A Fool and His Honey by Charlaine Harris

A Fool and His Honey is the 6th book of the Aurora Teagarden series.

Roe's life is going well, she's happily married to Martin, has started working at the library again part time because she likes it, not because she has to, and she has a house she loves. There are a few downsides, the company dinners and making nice with town politicians, and she's not so crazy about Martin's family, but overall things are going good, until the day that things just went from bad to worse, and didn't get better again. It started out with some erratic behavior by the man delivering some firewood to the house, and then with an unexpected visit by a relative of Martin's, and then, that's right, you guessed it, with a dead body. But not only a dead body, there's also a baby with a missing mother in the equation, and Roe has no choice but to care for the child until his mother, Martin's niece, is found. This awakens all sorts of feelings in Roe, none of them quite what she expected, considering her own fertility situation. To have the duty foisted on her the way it was, in addition to the stress of not knowing where the child's mother was or if she was okay, or even if the baby was truly hers, and Roe has a big batch of resentment brewing, which I can't blame her for one bit! She certainly took it a lot better than I would have.

I'll be honest, I've liked this one the least so far, because of the storyline. The convoluted "who's baby is Hayden" thread is fine, it was the ending I didn't like at all. It might just be because of the frame of mind in which I read it, I could really identify with Roe, and her feelings and resentments over circumstances and people, and then to have it turn out the way it did was just awful. I guess I'm just a sucker for happy endings, and this episode of the Aurora series didn't have one! Of course I'll read the rest, it wasn't a bad storyline, it just made me really unhappy for Roe!

Despite my unhappiness with this particular novel, I do highly recommend everything I've read by Charlaine Harris so far, which includes the Harper Connelly series, and the Sookie Stackhouse Series. Just be prepared, A Fool and His Honey won't give you the warm fuzzies! For more information on the author and her work, please see her website: www.charlaineharris.com.

This is my 10th read for the Mystery and Suspense Challenge hosted by Book Chick City.