She Doesn’t Have a Clue by Jenny Elder Moke

e-ALC, 10:24:37
Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
Release Date: January 21, 2025
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Read from: January 28-29, 2026
Rom Com Mystery, #2
Source: Google Play (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Google Play. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Sexual Content, Murder, Death, Cursing, Alcohol, Blood, Vomit, Drug Use, Vomit, Drug Use, Infidelity
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Books About Books, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Cozy, Mystery, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Thrillers

     With a colorful cast of characters and a cellar full of wine, anything can happen―from murder to a second chance at love―in Jenny Elder Moke’s half mystery, half romance adult debut set at a lavish destination wedding.
     A high-end wedding on a private island off the coast of Seattle sounds like something out of a magazine. But for bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine, it’s more like a nightmare.
     Why Kate agreed to attend her ex-fiancé’s wedding is its own enigma, but she’ll plaster on a fake smile for two nights, with the aid of free champagne, naturally. And because the groom happens to be her editor, she’ll try to finish a draft of her latest Loretta Starling mystery as a wedding gift. But when the bride is poisoned and Kate stumbles across a dead body, she finds herself in a real-life mystery that eerily echoes the plot of her latest novel. And the only person who seems willing to help Kate catch the killer is Jake Hawkins, aka: the Hostralian; aka: Kate’s biggest romantic regret.
     As the wine flows and the weather threatens to hold every guest hostage, bitter resentments and long-held grudges surface amongst the colorful crowd. Anyone could be capable of murder, it seems. What would Loretta do? Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t have a clue.

*MY THOUGHTS*

I hurriedly checked this out as soon as I read and liked the second one. Butttt unfortunately I didn’t love this one as much as the other. It just didn’t hit the same. Even the characters were different from the other. And I liked them way better in the second one. Everyone in this book felt like a wet blanket.

So what I mean about the characters…. In this one Juliette Winters was annoying af. I don’t think I would have even made it to the second one if I had had read this one first. She would have irked my nerves too much lol She thought she knew everything and knew nothing at all lol And then there was the main character, Kate. She was ridiculously boring lol She let things happen to her and it just made it a little boring. She DID have one redeeming quality, which was her talking to her book character. I really liked that part of it. I DID like Jake tho. He was pretty nice too. I knew they had history before they even said it. It was a hot mess too lol

The mystery was actually pretty ok. It really reminded me of the first episode of Castle where the killer recreates the scenes in the books by Castle. It wasn’t scary at all, but with all the trap doors and the way she kept getting blamed, I thought it was still ok. Nothing too serious, but still good.

The romance was cute. It wasn’t super interesting, but still good. I really only liked Jake. I could tell he had a past but we don’t find out what it is until way later. Usually that bothers me, being dropped into the middle of a story, but this one didn’t. I guess because it was clear that he was helping Kate along and letting her do it at her own pace. Even when he didn’t want to and definitely didn’t want her to.

I don’t want to say too much because of spoilers, but this one wasn’t as good as the other. And even though this is the first one, I’m glad I read the second first. I’m not sire I would have made it to the other if I hadn’t.

Overall, I give this