Saturday, May 30, 2020

Assaulted Caramel, Lending a Paw, and Penne Dreadful

Finished a 3 new to me cozies this week. All the first in the series. I think Penne Dreadful was my favorite of the 3, but it is also the one I just finished last night. :)

Assaulted Caramel (Amish Candy Shop Mystery, #1)Assaulted Caramel by Amanda Flower
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bailey is a chocolatier in NYC with roots in Amish country in Ohio. When her grandmother calls to tell her that her grandfather's heart condition has worsened, Bailey heads to Harvest, Ohio to see them for a quick visit. Bailey finds a body in her grandparents' sweets shop the first morning she is there.

I feel like this is a great start to a cozy mystery series! Many interesting characters to be developed over time and it feels like a good Amish community. And a pet pig. What else is needed?


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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Minnie Hamilton is the assistant librarian in the small resort town of Chilson, MI. She has spent the last year working on her pet project of a bookmobile and, on the maiden voyage, her cat Eddie stows away on the bookmobile. Then, he finds a body that turns out to be he main benefactor for the bookmobile. Eddie quickly becomes a main attraction of the bookmobile and Minnie has little choice but to let him tag along on the rides and hide the fact from her boss.

This was a great beginning for a series! I love some of the characters already. I think that Eddie 'helping' lead Minnie in the investigation might get a little old, but I am going to keep reading the series to see how things progress. I can't wait to see what happens with the Aunt and the boarding house and her antics. I really like the feel of the small town with all of the neighbors and people Minnie runs into being out and about.

In the course of the book, there were odd things happening that while reading I didn't know if it led back to the main mystery or were added to throw me off. I enjoyed that and kept guessing whodunit until the end. Minnie seems like a strong main character and I can't wait to see what other trouble comes her way!


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Tessa's husband Dylan died in a car accident 6 weeks ago and she is still grieving the loss when her cousin Gino tells her that investigators now think it was not an accident. Gino encourages Tessa to take a job at the local pizzeria that Dylan frequented and to keep her ears and eyes open and report back to him. This is just what Tessa needed to snap out of her grief. It turns out that Gino was just trying to help Tessa focus on something other than her grief and he didn't expect her to be in harm's way while working at the pizza joint.

The first in a series and I think this was a great beginning to a series! I feel like Tessa can be a strong main character for the series and the family - Gino, Gabby, Aunt Mona, and Tessa's mom - will be great support to her and to her investigations. No one seemed overbearing or condescending to an amateur sleuth like some books have. The pacing was on point. There was extra questionable behavior thrown in to throw me off the whodunit and everything was wrapped up in the end. The end also had a great lead in for the next book. I'm excited to see the progress in the series!


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