Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bakeoff

Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is my final selection for the Calendar of Crime Challenge. It is a lovely cozy mystery with recipes in the back of the book.  It the 2nd of 5 books in the author's Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series.

The publisher's summary:  

Tucked away inside an old lighthouse in Beacon Harbor, Michigan, bakeshop café owner Lindsey Bakewellis ready to make her first Christmas in town shine bright. But her merry plans crumble fast when murder appears under the mistletoe. 

With the spirit of the holidays wafting through the Beacon Bakeshop, Lindsey thinks she has the recipe for the sweetest Christmas ever—winning the town-wide cookie bake-off. Unfortunately, striving for a picture-perfect December in Beacon Harbor is a lot like biting into stale shortbread. Low on staff and bombarded by visits from family, Lindsey can barely meet demands at work, let alone summon the confidence to face fierce competition . . .

 

Self-appointed Christmas know-it-all Felicity Stewart is determined to take the top spot in the bake‑off, and she’s not afraid to dump a little coal in everyone’s stocking to do it. Just as the competition heats up, everything falls apart when the judge is found dead—and covered in crumbs from Lindsey’s signature cookie!

 

Solving a murder was never on Lindsey’s wish list. But with her reputation on the line during the happiest time of the year, she’ll need to bring her best talents to the table in order to sift out the true Christmas Cookie culprit.

I loved this story. It has everything you want in a Christmas cozy mystery. There are engaging characters, a wintery but cozy setting,  and the smell of freshly baked pastries on every page. When. Lindsay rose at 3:00 a.m. each morning to begin mixing her doughs, I felt like I was there with her.  As a baker myself, I could easily see in my mind her sweet roll dough recipe as well as her cinnamon rolls and caramel pecan rolls.  She baked and fried the doughs before making a variety of danish pastries all hours before her bakery opened for the day.  

The characters were believable. Of course, Lindsay is a great character but the villain seemed all too real to me also.  Felicity, owner of a year-round Christmas shop, is the epitome of every jealous woman I have had to "compete" against when bringing treats to work.  She will sabotage the efforts of other bakers in order to always be first at everything.  A few years ago a co-worker threw my cookies in the garbage because no one was eating hers so I definitely feel Lindsay's pain.  The celebrity judge, Chef Chevy Chambers, is another villain in the story.   His character provides many of the twists and turns because he not only is having an affair with several contestants but he also put a few of them out of business with his scathing newspaper reviews of their restaurants.  When he ends up murdered, there are several possible whodunnits. The howdunnit should be obvious.  It's a rolling pin.

Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off is simply the best Christmas cozy that I have ever read.  Check it out.  5 out of 5 stars.

2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

The Build Your Library Reading Challenge is new to me.  The 2024 challenge has been set up to help readers read more history.  The challenge is hosted by the Build Your Own Library website. This year’s prompts will guide you to select a variety of literature, from non-fiction to diverse historical fiction, fantasy, and more!  If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know how much I love historical fiction.  I have learned much about history from reading this genre. This challenge has no spot for linking reviews so that is one step that can be eliminated for us bloggers.  You can find the link to the PDF checklist for printing off and checking the boxes as you go along.  Won't you join me in this challenge?

Download the  2024 Reading Challenge Prompts (in color)

Download the 2024 Reading Challenge Prompts  (black and white)

2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

I have participated in the Nonfiction Reader Challenge for two years now. I am liking it more and more every year so I will be rejoining the challenge in 2024 at the Nonfiction Nibbler level. Nonfiction Nibbler requires that 6 books should be read. You can select, read and review a book from the categories listed below during the year for a total of up to 12 books. You can also select, read and review any nonfiction book. The Book'd Out Blog is hosting the challenge again next year.

If you decide to join me in the challenge you need to choose a goal:

Nonfiction Nipper: Read & review 3 books, from any 3 listed categories

Nonfiction Nibbler: Read & review 6 books, from any 6 listed categories

Nonfiction Nosher: Read & review 12 books, one for each category

Nonfiction Grazer: Read & review any nonfiction book. Set your own goal

The categories are:

History

Memoir/Biography

True Crime

Science

Health

Food

Culture

Transportation

The Future

Pets

Architecture

Published in 2024

Additional Rules:

1)   Where a book is identified by more than one category, it may only count for one, not both.

