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Chili Cook-Off Mystery #1
Chili Con Carnage
Get a taste of justice in the first mystery in national bestselling author Kylie Logan’s Chili Cook-Off series!
Romance is supposed to be the spice of life. But Maxie Pierce is so done with bad relationships—well, almost. She just has to get rid of the latest loser, Roberto. Besides, she has more important things to worry about. Her daddy, Texas Jack Pierce, king of the chili cook-off circuit, has been missing for nearly six weeks now. In his place, she must team up with her irritating half sister, Sylvia, to promote the family business at the Taos Chili Showdown, to be judged by celebrity chef Carter Donnelly.
But when Maxie discovers Roberto’s body in the chef’s trailer—only hours after publicly breaking up with him while wearing a giant red chili pepper costume—she suddenly finds she’s the one in the spotlight as the police pepper her with questions. Now this Chili Chick needs to kick up the search to catch the real killer and get back to finding her father...
INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES!
Romance is supposed to be the spice of life. But Maxie Pierce is so done with bad relationships—well, almost. She just has to get rid of the latest loser, Roberto. Besides, she has more important things to worry about. Her daddy, Texas Jack Pierce, king of the chili cook-off circuit, has been missing for nearly six weeks now. In his place, she must team up with her irritating half sister, Sylvia, to promote the family business at the Taos Chili Showdown, to be judged by celebrity chef Carter Donnelly.
But when Maxie discovers Roberto’s body in the chef’s trailer—only hours after publicly breaking up with him while wearing a giant red chili pepper costume—she suddenly finds she’s the one in the spotlight as the police pepper her with questions. Now this Chili Chick needs to kick up the search to catch the real killer and get back to finding her father...
INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES!
282 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2013
31 people are currently reading
917 people want to read
About the author
Kylie Logan
30Ìýbooks439ÌýfollowersAlso writes as Miranda Bliss, Casey Daniels, Zoe Daniels, Connie Deka, Mimi Granger, Anastasia Hastings, Connie Lane, Connie Laux, Constance Laux, Lucy Ness.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
February 15, 2022
I picked up this book for two reasons: first, I read earlier this year and enjoyed it so much that I thought another chili book was a great idea; second, I've read the first book of another series by Kylie Logan () which I also found very enjoyable.
Then I was confronted with the main character, Maxie Pierce, who appears to be dumb as a post. She annoyed me, because, you know, women main characters ought to be smart. By halfway through the novel, I realized that I was being prejudiced. Maxie had a father who was always on the make. Even though she loves him, he is a charming philanderer at the very least. Needless to say, her parents are divorced and her mother hasn't had much good influence on Maxie either. How do you learn life skills if no one is role modeling for you? And it turns out that Maxie is smart, but no one has taught her how to focus.
Most cozy protagonists are written as mystery readers. They know how the story is supposed to go. Maxie is more a drinking, smoking, and partying kind of girl. So she has a reputation to work against when a murder is committed in a nearby trailer. She has never applied herself to anything and has a lot of catching up to do. Mind you, she's still impulsive and tempermental, prone to doing boneheaded things without considering how things might end.
Her half-sister Sylvia is stuck up in much the way I was at the beginning of the book. Maxie doesn't help things any by shirking work and making it obvious that she considers herself the more attractive of the two. But Sylvia has business skills and knows how to look professional, things that Maxie needs to learn.
The mystery is decent and the solution makes good sense. If you'd asked me during the first 50 pages, I would have told you this would be the last book of this series that I'd read—one and done. But now I find myself wondering where the women's wandering father is, whether security guard/former cop Nick is going to be a love interest for Maxie eventually, and what will happen when Sylvia and Maxie rejoin the Chili Showdown. Consider me interested.
Then I was confronted with the main character, Maxie Pierce, who appears to be dumb as a post. She annoyed me, because, you know, women main characters ought to be smart. By halfway through the novel, I realized that I was being prejudiced. Maxie had a father who was always on the make. Even though she loves him, he is a charming philanderer at the very least. Needless to say, her parents are divorced and her mother hasn't had much good influence on Maxie either. How do you learn life skills if no one is role modeling for you? And it turns out that Maxie is smart, but no one has taught her how to focus.
