Review : Steamed by Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant

When Chloe Carter spies another woman coming from the aprtment of her current boyfriend, she gets so steamed she listens to her sister's advice to try online Back Bay Dates and find a replacement. Chloe has an deep interest in food so she signs up under the username Foodiegirl and who answers her but Dinnerdude. Seems like a match made in heaven but unfortunately half way through their first date he is found dead in the men's room with a very large knife in his neck.

If this isn't weird enough, his parents contact her and act like she is the love of his life. He told them he was hot and heavy with a new love, Chloe. It seems there were certainly a lot of different sides to Dinner Dude's personality. Of course you can't have a cozy mystery without an amateur sleuth. Chloe tries to figure out who could have killed him and at the same time she finds another love interest. She has the emotional attention of a gnat! He just happens to be the chef of the restaurant Dinner Dude was killed in. The big snag is he is also the chief suspect in the case.

Becoming more embroiled into the world of high class dining and cutthroat restaurant business, Chloe delves into the murder. With the help of her friend Adrianna, she finds a lot of surprising twists in the investigation. There are many tangled romances gone bad that give Chloe and the police department numerous suspects and motives. As with any cozy, the "good guy" prevails and the murder is eventually solved.

Generally I like cozies a lot, but this one didn't do much for me. Throughout a good deal of the book I was just downright bored. There were too many extraneous details about the characters and their situations that felt forced and hard to believe. I just couldn't connect with the characters and frankly, my dear, I didn't give a damn how it all ended. It could have been Colonel Mustard in the library with a wrench. Actually, that might have been more interesting ! 2**