2)   A book may be in print, electronic or audio format.

3)   You can read your chosen titles in any order, at any pace, just aim to complete the challenge by December 31, 2024.

4)   To join, create a blog post committing to your participation in this challenge. If you don’t have a blog you are still welcome to sign up. You can create a shelf for the challenge at Goodreads or LibraryThing, post via Instagram, or Twitter. Just add your name and a link to your shelf/account in the sign-up.

5)   The challenge will run from January 1 to December 31, 2024. 

6)   Participants may join at any time up until December 1, 2024.

7)   Each time you read and review a book as part of this challenge, please identify the post by adding either a direct statement and/or the challenge image badge to the post. It’s also helpful if you indicate the category the book fulfills.

8)   Use the hashtag #ReadNonFicChal on social media. 

9)   Share your review with other challenge participants by including your name or blog name and the category with a direct link to your review in the Linky in the challenge post.

2024 Memoir Reading Challenge

I did this challenge a few years ago but ended up not reading anything.  I am going to give this challenge another try.  To participate, you must read a minimum of five memoirs from any of the categories listed. One book can only count for one category. Re-reads are acceptable. All book formats count. 

Other Rules:

• Books must be read on or after January 1, 2024 to count.
• Challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2024.
• Books may cross over to other challenges in which you are participating. 
• Books must be labeled as memoirs to count. 
• You do not need a blog to sign up.  You may keep tract of your progress on Goodreads, Amazon or other similar sites with a shelf dedicated to this challenge.  Or sign up on Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter. Sign up in the comments of the challenge post.

If you need reading ideas, here are some links to get started:

Goodreads: Best Memoir/Autobiography

Goodreads: Memoirs by Women 

Amazon Best Seller Memoirs

B&N: 50 Essential Memoirs

Here are the categories:

1. Mental Illness Memoir: 
2. Other Illness Memoir: 
3. Political Memoir:  
4. Food Memoir:
5. Animal Memoir: 
6. Music Memoir: 
7. Travel Memoir: 
8. Written by a person of color: 
9. Written by a woman:
10. Written by a person who identifies as LGBTQIA: 
11. Written by an actor or a comedian: 
12. Written by an author or journalist: 
13. Written by any other celebrity: 
14. Written by someone under 40: 
15. Written by someone over 40: 
16. Written by someone from a country different from your own: 
17.  One you find thought-provoking: 
18.  Made into a movie: 
19.  Graphic novel memoir: 
20.  Bestselling memoir: 
21.  Humorous memoir: 
22.  Fictional memoir: 
23.  In translation:
24.  Won an award: 
25.  Published in 2024: 
26.  Published in 2023 or earlier: 
27.  Under 300 pages: 
28.  Over 300 pages: 
29.  One you want to re-read: 
30.  On a favorite topic: 
31.  By a favorite celebrity: 
32.  Free choice: 
33.  Free choice: 
34.  Free choice:

Girl Forgotten

Girl, Forgotten is one heck of a page turner.  I read it in one sitting and it kept me up into the early hours this morning until I finished reading it. The story is told in alternating time periods. During the present time, new U. S. Marshal Andrea Oliver arrived in Longbill Beach, Maryland on her first assignment: to protect a judge receiving death threats. In reality, Andrea is there to find justice for Emily Vaughn. Emily is the Judge's daughter who was murdered forty years ago. The killer is still out there and it could be Andrea's biological father. No one knows that part of Andrea's history though. A few  years after Emily’s murder, Andrea's mother agreed to go into protective custody because she feared her ex-husband. Her unborn daughter, Andrea, has had to live this way her entire life.