Most cozy protagonists are written as mystery readers. They know how the story is supposed to go. Maxie is more a drinking, smoking, and partying kind of girl. So she has a reputation to work against when a murder is committed in a nearby trailer. She has never applied herself to anything and has a lot of catching up to do. Mind you, she's still impulsive and tempermental, prone to doing boneheaded things without considering how things might end.
Her half-sister Sylvia is stuck up in much the way I was at the beginning of the book. Maxie doesn't help things any by shirking work and making it obvious that she considers herself the more attractive of the two. But Sylvia has business skills and knows how to look professional, things that Maxie needs to learn.
The mystery is decent and the solution makes good sense. If you'd asked me during the first 50 pages, I would have told you this would be the last book of this series that I'd read—one and done. But now I find myself wondering where the women's wandering father is, whether security guard/former cop Nick is going to be a love interest for Maxie eventually, and what will happen when Sylvia and Maxie rejoin the Chili Showdown. Consider me interested.
August 26, 2018
Chili con Carnage is the first in the A Chili Cook-off Mystery by Kylie Logan. I have liked other series by this author, in particular her Button series. The mystery here is good and well done with elements from the past coming out to implicate someone in a present crime. There is also an overarching mystery to be continued in future books, the protagonist’s father is missing. I just had an issue with not liking the protagonist at all. Immature, lazy, and selfish are just words off the top of my head to describe her. “Who died and left you boss?� actually comes out of her mouth as an adult woman speaking to her adult sister, multiple times in a non-ironic way.
April 3, 2018
I'd say 2 1/2 stars. I really didn't like the MC, Maxie. She and her half-sister are running their father's spice trailer and she pretty much expects her sister to do all the work. She comes across as lazy and irresponsible. However, when her sister is arrested for murder, she does step up at the business and investigates. However, she isn't subtle but somehow manages to find out lots of secrets (although her biggest clue was pure chance).
Will Maxie did come through in investigating, otherwise she treated her sister horribly (even ordering pizza with toppings her sister hated when she was released from jail). Plus multiple times she did the whole TSTL thing of confronting the person she though was guilty by herself. I'm just not interested enough in the characters to continue this series.
Will Maxie did come through in investigating, otherwise she treated her sister horribly (even ordering pizza with toppings her sister hated when she was released from jail). Plus multiple times she did the whole TSTL thing of confronting the person she though was guilty by herself. I'm just not interested enough in the characters to continue this series.
June 3, 2022
The mystery is good but the MC is annoying and petty. Constant petty fights with her HALF-sister. Papa is a rolling stone who left disappointed women in his wake. The sisters are carrying their mother's baggage & bitterness. Even though she does come to her half-sister's rescue, this series is not worth continuing. I am one and done.
December 18, 2020
This is my first foray into Ms. Logan's books, and I can't tell you whether I'll make another one or not. Later on in the review, I'll inform everyone why.
Maxie Pierce and her half sister Sylvia have taken over their father's business -- which is to go from place to place selling his chili ingredients and making chili so that customers will try it and purchase items. They belong to a group of people who travel from town to town doing this. Maxie's job is mainly to wear the Chili Chick costume and dance around to draw attention to their trailer. Sylvia mainly does everything else.
But it seems Maxie had a bad date the evening before with a man named Roberto, where he got into a bar fight and ignored her the entire evening, so when he shows up wanting to see her again, and pretty much telling her it's because she has a reputation on the circuit for being "easy." she has a very public fight with him. Then, when hotshot television chef Carter Donnelly shows up, she tries to get him to try some of her father's chili that she had already made, but her sister Sylvia tries to sabotage her by getting him to try some of her own creation. What ensues is a very childish scene in which Maxie accidentally spills her bowl of chili on Carter while trying to get around Sylvia; and when she opens Carter's RV to get a towel for him, the body of Roberto tumbles down on her.
