really fun murder mystery with a unique and effective protagonist and an assortment of interesting side characters. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

I love Allison Brennan, she usually writes very serious suspense books with a touch of romance. This book, Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds has suspense but very light hearted suspense and definitely has romance!! Mia Crawford has been sent on a vacation to a privately owned island, St.Claire as a bonus for all her hard work and for making partner at the Financial planning company where she works. Mia would much rather have had the bonus than the trip. She was raised by her grandmother who believed in having fun and enjoying life and paying the bills later. Consequently Mia grew up to be extremely responsible and believed she had to work hard constantly and enjoy life later maybe in retirement. That's the whole,reason her boss sent her on an all paid vacation to this remote tropical island. On the ferry ride to the island she discovers that a woman has disappeared from the island a few days ago. She's an avid reader and she finished her book on the plane so she goes to the gift shop to see if she can find a book.As she's browsing she discovers that you can leave a book and take another book so she grabs one that catches her eye. When she gets back to her room she discovers that the book was written in. At first she's just angry because someone defaced this book but the longer she looks through it and she realizes that maybe this book belonged to the woman who is missing as the doodles and numbers seem to be written in code, clues to something and Mia thinks she can discover what happened to her. In Mia's quest to find answers she meets an extremely handsome bartender , Jason Mallory and he seems to be able to distract her from finding answers. As the week progresses theres another murder and other things that Mia gets pulled into along the way.I think this was a great story and I loved the way Ms. Brennan used other current authors names as clues and pulled them into the story was fantastic!! This story was fast paced And kept me guessing who was the murderer!! I couldn't wait til the end to see if Mia and the bunny I want to bartender got together!!! I loved this book! I want to thank Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing / Mira for this copy of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds for my honest review.

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds is a standalone novel written by Allison Brennan.

*Remote island
*Mysterious death
*Hidden identity

Mia considers herself as a grownup Nancy Drew or Veronica Mars, when in fact she is a lonely accountant being forced into a vacation where her only goal is to hook up with the first single guy she can find. Enter Jason, the island bartender, who is YUMMY!

Her vacation gets interrupted by a mysterious death and Mia thinks she can solve the murder due to some handwritten clues she found in a book left in the lost and found in the resort gift shop. A little over the top at times, but overall it was a great story!

The way that the author included other current book author names into the story as clues was fantastic!!

No OM/OW drama, six month separation in the third act. Ends with a HFN.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Format: NetGalley ebook
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Overall score:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level:🌶️🌶️🌶️
Characters: Mia (FMC) & Jason (MMC)

Mia Crawford has been sent on a luxury resort vacation by her bosses at the accounting firm where she's just been promoted to partner. The trip is an acknowledgement of all of the hard work that Mia has done on behalf of the firm -- to the extent that it's the first vacation she's taken in years. She actually didn't want to go on this one, either, but her bosses insisted. Once she reaches the island, Mia is disturbed to learn that another woman recently disappeared from the island. An avid reader, Mia is browsing in the gift shop at the resort when she discovers guests can leave unwanted books on a "free" table for other guests to take. Browsing through, she finds an interesting book and takes it. As she's reading, she notices that someone has written in the book in what appears to be a code. As Mia tries to figure it out, she soon realizes the missing woman must have owned the book, and the notes are tied to the woman's blackmailing efforts. When the book disappears from her room, Mia knows she's on the right track and begins to investigate the disappearance. As a complication, there is a hunky bartender who is distracting Mia in many exciting ways.

I enjoyed all of the literary references strewn throughout the book, as Mia is an avid reader. The story was fast-paced and kept me guessing until the end as to who the murderer was (although the "real" identity of the hunky bartender was pretty obvious from the start!).