Characters are not believable
579917
This book could have been good if it were written better. Some of the characters are not believable. A couple of the major characters that are supposed to be very intelligent people cuss a lot and at the wrong times. It is hard to stay interested in the book when the characters can't stay on path. If the author had used less cussing I think it would have been a better, more engaging book.
3502995
Although this book is not tritely written, the characters are shallow and the plot is contrived.
2038277
While it's OK to have a preposterous premise for a book, you have to make it seem plausible. This book does not. The characters are less than one-dimensional. I can see why this was part of Amazon Prime Day b/c I assume no one who read it liked it.
1363465
Found it very hard to like the characters, the plot was a bit farfetched and pushing the bounds of coincidence. It was very hard to believe. The main character was not likeable in fact I really dislike her. I won't be reading another of these book anytime soon. The two stars are only for the fact that I was finished it.
681938
For me to enjoy a book, I have to like at least one character. There was absolutely no one likeable in this book and the story was farfetched and not that believable.
193981
After getting about 75% done with this book, I set it aside.  I kept expecting it to have some kind of conclusion, but is just wandered and wandered.  The characters where less than believable.

It wasn't worth my time finishing the book.
1721969
I'm only about half way through the book at this point, but will finish it just because I am interested enough in the plot.  However, the characters I find to be thoroughly unlikeable people.  Everyone in this story is either described as nearly perfect, especially the main character, and everyone else seems to be overweight or mean; or both.  I find descriptions of people such as "carrying 20 extra pounds" to be shallow and mean. The author seems totally obsessed with people's appearance and social-climbing.  I'm not sure who the intended audience for this book is, but I know it's not me. This is the first book in the Indigo Tea Shop series that I've read and doubt I will read any others.
2615916
I don't like to write negative reviews. However, it is frustrating reading about shallow characters that pretend to be hip , with a shallow plot . That is  what this book is to me.
2543985
The author is good at writing plot but characters are not realistic or well developed. Particularly the young, teenager characters rang false. Writing overall is not good.
2625681
There are too many characters in this book and instead of getting an indepth story with main characters, you get many characters with shallow subplots. Each chapter skips from person to person, what they are thinking and doing, so you never really settle onto a central character and strong plot, and the characters never really seem to come alive.

I have read about 200 pages so far, and am hoping the book gets better as I get further along.
4205007
There were definitely some things that I liked about this book. It was a story that held my interest well enough to finish. But the characters in the book were just not believable to me as a reader. It was hard to understand their motivations, especially the parents of Lydia. I have two young adult kids of my own, and I understand the temptation to push our kids to be the people we wished we could have been. But these extremes are hard for me to swallow. I couldn't relate to or like the characters much at all.
1814113
After reading the book, I developed an image of the the author and it appears from her Bio that I was right on.  The fundamental problem with her book is the male characters are unbelievable.  My thought was this woman has very little understanding of men.  She classifies two characters as 'gun nuts' because one belongs to the NRA and one has a concealed carry permit!?!  Detectives tend to be men's men, and she did a poor job portraying them as believable.  She should think about writing romance novels where men don't have to be believable, because she's not a bad writer...just lacks the insight into the male psyche to develop them as believable characters.
1631688
Interesting story but not very believable. I found it hard to believe that the three main characters could just take the time to solve a mystery on their own, having no other responsibilities such as jobs---a wife, husband and boyfriend setting out together---Really?! The occasional jabs between husband and boyfriend became somewhat trite and tiresome. The author also didn't do much to develop the characters. I developed no feeling for any of them.
4079387
I liked the characters, but the plot was not believable.  The author also did too much foreshadowing (a lot of "death follows me")
3021829
The characters did too many stupid things to be believable and entertaining. Even the supposedly smart engineer acted dumb too many times. It was an interesting concept but the characters ruined it for me. Even the frivolous sex scenes seemed awkward and out of place.
139527
My impressions of the book: The plot limps. Characters lack believability. The "bad girl" is a device first used in Penny's first book. The author likes to tell us what the characters think, and why, instead of showing us.

Penny has written some great books. This is not one of them.
1022310
I loved Clare Mackintosh's book "I See You" and I was eager to read this one.  I did not find the characters believable at all.  A single mom who is a struggling artist but she can just take off, leave her art studio, leave everything behind...where did she get the money to do that?  I just kept questioning the characters and although I almost never do this, I did not finish the book.