Book Review: Dude Magnet by Gregory Ashe

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Purchase Link: Books2Read (list of all available retailers)

What happens when your past and present collide? Be super awkward and go meet someone in a murder place, of course!

Dash's awkwardness and anxiety is something I relate to on a spiritual level and I adore him so much. I feel like the rest of the Last Picks also just are becoming more of themselves in this book (the only way I know how to describe it) and I can already tell I'm going to fall a little more in love with these characters with every book. Oh, and Deputy Bobby, how I love thee. And the chemistry between he and Dash is so, so good...

I really enjoyed this one. The mystery was fun and twisty but the characters were the true delights. It was also nice to get more of a glimpse of Dash, even if that glimpse came in the form of his ex. Such a little snake, wiggling in and winning the hearts of all Dash's new friends and trying to win Dash himself back. While I was not a fan of him, it was great to see Dash standing up for himself!

It's honestly interesting seeing clear signs of GA's writing just pulled back a little to accommodate genre expectations for a cozy. His creative use of swearing ("Right then, he said a lot of words that, if he had been on a kids’ show, would have required an emergency cut to commercial.") continues to make me cackle.

That ending, though... oof.

Thank you to the author for this arc in exchange for an honest review.