Three to Get Lei'd

The Tiki Goddess Mystery Series, Book 3

By: Jill Marie Landis

Narrated by: Danielle Piper

A jigger of tranquility is all Em Johnson wants, but now that her beloved Tiki Goddess Bar has been chosen as the location for Trouble in Paradise, TV’s hot new reality show, life is anything but tranquil. When a member of the camera crew is found dead in her kitchen - stabbed to death with Chef Kimo’s sashimi knife - the scene on the sleepy North Shore of Kauai goes from eccentrically crazy to downright dangerous. Suspects lurk behind every paper drink umbrella.

It’s not enough that Chef Kimo is the number one suspect or that the life’s-a-party Hula Maidens nearly burn down the place while dancing the hula with flaming coconuts. Em still has to deal with her Uncle Louie’s wedding to The Black Widow - until his fianceé’s Mercedes plunges into the Pacific. Roland Sharpe, a handsome, Hawaiian, fire-dancing detective, warns the locals not to interfere, but Em and the madcap Maidens can’t help themselves and soon wind up knee-deep in danger again. Can the irrepressible troupe solve three murders before the champagne goes flat?

©2013 Jill Marie Landis (P)2019 Bell Bridge Books

Decent story, didn't like the narrator

I enjoyed this third installment of the Tiki Goddess series, and maybe I'm just used to the narrator of the first 2 books, but the narrator for this one got on my nerves. Many of the voices had a screechy quality, and it was a little difficult to listen to. Otherwise, I did like the book.

A real laugh riot!

laugh-riot, situational-humor, verbal-humor, amateur-sleuth, law-enforcement, murder-investigation, cozy-mystery

Em is the almost sane niece who came to visit but stayed to work with her widowed Uncle Louie after her bad divorce. He runs the Goddess bar in a small town on Kauai and is about to remarry, but no one who loves Louie trusts the fiancee. The Hula ladies are a wacky bunch of tone deaf seniors who do the entertainment and are a really close knit bunch of friends. Then there's the first murder and the local police detective is at wits end with all of their *help*! A real laugh riot!
About the audiobook. I don't advise listening while driving. The story is full of fun and I laughed myself silly, but excellent narrator Danielle Piper is a bit too good on the strident voices of certain characters. She has a great voice for narration and the other characters, but is just too convincing on the loud obnoxious ones.
I won this audiobook in a giveaway! I really win!

Kept me interested and intertained

The story wasn't that bad. You expect the Maidens to get into trouble and they didn't disappoint. I don't like the voice for Detective Roland. He's too stiff and serious for someone who is also a fire knife dancer. Even Hawaiian police officers can relax, even be funny. The reading pace of the story was occasionally too fast. If I could adjust the speed, I would have.

Three to Get Lei'd

Emma is bar tending at her uncle's bar on Maui. It's called the Goddess. For entertainment there are the hula girls...not your typical ones either. At this point as Em is looking out the window she notices their cook leaving and figures he's on his way to buy some items for the kitchen. Then a few minutes later a scream comes through. In the kitchen is the body of a cameraman. To add to the crazy the crew from California who are there to do a few segments on the Goddess bar start filming the body. Em calls the police and her sort of boyfriend arrives. Next to this the fact that her uncle is set to marry the black widow, Marilyn. Not too many like her and feel she's only marrying Louis for his bar. Then the night before the wedding the bride to be is killed in a car accident. When it's discovered that it wasn't an accident suspicion in thrown on 60+ Kiki. From crazy to total insanity insues as the ladies try to clear their friend.
Danielle Piper brings life to the characters and draws you in with her calm voice as she brings the insanity to life!
Fantastic audio and read!!!

Not for me

This book was ok, I had trouble staying tuned in to the story. The narrator did a good job. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Quirky, zany and all around fun.............

Three to Get Lei'd is a wonderfully entertaining cozy mystery. It is the third in this series that takes place in a tiki bar in Hawaii, and I think you will get the most out of the story if you read it as part of the series. All three books follow Em, a recent transplant to Hawaii, as she tries - mostly in vain - to keep order over her uncle, the owner of the tiki bar she manages, and the Hula Maidens, a group of geriatric hula dancers headlining nightly at the bar. To say that these ladies get themselves into trouble in each book would be a major understatement, but the hilarity that ensues from each of their more zany adventures makes these books not only laugh-out-loud funny but also heartwarming at the same time.

In this third book, we have multiple mysteries to solve. A dead body is found in the kitchen of the bar, and the murder weapon belongs to Em's long suffering cook Kimo. He is married to the leader of the Hula Maidens, so all the ladies are on the case, much to the consternation of the local police detective, a fire juggling hula dancer in his spare time and Em's tentative love interest. At the same time, another woman is murdered and Uncle Louis's fiance is killed in a seeming accident on the eve of their wedding. Although I guessed the identity of the murderer about midway through the story, I still had so much fun watching Em and her gals investigate and come to the same conclusion. I am a haole myself, so I might not be the best judge, but I think Landis does a terrific job of describing the beauty of both Hawaii and it's native customs. Listening to these books makes me want to jump on the nearest flight to Hawaii, so I can find my way to the Tiki Goddess as soon as possible.

I had a little difficulty with the narration in the beginning of the book, but this was because the author used a different narrator for the first two books in the series. However, once I got used to the new narrator, I thoroughly enjoyed Danielle Piper's rendition of Em and the Hula Maidens. She had a different voice for all the characters, and I especially enjoyed her portrayal of the head Hula Maiden, Kiki. Her narration added some zip to an already rollicking good audiobook.

I received a copy of this audiobook at my request in exchange for this honest review.

Very enjoyable

I found this audiobook to be a very enjoyable listen. It has a great combination of murder, mystery, suspense and humor. The narrator does a wonderful job of voicing each character.