Aged for Murder (A Tuscan Vineyard Cozy Mystery #1) by Fiona Grace

Aged for Murder (A Tuscan Vineyard Cozy Mystery #1) Reviews

• 
  Vasilis

  This book focuses on the story of an American woman, who after being dumped by her boyfriend and generally unhappy with her work and life , decides to take a break and go to Tuscany to pursue her dream – which is to open her own small vineyard and produce her own wine. In the midst of that, a murder takes place and she needs to clear her name as she is the prime suspect.
  I am struggling whether this is a 1 or 2 /5 book. It has some positives, but not much. Well, let’s list them!
  Prons: Easy to read, excellent descriptions of the Tuscan countryside
  Cons: The characters (incl the main character ) are unbelievably undeveloped , they really couldn’t be any shallower even if the study was written by a primary school kid. The writer does not go beyond stereotypes for most of the characters (cheating boyfriend, pressurising mum, playboy style Italian men, police etc) and at no point in the book you see any sort of effort to develop characters whatsoever. Plus, there’s so much “telling” and very little “showing” (eg Olivia did this, did that, went there etc etc ) and no effort to show character through actions, which makes the story even shallower and it’s very annoying!
  I think 1/5 stars is about right..
• 
  Erika

  This might be the worst book I have ever read. The phrasing is trite; it's as if a Freshman college student got an A on a paper, decided they were now an author and wrote a book. It takes at least half of the book to get to the murder when that part of the story could have taken a couple of chapters or less. I'm not really a book reviewer, but I thought I'd try to spare anyone the agony of this story.
• 
  Alice

  Unbelievably insipid, naive, clueless heroine. Won't waste my time with the remaining books in the series.
• 
  Matt

  An entertaining story that had a satisfying ending. Decent character development and good plotting. It took a while to have someone murdered but once that happened the pace picked up. Overall a good book.
• 
  Kris Wenzel

  This is not a book for people who know about wine and wine production. The fact that she walked in off the street and landed herself an assistant sommelier position, by insinuating she knew more about wine tasting than the employees working there, is laughable. I was hoping for a crime novel and this is not it.
• 
  Elsbeth

  Olivia gets a taste of winery.
  Olivia's world is in a turmoil. She quits her job, her boyfriend, her apartment and her country. But in Tuscany there also are doubts. She gets signs that she should stay and signs that she should go back. Being a prime murder suspect doesn't really help.
  This series starts a bit in the same way Fiona's other series starts, with a woman in her 30's who, after a break up, makes a job switch in a different country. But the country differs, the job differs and, of course, the woman is a different one.
  Great summer read!
  I liked this book just as much as the books from the other series. I can't wait to read more!
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Fabienne

  Eh. Pretty far fetched and rushed.
• 
  Lise

  The wheels have come off the wine cart for Olivia Glass. A successful campaign for the wrong product has her re-evaluating her life choices and her boyfriend is doing the same thing and deciding it's time to move on to his bit on the side. Invited by a friend to summer in Italy, Olivia jumps at the chance to change up her life for good.
  
  There wasn't even the hint of a mystery until the halfway point and I totally didn't mind. Olivia's story was compelling so that when the "event" did happen, I was surprised. I loved the fact that Olivia didn't take her boyfriend's gaslighting sitting down (both literally and figuratively) and that she was prepared to take action to make her dreams come true. Someone mentioned that it was strange that she had forgotten her expensive apartment in Chicago as an asset that she could sell in order to buy the Italian farm. I rather think that it was at the back of her mind as a bolthole in case her plans turned upside down. Once she realized that she no longer needed an out, she sold up immediately.
  
  I'm very interested to see where this series goes. Olivia isn't my favourite type of main character, but she keeps things sparking!
• 
  Jill Demarco

  Why did I waste my time reading this book? The entire premise is like something a teenager would dream up. I mean, really, how does someone with absolutely no knowledge of wine get a job in Italy as an assistant sommelier right off the bat? Then find a dream farm and then feel like Italy is "home" for her? So insipid I almost gagged at that point. All of a sudden, she comes up with who the murderer was and how it all happened -- there was no real build-up of how she came to that conclusion or why. And THEN she becomes head sommelier! Geeze. So unbelievable -- and a disservice to those actually in the wine business. I can't recommend this book to anyone over 12 years old. The story is lame and the characters hollow.
• 
  Joanne

  If "Aged for Murder" by Fiona Grace is meant to be a cozy mystery book it failed. It's not either. Everything moves way too fast: the unbelievable plot, the ditzy 34yr. old main character, how does one on a whim conceive that they can do anything and be successful.
  
