Synopsis
“Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura are finally living out their dream as the proud owners of the Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery. Their first big order is a sweet deal, too – five hundred cupcakes for a fashion designer’s wedding. The only sour note is the demanding bridezilla who insists on orginial recipes for the cupcakes. When Mel stumbles upon the bride-to-be dead-by-cupcake, she immediately becomes the prime suspect. The police believe that a secret ingredient in the cupcakes caused her death. To save Mel and their business, the ladies need to find the real murderer – before the cupcake killer ices someone else…”
-Synopsis from back of the book
Review
*light spoilers ahead*
A few months ago, I read Paris is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay and fell in love with her writing and storytelling style. That book was so good it made me want to read all over her other books, so here I am having just finished book one in her Cupcake Bakery Mystery series.
This series is of the cozy mystery variety, which is not a genre I tend to read too much. The only reason really is that there are so many out there that I frankly have had no idea where to start! I felt good about going into this series though, already being familiar with the author’s work.
This was the perfect book to start with because it’s set in Scottsdale, Arizona which is my hometown. I absolutely loved how much of South Scottsdale was incorporated into this book. It was so familiar and perfectly described. I could see every location perfectly in my mind’s eye, and it honestly made me want to go take a stroll through Old Town because it really is such a nice little area.
Setting aside, this book really shines because of the characters and the dialogue, in my opinion. Melanie, Angie, and Tate are childhood friends now in their thirties but they are still super close and have regular movie nights at Tate’s condo. They quote classic movies to one another and have a great rapport. The only problem is that Melanie and Angie don’t care for Tate’s fiancé and have never had the heart to tell him. They are both worried about losing their friend once he gets married.
Melanie is torn about making the cupcakes for their wedding but she can’t resist the publicity it will bring to her shop, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, and so she agrees to do it. As they synopsis mentions, the soon-to-be-bride is found dead with one of Melanie’s cupcakes in her hand and thus the mystery begins.
Some of the characters we meet in the story include Melanie’s mom, Joyce, her Uncle Stan, and a few of Angie’s seven brothers. All of them play a significant role in the story and are so delightful!
I don’t want to give too much away because I really enjoyed the way the story flowed without knowing too much about what was going to happen. Melanie is innocent but so much of the evidence points to her that there is some added suspense to whether or not she will really be confronted for this crime. I had no idea what was going to happen until the very end, and I thought it was a believable ending.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was a short, fun read and plan to continue the series.
I currently have About a Dog (Bluff Point #1) and Cloche and Dagger (Hat Shop Mystery #1) on my desk. (Don’t think that I will be skipping her Library Lover’s Mystery series, I simply haven’t been able to get my hands on a copy yet).
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