Jenna Hart moved back to Crystal Cove, California, to recapture her joie de vivre and to help her aunt Vera run the local culinary bookshop and café. But it’s hard to follow a simple recipe for relaxation when murder gets thrown in the mix… to concoct the most delicious dishes. This year’s challenge: grilled cheese. But with competing chefs bearing grudges from past years, more mouths are running off than savoring the fare.
The expression “too many cooks” proves all too true when the eight-time champ is found murdered in the alley behind the café. Soon a local diner owner (and Jenna’s “second mother”) is suspected of bumping off the competition, and Jenna has to douse the flames before the wrong person gets burned…
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Inherit the Word is the second book in Daryl Wood Gerber’s Cookbook Nook series. I read the first book, and I’ve read several of the author’s other series. I’m planning to read one per month this year so that I’m fully caught up by the end of the year and able to read the newest one when it releases. Set in a beautiful California town, it offers a charming setting with food, books, and mysteries. I like Gerber’s writing style, and while the series is still fleshing out some of its style and supporting cast, it shows promise to be a strong one.
Grill Fest, an annual cooking competition, is taking place in Jenna’s Cookbook Nook shop. She opened it the prior year with her aunt, and now it’s taken off. The top two contenders have fought with each other for years, and one’s husband is the business manager for the other. Keep your enemies close, that’s the key here. Unfortunately, one of the top two is taken out after a fire alarm goes off. And Lola, Jenna’s sorta other mother (of her bestie) who was in the competition, is accused of the crime. The women had a public fight over a chef who’d resigned and worked at the other’s restaurant. What really happened here? Toss in two daughters of the deceased, with a strange relationship, and a possible abuse scenario, and it’s very complex.
Not only are we treated to a fun competition with mouthwatering meals, but we learn about several amazing cookbooks and authors we should get to know better. On top of that, the peculiar disappearance and death of Jenna’s husband two years ago is further explored. While everything seems to indicate he died, there was never a body, so I’m confident he will reappear at some point, probably when Jenna gets serious with the new guy, Rhett. In this book, her husband, David, left behind a mysterious key and kitty cat statue. What could it all be about?
The setting is the best piece of this series. The writing is good and the characters are all fun, but I adore reading about the town, the personal relationships between friends and enemies, the history of the cookbooks that pop up in the store as potential new sellers. The recipes sound good, and a few hints dropped about the author’s other series (under pseudonym Avery Ames) about a cheese shoppe is very enticing. I look forward to reading more in this series!
I really enjoyed this Cozy Mystery. I received this for free and I voluntarily chose to review this story. This story grabbed me from the first. This is a series, and I’d think it goes best to read it in order. The first story lays down a bit of the background, so we are able to move into the story faster. I’ve given it a 5* rating. I found this one to be a bit of a tear jerker for me and if you are a foodie, you are sure to enjoy this series. Again, it is almost the end before we find out the murderer in this story. And the kitten is up to his tricks again to stir things up.
This was a fun book especially if you like cooking. I also love the kitten.
The Cookbook Nook is hosting the town’s annual grill competition, but things turn sour when the reigning champion is murdered before the first round even starts. When a friend of Jenna’s becomes the prime suspect, she starts nosing around to find the killer.
I love this small touristy beach town, and I have already grown to love these characters. The plot was great with lots of good suspects and plenty of red herrings, too. I can’t wait to visit again.