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Flame and Fortune by Jana Deleon is the twenty-second book in the Miss Fortune Series. These books are my favorite cozy mysteries. I immediately buy them as soon as they are released and have my mom and two aunts reading them too.
In Flame and Fortune, it’s New Year’s in Sinful, and the competition for the New Year’s Queen is heating up as the warring churches go head-to-head. Fortune Redding is not the sequined dress kind of woman, but reluctantly agrees to partake in the debacle so that Ida Belle and Gertie can best their nemesis, Celia, who’s put up former Sinful mean girl RJ Rogers.
RJ and her friend Brock Benoit left plenty of devastation in their wake when they fled Sinful after high school. So when they return and Brock is found dead, there’s no shortage of suspects. Fortune, Ida Belle, and Gertie know all too well what it’s like to live under suspicion of a crime with no resolution. When good people become the targets of gossip, they know they have to rush to unravel the tangled lives of RJ and Brock and expose a killer before the wrong person’s reputation is ruined. Or worse—they’re arrested for a crime they didn’t commit.
While this is the twenty-second book in the series, the characters are still as strong as ever. I love Fortune. A former CIA agent who has made a home in Sinful and is now a private investigator. She is a strong female character and I love how her mind works.
The supporting characters are the best thing in this book. Ida Belle and Gertie are the perfect dynamic duo and Gertie always gets in trouble and you always wonder what she is going to do next. While their antics get them in trouble they are two of the most helpful people in Sinful.
The mystery in this book was interesting and kept me guessing. I was definitely surprised a few times in the book and the ending was perfect. No spoilers but someone is coming to Sinful. I am excited for the next boo even though I know I will have to wait a while.
Have you read the Miss Fortune series? If you have not, I would recommended starting with book one Louisiana Longshot (while these books are their own mystery they do build on each other).
The Spinny Bookworm Mama 