Sitting on a Fortune Book Blog Tour, Review, and #Giveaway #LoneStarLit

Hidden fortune. Hidden danger. Madison Reynolds deCordova is about to uncover a dangerous secret…literally.

During In a Pinch Professional Services’s latest gig at an upholstery shop, Madison finds a chair that’s perfect for her husband’s birthday gift. At least it will be, once she removes the worn velvet. Hiding the chair at Granny Bert’s, Madison tackles her first solo upholstery project but soon discovers more than she bargained for! A hidden treasure beneath the cushion puts her in the middle of a new mystery and new danger.

The treasure isn’t her only problem. While helping a young boy find his lost dog, Madison lands on the wrong side of surly businessman Lamont Andrews. Meanwhile, best friend Genny is worried about one of her café patrons. Mr. Pruett’s wild stories are getting wilder each day, and now he’s missing. Plus, there’s the matter of a troublesome new habit Maddy seems to have acquired: breaking and entering. It’s a harsh term for simply trying to rescue a dog and save an old man.

Somehow, she knows it all fits together. But what does a lost dog, a cluttered old barn, Mr. Pruett’s disappearance, and a hidden treasure have to do with her chair? Now someone is stalking her and her grandmother, and Madison knows that danger is on its way.

As always, The Sisters are full of fun, excitement, family antics, and more danger than the law allows!

Revisiting The Sisters, Texas Mystery Series is like dropping in on old friends. We learn where the characters have been since the last book and find out what’s happening in their lives now. Now if only I had a porch like the Big House for sitting and reading!

I thoroughly enjoy visiting the familiar characters, especially Granny Bert. Oh, Granny Bert. She continues to be a blast, serving up her own special brand of wisdom to the town. She is who I want to be when I grow up! We also meet new characters in each book of the series. This time around, we meet Monte and Pup. Monte is such a sweet kid. He uses his own money to hire Madison to search for his missing puppy. The interactions between Madison and Monte are just so adorable.

Ms. Willis’s writing is skillful and descriptive. One example is when Madison notices a clue in Mr. Pruett’s house that her chief of police husband Brash and his team didn’t. I really had a sense of the dimensions and furniture in the house from the given details. A second example of the great descriptions in Sitting on a Fortune is while Madison is looking for Monty’s lost dog, Pup. Madison tries to think like a puppy:

“I might want to explore the crawl space under the house. Or maybe the shed. As a person – and a rather squeamish one at that – the thought of spiders and snakes and a random skunk or two doesn’t appeal to me in the least, but maybe it’s just the human coming out in me. Pup, no doubt, finds all that fascinating. “

I’m with Madison on hard passing on crawl spaces!

There are loads of shenanigans in the novel, many of which are between Madison and Genny. They are a hoot together! I seriously chuckled when these two, let’s call them not spring chickens, shimmy into Mr. Pruett’s bathroom window while using buckets as step stools. I could imagine exactly what it was like to climb into that window.

I was so caught up in the story while reading that there was even a moment of me yelling at Madison to not do something foolish. As clearly, my yelling at my book was going to stop her!

I learned some interesting history while reading Sitting on a Fortune. Executive Order 6102 was put into place in 1933. The intention was to control the nation’s gold. I can’t even imagine that order today!

I did find the ending of the novel somewhat rushed. I didn’t guess the culprit, but all the plot points and mysteries wrapped up very quickly. I don’t know of a better way to wrap up the story, per se, but maybe a few more pages to show how everyone handled the events that transpired?

Sitting on a Fortune can be read as a stand-alone. (I’ve only read one other book in the series.) The novel is a cozy and warm mystery, with a side of suspense. Or start at the beginning with book one! I really need to go back and read the other books.

I received Sitting on a Fortune free in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to author Becki Willis and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing this opportunity.