Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy

2.5 stars
R-1?  maybe
Third White House Chef Mystery

I LOVED the first two books.  I really really did.

I just couldn't get into this one.  Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but it didn't work for me.

The actual mystery felt totally overshadowed by all of the "just promise me you won't get involved" stuff.  Now, granted, some of that kind of stuff is normal, right?  But too much of it kind of messes with my ability to suspend disbelief.

After all, an amateur sleuth in the real world would be someone that should leave things to police and just get out of the way.  But in a cozy mystery, you root for the sleuth.  You want them to find the clues and put it all together and darn it all, why won't the police just listen to them!  (Or in this case the Secret Service.)

But when more than half the book seems to be people telling the sleuth to just stay out of it, eventually you start to either a) get really irritated at pretty much every character in the book or b) wonder why the sleuth doesn't just stay out of it.

And when the sleuth IS trying to stay out of it, but just randomly keeps finding stuff out and then passing it along, you'd think the investigators could be at least somewhat grateful.  But no.  They're ticked.

Overall, I was just irritated.  Probably more of a mood thing, but whatever.

I'll still read the next one, most likely, but I just didn't love this one.

Counts for the Support Your Local Library Challenge.

All Hail

Hail to the Chef by Julie Hyzy
4 stars
R-0

The sequel to State of the Onion.

Once again, Ollie finds herself in the middle of a mess. Right during the holidays. Naturally. Murphy's Law, I tell you.

From the back of the book--
White House executive chef Ollie Paras has a lot on her plate, what with holiday meals to map out, the First Lady's matchmaking plans to deflect, safety classes to take, and terrorist plots to avoid. Oh, and a senator's assistant has been begging Ollie to rig the countrywide gingerbread-man-decorating contest in favor of the senator's kids...
Then, a cautious, kindly electrician is electrocuted, and the First Lady's nephew dies in an apparent suicide when not twenty-four hours before he was happily cleaning shrimp with Ollie. Ollie suspects there's something going on that's fishier than shrimp cocktail. Now, she'll have to watch her back-- and find a killer unlikely to be pardoned...

Now, I LOVED State of the Onion... and Hail to the Chef was good, but I confess I was a little disappointed. The mystery came together pretty well, but I didn't feel like it had the rich detail that the first book had. I really really missed the quirks. Like Cyan's eye color-- in SotO it changes everyday, but in HttC it's only mentioned once. I missed that. And there wasn't much interaction with Tom, the Secret Service love interest. Understandable, since he's assigned to the President and there wasn't much of him in this one either, but still. Their interactions were fun.

It was still really pretty good. Just not quite as good as I wanted it to be. I'm still hoping there'll be more though....

State of the Onion

"[You] must be less concerned with the state of the union, and more concerned with the state of the onion."

Why they didn't use that for the tagline, I have no idea. They really should have.

State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy
4.5 Stars
R- 2.5
Reader's Choice

Ollie (Olivia Paras) is an assistant chef at the White House-- with dreams of becoming the executive chef as soon as her mentor retires. (The quote is something her mentor tells her. It made me giggle.)
All of her chances, however, seem to be dying as she 1) stops an intruder from entering the White House (with a frying pan); 2) meets said intruder only to see him get killed; 3) becomes the #1 target of an international assasin; 4) keeps butting heads with the new "Sensitivity Director" at the White House (who just happens to be a real jerk).

Great story. It was lots of fun. Not overly complicated... I had it figured out early, but a good read. This kind of falls into my "fluffy mystery series" addiction, but I picked it up because it's a Reader's Choice. (I've read 4/24 and it's still January. Not to shabby.)

The reason it didn't get the full 5 stars-- the jerk of a "Sensitivity director". He doesn't get his comeuppance! He'd better in the next one, 'cause seriously, the man's a menace.

(Ollie's next adventure is Hail to the Chief.)