Friday, February 28, 2020

Murder Makes Scents - A Review & Giveaway

Review


MURDER MAKES SCENTS by Christin Brecher
The Second Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery

Stella Wright accepted the olive branch that was a trip to Paris from her mother, Millie. After all, how can one say no to Paris? The two have a wonderful time, making a new friend from England, Olive Tidings, and taking in the sights and smells that define the city. In a shocking surprise Millie's lecture at the World Perfumery Conference is cancelled when a man is stabbed in the back and killed. Moods dampened, the pair return to Nantucket, Stella still contemplating the murdered man. Things become more festive when new people arrive in town, including some of Millie's old classmates and even their new friend, Olive. But soon Stella starts noticing little things that aren't quite right. Was her candle store broken into, or did she just forget to lock the door? Was Tinker responsible for the mess? Certainly no one was watching her? Is Stella just being paranoid or did danger follow them from Paris?

The premise of the second Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery is a bit unbelievable, but it's also thrilling and well written. I advise suspending your disbelief and enjoying the wild ride. The mystery involves a lot of new characters, all seemingly innocent, but all behaving suspiciously. There are red herrings aplenty and lots of intriguing avenues to explore adding to the complexity of the mystery.

Love is what drives MURDER MAKES SCENTS, especially the love between a daughter and her mother. Millie and Stella may not have a traditional mother/daughter relationship, but there is no doubt they share a deep abiding love and will do whatever they can for each other. We also see the love growing between Stella and Peter and possibly a new love between Millie and an old friend.

A murder in Paris brings mayhem to Nantucket in MURDER MAKES SCENTS. This scent fueled mystery had me suspecting everyone adding to my enjoyment and leaving me wondering what adventures Stella will find herself involved in next!

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Murder Makes Scents (Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery) by Christin Brecher

About Murder Makes Scents

 
Cozy Mystery 2nd in Series  
Publisher: Kensington (February 25, 2020) 
Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
Stella Wright loves creating candles at her Nantucket store—and she also has a burning passion for justice. Now, after visiting a perfume conference, she must solve a vial crime . . .
Stella and her globe-trotting mom, Millie, have come home from a perfume industry conference in Paris, where their trip was marred by witnessing the stabbing death of a young man. It’s a relief for Stella to be back on her picturesque island, with the comforting company of her cat, Tinker. But lingering danger may have followed them back across the ocean.
After someone breaks into her candle store, the Wick & Flame, Stella starts feeling spooked. And just as things threaten to ignite, Millie suffers a blow to the head. Stella receives an anonymous note claiming that her mother smuggled a secret formula out of France—and threatening her life if it isn’t returned. Now Stella’s picked up the scent of a cold-hearted criminal and an intriguing puzzle, and things are about to get wicked . . .

About Christin Brecher

Christin Brecher was born and raised in NYC, where her family and many childhood friends still reside. As such, she feels she is as much of a small-town girl as any. The idea to write the Nantucket Candle Maker series sprang from her life-long connection to the small island off the coast of Massachusetts. Spending summers there as a child, Christin read from her family’s library of mystery novels, after which she began to imagine stories inspired by the island’s whaling heyday, its notoriously foggy nights, and during long bike rides to the beach. After many years in marketing for the publishing industry, followed by years raising her children, Murder’s No Votive Confidence is Christin’s debut novel. Visit her at www.christinbrecher.com.


Author Links:

 Purchase Links – AmazonB&NKoboBAM

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Currently Reading...

I'm currently reading Murder Makes Scents by Christin Brecher. This book is the second in the Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series and was released yesterday.

Stella Wright accepted the olive branch that was a trip to Paris from her mother, Millie. After all, how can one say no to Paris? The two have a wonderful time, making a new friend from England, Olive Tidings, and taking in the sights and smells that define the city. In a shocking surprise Millie's lecture at the World Perfumery Conference is cancelled when a man is stabbed in the back and killed. Moods dampened, the pair return to Nantucket, Stella still contemplating the murdered man. Things become more festive when new people arrive in town, including some of Millie's old classmates and even their new friend, Olive. But soon Stella starts noticing little things that aren't quite right. Was her candle store broken into, or did she just forget to lock the door? Was Tinker responsible for the mess? Certainly no one was watching her? Is Stella just being paranoid or did danger follow them from Paris?

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

On the Lamb - A Review & Giveaway

Review


ON THE LAMB by Tina Kashian
The Fourth Kebab Kitchen Mystery

An early springtime bonfire on the beach with friends is just the thing Lucy Berberian needs to celebrate the annual Bikers on the Beach fundraiser and the upcoming Easter holiday. The mood is seriously dampened when Lucy's friend, Melanie, finds her landlord dead on the beach shortly after he crashed the party and started an argument with her. Things look even worse when a piece of Melanie's taffy is found lodged in his throat. Managing the Kebab Kitchen and settling in to her new apartment still leaves Lucy plenty of time to satisfy her curiosity, especially when Melanie asks for her help. Plenty of people could have wanted the man dead, but who actually did the deed? The wife he was in the midst of divorcing? It couldn't be his feisty, but elderly, aunt who happens to be Lucy's new landlady...or could it? The more people Lucy meets who knew the man, the more people with motives she finds...including two of Michael's motorcycle friends. Lucy wants to believe that Melanie is innocent, but she's hiding something. Is it the fact they she really did kill her landlord?

Compelling characters and a variety of relationships add flavor and nuances to this fourth Kebab Kitchen Mystery. I love how both of Lucy's parents are dealing with their semi-retirement and their reactions to celebrity Chef Kurt make me smile. Perhaps he'll have a starring role in an upcoming book?! The relationships between sisters as well as aunt and nephew also play important roles here. Don't get me started about Lucy and Azad...I can't stop smiling. Although I worry that Lucy may be playing with fire with her friendship with Michael.

I generally like it better when the murder victim is a louse. Landlord Gilbert Lubinski is absolutely despicable and I am glad he was murdered, especially if what what another tenant said about him was true! Having a horrible person killed also greatly increases the number of suspects making for a trickier puzzle to solve. I love how Lucy and Katie subtly, and at times not so subtly, investigate all the possible murderers, yet still stay in contact with the police. I also love how Mrs. Lubinski gets involved and look forward to seeing more of her and Cupid in the future.

An intricate mystery, an abundance of motives, a large dollop of intriguing characters, and a pinch of romance blended with a hint of salt from the Jersey Shore blend together to make ON THE LAMB a fun heartwarming story.

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On the Lamb (A Kebab Kitchen Mystery) by Tina Kashian

About On The Lamb

 
Cozy Mystery 4th in Series  
Publisher: Kensington (February 25, 2020)  
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages 
Lucy Berberian is busy preparing her family’s Mediterranean restaurant for Easter on the Jersey Shore—but a batch of sweets is to die for . . .
 
Bikers are thundering into the seaside town of Ocean Crest for the annual Bikers on the Beach gathering that raises funds for injured veterans. It’s a big boost for the Kebab Kitchen, as well as for local businesses like Melanie Haven’s candy shop. But Melanie is about to find herself in a sticky situation.
 
When Melanie and Lucy attend a beach bonfire, a local landlord is found dead after apparently choking on a piece of salt water taffy. Melanie, who was known to have a contentious relationship with the victim, is quickly skewered as the prime suspect. But Lucy is determined to prove her friend’s innocence before the real killer coasts free . . .
 
Recipes included!
 

About Tina Kashian


Tina Kashian is a bestselling author, an attorney, and a mechanical engineer whose love of reading for pleasure helped her get through years of academia. Tina spent her childhood summers at the Jersey shore building sandcastles, boogie boarding, and riding the boardwalk Ferris wheel. She also grew up in the restaurant business, as her Armenian parents owned a restaurant for thirty years. Tina’s books have been Barnes & Noble top picks, and the first book in her Kebab Kitchen Mediterranean mystery series, Hummus and Homicide, spent six weeks on the B&N bestseller list. Please visit her website at www.tinakashian.com to join her newsletter, receive delicious recipes, enter contests, and more!

Author Links
  Purchase Links AmazonBarnes & NobleKoboGoogle Books - iBooks

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Sunday, February 23, 2020

Overcoming Stress, Country Style - An Under the Radar Guest Post & Giveaway.

I'm pleased to welcome Zoe Chambers to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Zoe on the pages of the Zoe Chambers Mystery series by Annette Dashofy. Under the Radar is the ninth book in the series and will be released this coming Tuesday.


Overcoming Stress, Country Style
By Annette Dashofy

I love it when I meet someone new and they ask me “what do you do for a living?”

My name is Zoe Chambers and I’m a paramedic for Monongahela County EMS in southwestern Pennsylvania. I’m also a deputy coroner. I try to save the lives of those I encounter on emergency calls, but if I can’t, I try to find why they died.

I also own a farm that needs a lot of work before I can live in the house. But thanks to my fiancé, Pete Adams, who also happens to be the local chief of police, my barn is in good repair and is home to my horse and four boarders.

Yeah. Life tends to be a little hectic.

Our work shifts at the ambulance are weird. Sixteen-hour days—actually nights, since I work from four o’clock in the afternoon until eight the next morning—plus one long weekend a month. Tack on the possibility of being called out at any time day or night as deputy coroner and you have a life some might call exciting. Others call it stressful.

In fact, a friend, who has a normal nine-to-five job, recently asked me how I handle the stress. My first reaction was “what stress?”

But then I realized, yes, I do indeed live a stressful life. Being awakened from a sound sleep to jump in an ambulance and roar down the road, lights flashing, sirens screaming, to an unknown incident does play havoc with one’s heartrate. Having drunks in car crashes take a swing at you for trying to help them (yes, it’s happened to me more than once), can raise one’s blood pressure.

I guess I do a good job of handling the stress though. For me, it’s easy. I just go out to the barn.

There’s something very relaxing about the sound of horses munching their feed in an otherwise quiet stable. I love the smell of grain and hay. And yes, I even love the smell of fresh manure and horse sweat. Only horse people “get” that. The same odor that make others wrinkle their noses is perfume to the horsey set.

Cleaning stalls, brushing the horses, filling water buckets…all of it has a calming effect on me. But the best form of de-stressing is going for a long ride in the woods. The motion of my horse’s stride beneath the saddle loosens my hips and spine as well as my mind. Loping across a wide-open field, letting my body relax into the movement, is better than any yoga or meditation class I’ve tried.

So, yes, I work two jobs—three, if you count running a small boarding facility—and, yes, my life is stressful. But when dealing with pain and suffering, when life and death becomes too overwhelming, all I have to do is pull on my Muck boots and barn coat and head out for some equine therapy.

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Under the Radar (A Zoe Chambers Mystery) by Annette Dashofy

About Under the Radar

 
Cozy Mystery 9th in Series  
Publisher: Henery Press (February 25, 2020)  
Trade Paperback - 288 pages 
Paramedic and deputy coroner Zoe Chambers responds to a shooting and discovers her longtime friend, Horace Pavelka, has gunned down a man who’d bullied him mercilessly for decades. Ruled self-defense, no charges are filed. When another of his tormentors turns up dead in Horace’s kitchen, Police Chief Pete Adams questions the man’s innocence in both cases…especially after Horace and his girlfriend go into hiding.
While fighting to clear her friend, Zoe is handed the opportunity to finally learn what really happened to her long-lost sibling. What starts out as a quick road trip on a quest for answers leads her to an unfamiliar city in the middle of a November blizzard, where she finds way more trouble than she bargained for.
Pete’s own search for his missing fiancée and a missing murderer ultimately traps him in a web of deception. Face-to-face with one of the most cunning and deadly killers of his law enforcement career, Pete realizes too late that this confrontation may well be his last.

About Annette Dashofy


Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. A former EMT and lifelong resident of the area about which she writes, Annette lives with her husband and one very spoiled cat on what was once her grandfather’s dairy farm. UNDER THE RADAR (February 2020) is the ninth in her series.

