MURDER LIKES IT HOT

A yoga teacher struggling with fertility woes starts working at a drop-in center for homeless teens just in time for a staff member to be murdered.

Now that she’s gotten married, adopted Bella the German shepherd, and opened her own yoga studio, Kate Davidson has decided the next step is to start planning a family. But her happy marriage is threatened when Kate and Michael experience infertility, and it becomes harder to bridge the growing gap between them. The stress isolates Kate from Rene, her closest friend. Because Rene’s successful business sells upscale mom and baby merchandise, even a visit to her store is a trigger for Kate. Frustrated by Kate’s isolation, Rene hits on the perfect plan to snap her out of it. Her husband Sam’s college roommate, Gabriel Cousins, who works at Teen Path HOME, a drop-in center for homeless teens, wants to hire a yoga teacher to help the kids. Kate isn’t so sure the kids will be into yoga, but she needs the work now that her competitor, Some Like It Hot Yoga, is offering prices she can’t match. Once she starts at the center, Kate meets kids like Rainbow and Echo, both of whom have lots of potential despite their unstable lives. Soon enough, however, Kate finds her boundaries tested and her relationship with Michael compromised by her determination to do what she thinks is right for the kids. Then a staff member’s murder closes Teen Path HOME, and Kate feels obliged to find the killer to protect the kids even though she knows that one of those kids could be responsible.

Light on the yoga, the latest from Weber (Pre-Meditated Murder, 2018, etc.) pushes her heroine’s story toward an ending that’s equal parts heartwarming and saccharine.