Cookie Dough or Die (A Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery)

Olivia Greyson is the proud owner of The Gingerbread House, a quaint shop that specializes in all things cookie, and her best friend, Maddie, is her sidekick, baking up scrumptious treats for their cookie-themed parties. But now they must take a break from baking and turn their attention to re-creating a recipe for murder...

No one is more shocked than Olivia when prominent business owner Clarisse Chamberlain is found dead. It was Clarisse who encouraged Olivia to open The Gingerbread House and she was one of her best customers. The sheriff is ready to call the case an accident, but Olivia's convinced there's a murder to solve.

Then word spreads that Clarisse left Olivia a large sum of money, along with a collection of valuable antique cookie cutters. Suddenly, Olivia is the prime suspect, and when the local postman falls ill after sampling one of their cookies, all eyes are on The Gingerbread House. If the cookie-loving duo doesn't find the real killer, their reputation and quite possibly their lives will be battered for good.

I really hate to give a bad review... that's why I'm not... I just really think it was me this time and not the book. I just couldn't get into the plot and the characters. I will have to pick it up and re-read it at a later date... so... this is more like a "book break-up" ;)

Dear Cookie Dough or Die,

I sincerely regret to inform you, that I am finished reading you (for now). It is just not working out between us and to be truthful... I'm just not that in to you. Fortunately it is not your fault... this time it's all me. Don't worry... I'm sure I will pick you up again and re-read you at some point.

Sincerely,

Jess ;)

Hickory Smoked Homicide (A Memphis BBQ Mystery)

Welcome to Aunt Pat's barbeque restaurant-family run and located in the heart of Memphis, Tennessee. Named in honor of Lulu Taylor's great aunt, the restaurant on Beale Street dishes out the best that barbeque has to offer. But sometimes even the best food can bring out the worst in people...

Since she runs the hottest barbeque joint in town, Lulu Taylor knows pretty much everyone in Memphis who loves their ribs sweet and their corn bread spicy. But one person she'd rather not know is Tristan Pembroke, a snooty pageant coach with a mean streak longer than a line outside Aunt Pat's. When she finds Tristan's dead body stuffed in a closet at a party, the police are suspicious-especially since Lulu's developed a taste for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Caught in a situation stickier than molasses, Lulu must clear her name, or risk getting fried!

With every book I read, I like this series more and more. This one really had me guessing till the end. There were so many good character's who could have "done it", and every time I thought I had someone pegged... there popped up another clue to make me wanna second guess someone else! Great thrilling and suspenseful ending as well. This is the third book in the Memphis BBQ Mystery Series by Riley Adams and I am growing to love the friends and family that gather around ole Aunt Pat's, I hope Riley Adams continues to write this series because now I am definitely hooked! :)

Who Do, Voodoo? (A Mind for Murder Mystery)

When Liz Cooper's friend Robin Bloom finds an unusual tarot card tacked to her front door, Liz writes it off as a prank. Robin refuses to ignore the omen her late husband drew the same card, the Three of Swords, in a reading the night before he was killed in car accident. As more cards and darker threats appear, Liz realizes someone very dangerous is upping the ante...

Liz turns to her brother's ex college roommate, occult expert Nick Garfield. As Nick leads her into the voodoo community to locate the origin of the deck, she can't ignore their attraction to each other. Then, a woman is found murdered and Robin becomes the prime suspect. Determined to clear her friend, Liz teams with Nick to unravel otherworldly secrets and seek help from beyond or risk being outwitted by a cunning killer...

Really awesome cozy mystery! And great for a first in a series! The book had me really guessing who the killer might be all the way till the end! I love the all the characters in the book and the witty charm of Dr. Liz Cooper! I also can't wait to see what the tarot cards hold in store for her and, one smoldering hot professor! All in all I am very intrigued by this series and I can't wait to see what Rochelle Staab will cook up next for us in her mysterious realm of magik!

Tempest in the Tea Leaves (A Fortune Teller Mystery)

Tempest in the Tea Leaves: A Fortune Teller Mystery

In the fortune telling business there are a lot of pretenders, but Sunshine Meadows is the real deal-and her predictions can be lethally accurate... Leaving the Big Apple for a quaint town of Divinity, New York, Sunny is determined to make it on her own as a psychic. With an ancient Victorian house as her place of business, Sunny uses various psychic methods to aid the town's residents. But when she uses tea leaves to give a reading for a frazzled librarian, what she finds at the bottom of the cup is anything but helpful. Sunny informs the police of her deadly vision, but her warning is too late. And with hard-nose, ruggedly handsome Detective Mitch Stone denying her abilities and naming her prime suspect, the situation is dire. Now Sunny has to use her visions to clear her name, before the killer can put an end to the psychic's future...

