Two of my favorite genres are thriller and romance. This was an amazing combination of the two that kept me glued to the pages. The pacing was perfect. This is the perfect beach read! I also enjoyed the narrator. She was very easy to understand and gave these characters a voice.

This was an entertaining summer audiobook to listen to! I can relate to Mia, with a carefully planned out future and only living the wild life vicariously through the many many romance, thriller, murder, mystery books that she has read. Which leaves her well prepared to solve a real life murder mystery, complete with puzzles in books that only an financial accountant can solve, while on her first vacation in a long while. I love Mia and Bree working together to work on it as well. Their friendship is fun and so is the one with the hot bartender who has both a wild side and a secret side with that may give Mia that real life romance that she reads about but has never experienced. The mystery bit is nicely twisty but not too overly complicated, as is right for a summer beach read. And of course you get the love drama on top with a ahhhh, sweet happy ending to finish it up with a cherry on top!

The narrator does a wonderful job in bringing Mia and her unforgettable vacation to St. Clair to life and I had a lot of fun, laughs, gasps, and ahhh moments the whole time. A light summer beach read that checks all the boxes for a good time!

Thank you to Harlequin Publishing, NetGalley, and Allison Brennan for the opportunity to read and review this book!
I enjoyed this book!
We get Romance, Mystery, workaholic, layered plot, amateur sleuth, wealth, and everyone is a suspect.
Mia is about to be made a partner but is forced into an all-expenses-paid vacation on a private island.
Relaxation is on the agenda.
Quickly, Mia's relaxing week vacation in paradise turns a corner when she finds notes written in a book by a woman who was murdered. This leads Mia to try to uncover the mystery of this woman's murder.
This is the perfect beach read or poolside read!
It was fast, it was fun, I enjoyed it.
Perfect for your summer TBR.
Happy Reading!

A forced vacation plunks a young, single cpa into the middle of a murder mystery.
Mia's on what feels like a last hurrah vacation before she accepts a huge promotion that will set her on a steady career path. Her firm gifts her a trip to a remote luxury island. Guests include an actress, a retired football player, and other wealthy socialites...and a dead guest. Mia stumbles upon clues that could solve the murder. But Jason, the hot bartender, is doing his best to derail all of Mia's plans.
An absolute must summer read!

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds is a mysterious romance fictional novel! It was a fun, easy book to read. Mia’s romance with Jason gives her a fresh perspective on life, inspiring her to live with more gusto than always playing it safe. While the romance wasn’t front and center, it was a little spicy. The narration was fantastic. It was easy to immerse myself in the story.

Great story that gets you hooked from the beginning and keeps you guessing until the last word. Fabulously narrated and edited-don't miss it!

This was a fun, light mystery perfect for summer! I immediately fell in love with main character Mia and enjoyed going along for her venture into amateur sleuthing when she finds herself alone on her first vacation in years, a directive from her accounting firm if she ever wants to make partner. The book had a great pacing, humor mixed up with twists and turns, and the audio narration by Vanessa Johansson was great.

I also enjoyed the romance storyline that made a fun addition. I've read other books by Allison Brenna before, and I was excited to read this newest mystery/romance/beach read that is different than any of her previous titles I've read! I was excited to kick off my summer reading with this one, and it did not disappoint. I am keeping my fingers crossed we get another book with Mia!

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the advanced audio copy of this book! A solid 4 stars from me that I will be putting in the hands of my library patrons all summer!

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds was such a good mystery book with all of the summer island vibes. It had me intrigued from the first chapter and I didn’t want to stop listening to the audiobook. I loved how nosy and observant the female main character was. I felt like it had just the right amount of mystery, romance, and wit. I also liked the narrator and thought she helped bring it all together.

I was given an advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions expressed above are my own.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC of this title!

I really enjoyed this whodunit set in paradise. Mia was just out on a well needed vacation to celebrate her promotion and her 30th birthday when she is thrust into this island with so many secrets and mysteries. Mia is a bit annoying but I can relate as a huge over-thinker and non-risk taker. While she is trying to figure out who the murderer is, I thought it could have been anyone. I never saw any of it coming at the end. This book could definitely be a fun movie.

This was the perfect beach read! It had a good mystery, it had a steamy romance, it had friendship, and drama, a book loving MC, and all in a beautiful setting! It was a fun easy read that kept me hooked from start to finish. It also has me dreaming of a vacation to a private island! Would love for this to be a series because I want to solve more mysteries with Mia.

The narrator was easy to listen to and did a great job at bringing Mia and this book to life. Will be listening to more books narrated by her.

3.5

Mia Crawford has just embarked on a forced vacation to a luxurious private island. Her high-demand accounting job has more or less forced her to take a vacation before she accepts a new promotion so she can have a little break from her normal extremely responsible self. When she does have a little extra time normally, she loves to escape into a book. Reading mysteries, romances, and thrillers about women who are more adventurous and daring than she ever would be is her idea of fun. She has decided it might be time to reinvent herself a little bit and be more like the characters she reads about. A little flirting with the cute bartender and exploring the island is just what she needs. When Mia curls up on the beach with a book from the resort, she is surprised to find notes written in the margins that turn out to be clues to the disappearance of another guest the week before. Before she knows it, Mia is caught in the middle of a real-life mystery and finds that everyone at the resort is hiding a secret of their own.