The initial plot takes place in Longbill Beach in 1982. Emily Vaughn gets ready for the prom. For an athlete, who is smart, pretty and well-liked, this night should be the highlight of her high school career.  However, Emily has been ostracised by her former friends and expelled from high school due to her pregnancy, but she refuses to just disappear. Her only emotional support is her grandmother who unfortunately suffers from dementia. Emily has a secret though and by the end of the evening, that secret will be silenced forever. The present day plot takes place forty years later. Emily’s murder remains a mystery. Her tight-knit group of friends closed ranks. Her respected, wealthy family retreated inwards and the small town moved on from her grisly attack. Andrea needed to be able to bring closure to Emily’s family and finally get Emily’s so-called friends to talk about that night.

I LOVED this book. Girl, Forgotten the first book of Karin Slaughter's that I have read and I will definitely read more from her in the coming months.  The two subplots were told in alternating chapters and each of those chapters ended with a bang. The twists were unique and kept coming.

The characters were quite interesting. Andrea's sidekick, Leonard "Catfish" Bible, is funny guy who was always spouting amusing sayings every time he opened his mouth.  With many years of experience as a Marshal, he gives the plot alot of twists by knowing exactly what should be done in order to advance their investigation. Emily’s friends continued to stick together even though they now hated each other. Something awful seemed to have happened the night of that 1982 party that had to be covered up. They all had toxic personalities and as these personality traits were exposed in the present day plot, it revealed what they were really like all along. One of Emily’s teachers, Dean Wexler, was a sympathetic character in the 1982 plot. However, he became a cult leader later in life and was abusive to everyone in Landbill.

Girl, Forgotten is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

2024 Epistolary Reading Challenge

I have never participated in this challenge before and am not sure how much I will like this type of book. However, I am going to give it a go next year.  The challenge will be to read books written in the form of letters, diaries, blogs, e-mails and such, either completely or partially written this way. 

Guidelines:

• Challenge will run from January 1 to December 31, 2024.  Books must be started on or after January 1 to count.  Re-reads will be allowed as long as they are read during the specified time period.
• Books may cross over to other challenges in which you are participating.  
• Fiction (all genres and subgenres) and nonfiction that fit the challenge description may be read.
• All book formats are allowed (paper, audio, electronic, graphic novels/manga, picture books). 
• No levels.  You can choose how many books to read.
• You do not need a blog to sign up.  You may keep tract of your progress on Goodreads, Amazon or other similar sites with a shelf dedicated to this challenge. Or sign up on Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter.
• You do not need to post reviews, nor will there be any check-ins.
• Sign up in the comments of the challenge post.

2024 Creativity Reading Challenge

I did not participate in this challenge this year but have missed it.  Now that I am retired I consider my job title to be a full-time artist.  In the past I have reviewed watercolor and fiber art books.  Let's see what I can come up with in 2024.  The rules are:

The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2024. 

Read as many books as you want.

Books may be nonfiction, memoir, how-to, self help, coffee table books, instructional, picture books, and even fictional books if they are about people who are creative.

Books of any format including traditional books, ebooks or audiobooks

You may reread books. 

Books may count towards other reading challenges in which you are participating.

Sign up in the comments of the challenge post.

Bulletproof Barista

Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mystery Series is my favorite cozy mystery series. I have read every book in the series and only have high accolades for each book. Bulletproof Barista , though, was not my favorite installment in the series. The authors have managed to maintain a quality level in their writing over the years but in this 20th novel they faltered.  

Clare Cosi is the main character.  She is the manager of the Village Blend coffeehouse.  She agrees to shut down her business for a week for comedian Jerry Sullivan who is starring in a film that is being shot at the coffee shop.  When the film crew’s location shoot delivers an actual shooting, Clare Cosi finds herself once again at the scene of a true crime.  Only Murders in Gotham, the smash-hit streaming program, is famous for filming in authentic New York locations and using real New Yorkers as extras. For its second season, they’ve chosen to spotlight the century-old Village Blend and its quirky crew of baristas. Clare Cosi is beyond thrilled, especially when her superb bulletproof coffee lands her a craft services contract for the production.

