Bayou Book Thief

Don't get me wrong, the writing, the character development is a LOT better than Murder at Pirate's Cove, but I did find myself drawing parallels: cozy mystery involving person new to the area just taking on the position of book shop proprietor, introduced slow burn love interest, protagonist kind of clumsy in amateur investigating, more up front with police than one might expect, and another series where I won't totally rule out picking up the next book in the series but...not feeling the urge immediately. 
There are some fun characters here but there's also hints of some features which I tend to think of as ‘Southern romance' tropes: 
~The protagonist is self-effacing/insecure, and proven to be more virtuous the more crap she suffers through without calling someone out on it. Others may do so on her behalf. 
~The male love interest is partially identified by more bold (and by insinuation automatically less attractive 🙄) women hitting on him.
~ Some minor villiains are identified clearly not just because they are involved in shady dealings, but because they are uncouth, dress cheaply, look untidy, speak crassly, have disintegrating environs (kind of feels like people forget economic disadvantages are a thing?). 

There are characters introduced just to be a friction point, which, okay, conflict is part (necessary to?) of a lot of plots, fair, but I have a certain threshold for asshole behaviour in my escapist reading and this kept pushing the red line. 
So, yeah, going to have to weigh the cons before I consider picking up another in the series. 🤷🏼‍♂️