Loving a good cup of coffee runs in the family for Briar Creek library director Lindsey Norris. But when her brother, Jack, a consultant for a coffee company, goes missing, her favorite beverage becomes a key clue in a dangerous mystery.

Between preparing the library for the holidays and juggling the affections of ex-boyfriend, Captain Mike Sullivan, and her new crush, actor Robbie Vine, Lindsey has her hands full. But the mysterious disappearance of her world-traveling playboy brother takes precedence over all.

Afraid that involving the police could brew trouble for Jack, Lindsey takes matters into her own hands. But as her quest for her brother embroils her in a strange case involving South American business dealings and an enigmatic and exotic woman, it’ll take the help of both her library book club—the crafternooners—and her eager-to-please suitors to keep Jack from ending up in hot water…A Library Lovers #6 ( )

I liked the first two books in this series better than this one. It seemed to me that although the characters were very well done, there was a little more action than I liked.

Lindsey Norris's brother seemed to be living an exaggerated and a little too carefree for me. I didn't like the way that he just popped in, he reminded me of a relative that I used to have.

Also, it got very scary sometimes for Lindsey, a little too scary. ( )

On Borrowed Time
1 Star

What the absolute HECK was that?!

Up until now, this has been a charming and reasonably plausible cozy mystery series. Unfortunately, this installment has the most ridiculous, pointless, and absurd plot ever. The explanation for the crime is so far-fetched and ludicrous as to be insulting to the intelligence of the reader.

Lindsay's actions throughout the book are completely out of character. Gone is the intelligent, rational, and forthright librarian, and in her place is a foolish, reckless, and even deceitful idiot who places not only herself but others in unnecessary danger. For a supposedly intelligent woman, Lindsay fails to use any common sense whatsoever, and the excuse that her behavior is to protect her brother does not hold water.

Even the information on Sully's past and the minor developments in his relationship with Lindsay cannot compensate for the mess of this storyline.

If the next book is anything like this one, I will be calling it quits on the series. ( )

Lindsey's brother Jack surprises her by showing up in the library. He's in a room where she holds the Crafternoon meetings. He's tired, so she breaks library rules and allows him to sleep in the room while she goes with the ladies to another location for the meeting. When she returns to the room later, Jack is not there, but a dead body is and the window is unlatched once again. She knows Jack could not be the murderer, so she omits him when making statements to the police. Later she witnesses him being kidnapped by a woman. From there the cozy mystery begins to delve into more of a thriller genre with amateur sleuths instead of FBI and CIA agents. She knows her brother Jack is caught up in something dangerous. She brings Robbie and Sully, who both want her affection, into the picture by sharing info with them. I miss the days when cozy sleuths did not need to be involved in a love triangle. We spent just as much time with the two men vying for her attention as in the mystery itself. If I wanted to read a romance, I'd pick up a Harlequin romance. The author needs to decide what genre she wants to write. If she wants to write thrillers or noir, she needs to ditch the series and create a new one, perhaps under a new pen name. I listened to the audio book read by Alison Ryan. The narrator does an okay job with female voices, but the male voices are not very good. ( )

Linsey gets a surprise visit from her brother Jack, and then she is further surprised when a dead body shows up in the room where she had left her brother sleeping at the library. She knows that Jack is mixed up in something dangerous, but she doesn’t know what. She soon realizes that not only is his life in jeopardy, hers might be, too. The story is well written, even if the mystery isn’t that engrossing. The characters drew me into the story, and I like reading about their interactions. ( )

I too am getting tired of the stupidest love triangle in my recent reading history. Stupid plot lines, teeth gritting "she said, she said, he said" writing that is especially cumbersome in the audio version. I plan to read one or two more just so I can see who the main character chooses to spend her life with (or if she chooses to diddle away the rest of her life being indecisive.) She's a disgrace to librarians around the country!

There are several likeable characters in this book and they keep me crossing my fingers and hoping for better. ( )

This was, up until about 18 months ago, one of my favorite series. Then the author screwed with Lindsey and Sully and introduced a stupid love triangle and I got my knickers in a knot over it, but I kept reading because I love the setting and I love the characters. So I gritted my teeth through the triangle nonsense and overlooked some rather flimsy plot lines, because I knew the author had what it took to write really well and not every book can be a winner.

