I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
Apple of My Eye
by
Alyssa Day
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery, paranormal fantasy in a Kindle edition on August 26, 2020 and has 196 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Wild Thing, Atlantis Rising, Atlantis Unleashed, Atlantis Awakening, Atlantis Unmasked, Atlantis Redeemed, Atlantis Betrayed, Vampire in Atlantis, Heart of Atlantis, Dead Eye, "Travelling Eye", Private Eye, Evil Eye, Eye of the Storm, Eye on the Ball
Sixth in the Tiger’s Eye Mystery cozy paranormal mystery series and revolving around that amateur sleuth, Tess Callahan in Dead End, Florida.
My Take
Like Andy says, Tess keeps on attracting those body parts, and we learn just how Tess feels about it through Day’s use of first person protagonist point-of-view from Tess’ perspective.
Day always manages to include some interesting bits of Dead End history.
Eleanor learns a good lesson on communication — with no assumptions. I do love Day’s description of Shelley, speaking mainly in exclamation points, lol.
There’s a lot happening in Apple of My Eye. Shelley’s mom’s brother wants to take Shelley! The Swamp Cabbage costume dilemma. The unearthed skeleton. Sussing out the woman with whom Bill is cheating! A missing Mellie. The jealousy and greed at the Swamp Cabbage Festival. That dinner in Atlantis that contrasts with Tess’ feelings about Jack’s disappearance. The bullying Brig. Those increasingly awful “gifts” someone is sending Tess. Then there’s Tess’s younger admirer.
Jack is so cute. His comment about his previous very active and “exciting” life and comparing it to the peaceful life in a small town made me wanna cry. Of course, he does have to answer for just taking off for so long!
It seems that Aunt Ruby can be sweetly intimidating in an interrogation, lol.
It’s a sweet and cozy mystery with a wide range of quirky characters you can’t help but laugh with (and at!).
The Story
It’s Swamp Cabbage Festival time and Tess has to decorate the pawn shop for the event. Right along with many others. Until Aunt Ruby insists Tess step in and wear that smelly Swamp Cabbage clown costume!
Even better, Jack gets an invitation to dinner in Atlantis! Still, it isn’t enough to still those morbid thoughts Tess has about Jack sticking around.
Worse to come? Lucky found a skeleton.
The Characters
Tess Callahan is a touch sensitive. Well, that’s too broad a category, the first time she touches most people, she sees how they’ll die. Lieutenant Uhura, a.k.a. Lou, is her cat. Aunt Ruby (the newly elected mayor of Dead End) and her retired uncle Mike Callahan raised Tess when her mother died and her father left. Uncle Mike still makes use of his engineering knowledge to fix anything and everything. The busy Shelley is Tess’ new sister (Dead Eye, 1) fascinated by robotics and history. Tess’ maternal grandmother is a banshee (Private Eye, 2). Bonnie Jo is their ailing pet horse.
Jack Shepherd, a former commander of the rebels and a Bengal tiger shifter, operates Tiger’s Eye Investigations in the office next to Tess’ Dead End Pawn. He’s on good terms with Atlantean royalty.
Dead End Pawn is . . .
. . . the pawnshop Tess inherited from Jack’s uncle Jeremiah. Fluffy, a taxidermied gator, is the shop mascot. Eleanor Wolf is Tess’ only employee, and she’s a fair but tough negotiator. Some of Tess’ customers include the GYSTERs, tourists on a Golden Years Swamp Tours bus run by Mr Holby.
Dave Wolf, Eleanor’s son, runs a construction business; his son is Zane. Dave had been best friends with Jack back in the day. Bill Oliver (of the stuffed jackalope in Eye of Danger, 4) is Eleanor’s fiancé — and she thinks he’s cheating on her. Molly Chen has been Tess’ best friend since grade school. Now Molly is an up-and-coming star with the Scarlett’s Letters and dating Lucky. Dice is her too-angry guitarist.
Dead End, Florida, is . . .
. . . a small town where most state and federal laws don’t apply and where everyone knows and accepts everyone else, even those supernaturals. Deaf Mr Russell, Amelia Howard doesn’t mind it but her parents, and the kindly Pastor Caleb Nash prefer that Tess not sing in church. Henrietta Nash is the pastor’s wife, and they have three children. Carlos Gonzalez, a vampire and Susan’s brother, is Tess’ neighbor with whom she shares a driveway. Dallas and Austin Fox, twin brothers and ex-Special Forces/Army rangers, who are computer geniuses; they and Lucky are some of the Swamp Commandos who operate an airboat business.
Beau’s is the only sit-down restaurant in town where Lorraine has waitressed for over 50 years. And she had once been the mayor. The Dead End Gazette is the local paper. Mellie’s Bakery does good donuts, but Mellie’s current help, Cousin Vern, isn’t very good. Lucky for Mellie, Dallas likes her. Lauren Rollins owns Lauren’s Deli. The Peterson boys, Emeril and Harold, now run Dead End Hardware. The serious and pompous Olav Haroldsson is the president of the Dead End First National Bank and not too happy those antics the Petersons get up to. Doc Cahill is the town veterinarian.
The much better sheriff is Susan Gonzalez, and Deputy Andrew Kelly is a godsend. Belle is the police dispatcher. Special Agent Alejandro Vasquez is with the Paranormal Operations Division of the FBI and friends with Tess and Jack.
Susan and Carlos’ grandmother is hanging out with her deceased husband — and it’s worrying the family.
Marvin became a vampire and now drives the night shift. The ancient Mr and Mrs Frost — she can be deadly with that crossbow — get around. Rooster Jenkins raises goats. Darla Holliday caused a fight between Mrs Quindlen and Granny Josephine. I’m not sure how Mr Quindlen felt about it. Winifred “Win” is a hussy! Mrs Lee had owned a restaurant for forty years. Mr Charpentier is a chef. Bubba McKee has a pet boa constrictor. Yasmine is a garden witch. Vince is the “best” quarterback for the Dead End Manatee football team, and he likes older women *eyebrow waggle*. Ann Feeney is missing a finger. Brenda Sweeney used to date Vern. Elmer Krantz works at the Pit Stop. Sue-Ellen Bishop has had a cold. The Jenkins cousins are in town for the festival. Annabelle Hannah Yorgenson was the first time Tess’ gift manifested. Owen, a dentist, is Tess’ former boyfriend.
Sheriff Lawless, oh, former sheriff — he’s in prison now (Dead Eye). Ratbottom is also a former, a former mayor (Eye of Danger, 4).
Riley is the queen of Atlantis through her marriage to King Conlan (Atlantis Rising, 1).
The obnoxious Brigham Hammermill the Fourth, a.k.a. Brig, died in a squall while out in his yacht. Kowalski had been an evil witch (Dead Eye).
Swamp Cabbage is also known as hearts of palm or sabal palm.
The Cover and Title
The cover is warm with the dulled yellow building in the upper background. I adore the deep porch on the front of it. The lower half of the cover is a lawn in two shades of green. Just this side of the darker green is Jack in tiger form standing in profile, inquisitively sniffing for that apple that the black-shorts-and-tank-top-clad, red-haired Tess has knelt down to pick up. At the very top is an info blurb in white. Below that is the author’s name in a paler yellow. The title is beneath Tess in white as is in the series info below that.
The title is all about those stalker’s notes and gifts to the Apple of My Eye.
