Book Report: Red Julie by JA Whiting

This book is one of the best bedtime reads I've ever had. I couldn't recall if I have read something from JA Whiting before, and assuming that I haven't, I feel like I'd be buying some more of her books sometime very soon. Red Julie is one of the best crime novel out there.

What Is It About

Olivia is grieving over the death of her Aunt Aggie, who died due to a massive heart attack while riding a bicycle. But Olivia doesn't believe it. Intuition tells her that there was something more behind her dear aunt's death. Then, while heading home to Ogunquit, she encounters an accident along the highway, where in a dying man, covered in blood frantically grabs her and mumbles something that sounded like 'red julie' and slipping something in her jacket pocket. Now she has to find out what red julie means before it's too late.

What I Think About It

Red Julie is the second of the three books comprising the Olivia Miller mystery thriller series. First of all, I like the fact that I didn't have to read book one in order to fully understand what's going on in the second book. Some series have that kind of requirement (and I'd love to comply sometimes just like what I did with Harry Potter), but this one didn't. Every character's backstory was fully explained in this book which means you have the liberty not to read all the books yet you won't feel hanging.

Olivia is starting law school, and at first, I can't help but think that all of her instinctive ideas about her aunt's death are just her imagination, maybe brought about by the things she learned in pre-law school. But since the story is fast paced, it made me want to turn more pages just to see if her ideas were justified, and yes, they were. There were lots of reasons presented why her aunt could possibly be murdered - there's a new filthy rich, creepy resident in their small town who gets whatever he wants and just "eliminate" anyone who gets in the way. There's also the overbearing and aggressive real estate agent who we'd learn later on that tries so hard to redeem her reputation and she could only do that through sealing an estate sales deal. Gosh, I even suspected the next door neighbor Joe for some reason. But yeah, the big question is, was her aunt really murdered? And how could it be possibly connected with the accident in the highway that she encountered? All these things I found out later and didn't realize it was way past my bedtime.

One other thing that I like about it is the romance angle between Olivia and Brad (romance author in me can't help it, sorry!), the childhood friends who spent every summer together. Brad obviously wants Olivia and Olivia obviously wants Brad, but they didn't admit it to each other until the last chapter of the story. Hmmm, I wonder what would happen next. Will Brad become Olivia's PI when she finally becomes a lawyer? Hahaha

Red Julie is suspenseful and will keep you turn the pages until the wee hours of the night. Great for a bed time read. I'm giving it five stars! I got my copy from Amazon, and you can get yours too by clicking here.

Spread the looooove!

xoxo,
Beth G. ♥