A fast paced mystery book that was interesting but so hard for me to get into. In the beginning there was a lot of info dump and a lot of details about all the 'main' characters that were not particularly important to retained. I didn't quite grew to love the characters and the writing style while good is not the style I enjoy.

Jake and Nicole are in for a surprise. Helping Jake's father is never a simple matter, and this time they find a dead body. Surprises and secrets...This talented author has written a page turner...intrigue and mystery. Red herrings kept me guessing. These characters are realistic and keep the story moving quickly. Curl up in a comfy chair...grab a cup of steaming herbal tea...think about the realtor's office and what happened there...enjoy the mysterious ambiance. Thanks Netgalley.

Unbalanced was fast paced mystery in the six book series of the Jake Longly Thrillers. The dialogue was fun and the characters engaging. I would recommend to any of my Alabama or Florida friends as the setting is authentic.

I started this series with the last volume, “Cultured,” and thought it was great. So funny, so fast, so cool. So of course I had to grab this one!
The crew is of course the same: Jake Longley, ex-baseball pro, now retired as owner of “Captain Rockies”, a restaurant and place-to-be right on the beach. Someone else is actually running the store, because Jake doesn't really like working, but he finances the whole thing because his money from his sports career is well invested. At Rockies, Jake, his girlfriend Nicole (screenwriter in Hollywood, cool guy par excellence) and Pancake, whom he knows from school, meet up. Pancake is the brains and hacker in Jake's father's detective agency, and as it always happens, Jake and Nicole also have to help out here. This time the two of them are actually just supposed to pick up a few papers from a real estate agent; a new client of Longley Investigations. Can't anything go wrong? Yes, well – always can. Because the real estate agent in question is dead when Nicole and Jake arrive, and so the two of them end up in a murder investigation... which is pretty much the last thing Jake wants to do. On the one hand, of course, the local police are at work, but on the other hand, the investigators receive an order from Savannah, the deceased's daughter. And at some point the police and PIs decide that they can investigate better together... Which is of course also due to the fact that Pancake and Brooke, the assigned detective, are getting closer...
So much for the content first. As expected, it was another fast-paced ride and I just love the storytelling style. Half of the novel is written from Jake's first-person perspective, and Jake is simply wonderfully laconic, pragmatic and genuinely funny. In between we always have chapters from the author's perspective, and they are a little less laconic, but just as darkly humorous. I love it. It's never ridiculous or anything, just written in a funny way. And always well dosed. It's just fun here. The case was good, gave interesting insights into the real estate industry, but in this novel I felt the focus was more on the characters and their relationships with each other. But that also just worked. For example, I remembered Pancake from the last volume as a smart, but otherwise simply greedy and always hungry guy, and I also thought, he's definitely a little dumpling. Nope, he's not. More of a football star type with a bunch of muscles à la Jack Reacher. OK. I revised my opinion and became a fan 😊. Brooke sees it right 😊.
My conclusion: Please read! I'm already waiting for the next volume and catching up on the others.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy!

Laid-Back Gulf Coast Mystery-Comedy. This latest entry in the Jake Longly series almost seemed more comedic than mysterious, though certainly the comedy was regarding the mystery - or, more precisely, how Jake continuously gets pulled into the mysteries his dad and best friend - the *actual* Private Investigators - are working. Long time fans will be pleased with this latest entry, as everything we know and love about this series is still 100% there. For those new to the series or Lyle who don't mind spoilers about relationships and perhaps a case or two of prior tales, this is actually a great mostly standalone ish tale that will show you what the entire series is like - and I can tell you from personal experience that one of these is more than enough to get you hooked. For the clean/ sweet crowd... eh, nothing is necessarily shown "on camera", but there are certainly clear enough descriptions of what either is about to happen "off screen" or just has that at least some in that crowd may want to pass here. Overall another fun outing with the crew, great for those *hot* and *wet* and *hard* to handle Dawg Days of the Gulf Coast summer. Very much recommended.

When I requested this book from #Netgalley I didn’t realize it was part of a series, specifically this was the 7th book in that series. That didn’t matter. I was able to pick up and quickly understand the characters. This book was an easy read that included both some humor as well as try to figure out who did it. I enjoyed the story although it did drag from time to time it ultimately kept me engaged.

Thanks to #NetGalley and publishers for an #ARC of #Unbalanced.
While I really wanted to enjoy this book, unfortunately I really struggled to get into it. While the premise suggested I would enjoy the book, I didn't really take to any of the characters, and found the story quite flat.

This is a fun book! Lighthearted humor mixed with some unsavory dealings make a great balance for a perfect beach read. I did find the dialogue in the first few chapters a bit choppy, so found myself re-reading passages to determine who was speaking. It was fast paced banter written from a first person narrator, which may have contributed to the confusion. This seemed to improve as the book progressed. The author made an effort to have detailed descriptions of people and their surroundings which contributed to great imagery in the reader's mind. The plot pace was well timed, and kept me guessing, or at least second guessing, who the actual criminal was, and kept me wanting to read more.

I was given this advance-read copy courtesy of NetGalley, and I understand that it is not in final draft. I would recommend a serious proof-reading before publication, as I found no fewer that a dozen words which were misspelled or misused. Most of these were either an incorrect homonym use or a spelling error that would not be picked up on spellcheck, but there was also one actual spelling error. Oh, and a scientist might think storing dry ice in a walk-in cooler was a bad idea, so share that with the folks in the ice cream shop!!!

Great book and series!! I haven't read all the books in this series but I've read a few and will eventually read them all!! I absolutely love these characters! This book had everything! It had suspense, intrigue, action packed, murder, mystery, a fantastic who done it, great characters, great plot twist and some crazy twists and turns! It was funny too!! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one! I highly recommend reading this book and series they're well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Unbalanced is the 7th book in the Jake Longly series, but a first for me, proving It can be read as a standalone. Jack and his girlfriend Nicole agree to pick up some papers at a realtors office for his Private investigator dad. Instead, they find the dead body of his Dad's client and get drawn into another murder investigation. This was a fast paced book with a good plot, lots of red herrings, witty dialogue and smart likeable characters. Now I'm hooked and look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Jake Longly is a retired MLB pitcher who spends his days eating and drinking in his reserved booth at his Alabama restaurant, or having sex with his current girlfriend, Nicole, or helping his father, Ray, and his childhood friend, Pancake, with the private investigation gigs on the Alabama/Florida border. In this novel, book seven of the Jake Longly series, Jake and Nicole are investigating the death of a local real estate mogul. Much of the novel includes Jake's stream of consciousness questions about who murdered the real estate agent. Smart readers will know early on who it is. The novel can be read as a stand-alone, but readers who like Jake and Nicole (and Pancake--who is the best character) will want to begin at the beginning.

This was a witty, funny, fast paced, slightly predictable yet thrilling mystery which I thoroughly enjoyed! While I figured it out very early on, I still couldn’t wait see how it unraveled to see if I was right!

Jake Longly, an ex-major league baseball player, and his girlfriend, Nicole, who can’t seem to say no to Jake’s Private Investigator father, and his partner, Pancake, get roped into job when a quick errand is anything but. Jake and Nicole discover a dead body and begin working with the police department to solve the case. Millions of dollars are on the line, several suspects in the suspect pool and lots of leads to chase down. Jake, Nicole, Pancake, Ray, and Detective Peters are going to find out who the killer is if it’s the last thing they do!

I did find 2 typos in while I highlighted and are available to view on Goodreads! I could t provide page numbers as they weren’t available yet!