Review and Giveaway: A Custom-Fit Crime

A Custom-Fit Crime (Magical Dressmaking Mystery - Book 4) by Melissa Bourbon

Publication Date: July 2, 2013
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Obsidian Mystery
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 320
ISBN-10: 0451417194
ISBN-13: 978-0451417190

(Received for an honest review from Obsidian Mystery)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, IndieBound

Melissa Bourbon on the WEB: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

Books in the series:

Pleating for Mercy (2011), A Fitting End (2012), Deadly Patterns (2012), A Custom-Fit Crime (2013)

Coverart: Click the image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.

Excerpt from A Custom-Fit Crime, courtesy of Amazon's Look Inside feature.

Synopsis:

After a year of hard work in her Texas hometown, Harlow Jane Cassidy’s dreams are finally within reach—if she can just get it all done in time…

Harlow’s designs will be featured in a big magazine spread, but she only has a few days to finalize her collection. Plus she’s busy helping to plan her mother’s upcoming wedding, playing host to her old friend Orphie, and avoiding a competitive Dallas designer set on stealing Harlow’s ideas. Harlow’s making it all work—until someone breaks into Buttons & Bows and the rival designer is found dead.

But when a near miss makes it clear that Orphie could be the next victim, Harlow will have to untangle the threads of evidence if she wants to save her friend, her mother’s wedding, and her business from becoming fashion road kill…

Thoughts:

Melissa Bourbon thrills readers with a mystery within a mystery in her latest book in the Magical Dressmaking series, A Custom-Fit Crime. With two crimes to solve, it's up to Harlow to figure it all out. Bourbon's mix of mystery and magic draws readers in with Southern charm and enchantment. Bliss, Texas is just that, blissful. If it weren't for all the bodies that seem to turn up. The fourth entry in the series is once again a keeper!

There are a lot of reasons I like this series. Melissa Bourbon has a style of writing that is both witty and smooth. She uses her words wisely to give the reader just enough information without giving away the whole story all at once. I love the fact that Bourbon chose dressmaking for this series. My grandmother used to sew all the time and I remember her saying there was a wish in every stitch. This series reminds me of that and the love for sewing that a seamstress inevitably has. 

My daughter is an avid fashion designer as she was growing up. Always sketching ideas and sewing. Her desires have gone a different direction now, but there was a time when I thought she would end up being a fashion designer, which also really endears me to this series. I liked the fact that Bourbon doesn't just focus on big name designers. She gives Harlow the tools and the ideas to make her love of fashion very realistic. She knows about pleating and darting and other aspects of fashion that lends credibility to the series. I liked the whole idea of a magazine spread that would feature Texas designers including Harlow. That was a really nice touch.

Buttons and Bows as usual is teeming with activity. I loved the fact that Harlow is making the dresses for her mothers impending nuptials and preparing for her own fashion shoot. The characters in this series are so much fun. It was great to have another visit from meemaw and how this book delved more into how each of the Cassidy women has a gift or a charm that they used in their everyday lives. I have always loved the idea that Harlow's gift was unusual and allowed those she sewed for to have a wish. This isn't something that helps her solve mysteries but it is special and adds that hint of the paranormal into the mix. Mysteries and magic... oh my!

Loved the sewing pattern at the end the book, the Cassidy family tree and the preview of the next book in the series. I love it when they do that. It just whets the appetite for what's to come. This was a well written mystery that had all the right components. I was a little taken aback by the motive but when you add in all the wonderful parts of this book, it didn't seem that bad. A great addition to the series!

A Custom-Fit Crime is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Melissa Bourbon, who sometimes answers to her Latina-by-marriage name Misa Ramirez, gave up teaching middle and high school kids in Northern California to write full-time amid horses and Longhorns in North Texas. She fantasizes about spending summers writing in quaint, cozy locales, has a love/hate relationship with yoga and chocolate, is devoted to her family, and can’t believe she’s lucky enough to be living the life of her dreams. 

Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of A Custom-Fit Crime by Melissa Bourbon.

~ You must be an email subscriber to participate.
~ US Addresses only.
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, August 12th.

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