Debra Sennefelder

Thirty-something Hope Early is in crisis after a messy divorce & an embarrassing reality show appearance derailed her career. She returns to her picturesque New England hometown of Jefferson seeking refuge from her dysfunctional life and romance in the big city. In pursuit of a new life as a professional blogger & Internet influencer, Hope renovates a quaint, old farmhouse into a charming blogging laboratory and residence in which she lives with her all-too-adorable pets—Bigelow, Princess, & Poppy—while pursuing a romance with her former high school crush & current police chief Ethan. With her best friend Drew and her ragamuffin entourage of sister, studly boyfriend, and assorted townfolk, Hope decides she must solve the murder of the neighborhood’s crazy old harridan because the local police suspect Hope of being the murderer and—quite frankly—they’re too lazy and incompetent to figure it out for themselves.

So, once again we have a dimwitted amateur sleuth dating the local lawman…does the Mystery Writers’ Union actually make that mandatory now? That is just soooo trite!

Ethan really is a creep, but Hope is too stupid to figure it out. He uses her for free childcare, free meals, and free booty calls while his beloved ex-wife is off at rehab. All the while, Ethan can’t even be bothered to remember Hope’s name; I swear, if he had referred to her as ‘babe’ one more time, I would have thrown this stupid book through the window.

Hope really is an unbelievable piece of work.
When the town’s weird curmudgeon, Birdie, decides to start a petition to force Hope out of her newly renovated home, Hope loses her mind and her temper. But, why? No neighborhood petition is ever going to be able to force a resident out of a lawfully owned home; that’s just ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that Birdie has made enemies out of just about everyone in the community and has virtually no friends or allies. Hope knows that no one—No. One.—is signing Birdie’s bogus petition. So why does Hope flip out and make a colossal production out of absolutely nothing? Any rational person would just laugh at the ravings of the town’s eccentric loon and move on with life. That whole episode made Hope come across as slightly unhinged and more than a little dumb...

Which probably explains why she doesn’t hesitate to fling unfounded accusations all over town. Hope is incensed at being wrongfully accused of murder by the local constabulary, yet she herself goes around randomly accusing her friends and neighbors of committing the crime—then she wonders why they hold it against her? Ummm, that’s nothing short of stupid. And, at this point, I don’t even know how Hope would expect to live in Jefferson after all of her atrocious behavior.

But let’s not give Hope any credit for having the least bit of intelligence. Even when the actual murderer brazenly kidnaps her and holds her hostage, it STILL takes Hope a little while to figure out the identity of the killer. Unbelievable.

This series gets such glowing reviews, I really expected it to be semi-decent. But all I got was a cookie-cutter formula with a brainless sleuth who is so helpless she probably has trouble figuring out how to tie her own shoes.… (mehr)

amateur-sleuth, blogger, cozy-mystery, culinary, recipes, family-dynamics, family, foodie, friendship, friends, small-business, small-town, local-law-enforcement, murder-investigation, relatives, relationship-issues, relationships, custody-issues, unpleasant-relative, frenemy, superstitions, curse, Halloween, pet-cat, pet-dog, Connecticut, reporter, lawyers*****

The majority of the characters are a contentious lot and seem to look backward instead of to the future. However. The mystery is a good one that's well written and engaging.
Hope left NYC and is renovating her farmhouse in a small town in Connecticut. She is a food blogger, teaching a class on blogging at the local women's shelter, and an amateur sleuth (despite the protests of her boyfriend, the local police chief). Her lawyer is an ex-cop and a good friend. And then there's her sister. The publisher's blurb is a good hook, no spoilers here.
I requested and received an EARC from Beyond the Page Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!… (mehr)

Mallory Monroe loves to say, "Welcome to The Cookie Shop," as customers enter her shop in Wingate, Connecticut. Purchasing the store from Aunt Glenna, Mallory is excited to continue offering her aunt's recipes, as her aunt is the one who instilled her love of baking cookies. Mallory has not only redecorated the shop but is offering her twist on baking by creating cookie bouquets for all occasions. However, there are unplanned and unexpected twists for Mallory when a spontaneous decision to surprise her boyfriend goes awry. During a conversation with Dugan Porter, a reporter with the Connecticut Chronicle, food blogger Beatrice Wright arrives in the shop accusing Mallory of stealing a cookie recipe. Mallory can't listen calmly to the accusations, and that's another tilt of the axis with more challenges to come in Mallory's life.

Cookies are my favorite treat, so it was easy to daydream of visiting Mallory's shop. Mallory loves to read mysteries while relaxing at home after a busy day, which is my favorite genre, too, and I loved that Mallory named her gray and white cat Agatha.

Reading the opening story of a new cozy mystery series also brings the delights of the names of the various businesses. For this series, charming business names are Heavenly Roast Coffee Café, Curls N' Waves (hair salon), Rock, Pop, and Jazz (the shop where Mallory purchased old vinyl), and Just One More Chapter (the bookshop where Mallory buys her mysteries).

The mystery is well written with multiple themes, intensifying the interesting storyline and creating red herrings. I didn't guess the end of the investigation. I'm not sure why I didn't warm up to Mallory right from the start, but as the story continued, I wanted everything to turn in a positive direction for her.

Cookie recipes are included at the end of the novel.

I look forward to reading more of this new series!… (mehr)

Hope Early is finally getting her life in order. She has a successful food blog, sold e-cookbooks, and is finally getting a physical cookbook published. She's even moving forward with renovating her barn for a kitchen where she can film her show and practice recipes. Everything seems to be going smoothly, until her boyfriend Ethan changes their Halloween plans...

The plans she had with him and his two daughters, where they were going to go trick-or-treating. It appears that his ex-wife, now out of rehab, has decided she wants the girls for Halloween, so Hope really can't do much. But her best friend Drew comes to the rescue when he wants Hope to help give out candy at his ailing Aunt Issy's home, which is reputed to be haunted. Hope loves both Drew and Issy, so she's happy to do so.

When Hope is cleaning up the front yard after the evening is done, she's greeted with an unwelcome surprise: there's a dead body dressed like a witch sitting on the lawn. Definitely dead. And no one seems to know who the woman is; not Hope, Issy, Drew, or anyone in town. So who was this woman, and why was she here? All Hope knows is that the woman has been following her for a couple of days, but that's all the information she has.

Then Drew and Hope find old letters in a box that's been stuffed in the walls of the home that Drew is renovating. Reading them, they find that they're connected to Issy's late husband. Does Issy know the source of the letters? She's too ill to ask, so they decide to keep it quiet for a while. But doing so could compromise the investigation. And when Drew's family members might be implicated in the murder, he asks for Hope's help. Even when the police warn her to stay out of it, she knows she can't. But could it lead to her own murder as well?...

This is the sixth book in the series, and I was taken by how good it was. Although I felt that it had a slow start, once the body was found, things began to pick up the pace. It was more a mystery-within-a-mystery, and I absolutely love it when that happens. Solving two mysteries at once is wonderful for the brain. And this was definitely a good book for that to occur.

Hope knows she has to ruffle feathers to get to the truth, but she forges ahead anyway. Poor Drew has
his own problems to sort out, so he's not much help in this one, but her sister is along for the ride. It's an interesting tale to be told, and clues go from one end to the other, but nothing seems to be giving the truth of the matter. Confusion, misdirection, intrigue and too many secrets abound in this mystery, yet it all works together well.

When we come to the end of the story and the killer is revealed, it was a surprise to me; but then again, it was supposed to be. It's a delightful narrative that pulls you right from the murder and keeps you from putting down the book until the end. Highly recommended.

I was given an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.… (mehr)