Ava Capp is a pilot who, ten years ago, lost her best friend to a horrible murder. She hasn’t been home to Minnesota since, or at least not for longer than a layover. When she returns and is convinced to go to Danielle’s memorial, things fall apart. The funeral home is vandalized and Danielle’s ashes are scattered.
The one shining light is the Medical Examiner, Tom. She feels a connection to him and he wants to help her figure out who did it.
Opinion
The two main characters are quirky, both with their own social issues that somehow make them more relatable to each other. The support characters, of which there are many, are quite interesting.
I love that the story has many of the traditional features of a mystery. Multiple suspects, danger and irate characters are a few.
The story flowed quite well and I certainly changed my mind a few times over who was the guilty party. It was down to the last few chapters before I knew for sure who it was.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Truth, Lies and Second Dates was not my cup of tea. Seemed like I was confused at least once a page. Storyline had potential. But I felt like there was too much explaining, back stories, little asides and tangents.

Ava lives her passion as she captains’ flights all over the world. The one place she hates to visit is Minnesota. She grew up there which wasn’t an easy road so with all the bad memories, she prefers to stay away. Running into a friend from childhood on her flight has her attending a 10 year memorial for her best friend. From there, well everything gets really crazy. The one bright spot is meeting Tom and he ends up helping her unravel all the craziness. Tom is the county medical examiner and is not sure what to make of Ava but knows he enjoys spending time with her. Now, this story was funny, unexpected and a pleasure to read. I had fun with Ava and Tom as they navigated all the pitfalls happening to Ava. Hannah, Tom’s niece, is a joy with her intelligence and straightforward honesty. This is a new author for me and I loved the writing style and pace of the story. I was pulled in and excited to figure out what would happen next. I voluntarily read an ARC of this book and this is my honest review.

This was a good read. I enjoyed the characters, Ava & Tom as well as the side characters, like Hannah, Abe, & GB. This is a good play on romance novels with a murder mystery thrown in the mix for fun. Highly recommend reading this book!

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for honest review

Meh? I don't really know but I didn't jive with this book all that well. I don't know if it was the writing style or if it was the heroine, or if it was the storyline, but I just wasn't feeling it. I also didn't realize this was the third book in a "series" and that made it a tiny bit harder to even get into in the first place because I constantly felt like I was missing a punchline.

I liked it, and I did read it pretty easily once I got over the big hiccup in the beginning but I don't know. I keep coming back to the writing style because it felt kind of stilted and immature, and I don't think this is YA which is why I point that out.

Overall it was fine. I know it'll hit the mark with a lot of people, I just wasn't one of them. I did like Tom though, so he was a bright spot.

**Thank you Netgalley for the review copy!!**

This book is greatly amusing as all MJ Davidson books are. I really enjoyed it. I am so glad to find a new book by this author. I greatly enjoyed this story.

This is a light and fun book, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I struggle to get into the really lighthearted romance novels, but fans of that genre might enjoy this book.

It's been a while since I've read MaryJanice Davidson- love her Undead series! - and when I got my copy of Truth, Lies, and Second Dates, I was pleased she hasn't lost any of her snarky wit. Ms. Davidson writes whatever she wants and it's like she's having the time of her life. This book will entertain you, leave you chuckling, might make you confused, and give you the feels for Ava and Tom.
Thanks to Netgalley for the copy and this opinion is mine and mine alone.

DNF 35%

This book is meant to be a standalone within a series, but references the previous books (which I have not read) so often it's confusing. Besides that the plot spins all over the place and there is simply TOO MUCH going on for the reader to stay engaged. Sadly, this one was not for me.

Thank you to netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Good book. Found a few good chuckles and laugh throughout the book. Just couldn’t love it for some odd reason. Overall good read!

I often think of MaryJanice Davidson as a paranormal author but she also writes a smart contemporary romance too. Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is that in spades. Full of snark and eccentricities this is a fun read. One not to take to serious which is needed in these too serious times that we live in right now. Comedy, romance, and mystery, it is all here.

While either fight or flight is the go-to for a survival mode of operation, Ave takes this to the limits by becoming an airline pilot. I found it humorous to think of how far her flight mode took her until it didn’t. Ava has her issues but she fit right in with her friends, all nutty than a fruitcake. The best part, they know and don’t care. Even the serious stuff is not handled so serious. Mel Brooks, this is right up your alley. Someone should buy the movie rights today.