Author Links:

Website– www.annettedashofy.com  
Blog– http://annettedashofy.blogspot.com/  
Facebook– https://www.facebook.com/annette.dashofy  
Twitter– @Annette_Dashofy 

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Friday, February 21, 2020

Egg Drop Dead - A Review

Review


EGG DROP DEAD by Vivien Chien
The Fifth Noodle Shop Mystery

Lana Lee's first catering event should have been an intimate birthday party. But Donna Feng's idea of intimate means fifty of her nearest and dearest friends. Still, Lana and the party planner have things under control..until her teenaged girls act up and Donna creates a scene railing against the nanny. The guests are shocked, but not as stunned as when the nanny's body is found, drowned in the pool. What they don't know is that someone left a thumb drive, with all of the details of Donna's secret past. Is a triad catching up to her, or has she finally unraveled after the murder of her husband? The police don't know the truth about Donna, so it's up to Lana to discover just who killed the nanny while protecting Donna's secrets. Will the unwanted return of someone from Lana's past derail her investigation? Or will Lana be able to serve up justice once again?

EGG DROP DEAD is a book about secrets as well as dealing with the past. Donna may have no choice about hers, but Lana is in control of at least one part of her past and I love how she gets closure! The possibility of a triad being involved was thrilling. I also appreciated that Lana was intelligent enough to realize that she was no match for a triad and would stop her investigation if it led to one!

Basically, I love Lana Lee. She's smart, inquisitive, and knows when she's in over her head...for the most part. Lana is loyal, but keeps an open, objective mind as best she can. After all, she continually admits the possibility that Donna could be guilty. Lana also listens to her gut, and when a niggling suspicion won't go away, she'll suss it out.

In addition to well plotted mysteries, the character development in the Noodle Shop Mystery series  keeps me engaged. Seeing the relationship between Lana and Adam grow is heartwarming. I love A-ma and how she was able to discern something was bothering Lana, despite not truly being able to converse. I wish I could join everyone at Sunday Dim Sum!

EGG DROP DEAD is a puzzling good mystery with captivating characters and plenty of good Chinese food. Being rich has its perks and it was interesting to branch out and see how the wealthy socialites live, but if I was back in Cleveland I'd be much happier hanging out with Lana and her friends at Asia Village and the Zodiac.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Currently Reading...

I'm currently reading Egg Drop Dead by Vivien Chien. This book is the fifth book in the Noodle Shop Mystery series and will be released February 25th.

Lana Lee's first catering event should have been an intimate birthday party. But Donna Feng's idea of intimate means fifty of her nearest and dearest friends. Still, Lana and the party planner have things under control..until her teenaged girls act up and Donna creates a scene railing against the nanny. The guests are shocked, but not as stunned as when the nanny's body is found, drowned in the pool. What they don't know is that someone left a thumb drive, with all of the details of Donna's secret past. Is a triad catching up to her, or has she finally unraveled after the murder of her husband? The police don't know the truth about Donna, so it's up to Lana to discover just who killed the nanny while protecting Donna's secrets. Will the unwanted return of someone from Lana's past derail her investigation? Or will Lana be able to serve up justice once again?

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

The Thief's Heart - A Spotlight

I'm pleased to shine a spotlight on a different type of book today. The Thief's Heart by Kathleen Shoop is the fourth book in the historical fiction series inspired by her family's real heirloom letters from the 1880s! 


Blurb:

Des Moines, 1892. After losing their promised inheritance, the Arthur family’s luck finally changes. An extraordinary woman, Violet Pendergrass, provides refuge for them to rebuild their broken lives. Or has she?

Handsome fifteen-year-old Tommy Arthur has one foot in manhood and the other dragging up the rear of his boyhood years. He strives to protect and provide for his family, but turning to booze when scared or worried creates as many problems as solutions. Unsure of who he can trust, fiery redhead Pearl Riverside challenges and excites him at every turn, softening his heart toward the idea that goodness exists in the world. 

Tension builds between Tommy and his mother as her affection for a generous man increases. At the same time, distance grows between Tommy and his twin sister, Katherine, as each chooses secrets over family. Violet Pendergrass demands more from Tommy and he begins to question her motives. 
When disaster strikes for Tommy’s little sister, Yale, the actions of a sinister judge, a crooked minister, and the infamous charlatan, Dreama, are revealed. Facing more jailtime as vigilante mobs form, the clock runs down on Tommy’s chance to take responsibility for his own choices. Is it too late for him to save his family, to open his heart and fully love those who need him as much as he needs them? 

