e-Audio, 10:41:31
Narrated by: Eunice Wong
Release Date: March 14, 2023
Published by: Books on Tape
Read from: March 5-6, 2025
Vera Wong, #1
Source: PRH App (I received an ALC from the publisher and their app in exchange for a just and honest review. A huge thank you for the free ALC. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Murder, Emotional Abuse, Death, Toxic Relationship, Domestic Abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Grief, Death of a Parent
For Readers Interested In: Adult, Audio, Cozy, Mystery, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Asian-Chinese), Realistic FictionPut the kettle on, there’s a mystery brewing…
Tea-shop owner. Matchmaker. Detective?
Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet).
But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could – because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands – Vera decides it’s down to her to catch the killer.
Nobody spills the tea like this amateur sleuth.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Once I started reading cozy mysteries, I just couldn’t stop. And this latest one I read with Vera Wong was exactly what I needed. She was the exact right amount of nosey and just a little less funny than I expected, but she made up for it in spades with her extra-ness lol
The best thing about this book was the characters. Not only Vera, but the others as well. Like the police officer lmao I could just picture her and her face every time Vera turned up out of nowhere or offered them some tea lol And Vera on her own, was also funny. But there were times that I felt really bad for her. And like her son? Yeah I have a few choice words for him. He did her so wrong lol And then during this hella scary time she seemed to have no one. I felt so bad for her.
The mystery was good tho. I do think it could have been more thrilling tho? (I know you’re like uh an old lady found a dead man in her tea shop lol how much more thrilling can you be?) But it was such low stakes, like there was nothing there that got my heart rate going if that makes sense. And I think I wanted to see more of the clues and things she took or did when she did it. It was weird not being able to guess whodunit because we (the reader) didn’t have the clues or details that she did.
All in all, I can’t wait to read more of her nosey antics in the next one. I’m just as excited for that one as I was for Glory Daze lol I hope Vera #2 is just as good or exciting as this one. Thankfully it comes out soon and I don’t have to wait like you all had to lol
Overall, I give this
