The Game Changer by Jennifer Brown {A Book Review}

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts are 100% my own. 

Hollis and Daisy love podcasting about murder cases… But can they solve one?

Hollis Bisbee used to be a big-city crime reporter. Now, she’s a small-town journalist, and she’s bored. She and a young mom, talented baker Daisy Mueller, start the Knock ‘Em Dead podcast―”Where murder and muffins meet!” It’s all fun, games, and baking tips until murder comes to Parkwood.

After a brutal homecoming game loss, the coach of the rival football team is the victim of a hit-and-run in the high school parking lot. The entire town is on edge, and the star quarterback―who happens to be the police chief’s son―may just look the guiltiest of all.

With Hollis’s investigative skills and Daisy’s famous muffins…and in spite of the charming rookie police officer tasked with keeping Hollis out of the way…the podcasting duo sets out to solve their first real case.

This cozy mystery includes a killer free recipe for Daisy's Cherry Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Jennifer Brown is the award-winning author of young adult novels Bitter End, Perfect Escape, Thousand Words, Torn Away, and the Shade Me series. Her acclaimed debut young adult novel, Hate List, was chosen as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a VOYA Perfect Ten, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Jennifer is also the national bestselling author of several women’s fiction novels, including The Sister Season and The Accidental Book Club, under the pseudonym Jennifer Scott. She lives in the Kansas City, Missouri, area with her husband and children. You can visit Jennifer online at www.JenniferBrownAuthor.com

While I love a good action packed, high stakes suspense... sometimes I just need a little cozy mystery. They have everything I love about the mystery and suspense genre (a good ol' whodunnit, usually a little romance, etc)... but they also have a lightheartedness about them as well... somehow they manage to keep such a heavy topic as murder from becoming too dark. Oftentimes, you will find that my TV is set to Hallmark mysteries for just that reason. So, anytime I see a mystery book published by Hallmark, I know it is going to be right up my alley. Needless to say, I was excited and had quite high expectations for The Game Changer. It did not disappoint.

Oftentimes when I've read cozy mystery type books in the past (or watched the movies), it seemed to me that the non-cop characters always seemed almost TOO good at solving the crime. There's nothing wrong with that of course--- it's all part of the fun, but what struck me with this book is that while Hollis and Daisy were pretty good at figuring things out--- they clearly were NOT the pros. That lead to some rather humorous moments that made me chuckle. Now admittedly, I don't believe I've read the first in any series in the past before either, so perhaps that might change once the story goes on if we stick with these characters, but I really enjoyed this aspect of the story. The characters in this story really were just rather easy to fall in love with... again, they had some shortcomings, but the just seemed like rather genuine characters and I enjoyed getting to know them. I truly don't know if they will take the lead role in the remainder of the series but I do so hope to at least catch up with them again in future books.

While I had my (correct) suspicions on the culprit fairly early on, there were several twists and turns that had me guessing for a bit... there were several possible theories introduced, so I really enjoyed trying to figure it all out.

If you love a good cozy mystery, this is definitely a series to check out! It's a quick and fun read that I really enjoyed. I look forward to more from this series in the future.

The Game Changer will be available on January 7, 2020, you can preorder your copy here: