The Rocky Road to Ruin

The setting of this one is a rural farm in Connecticut. Riley heads home from her job as CIA librarian to help Caroline with her mother's funeral. She sticks around to help out with the ice cream shop and the local sunflower festival. I loved the farm, the homemade ice cream, and the sunflowers. It definitely felt cozy!
There were so many red herrings and so many secrets. I was certain that I knew who it was about halfway through and I was completely wrong. I was able to figure out most of the secrets that were tied into the murder, but the murderer was a bit of a surprise. I really like the romance with the detective was not Riley and the detective. The ending was not completely satisfying, but it made sense. You need a dose of realism even in a cozy mystery and I appreciate that even if my heart was set on a couple other characters get theirs.
I will definitely be reading book 2 in this series. I want to visit the farm and the ice cream store again. I want to see what Riley does next and to see if those characters I don't like get theirs.

Riley heads back to her hometown to help her childhood friend Caroline after her adoptive mother has passed away. Tragedy strikes again when Caroline's brother is found dead the day after the funeral.

Riley has been a librarian in the CIA for some reason, and been in the field? Maybe that plays a bigger part in the rest of the series?

It ended up feeling like just another cozy, nothing standing out.