About the Author:

 Bestselling author Kathleen Shoop holds a PhD in reading education and has more than 20 years of experience in the classroom. She writes historical fiction, women’s fiction and romance. Shoop’s novels have garnered various awards in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), Eric Hoffer Book Awards, Indie Excellence Awards, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Readers’ Favorite and the San Francisco Book Festival. Kathleen has been featured in USA Today and the Writer’s Guide. Her work has appeared in The Tribune-Review, four Chicken Soup for the Soul books and Pittsburgh Parent magazine. She lives in Oakmont, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children. For more information, visit her at: www.kshoop.com.

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Southern Double Cross - A Review & Giveaway

Review


SOUTHERN DOUBLE CROSS by Caroline Fardig
The Third Southern B&B Mystery

Quinn Bellandini is stressed out. She's put a lot of effort into the fundraiser for the women and children's shelter and wants the event to go smoothly. Things start well enough, aside from minor complaints and one disastrous run in between the hostess and a waiter with raspberry galettes. But when her friend Pepper calls her to come quick it's more than raspberry stains on Magnolia Stiles dress. Pepper's brother found her murdered body...while he was stealing. Now the elite in charge kick Quinn off the committee since she hired the help, and Pepper demands she investigate and get her brother out of jail!

There are a lot of unpleasant people in Savannah, Georgia. At least among the characters found on the pages of the third Southern B&B Mystery. There are plenty of catty women, from the social elite to "the help". Heck, Quinn's boyfriend's mother is telling all the rich young things that Tucker dumped her and is available. Even Pepper, Quinn's bandmate and friend, is a nasty demanding shrew. She's lucky Quinn is a goodie two shoes helper because I'd tell her to shove it and let her thieving brother rot in jail!

I like the methods in which Quinn and her sister, Delilah, run their investigation. What I don't like is that they now seem to consider themselves professionals and don't bother giving the police pertinent information they discover until the very end. This even after someone they spoke with was assaulted and vandalism was committed against them. Tucker's anger over Quinn's involvement and the ensuing fights also became tiresome. I appreciate Uncle Frank's role, and especially loved the part he played in the ending.

SOUTHERN DOUBLE CROSS is a story about friends, enemies, and betrayal. It's a clever mystery wrapped in Southern manners and the insidious way those manners can hide the sordid underbelly of truth.

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Southern Double Cross: A Southern B&B Mystery by Caroline Fardig

About Southern Double Cross


Cozy Mystery 3rd in Series  
Publisher: Alibi (February 11, 2020)  
Print Length: ~260 pages 
The USA Today bestselling author of Southern Discomfort and Southern Harm returns to the delightful B&B in Savannah, Georgia, where trouble always seems to be checking in.

Quinn Bellandini is ready to get back to running her grandfather’s B&B in Savannah, Georgia, with her sister, Delilah—but first, she has to coordinate a fundraising event at the house of local philanthropists, with the help of her boyfriend, Tucker Heyward. Everything is running smoothly until Quinn’s friend, Pepper Fox, frantically calls her with the horrifying news that the lady of the house was found dead. Pepper’s brother, who was working as a caterer, is soon charged with her murder.

Pepper knows her brother didn’t commit the crime and asks Quinn, now a veteran detective with two solved murders under her belt, to prove his innocence. Quinn can’t bear to see her friend upset and enlists Delilah and Tucker to help investigate.

The invite list quickly turns into the suspect list as tensions mount and old feuds are brought to light. Could Quinn have hired the only catering company in Georgia that throws in a murder on the side?

About Caroline Fardig

 
CAROLINE FARDIG is the USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR of the Java Jive Mysteries series and the Lizzie Hart Mysteries series. Fardig’s BAD MEDICINE was named one of the “Best Books of 2015” by Suspense Magazine. She worked as a schoolteacher, church organist, insurance agent, funeral parlor associate, and stay-at-home mom before she realized that she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Born and raised in a small town in Indiana, Fardig still lives in that same town with an understanding husband, two sweet kids, two energetic dogs, and one malevolent cat.

