I was looking for a quick and easy cozy mystery, and Death by Coffee did technically meet that criteria but ultimately fell flat for me. None of the character relationships felt authentic — the main character's primary feeling for her supposed best friend seems to be jealousy about her good looks, and her feelings for her love interest seem lukewarm at best. Many of the characters frequently demonstrate a huge lack of boundaries that is remarked upon in the text but never meaningfully addressed. Perhaps even more of a problem is that the mystery is kind of boring, and in fact seems to take no skill on the part of our amateur detective to solve, only a willingness to badger a grieving widow on multiple occasions. I was interested enough in the outcome to finish reading the book (thus the two star rating) but only just.