  This book would be a 4star rating if it would flesh out the characters and slow down the time frame. As it is the plot is like a revoling door; there's no depth to anyone character.
  
  I did like the fancy restuarant scene where our lead character was dumped. I wanted more of the story like that.
  Even I solved the murder. Too predictable!
• 
  Judy

  This is first in the Tuscan Vineyard Cozy Mystery series. Our heroine quits her job in advertising when she realizes she has propelled an inferior wine into prominence. She escapes to Italy with a friend who has rented a villa in Tuscany for the summer. There she finds a job as assistant sommelier at a neighboring vineyard, and then gets involved in trying to solve the murder of the primary sommelier. She has a goal of starting a vineyard in Italy eventually. It's a fun story, but not terribly believable that she could become a sommelier with so little experience.
  
• 
  Amanda Jaeger

  I picked this up, expecting a mystery. What I got instead was a cute chick lit I could easily read while doing any number of household tasks (cooking, cleaning, helping my child understand the "new math."
  
  Once I realized the mystery piece was about 10% of the story, I relaxed into it and enjoyed it for what it was: an easy going light read that was as enjoyable as a glass of wine.
• 
  Kelly

  A major life upheaval, a visit/vacation to an exotic locale, and a little murder. Oh, and the potential for romance. Maybe. Olivia might not have had a plan when she quit her job on the fly and fled to Italy on a spur-of-the-moment getaway with her BFF, but things worked out for her. Well, except for the teeny little thing where almost everyone thought she'd killed someone. But that all worked out in the end, so there's that.
  
  Fun with a side order of lots of wine talk. Which kind of makes me want to experience a bottle in all its glory.
  
  -Kelly @
  Reading the Paranormal
  
• 
  Filip

  There is short start to corpse, there is long start to corpse, there is Agatha Christie start to corpse and then there is this book. While the murder occurring at around 50% mark can work, here it made the whole investigation - and the solution that followed - seem to be very rushed and unsatisfying. That said, the main characters and their story arcs were quite nice, the area was described in a bit idelized and romanticized but still delighful way and the story flowed quite nicely, with me not being bored in the slightest.
• 
  Genevieve Bomes

  A really good start to the series. This is a very well written story line. I very much liked Oliva and her friend Charlotte. I also like the love interest Marcello. The mystery though wasn't much to it. There didn't seem many clues to lead you to the suspect. That being said it was an easy quick well written book that I enjoyed a lot.
• 
  Nina Reads

  Wonderfully terrible. The great reveal is quite memorable and I will be sharing this story for years to come. The main character is insufferable, the plot is predictable, and I wish there was more mystery. But, the ending was very satisfying, in that it made me laugh out loud.
• 
  Anita

  I chose this as an audiobook that was free on iBooks. I was looking for a light murder mystery and that’s what this book gave me. There’s not much to the actual murder mystery ,the story itself centres around Olivia‘s journey -from being dumped by her boyfriend ,quitting a high-paying job , and ending up in Tuscany with dreams of opening a winery. Along the way she gets involved in a murder and has to figure out who really did it in order to clear her name.
  It certainly has some clichés but the narrator is good and it wasn’t too taxing or lengthy, and as a bonus it talks a lot about wine.
• 
  Cindy

  Starting as a meandering tale ends up an engaging and entertaining plot with lotsa twists. A comfy sofa and a cozy blanket is all that is, otherwise, needed. Pleasantly narrated.
• 
  Sara Lawson

  I really enjoyed Fiona Grace's Lacey Doyle mystery series, so when I saw BookSprout had an ARC available for review, I jumped at it. It was a fun story.
  
