I picked up this book, instantly charmed by the description of The Wind in the Willows meets murder mystery aspect. And that book totally delivers in that regard. You see this small animal community that mirrors our own, with its homey coffee shop, bookstore, local drama and curmudgeons, really everything you need in a town. The personalities of our characters aren't exactly three dimensional, but the simplicity of the plot and its players as well as the books' overall aesthetic ingratiated itself to me so much that it wasn't an issue. It was nice to have a mystery that didn't need a lot of brain processing power to deduce, focusing more on its cozier attributes.

While the book was ultimately worth the read for me, it did leave me a touch disappointed in the end.

Along with the basic plot, the book follows a mystery that, if it hadn't been for the animal aesthetic to give it some distinction, would have been seen as entirely cliche. Having the spurned lover on the side ultimately be the murderer seems like such a tired trope at this point along with the whole self-fulfilling prophecy of "jilted lover did the murder slightly out of her anger that everyone looked down at her, but she was a suspect in the first place mainly because everyone looked down on her for being promiscuous." It doesn't come off as too egregious though, since the reveal seems on level for every other twist in the book, but it would have been nice to have something original that matched the overall vibe.

I think I'm going to need another trip to Shady Hollow extremely soon, as it's a great book to curl up with and turn your brain off to.