Hollis and Daisy love podcasting about murder cases… But can they solve one? Hollis Bisbee used to be a big-city crime reporter. Now, she’s a small-town journalist, and she’s bored. She and a young mom, talented baker Daisy Mueller, start the Knock ‘Em Dead podcast–“Where murder and muffins meet!” It’s all fun, games, and baking tips until murder comes to Parkwood. After a brutal … until murder comes to Parkwood.
After a brutal homecoming game loss, the coach of the rival football team is the victim of a hit-and-run in the high school parking lot. The entire town is on edge, and the star quarterback–who happens to be the police chief’s son–may just look the guiltiest of all.
With Hollis’s investigative skills and Daisy’s famous muffins…and in spite of the charming rookie police officer tasked with keeping Hollis out of the way…the podcasting duo sets out to solve their first real case.
This cozy mystery includes a killer free recipe for Daisy’s Cherry Chocolate Chunk Muffins.
more
The small town vibe is strong with this book. There is a delightful cast of characters, some divinely quirky and others of the “salt of the earth” variety. I loved the madcap female buddy pairing of Hollis and her neighbor, Daisy. I had some moments where I tired of Hollis’ over the top determination to blow the lid off what she perceived was a police cover-up. I cheered when Hollis realized she had been pining over a life she left behind that wasn’t all she had believed it to be. It was a great whodunit to solve along with the characters. This is a family friendly read with no sex, on-screen violence, or swearing. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
I voluntarily read an advanced review copy provided by the publisher. I offer my honest opinion in response.
This is such a fun cozy mystery! I loved the main characters of Hollis and Daisy. The small town setting was great, and I could almost imagine that I could walk down the street and recognize the townspeople. I liked this author’s writing style and the humor that she put all throughout the book. I’m not sure if this will be a series, but I’d love to revisit these characters again. This is a sweet and clean mystery that will keep you guessing until the end.
Oh, and the recipe at the end of this story looks wonderful! Cherry Chocolate Chunk Muffins!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Fun Hallmark romance mystery. Found the story had great layers as the mystery and solution comes together. Hallmark will have a great movie from this story.
Thank you NetGalley and Hallmark for allowing me to read and review.
Hollis Bisbee is still adjusting to her new life in Parkwood. She moved from Chicago where she was a crime reporter when she was downsized and her boyfriend dumped her. Life in Parkwood is slow and bucolic. Her stories no longer revolve around crime but around the new hot dog roller and giblet gravy. Then, at a High School football game, the opposing team’s coach is run down in the parking lot. Who did it? The Police Chief’s son who threatened the coach on a live mic, the assistant coach who wanted his job, the man he had a car accident with earlier, or someone else? Hollis has been forbidden to report on the death. In fact the Police Chief is saying it was a heart attack and has assigned handsome Brooks Hopkins to follow Hollis and keep her out of the case.
The story is fun and I really enjoyed the banter between Hollis and her friend Daisy. The characters are fun and engaging. The mystery kept me guessing. I did tire of Hollis always denying her attraction to Brooks and being somewhat condescending about life and the people of Parkwood. All in all, I would read another book in this series.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and offer my honest review of this book
OMG! How much do I love this book? Soooooo much! Seriously, this is just the thing I needed to help break up my post-holiday blahs. Hollis Bisbee is a reporter of a tiny newspaper in Parkwood, Missouri. She writes about hotdog rollers and new vacuum stores in the local mall. A former crime reporter in Chicago, to say her job lacks the excitement she’s used to would be a gross understatement. While interviewing the snack bar supervisor at Friday night’s big high school homecoming football game, an altercation occurs on the field between the Parkwood quarterback and the opposing team’s coach. When not long after the game, said coach ends up dead in the Parkwood High parking lot, things get a little sticky for Hollis and her best friend, Daisy, who have a true crime murder podcast that is equal parts macabre and munchies, since Daisy is also the best baker in town and uses the platform to help promote her baking business. And when Hollis discovers the quarterback is also the sheriff’s son, and the death has been ruled natural causes, Hollis has had enough of her feel good pieces and drags Daisy into an investigation that the sheriff, the new local hunky deputy, and her boss, the paper’s editor, can’t catch wind of.
