I picked up the first three Cupcake Bakery Mysteries as a bundle on Audible. The bundles are nice. A credit is not cheap and it's great when you can use one credit to get multiple books, presuming you enjoy them.
In Sprinkle with Murder, we're introduced to Melanie Cooper, Angie De Laura and Tate Harper, partners in the Fairy Tale Cupcakes shop and best friends. Melanie and Angie do the baking and Tate supplied most of the start-up money. When Tate's fiancée, Christie, is murdered, all three come under suspicion. Christie was an absolutely terrible person, though, and everyone seems to have a reason to hate her, from her assistants to her wedding vendors.
If I hadn't bought the bundle, I might not have listened to more than this first one. Mel and Angie are nice enough characters, but not especially interesting. Their main quirk, shared with Tate, is constantly quoting classic movies. Mel's mother's interference is half the reason she's...
I am a sucker for Christmas cozies. So, even though A Merry Little Murder Plot is the 15th in the series and I haven't read any of the others, I picked it up. It worked fine as a stand alone for me. I'm sure reading them all in order would have given me more background on the returning characters, but I never felt like I was missing out on something I needed to know.
This winter, the Briar Creek library is hosting a a writer-in-residence, thriller author Helen Monroe. She's a bit stand-offish, but writes in the library daily and participates in talks required by her contract. Lindsey Norris, library director and our amateur sleuth, starts to get concerned when another newcomer, Jackie Lewis, is overly interested in the author, maybe even a bit stalkery. When Jackie is found dead, electrocuted by Christmas lights and holding Helen's manuscript, Helen becomes the main suspect. Lindsey isn't sure she's guilty, but she...
Rosi is recently divorced and out of a job. She heads from her home in Illinois to Tucson to help out with her dad, who is having knee surgery, planning to stay for a couple of weeks. Her parents rent a house for the cooler months in the Tucson Valley Retirement Community. She meets a few of the locals, but of course it's not long until she finds a dead body, Salem Mansfield, the bookstore owner. Rosi doesn't think Police Officer Dan Daniel is up to the task of finding the killer, so does some investigating of her own.
I like Rosi. She's funny and smart and the relationships between her and her mom and dad felt real. She also connects with the local landscaper, her potential love interest, and gets an adorable puppy. All the good ingredients in a cozy. I will say that even though the mystery was good, the characters stole the show.
Rosi has, of course, decided...
Rockin' Around the Chickadee is #36 of the Meg Langslow books, a series I dip in and out of. I think that's part of my problem with it. Andrews does a good job with the characters growing and changing, but I only catch bits of it. But it's way too long a series for me to go back to the beginning.
Meg is a blacksmith, wife of professor/ actor Michael, mother of twin boys, assistant to the mayor, and a member of the quirky Hollingsworth family, and, of course, our amateur sleuth. She wears a lot of hats and in each book one or the other seems to be at the forefront. This time, being a member of the Hollingsworth family is at the top of the list. Her grandmother is hosting a conference highlighting the Presumed Innocent organization and several of the family members are helping by being on panels or making sure it all runs smoothly. While most attendees...
This series has the cutest covers.
This is the typical Andy Carpenter book. We've got a rescue dog, an innocent client, and a possible mob connection. That being said, the formula works every time, mostly because Andy is a great character. He's funny, smart, self-effacing, sarcastic, and loves dogs. And the narrator, Grover Gardner, pulls it off wonderfully. Andy's friends and family are also likeable and well-developed, if a bit quirky at times.
The mystery itself is well-done, with plenty of red herrings and potential suspects. I like how all of Andy's team gets in on the action.
While the story takes place around Christmas, the holiday does not impact the story much. It's not a book I would feel the need to save till December....
I was surprised by how fun this one was. Charlie is in her late 20's and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. At the beginning of the books, she is working as a clerk at a jewelry store, but that job doesn't end well. Now she's back home in Maui, living with her mother and working at an ice cream shop. Her new plan is to collect the $100,000 reward for solving the murder of a high-powered developer, whose last stop before his death was Charlie's ice cream shop.
Rosie and Dot are two senior citizens who are also looking for the murderer and when they end up chasing the same clues, they decide to team up. Jake, hot cop, is not happy when they seem to be one step ahead of him and his partner.
Charlie and her friends, including Dot and Rosie, are fun and also the type to attract trouble. The women are all intelligent,...
