Gray's Cozy Nook

Hey guys! My review is finally up, and unfortunately, I had no idea I had to pay a fee to upload this video. So I have uploaded onto my youtube channel and posted the link below. I hope all is well and you guys enjoy this NON-SPOILER review of Meg Macy’s, “Beary Departed.”

Bearly Departed Review-The Stuffing Will Fly

Where to begin…

I bought this novel a few days ago with high hopes that it would be a very well written whodunit. I was eager to jump into the pages and scour the clues for who killed who and to solve the ever fun murder mystery that cozy novels deliver. However, I was left with nothing but overly stuffed fluff of information that pertained nothing to the direct storyline and an MC who made me want to punch her lights out versus applaud her detective skills.

So let’s get started, this novel is about 31 years old Alexandra “Sasha” Silverman who is newly divorced and working back at her family’s teddy bear shop. We are greeted, at first, with a pleasant attitude and someone who is recovering from the echoes of her divorce. And of course, what cozy novel is not without its murder victim causing a problem, in the beginning, meet Will Taylor, sales rep. for the company. Now during what was supposed to be a productive meeting that Sasha, employees, and Will Taylor were having, everything heads south and threats are exchanged; with the meeting being inconclusive. During that same evening, Sasha and her sister go out to blow off some steam, on their return home they notice the factory is alight and Will’s car is right outside. The curious Sasha, against her sister’s protests, heads into the factory to find dun-dun-dun Will Taylor stuffed like a teddy bear.

The detailing that the author uses in this novel is extremely well down, however, a little too extravagant. Now, you may be wondering what I mean by that. Now what I mean by extravagant usage of detailing is that the author was using so much dramatic detailing in her story that it drew away from the actual plot line of the story itself.

Also, there was a lot of unneeded information that didn’t need to be inside the book, it actually hindered the progression of the mystery itself. I don’t want to give too much away because I would rather that you read the story yourself because this is supposed to be a spoiler-free review. However I will say this, there was so much information that was not needed… it felt as if the editor who reviewed this novel just got lazy and left a whole bunch of access content in there just because the plotline itself was weak. You got a whole bunch of excessive information stating about what the character counting supplies for a picnic, her dialoguing about how her sister’s cat went missing for a moment and that she supposedly can’t be outside and blah blah versus her actually doing some sleuth work. Plus, you got a whole bunch of family and ex-husband drama that magically gets added a few chapters close to the end when for one, that drama could of all been used in a second book. It literally felt that they wanted to cram as much unneeded info into the book, or filler, to just cover up how poorly this story’s mystery was being conducted.

It came to a point where I actually wanted to give up midway through the novel and just shelve it, but I trudged on. By the time I actually got to the ending of the book, I didn’t really care who killed who anymore I just wanted it to be over. Needless to say, one of the major things that were on the downfall for this book was that

1) Excessive detailing to a point that you could describe a teddy bear’s fine threading more than the murder problem
2) Poor character development, the MC morphs from being 31 years old to 10 years old with mother issues.
3) There were more family and ex-husband problems than there were actual mystery problems.

Which is why the book got a two out of five-star rating for me.

However, I still suggest that you guys go ahead and maybe take a look at this book I would suggest reading the sample maybe you might like this book. While it wasn’t my cup of tea and might be your next favorite murder mystery. Happy reading everybody!