Plot
The primary plot is the murder mystery and it’s exceptional. There were so many red herrings, I got to the point where I suspected it was going to be a MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS ending. There are a few minor subplots including Hollis’s job and a budding romance with Office Blue Eyes, but they were just there to round out the main plot. This was such a fun ride, I’m anxiously awaiting more Parkwood Mysteries!
Characters
The characters are THE best! I would read anything with Hollis and Daisy in it. They’re both hysterical, witty, charming, and definitely the kind of people you’d hang out with in real life if they weren’t just figments of Brown’s imagination. Maybe I just need to hang out with the author in real life! Hollis is amazing as the spirited reporter who refuses to take no for an answer. Her bff and sidekick, Daisy, is a stay-at-home mom to like 32 kids. Entire scenes are devoted to her chewing out one kid after another as she still manages to carry on a coherent conversation with Hollis. She’s quick on her feet and helps Hollis out more than a few tight spaces. The rest of the cast, including Officer Hopkins, with his muscles and impossibly blue eyes, are just as warm and loveably quirky as Hollis and Daisy. If Hallmark makes this into a movie or a TV show, I’m all in.
What I Loved About THE GAME CHANGER
1. Everything. Seriously, I can’t find any fault with this book. The story, the characters, the writing, everything is top notch.
2. Hollis. She’s funny, smart, endearing, and tenacious.
3. Daisy. The best BFF ever and the type of person we all want in our lives.
4. The Mystery. Really well done. One of the best I’ve read in the genre in a long time.
5. Podcasting. My co-author and I have been toying with the idea of starting a pod cast in the near future, but nothing we come up with will ever be as good as the Hollis and Daisy show.
Bottom Line
An absolutely adorable cozy mystery with a sweet romance and some of the best damn characters in the book world.
A Hallmark Cozy Mystery
An absolutely delightful twisty turny whodunnit to bring a fresh spark of intrigue to a trademark Hallmark tale. In an effort to re-rail her life, a big-time, big city crime reporter takes a step back; relocating to a small town where nothing ever happens. She has trouble adjusting to the pace of life (and the news!) at first, until a murder at the high school football game grabs ALL her attention! As the suspect list grows and we all play armchair detective along side Hollis, we see her come to love the townsfolk and realize that this IS where she belongs.
I enjoyed reading this book. Both main and supporting characters were well defined, likable, and charming. The story moves along at a nice pace, is well fleshed out, and written in a light, positive mood – in true Hallmark fashion. Hallmark is one of my “go to” entertainment sources for lighthearted fun. As Hallmark is branching into the cozy mystery genre, we as consumers are the real winners with even more choices available!
Thanks to NetGalley and the Hallmark Publishing, I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Hollis and Daisy are an amazing pair as friends as well as partners. Even though the book is focused more on Hollis, Daisy and her family steal the scene whenever they appear, yielding more than funny moments. Podcasts are great too and very creative mixing crimes and cakes.
I’m used to Jennifer Brown’s strong theme books, and it was a pleasant surprise to discover her comic streak in the midst of a police thriller. And with the Hallmark label that I love (I want the movie, ok?).
It was very good how the writer conducted the approach of Hollis and Brooks and the way she solved the whole mystery. I know Jennifer Brown likes endings for us to guess, but as this one ended, I wonder if it’s going to be a bookseries. If it is I already want to read them all!
Anyone expecting romance will be a little disappointed, as it is not the focus of the plot.
Where murder and muffins meet. This was a delightful, lighthearted murder mystery, which sounds contradictory. The friendship between Hollis Bisbee and Daisy Mueller was so fun to read about even while they were investigating a murder and trying to get everyone to accept it was a murder. I also loved reading about the police rookie and hope to read more Parkwood Mysteries to reveal his story. I wondered throughout the book who killed the coach, but enjoyed reading about the characters and the relationships of all involved that I was in no hurry to find out who did it. I laughed while reading the story and had a smile on my face most of the time.
I voluntarily read an advance copy of this book received from Hallmark Publishing for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Repost of my original review at Amazon.com.
Podcasts, cupcakes, cozy mystery and a dash of Hallmarky romance. That’s all I need to say, right?
Jennifer Brown’s “The Game Changer” was a cute and funny cozy mystery, with just a hint of romance on the side to keep things interesting. The central mystery involving the hit-and-run death of a local football coach was well-crafted, and the culprit wasn’t immediately obvious to me. Despite my initial expectations, main characters Hollis and Daisy turned out to be clever investigators, and the secondary focus on Daisy’s baking was a nice bonus. Reading about all of Daisy’s delicious treats certainly made me hungry as I was reading!
