Dead Tired: Expectant Detectives Book 2 Author Kat Ailes
Audiobook Review
Narrator Kitty Kelly
5 out of 5 stars!
First and foremost, it's best to read or listen to these books in order. We get recaps of the previous story and some spoilers! My review may also contain some spoilers for book one, "The Expectant Detectives".
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After roughly a year living in Penton and adjusting to the country life Alice thinks she's got the hang of things. Jack is now fourteen months old! Alice and Joe are trying to settle into their new roles as parents. Navigating through dirty diapers, sleepless nights, and mysterious fluid stains not to mention Helen being Helen!
Everything was calm and falling into place until Alice got dragged into a peaceful protest. Elsa and Poppy getting carried away by something other than parenting for a night! No kids or Helen in sight and able to relax against a tree. But the next day brought more than they bargained for when a fellow protestor is found dead! Here we go again! Will Alice be able to stay out of this murder? Was her amateur detective work a one and done? Or will she inevitably get swept away by the tidal wave that is Poppy and Elsa? Can the new moms solve another case together?!
Oh, I adore this series so much and hope there's more books to come! I just really love this take on amateur sleuthing and the twist of it being a group of new mums! You know how most moms would get together and form a book club or some other club? Yeah, forget the "normal" things. This group of women, their babies, partners at times, and Helen are not meant for the comfy, indoor, fiction reads or television!
I love how Jane has dubbed Alice as the ringleader of the mom group! When Alice is just trying to be a normal mum with normal hobbies. Steering clear of murders and not being the one to find dead bodies. But if she was really honest with herself, she'd know this is something she loves. Well, not the part of people dying and not being able to save them in time! She's not a genius like Sherlock Holmes but her brain picks up details and begins forming puzzle pieces until she can click them all into place. Questioning things and remembering.
The challenges of adjusting to a new mum with a fourteen-month-old is a lot. All of the mums feel as though their brains are rotting away as they try hanging onto their dwindling sanity. The group needing something to really engage their minds that doesn't concern their children. None of them would trade their children for the world, but they want to still be seen as more than mums. Alice questioning whether her and Poppy's friendship goes deeper than murder mysteries and bonds of motherhood. I feel like it does, but Alice has to get to that conclusion for herself.
This is a cozy murder mystery. There's language throughout the read. Woes of parenthood and "am I doing the right thing for my child?!". Alice not afraid to get into the nitty gritty of real life adulting/parenting. Not the glamourized, set-up, fictional view. Hen attempts to keep that scenic beauty of motherhood and proper child but I imagine behind closed doors or installments to come we will see that she's human and it's messy like the rest of us. Elsa even had to breakdown and buy disposable nappies! A scene with a clogged milk duct and having to massage it out with what was available. Helen's digestion tract needs to be studied by scientist! Grief, deaths, and more.
It certainly takes a village to raise a child let alone five! I admired the group and how they helped one another out. Hen's unfortunately a single parent as well as Elsa, though her single parenthood is still a mystery. Knowing Elsa, she may just take that secret to the grave! I'm as bad as Alice. . . All of the mums breastfeed so there are several scenes of boobs popping out. Love how all of them are blasé with seeing one another's breasts. But I mean babies need to eat! Interesting to see through Alice's POV and the before and after of having a baby. How things have changed even going back to her old stomping grounds with Jack in tow. Her wild, singlehood mindset versus her mum mindset.
I really don't want this to be the last installment! I need some answers to things regarding characters! Still love the dynamics and how not all the mums are just besties. Getting little glimpses of Hen accepting and indulging Alice. Love the mystery and how I can't fully figure everything out things before the ending! We do get an HEA for this read and I wanted to applaud Alice at the end like everyone else did. Love Kat's writing and I need to stop typing or I am going to keep going and potentially spoil the book!
Enjoy the cozy read with mums pursuing clues together along with their babies and a Helen. Don't forget to give the author some stars!
Expectant Detectives Mysteries (2 book series) Kindle Edition
Kat Ailes (@k.ailes) • Instagram photos and videos
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