  Olivia, after being dumped by her boyfriend and abruptly quitting her job, decided to spend two weeks in Italy with her friend, Charlotte who was vacationing there for the summer. Dreaming about a new romance as well as making her own wine (her stateside job included a marketing campaign for a wine company), she interviews for a job she saw posted during a wine tasting. The sommelier tasked with training her is a jerk who makes her life there as miserable as he can. But she's instantly attracted to the company owner who seems to like her as well. Several days into the job, the sommelier is found dead in the wine cellar, nearly everyone at the company suspects her, and the police think she's the prime suspect. So she decided to become an amateur detective and solve the case herself.
  
  What I liked: The goat. Because of course, vineyards have goats. And this particular one is constantly following her home. It was hilarious.
  The childhood friends vacation. That was a fun change. Instead of running away by herself to drown her sorrows in wine and pizza (which they did have a lot of), she spends time with an old friend instead. Although on that note, why were they constantly eating pizza in Italy? There are so many other foods, I'd have wanted to try!
  Olivia and Charlotte trying to make their own wine from a recipe on the internet that they knew would be good because it had a lot of five-star reviews. I think you can picture this one for yourself.
  Bonus: I usually hate it when authors spend too much time telling their readers what the characters were thinking, but some of it was just too funny. Like when Olivia had the realization that she had no idea how to start investigating. I mean, we all knew that, but her self-realization made me laugh.
  
  What I was less happy with:
  Olivia's backstory was too similar to Lacey's. A break up with a significant other leads to a vacation in another country, which in turn leads to deciding to buy a home and stay in that country. And for good measure, the douchy exes decide to try to reconcile. Also, the moms are both controlling (in different ways) and unsupportive.
  Why were they always eating pizza? I'm serious. Is that what Americans eat when they go to Italy?
  The need for a romance. Learn to love being single for a minute. Especially since you just got out of a four-year relationship. I know, the romance didn't even get started in this book, but the need for one was unnecessary.
  
  Overall, this was a fun story. It made me laugh. It was a quick, easy read. And I am sure that I will be reading more of Fiona Grace's books in the future.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Madison

  I got this book for free as a kindle deal, and honestly I’m glad I didn’t spend any money on it. This book is the first in a cozy mystery series set in the vineyards of Tuscany. It’s a short book, coming in at only 197 pages, but I think that length did the story a disservice. The introduction of the main character and how she ends up in Tuscany honestly took way too long and then the crime that is the catalyst for the mystery part of the book doesn’t even take place until half way in. There’s some half-hearted sleuthing and a little sprinkling of trying to figure out the clues, but the writing just felt disjointed and like it didn’t flow naturally. The killer just came out of nowhere and didn’t totally make sense. Then, once everything is finally revealed the book just abruptly ends with not a lot of set up for the next series. Honestly, I felt like I got whiplash reading this book with the sudden changes in direction with very little explanation. I also got the next book for free as a kindle deal, and I may read that one, but it’s not high on the priority list. If you’re looking for a new cozy mystery series, I think this one is safe to skip.
• 
  Nancy

  A book has to be very special to earn a one-star review from me. Perhaps I should award it two stars because I did complete it, but the struggle was real. At 34, Olivia Glass is completely immature, naive, and irresponsible. Walking out on a high-paying career on a whim right before a major presentation, publicly quitting yet another job and threatening the boss, stealing evidence from her boss's office for no apparent reason--not the actions of someone I want to root for. Characters did not behave logically nor did the author research anything except the basics of wine production and blending. You don't decide one night that because you love to drink wine, tomorrow you'll go to Tuscany to pursue a dream of becoming an independent vinter. There are also immigration issues to consider when getting a job in a foreign country, which was never mentioned. And what was the point of Charlotte's boyfriend, Patrick? The parade of horribles in this book marches on and on.
• 
  Lena

  This was a pretty good romance novel. Cozy mystery? Not so much. The murder didn't take place until beyond that halfway point, the investigation started about 2/3 of the way through (though almost no investigation was done and no clues were gathered), and the murder was solved with a stroke of inspiration at the end. Nothing wrong with that in general, but I would classify it as a romance with a twist rather than as a cozy mystery.
• 
  Donna

  This cozy mystery struck so many must read cords; Wine making, tasting, drinking, landscape of Italy and of course the murder. Am looking forward to the Tuscan Vineyard #2 cozy mystery. My only confusion is how an American who neither speaks nor reads Italian can run a tasting section at an Italian winery?!