Agnes Hopper Shakes Up Sweetbriar by Carol Guthrie Heilman - Review of the first book in The Adventures of Agnes Hopper series

BACK  OF  THE  BOOK  BLURB

(taken from Amazon.com)

Summer's steamy haze coats North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, but feisty Agnes Marie Hopper discovers the heat isn't the only thing causing her blood to boil. After a kitchen fire destroys her home, Agnes moves in with her daughter, Betty Jo. Three months later they come to an understanding: neither can tolerate living with the other. So on a sultry August morning, Betty Jo drives Agnes and her few belongings to Sweetbriar Manor, a local retirement home and former house of ill repute.

With no intention of staying, Agnes devises a scheme to sneak out of the Manor and find another place to live. Before she can make her exit, she runs into her best friend from high school, along with some other quirky characters. With a nose for trouble, Agnes learns some of the residents are being robbed over-medicated, and denied basic cable and Internet access. Armed with nothing more than seventy-one years of common sense and a knack for pushing people's buttons, Agnes sets out to expose the unscrupulous administrator, protect her new friends, and restore Sweetbriar Manor's reputation as a "rewarding and enriching" lifestyle. But the real moment of truth comes when Agnes is forced to choose between her feisty self-sacrifice that comes from caring for others.

MY  REVIEW

I have not read a lot of cozy mysteries and I've never read one of Carol's books but I found this pretty entertaining. She does a good job of bringing you into the story, so much so that I found myself thinking about maybe having to go into a nursing home and so far as to even dream that I was IN the nursing home one night. Oh yeah, that was an experience, a scary one at that, haha! So, if I was dreaming about the story that must mean I will have to watch for additions to this series. Carol makes you admire Agnes for what she accomplishes in Sweetbriar.