Not too bad for a "First in a new series"... It wasn't one of my favorites but it was by far the most quirkiest mysteries I've read! I like the characters in the sweet little town of Divinity. I LOVE the chemistry between Sunny & Detective Stone, and I'm very interested in where that relationship might lead. Sunny can be a bit impulsive, eccentric and bit neurotic... but she does have spunk, pizazz and a genuinely good heart. The only part I didn't like was toward the end... I felt sort of like I was being led on a wild goose chase, when trying to figure out the killer. I sort of had my superstitions who the killer was about half way into the book but still wanted to get to the bottom of it for sure. It did keep my interest most of the time but, would I read it again? Probably not... Ironically I'll probably be reading the library's copy of the next book in the series.

Death by the Dozen (A Cupcake Bakery Mystery)

Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura are determined to win the challenge to the chefs at this year's Scottsdale Food Festival. Taking home first prize will be great publicity for their Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery-and beating rival Olivia Puckett will be the cherry on top.

Mel's mentor from culinary school, Vic Mazzotta-now a Food Channel celebrity chef- is one of the judges, but Mel and Angie will have to win fair and square by whipping up delicious cupcakes with a mystery ingredient.

Though the real mystery is who put Vic Mazzotta on ice, literally-when his dead body is found inside a freezer truck. Mel and Angie will need to use their best judgement to find the cold-blooded killer who iced Vic, or they may lose more than the contest-they may lose their lives...

Loved it! I seriously LOVE how this series is going! Thank you Jenn, for another great book and another epic Mel & Angie adventure! As usual, you had me guessing till the end! I loved the story and it had a death had a great style in this book! Who would have though... could kill someone... ;) Can't wait to read "Red Velvet Revenge" next! And I am hoping that Joe and Mel might be hearing wedding bells in their future!

The Help

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step... Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, raising her seventeenth white child. She's always taken orders quietly, but lately it leaves her with a bitterness she can longer bite back. Her friend Minny has certainly never held her tongue, or held on to a job for very long, but now she's working for a newcomer with secrets that leave her speechless. And white socialite Skeeter has just returned from college with ambition and a degree but, to her mother's lament, no husband. Normally Skeeter would find solace in Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, but Constantine has inexplicably disappeared. Together, these seemingly different women join to work on a project that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town-to write, in secret, a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South. Despite the terrible risks they will have to take, and the sometimes humorous boundaries they will have to cross, these three women unite with one intention: hope for a better day.

The Help is one of the most beautiful books I think I've ever read! If it's not yet on the reading material list for schools, it should be! This book made me feel; it made me laugh, cry, and learn how to see us as "just two people". Kathryn Stockett's, The Help is amazing, rich and heartfelt. Its a story about deep love, growing, looking past the hatred and seeing people for who they really are. This is a book I will never forget!

There are so many things I loved about the book but my favorite are these;

Skeeter is writing the stories of the maids, She gets to Faye Belle's story. "Her stories unfold like soft linen. She remembers hiding in the steamer trunk with a little white girl while Yankee soldiers stomped through the house. Twenty years ago, she held that same white girl, by then an old woman, in her arms while she died. Each proclaimed their love as best friends. Swore that death could not change this. That color mean nothing. The white woman's grandson still pays Faye Belle's rent. When she's feeling strong, Faye Belle sometimes goes over and cleans up his kitchen."

Abileen is telling Mae Mobley one of her "secret stories". "We go in her room, where we like to set. I get up in the big chair and she get up on me and smile, bounce a little. Tell me, tell me about the brown wrapping. And the present. She so excited, she squirming. She has to jump off my lap, squirm a little to get it out. Then she crawl back up. That's her favorite story cause when I tell it, she get two presents. I take the brown wrapping from my piggly wiggly grocery bag and wrap up a little something, like a peice of candy, inside. Then I use the white paper from my Cole's drug store bag and wrap another one just like it. She take it real serious, the unwrapping, letting me tell the story bout how it ain't the color a the wrapping that count, it's what we is inside. "

A Sheetcake Named Desire (A Piece of Cake Mystery)

"Sweet success can be motive for murder..." There aren't many things pastry chef Rita Lucero hates more than losing. But two years after her marriage to fellow baker Philippe Renier fell apart, she's still trying to get him to sign the divorce papers. Exasperated, Rita visits Philippe's high-end New Orleans shop, Zydeco Cakes, to get his signature- and discovers that her marriage is already over when she finds Philippe dead with a chef's knife in his chest. Rita is shocked to discover the body, and overwhelmed to learn that since the divorce wasn't final, she now inherits part ownership in Zydeco Cakes. But it's a mixed blessing: the gorgeous shop is actually in financial trouble, and Rita's windfall sets her up as a prime suspect in Philippe's murder. Her former mother-in-law demands that Rita find out who killed her son, and his former employees don't know whether to trust her. The feeling is mutual espeically since the real culprit is still out there, and Rita may be the next victim served...

First in a new series and so good that I can't hardly wait to get my hands on the next book! I loved everything about the book espeically where it takes place; my favoirte city... "Nawlins"! That's New Orleans for everyone else that lives above sea level ;) Rita is an amazingly funny and witty character who takes after my own heart. Jacklyn Brady, you had me reeling till the end! I just couldn't put the book down till I found out who did it! I also love the vivid descriptions of the cakes and all the sweet goodness that goes into making them... I'd be lying if I didn't consider taking a pastry class or two after reading this book!