A missing sister. A spooky abandoned house. A secret meeting. A rogue hypnotherapist. A love triangle. A cute corgi. And chocolate. Plenty of chocolate. If this is your kind of cozy mystery then you’ll love Chocolate With A Side Of Murder. Sabrina Daley is still haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her sister ten years before. Even though the case went cold long ago, she keeps holding out … holding out hope that one day she will discover what happened to her sister.
Sabrina’s life is turned upside down again when she discovers her friend’s dead body in the alley way behind her family’s coffee shop. If that isn’t bad enough, after a week of investigating, the local police appear to be stumped.
Terrified about a second case going cold in town, Sabrina decides to take matters into her own hands. She sets out on her own, determined not to give up until she has brought her friend’s killer to justice.
Books In The Daley Buzz Cozy Mystery Series
Book 1 — Chocolate With A Side Of Murder
Book 2 — Caramels With A Side Of Murder
Book 3 — Apple Pie With A Side Of Murder
Book 4 — Lemon Bars With A Side Of Murder
Book 5 — Cookies With A Side Of Murder
more
Chocolate with a Side of Murder is book one in the Daley Buzz Mysteries by Meredith Potts.
I’m always on the look out for a cozy mystery these days. I’ve found myself changing my reading up and have come to enjoy a good mystery.
Chocolate with a Side of Murder introduces us to Sabrina when she’s a young girl on the day her sister goes missing, then we fast forward ten years and she’s now working in her family’s business and dating a detective.
I gave this story a good go, but ended up DNFing at 23%. Nothing exciting nor of interest has happened to this point. I’m board! So far, we’ve had a weird women show interest in Sabrina’s necklace which her missing sister gave her. This women wouldn’t take no of an answer when she asks to buy it off Sabrina, so it brings up memories and causes her sadness. Next up we go on a date with the boyfriend, but on the way to the restaurant they see this mysterious meeting where only men where invited to or something, but they couldn’t figure out what’s going on, so all through dinner it’s on their minds.
Really theirs nothing exciting to keep me interested or wanting to read on. These little things just aren’t mysterious enough for me. Chocolate with a Side of Murder turned out to not be the book for me. If the blurb intrigues you, I urge you to give it a shot. Just because it did not work for me does not mean it won’t for you.
DNF at 23%
What a fun and clean cozy mystery this is!! Sabrina works as a barista–but she does have a background in criminology. She is quite happy working at the store and still is–except she went to take the trash out and found a dead body in the alley! AND he was a friend of hers!
She immediately told her detective boyfriend. Of course he told her to stay out of it–but when the case was not getting solved–she knew she had to get involved! There are twists and turns and who the killer is will surprise you!
This is an easy read that will keep your attention. I have read one other in this series and definitely plan on reading several more, if not all of them!
She has a passion for justice!
Sabrina Daley cannot allow a murder to go unsolved, especially when she is the one who discovers her friend’s body. Her passion stems from the disappearance of her older sister ten years ago. If the police cannot solve the case then she will solve it for them even if her Detective boyfriend would rather Sabrina leave the solving to him.
It is a fun cozy mystery but I hope the characters and backstory will have more substance in the next book in the series. I thought the book was a little light on police protocol, even if it was a small town, and her interrogations seemed more annoying than effective.
Format: audiobook
This is an enjoyable listen, I liked the relationship between the two main characters and I liked this narrator. The only issue was that some lines in the story were repeated and one line was repeated 3 times!
Sabrina Daley manages the family coffee shop, Daley Buzz. The shop was started by her grandmother and is still located in a prime downtown spot in Treasure Cove.
When Sabrina finds the body of Andrew Stewart, the co-owner of the chocolate shop next door, it stirs up a lof of the old feelings of inadequacy. It reminds her of when she couldn’t find her sister, Jessica, who had disappeared 10 years earlier. Will Sabrina be able to get over her fears and help her boyfriend, Detective David Carlson, solve the murderer?
There is no shortage of suspects in addition to some strange things happening in town. Are the events related? Is there a connection to the disappearance of Sabrina’s sister? Who would want to kill Andrew? After all, he made the very best chocolates, so why was he killed?
The book has a great premise with wonderful characters. I enjoyed both the content and the context and anxiously anticipate the next book in the series.
This is definitely a cozy mystery that is perfect to sit back, relax and enjoy a good book for an afternoon. I really liked the way this book worked out and look forward to more in this series.
Small town mystery fans, this is your new favorite series. Sabrina works in her family’s coffee shop, Daley Buzz. Years ago her sister went missing out on jog and the case has never been solved. It is now 10 years later and her family and town live their lives the best they can. Then Sabrina finds a body of friend in the alley behind her shop and the town is turned upside down that there is a murderer on the loose. Sabrina should let her boyfriend David the police detective handle it but she is too afraid of the case going cold like her sister’s. She starts doing an investigation of her own behind his back. I loved Sabrina. She did make me frustrated at times, though, when she was putting herself in danger to find the killer. But I enjoyed following her along and my heart just pains for her and her family on not knowing what happened to her sister. I want to solve it for her! This mystery had me intrigued and the end result isn’t what I suspected. I am excited this is a series. Can’t wait for more from her! Get ready to laugh out loud at this story and also start to feel like a detective yourself.
I listened to the audio version of this book.
This was a good, cozy mystery. There were a lot of characters and lots of suspects in the murder of the victim. The story was good. I wish I had read it instead of listening to it. I realize the narrator had tons of voices to do, but several of them were kind of hard to listen to.
Nice 2 hours cozy mystery audio book. The writing still needs work in the dialog and I was surprised that this murder mystery has no violence or bad language because murders are not without some violence and the story is not believable with people being all sweet and nice.
Seeing her detective boyfriend struggling to solve the murder of a friend and fellow business man, Sabrina decides to investigate on her own. Not surprisingly the “just a barista” solves the case and the bad guy goes to jail. The small town setting and the BIG personalities of its residents makes me NEED to read more!
law-enforcement, amateur-sleuth, women-sleuths, relationships, murder-investigation, cozy-mystery
Part owner and barrista in the family coffee shop and involved with the local police detective, Sabrina notices some odd things happening in their town, the worst of which was finding the dead body of friend and neighboring Chocolatier in the alley behind their shops. She and boyfriend bounce ideas off each other when the easy suspect has a solid alibi, and as the days go on without solid evidence she feels driven to poke around and get in the face of each suspect. Very interesting in spite of the author leaving us dangling and wanting to know lots more about the other odd happenings in town! Definitely worth the read!
It seems that I bought the ebook on sale in August 2017 and it’s been sitting in my TBR pile. Then in February 2018 it was on offer from AudioBookBOOM and my request was fulfilled!
Lainie Pahos is the creative narrator who does a great job!
I like a good cozy mystery now and then. This one was ok it wasn’t great but I will be going back for book 2 before I decide my true feelings on the series. Meredith Potts takes us to the tiny town Treasure Cove CA. We meet Sabrina. She runs the family coffee shop and is dating David a police detective. When the owner of the Chocolate shop next to Sabrina’s coffee shop is murdered, Sabrina steps in to help solve the murder.
Sabrina’s character could use some improvement. Yes she solves the murder in the end but at the cost of alienating herself from half the town. The way she goes after her suspects and her line of questioning as well as her attitude just made her rude and not very likable to me. The book is very fast paced. The book starts off 10 years earlier when her sister comes up missing and has not been any clues to date. I am assuming this has part to do with her attitude. A lot of the book centers on her feelings towards the disappearance. I do hope in future books that mystery is solved. The book does leave a lot of loose ends on other things brought up during the book. Some of the characters just seemed tossed in with no true spot in the story, so hopefully in later books they will have established rolls. i do read a lot of series and never fully make up my mind abotu a series in book 1. A lot of times book one just basically establishes everyones rolls in later books and that is what I am hoping for.
I did listen to the Audiobook, which is narrated by Lainie Pahos. She done a good job with the story. She let me now when someone was happy, sad, or had other emotions from the tone of her voice. Some of her voices she used grated on my nerves a bit, luckily those people had small parts in the story.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Meredith Potts. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
Cozy Mystery Full Of Good Food
This is a nice, cozy mystery. While the plot is certainly fun, the story really drug on here and there. There is an overabundance of un-necessary details throughout the book, especially about food. It seems that all of our characters suffer from low blood sugar, even if it has only been an hour since eating chocolate truffles. Our heroine is very driven, to the point of being pushy. Yet, she seems surprised that suspects slam doors in her face. The author also felt it necessary to always refer to the dog by name and breed, (My dog, Snickerdoodle, the corgi). Like the reader might forget between chapters. I also can’t imagine any police detective allowing his girlfriend to question a suspect in the police interrogation room. Beyond my picky observations, it is a cute and cozy mystery and I will be reading more of this author’s books. I received a free copy of this book (ARC) and voluntarily chose to share my honest review.
Another fantastic story. Love this series. It is fun and thought provoking at the same time. The characters are well crafted and totally realistic. Really love the way Sabrina keeps the hope alive that someday she will find out what happened to her sister. Purchased the paperback to reread the story and was thrilled that the story was just as entertaining the second time around. Try this series you will love it.
A very entertaining mystery story. Sabrina finds the body of Andrew, the owner of the Chocolate shop in the alleyway behind her coffee shop and she can’t help but try to solve the mystery, with the the help of her boyfriend, David, a police detective. I received a. Free copy of this audiobook from AXP authors in exchange for my honest review
“Chocolate With a Side of Murder” earns 5/5 Double Espressos!
I am relatively new to Meredith Potts’s writing…where have I been, you ask? I have some of her books, but recently I pushed myself to start reading the ARC of “Caramels With a Side of Murder,” but I discovered some references that I needed clarification. So I was extremely lucky to find there was a first book in the series. How marvelous to start with that! More details were given to make clearer the back story and character connections. This story was very engaging, scary at times, and I found Meredith’s characters varied and well developed with reasonable reactions to the events and relationships. Although there are some conclusions offered for closure, the book has some of the main questions left unanswered for future books like “Caramels…” The setting of Treasure Cove, a coastal California tourist town, issues with managing the coffee shop, and dealing with the pain of not knowing what happened to Jessica play out in the background along with Sabrina’s love interest with a local detective. i am soooo glad that I found this book, now I can truly enjoy the ARC I was lucky to get. I highly recommend getting into this series, now…more books are on the horizon.