Jessamine Bricker has turned her love of planning and romance into the perfect career for her, proposal planner. When an old classmate, Diana, hunts her down at her latest proposal, Jess is tempted to turn her down but the wealthy boyfriend she’s being proposed to by may make all the difference for Jess. With what Trenton Tillard the Fourth is willing to pay to make up for the botched engagement attempt he already made, Jess should be able to buy the building that houses Bricker Consultants before she gets evicted.

When Diana insists Jess go to the exclusive Golden Ash resort with her and a few others, Jess can’t find a way out of it. Hoping to use the time to figure out what Diana’s vision is for her ultimate proposal, the last thing Jess expected to stumble over is a dead body. Add to that the weird possible drug deal she witnessed and not having any cell phone reception, and Jess is convinced she’s entered a clandestine drug operation that’s using a spa as a front.

Molly Harper’s A PROPOSAL TO DIE FOR is a witty and engaging story about a spa retreat gone wrong. Jess is a very relatable main character and I think a lot of us can commiserate with her when it comes to dealing with people from our time in high school who didn’t exactly make that period enjoyable. While I enjoyed this book, I thought it did suffer a bit of an identity crisis. The romance was so quick, it was almost a blink and you missed the moment. Jess and Dean went from bantering in their first encounter to sliding into what felt like a long-term comfortable relationship the next. The cozy/murder mystery aspect also felt like it wasn’t a focal point. More time was spent setting up Jess’s relationships with Dean’s family than delving into the murders. Throw into the mix the old mysterious disappearance of Dean’s ex-girlfriend and things just start to get muddled.

I did still very much enjoy A PROPOSAL TO DIE FOR though. The characters are quirky and endearing; you feel like you could happily hang out with some of them if they were real people. This was my first book by Harper and I look forward to checking out her other works and seeing what she puts out in the future.