Social Media

Website: www.carolinefardig.com  
Blog: http://www.carolinefardig.com/blog/  
Twitter: @carolinefardig
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/carolinefardigbooks  

Purchase Links Amazon B&N Kobo
Don’t miss Caroline Fardig’s thrilling Java Jive mysteries, which can be read together or separately: DEATH BEFORE DECAF | MUG SHOT | A WHOLE LATTE MURDER | BREW OR DIE | MURDER OVER MOCHAS

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Friday, February 14, 2020

The Great Witches Baking Show - A Review, Excerpt, & Giveaway

Review

THE GREAT WITCHES BAKING SHOW by Nancy Warren
The First Great Witches Baking Show Mystery

Although thrilled to be a contestant on The Great British Baking Contest Poppy Wilkinson has more on her mind than meringue. Broomewode Hall holds a clue to Poppy's past and she's determined to learn more. Poppy will have to navigate not only the culinary challenges involved in the show, but more nefarious ones as well. For there are bad bakes and then there's sabotage. Could someone really be working against Poppy's fellow contestant and new friend? Poppy will be tested on more than her ability to recreate a challenging recipe as she encounters murder and magick in the Cotswolds.

Who would have thought watching people bake could be so exciting? Anyone whose watched The Great British Bake-Off, known as The Great British Baking Show in the United States, that's who! It turns out that reading about people baking is just as compelling...especially when there's not only a mystery, but more magick than whipping up a perfect Genoise sponge! My love for the show led me to to hold high expectations for the first Great Witches Baking Show Mystery and Nancy Warren fulfilled them with aplomb.

Poppy Wilkinson is a charming protagonist. She's smart and friendly with hidden depths...and a determination to discover the truth about her past. Poppy also has a unique ability, she's a medium, able to see and speak with the dead. She's also about to discover she's a witch! As with the television show, we're just starting to learn about the other contestants, but the camaraderie is already starting to build. 

I'm fascinated by the paranormal aspect to the story as well. Elspeth and Jonathan are supportive judges, as well as wary witches. I can't wait to see the magic evolve as Poppy gets more in tune with her true self, and her powers.

THE GREAT WITCHES BAKING SHOW has it all, interesting characters, delicious food, and a touch of magick all wrapped in a delectable mystery. I can't wait to witness the challenges to come in the next episode. Ready, Set, Read!

*****************************************************************************

The Great Witches Baking Show

by Nancy Warren

on Tour February 1-29, 2019

Synopsis:


A baker with secrets
Witches in trouble
The cameras are rolling
Ready, set, die.
Poppy Wilkinson is thrilled to be chosen as a contestant on The Great British Baking Contest. As an American with English roots, winning the crown as Britain’s Best Baker would open doors she’s dreamed of. In more ways than one. Appearing on the reality show is her chance to get into Broomewode Hall and uncover the secrets of her past.

But strange things are happening on the show’s set: accusations of sabotage, a black cat that shadows Poppy, suspiciously unsociable residents at Broomewode Hall—and the judges can be real witches.

There are murmurs that Broomewode is an energy vortex. It certainly makes Poppy see and do things that aren’t exactly normal, and seems to draw interesting characters to the neighborhood.

When a fellow contestant dies in mysterious circumstances, Poppy has more to worry about than burned pies and cakes that won’t rise. There’s a murderer on the loose and it’s up to Poppy and her new friends to solve the crime before it becomes a real show-stopper.

From USA Today Bestselling Author Nancy Warren, this delicious series of cozy paranormal mysteries will have you guessing until the end. Includes recipes.

Book Details:

Genre: Culinary Cozy
Published by: Ambleside Publishing
Publication Date: January 15th 2020
Number of Pages: 250
ASIN: B07ZL472PK
Series: Culinary Cozy #1
Purchase Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Read an excerpt:

