Win Ms America And The Offing On Oahu (Beauty Queen Mystery, #1) Constructed By Diana Dempsey Digital Copy

really enjoyed this book, its what I like to call an easy sunday afternoon book, It was fun and very enjoyable, I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series, A fun read with so many possible suspects, The beauty contest pageant theme is unique and worked surprisingly well, A definite recommend to people who like fun,upbeat cozy mysteries, This was a light mystery and, I think, a freebie from nook, There were a lot of characters and a lot of suspects, and the plot was fairly good, I thought the author could have handled the family relationships better as she made the husband look foolish at times, Meh. I skimmed the last hundred pages to make sure I got the murderer correct, I don't know what bothered me but the voice was off, It was a little too slangy and I really didn't need to know every single character's wardrobe change, Fun and quirky but the writing style was not for me, I enjoyed this story, comical funny entertaining sometimes wondered about grown married women who had children wanting to be in a beauty pageant but, GREAT summer read! Will look for more by Diana Dempsey! Fun, light read,
The blurb says it all,
There is a whole series of these! Might be fun to read one after a heavy book thats not when I read this one but still.

Oh, and Ms America is from Ohio, so thats cool, Ms. Ohio Happy Pennington finds out its not all sequins and silicone when she competes on Oahu for the Ms America crownthe first national title of her life.


When her fiercest competitor tumbles dead out of the isolation booth during the televised pageant finale, Honolulu PD gets to thinking Happy might have killed her.


Happy has to clear her name and catch the killer and make sure they are very UN Happy!!!

Dollycass Thoughts
This book was my choice for my December Just For Fun Reading Challenge and it really was a fun read! It reminded me of the Miss Congeniality movies staring Sandra Bullock.
A behind the scenes look at Beauty Pageants with older contestants who still can fit into a pageant bathing suit and embarrass their kids like crazy,

Happy Pennington was a sassy protagonist and the rest of the characters run the gambit a varied group of beauty queens, a chopper pilot, the pageant emcee with a huge secret, Happys hubby and her mother who doesnt think much of Happys hubby.


The mystery was full of suspects starting with several contestants and their handlers, Happy needed a spreadsheet to track them all, Very well plotted.

A great read to take your mind off the cold weather, A virtual trip to Hawaii in December should warm you up nicely, It was an entertaining read and it kept me guessing, I give it only.because I felt that the ending was quite a letdown, There was such a buildup in the first half and then it just kind of fizzled out towards the end, I liked trying to solve the mystery, but I don't understand why the main character bothered to try and solve the case herself, Not once was did it seem as if she would go to jail for the death of the other contestant,
Just ridiculous the logic she used in this novel, Really enjoyed it. A fun look inside the pageant world, SeriesMs. Ohio Happy Pennington finds out its not all sequins and silicone when she competes on Oahu for the Ms America crownthe first national title of her life.


When her fiercest competitor tumbles dead out of the isolation booth during the televised pageant finale, Honolulu PD gets to thinking Happy might have killed her.


Whats the only thing a beauty queen worth her sash can do Nab the real killereven if that means tangling with snarky rival contestants, a local who claims to be Hawaiian royalty, a brooding helicopter pilot, and a pageant emcee hot enough to die for.
. . I managed, just barely to finish this book last night and I wanted to give myselfhours to mull over what I felt about it, Unfortunately my feelings haven't changed from last night, Instead of thestar this book should have gotten I gave it abecause I could see that the author tried very hard to make this an interesting, action packed book.
She did try to weave a good story, and had some interesting and well written secondary characters, Unfortunately what finally did happen, is that the so called 'heroine' just came off looking like an idiotic, Perimenopausal busybody that had no clue and didn't care how she messed up the police investigation.


In this book we meet Ms Ohio, Happy Pennington, who is among the topcontestants at the Ms America pageant, While in the isolation booth, her competitor and last contestant up, dies after reapplying her face powder and lipstick, So of course the police have to think that Happy had something to do with it and Happy just has to do the cops job because they sure aren't doing it correctly!

There are so many red herrings that I finally just had to skim to the end just to see if anyone actually did the deed! Unfortunately, Happy was not exactly the most sympathetic of protagonists.
I know that is harsh of me, and I also realize that this book cost a merecents so I shouldn't feel cheated, . . but I do because all of the elements of a good, honestly funny, slapstick kind of comedy of errors, mystery were there, But it was too much, Perhaps Janet Evanovich can get away with this kind of thing, but not lately, Audiences may be looking for less "rebel without a clue" and more "women with some common sense and a good sense of humor" in there fictio Diana Dempsey has done it again! She never ceases to enthral me with her clever plots.
I find her characters adorable and the Beauty Queen Mysteries Nowas no exception, It seems Diana had great fun writing 'Offing in Oahu', that comes out clearly in her amusing and punchy writing, I did wonder how this story would appeal being written in the first person, but I had no need to worry, I found it a great read.

