I’ll admit it, I’m a big fan of Castle, the television show. Nathan Fillion plays an adorable man who runs around his swanky New York apartment playing laser tag with his daughter, and romantically sometimes he reminds me of a high school crush. What’s not to love? There is a solid supporting ensemble who play in and out of the story and they just make the relationship between Castle and Kate even better. As much as I enjoy the show, Castle has been clawing and scraping for their last few years of wonderment. Holding out the sexual tension and then the should-we-make-a-life-long-commitment decision was a little painful to watch. Still, though they finally tied the knot with the traditional tv “write your own vows” thing.

“Rick, I pledge my love to my partner in crime…” Dang! I wish my husband and I had thought of saying that!

Maybe I’m being just a little too cynical because I really do love Castle. I’m still waiting for my family to give me my very own bulletproof vest with the word “Writer” printed on it.

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My Pecan Bayou series follows a similar path in that Betsy meets Leo in the first book and their romance plays out from book to book going from dating to the final book, Murder for a Rainy Day, when she gives birth to their child. When the two characters get married in Buzzkill they pledge their love just like Kate and Castle, but when Leo whispers in Betsy’s ear at the altar, it’s to tell her he’s solved the mystery.

I know, I’m a hopeless romantic.

In Murder for a Rainy Day I struggled with Betsy in that she is 8 1/2 months pregnant and expected to catch a killer. If you have ever been that pregnant, you already know that the thing you most want to catch at that time is a nap, not a killer. As Betsy naps, she dreams. When she dreams, she is visited by people who have passed on, namely the victims in the first five books. You would think these people would be grateful for her assistance in bringing their killers to justice, but they are the people they were in life. Some are arrogant, some are insulting, but they all give her clues to solving the murder at a time when she will need that information the most.

If you want to know more about Betsy’s dream visitors, here are the first five books in the series.

#1 A Dash of Murder – a Halloween ghost hunting mystery

#2 Overdue for Murder – a library mystery

#3 Doggone Dead – a Fourth of July mystery

#4 Buzzkill – a wedding mystery

#5 Burnout – a Thanksgiving mystery

#6 Murder for a Rainy Day -. an extreme weather mystery

This blog post previously appeared on Brooke Blogs