Review: Nursery Crimes

Title: Nursery Crimes
Author: Ayelet Waldman
Pages: 215
Challenges: Cozy Mystery Challenges
Rating: 2/5

Summary from Goodreads:

Ayelet Waldman's delightful new mystery series introduces readers to Juliet Applebaum, a public defender turned stay-at-home mom. Juliet shares parenting duties with her screenwriter husband, but she's bored with playdates and trips to the park. That is, until she finds a way to spice up motherhood -- with murder...Getting accepted at Hollywood's hottest preschool is every bit as cutthroat as getting cast in a Hollywood film. Even Juliet's own two-year-old, Ruby, got butted out of the Billy-goat room. But when the school's principal is killed in a hit-and-run accident, Juliet wonders if someone is taking the competition too seriously. And even though she's eight months pregnant, with a toddler by her side, Juliet Applebaum decides to get off the mommy track -- to track down a would-be killer.

Nursery Crimes was one of the books that I picked up at the library when I was looking for different cozy mystery series to check out.  I thought the cover was adorable, and I loved the idea of a pregnant heroine.  Being pregnant myself, I thought maybe I would be able to relate to her...WRONG!  Nursery Crimes was not my cup of tea.

Our heroine and amateur sleuth is Juliet Applebaum.  I former attorney turned stay at home mom, who basically hates being a stay at home mom.  She's whiny, and complains about everything.  She's bored playing with her daughter, can't wait until nap time, and seems to always look for ways out of doing things.  I just didn't like her.  Too me, she wasn't the type of mom I could really appreciate, and a lot of her behavior really bothered me.

The other thing I didn't like about this book was the mystery.  One, I didn't care at all about the victim.  She was there for like two pages, not a lot of connection was made and then *boom* she was dead and all of a sudden Juliet was intent on finding the killer.  It was all very wishy washy, and there seemed to be a lot of really loose ends even after the killer was revealed and the book "wrapped up."

Needless to say, despite the really cute covers, this won't be a series that I'll be continuing with.  There's too many other books out there that I really want to try to read a series that's only so-so.