An ARC of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Snarky, Action-Adventure, Rom-Com, Mystery
This is such a funny book! It is irreverent, snarky, witty, and fun. It has some bad language, some graphic sex, and some blood and guts. The humor is such that it steals the negativity away from everything else. I enjoyed it so much that I am going to read more of this author's work. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

This was a cold case, murder mystery theatre presentation, starring Captain Ava Capp, pilot extraordinaire aka Captain Belly Flopper, and an on the spectrum (maybe) Dr Tom Baker, ME, aka Uncle to Whiz Kid Genius (I totally adored) Hannah, who had more answers than Alex Trebeck AND had more questions. A ton more characters but these were my faves. Oh, and Hannah's G-Father, the voice of logic and reason lol.
Ava's BFF was murdered ten years ago back in Minnesota, don't ya know? She got shnookered into coming to a memorial being held on the tenth anniversary of her death. Well, she meets Tom, who's fascinated by death, hello, ME here, and she learns some very startling information.
That's all I can say without spoilers. The storyline is serious, but this is told in such a way, you are never quite sure in which direction the emotions might lead.
A journey I quite enjoyed taking, along to a happy ending.

Captain Ava Capp has been flying from her past for a decade. She’d much rather leave it, and her home state, behind forever. But when she finds herself back in Minnesota, against her better judgment, everything goes sideways in a way she never expected it to.
M.E. Dr. Tom Baker has never forgotten Ava and the cold case she ran away from. When she shows up unexpectedly in town, in spite of himself, sparks fly.
Ava's best friend was murdered 10 years ago and she also lost her parents. She got dependent on drugs and then decided to get her act together and became a pilot.
Ava ends up back in her hometown and goes to her friends memorial but things don't turn out well since people blame her for her friend's murder and things start to happen.
Thank you to St. Martin's and NetGalley for the ARC to review.

MaryJanice Davidson Truth, Lies, and Second Dates was a quirky story that I found at times hard to follow. I saw many moments that could've lead to a much better storyline or even just scene or chapter but at times it just fell short. In the end I can say I liked aspects of Ava and Dr.Tom but found their chemistry off. The book tries to tell you they have chemistry but the reader doesn"t "feel" it. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5 Stars
Captain Ava Capp has been flying from her past for a decade forging a new life for herself after her best friend was murdered & she became dependent on pills. Now she finds herself back in her home state of Minnesota. M.E. Dr. Tom Baker has never forgotten Ava and the cold case she ran away from. When she shows up unexpectedly in town, in spite of himself, sparks fly. Which is terrible because he can’t stop his growing attraction to her.
A different type of romance to my normal but once I got into the book I enjoyed it more for the quirky characters who made this cosy mystery / rom com a fun entertaining read. The characters were frothy & the plot had holes in it but I found myself overlooking these & just liking the book
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

Thank you so much @StMartinsPress for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 15 December 2020)

SYNOPSIS | Captain Ava Capp is a commercial pilot who finds herself back in Minnesota just in time to attend the 10 year anniversary get-together of her murdered childhood best friend. However, the venue is vandalised and the murderer might be after Ava...

WHAT I LIKED:
- some solid quirky comebacks
- author annotations at the end of each chapter

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the writing. It was overly jovial & I found it trying too hard to be funny & sassy.
- every character had the same sarcastic tone of voice & sense of humour. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was reading from Ava or Tom's point of view.
- i didn't find myself rooting for the romance at all
- im not sure what genre this books falls into... maybe rom-com-murder-mystery...

Truth, Lies and Second Dates is one of those books that you get a little of everything with. You have humor, mystery, thriller and a love story all wrapped up in one. You follow along with Ava as she gets stuck in the middle of an old friends memorial. This book will keep you on your toes as Ava faces off on who and why her friend was murdered. This is a ride worth taking.

Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is another winner for the queen of dark humor, MaryJanice Davidson. This is a murder mystery that will leave you wondering “Who Dunnit?”

No one does cynicism, or insanely relatable, yet highly entertaining inner monologues quite like her. I love that with any MaryJanice novel, there is a guarantee of unique yet lovable characters and a plotline so intensely captivating that you can kiss sleep goodbye!

Ava Capp has some dark shit in her past that she would rather not come to light with her recent fame as Captain Belly Flop. Her emotional baggage has made her a serial dater and the queen of no strings attached.

