To A Tea Book Review

 To A Tea 

Author: Vera Dodge

Length: 249 pages

Series: Tearoom Mysteries

        * Tearoom For Two

        * Tea Rose

        * To A Tea

Blurb:

Business is booming at Tea for Two, so cousins Elaine Cook and Jan Blake decide to hire more help. When Elaine interviews a dapper Englishman with a resume full of important jobs around the world, she can't help but wonder, Why does he want to work here?

As the tearoom readies its first wedding, Elaine's concerns are quicky overshadowed by the groom's sudden disappearance. Cold feet or foul play? The distraught bride turns to the cousins, who spring into action to find the missing groom. 

To make matters worse, a local bank is robbed. Could the two incidents be related? Elaine and Jan set out in different directions to solve the mystery-- even taking Jan to the town's biker bar! Before long, it becomes clear that the cousins are unraveling the same thread from different ends. The question is, will they meet in the middle?

My Thoughts:

I feel that the story is intriguing, but a slow read. It seems that the whole story in written in basically, two or three chapters, but the author has given us 24 to read to get to the conclusion. I feel it was grammatically very well written and had a good basis. The speed that the story moves along and some of what is written within the story seems redundant or unimportant or even unneeded to the story. 

As cousins, Jan and Elaine are setting up to host the first wedding at their tearoom, the groom suddenly disappears. At the same time, a bank in town is robbed and the sisters wonder if the two could be related. As each seeks to find answers to the same question in her own way, it seems that the answers are not as far away as they expected. 

Ryan, the missing groom surely did not rob the bank. Although, when Elaine and Ryan's mom find information that he has been sending money to Qutar and no one knows why, thought seem to be a little more jumbled. Why does a groom that is saving for a wedding send money to a firm in another country. His fiancé knows nothing about the money and his mom has no clue what is going on either. Will Elaine find out that Ryan knows more about the robbery than she thinks he would?

While Elaine is busy trying to find out what connection Ryan could have with all of this., Jan is trying to clear Reggie's name. Reggie is a nice young man in town that has been in some minor trouble and others are wanting to place the robbery on, but Jan does not believe he would have done such a thing. Jan is determined to clear Reggie's name, but is it possible?

The Englishman that wants to be hired at the tearoom seems to be a very important character in the book to me. Is he just written into the story to make our minds wander when we are trying to figure out who robbed the bank or add to a list of likely candidates to have caused harm to Ryan? I could not quite figure out the whole situation with him. 

Ryan and Reggie are found and are together, but have the done an unspeakable act and ruined Ryan and Felicia's wedding or is it just a case of mistaken identity? Can a tattoo really be what solves this mystery? Read to find out!