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Death by Chocolate Chip Cupcake–literally a cliffhanger
Death by Chocolate Chip Cupcake
by Sarah Graves
Most cozy mysteries are fairly tame. They have an interesting plot with a great whodunnit puzzle, a little action, and a sprinkling or two of danger. With Death by Chocolate Chip Cupcake, you can take those expectations and turn them upside down. Then double the pace, add lots of adventure, and throw in some creepiness.
The settings are extremely important to the plot. Main character Jacobia (Jake) and her friend Ellie own a chocolate-themed bakery, The Chocolate Moose, in the island village of Eastport, Maine. A lot of the action takes place at a remote cliffside house recently purchased by Ingrid Merryfield, a past-her-prime actress. Formerly glorious but currently decaying, Cliff House sits at the end of a narrow peninsula. With one way in by car, boat access when the tides are right, earthquakes, swamps, and secret tunnels, Sarah Graves has created a setting that is the perfect background for her plot.
Merryfield is hosting a party to ostensibly show off her new house to old friends even before any remodeling has been done. The guests who are staying overnight are plunged into sudden danger as they are trapped when a ginormous tree is uprooted and blocks the egress just as someone starts murdering them one by one. Instead of a locked room mystery, we can call it a sealed island mystery.
Ellie and Jake have been hired and paid well to provide chocolate desserts with the proviso that they stay overnight to serve and clean up. Things go from bad to worse as Jake tries to save Ellie, Jake’s stepmother, and Jake’s daughter-in-law and get them off the island. Graves goes into great detail with the setting helping the reader picture the dangerous cliffs and rising tides.
Sorting through the characters, their motivations, and the numerous plot twists is a full-time job. In the conclusion, everything is spelled out and loose ends are tied up. Jake and Ellie are brave, self-sacrificing, and ingenious ladies, but two of my favorite characters critical to the plot are not main characters. My semi-heroes are Igor the Irish Wolfhound who has a recurrent role and Jake’s elderly father who should not be underestimated. Death by Chocolate Chip Cupcake is not the book for a calm afternoon’s read, but a cup of hot tea might go with it well as there are some wet, cold scenes.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #5 in the Death by Chocolate Series. It could be read as a standalone, but would be enjoyed better with more character background.
2. Minor swearing (about 5 occasions)
Publication: March 29, 2021—Kensington
Memorable Lines:
…there are no dumb housewives in Maine. If there were, they’d get eaten by bears, poisoned by toadstools masquerading as mushrooms, or bled dry by mosquitoes so big they could stand flat-footed and look right over the barn at you.
So the whole line of thought was a vicious circle and for now I set it aside turning instead to thoughts of our imminent journey: Life jacket, check. Iron grip on the rail, check.
On the hearth, flames licked hungrily at the logs, curling their splinters to frizzled wisps.
Montana Dreams–secrets within the family
Montana Dreams
by Anna J. Stewart
The five Harrison sisters were abandoned by their father, Thomas Blackwell, when the oldest, Peyton, was eight years old leaving a hole in her heart that could not be filled. For reasons to be discovered in Montana Dreams by Anna J. Stewart, Peyton, ostensibly close to her sisters, has kept the girls’ biological roots a secret. She is the only one aware that Rudy Harrison, their devoted father and a retired Navy admiral, is actually their step-father.
Their world is turned upside down by Big E, the girls’ grandfather they never knew existed; the discovery impacted none of the girls as much as it did Peyton who has tried to fill the hole in her heart with work. Because Peyton, a Vice President in the company she works for, has a stalker, her boss has hired Matteo as her bodyguard. Big E convinces the boss that his ranch in Montana is the safest place for Peyton to be.
In many romances that include childhood family issues as part of the conflict, the background of the main character figures predominantly into the plot. In Montana Dreams, however, both Peyton and Matteo have issues, past and current, that need to be brought to the forefront and dealt with. Their secrets are unwrapped with care, and their romance is depicted with ups and downs and highs and lows that keep the reader in anticipation of possible resolutions.
The devotion Matteo has for his understandably confused six year old son is heartwarming. Well integrated into the plot are characters you might have met in the Return of the Blackwell Brothers series. Although I would love to have had the characters from that first series have more interaction in this book, I realize that would not be possible within the scope of this novel. As it is, the plot is full of twists and turns. Each one of the books in The Blackwell Sisters focuses on a different sister as each meets her welcoming Blackwell cousins and their spouses and learns about the positive sides of Montana ranch living. They also acclimate to the idea that their mother and step-father had presented a false narrative of their family to them as children. Meanwhile, the subplot of their manipulating grandfather Big E plotting to reunite his Blackwell family while searching for Thomas Blackwell, his son and the girls’ father, with Rudy Harrison, the girl’s step-father, continues on with a little progress and more clues in each book.
I would like to extend my thanks to Anna J. Stewart and to Harlequin Heartwarming for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Romance
Notes: #3 in The Blackwell Sisters series, but the author provides the necessary support if you want to read this clean, heartwarming romance as a standalone.
Publication: October 1, 2020—Harlequin Heartwarming
Memorable Lines:
She scrunched her toes in her shoes, trying to keep a hold of whatever traction she had on her life.
The very idea of stepping foot on a ranch—any ranch, let alone an isolated one in the middle of Nowhere, Montana—shot Matteo straight back to a childhood that held zero appeal.
Somehow holding his son made the pain and loneliness from his own childhood fade to where it couldn’t hurt him anymore.
Rudy’s face split into a grin so wide Big E swore he saw his back molars.
Morgan’s Hunter–repetitive
Morgan’s Hunter
by Cate Beauman
Beautiful Morgan Taylor, a wildlife biologist from a wealthy and politically influential family, finds herself in need of an expert bodyguard, according to her father who hires the handsome Hunter Phillips. The title Morgan’s Hunter is a play on words as Morgan is herself hunted in the aftermath of the vicious killing of members of her team who work for a government environmental agency.
Morgan and Hunter both deal with guilt issues and a physical attraction to each other in what should be a professional relationship. The basic plot is well-conceived with twists along the way.
My major issue with this book is repetition, mainly in regards to the sexual attraction and encounters between Morgan and Hunter, but also with their guilt issues. I understand they are both perfect physical specimens. I am aware they are attracted to each other and engage in sex multiple times. Starting with Chapter One, I was informed about Hunter’s PTSD, and later about Megan’s feeling responsible for her team. As a reader I just don’t need the repetition ad nauseam. If the value of the book is its erotic aspects, then I suppose the multiple explicit scenes are important, but they do little to forward the storyline.
Looking ahead to summaries of other books in the series, it seems they all run along the same line: woman needs handsome bodyguard and their mutual lust will result in sex. I don’t mind a little romance in a mystery, but I really prefer the plot to take precedence. I was not forewarned that Morgan’s Hunter is an erotic romance.
I received the book as a gift from the author with no obligation to review it. The opinions about this book and the genre are my own.
Rating: 3/5
Category: Mystery & Thriller, Erotic Romance
Notes:
- #1 int the Bodyguards of L.A. County Series
- Some bad language and multiple detailed descriptions of sexual encounters
Publication: September 2012–It appears to be self-published, but the editor is Invisible Ink Editing.
Memorable Lines:
They came past the blackened remains of a truck three Marines died in yesterday. Like a mascot of death, the burned vehicle welcomed the recon unit to “The Danger Zone.”
The nightmares he woke from left him in panicked sweats for hours. Loud sounds spooked him, and at the strangest times, he swore he could hear Jake calling out to him. He was a mess—his life a disaster.
She looked forward to getting lost in a good novel and the problems of the characters for a while—and forgetting her own.
education pathways 