Both of the main characters were very likeable, and I enjoyed their easy friendship and amusing conversations. Daisy was genuinely nice, sweet, and positive, and I was amazed at how she managed to remain so calm despite the chaos of raising four young children and launching a baking business at the same time. Hollis, the book’s narrator as well as the podcast’s lead investigator, was a bit more reserved than Daisy but still a lot of fun. I appreciated Hollis’s character arc over the course of the book as she came to terms with how her life had changed since moving from Chicago to Parkwood, and ultimately realizing that she was ready to call the quirky little town home.
The book’s secondary characters were also pretty great. For example, police officer Brooks Hopkins was a nice love interest for Hollis. He was handsome, flirty, and intelligent, and their banter back and forth made me laugh. I could see their relationship developing into something more serious if this story turns into a series. Hollis’s mom and aunt were also very amusing, and her phone calls with them were hilarious. I hope to learn more about Hollis’s family should there be future books in this series.
Overall, “The Game Changer” was an enjoyable read and I hope there will be more books in this series.
*ARC provided by the author/publisher via InkSlingerPR. All opinions expressed are my own.
Game Changer was a mystery full of twists and turns. The suspect’s list kept growing which made the story even more interesting as I tried to solve the death of the Coach.
Hollis Bisbee is and interesting character. She was used to writing about homicides until she moved from Chicago to Parkwood, Missouri where her stories revolved around food at the Hibiscus restaurant or hot dog roller machines at a football game. Not too exciting for Hollis until she stumbles on a possible hit and run and a dead coach who had been threatened a short time earlier.
It turns out her life is more interesting than she realized as she tries to solve the mystery and do her Knock’em Dead podcast with Daisy. There’s also a few possible sparks with Officer Brooks Hopkins too as they keep bumping into each other.
The delicious food in the story may make you hungry or you can try to make the muffins from the recipe at the end of the book. I received an advance copy of this book and I willingly chose to write an honest review.
The Game Changer by Jennifer Brown is the first in a new series of a delightful cozy mysteries called A Parkwood Mystery ( I am hopeful there will be more).
This is a quick, witty, hilarious read that I truly enjoyed. I liked Hollie and I liked her even better when she joined forces with her side-kick Daisy. Their chemistry, banter, and interactions awesome.
I enjoyed the plot line, the murder/mystery component, and I felt that every aspect was realistic and plausible.
I truly enjoyed the start of this series.
5/5 stars
Murder, Mystery and Muffins, Oh My!!
A delightful who dunnit with a sprinkling of amusing anecdotes that keep the reader chuckling and on the edge of their seats at the same time. Hollis Bisbee was a big deal crime reporter in Chicago. She moved to the small town of Parkwood to escape a heartbreak she is still coming to terms with. She did not realize how mundane this town actually was. But the people here were beginning to grow on her and feel like family. Her newfound friend and sidekick podcast partner Daisy, is Ying to her Yang. Daisy is a mom to a band of rugrats that have her jumping 24/7, but she handles them like a boss.
There was a bright spot in this sleepy town and that was in the form of tall, dark and very handsome Officer Brooks Hopkins. He and Hollis banter back and forth and it’s charming to watch them in action. Brooks finds Hollis a bit of an enigma. Things get moving and shaking when there is a murder in this drowsy town. Hollis gets her teeth firmly gripped into this mystery. Daisy and Hollis go on an amazing fact finding mission to get this mystery solved and find the murderer.
The perfect complement to the return of Sunday mystery movies on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel. Perfect for cozy readers. This one is easy to read and hard to put down.
This is a fun & quirky cozy mystery.
I enjoyed reading it.
Hollis, is a crime reporter. She moved
to a different town a year ago for a new job. Frustrated with the newspaper
where she works, Hollis, has a nose for
news, & reporting on the new hot dog machine at the football stadium, is not it.
When someone is possibly killed,
Hollis, decides to figure it out. Along
with help of her BFF & co-podcaster, Daisy.
Going against the police chief’s orders, Hollis now has her own hot, blue eyed officer keeping tabs on her.
Join Hollis & Daisy, try figure out the
clues to get answers.
It draws you in from the first pages
to the last!!