Men, Murder and Makeup

3.5 stars rounded up. The writing for this book was definitely four star. A wonderful cozy mystery. There were a few times that felt stretched to fit the plot, otherwise the writing would be a five star from me. Really, very well done.
I did have two frustrations that dropped my rating:
The Sherrif was a lovely person, but for all his talk about never letting anyone harm Vic and keeping him safe and caring about him- he never really did much of that. The bff was the one who protected Vic for days on end, took care of him, comforted him, and then saved his life. The Sheriff did none of that and didn't even figure out the mystery. Overall, other than being a nice guy he wasn't useful to have around.
Finally, this book had all the sexual buildup of most romances I read which surprised me as I expected this to be a slow burn and not really put much emphasis, if any, on sex. So I was pleasantly surprised.. until the sex scene was fade-to-black. I'm going to be honest, I was pretty bothered by that. I know that's a me issue, but there was so much sexual tension and inuendo through the whole book and then "Christ that man could really do it" was the culmination. This writing style is not for me.
If that doesn't bother you then I highly recommend this series. Well written with delightful characters in a cute town. All the cozy romance vibes.