“Great book! It kept me intrigued until the end. Never would have considered whodunit!” –Amazon Reviewer“The story has a good pace and the ending reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel. I didn’t guess who’d dun it, can you?” –Amazon reviewer“Excellent read.” –Goodreads reviewerReverse your stress at Cozy Cupcakes Café. Remember, ‘stressed’ is ‘desserts’ spelled backwards!Her ex-fiancé ran off … is ‘desserts’ spelled backwards!
Her ex-fiancé ran off with her money, her dreams, and her best friend. But that won’t stop Dana Sweet from trying to make a fresh new start. They say the best revenge is sweet success and that’s what Dana plans to do. Turn the struggling cupcake café she inherited from her grandmother into a success. Dana takes a chance and re-opens the café under a new name, Cozy Cupcakes Café, where frosted cupcakes are served with a spoon and delivered with a sweet fortune cookie-like message to brighten customers’ days.
But moving back to Berry Cove in Ontario is not as easy as it looks. For one thing, Dana is not welcomed to town by her competitor. Moreover, the employees at the bake shop haven’t warmed up to her yet. And when the Berry Cove Gazette food critic who gave the café a scathing review turns up dead, all sticky fingers point to Dana. And now a gorgeous detective has her under surveillance…
A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery series:
Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 1)
Blueberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 2) Available now!
Chocolate Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 3)
more
Dana has the re-opening of her cupcake shop to deal with, but theat’s where the fun begins. A murder, a cute cop and people pretending to be something they’re not keep her busy.
The plot on this one is rather simple. Our girl Dana inherits a cafe from her deceased grandmother and decides to move to Canada and take over management of said cafe. She also gets her grandma’s Victorian house in town as well as the cat that goes with it. Dana is working toward the grand re-opening of the cafe when the food critic at the local paper publishes a really nasty review of the cafe. The same day, the critic is found dead at his desk just as Dana is going into the building to see about placing an ad. He is found with one of Dana’s half-eaten cupcakes in front of him. Oh me, oh my, how can anyone presume that Dana had anything to do with his death. This is an easy to read book. I think you might like it.
Ending a surprise! Really enjoyed.
Not good enough to finish
Dana is the typical cozy main character. Her ex-fiancé left her with no money, she moves back to a small town, starts a cupcake café: all required elements of a cozy. And that’s fine in itself, but it lacked that spark of originality.
And the book starts with soooooo may platitudes. Her late Grandma’s sayings, one after the other and another and… You get my drift. Too many of life’s wisdoms crammed into a few pages. It just felt as if the author had found a book of clichés and decide to use them ALL. I’m really not exaggerating. Sentence after sentence until I just couldn’t take it anymore. I started skipping bits AT PAGE 7! Not a good sign when you’re already fed up with something so early in the book…
So I was already a bit annoyed, but then the story started for real. With what it should have started with in the first place: Dana’s story, and the build-up to a murder. But it didn’t get much better. I couldn’t connect with Dana. I couldn’t connect with the story. It was almost as if the author was trying too hard.
Most importantly: it lacked humor.
I love light-hearted, but that doesn’t mean ‘simple’. Even cozies need SOME depth. This was altogether way too simple. It didn’t stand out among all the other cozies that are out there. I’m sad to say I couldn’t make myself finish it. The ending could be really clever, but the style prevented me from finding out. And a DNF is so rare for me, I cannot help but score low. I’m sorry. I know a lot of hard work goes into writing a book, but hard work doesn’t guarantee success.
This book is so full of grammar and spelling mistakes that I had to reread 90% of the paragraphs to make sense of it. Not sure if it was publisher or author errors but a better proof reader is definitely needed. Hope her second book is better proofed but sure don’t think I will purchase or recommend to anyone.