Synopsis:'Corinna’s holiday plans are thwarted by gentle blackmail and a series of mysteries. No more lazing around for zaftig Australian baker Corinna Chapman. Tommy, a schoolmate who’s now a caterer, forces her to do the baking for the cast and crew of a TV soap opera. Corinna’s assistant Jason is away surfing; her gorgeous Israeli lover Daniel is investigating the case of some missing bearer bonds; and her shop servers, Kylie and Goss, have achieved their ambitions by getting parts in the soap. Corinna herself goes back to the routine of rising early to bake bread and muffins. With some help from Tommy’s pastry chef Bernadette, she delivers the treats to the set and helps serve. The program is plagued by a number of annoying incidents, most of them directed at the star, aging prima donna Molly Atkins, whom almost everyone dislikes. Corinna has been helping Daniel, whose client, a chubby young woman bullied by her health-crazed bosses, had left the bonds in a phone booth, where they were picked up by a homeless man who’s now leaving nursery-rhyme clues to their whereabouts around Melbourne. In addition, Molly hires Daniel to find the baby she had given up for adoption as a young girl and the trickster who’s spiking her food with chili powder and such.'
Review: This was fun. These books make me want to bake bread. Good plot, good characters, and a good outcome. ( )

Australia, mental-illness, TV-film-industry, fraud, friendship, family-dynamics, punny, snarky, verbal-humor

***** Excellent! Once again Corinna has one set of mysteries and Beloved Daniel has another but the problems entwine as they help each other. Corinna's most obvious relates to her ceding her vacation for a week or two to help out as the baker on a TV film set and the other is a misunderstanding with her apprentice, Jason. Daniel's assignment is to locate a million dollars in bearer bonds found by a mentally ill street person who sets up an elaborate treasure hunt and keep the downtrodden young woman responsible for their loss from suicide. But then there's the puns, snarks, and other verbal humor that not only keeps it all from being a downer but had me chortling and guffawing!
Louise Siverson is the fantastic Aussie narrator! ( )

I used to really enjoy this Corinna Chapman series, but I am becoming disillusioned with Corinna and her hefty size 20. The book swelters with all the food, and causes me to run to the kitchen and chow down. I enjoyed most of the characters, but the ending with twins separated at birth stretches the story, a little. The beautiful building Insula played a very uneventful role in this novel, as well as the other inhabitants of Insula. The story dragged from day to day at the studio, a seemingly poor choice of a setting. ( )

The sixth in the series, Corinna Chapman, talented baker and reluctant investigator, starts off trying very hard to do nothing at all on her holidays. She is blackmailed by an old school mate into agreeing to do the baking for the film set of a new soap called 'Kiss the Bride' but how long it will last is anyone’s guess as serious sabotage is going on. Elsewhere in Melbourne a young woman is being bullied almost to the point of suicide by her employers and Daniel, Corinna’s love interest, has been hired to find some missing documents. You just know the two stories are going to collide and Corinna is going to be in the middle of it. Lots of subplots going on that add to the fun.

It is summer in Melbourne, Australia and baker Corinna Chapman has closed her shop, Earthly Delights for a few weeks in order to have a vacation. That surely wouldn't work in my neck of the woods but it is a detail that reminds the reader that there are other exciting and different places in the world.

Amidst the hot northern wind that the Aussie's have no name for but many others do, like mistral, khamsin, sirocco or Santa Ana's mischief and mayhem is bound to occur because tempers get hot, people are uncomfortable and emotions are stirred. A Chinese friend of Corinna's calls it Dragon's Breath which is very apt.

Corinna is a little bored with her vacation and helps an old school friend out by helping her in her job as a caterer for a new TV soap about a wedding planner. Some funny and some not so funny things are happening on the set and Corinna is on the spot to help her partner Daniel, a PI who has been asked to find the culprits who are behind the pranks. Daniel is also working on another case of stolen bonds so the days and nights are filled with mysteries. There are several other sub-plots that keeps the reader alert.

In the case of the bonds the duo are following clues based on nursery rhymes and other literary references. It is this that gives this book a lift because I always like a variety of mental stimulations. I had known that many nursery rhymes had meanings reflecting the times in which they were born but I got a lovely mini-education about the rhymes. Just my cup of tea or cupcake as the case may be. Following the clues I used Google images to see what Corinna and Daniel were visiting and this further enhanced my enjoyment of this book. ( )