Helpful Score: 1
Josie Giancola is known as a button expert for all kinds of buttons and has even worked in Hollywood. Today she is opening her new button shop, The Button Box, set up in a Chicago brownstone. She also has an appointment with a well known Hollywood starlet who wants to find the perfect buttons for her perfect wedding dress. Josie arrives extra early on her opening day to make sure everything is ready for her appointment only to find that her store has been broken into and ransacked. There are buttons everywhere. Buttons she had spent many days sorting and categorizing and displaying with flawless precision.
Things don't get any better when the next day the starlet is found dead right in the middle of The Button Box. The homicide detective seems to be looking for clues in all the wrong places and the murderer has now set his sights on Josie. She has no choice but to follow the clues she has and get this murderer all buttoned up before she finds herself "Button Holed"!
My Thoughts
This story could not have been more perfect. Wonderful characters, a delightful complex plot, and thoroughly engaging humor.
I fell for Josie on the very first page. I come from a family of seamstresses and they all had button bowls and boxes. As a child I spent hours sorting, stacking and separating my favorites. I have my own button box around here somewhere from my sewing days and I know there are some buttons in there from my ancestors as well. Button Holed (Button Box Mystery) and The Button Box brought back some wonderful memories. Thankfully none of my memories include a dead starlet.
There is also a very interesting thread throughout the story about some very special buttons that I really enjoyed.
I was truly entertained from the first page to the last! I am patiently waiting for Kill Button, the next book in The Button Box Mystery Series coming soon, but never soon enough!!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 : Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Things don't get any better when the next day the starlet is found dead right in the middle of The Button Box. The homicide detective seems to be looking for clues in all the wrong places and the murderer has now set his sights on Josie. She has no choice but to follow the clues she has and get this murderer all buttoned up before she finds herself "Button Holed"!
My Thoughts
This story could not have been more perfect. Wonderful characters, a delightful complex plot, and thoroughly engaging humor.
I fell for Josie on the very first page. I come from a family of seamstresses and they all had button bowls and boxes. As a child I spent hours sorting, stacking and separating my favorites. I have my own button box around here somewhere from my sewing days and I know there are some buttons in there from my ancestors as well. Button Holed (Button Box Mystery) and The Button Box brought back some wonderful memories. Thankfully none of my memories include a dead starlet.
There is also a very interesting thread throughout the story about some very special buttons that I really enjoyed.
I was truly entertained from the first page to the last! I am patiently waiting for Kill Button, the next book in The Button Box Mystery Series coming soon, but never soon enough!!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Berkley Prime Crime. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 : Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Helpful Score: 1
I really liked this book. The main character is mostly delightful, though she does have an unaccountable weakness that I didn't like. Others have already mentioned the ex-husband Kaz. He doesn't ring true to me, and her reaction to him is also not quite right.
That said, I still liked the book. The story is a good one, with interesting complexities. It gives us a chance to learn a little about button collecting, but there really ought to be a little more info in there.
I have to tell you, however, that I figured out the central cause of all the unexplained and weird goings-on a bit before Josie hit upon it. I rarely do that. I just flow with the story and learn when the main character learns, but she was a bit dumber than I am this time.
Wow. I'm full of cavils and complaints in what I've written, but in spite of it all, I LIKED the book. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Go figure.
That said, I still liked the book. The story is a good one, with interesting complexities. It gives us a chance to learn a little about button collecting, but there really ought to be a little more info in there.
I have to tell you, however, that I figured out the central cause of all the unexplained and weird goings-on a bit before Josie hit upon it. I rarely do that. I just flow with the story and learn when the main character learns, but she was a bit dumber than I am this time.
Wow. I'm full of cavils and complaints in what I've written, but in spite of it all, I LIKED the book. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Go figure.
Helpful Score: 1
Good start to a new series. Solid information about buttons. Looking forward to a little more interactions between the characters. 3.5 stars
Helpful Score: 1
Decent book- I will read the next in the series, but not a page turner. The plot was good, but the first half of the book seemed to drag a bit. Then during the second half, once clues were revealed and investigating was being done, it got better. As many of the previous reviews said, the parts with the heroine's ex-husband were not needed and took up way too many pages of the book.
Helpful Score: 1
A fun and cute first in series. I did find myself skimming the parts with Kaz in them though. I found him a unlikable and unbelievable character. If it wasn't for his parts, this would be a 4 star book.
Helpful Score: 1
Enjoyed this book very much, probably because I am a collector and can identify with the "fever" that happens when you go after a new item for your collection. Can't wait to read the next book in the series!! Very good cozy mystery! I had no idea who the guilty party was until the end!!
This book was an easy read. It kept my interest with plot twists and quirky turns. And I didn't guess whodunit at all! I am looking forward to reading more of her books.
First Line: Here's the thing about walking into your button shop at five in the morning and running smack into a hulk of a guy wearing a black ski mask: it tends to catch a girl a little off guard.
Josie Giancola has become one of the country's leading experts on buttons, and she is now the proud owner of the Button Box-- her very own shop in a Chicago brownstone. Josie's reputation has attracted the notice of one of the biggest stars in Hollywood because the diva wants one-of-a-kind buttons for her custom made wedding gown. When the Button Box is ransacked and the actress found murdered in the shop, Josie has to stop thinking buttons... and start concentrating on murder.
