Armchair Detective by Kelli Jae Baeli

Amateur unlicensed Private Detective, Jobeth O’Brien, is living on the breadline, she’s not even keeping her head above water. Her night time job delivering newspapers doesn’t even begin to pay the bills. She’s hiding a secret which prevents her from getting her private investigators license. The one thing she has to her name that she loves, is her 1962 Falcon.

Jobeth meets rich socialite, Phoebe McMasters while she’s delivering her newspapers. Jobeth is smitten. Unfortunately, Phoebe is married and straight, isn’t she? Apparently not! The back seat of the Falcon sees more action than it’s probably ever seen before.

During the course of Jobeth’s investigations into the prostitution and blackmail case she’s on, she finds herself being battered, shot at, bitten by a Pit Bull and many other injuries she hadn’t bargained for. She also makes a startling discovery which alters the course of her friendship with Phoebe.

Jobeth is fast falling in love with Phoebe. Will her feelings be reciprocated? Or will Phoebe reject her like everyone else has throughout her life?

Meanwhile, Jobeth has a case to solve. Will she have the experience to solve it? Will she even be able to keep herself from harm? Someone out there wants her dead and will stop at nothing to kill her.

I honestly don’t know what took me so long to discover Kelli Jae Baeli’s books. But now that I have, I’m totally hooked.

I love the two main characters in this book, Jobeth and Phoebe. They are both adorable, multidimensional characters and they interact wonderfully with the rest of the characters.

The story starts out a little bit hit and miss in that the plot is a bit haphazard, a touch unbelievable. But that’s only for a tiny part, it soon picks up until there are so many twists and turns and ups and downs, I didn’t know if I was on a rollercoaster ride or a merry-go-round.

The overall story is a well written and fast paced page turner from start to finish. A real edge of the seat read that I couldn’t put down. The romance is hot and steamy, but does not over shadow the private investigation story the book is about. In my opinion, the balance is perfect.

I already have book two in this series as these books have been out a while. Don’t let that stop you from giving this a try though. I’m going to be buying any lesfic book Kelli Jae Baeli writes from now on.