Later on, she finds that Sylvia's been arrested for Roberto's murder, and Maxie decides to help her by finding out who killed him. She's also hoping for help from the hot security guard Nick -- whom Sylvia also has her eye on -- but he wants her to leave it to the police. So Maxie's working on her own, and trying to stay away from a killer...
This is the first in this series, and unfortunately it's going to be the last one that I'm going to read. First off, Maxie and Sylvia are downright nasty people. Sylvia is self-centered, selfish, mean, and an out-and-out horrible person, while Maxie is just annoying. We never get to find out why they hate each other. From what we're told, Sylvia is two years older than Maxie. So Jack left Sylvia's mother when she was younger than that to marry Maxie's, so it can't be memories of him leaving her, because there wouldn't be any. We also find out that he spent every summer with both his daughters, so it isn't because he never spent any time with her. So what's the reason? Her mother poisoning her against her father? Yeah, that's healthy.
Then we find out that Sylvia doesn't care whether her father is found or not. She's only in it for what she can get out of it (and I'm not explaining that any further). Maxie, however, loves her father and is in it so she can figure out where he is and bring him home.
But when Sylvia is arrested, she's on her own, and her personality doesn't get any better, either. We never find out what makes either of them tick, nothing about their personalities. We don't find out about Nick's background either. There just wasn't anything to bring us into the characters, to liven them up, to make them a little bit human. They were just words on a page.
When Sylvia was exonerated -- which we knew she would be, so no surprise there -- is she grateful? Nope. She goes right back to being the nasty person she is -- which should have made Maxie pack right up and go back to her home, wherever that is (we have no idea, of course).
Which means that the murder mystery wasn't interesting. If you can't invest in the characters, why invest in the mystery? In fact, when the book was finished, I turned the page and thought: where's the rest of it? Yep. That pretty much sums it up. Where's Jack? Who does Nick like? Why do the women hate each other? I absolutely detest books that give us cliffhangers. I always feel like we're being "held hostage," in other words, being forced to purchase the next book in order to find out what happens next. I abhor them. Because of this, I won't be reading any more in this series.
Maxie Pierce and her half sister Sylvia have taken over their father's business -- which is to go from place to place selling his chili ingredients and making chili so that customers will try it and purchase items. They belong to a group of people who travel from town to town doing this. Maxie's job is mainly to wear the Chili Chick costume and dance around to draw attention to their trailer. Sylvia mainly does everything else.
But it seems Maxie had a bad date the evening before with a man named Roberto, where he got into a bar fight and ignored her the entire evening, so when he shows up wanting to see her again, and pretty much telling her it's because she has a reputation on the circuit for being "easy." she has a very public fight with him. Then, when hotshot television chef Carter Donnelly shows up, she tries to get him to try some of her father's chili that she had already made, but her sister Sylvia tries to sabotage her by getting him to try some of her own creation. What ensues is a very childish scene in which Maxie accidentally spills her bowl of chili on Carter while trying to get around Sylvia; and when she opens Carter's RV to get a towel for him, the body of Roberto tumbles down on her.
Later on, she finds that Sylvia's been arrested for Roberto's murder, and Maxie decides to help her by finding out who killed him. She's also hoping for help from the hot security guard Nick -- whom Sylvia also has her eye on -- but he wants her to leave it to the police. So Maxie's working on her own, and trying to stay away from a killer...
This is the first in this series, and unfortunately it's going to be the last one that I'm going to read. First off, Maxie and Sylvia are downright nasty people. Sylvia is self-centered, selfish, mean, and an out-and-out horrible person, while Maxie is just annoying. We never get to find out why they hate each other. From what we're told, Sylvia is two years older than Maxie. So Jack left Sylvia's mother when she was younger than that to marry Maxie's, so it can't be memories of him leaving her, because there wouldn't be any. We also find out that he spent every summer with both his daughters, so it isn't because he never spent any time with her. So what's the reason? Her mother poisoning her against her father? Yeah, that's healthy.