As many other readers probably did, I picked up Button Holed because of the promise of a bit of history on buttons, that indispensable item on our clothing that is taken for granted every single day. What I found was a workmanlike effort that sets up a new series nicely but in a curiously bland way.
The mystery is a good one and should keep the reader guessing. Josie even gets to take a trip to West Virginia following a button clue that provides a bit of information about handmade buttons that I enjoyed. Unfortunately the trip and the information supplied the only real color in the entire book.
Josie herself is an interesting character with an intriguing background, but the most she really has to do with buttons in this book is to pick them up and sort them every time her shop's ransacked. She also repeatedly tells us that men find women button fanatics boring. I suppose this is a bit of humor, but after the second or third time I read it, it became boring-- especially since Josie has an ex-husband and a handsome policeman paying attention to her. Please don't tell me men find you boring, Josie; actually put me in the middle of a scene where you're waxing poetic about Bakelite. Let me listen to every word, and let me watch your date wind up snoring softly, face down in a plate of linguine.
As for that ex-husband paying attention to her, I found this to be a weakness in the book. Josie's ex-husband is a gambler. His refusal to admit that he's addicted and the fact that he'll say or do anything to get his hands on more money to either gamble or pay off loan sharks is what destroyed their marriage. Throughout the book, he's popping out of the woodwork, scaring the pudding out of Josie, and trying to persuade her to give him money-- and she does. Perhaps this is meant to show that Josie's a good sport and is a vulnerable woman. I know many more women besides myself who are inclined to think this is stupidity-- a trait that I don't care to have in the main character of any book that I read.
When Josie parted with some of her hard-earned cash, I almost closed the book right then and there, determined not to finish it, but I did. There's good to be found in Button Holed. Although none of the characters caught fire in my mind and only one or two enjoyable taste buds were tingling as I turned the pages, it is a solid beginning to this series with the premise of button-themed murder. It will be interesting to see how it continues.
Josie Giancola has become one of the country's leading experts on buttons, and she is now the proud owner of the Button Box-- her very own shop in a Chicago brownstone. Josie's reputation has attracted the notice of one of the biggest stars in Hollywood because the diva wants one-of-a-kind buttons for her custom made wedding gown. When the Button Box is ransacked and the actress found murdered in the shop, Josie has to stop thinking buttons... and start concentrating on murder.
As many other readers probably did, I picked up Button Holed because of the promise of a bit of history on buttons, that indispensable item on our clothing that is taken for granted every single day. What I found was a workmanlike effort that sets up a new series nicely but in a curiously bland way.
The mystery is a good one and should keep the reader guessing. Josie even gets to take a trip to West Virginia following a button clue that provides a bit of information about handmade buttons that I enjoyed. Unfortunately the trip and the information supplied the only real color in the entire book.
Josie herself is an interesting character with an intriguing background, but the most she really has to do with buttons in this book is to pick them up and sort them every time her shop's ransacked. She also repeatedly tells us that men find women button fanatics boring. I suppose this is a bit of humor, but after the second or third time I read it, it became boring-- especially since Josie has an ex-husband and a handsome policeman paying attention to her. Please don't tell me men find you boring, Josie; actually put me in the middle of a scene where you're waxing poetic about Bakelite. Let me listen to every word, and let me watch your date wind up snoring softly, face down in a plate of linguine.
As for that ex-husband paying attention to her, I found this to be a weakness in the book. Josie's ex-husband is a gambler. His refusal to admit that he's addicted and the fact that he'll say or do anything to get his hands on more money to either gamble or pay off loan sharks is what destroyed their marriage. Throughout the book, he's popping out of the woodwork, scaring the pudding out of Josie, and trying to persuade her to give him money-- and she does. Perhaps this is meant to show that Josie's a good sport and is a vulnerable woman. I know many more women besides myself who are inclined to think this is stupidity-- a trait that I don't care to have in the main character of any book that I read.
When Josie parted with some of her hard-earned cash, I almost closed the book right then and there, determined not to finish it, but I did. There's good to be found in Button Holed. Although none of the characters caught fire in my mind and only one or two enjoyable taste buds were tingling as I turned the pages, it is a solid beginning to this series with the premise of button-themed murder. It will be interesting to see how it continues.
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. It's an okay cozy. Josie Giancola is a collector of buttons now opening a button shop. A starlet is coming to see her to look for special buttons for her wedding dress but is found dead inside the button shop. Now Josie is involved with a murder investigation crushing on the law enforcement officer and having to deal with her ex husband who keeps showing up and getting in the middle of things.
Interesting to read about the history of buttons throughout the buttons. The book is good enough that I'll continue to read the series.
Interesting to read about the history of buttons throughout the buttons. The book is good enough that I'll continue to read the series.
Strangely, the history of the button industry was the most engaging part of this series introduction. The writing itself was a bit slow, and the plot portion that dwelled on the failed marriage and poor decision making in relation to the rake of an ex-husband didn't add much to the plot. Nor was he a charming side character to me, not someone that I want to see more of in future editions. I'm not planning to read the second in the series, much as I'm looking for a humorous mystery series.
