Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

No one cooks up a delectable, suspense-filled mystery quite like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke’s dessert-baking, red-haired heroine whose gingersnaps are as tart as her comebacks, and whose penchant for solving crimes one delicious clue at a time has made her a bestselling favorite. And it all began on these pages, with a bakery, a murder, and some suddenly scandalous chocolate-chip crunchies. Featuring a bonus short story and brand new, mouthwatering recipes, this limited edition of the very first Hannah Swensen mystery is sure to have readers coming back for seconds.

Hannah Swenson already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother’s attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden, Minnesota’s most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah’s famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can’t get any worse. Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer.

Who would have the sheer audacity and the motive to kill the most punctual delivery man Hannah ever had? Topping the list is the high school football coach. What exactly was his wife doing, making the rounds with the milkman? Could Max Turner, owner of Cozy Cow Dairy, have had a secret he didn’t want to share with his top employee? The more Hannah snoops, the more suspects turn up. Why has Lake Eden’s most prominent prodigal son, Benton Woodley, just resurfaced? And what about the mysterious Mr. Harris who seemed interested in buying the property next to the dairy, but then disappeared? This is one murder that’s starting to leave a very bad taste in Hannah’s mouth. And if she doesn’t watch her back, Hannah’s sweet life may get burned to a crisp.

WARNING!!!
DO NOT READ THIS BOOK ON AN EMPTY STOMACH!

This was a fun and enticing read. I really enjoyed this book. Ms. Fluke is an awesome mystery writer and an even more awesome cook. First there's the setup for the story; Lake Eden. Not a real town but a simple small town where everyone knows person they just happen to pass by on the street. There's no Desperate Housewives type scandal just the ocasional homicide. I like Hannah. She's the milder version of my mom with my love of baking. Speak of [baking] did I mention that the cookies in this novel can be duplicated in your kitchen. Yes, Joanne also gives you a run down of Hannah's creation for you to create also. It's genius! Apparently, this isn't the first series to do this but it is for me so please excuse my starstruck behavior. the sad part is that since this is yet another audio book (read by Suzanne Toren-- beautifully I might add) I listened to I currently do not have copies of these recipes. But no worries there's the internet more specifically Google and if that doen't work the Library works really well too. I really reccomend this book and the rest of the series (even if I haven't read the other books yet). So check out your local library and read and copy Hannah's books.

Heartbreakers by Pamela Wells

THREE BREAKUPS

Sydney's longtime steady, Drew, unexpectedly bails. Raven can't decide between Caleb and Horace. They decide for her, and suddenly she's left with a sum total of zero boyfriends. Kelly's kinda-sorta boyfriend, Will, has plans for Valentine's Day. Just not with her.

FOUR FRIENDS

Alexia's never had a broken heart, but that's because she's never had a serious boyfriend. So when her three BFFs turn up boyless, she's sympathetic...but maybe secretly-selfishly-glad. She has her friends back. She just has to help them get over their heartaches.

TWENTY-NINE RULES

How else to get over the breakups but follow a few simple rules? It all goes well at first: There are girly sleepovers, cold shoulders, and the destruction of sentimental items. But even as the girls rediscover their friendship, rules are broken left and right. Soon the formerly heartbroken are on their way to becoming heartbreakers themselves.

Especially Alexia.

First (before I forget), this is an audio book review. the narrator Stina Nielsen did a good job narrating this story and actually made this novel a bit more enjoyable than it was. Yes, I didn't enjoy this story. I thought it would be a lot more fun and funy than it was. Instead it was unnecessary drama after unnecessary drama. A lot of the issues in this book could have been solved by simple communication. The choices characters made were predictable (I could see the outcome from chapter 2). To be fair, I did like the character Kelly I felt more sympathetic to her plight. Not because I went through something similar-- in the matters of the heart I'm more of a Alexia and that is why the novel was so unenjoyable to me because she caused most of the unnecessary drama and was obviously sabotaging her relationship. Anyway, as I was saying, I was more sympathetic to Kelly and her relationship drama because it's always a sad thing when (whether you're a guy or girl) you're more in love with someone and they just don't care about (or respect you) enough to let you go. As for the other two girls I barely remember their story lines. But I'm not so disappointed that I didn't enjoy this novels, which in itself something sad.

Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

When Enola Holmes, sister to the detective Sherlock Holmes, discovers her mother has disappeared, she quickly embarks on a journey to London in search of her. But nothing can prepare her for what awaits. Because when she arrives, she finds herself involved in the kidnapping of a young marquess, fleeing murderous villains, and trying to elude her shrewd older brothers-all while attempting to piece together clues to her mother's strange disappearance. Amid all the mayhem, will Enola be able to decode the necessary clues and find her mother?

Here's another mystery series that I'm currently enjoying. I was never a Sherlock Holmes fan. Never read any of his books. But you know what; that isn't a prerequisite. with Set in the beloved Victorian Ages, this story brings back the simplicity of a Nancy Drew mystery with (I'm guessing here) the aspects of a Sherlock Holmes mystery. As for the audio book narration; Katherine Kellgren did a great job with the voices. She was believable as each character. Nothing much else to say except I really enjoyed this novel and cannot wait to read the other books in this series.

Big Boned by Meg Cabot

Life is reasonably rosy for plus-size ex-pop star turned Assistant Dormitory Director and sometime sleuth Heather Wells. Her freeloading ex-con dad is finally moving out. She still yearns for her hot landlord, Cooper Cartwright, but her relationship with "rebound beau," vigorous vegan math professor Tad Tocco, is more than satisfactory. Best of all, nobody has died lately in "Death Dorm," the aptly nicknamed student residence that Heather assistant-directs. Of course every silver lining ultimately has some black cloud attached. And when the latest murdered corpse to clutter up her jurisdiction turns out to be her exceedingly unlovable boss, Heather finds herself on the shortlist of prime suspects—along with the rabble-rousing boyfriend of her high-strung student assistant and an indecently handsome young campus minister who's been accused of taking liberties with certain girls' choir members.

With fame beckoning her back into show business (as the star of a new kids' show!) it's a really bad time to get wrapped up in another homicide. Plus Tad's been working himself up to ask her a Big Question, which Heather's not sure she has an answer for . . .

Another fun mystery book by Ms. Meg Cabot. Who knew she is such a good mystery writer. I didn't. Ok so the stakes where higher in this book. Heather finds herself to be a suspect in this murder mystery. That's basically her motivation for taking on this case. I do not have any complaints about this book. The story was fun but not as exciting Size 14 Is Not Fat Either. Justine Eyre perform well in this audio book adaptation (no complaints there either). While writing this review there was a sense of cool calculation-- I don't think that the right words for the mood I'm in. This book I guess didn't wow me. It was hot but too mild to be on Mary Murphy's "Hot Tamale Train".