CHAPTER ONE

As life-changing moments go, getting the call that I’d been chosen to compete in The Great British Baking Contest was right up there. I’d practiced, auditioned and practiced some more. I was a decent home baker, but was I really the best in Britain? Probably not. But I didn’t have to be.
The contest was my way of getting into Broomewode Hall, where the show was filmed. I had my own reasons for going there that had nothing to do with baking.
Still, it hadn’t been easy to be chosen. There were thousands of applicants every year and then an excruciating selection process, where the show’s producers chose twelve from the short list and made us bake on camera. Some people went to pieces; some were just really boring. They randomly selected bakers off the short list and tried out different combinations of personalities, a bit like baking, really, seeing which ingredients created the most interesting results. I quickly learned that the trick was to be a good character, try to be funny, be a good sport, pretend you didn’t notice that cameras were on you and a clock was ticking down the minutes, and still turn out a decent jam tart.
Easy peasy! Not.
One of the reasons they chose me for the show, I think, was that while I was British, I’d grown up in the States, which was kind of fun, as the show had become a huge hit in America. I’d also started life in a bakery. Or, more accurately, in a cardboard box outside a bakery in Norton St. Philip, a charming village near Bath in Somerset.
I like to think my mother, whoever she was, chose the bakery so she knew I’d be warm and, since bakers start work so early, I’d be found. And I was. When Gareth Philpott came to work that morning, he said he looked into the box and found me wide-awake, staring up at him. Not crying, not fussing, just staring as though I’d expected him. They named me Poppy. The Philpotts would have kept me if they could have. They’re a nice family, but they already had three children, and the authorities don’t just give a family a baby because they happened to stumble across one. First they tried to find my mother or any information at all about my origins. When that proved impossible, I was adopted by Agatha and Leland Wilson, and they became my parents.
They were both teachers. They’d tried for years to have their own children, and their delight in getting me was reflected in the way they pretty much turned their lives around to give me the best upbringing they could. They were loving parents, kind and patient. Strict when they had to be. We lived in Bath for the first eight years of my life, and then my dad was offered a teaching job in Seattle.
I grew up there, mostly, lost the British accent, became a typical American teenager, and then when I finished high school, my folks retired and moved back to the UK. I could have stayed in Seattle. I had friends, and I could’ve gone to college there, but I chose to come back to England. I think, deep down, it’s always felt like home. Besides, like a lot of adopted kids, the mystery of my beginnings haunts me.
Soon after returning to England, my folks moved to the south of France to bask in warmer weather, grow lavender and cook gourmet meals. My dad, who taught history, was writing a book. My mom was learning French.
They’d saved up a nice chunk of change for me to go to college but, in spite of having teachers as parents, I never felt the urge. I was always more artistic than intellectual, so I went to an art and design college for two years, and they let me use the rest of the money toward buying a tiny cottage in Norton St. Philip. It’s probably crazy, and nobody even thinks my mother was from there, but I started my life in that village and so it pulled me back. The Philpotts still ran the bakery and were my second family. I guess you’ll always have a bond with the person who picked you up off the street as a newborn. Besides, growing up as an only child, I was fascinated by their sprawling, noisy family.
I became a freelance graphic designer, which allowed me to work from home.
Gina Philpott was my age and my best friend. She was also the only one who knew why I really wanted to get on that show.
It went all the way back to when I was just a baby in that cardboard box. I’d been wrapped in a curious blanket.
I saw my baby blanket one day when I was watching The Great British Baking Contest. They always filmed at Broomewode Hall, a Georgian manor house that wasn’t open to the public. Broomewode Hall was the seat of the Earl of Frome, Robert Champney and his family. During one of the behind-the-scenes segments on the show, Lady Frome, showed them around her home.
As the camera panned around the great dining hall I was instantly transfixed by a woman in an oil painting who seemed to be wearing my baby blanket! I saw now that, in fact, it was a shawl. But the pattern was the same. I was certain of it.
And from that very moment, I began my quest to find out more about Broomewode Hall. Lord and Lady Frome guarded their privacy tenaciously, and it was impossible to get access to them and their family home. Besides, what would I say? “I think one of your ancestors once wore my baby blanket? The best way I could think of to spend time there was to qualify as a baker on The Great British Baking Contest.
I’d done it. Against incredible odds, I’d been chosen as one of twelve bakers. It was one step toward finding how who I really was. All I had to do now was figure out how to get the rest of the way.
***
Excerpt from The Great Witches Baking Show by Nancy Warren. Copyright 2019 by Nancy Warren. Reproduced with permission from Nancy Warren. All rights reserved.



Author Bio:


Nancy Warren is the USA Today bestselling author of more than seventy novels, including the best selling Vampire Knitting Club series and the Toni Diamond mysteries. She's from Vancouver, though she tends to wander. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa university, appeared on the front page of the New York Times when her book Speed Dating launched the Harlequin/Nascar series. She was also the answer to a clue in a crossword puzzle in Canada's National Post newspaper.

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