I still feel that way, and I'll still read the next book, but wow, this was easily the poorest effort of the bunch so far. The two men constantly sniping at each other like two wet cats in a bag was, I'm sure, meant for comedic effect but the result was just irritating and silly. The plot line of the book was, frankly, ludicrous. If the author wants to write a spy thriller, she should write one, but don't cram one into something meant to be a cozy mystery - it just ends up being farcical. OH! and this scene:

Seriously, did the author not pay attention in science class? She had our intrepid heroes tying fishing line between two mile markers in the bay to clothesline the bad guys as they raced through, with the result being the bad guys fall into the water. There is no way the failure of this scenario isn't patently obvious no matter how you look at it. Either the fishing line is rigged to "trip" the boat, in which case, the forward velocity of the speeding boat snaps the fishing line like a piece of dry spaghetti, or it's rigged to clothesline the people standing in the boat (which I believe is what the author intended, since Lindsey makes a point of "collapsing" to the floor of the boat), in which case the fishing line would slice through the people that hit it. If they weren't immediately dismembered, they would be mortally wounded. Dead bodies would be fished out of the bay, not snarling, angry, live ones.

And I don't even know what the point of the last scene in the book was but suffice it to say whatever it was, it fell flat. Does the author actually think I'm going to believe that all those men just happened to know how to crochet?!? I mean, all of them?

As I've said, Ms. McKinlay is a talented writer and she's capable of much better than this. She's currently writing 4 different cozy series, so perhaps she's just spread a bit too thin. I've hear rumours that she's wrapping up one of the series, so perhaps that bodes well for a return of the quality writing so many of us have enjoyed from her in the past. I'm wiling to take my chances with the next book to find out. ( )

The international coffee cartel plot was pretty ridiculous as was Lindsey’s continued prevarication between Sully and Robbie. ( )

I haven't read this author before. So I hadn't read this series before either.

I did enjoy the crafternooners idea--even though it was set up at a time that would preclude most modern day women from enjoying it--but the idea of a book discussion/craft time/meal with a group of friends who enjoy the same has its appeal.

I was disappointed by the rest, however. The library wasn't really a part of the story other than as a setting and a workplace. The author is attempting to create a love triangle between Lindsey, Sully, and Robbie but I'm not sure Lindsey is really interested in either of them based on her reactions to them--it makes me wonder if another "Hannah Swenson" is upcoming where Lindsey falls in love with someone out of the blue rather than with one of the two men who have been good, loyal friends for so long.

I don't really think we readers had enough information to solve the mystery that we were given and that's always a bit disappointing to me. ( )

Library director Lindsey is excited for the approaching Christmas holidays. Her parents will be coming to visit and her regular crafternoon group are making festive treats and crafts. When her brother arrives unexpectedly at the library one day she is surprised but delighted to see him. When she goes to check on him several hours later, he's gone and there's a dead body in the room instead. As Lindsey tries to figure out just what her brother has gotten himself into and where he is, she'll also be trying to figure out just what to do with the two men in her life vying for her attention.

As always, an enjoyable cozy mystery in this series that continues to rock all the library work details. Is the love triangle cliched? Yes. Do I care that much? Nope. The mystery in this one is a little far-fetched but does help circumvent the problem of why there's yet another body in the quiet town. I will note that if you're looking for a festive Christmas read, this isn't one to go for. While it's nominally set around the holidays, it barely crops up in the plot or descriptions and isn't likely to put you in a Christmas-y mood. ( )

Arrggh! I like aspects of this series. I like the library details and the friendships between the women. There are times I like the protagonist. There aren't a lot of "wacky hijinks." The mystery was very weak. I wouldn't say Lindsey really solved it. But what really bothered me was the "battling suitors." It wasn't fun in the last book, and it's even worse here. The two men don't listen to Lindsey when she asks them to leave her alone. At times, their rivalry seems to be more about besting each other than about affection for Lindsey. One minor thing: despite the cover art and copy, there's very little about Christmas. ( )

In this entry in the series, Lindsey is setting up for one of the Crafternoon meetings that these books always begin with, only to discover her brother, Jack, hiding in their meeting room. At Jack's request, she doesn't tell anyone about him, lets him stay in the room, and makes up an excuse to have the Crafternoon meeting somewhere else. She's both shocked and worried when she goes to check on Jack and discovers that 1) he's gone and 2) there is now a dead man in the meeting room.

