I'm pleased to welcome Camille Marchetti to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Camille on the pages of the Bean to Bar Mystery series by Amber Royer. A Study in Chocolate is the fifth book in the series and was released this past week.
Hi Everyone! I’m Felicity’s mom, Camille Marchetti. Felicity is the protagonist of the Bean to Bar Mysteries. The fifth book, A Study in Chocolate, just came out – and I finally get time on the page. Can you believe it has taken five books for my daughter to share page space with me – or to let me do one of those posts? Who knows her better than I do, after all?
I know sometimes I get carried away, and tend to take over projects – but trust me, I’m not about to get involved with Felicity’s murder-solving hobby. For one thing, getting involved in matters best left to the police is dangerous, and I keep telling Felicity this needs to stop. For another, puzzles have never been my thing. I can organize and work through real-world problems with sheer determination, coffee and staying power. But you can’t do that with a puzzle. The solution stays just as elusive.
Felicity gets her out-of-the-box thinking style from her father. That’s not always a good thing. Felicity had a thriving physical therapy practice in Seattle, but after her husband died, she made the rash decision to quit her practice and become a craft chocolate maker. I miss my late son-in-law too, but opening a small business is risky, and it is hardly a reasonable response after all the time Felicity spent in school. At the same time, her shop seems to be doing well – is in fact expanding. I can be ambivalent about everything she threw away, and at the same time proud of what she’s accomplishing. It’s my right, as a mother.
I just can’t understand how my daughter keeps winding up involved in solving murders. My husband Rob says she’s an amateur sleuth, so with the energy she’s putting out in the universe, mysterious things are going to just keep happening. I told him that is ridiculous. There’s no such thing as a real-life amateur sleuth. That’s just something for the Hardy Boys or Veronica Mars.
This time, Felicity has gotten involved in the death of an art collector who just recently moved to Galveston, Texas, and bought a historic home not far away from Greetings and Felicitations, my daughter’s shop. Apparently, a book mysteriously showed up on the bookcase where she sells travel books. It was a rare edition of a Sherlock Holmes novel, and somehow – I’m not clear on the details – it was a challenge for Felicity to solve the art guy’s murder before it happened. She failed at doing that – and now she’s convinced that someone else is going to die, just to keep her motivated.
I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling her that this is her own fault, for not letting the police handle those other cases. But how can you criticize, when she seriously believes someone’s life is at stake? I hope she’ll be careful, and that she’ll stay close to her business partner, who used to be a bodyguard, or to her ex, who’s a cop. Although, that could lead to all different kinds of trouble.
Anyway, don’t forget the moms out there of all your favorite protagonists. We’re over here, biting our nails, hoping everything comes out right in the end!
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A Study in Chocolate (Bean to Bar Mysteries) by Amber Royer
About A Study in Chocolate
Cozy Mystery 5th in Series
Golden Tip Press (January 17, 2023)
Print length: 289 pages
Felicity Koerber’s bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand is expanding, as it has become a gathering spot for the community, despite having been the scene of multiple murders. Artists she met while doing a chocolate sculpture are now working out of the shop. So when Felicity is invited to tea by an eccentric art collector, she’s intrigued, especially when she gets asked to pose for a portrait done with chocolate on chocolate. Only, where there is a murder the next day at the same historic house where the tea was held, one of Felicity’s artist friends becomes the main suspect.
When the killer threatens that, unless Felicity unravels the murder, one of her two love interests will be the next victim, she finds herself unwittingly at the center of a puzzle, with a Sherlock Holmes obsessed murderer who wants to be the next Moriarty – and wants to cast Felicity as Sherlock.
Felicity starts finding unexpected connects between her friends and acquaintances, and has to deal with the idea that someone who knows her is a murderer. At the same time, she has to keep her business running, despite construction dust and unruly customers – and an unexpected order for thousands of truffles.
Satchmo the retired police dog turned therapy dog returns to help her sniff out a few clues, and the kidnapping of Ruffles, the quirky artist’s cat, helps lead Felicity into the puzzle. Can Felicity solve it in time to protect the people she cares about from becoming additional victims?
About Amber Royer
Amber Royer writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the BEAN TO BAR MYSTERIES. She is also the author of STORY LIKE A JOURNALIST: A WORKBOOK FOR NOVELISTS, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She blogs about creative writing techniques and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes, of course.
Author Links:
Website: http://www.amberroyer.com
Blog: http://amberroyer.com/blog/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberroyerauthor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Amber.Royer.Author/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoA_29HV2nPmRnox9LPVanw
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amber_royer
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Amber-Royer/e/B00PFV4CGM
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8144619.Amber_Royer
Thank you for hosting my character's post. Camille is such a strong character to write. It's fun to do a piece from her point of view.
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