Book Review | The Trouble with St. John

Book Review: The Trouble with St. John

Title: The Trouble with St. John (Samantha Stone #1)

Author: Katie Bloomstrom

Genre: Chick-Lit Mystery

Source: CLP Blog Tours

Published: January 11, 2015 by RKB Legacy

From breakthrough author Katie Bloomstrom comes the world’s unlikeliest super-sleuth…

“After all that work and sleuthing and investment in my great detective notebook, I had nothing. In fact, the only successful thing I’ve done since stepping foot on this island was successfully believe all the lies everyone told me. Oh, I’ve also successfully been kidnapped, successfully almost drowned, and successfully eaten more Xanax than I’ve ever eaten before in my life. And in two days I’m supposed to just leave and pretend none of this ever happened. If I can even leave after being framed for murder.”

When shy, medium-looking Samantha Stone winds up on the romantic tropical island of St. John after getting dumped at the altar, she’s faced with two options: (1) sit in her sweaty villa and cry over her un-marriage to her idiot ex-fiancé while watching Love Actually on repeat and mass-eating Oreos and Xanax, or (2) pursue a hot vacation sexcapade with the gorgeous travel god she meets at baggage claim. Really, what’s a girl to do?

But, after losing both her super spendy non-diamond engagement ring and her mysterious tropical island fling candidate in the same drunken night, Sam quickly learns that St. John isn’t quite what she bargained for. In fact, she’ll be lucky if she can make it back home alive.

Join breakthrough author Katie Bloomstrom as she takes you on a journey into a picture perfect paradise filled with men, money, and mystery where nothing – and no one – is quite what it seems.

Book Links: Amazon | Goodreads

My Review

The Trouble With St. John is the first book in the Samantha Stone mystery series. I would classify this story as a seriously hilarious, chick-lit mystery novel. We’ve got a petite, small-town girl that has a penchant for mixing Xanax and wine on our hands. She swears like a sailor and uses entertaining slang like ‘spendy’ to describe expensive things. After finding herself in one-too-many strange situations, Samantha begins to start thinking like 007. Will she be able to figure out what’s going on before it’s too late?

The novel is written in first person narrative through the voice of her online blog diary. It’s got a bit of a Bridget Jones’s Diary feel to the blog entry introductions, or you could even compare it to a grown-up version of The Princess Diaries in terms of the format, but this novel was much funnier than either of the two! I found myself laughing out loud and shaking my head at the ridiculous things that Samantha was doing and thinking throughout the story.

This novel was filled with drama, chaos, scandalous secrets and left me wanting more. Throw in a good dose of sexy encounters with gorgeous and mysterious men, and a healthy gulp of wine, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for love and laughter. Despite all of the mysterious situations, this novel left me wanting to go on my own tropical vacation!

Memorable Moments:

In reality, I’m twenty-eight. I hate being called Sammy, I don’t have pigtails, and I don’t like to color. Not anymore, at least. Okay, maybe I do still color sometimes. With my niece. Whatever.

No matter how the story starts, it’s always the same: I am a loser with a horrible, losery life and negative thought process. My only real friend is my iPad, with which I write this loser blog diary that no one reads or even knows about. Am thinking seriously about giving up, buying a hypoallergenic cat, and becoming the token Elkton spinster.

My Rating: 5/5 Stars [Please note, I received an ARC for review. If this was the final edited copy, I would have given it a 4 due to multiple grammatical errors that I found left and right. However, I’m hoping that all errors were found and fixed prior to the final edited copy being published.]

About the Author – Katie Bloomstrom

Katie Bloomstrom is the author of the Samantha Stone mystery novels. When she’s not writing, Katie enjoys reading all the books she can get her hands on. She’s also an avid walker, wanderluster, gardener, day trader, and Netflix-watcher. Katie holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in Psychology from St. Mary’s University. She is on the Board of Directors of her local natural foods co-op and is the founder of Free By 45 – a website dedicated to achieving financial independence. Katie lives in Minnesota with her husband and is looking forward to early retirement.