Let me start off with OMG YASS! This is a new cozy mystery book theme that I never knew I needed in my life! I’ve never met a microbrewery I didn’t like, and now I am yearning to fly to the Bavarian tourist town of Leavenworth, WA and sample all of the delicious IPAs!

Naturally, I decided to read this during dry January because I love to torture myself. I do not advise this! I actually extended my torture into the first week of February since I cheated here and there. But hey, January was a tough month, so I give myself a little slack!

But I digress. Let’s get back to mystery, shall we? It all begins when Sloane (the nano-brewery/B&B manager) finds herself in the middle of a simmering bar brawl between a mysterious woman named Liv and an overgrown frat boy from Hell named, what else, Brad. Liv’s dead body turns up on a river bank the very next day and more suspects come out of the woodwork.

I quite enjoyed puzzling out this beer-infused mystery and was pleased that it had nothing to do with nefarious real estate developers. That plot device is getting old in these cozies. Just sayin! Most of all, I loved, loved, loved the setting and all of the little bits of beer-brewing knowledge. Adding to the intrigue is a mystery on top of the mystery involving Sloane’s mysterious past. Growing up in foster care, she knew nothing about her mother–and why she was abandoned. Somehow, her former in-laws seem to know a lot more about her biological mother than they’re letting on. I won’t give anything away, but I will say there’s more to this mystery that will unfold in the next book. Way to dangle that carrot, Miss Alexander!

I only have a couple gripes. Firstly, this book is devoid of animals. That’s a problem. Also, Sloane is…well how should I put this? Personality-free, might be the best description. She always has that customer service hat on and is as pleasant as can be, but she could use a few quirks. Maybe throw in a few jokes here and there and get a little sloppy? She’s the kind of person who intentionally blends into the crowd and clutches those cards close to her chest. Not the most relatable or likable, in my opinion.

Other than that little gripe, I’m down with this series and am already starting on the first book so I can learn more about Sloane’s early beginnings at Nitro Brewery, and how all the drama went down when she walked in on her husband–ex-husband, I should say– doing the deed with the beer wench.

Overall, this is a quality cozy for beer enthusiasts such as myself who miss frequenting microbreweries amidst this unending social-distancing way of life. When this pandemic is over, I’m going on a long-overdue Hill Country beer crawl!