Not Quite Zen by Cindy A. Christiansen

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     Therapy dog trainer and hospice aide Harmony Hastings takes a much needed Zen vacation only to return to sheer chaos at the Silver Sunset Senior Community. Who is the new, gorgeous, young doctor and why has old Doc Barlow disappeared? Why are residents being harmed?

     Can Harmony keep her chakras in balance long enough to figure out the mystery before one of the baby boomers ends up dead? Is the mysterious doctor the guilty party, or is he only guilty of giving Harmony a terminal case of love?  (synopsis from Goodreads)


     Harmony is a strong, independent woman who at times is a bit ditzy.  She works as a nurses aide at a senior center where she often brings her therapy dogs to greet the residents.  When she returns from a two week vacation she finds that serious accidents have been happening in her absence.  She’s also shocked to learn that the doctor in charge of the senior community has vanished and in his place is a new young doctor.  


     Soon after the accidents happen the police come to Harmony and ask her to help them investigate.  She tells them she won’t but when yet another accident happens she’s on the case.  The deeper she digs, the more she falls for the mystery new doctor.  

   
      I enjoyed the story line and thought that it was fairly fast paced.  The characters were charming and entertaining.  The ending was surprising and kept me guessing until I found out who was causing the accidents at Silver Sunset Senior Community.

  
     While the story line was good, I had some issues with this book.  The fact that the police came to Harmony to help them investigate was a little far fetched for me.  They only knew her because they had investigated her parents murder 15 years ago and suddenly she’s the lead investigator on the case.

      Many times in the book something eventful would happen and then all of a sudden it’s 3 or 4 days later.  I felt that there were some serious time gaps in the book that left me wondering what had happened.  There were also several events, such as a drug deal in the neighborhood, that appear in order to create a situation where the characters would confide in each other, but then they are never mentioned again.

     I think that this book and author have a lot of potential, there are just some things that need to be worked out first.

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.

This post linked to:
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