet, television, or electrical lights. Aunt Bess’s aphorisms head most chapters, and while those may have been passed down to her from her maternal relatives it’s Sissy’s perseverance and cleverness that lead her to the final solution. For readers whose familiarity with the Amish mostly stems from the movie Witness, this allows for a more updated and still fascinating glimpse into their society. Amish casseroles and hearty cheese-themed meals are just as tantalizing, but it’s the very likable and sprightly Sissy who becomes the star attraction. Hopefully more of the Aunt Bess aspect of her will be revealed in the next installment, along with additional time spent with Duke, cousin Lizzie, and the rest of the Sunflower Café staff.

Dairy, Dairy, Quite Contrary is a cute little story by Amy Lillard. It follows Sissy, as she moves from Tulsa to tiny Yoder, Kansas to help out in her aunt Bethel's restaurant while her cousin is on bed rest for her pregnancy. On her third day there, the milk man is found dead in the back room, with a knife sticking out of him. Being the new girl in town, all eyes are on her. So she sets out to find the killer and remove herself from the list. This was a fun story and I enjoyed it, although I was pretty sure I knew who it was early on. It was still great to watch Sissy get there!
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I really enjoyed the book!

DAIRY, DAIRY, QUITE CONTRARY is the first book in the A SUNFLOWER CAFE MYSTERY series. It's set in Yoder, Kansas with many characters having the same surname. This is Sissy's story as she plays amateur sleuth to figure out who murdered Kevin who delivers milk to her aunt's café as well as to many other small businesses especially since Sissy is in the crosshairs of the police since she found the body.

The story started off slowly as I got a handle on each character. Sissy finds her way in the town as she helps her aunt in the business. Sissy and her dog, Duke are always front and center. There were Amish and English woven throughout but also some like Sissy who was raised Amish until her family moved away since her parents felt the church was too confining. But she's working with her aunt who is Amish and is close to her cousin who is currently pregnant with twins and on bed rest.

There are twists and turns to the story as Sissy asks Gavin who works at the small newspaper in town to help her determine whodunnit. They have an attraction but seem to be just friends. As Sissy puts together her clues and ultimately solves the case there are some surprises along the way.
There is closure and I look forward to reading more books in this cozy mystery series.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

A cute murder mystery, I thought it was great.