Sorry, the over-broad humor here was not my cup of tea. Did not finish after reading the opening two chapters.

Camarin Torres is a soon to be graduate yet to find a job after graduation. Camarin strives to be an investigative journalist, but has only had offers from seemingly shallow magazines, one from her best friends parents at a fashion magazine. She meets a handsome man at the train station, who works for a competitor, Trend magazine. He offers her a position with an impressive salary and a promise that the magazine is going in a new direction.

After the murder of a woman who owns her own weight loss program, Blubber Be Gone, Camarin begins investigating a string of murders around the country that seem to follow a body confidence seminar. Camarin takes the opportunity of an interview with a popular music star to attend the body confidence seminar to find out more and find a connection to the murders.

Camarin quickly finds herself in a crazy situation involving her best friend and his family. Though this book was a little far fetched at times, I really enjoyed the creativity and surprise throughout the novel. There were a few twists and turns and I was actually a bit surprised with the ending. This was a nice, quick read. It was lacking in the romance scenes, but a good mystery overall.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for review.

Camarin Torres is weeks away from graduating NYU and it seems like she is the only one in her graduating class that does not have a job lined up upon graduation. While taking the train, she meets a handsome stranger, Lyle Fletcher. Lyle is the new publisher of Trend, a fluff magazine that publishes pieces that go against everything Camarin stands for, but Lyle offers her a job as an investigative reporter. Lyle wants to turn Trend from a fluff magazine to something more serious.

Camarin is a crusader against discrimination especially since her overweight sister committed suicide and now, Camarin wants to make a difference against bullying and discrimination. She decides to take Lyle up on his offer hoping she could make a difference. Her first order of business is investigating the recent murder of Leticia Reagan, owner of Blubber Be Gone. When Camarin starts recognizing a pattern of weight loss advocate deaths, will her life soon be on the line as well?

Slashing Mona Lisa starts off with a bang. The opening scene where Letitia Reagan is murdered is reminiscent of the early 80’s slasher movies (My fave!). So, right off the bat I am hooked. What also really grabbed my attention is the premise around Slashing Mona Lisa is all about fat shaming and discrimination. Yes, it is a difficult subject matter, but D.M Barr shows the compassionate side of it as well as the fat shamers who like to bring people down. Although, I think for the most part a lot is changing in society especially around body acceptance and the body positivity movement. Fat shaming is still all too real though and it is a shame in this day and age people still put others down without a thought about the person’s feelings.

The murder mystery surrounding weight loss advocates is another aspect of the story that is done really well. Instead of it being done in a serious, gory way (which it kinda is) its mostly done in a satirical kind of way. Want to lose twenty pounds, well let me chop of your head! All the murders are centered around Terry Mangel’s body revivals. Every time one of his revivals comes to town someone winds up dead and up till now, no one has made any connection until Camarin starts investigating.

There are a lot of secrets in this story and one secret surrounding Lyle which plays our ratherly nicely and kept me in the dark pretty much until the end. The suspense over all was not an easy one for me to figure out and I like when I can’t figure out what is going on right up until the end.

Camarin is a really good character and I found myself really drawn to her and liking her because she stood up for what she believed in. She does have a past with her sister and she feels guilty over her suicide and in a way it has shaped her into the person she is today. The romance between Camarin and Lyle is a slow build and I liked that it was a younger/older scenario which I find very rare. My favorite though has to be Rachel, Trend’s secretary. She was funny and snarky and quick with the comebacks.

Slashing Mona Lisa was a fun mystery that was part serious, part mystery, with a lot of funny moment thrown in between to lighten the subject matter. It was a quick read that I really enjoyed.

There's potential but it somehow fails to deliver. Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

The idea behind this mystery/ romance was good, but the execution was wanting. The romance failed to interest me and the mystery was unrealistic, to say the least. Disappointing.