Jax Tapman has lived in the same small town her whole life. On one hand, it's helped her dream of buying the local diner with her best friend come true, and their newly opened business is hopping. On the other hand, it means everyone knows her, and she pretty much never gets away with anything. There are a lot of expectations that come along with being the town darling.
So, when Jax finds a dead body behind her Aunt Hildy’s restaurant, surely no one will truly believe she did it, right?
Wrong. The victim was strangled with swag from Jax's diner, and suddenly every eye is squarely on her, town darling or not! Enter Eliot Taylor, Aunt Hildy’s new cook and a former cop who grudgingly agrees to help Jax clear her name and save the diner's reputation. Only the deeper they dig, the more dirt they churn up, proving there’s far more happening in the small, innocent town than meets the eye.
Together they’ll uncover more secrets than Jax can shake a spatula at and far more danger than she might be ready to handle. Can Jax save her reputation and solve a murder...or will this order be her last? (Summary via Goodreads)
Diners, Drive-Ins, and Lies is the first book in the Sunny Side Up Mystery series written by Misty Simon and I can tell you right away that this is going to be a series to watch and will become one of your favorites to read !!!
Ever since Jax can remember she has always wanted to own a diner, and not just any diner, she wanted the one that she and her best friend Dani worked in when they were teenagers in high school. So when the owner Jeb decides to sell, Jax talks Dani into moving back to their hometown and co-owning in with her. And now after being open for six months, they are celebrating !!! Unfortunately things are going to turn quickly .....
While Jax and Dani are trying to celebrate their success at Jax's aunt Hildy's upscale restaurant, there is a commotion and Hildy asks Jax to go out the back and give Roderick the keys to her car so that he can make a hasty escape and not deal with Delilah's outburst. Of course Jax does what she is asked of but when she slips out the back door, Roderick is no where to be found. But when she walks around she finds him out in the garbage enclosure dead .... and strangled by a lanyard with her diner information on it that she just picked up from the printer and are locked in her car.
Luckily for Jax her father is a detective with the police force. Unluckily for Jax her father is a detective with the police force. So Jax has no choice but to play by the rules ... mostly. But then her father asks her to do some investigating of her own with the help of Hildy's chef, Eliot, who happens to have been a police officer until recently.
Eliot has secrets of his own as well as Jax keeping a huge one from her family, friends, and business partner so working together will be a piece of cake !! Especially seeing as Jax, with coaxing from Dani, cannot help but notice how attractive he is !!!
Readers cannot help but fall in love with this first book !!! Simon has you laughing out loud when you read the part where Jax stumbles upon Roderick's dead body and the dilemma she goes through on what to do and how unprepared she is when she doesn't have her phone at the ready. She is probably the most laid backed person in cozy history to ever be in that position. And you continue to fall in love as you dive deeper into the story. I, for many, congratulate Simon on her new release and new series and I, for one, look forward to more books in the series !!!!
Sounds like a good read!
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