Then we find out that Sylvia doesn't care whether her father is found or not. She's only in it for what she can get out of it (and I'm not explaining that any further). Maxie, however, loves her father and is in it so she can figure out where he is and bring him home.
But when Sylvia is arrested, she's on her own, and her personality doesn't get any better, either. We never find out what makes either of them tick, nothing about their personalities. We don't find out about Nick's background either. There just wasn't anything to bring us into the characters, to liven them up, to make them a little bit human. They were just words on a page.
When Sylvia was exonerated -- which we knew she would be, so no surprise there -- is she grateful? Nope. She goes right back to being the nasty person she is -- which should have made Maxie pack right up and go back to her home, wherever that is (we have no idea, of course).
Which means that the murder mystery wasn't interesting. If you can't invest in the characters, why invest in the mystery? In fact, when the book was finished, I turned the page and thought: where's the rest of it? Yep. That pretty much sums it up. Where's Jack? Who does Nick like? Why do the women hate each other? I absolutely detest books that give us cliffhangers. I always feel like we're being "held hostage," in other words, being forced to purchase the next book in order to find out what happens next. I abhor them. Because of this, I won't be reading any more in this series.
June 21, 2020
Maxie recently broke up with her boyfriend in Chicago after he cleaned out her bank account and put her thousands of dollars in debt. Her father, who sold spices in a travelling chili cook-off circuit, disappeared six weeks ago so she catches up with the Taos Chili Showdown in New Mexico to try to find out what happened to her father. She has to work with her half-sister, Sylvia, who she doesn't get along with (they have the same father), to keep running the family business.
Celebrity chef Carter Donnelly is at the Showdown to promote it and himself. It's a surprise when Roberto, one of the show's roadies, is found dead in Carter's RV. Maxie had had one date with Roberto but wasn't interested in him and had had a fight with him that morning. Plus it turns out Sylvia had a history with him and is arrested for his murder. As much as she doesn't like Sylvia, Maxie doesn't think she killed Roberto and she sets out to find out who did.
This is the first in the Chili Cook-Off Mystery Series by this author. It is written in first person perspective in Maxie's voice. I liked Maxie well enough but thought Sylvia was too bitter and nasty. It's a "cozy mystery" so there is no swearing, violence or adult activity. I thought story and writing were okay and I liked it enough to read the next one in the series.
Blog post review:
Celebrity chef Carter Donnelly is at the Showdown to promote it and himself. It's a surprise when Roberto, one of the show's roadies, is found dead in Carter's RV. Maxie had had one date with Roberto but wasn't interested in him and had had a fight with him that morning. Plus it turns out Sylvia had a history with him and is arrested for his murder. As much as she doesn't like Sylvia, Maxie doesn't think she killed Roberto and she sets out to find out who did.
This is the first in the Chili Cook-Off Mystery Series by this author. It is written in first person perspective in Maxie's voice. I liked Maxie well enough but thought Sylvia was too bitter and nasty. It's a "cozy mystery" so there is no swearing, violence or adult activity. I thought story and writing were okay and I liked it enough to read the next one in the series.
Blog post review:
November 5, 2017
A fun, fast-paced story set in the unlikely environment of a traveling chili cook-off. I love the Prime Crime mysteries and this one was enjoyable, even though I'm not 100% sold on the recipe at the end!
April 7, 2021
After Maxie Pierce’s boyfriend empties her bank account she receives a phone call that her father is missing and she heads south to find him on the chili cook-off circuit. After a bad date with one of the roadies wakes up to an argument with her sister, Sylvia, and it isn’t long before Maxie makes an unfortunate discovery. Roberto, her date from the night before has been murdered and stuffed into the RV of the celebrity judge. When Sylvia is arrested for the crime, Maxie and the cook-off security guard begin their own investigation of the murder.
I can’t believe I finished reading this book. The characters are flat, although the author attempts to create tension between the sisters, I mean “half-sisters.� The plot drags and isn’t engaging. I won’t be reading the next book in the series, and I don’t recommend this book.