Let me begin my review by saying that I was in a bad mood when I began reading this novel.  I thought it would uplift me.  There was something different about how it started out but I continued reading waiting for someone to get killed.  It didn't happen until over 200 pages into the story. Usually, the murder happens in the first chapter.  I remembered hearing the name of the person who died, Billy Saddler,  but he was not central to the story thus far.  I went back to the beginning searching for his name and did not it until page 99.  There was something else that bothered me while I was reading.  One of the characters, Tina Bird, was referred to over 10 times as "cockadoodledoo."  Again, I went back to the beginning trying to figure out why she gained this description.  It turns out that one of Clare's baristas, Tucker, referred to Bird this way.  When Clare didn't understand why Tucker said this, he said that she should remember the phrase that Kathy Bates used in her 1990 movie Misery.  While I had seen this movie several times I did not remember the phrase.  I then went to Google and found several You Tube videos where her character  described a vehicle as a "cockadoodie car."  She even referred to another character as a "cockadoodie."  With my facts straight about the plot, I returned to reading but promising myself to watch the Misery movie again soon.

The Forward to the story talks about a movie being filmed near the authors' home in New York City.  They decided to write this installment of the series based on a movie being filmed at Clare's Village Blend.  I believe that this was a mistake.  The plot was not anywhere near as exciting as the authors tried to make their mystery fit into a predesigned idea of what the plot should be.  This affected their creativity.  There were a lot of cliches used in the writing, which I have never seen before, and Clare's investigation was more about who was sabotaging Jerry Sullivan's TV show than solving a murder. The person who was shot in the beginning of the book survived. 

If you have never read a book in this series, do not start with Bulletproof Barista.  All of the earlier books were riveting and Bulletproof Barista is an anomaly in the series.  I recommend, though, that you read this series.  It has been enjoyable for me. When I finished this book I was planning on giving it a 4 star rating.  However, as I was writing this review I realized all of the problems that I had with it. Consequently, I am rating it 2 stars.  It was not up to par with the earlier ones.

Can't Wait Wednesday #26

I am anxiously awaiting the publication of Ariel Lawhon's The Frozen River.  It will be released on December 5, 2023.  I have not read the author's earlier two novels and, frankly, never heard of her. The attractive book cover made me read the synopsis of the story and I ended up pre-ordering a copy.  The book is a historical fiction account of a real-life midwife by the name of Martha Ballard.

The publisher's summary:  Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is  record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.  Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

The plot sounds pretty interesting. I like that the story is based on a woman from history.   My December is heavily booked with holiday parties and concerts so I may not get a chance to read the book until January. I am excited about the read though.

2024 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge

The Alphabet Soup Challenge is running again in 2024 and I will be rejoining the challenge for a second year.  The "soup" means that by December 31, 2024 your bowls must be filled with one book for each letter of the alphabet.  Each letter counts as 1 spoonful.  The challenge is hosted by the Escape with Dollycas Blog.

Challenge Rules:  

1)  This challenge will run from January 1, 2024 until December 31, 2024.

2)  You can join anytime. You do not have to post a review of the book. Books can come from any genre.

3)  Children’s Books and Novellas are acceptable but they need to be over 50 Pages. 

4)  You do not need to link up each spoonful.

4)  Grab a notebook or make a page or a post or a GoodReads shelf where you will keep track of your spoonfuls.

5)  Crossovers to other challenges are allowed and encouraged!

6)  It’s an alphabet challenge!!! The challenge is to read one book that has a title starting with every letter of the alphabet.

7)  You can drop the A’s and The’s from the book titles as shown below.  The first main word needs to be the letter you are counting except for Q, X, and Z titles then the word that starts with the challenge letter can be anywhere in the title.

8)  There are two different ways you can set up your own A-Z Reading Challenge.

A –  Make a list from A-Z. Throughout the year, as you go along, add the books you are reading to the list. Towards the end of the year, you can check and see which letters you are missing and find books to fit.

OR

B – Make a list now of 26 books, picking one for each letter of the alphabet, and check them off as you read them.

9)  Books can be read in any order and all formats – print – e-book – and audio – are acceptable for this challenge.

10)  If you post about your books on Social Media please use this hashtag #AlphabetSoupChallenge

11)  Follow Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book as there may be special announcements made about the challenge.