I would thoroughly recommend this book to all readers and will definitely look forward to the other stories in the series, I have read a few of Diana's books and would say for me this was probably the best, This was a fun, upbeat cozy mystery, I liked the humor and the characters, I didn't care for the way some of the characters handled one another, It wasn't personal preference on my part "Oh, I wish soandso did this" but more that I didn't find some character reactions and interactions believable, But it was still fun, and I recommend it to anyone who's looking for an entertaining read, The beauty queen pageant thing was a cool setting not to mention Hawaii! I'm not a big fan of "chicklit", romance stories or mysteries, but Diana Dempsey is hilarious.
This book is great to read on vacation or when you have read an intense book, This book has very descriptive writing, If I cared about fashion it might have mattered to me,

This book does have some references to homosexual references along with numerous adultery references, Some people might not find, it acceptable for young teens becauses of these references,

Overall it was a light and quick read, This was my first read by Ms, Dempsey snd I enjoyed it, It was a nice cozy mystery that didn't bore, I like the it didn't drag on with useless information that didn't fit the story,

Happy Pennington is a beauty queen who wants to be an amateur sleuth, Her father is a cop, so she feels she should do investigating cause its in her blood,

I will be looking for the rest in the series, Got this for free on the kindle and ended up enjoying it, Fun mystery, funny moments, good beach reading and a unique spin on the accidental detective, Plus, now i know the difference between a muumuu, a caftan, and a tunic : I think I'll read the next in this series, I thought this was a fun little fairly quick read, A beauty queen, Happy Pennington, stumbles upon a murder at her own beauty queen contest, gets herself listed and suspectand so decides to sets about to solve it, and clearing her name.
It took a cozy from a different point a view and that was a fun twist on it, I enjoyed discovering and solving the mystery with Happy and I enjoyed Happy herself, She was fun, witty, and sharp as a tack, The author did a good job a write a fairly tight plot, with lots of fun characters, I would read more of the stuff, and especially this series,

Three. Ms America competition is fierce and the presumed winner ends up dead from lethal lipstick, Enter Ohio contestant Happy Pennington not her real name to glide her way to the answer, The book is quirky with funny but not fully developed characters and the answer is a quick sumup that left me unsatisfied, All that said, I think this has the fundamentals needed for a fun series following the beauty pagents around the globe, You'll learn trade secrets like how to use packing never duct tape and why Ms, Congeniality never wins. A light read perfect for the beaches of Hawaii, where I happen to be right now, This book should probably be a three star it was well written and well edited it was just too goofy of a story to get a three star by me.
It is the kind of ultralight reading one does by the pool or at the beach when one

wants to keep busy without a lot of brain usage.

Fun, but I doubt I will read another one by her, unless I am of course, going to the beach or laying in bed with a cold and cannot concentrate much.
It was fun and goofy if you are looking for that this book is for you, Found this book to be an enjoyable, light read that is perfect for sitting by the pool or under a tree, The story revolves around Ms, Ohio, Happy Pennington, who witnesses one of her top rivals dying of poisoning, Since she was the last competitor to see the poisoned Ms, California alive, and because this final contestant was her top competitor to the Ms, America crown which just so happens to now be awarded to Ms, Ohio, Happy is the top suspect in the murder, To clear her name she begins investigating the clues to see if she can find out who really did it,

The Pro's of the book are the way she goes about gathering her information and how she finally finds the true killer with Oahu as her background.
Surprisingly not until the end was I able to figure out "who done it",

The Con's are the constant reference to the outfits and make up she' s wearing, and the playing up of the stereotypical competitor as vain, air headed, or bitchy cheater.


A three star rating because I found this book "middle of the road", neither life altering nor waste of reading time, Kind of reminded me of "Miss Congeniality", but the players are older ladies competing in a pageant instead of young ladies,

There's murder mixed with affairs and some humor here and there,

I enjoyed the book, This was cute and gave me a muchneeded mental vacation to Hawaii, I really don't care what the gals are wearing and how they're doing their hair while solving mysteries, but that's what I get for reading a story about pageant participants.
Best of all, I did not correctly guess the murderer by the third chapter, which is nice, Author of the Beauty Queen Mysteries, Diana Dempsey never competed in beauty pageants herself but she did the next best thing: she worked in TV news, After a dozen years of war zones anda, m. wake up calls, she packed up her mic and her Emmy and morphed into a writer of fast and fun romantic fiction, Dianas novels have been called “almost impossible to put down” Romance s Today, “skillfully plotted and filled with realistic detail” Library Journal, and “spicy, sexy, and sultry” Booklist.
Her first novel, FALLING STAR, was nominated for a RITA award for Best First Book by the Romance Writers of America, To find out about Dianas titles, and to contact her:Visit her website at DianaDempsey, comJoin her on Facebook at Diana Dempse Author of the Beauty Queen Mysteries, Diana Dempsey never competed in beauty pageants herself but she did the next best thing: she worked in TV news.
After a dozen years of war zones anda, m. wake up calls, she packed up her mic and her Emmy and morphed into a writer of fast and fun romantic fiction, Dianas novels have been called “almost impossible to put down” Romance s Today, “skillfully plotted and filled with realistic detail” Library Journal, and “spicy, sexy, and sultry” Booklist.
Her first novel, FALLING STAR, was nominated for a RITA award for Best First Book by the Romance Writers of America, To find out about Dianas titles, and to contact her:Visit her website at DianaDempsey, comJoin her on Facebook at Diana Dempsey Books Follow her on Twitter at DianaDempsey sitelink,