A Degree to Die For by Karis Walsh

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I finished this book a week or two ago – I can’t remember for sure – and have been struggling over the rating and review ever since.

Karis Walsh is one of my go-to authors. I love her writing style and voice and sense of humor. And I also love mysteries and I thoroughly enjoyed With a Minor in Murder. I had high expectations for the second book in the series. Even taking into consideration that second books in a series rarely equal my feelings about the first, I was pretty disappointed in a few aspects of A Degree to Die For. Let me share…

Two things stood out to me: the insane insta-love and how quickly the mystery was revealed and wrapped up. Both were way too fast. Tig and Kent had met twice and that was pretty much it for their hearts. I struggled to suspend disbelief and, eventually, it took away from my enjoyment of the book.

As far as the mystery goes, I thought it was well done and I didn’t figure it out until nearly when we were supposed to. My problem is that the figuring out who the bad guy was, confrontation, and the end of the book was pretty much boom, boom, boom. As someone who goes for a mystery/rom-com book regularly, I like the balance to either be equal or weighted toward the mystery.

There was quite a bit of Clare and Libby mixed in with Tig and Kent, which is understandable since Clare and Kent work together and that it’s a second book in the same universe/friend circle. It wasn’t unpleasant but it did feel a bit much at times with all the mentions of Libby joining the force. I wanted more relationship development between Tig and Kent. Although how much can you have in such a short time?

I went back and forth over the rating but three stars is where I land.

Thanks to Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for the ARC. I appreciate it!





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