Full Service Blonde by Megan Edwards
3.5/5
Copper Black is all of us. She is feisty, but doesn’t always speak her mind. She is sensual, but not overtly sexual. She is a strong independent woman who is a little uncomfortable around sex workers and cannot stand up to the coworker who is constantly harassing her. She is sharp, but still naively views her parents as a happily-ever-after couple.
"Even at the tender age of twelve, when I knelt in front of the bishop for my confirmation, I had the sneaking suspicion that the Episcopal Church was just a politically correct social club for wealthy white people in designer clothes" p29
I enjoyed reading about Copper’s adventures in Las Vegas, but the issue I had with Full Service Blonde was the less-than-stellar relationships and the regularly occurring abruptness.
For a couple madly in love, Copper & her boyfriend, Daniel rarely communicated, regardless of their long-distance. He didn’t know when her apartment was broken into, and certainly didn’t know she was staying with a male coworker while things got sorted out (um, red flag much?). He arrived in Vegas to find Copper waist-deep in an investigation of the murder of a sex-worker, despite it being the main focus of her life.
Copper’s relationship with her brother didn’t feel very real to me either. Despite growing up together and living practically in the same house, Cooper & her brother really didn’t have much of a kinship. Copper relationship with her sister-in-law, Sierra, was more “real”, even with their constant bickering.
Finally, Copper’s supposedly steamy relationship with David really left me wondering where in the world the chemistry was coming from. I never felt the magic that Copper was apparently feeling.
The abruptness irked me a little bit too. It was too quickly that her sister-in-law, who Copper is constantly at odds with, believes her accusations against someone Sierra has vehemently defended. It was Copper’s boyfriends’ instant reaction to not only end their relationship, but to pack his bags in the first place because Copper was not paying him 100% attention during his visit to Vegas. Lastly, and most importantly, it was much too quickly that the answer of “who done it” came to light- and was kind of ignored.
All in all, I did enjoy reading about Copper’s sleuthing and I wasn’t able to put my finger on “who’d done it” until Copper was very close to figuring it out herself. The beginning had some excellent and unexpected twists and turns, but it all ended much too abruptly to really do some detective work on your own.
I plan to read the rest of Copper’s adventures. I would classify this as a beach-read, as I certainly laughed (and gasped!) out loud a few times. I was captivated the whole time I was reading, and I’m happy there is already another book to read, as this was the prequel to Getting Off on Frank Sinatra.
