Groomed for Murder by Annie Knox: Guest Author, Review & Giveaway

Wedded Bliss

I love a good wedding.  And by “good,” I mean one where I’m not the bride.

I found love a little later than most of my friends, not meeting my husband until I was thirty.  Yes, I said “husband.”  I was a bride of sorts.  But we invited a few of our closest friends to run off to Vegas with us.  I had all the good stuff—a bouquet, a dress, and an awesome cake—with none of the worry about whether the day would be perfect.  It was Vegas.  The more messed up things were, the better the story would be.

But a real wedding?  One with dozens (if not hundreds) of guests, a parade of bridesmaids, corsages out the yin yang, and an open bar?  The kind that requires binders of notes and months of careful planning? Long before I’d met Peter, I’d learned that that wouldn’t be my wedding.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love being a guest, or even better a bridesmaid, at one of those real weddings.  They’re beautiful and emotional and everything is so darned pretty.  You can’t help but fall in love with love at a real wedding.  So, gosh, everyone enjoys a wedding … except, it seems, the bride. 

See, I didn’t confront the prospect of my own wedding until I’d been to a few biggies.  I remember one bride asking me to get her a water glass of vodka the minute we got to the reception site.  Yeah, she almost passed out before the ceremony.  And I remember having to narrate another good friend’s wedding video because she didn’t remember any of it.  Oh, and there was that other bride who didn’t speak to her own mother for over six months after she married.

No, sir.  By the time I got around to thinking about my own wedding, I knew there wasn’t enough Xanax in the world to get me through an event like that.  So we went to Vegas and had a blast, dancing to our own personal Elvis and eating leftover cake at the Las Vegas airport the next morning.

When I wrote GROOMED FOR MURDER, I got to plan two weddings:  one for a couple of octogenarian humans and one for a couple of dogs.  I made sure to make the weddings relaxed and fun, simple ceremonies with lots of laughter and yummy food (human and canine), so my brides could have a blast like I did at my own wedding. 

Of course, fiction isn’t real life, and I couldn’t let my human bride be quite so lucky as I was.  I had to give her a body tumbling right into the middle of her “I dos.”  Where’s that Xanax when you need it?

************

Giveaway: Leave a comment by noon eastern on Monday, September 8th for your chance to win a copy of Groomed for Murder.

About the book: Izzy McHale wants her new Trendy Tails Pet Boutique in Merryville, Minnesota, to be the height of canine couture and feline fashions. But in a week of wedding bells, someone is about to hold their peace….

forever. Love is in the air, and Izzy is hard at work coordinating two special weddings at Trendy Tails. First, Izzy’s friend and mentor, Ingrid, will be tying the knot with her old flame. And a week later, Izzy will host “pupptials” for two lovable dogs.

But even with the hullabaloo, the Trendy Tails crew is intrigued by Daniel, an enigmatic writer boarding above the shop who’s caught the attention of Izzy’s zany aunt Dolly, who gossips like most people breathe.

Unfortunately, it’s Daniel who stops breathing when he drops dead at the altar on Ingrid’s wedding day. Then Dolly is found at the scene with the murder weapon, and it’s up to Izzy, her Trendy Tails pals, and her scrappy pets, Packer and Jinx, to find a killer before the two affianced doggies bark down the aisle….

Tortie Shorties

Book reviews that are short and sweet...just like Truffles!

Love is in the air in Merryville as Trendy Tails Pet Boutique prepares for not one but two weddings - Izzy's dear friend Ingrid is marrying her old flame Harvey, and the next weekend a pooch couple is tying the knot. Everyone's hard work goes up in smoke when Daniel, a mysterious writer who is renting the apartment above Trendy Tails, makes a grand entrance at Ingrid's wedding by tumbling down the stairs - dead - with Izzy's Aunt Dolly right behind him holding a gun. I picked up on a clue early on that led me to figure out the motive before Izzy did, although not the correct killer.

Naturally, the 4-legged characters shine in this book. Izzy's beloved pets Packer and Jinx get a temporary new roommate when Daisy May, the victim's Weimaraner, comes to live with them. And in one of the book's most memorable scenes Jinx gets in trouble for licking the cheese off of a delicious sounding dish of enchiladas! (I would *totally* have eaten them anyways!) Gandhi the wayward guinea pig makes a return appearance too.

The next book in the series will find Merryville as the locale for the Midwestern Cat Fancier Organization's annual retreat and I'm very much looking forward to it. This is a must read series for animal lovers everywhere.