Tom Baker is classic geek chic with a hotter than sin body only rivaled by his wicked smart brain. He thinks Ava could be a sociopath or the woman of his dreams, he isn’t 100% sure but he’s anxious to find out. I love how complex Tom's personality is and truly enjoyed his quirks and general bluntness in social situations.

Together, Ava and Tom hilariously navigate a series of unfortunate events - from crashing a memorial to throwing up in the loo- to clear Ava’s name.

As a reader, getting acclimatized to the author's random use of italics, endnotes, and bizarrely quoted facts took some time, but once you do, it's like looking inside the character's brain. There is no filter for the characters and I love how the author manages to incorporate a diverse range of unlikely characters together and makes it work.

I would recommend this to persons who love murder mysteries with a twist, dark humor and laugh out load dialogue. Huge thanks to the author and NetGalley for providing me with an arc.

Contemporary romance seems a limited categorization for this comedic, murderous, and refreshingly fresh novel.

Captain Ava Capp is captaining a routine commercial flight to her native Minnesota, when she runs into Dennis, the twin brother of her high school best friend, Danielle, who died in an unsolved murder ten years before. Ava agrees to use her layover to attend Danielle’s memorial service and afterwards, drinks with Denis leads to her becoming the custodian of his drunk behind. While trying to get him back to the hotel, she’s assisted by Tom Baker, local medical examiner. Ava and Tom dine. They kiss. Then the morning after - the memorial, not sex - Ava finds the funeral home splattered in ashes spelling out “WRONG”. When Ava is grounded due to a botched drug test by her airline, the stars align for her and Tom to solve - or, more honestly, ponder - the multiple mysteries.

Ava is an alpha heroine, solitary, a touch brash, and an unapologetic leader. Tom is bald, Harvard Med School intelligent, neurodiverse (the book never gets more specific than “on the spectrum”), a virgin, and a demisexual (as Tom describes it, “I’m only aroused by someone I have an emotional connection with”).We get the bald and intelligent info fairly early on, but the rest of it comes more slowly. Though the story is told in third-person POV, Tom’s perspective plays second fiddle to Ava’s, and is only selectively revealing. Tom himself doesn’t even appear until about seventeen percent of the way through the book. I wish that Davidson hadn’t kept so much of Tom a mystery for so long, because if she’d revealed more to the reader earlier, some aspects of the story would have been understandable instead of frustrating for much of the book. For example, I was a little disappointed at the lack of heat, until I learned that Tom was demisexual. Then the low-key chemistry made total sense - it wouldn’t have been true to his character for him to fall in insta-love or get insta-wood for Ava. (And the book does heat up to a perfectly respectable level at the end.)

The writing style is a real winner. The characters make a reference in the book to Aaron Sorkin (creator of the TV show The West Wing) and the book’s narrative and character voices have a delightful, brisk, walked-in-on-the-middle-of-a-scene liveliness to them that, while not as flabbergastingly witty as Sorkin, ensures that just about every paragraph is fun. The chapters are less short than mini (we’re talking two electronic pages depending on your font size).

Admittedly, Davidson’s style takes some adjusting to. She peppers her story with parenthetical and italicized asides, and, bizarrely, endnotes. The endnotes would tax anyone’s patience. Take for example: “*MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority), the city’s subway system, is from personal experience, pretty great.” Davidson also includes an Author’s Note at the beginning explaining her intent for the book: an homage to romance and horror tropes. In my experience, getting authorsplained at the start of a book almost always bodes ill for the story quality. However, Davidson makes even the note (and her multi-page trope list at the end) acceptable because she does what she intended to do and she does it well. For someone writing an homage, she’s written something that has a pleasantly unfamiliar feeling to it.

Davidson handles the mystery fairly well. Unlike a number of romantic mysteries I’ve encountered recently, which were as scary as a well-lit closet, this mystery does have teeth. That said, as I mentioned earlier, Ava and Tom don’t actively solve it. And when the story jets (literally) off to Boston to serve secondary plot points such as Ava’s quality time with Tom’s family, everything slows down and the story loses a bit of its twinkle.

Ultimately, Truth, Lies, and Second Dates, is a strange book, released, strangely, in the holiday season, of a strange year. I enjoyed it nonetheless, and, given fair warning about some of the book’s personality quirks, I think most readers will too.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer
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