I can’t believe I finished reading this book. The characters are flat, although the author attempts to create tension between the sisters, I mean “half-sisters.� The plot drags and isn’t engaging. I won’t be reading the next book in the series, and I don’t recommend this book.
January 9, 2018
Although this is another good cozy mystery, it didn't really hit a nerve with me, so wasn't one of my favorites. Still, I liked it, and I will finish reading the rest of the series.
January 16, 2016
Maxie Pierce and her half-sister Sylvia are back on the Chili Cook Off circuit. Their daddy, Texas Jack Pierce, king of the chili cook-off circuit, has been missing for weeks. He has a bit of a reputation for chasing the ladies but to go off and leave The Palace in the hands of others is something her just wouldn’t do. People come from far and wide to buy his unique chili seasonings. Maxie was ready to leave Chicago but working side by side with Sylvia in the small quarters of the Palace and living together in an RV wad not what she really had in mind. She needs to find Jack and get the heck back to her own life as soon as possible.
Then a dead body literally falls on top of her and her half sister is the prime suspect. She is also being watched because the dead guy happens to be a guy she had drinks with the night before and things didn’t end well. In fact they had a very public argument just a few hours before he died. She needs to turn up the heat and find the real killer before things get too hot and spicy to handle.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
First thing first, our family chili recipe includes beans and no hot peppers :) or pickles??
Now about this delightfully hot and spicy mystery, I loved it!
Maxine is a fabulous character and Sylvia is truly something else. She is a woman with an ulterior motive who needs to be put in her place and Maxie is just the person to put here there. Maxie’s heart is in the right place but right now her life is a bit of a mess. Going forward this family dynamic could get to be quite volatile and I can’t wait. As they travel the circuit and hopefully a certain handsome security guard tags along you never know what could happen next. Family conflict will be almost as hot as the chili.
There is quite a group of people that travel the circuit and we met a few in this installment. I am sure we will get to know them better and meet others as the series continues.
In addition to introducing us to these fantastic characters Kylie Logan has plotted quite an interesting mystery with plenty of viable suspects. So many had means, motive and opportunity. This reader was surprised.
Kylie you are off to a great start with this one! I am looking forward to the next stop on the Chili Cook Off Showdown tour. I know it will be another tasty treat!
Then a dead body literally falls on top of her and her half sister is the prime suspect. She is also being watched because the dead guy happens to be a guy she had drinks with the night before and things didn’t end well. In fact they had a very public argument just a few hours before he died. She needs to turn up the heat and find the real killer before things get too hot and spicy to handle.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
First thing first, our family chili recipe includes beans and no hot peppers :) or pickles??
Now about this delightfully hot and spicy mystery, I loved it!
Maxine is a fabulous character and Sylvia is truly something else. She is a woman with an ulterior motive who needs to be put in her place and Maxie is just the person to put here there. Maxie’s heart is in the right place but right now her life is a bit of a mess. Going forward this family dynamic could get to be quite volatile and I can’t wait. As they travel the circuit and hopefully a certain handsome security guard tags along you never know what could happen next. Family conflict will be almost as hot as the chili.
There is quite a group of people that travel the circuit and we met a few in this installment. I am sure we will get to know them better and meet others as the series continues.
In addition to introducing us to these fantastic characters Kylie Logan has plotted quite an interesting mystery with plenty of viable suspects. So many had means, motive and opportunity. This reader was surprised.
Kylie you are off to a great start with this one! I am looking forward to the next stop on the Chili Cook Off Showdown tour. I know it will be another tasty treat!
October 2, 2013
One of my favorite kinds of cozy mysteries are "food related", and I really enjoyed this story about Maxie, and her half-sister Sylvia as they make the rounds in the chili-cook off circuit in the Hot-Cha Chili Seasoning Palace!
As soon as I started reading it, it grabbed my attention. I really like the cute expressions and sayings that are mixed into the mystery, and I love the chili pepper costume!
