Mother of the Bride Murder by Leslie Meier

Introduction

Mother of the Bride Murder by Leslie Meier is the latest novel in the Lucy Stone mystery series. To be completely transparent, I have read a few of these books but not even close to all of them. So while I am familiar with these characters, I don’t know everything about them.

About the Book

When Lucy Stone arrives at a sprawling French chateau with the whole family, it should be the trip of a lifetime—especially because she’s about to watch her oldest daughter, Elizabeth, marry the handsome, successful man of her dreams. But while navigating the vast countryside estate owned by her impenetrably wealthy in-laws-to-be, the jet-lagged mother of the bride has a creeping feeling that Elizabeth’s fairytale nuptials to Jean-Luc Schoen-Rene are destined to become a nightmare . . .

Maternal instincts are validated the moment a body is pulled from a centuries-old moat on the property. A young woman has dropped dead under mysterious circumstances—possibly at the hands of someone at the chateau—and unflattering rumors about the Schoen-Rene line and their inner circle flow like champagne. Then there’s the matter of Elizabeth’s hunky ex beau showing up on the scene as she prepares to walk down the aisle . . .

With tensions building, personalities clashing, and real dangers emerging at the chateau, Lucy is determined to protect her family, together for the first time in years, and expose the one responsible. She’ll have to locate the culprit among a list of worldly jilted lovers and potential criminal masterminds, or Elizabeth’s trip down the aisle could end in tragedy . . . (from Amazon.com)

My Thoughts

Mother of the Bride Murder is the latest installment in the Lucy Stone series by Leslie Meier. I haven’t read all of the books in this series, so take my review with a grain of salt. I’ve learned to really like Lucy Stone and her family and so I was really excited to dive into this latest release. (Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington for a review copy!)

Lucy and her family are off to Paris to celebrate the quick engagement and marriage of her oldest daughter Elizabeth. Although it takes some convincing to get the whole family out there, it fills Lucy’s heart with happiness to have everyone reunited in order to celebrate Elizabeth’s very special day. But having everyone together after such a long time apart isn’t exactly easy. Not to mention the fact that Lucy notices some interesting things about her daughter’s future in laws.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about this book at first. The plot was definitely interesting but it also felt like there were some plot points that weren’t really necessary. I could have done without the whole first 1/4 of the book, which is where Lucy has to convince some of her family members to actually go to the wedding. Even though he claims he has the money, her son Toby is resistant to bring his wife and son to Paris. Lucy’s husband Bill is also cautious, because he thinks that they won’t have the money to travel after paying taxes for this business.

I thought that was kind of ridiculous to be honest. It felt like their reasons for not wanting to go to the wedding were really weak and if I were Lucy, I would have told them so. Lol. Which she kind of did, but it was just really frustrating as a reader to have to sit through that. It wasn’t the most interesting of discussions.

But whatever. They all end up in France together and it’s fun! They get to stay at a nice hotel until they eventually wind up at the Chateau that Jean-Luc’s family owns. It all seems like an idyllic vacation, until a body turns up on the property.

That’s when Lucy jumps into sleuthing mode, and I loved how she was taking in all the information and coming up with reasonable suspicions and Toby is just like “Mom, come on. We’re in a foreign country. Just relax!”

But obviously, given the nature of this series, it’s near impossible for Lucy to just sit back and relax when there’s a mystery afoot.

I liked reading about Lucy’s family and their family dynamic, but the rest of the characters in the story fell flat for me. We didn’t get to know much about Jean-Luc and his family and so in the end, things just felt a little rushed. It was also very obvious from the beginning of the story how things were going to turn out. When I’m reading a cozy mystery I prefer for things to be less obvious.

I liked the story and it did have a twist that left me surprised, but I felt like it wasn’t one of the strongest books in the series. Maybe that’s because of the location and the fact that they didn’t have much time to get to know the other characters since they were on vacation. I’m not sure.

If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll probably want to check this one out to find out what happens next in the world of Lucy Stone. But while it’s easy to catch up to what is going on, I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re new to the series. It’s a little confusing and will probably leave you frustrated.

xo Marian