Bubbles A Broad by Sarah Strohmeyer

The fourth book in the Bubbles Yablonsky series by Sarah Strohmeyer, this instalment finds Bubbles looking forward to a week's try out with the Lehigh News Time. If she is successful she will end up with a permanent job, so she is keen to do well.

However before she has even started at work, she finds prison escapee and convicted murderer Carol Weaver at her house, asking Bubbles to investigate to see what link there was between Lehigh Steel and her husband's death thereby clearing Carol of involvement. That night after Carol's visit, someone breaks into Bubbles' house and shoots at her bed, so Bubbles has to work out who is trying to kill her this time!

Luckily Steve Stiletto offers Bubbles a place to stay with him at his mansion despite the fact that they still haven't slept together even though they have been seeing each other for months!

So on only a couple of hours sleep Bubbles goes off to her first assignment, covering a meeting of the Lehigh Historical Society. When she gets there she runs into a very unhappy former client from the House of Beauty and quicker than you can say "oh my goodness your hair is falling out and it's your wedding day" Bubbles finds herself in a fight with her photographer who is also on one weeks trial. Needless to say that they both have their try outs terminated, although Bubbles manages to talk her bosses into reinstating her for the rest of the week at least.

As the investigation into Hal Weaver's death continues Bubbles goes through a variety of different scenarios including lesbian love trianges and drug related murder, and meets the usual crew of odd ball characters along the way.

What wasn't usual in this installment was the reduced amount of page time for Mama and Genevieve, and Bubbles' daughter Jane and her clueless hairdressing prodigy boyfriend G, and the book is better for it. That doesn't mean to say that they aren't there, just that they aren't as involved in the whole book!

One thing that definitely moved forward in this book was the romance between Steve and Bubbles, with the relationship finally going to the next step, in very well written and quite steamy scenes without being at all explicit.

There was a lot going on in this book in relation to the mystery, and at the end of the day we did find out who it was thought killed Hal Weaver but I'm not quite sure that everything was resolved completely.

Overall, a much better read than the last books, Bubbles Ablaze. I'll be going to the library to see if I can get the audiobook for Bubbles Betrothed either today or tomorrow!

Rating 3.5/5