Maxie and Sylvia dont always get along..but they are trying hard to keep the Chili Seasoning Palace up and running.
The characters are well written and the story leaves you guessing "who did it" until the end!
As soon as I started reading it, it grabbed my attention. I really like the cute expressions and sayings that are mixed into the mystery, and I love the chili pepper costume!
Maxie and Sylvia dont always get along..but they are trying hard to keep the Chili Seasoning Palace up and running.
The characters are well written and the story leaves you guessing "who did it" until the end!
October 28, 2014
Well persnickety! Seems as if there has been a darned old murder at the chili festival. When her half sister is arrested for this horrible travesty our heroine springs into action becoming a regular Nancy Drew in heat searching for who dunnit. I really felt like I was reading someones high school English assignment rather than an actual novel printed by a publisher. My first foray into the cozy mystery and I just about did not make it out alive. I guess the cozy mystery genre is not my cup of tea.
October 8, 2015
Sorry, did not like this one at all. I didn't like any of the main characters. It was really hard to get through.
December 9, 2018
Let me preface by saying this is a cozy mystery novel. That being said, the 3.5/5 stars is not a slight against this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it! It made me chuckle to myself and kept me on the edge of my seat just waiting to figure out who in the world would be so angry as to murder some one at a chili-cook off. Kylie Logan did an excellent job at mixing the mystery with the hilarity of Maxie Pierce's personality. My one complaint is that the culprit was figured out and caught within a 2 page window and the wrap-up afterwards left me wanting more.
It's about a murder that takes place at a chili-cook off (duh) and ends up getting pinned on Maxie's half-sister, Sylvia. Maxie just KNOWS that her snobbish, stuck-up, money-hungry sister couldn't possibly have done this and takes it upon herself to find evidence that proves her half-sister is innocent. Maxie 'interviews' multiple people within the chili circuit that she grew up in and gets herself into some trouble that Nick (the hunky security guard both sisters are in love with) helps her out of. While she's focused on helping Sylvia, there's a greater mystery that's fallen to the way side - where did their father Jack Peirce of Texas Jack Peirce's Chili Palace go? He disappeared a couple stops ago and no one will tell them anything.
It's an engaging story with interesting characters. Some of them you can't help but become fond of and others will have you grimacing at their arrogance. You want a light, delightful mystery that comes with a chili recipe at the end? This is TOTALLY the book for you.
P.S. The chili recipe was delicious. Y'all gotta make it.
It's about a murder that takes place at a chili-cook off (duh) and ends up getting pinned on Maxie's half-sister, Sylvia. Maxie just KNOWS that her snobbish, stuck-up, money-hungry sister couldn't possibly have done this and takes it upon herself to find evidence that proves her half-sister is innocent. Maxie 'interviews' multiple people within the chili circuit that she grew up in and gets herself into some trouble that Nick (the hunky security guard both sisters are in love with) helps her out of. While she's focused on helping Sylvia, there's a greater mystery that's fallen to the way side - where did their father Jack Peirce of Texas Jack Peirce's Chili Palace go? He disappeared a couple stops ago and no one will tell them anything.
It's an engaging story with interesting characters. Some of them you can't help but become fond of and others will have you grimacing at their arrogance. You want a light, delightful mystery that comes with a chili recipe at the end? This is TOTALLY the book for you.
P.S. The chili recipe was delicious. Y'all gotta make it.
April 29, 2019
I started reading this book because I was stuck at my parents' house without my Kindle. My mom has a stash of cozies, and Kylie Logan is one of my favorites, so I decided to indulge. I have to admit, I was three glasses of wine in by the time I got to the middle, so I had to re-read several parts to figure out what was really going on. This book's main strength is that it's a touch adventurous for a cozy, with some delicious innuendo and a few spicy twists. I did think a traveling chili cook-off was a weird location; I remember Kylie talking about the contract years ago (we are in a mystery group together) and thinking it was weird then too, but she does a great job making it seem real. One day I will get caught up on her whole backlist!