This was a fun cozy mystery/romance read. A little bit of spice sprinkled throughout the mystery, but it fit into the story. The characters were likeable and there was a twist I didn't expect towards the end. It was fun to have a story with bookstagraming included too, as Mia likes to review and post about her favorite books. Each chapter opened with a quote from a book, so it had lots of little details for us book lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the audiobook for review.

An overworked accountant and book influencer finally takes a vacation and stumbles into a real-life mystery. I'm loving how different it feels from anything else I’ve read lately!

This was such a fun summer listen. It’s a mix of romance and mystery, which I didn’t know I needed, but now I want more of. I was completely hooked right from the start. The story had a great vibe overall, but I will say it started to slow down about halfway through and dragged a little in spots.

That said, I loved the bookstagram references (so relatable!) and the book quotes sprinkled throughout.

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing for an Advanced Listening Copy of this book!

Well, this is different for this author. This reads like a cozy mystery…sort of. I am a big fan of this author but this is not my favorite.

Mia is finally taking a much needed vacation, even though she does not want to. She is a workaholic and that is where she wants to be. But, since she has been forced to go to a luxurious private island, she is going to make the best of it. That is until, she comes upon a dead body.

Mia, to me, is a bit wishy washy. I expected more out of her. She is such a powerhouse at work but very inhibited and a bit naive everywhere else.

I did enjoy the setting and all the book references. This was music to my ears!

The narrator, Vanessa Johansson, is one of my favs. And this is probably the reason I continued with this book. She makes the characters come alive.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

☆ALC REVIEW☆
Publication date: Available now!

This was just far too slow moving for me as well as too many characters.

Thank you NetGalley, the author and Harlequin Audio for an advanced listeners copy.

For those that enjoy romantic mysteries with some White Lotus vibes, this might be for you?

For me, I didn’t feel like this one quite landed. There were a lot of different characters with their own dramas, as well as a cast of suspicion surrounding them in relation to the murder at hand. It got hard to keep up with all of the characters via audio. The narrator was fine, but I didn’t feel like the voice was the right voice for the character. I may have liked this book more had I physically read it, rather than listening.

I did appreciate the main characters love of books, and even that she was an online book reviewer! But her arrival on the island in search of a man was a bit cringey. I think the hunt for the murderer got a little more complicated than necessary.

📖 Mia is sent by her firm on an all expenses paid vacation before becoming a partner at her accounting firm. She has some hesitation about the partnership but isn’t one to take risks. Upon arrival on the Island, she picks up a book at the resort library and finds coded messages in the margins throughout the book as well as a body washed up from the water. She takes it upon herself to decode the book notes and try to solve the murder - between romps with the resort bartender of course.

Thank you to the publisher Mira and harlequin Trade for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fun read, different from most of Allison Brennan’s books. Good characters who were well-developed. The whodunnit stumped me. Everything tied up nicely. Happy ending. Good narrator.

I was not expecting a cozy mystery when I requested this title. I wanted more of a serious, in-your-face thriller with interesting characters. This was not it. The main character is an overworked accountant who has a hard time relaxing and is working to solve a mystery. Pretty boring, actually. Where are the thrills?

A beautiful setting. interesting cast of characters, and intriguing mystery- Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds is exactly what one wants in a cozy mystery of the summer. While I did figure out the main mystery, it didn't detract from the book, as I was interested in seeing how the FMC would react and getting the explanation for why certain events happened. I liked that the book was about a 50/50 split of mystery and romance and found the island setting really conducive to a summer beach read. Overall, a very enjoyable, if somewhat predictable, cozy mystery.

Mia encounters all sorts of things on her beach vacation. Lies, deceits, theft, assaults and murder. While she falls in love, she is also attacked by another women who feels she is after her boyfriend. It took me awhile to get into it, but I did end up enjoying it.

Mia Crawford is on what most would consider a dream vacation in the Caribbean. Mia as a careful planner, wouldn’t have splurged on such an extravagance if her work didn’t insist. Even so, she slowly unwinds and can’t help but soak in all the beauty, even with the news of a missing guest. Mia also can’t help but be drawn to the sweet and sexy bartender, Jason.

Things get interesting when she borrows a book for a beach read and finds notations about all the guests written in some kind of code. She starts to suspect that the notes are tied to the missing woman. Curiosity sparked, Mia starts asking questions about the missing woman, ruffling feathers in the process.

I enjoyed Mia’s friendship with eighteen-year-old Brie, a sort of sidekick in her mystery solving. In addition to finding out what happened to Diana, they teamed up to expose the gold-digging girlfriend of Brie’s father and I was really invested in their success. The girlfriend was awful! Mia had a methodical way of approaching the investigation I appreciated.

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds was a fun and engrossing cozy mystery and romance! Mia’s romance with Jason gave her a fresh perspective on life, inspiring her to live with more gusto rather than always playing it safe. While the romance wasn’t front and center, it was spicy and just the right amount, IMO.

I alternately read and listened to Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds and can recommend either version. I’ve listened to and enjoyed Vanessa Johansson’s narration in the past and I thought she performed all voices, male and female wonderfully!