Heidi Lucy Loses Her Mind by Gracie Ruth Mitchell
Author: Gracie Ruth Mitchell
Published: 2023
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Contemporary Romance
Synopsis From Goodreads:
Heidi Lucy has a secret—a big one. A scary, dangerous, ugly one.
There’s just one problem: thanks to a mysterious head wound, she can’t seem to remember what that secret is.
In order to regain her lost memories, Heidi sets out to retrace her steps—followed grudgingly by Soren, a faithful patron of her little bookshop and the less-than-thrilled recipient of the cryptic voicemail she can’t remember leaving. But her journey gets derailed when one of Heidi’s customers drops dead in the middle of her shop, and it isn’t long before both Heidi and Soren come under suspicion. Something fishy is going on in Sunshine Springs, and if they want to find the truth, they’re going to have to hunt for it themselves.
Who killed the woman in Heidi’s bookshop? What secret has Heidi forgotten? And, maybe the most crucial question of all: Who gave Soren permission to look so good in a man bun?
Heidi Lucy Loses Her Mind is the second in a series of interconnected standalones involving swoony romance, wacky comedy, and dead bodies turning up in the most unlikely of places.
My Take:
If you’ve read Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder, the first book in this series, then you know what to expect: a quirky, cozy mystery with romance that takes you from laughing one minute to having deep thoughts the next. In this book, a lot of those contemplations revolve around memory and truly knowing people.
Heidi and Soren are fun characters who both struggle with things in their own lives, have dreams that make you want to root them on, and quickly get attached. You travel with them as they have to process the shock, grief, and uncertainty of having someone drop dead in front of them and being viewed in suspicion in relation to it. But what takes it deeper are their struggles with regret, with not being able to go back and make different decisions in dealing with that person, and with dealing with the aftermath of death. With the fact that the lady was alive, and now she is not. As Heidi and Soren try to make sense of the questions and clues, they get a more in-depth view of who the victim is and realize that their perceptions are not fully accurate. And that is a common malady, is it not? Unless we take the time and make an effort to get to know a person, all we have is a shallow, one-dimensional impression of a person that in no way can accurately reflect the complexity of who that person truly is. All we can do, as Soren realizes, is to “just do better in the future. Treat everyone like they could be murdered tomorrow.” And try to live with no regrets in how we treat those around us.
Books in the Happily Ever Homicide series:
Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder
Heidi Lucy Loses Her Mind
Language:
There is a only a couple of instances of swearing-adjacent language such as dang it, or shut up.
Sexual Content:
There are a couple of kisses and hugs, one scene where a racy photo was discovered and the photo was very mildly described, and one scene where a character licks ice cream off another character’s face. (This is the second licking scene I’ve come across in Ms. Mitchell’s books as there was one in Juniper Bean. I’m thinking this may be something she particularly likes to add, so just be aware for future books: there may be more scenes where someone licks someone else’s face.)
Drug/Alcohol Use:
Rat poison is discussed, and someone is poisoned.
Violence:
A couple of characters are hit on the head, and there is one scene of threat and mild peril.
Plot/Storytelling:
This is a plot-driven story, but with a lot of character development throughout. It is told mostly in dual POV, with vignettes from a third POV in occasional chapters. It does have a lot of contemplations of death, and regrets, and how to deal with them, which can slow the story down in spots and make it a bit of a heavier read. But it is pretty fast-paced, and everything is nicely wrapped up in the end.