September 21, 2017
Over all an ok read. Very slow in the first third but then picked up. Half sisters are running their fathers chili concession at the "Showdown", a traveling chili cook off/fair as he has apparently disappeared. One of the sisters is arrested for murder of an old boyfriend that is working at the fair as a roadie and whom she hasn't seen in 10 years. The other sister sets out to prove her innocent so they can move on with the show. The main character is likeable but the other sister is not.
August 5, 2019
Living in an interesting gypsy/carny traveling 'chili cookoff' road show, our characters ...at least those who survive... work their way through several days of mayhem. Red herrings abound, and lives are complicated and interwoven.
This is the first of three episodes, hopefully the somewhat sketchy character development will be filled in as we progress. So far, storytelling is straightforward with little of the humor that I have come to expect from a Kozy.
3½ � � ..."rounded up" for 5*system...
This is the first of three episodes, hopefully the somewhat sketchy character development will be filled in as we progress. So far, storytelling is straightforward with little of the humor that I have come to expect from a Kozy.
3½ � � ..."rounded up" for 5*system...
November 1, 2019
It's cool here today and after reading this, I want chilli. I enjoyed getting to know some new characters and introduced to some new quirks in their relationships. A good start to a new set of mysteries. How will relationships change, what new murder will happen? Can't wait to read the next book and find the answers to these questions and the other little mysterious tidbits the author left us with.
May 25, 2017
I'm honestly on the fence about this book (and by extension, this series). I nearly dropped it without finishing. I think it has a lot to do with people who insist against all evidence that X is true, or Y is the way to go. The more I deal with people like that in real life, the less I want to in fiction. I'll give it another go in the next book, I guess.
February 6, 2019
Definitely not your typical cozy. Maxie is interesting to read about, but I'm not sure I'd want to meet her. I'd probably end up doing all her work because she's always going off somewhere. The Chili Showdown, the (half) sibling rivalry, the dancing chili pepper -- are all entertaining. And underlying it all, the charismatic and missing Texas Jack Pierce. I'm on to the next one.
March 31, 2018
Is there a thumbs down button?
Really didn't like it. Hated the premise, hated the protagonists, hated the "reaching for it" style.
I usually like this author. Maybe she's stretching herself a bit thin.
Really didn't like it. Hated the premise, hated the protagonists, hated the "reaching for it" style.
I usually like this author. Maybe she's stretching herself a bit thin.
October 19, 2018
I found it hard to get started on this book. Took me 3 weeks to commit the time, because Maxie is so hard to like. Still did not care for her at the end, but will try one more book in the series to verify.
December 1, 2018
This is the first book in the Chili Cook-off Mystery series by Kylie Logan. This tale takes place in New Mexico, the creative characters add to the story with every page and this ending has the reader noting the salty language in the story. copy right 2013
May 5, 2021
The big turn off with this book is the sisters didn’t get along. The story would have been so much better. I thought Maxie was lazy, arrogant, and a total witch. It is really rare that I don’t like a main character in a book. I could not stand her. I won’t be reading anymore of this series.
January 21, 2022
Didn't care much for the main character. I found her attitudes and childish behavior annoying. She didn't so much investigate as ask a lot of questions and got lucky because the guilty parties spilled the beans so easily.
May 7, 2023
DNF @ page 16. MC is catty and constantly refers to her sister as only a "half sister" which, as someone who only has "half" siblings, rubs me the wrong way. The main character just isn't the kind of person I want to spend any length of time with, so I'm putting it down.
May 30, 2017
Cute book, can't wait to read the next book in the series.
June 11, 2017
Great, fun romp of a mystery. Follows an amateur detective on the chili circuit.
August 12, 2017
Story wasn't bad but author uses 50 words when 5 would be just fine.
January 22, 2018
DNF - 21/282 (7%)
Qué protagonista tan más odiosa!!
"Maxie" is so unpleasant main character, I could not read further.
Qué protagonista tan más odiosa!!
"Maxie" is so unpleasant main character, I could not read further.
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