I found this to be a quick, funny murder mystery read to distract from the chaos around us. The plot was easy to follow despite the main character not being that interesting as I found all the other characters more enjoyable. The ending didn't really stick the landing, but the book overall was enjoyable.

3.5 stars

Remi Finch doesn't get along well with her family. As the youngest sister, she's always felt like an afterthought, a ball of anxiety that no one else can relate to in any meaningful way. Her entire family is going camping together for her parents' anniversary weekend so she drags herself along. And unfortunately, Remi runs into some trouble with an unexpected guest on that first evening. Her sisters come back in time to rescue her, but one thing leads to another, and soon there is a dead body that the girls have to deal with. Until it disappears in the morning...?

Stylistically I enjoyed the writing; the story was easy to follow and there were some fairly endearing characters. However, I thought this story would end up being funnier overall than it actually was; there was a lot of room for plenty of darker humour with this type of plotline but it didn't really end up materializing. Although there were some lighter moments and hijinks in between all the family frenzy and confusion, I didn't find any of the characters particularly funny and most of the humour didn't really land for me. Instead, it just read as a lot of self-pity and guilt and frustration between the sisters, with Remi's anxiety almost another character unto itself. OBVIOUSLY the assault was no laughing matter, but I guess I was just expecting more levity in the other situations that the characters would find themselves in in dealing with a body that just won't stay hidden.

But hey, maybe this is all just a me problem; I don't recall the author promising me a comedy so maybe I'm asking too much. The rest of the book was a twisted romp through a national park (hey, don't y'all listen to any true crime podcasts? Stay out of the forest!!) and overall it was a pretty good read.

Thanks to NetGalley, author Amelia Diane Coombs, and Mindy's Book Studio for giving me access to a free digital ARC to read and review. All opinions are my own and are provided voluntarily.

I might be reviewing Drop Dead Sisters more harshly than it deserves, but lately, I’ve read several books with narrators who come across as overly whiny or grating. This one, unfortunately, continued that streak.

The story’s focus on “I’m so different from my sisters,” “I don’t fit in,” and “I hate my job” themes felt repetitive and overdone, which made the book drag, even though it’s relatively short. The main character, despite being 30 years old, has a tone that reads as very YA—unsurprising, as I learned in the acknowledgments that this is the author’s adult fiction debut after a background in YA.

For readers who enjoy a bit of sibling rivalry mixed with a touch of murder mystery, this book might hit the mark. For me, however, it was a bit too familiar and ultimately felt more young adult than intended.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

📙Drop Dead Sisters-The Finch Sisters Book #1

 ✍🏾By: Amelia Diane Coombs-new to me author

📅Publication:  11-1-24, Read 11-9-24

🌎Setting: Fallen Lake, CA

📄 Page Count: 255 kindle

 Genre/Tropes:
♡ Sisterhood/Women's Fic
♡ Murder Mystery
♡ Forced proximity
♡ Suspense
♡ Contemporary
♡ Adult Fic
♡ Camping trip

🤔My Thoughts: This book gave me Thelma and Lousie/Practical Magic vibes. Remi Finch was the youngest sister at 29 with social anxiety being treated with medication and therapy. She had self-esteem issues and isolated herself by working remotely as a community manager of a popular online video gaming company "Warp." She contacted her family every few years but agreed to go camping for her parents' 40th anniversary. Eliana was the oldest at 37, "the perfect daughter," with a great job at a CPA firm married with two kids. Maeve (34) was the idealistic one as a lifestyle blogger and social media influencer. Their parents were hippies who lived in an RV and travelled the world. Remi felt ignored and unwanted by her sisters. When a creepy family friend Guy Moran tried to assault Remi, her sisters rescued her. There's an accidental head injury and later they found Guy deceased. They move and hide evidence to cover for each other. A hot park ranger (Leo) flirted with Remi and they later hooked up. Remi saw it as a one-night stand because she felt Leo was too good for her. After some funny hijinks and sister time, the truth came out. Their family stuck together through it all. Remi became more self-confident but is a work in progress. The sisters grew closer and agreed to be in each other's lives more. Remi got a work promotion, a new boyfriend, and a new start in Seattle. I hope Eliana's story is next because it will be juicy!

⚠️️: SA attempt, mental health issues, therapy, cheating (not h), murder
🌶️: Steam level: 2/5 off page/closed door- 1 scene
⭐ Rating 4/5

Thanks for the e-ARC provided by NetGalley, Mindy's Book Studio, and Amelia Diane Coombs. I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions are my own!

This is a cute cozy mystery with quirky fun characters. I can hardly wait to see what adventures thus family will go on next. This is a great start to a series. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC to this book.

I’m not sure how you would categorize this comedy/mystery/family relationship story, but I really enjoyed it. Remi has always felt detached from her family, particularly her two older sisters, Eliana and Maeve. Her hippie parents seemed to favor the two, and Remi’s anxiety made her feel she didn’t belong. When the family gets together for the parents’ anniversary at a camping site, the wackiness starts. When Remi is attacked, her sisters defend her, injuring the attacker. When he is later found dead, they decide to cover up the death, fearing being misunderstood and thought guilty. There are really funny scenes. The relationship between the sisters is the highlight. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF 30%-Drop Dead Sisters sounded like a fantastic, light romp especially when it's coming with an endorsement from Mindy Kaling and comparisons to the show Bad Sisters. This one falls short though. I only made it part of the way through before I had to put this one down. I have to agree with the other reviewers that the main character just broke this one for me. She was so put upon and woe is me that it made the story unbearable to continue on reading the entirety of the book.

I should have read some of the reviews before requesting this book as I was expecting a whodunit mystery book. While there is a murder that is definitely a sub plot and most of the book is about the dysfunctional family and their growing relationship into something healthy? Overall, it was still a solid 3 star read, but just don't go in it expecting a big mystery or you will be left disappointed.

Funny story of 3 sisters who finally start to build a relationship as adults after a terrible relationship in childhood. Also a quirky extended family and what they get themselves in to.

Thank you net galley and publisher for this ARC. Remi isn't close to her sisters. I was expecting a faster pace who-done it book.

Remi is living an okay life. Sure, she’s lonely, sure, she hates her job, and sure, she is barely in contact with her sisters. That’s all fine. That is, until she’s forced to go to a family holiday with them… and then they have to deal with a dead body.
This book features a quirky but admittedly dysfunctional family, with the three sisters in spotlight. All three of them were very well developed characters who had flaws but I found them moderately lovable. The book was funny and charmingly written.
However! Do not go into this one thinking it’s going to be a mystery book. It is a book about a family with a side storyline that happens to have a murder, which at parts was serious… but at parts was VERY comical. If that’s something you like, I definitely recommend it, but don’t actually expect a page-turning whodunit.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Mindy's Book Studio for the ARC of Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs.

I read the entire story, and I am an absolute sucker for a cozy mystery. Unfortunately, it feels like a real reach to classify this book as a mystery. Yes, there is a dead body, and there are some questions around its appearance and location, but the Finch sisters put the absolute bare minimum effort into learning anything more about it and would have happily left the campground and ended the book with no looking back or wondering. It seemed like the scenes of finding clues were only background fodder for Remi to once again tell us how the sisters don't get along or how she is so different from her family and it's all on her introverted self that she must suffer through this weekend. When the questions about the death advance throughout the novel, the clues are either blatantly written on the page and Remi ignores them, or they are so far outside the scope of reality in how investigations and policing work that they are laughably ridiculous.

If we push harder on is this a mystery or not -- the tension of "Did we kill him and what will happen to us if we're caught?" exists, but instead of trying to solve the mystery the sisters instead want to cover it up - which feels very anti-cozy-mystery where we want the wrong doers to be named and brought to justice. It feels a bit like a very rough knockoff of Benjamin Stevensen's Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone where we expect bad behavior and loose morals, except in this case it is so overwhelmingly focused on Remi's near constant obsessing over her relationship with her sisters and not at all about the murdered person. When we do get to the mystery it's pretty obvious what has occurred, even though we get pretty limited interactions with the other players in the story.

I think I just found this to be unfulfilling, predictable, with far too much internal monologue from the main character -- but I could have been down for a sequel if not for the way this ended with the police and how crimes and evidence are viewed.

📚 PUBLICATION WEEK BOOK REVIEW 📚

Drop Dead Sisters By Amelia Diane Coombs
Publication Date: November 1, 2024
Publisher: Mindy's Book Studio

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚MY REVIEW:

Drop Dead Sisters is the quirky family, cozy mystery I didn't know I needed in my life... Until I read it in one sitting and fell in love with it.

This book follows the story of our female main character, Remi, who must spend the long Fourth of July weekend camping with her family to celebrate her parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Remi grew up many years younger than big sisters, Maeve and Eliana, and has always felt like the estranged black sheep of the family. She's not an outdoorsy girl. She hates her job. She doesn't want to fake her happiness all weekend. To say she's not looking forward to this long weekend away with family is an understatement.

After an unexpected turn of events forces Remi and her sisters to work together in the wildest of ways, the story in these pages became a comedy-of-errors adventure, with the sisters finding themselves unwillingly - and secretly - trying to solve a whodunnit for the ages. This book made me laugh out loud so many times! It's one of those stories with such endearingly warm characters, you can't help but feel like you've been welcomed as an honorary member of their wild family. From Grandma Helen, to Aunt Lindy, to Remi's parents -- the quirks and characteristics in this family are reminiscent of everyone's extended family members, and I genuinely loved every one of them. And Remi's awkwardly flirty romance with the park ranger only added yet another cute layer to this read.

If the dark humor of Dead to Me and the quirky family of Schitt's Creek got married, this book would be one of their kids. Mood readers who enjoy lots of different genres, this book is made for you! It's a little bit cozy mystery, a little bit quirky comedy, a little bit heart-warming women's fiction, a tiny bit rom-com, and a whole lot of fun. Thank you so much to NetGalley, Mindy's Book Studio, and the author herself for the gifted advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

#DropDeadSisters #TheFinchSistersBand1 #AmeliaDianeCoombs #MindysBookStudio #NetGalley #ARC #NetGalleyReviews #cozymysteries #quirkyreads #womensfiction #booklovers #bookaddict #bookreviews #bookrecs #bookrecommendations

Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs

This is a murder mystery about three estranged sisters who reunite at a campground and accidentally kill someone. 👀

I had so much fun reading this story. It was definitely a light murder mystery with some comedic relief. It was fast-paced and flowed well. Every time I thought I had it figured out, a new twist would prove me wrong.

The story had some questionable and quirky characters, which I felt was perfect for the plot. We also get a hot park ranger, but can we trust him? And what better way to bring sisters together than covering up for each other? If you're looking for an easy to read light murder mystery, then pick this one up!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a murdery mystery/comedy of errors/family dramedy/closed room mystery. Mindy Kaling, you haven’t led me astray yet.

Remi isn’t close with her sisters, soon-to-be-divorced mother Eliana and bisexual influencer Maeve. They don’t live in the same city nor do they invest much in their relationship, much to the dismay of their happily married parents. But when they go on a camping trip with extended family over the Fourth of July, they find that they’d hide a dead body rove without second thought. Fugitives from justice, a who dunit, quirky family characters and a seemingly unnecessary local boy romantic entanglement round out the narrative elements that keep the pages turning.

This was a fun, sister centered mystery that you will surely finish in one setting. You may or may not guess some of the reveal elements, but the pacing and conversations are great. The characters are all flawed yet likable. I have already added the second installment in the Finch sister series, to be published October 2025, to my TBR list. The murder victim is someone we get to know just well enough to intensely dislike. Not that he deserved to die, but that we aren’t sad he’s gone either.

Themes of family solidarity, career over family, and a lot of dark humor.

Thanks to @netgalley and @brilliancepubishing for the free copy in exchange for an honest review. #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #booklover #arcreview #booktok #netgalley #bookrecommendations #DropDeadSisters

Remi has never been close to her two older sisters, so when they all must come together for a family reunion in celebration of their parents’ anniversary, Remi wonders how they will survive the weekend. But when Remi is unexpectedly assaulted by a companion from their childhood, the three sisters come together under the most terrible of circumstances. And as the hole in which they find themselves gets ever deeper, the women must learn to trust each other in ways they never have before.

This intense novel blends the family dynamics of a traditional women’s fiction story with the suspense of a murder mystery. Brief chapters and a compelling premise make the novel move forward with ease, and readers will be encouraged to continue turning pages to discover what happens next. Each of the primary characters is flawed, and since the narrative is told in the first person from Remi’s perspective, details are only revealed as Remi herself learns them. Readers easily connect with the challenges in which the characters find themselves, and this helps the plot of the book feel more real.

Written for a mature audience, this novel incorporates strong language, sexual references, and assault that may be challenging for more sensitive readers. However, the balance between the intense moments and the sweeter family connections help the book to have a wider appeal. Good writing, an engaging plot, and high stakes make the book one that will be enjoyable as an escape from daily life, whether on vacation or in the comfort of one’s home. This memorable and suspenseful story is a good fit for fans of both women’s fiction and dramatic storytelling.