Book 24, 2022

The Perfect Cup: The Ghost and the Coffee Grinder Mystery by L.A. Marie

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



I finished reading the ebook The Perfect Cup last night. It's the first in the "Ghost and the Coffee Grinder" mysteries by L A Marie. The main character is Nora, who's left her job at a marketing agency to pursue her dream of owning a coffee shop.

Nora ditches her lucrative job as a marketing exec to lease space to open a coffee shop. There, she finds an antique coffee grinder with the ghost of Lisa attached to it. Lisa was on the verge of opening a coffee shop of her own when she died. After two near accidents at the leased store front, Nora thinks someone is trying to kill her. The question is, who?

The bigger question is, what the hell did I just read?! It made zero sense. We have no idea how or when Lisa died, nor how her spirit ended up attached to the coffee grinder. The "cover" of the book makes it appear as if Lisa is from 100-150 years ago, yet she seemed far more recent. Characters lacked any depth, the plot did not flow so much as meander here and there, and the final solution to everything was so far out of the blue that it was absurd. I am completely disappointed. The premise of this seemed quite interesting, but the execution of it fell flatter than a steam-rolled pancake.

Favorite line (and boy, was it a struggle to find one!): "Yaaas queen, slay."

Reading this was a waste of time. One star.