12)  You can share your book reviews on the Challenge Facebook page.

13)  If you want to join the challenge, the challenge host is asking everyone to sign up using Google Forms. Sign Up Here. 

Book Cover of the Month: November

My best book cover for this month is from The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery novel by Ovidia Yu. Illustrator Andy Bridge designed the cover so well that Yu decided to make a minor change in her plot. She saw a clue in the book cover design that she wanted to incorporate into her novel.  

Andy Bridge graduated from the Brighton Polytechnic in 1989 from their illustration course.  He worked for a studio, Great Western, in West London until 2004.  He now lives and works in France.  In his book jacket design process, Bridge works in three dimensions, producing boxed collages and pieces inspired by all kinds of ephemera.  He has worked with all of the major publishers in the UK, Europe and the USA, including Random House, Penguin, MacMillan, Harper Collins and Orion. Bridge is an award winning illustrator.  He illustrated the cover of the 2022 Man Booker Prize winning novel "Life of Pi" boy Yann Martel as well as the 2009 winner "Wolf Hall" by Hillary Mantel.  In addition, he has created original works of art for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and wine labels for Domaine Saint Rose in France.

Book of the Month: November

It should come as no surprise that my best book for November is Ken Follett's The Armor of Light.  Armor is the 5th book in the Knightsbridge series and it is fantastic.

I cannot begin to talk about how good this book is.  The story spans thirty years. It opens with the sad story of a man who gets injured at work and later dies. His wife Sal and son Kit are part of this scene and they continue with the story until the very end. Sal is a strong female character and I would say she's the main character. As other characters are brought into the story Sal is always there. Her struggles are typical of those who lived during the start of the Industrial Revolution and it is she who came up with idea of unionizing the weavers of Knightsbridge. 

With the Knightsbridge series now set in the early 1800s Armor is probably the last book. This makes me sad but how lucky we all have been for the opportunity to read these books.

The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery

The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery was published this past June.  It is author Ovidia Yu's 4th Su Lin Series novel but the first book of hers that I have read. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the story. 

The publisher's summary:

The War may be over but Su Lin's troubles are returning - along with the British - to Singapore...

When two of Uncle Chen's associates come visiting Chen Mansion on the third day of Chinese New Year - an unlucky date in the Chinese calendar - Su Lin doesn't let them in. Not just because of the taboo, but because her uncle has been unwell. But the bad luck has clearly followed them as one of them is soon discovered outside the house, dead, with a strip of dried yellow rambutan peel in his mouth. And the other associate has gone missing.

Could this have anything to do with the recent British ban on opium consumption? Singapore is only just adjusting to the return of British rule and the authorities suspect the dead man was killed for threatening to expose the Chens for processing and distributing the drug. And as Su Lin adjusts to the return of Le Froy to Singapore, being Parshanti's bridesmaid and figuring out why scraps of yellow rambutan peel keep showing up around the mansion, she is forced to think about whether she has a future in the Chen family - and in the new, post-Second World War Singapore.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the Singaporean culture. I picked up most of it from the dialogue between the characters and there was alot of it. However, as a mystery novel the story fell short. There were large gaps in the investigation to make space for wedding preparations for Su Lin's girlfriend Parshanti as well as their interactions with other characters. I feel that the murder investigation should have never stopped once the body was found. The book shined more as historical fiction than as the historical mystery it is advertised to be. Perhaps something was lost in the translation.

The series' protagonist, twenty-six year old Su Lin, is a great character. She lives with her grandmother, uncle, aunt and niece. On the third day of the Chinese New Year, she finds that an old associate of her uncle is at the door. She refused admittance to the house because Lin's uncle was too ill to meet anyone.  The associate was subsequently murdered after leaving Su Lin's home.  In his pocket were some yellow rambutan skins. I thought these skins were an awesome clue.  Having never heard of them before, I headed to Wikipedia for more information.

I have mixed feelings about the book. The setting was exquisite but the murder investigation seemed secondary to the setting. I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars.