The Misfortune Cookie, by Laura Resnick

The Misfortune Cooking, in paperback

Read January 12 to January 16.

This is the sixth book in a fluffy urban fantasy series that I really love. The series is about a woman, Esther Diamond, who is a struggling actress in New York City who, because of her circumstances, gets mixed up in a bunch of magical mysteries that she solves with the help of a 300 plus year old wizard, a very skeptical police detective, and a wide and varied cast, depending on the book. I read the first book at the beginning of 2013, then marathoned through books two through five in October, and pre-ordered the six, this one. It took me a while to get to this book, mostly because I got in to a YA mood and read a lot of YA books instead of my normal diet of urban fantasy.

I won't say much about what happens in the book, because as the sixth in a series, a lot that happens relates to previous books, and unless you've read all the books up to this point it won't make sense. So I'm just going to talk around those types of things in this review.

First off, it was a good book. Maybe not quite as good as the earlier books, but better than book two -- which I was stuck on for months and months -- and better than some other books I've read. As it's been since October since I last read anything in this series, and I read them all together at that, I had forgotten how weirdly slow the books could be by way of solving the mystery. It's not like a hard to read or get through type of slow, because the whole book is tense and full of a lot of 'action' and suspense, and there is never a dull moment when Esther is involved. It's more like it always takes Esther and cohorts a long time to get all the clues together and finally put it all together to solve the problem. And usually it takes more than a couple of bodies.

This isn't really a bad thing, because I love reading about Esther's life and everything she goes through as a starving actress. But in this one it was just a tad tedious, but not for this reason specifically.

There is a very intense and sizzling sort of romance between Esther and the police detective, Connor Lopez. They both have a thing for the other, but Connor tends to get in the way when Esther is investigating, and Connor thinks Esther is crazy for believing in magic and the like, so even after six books they aren't 'together'. And something happened at the end of book five that was supposed to resolve all that tension and finally put them together, but between book five and six Connor did a stupid, very man-like thing, and throughout most of The Misfortune Cookie Esther was throwing a hissy fit and whining about it. And this was what got on my nerves.

Esther is a very self-reliant, awesome woman, and she's usually pretty clear headed. So her whining in book six just seemed out of character, and I really didn't like it. It was such a relief when they finally talked it out a hundred pages from the end, and I hope we don't have to go through this again in future books. Because heavens, woman, get a grip.

Other than that, it was a great book, and a great addition to the series. Now I just have to wait a year for the next book. *sob*

Rating: Keeper

Have you read a book or series where one or more characters acted out of character? Or maybe did something in character that just annoyed you? Tell me about it in the comments!

Thanks for reading!