This Is Not a Game

I think one of the best ways to describe this book is to say it’s Golden Girls meets Only Murders in the Building. I LOVED every minute of this book and breezed right through it! I had the hardest time putting it down! It’s set on Mackinac Island (one of my top bucket list places to visit!) during a freezing winter storm in a mansion! The main characters are a grandmother and daughter who become an unlikely amateur sleuthing team. I loved the characters so much! They were real, fun, and so relatable! I did not want this book to end and I’m hoping we’ll get more of Mimi and Addie’s story in future books! 🤞🏻If you love a good cozy with a locked room mystery and a plethora of quirky side characters, look no further! This one is for you!

WTF was that? This is the clearest example of a narrator ruining a book that I've come across in a long time. Where to begin?For some inexplicable reason, they got a British actress to read this book set in Michigan, USA. She tried to do an American accent - she tried many of them, sometimes all in the same sentence. The result was some kind of crazy mish mash of accents that made no sense. Words that ended in an "a" turned into words ending in a "er," as in "Americer" and "Florider." But words ending in an "er" transformed to "a" sounds - "lawyer" became "lawya." But not always. A dachshund was called a "dash-hound" way too many times. And as if that wasn't bad enough, she gave bizarre affectations to characters. Jim had some kind of speech impediment and the most annoying voice ever. Woody was just unbearable. It was painful to listen to an SO distracting that I couldn't focus on the story.I was promised "Golden Girls meets Only Murders in the Building" and what I got was a mess.Had I read the book on paper, I might have given it a three. The characters were not likable or interesting. I was more interested in Addie's video game than the main plot of the novel. There's blackmail and murder and while two people investigate both, they find people HAPPY to tell them what they were being blackmailed over. Wait... if someone was maybe killed over a blackmail scheme, why would people be so willing to confess their lies to strangers? Makes no sense. One character points that out and the other says it's because they smoked together and, apparently, smoking magically makes people confess things to other smokers.So I was never going to give this book more than a 3, but the awful (like, spectacularly terrible) narration brings it down to 1 star and I resent having to give it that.

AUDIOBOOK - A fun mystery! Loved the dynamic between the grandmother Mimi and granddaughter Addy. The mystery was thoroughly plotted, but to the point of being rigid. So many characters that I felt a few got lost from time to time, but they were distinct people with well-developed personalities. Love the idea of Addy using her prowess as a mystery game designer to help solve this mystery. Really want to see the showdown between Addy and her gaslighting Ex.

I would give this novel 2-1/2 stars. On the surface it had all the right ingredients but the characters never seemed more than caricatures; at times cartoonish. Overall not compelling enough for me to seek out a sequel.

I admit I am tired of locked room mysteries and this is a variation of the type. And I would like the author to whittle down the number of the characters but this is a great first novel.In order to no get confused, I drew a diagram of the relationships of the characters and that helped a lot. I enjoyed the movement in the relationship between the grandmother and the granddaughter to coming together after an estrangement. I think they would be a great team in future books, especially with them learning more about each other and enjoying each other. I also enjoyed the wit and and knowledge of classical cozies and modern mystery games.I foresee some spectacular cozies in Kelly Mullen's future!