Lindsey is sure Jack didn't kill the man but knows it looks bad, so she reports the body to the police but doesn't mention Jack. She soon learns that Jack is involved in something very dangerous. If she wants to rescue her brother, she has to somehow figure out what's going on and who she can trust.

Jack apparently lives an overly exciting, globetrotting, and sometimes action-filled life. There were things in this book that made me think of James Bond - a coffee cartel, a dangerous and beautiful woman, and a boat chase. With all that action and Lindsey's worry over Jack, the murder at the beginning of the book was almost forgotten. Yes, I know it was part of the whole storyline involving Jack, but it didn't feel as much like the book's focus as the series' previous murders did. I was a bit disappointed by that.

In general, I found this book to be extremely frustrating. While I get that Lindsey was worried about her brother, her behavior made no sense. In the book just before this one, Emma Plewicki, the new police chief, demonstrated that she could keep secrets and wait for just the right moment to pounce. She's always been level-headed, careful, and trustworthy. I could sort of understand Lindsey stupidly leaving out her brother's sudden appearance in her initial report to the police, but her continued refusal to talk to Emma when things with Jack took a turn for the worse was just bone-headed. In a small town like that, there were ways she could have communicated with Emma that wouldn't have alerted Jack's kidnappers. But that would have required Lindsey to step aside and allow Emma and others to assume control of the efforts to save Jack, which McKinlay couldn't allow.

A lot of the things that were wrong with this book were due to McKinlay bending over backwards to make things more difficult for her characters. In addition to Lindsey's repeated refusal to involve the police, there was also the issue of the love triangle. I suspect even McKinlay didn't have much interest in Robbie as a potential love interest for Lindsey, because this was his second book and he still didn't have much going for him beyond being a good-looking charmer. And I couldn't help but wonder if Lindsey's primary appeal, for him, was that she kept resisting him.

Robbie and Sully's constant arguments about who should get to spend time with Lindsey and what rules they should be operating by grated on my nerves. There were a few nice scenes with Sully, including one where he finally talked about the event in his past that made him freak out when he thought Lindsey might still have feelings for her ex-fiance (I still think this was sloppily done), but they were always ruined by his arguments with Robbie. They were like two dogs fighting over a bone.

This is my least favorite book in the series so far, and if it weren't for how popular this series is with a few of my coworkers, I'd probably be quitting at this point. But I do like having books I can actually discuss with the people around me, so I'll be giving the next book a go. Here's hoping that at least the mystery portion of the next book is better.

Extras:

- The Briar Creek Library guide to Crafternoons

- Readers guide for The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

- Craft: Recycling candles (creating new candles from the remnants of old ones)

- Recipes for Beth's Spinach Dip, Violet and Charlene's Meatballs, and Nancy's Fruit Cake Cookies. I don't plan on trying any of these, but the dip sounded easy and the meatballs were tempting.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Sadly, this series is no longer worthy. The cheese factor has been bumped to 10 with the two men "with deep sky blue eyes" fighting over the main character. The description of the two men was enough to make me toss the book even though it was a Christmas cozy. Too bad. I did like the first in the series and thought it had potential. ( )

On Borrowed Time is the fifth book in the A Library Lover's Mystery series.

The holidays are just around the corner in beautiful Briar Creek and Lindsay is busy getting the library ready. As she enters the meeting room to get ready for the Craftnooner group meeting, she is shocked to see her brother, Jack, there. He asks her to not ask any questions and to let him get some sleep. Later when she returns to the room, her brother is gone and a man who has been strangled is in the room. Soon she sees Jack being kidnapped by beautiful woman. Jack has been consulting for a coffee company and a coffee cartel has taken him hostage till they get important information that he has gotten out of South America.

With the help of the craftnooners and the men in her life, Sully and Robbie, they start to look for who has taken Jack and where the information might be.

Lindsay is undecided between Sully, who has hurt her feelings and the debonair Robbie as to who she might commit to. That means Sully and Robbie always have her in their sights, so that the other doesn't get an advantage. It has been interesting to watch these two vie for her approval. Of course the craftnooner are there to help also. Miss "Lemon" is around to provide some pointed comments. Miss Lemon does seem to have mellowed since she has gotten a gentleman caller.

Craft hints, a reading to Wilke Collins' The Woman in White and recipes are also included.

Definitely looking forward to the next book. ( )

On Borrowed Time is the fifth Book Lover's Mystery.

See chapter 17 for the story of Kelly O'Laughlin, the reason Scully broke up with Lindsey when he thought she still had feelings for her ex-boyfriend.

