A PERK OF TROUBLE Book Review

A Perk of Trouble (book 17 in Killer Coffee series) by Tonya Kappes, eBook, 224 pages

Synopsis from GoodReads: Welcome back to Honey Springs, Kentucky—where the Bean Hive Coffeehouse serves up coffee, community, and more than its fair share of crime. When a nationally known author arrives in town to headline a prestigious writer’s retreat, Roxy Bloom is more focused on crafting perfect lattes than getting caught in his plot twists. But when the author turns up dead—in a scene straight from one of his books—Roxy’s peaceful coffee-slinging days are once again interrupted.

With the town buzzing and the retreat guests under suspicion, Roxy dusts off her sleuthing skills to uncover the truth hidden between the pages. Because in Honey Springs, secrets percolate fast—and someone’s trying to cover theirs with murder. A Perk of Trouble is a heartwarming, twist-filled mystery steeped in Southern charm and brewed with all the things you love—fur babies, friendship, fresh-baked treats, and a heroine who never gives up. Come for the coffee. Stay for the mystery.

BOOK REVIEW: One of the things that I absolutely love about this series is that no only does it take place in a coffee shop, because you know that I love coffee, but that they partner with the local animal shelter to showcase animals up for adoption and in this installment we have Espresso the ferret! Talk about an interesting animal to have roaming around a coffee shop when you walk in! I know that there are cat cafes and whatnot but I think that is such a cool idea about adopting out the animals.

While I very much enjoyed this book, as usual, there were a few things that left me scratching my head that didn't make sense to me. It felt like some character names got flipped accidentally but then the story kept rolling and because of my confusion, I found myself stuck wondering what had happened. That's totally on me by the way...not the author.

Because of that issue that I had with the change up of characters, I had to knock this down to a 4.5 star that will get rounded up to a 5 because it wasn't enough to knock it down to a solid 4. It really was that confusion. I couldn't shake the feeling that I missed something. There are two scenes that took place that are referenced again yet with different characters from the original scene. I just got hung up on that detail and just couldn't let it go and it got too distracting for me. Just like the Camper & Criminal series, we got two new recipes in this book. I have got to try them out but I need taste testers because my husband isn't huge on sweets!

4.5/5 Stars

2025 Reading Challenge: 32/50 complete