The information about The Secret Garden didn't include why Burnett wrote the book or the source of Ben Weatherstaff's robin.

As for who is the better detective in The Woman in White, I vote for Marion Halcombe, because of the lengths Mr. Collins went to keep her from foiling the villains.

Recipes included: 'Beth's Spinach Dip,' 'Violet and Charlene's Meatballs', and 'Nancy's Fruit Cake Cookies'. The readers guide is to THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins. ( )

In this fifth book in the series, Lindsay is preparing for a fun Christmas with her family including her brother, Jack. When Jack shows up early at the library, Lindsay is glad to see him but Jack is in trouble and needs Lindsay's help. Before she can help, a dead body turns up in the library and Jack is gone. When she finds out that Jack has been kidnapped she tries to keep the kidnapping quiet but that is almost impossible in a small town.

I love this series. I enjoy the seaside setting and the library angle. Life in a public library is pretty well portrayed in this series. I also like all the inhabitants of this small community. Lindsay is a strong and smart lady. In this one 2 men are vying for her affections. The competition between them was funny even if a bit childish. Now another year to find out what happens next. ( )

Lindsay Norris is not only busy with her job as Library Director, her Crafternoon sessions, and the upcoming holidays, she is also struggling with trying to decide betweenen two love interests -Captain. Mike “Sully” Sullivan and actor Robbie Vine. She has her hands full, but when her brother Jack pays an unexpected visit to her at the library and quickly disappears again leaving a dead body behind, Lindsay is willing to drop everything to find him. Little does she realize what deep trouble Jack is in and soon she too is in real danger.

The fifth book in Jenn McKinlay’s Library Lovers cozy mystery series, “On Borrowed Time” is a unique twist on a cozy mystery. In fact, in some ways it is more like a spy thriller than a cozy mystery - while was a murder in the book, this isn't the type of cozy mystery where you try to figure out who the killer is. Instead, you, like Lindsay, wonder where Jack is, is he okay, whois telling the truth and who isn’t, and what exactly is going on? McKinlay does a wonderful job with this, slowly unveiling the story as she goes along. There are some thrilling and tense moments in this book - many of them taking place on the water - and I felt like I was right alongside Lindsay in those moments, cold and wet but anxious to find Jack. Mixed in with all the tension and action are very humorous exchanges between Robbie and Sully – I am not a big fan of love triangles in cozy mysteries but these two was so funny together that I was laughing out loud at times. I am happy that McKinlay lets readers get to know Sully better as a character in this book and we finally know why he acted the way he did a few books back. All of this leads to a very satisfying conclusion to the book, at least in my opinion :-)

“On Borrowed Time” is a different but thrilling cozy mystery. ( )

On Borrowed Time has more of what we've come to expect from author Jenn McKinlay: a fast pace, endearing characters, a book lover's dream setting, and plenty of humor. She's even pushing the envelope a bit-- and with some success, too.

Lindsey's brother Jack has been alluded to in previous books in this series, but readers haven't had the chance to meet him until now. I liked Jack, although I have to admit that I had misgivings about the plot revolving around him. Bringing international intrigue into a cozy traditional mystery is definitely pushing the envelope, and I would imagine that it's not going to set well with some of McKinlay's fans. I can go along with it because there's no law saying that characters in traditional mysteries all have to have small town jobs. It's more likely that someone like Jack-- who's an economist and travels the world-- would encounter murder and mayhem than a small town library director in Connecticut. Moreover, Jack's piece of the story brought me smack into the middle of the scene I liked the best: Lindsey and friends' plot to foil the villains, which takes place at sea. In fact, there's more than one scene taking place on open water, and I thought both of them were excellent. There's a bit of a thriller writer in McKinlay, methinks!

It may be wishful reading, but I also detected signs pointing to the end of Lindsey's romantic triangle. Ever since Janet Evanovich's neverending Stephanie/Ranger/Morelli tease (that I got sick of and stopped reading many books ago), I find I have extremely little patience for that particular narrative device. In On Borrowed Time, Sully's and Vine's behavior was childish, and I just wanted to smack both of them and make them go stand in the corner.

I'm looking forward to the next Library Lover's mystery with a great deal of anticipation, but I also feel that McKinlay's wanting to try something new. Whatever she decides to do, I'll be one of the first in line to find out what it is! ( )