I'm pleased to welcome Cheeseburger the Ferret to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Cheeseburger on the pages of A Chocolate is Announced by Amber Royer. This book is the seventh in the Bean to Bar Mystery series and was released last week.
Hi! I’m a ferret. I love collecting things. My name is Cheeseburger -- or at least that’s what my adoptive Mommy named me. But she’s a human, and she has no idea that I already had a name – Lady Tiffany of the Grange, XVI. I know this because the little girl who lived in the house where I was born whispered it into my ear, just as she had whispered it to my mother and her mother before her. She used to tell me and my siblings about a long line of Ferrets, traced all the way back to Europe, which is a faraway land across the sea. It was a romantic life, which only occasionally involved wearing a tutu and trying to escape a chair at an imaginary tea party, a life which came to an abrupt end when my siblings and I were separated and taken into different households.
It was lonely at first, but my new Mommy spends a lot of time with me. It’s almost like having another ferret close by – almost, but not quite. I try to fill that void by collecting things. My human mom wears earrings, which are often made of big sparkly rocks, or dangly feathers, or big wooden beads. Call me a girly girl, but I love to pile them up and sit on them. Sometimes, Mommy or Dad will find my precious earrings and “tidy” them up. Which is heartbreaking. The only consolation is that I get to start all over again.
Mommy sometimes takes me with her when she travels. She’s a food critic, and she often comes home or back to wherever we’re staying, and she smells amazing. Sometimes she even brings me a bit of meat leftover from her meal. We ferrets were made to exist on meat, and getting it freshly cooked connects me to my ancestors. Of course, they were sadly forced to eat meat raw, as we were domesticated mainly to hunt rodents. Which benefited both us and the humans. And then, of course, we were also used to hunt rabbits. Speaking of which.
This time Mommy has taken me and Dad to a hotel in Galveston, Texas, a nearby land that feels sticky and smells like salt. And the whole lobby of the place smells like rabbit. Which is unusual for a hotel. There’s a lady here who also smells like rabbit – but she also smells like candy – which I’m not allowed to eat – and like flowers. I could tell just from looking at her that she’s a kind human, so I ran over to her and begged her to hold me. She did!
But then something happened at the hotel, something that smells bad in all the wrong ways – like death. I think Mommy’s in trouble, because she knew the guy who died – and there’s something negative between them, something that ties into the sadness Mommy sometimes exudes. I can smell that too. When she’s feeling that lonely sad, she tends to cuddle me and give me treats. Which is great for me. And I think it makes her feel better too.
But the kind lady who smells like rabbits also helps set things right when death has entered her world. Apparently, this has happened a number of times. Humans in the hotel keep calling her Felicity, and one of them keeps saying she’s a mega murder magnet. (Her exploits have been recorded in the Bean to Bar Mysteries series. But the human called Ash, who is here at the hotel, also has a podcast going into detail about the cases she’s solved.)
Murder is a concept I only vaguely understand. I don’t know why it is so important to them to know why someone died. It happened. You move on, right? But humans don’t do that. Mommy can’t do that. I can feel a tinge of sadness in Felicity too, but it’s more muted, almost healed. But maybe that’s why she can understand what Mommy is going through, wants to help. Which makes me happy to be around both of them.
One thing I’m worried about is that there is a dog staying in this hotel, though the rabbit seems to have left. Who knows? Maybe it’s why the rabbit left. People are being careful to keep the dog away from me, but I still have a nervous edge. I’ve started collecting things again, and storing them in a hiding spot I doubt anyone will ever find. At least not before it’s time for us to leave.
I know Felicity and the others are looking for something, but I have no understanding of what. I keep hearing the word will. Which is part of a verb, right? Will walk. Will eat. Will sniff. I wish I could help. But I really feel lost. Oh well, maybe somebody needs some cuddles.
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A Chocolate is Announced (Bean to Bar Mysteries) by Amber Royer
About A Chocolate is Announced
Cozy Mystery 7th in Series
Setting - Texas
Publisher: Golden Tip Press (June 25, 2024)
Print length: 277 pages
Felicity Koerber is finally getting her life together. She has a fiancé, her bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand has become a gathering spot for the community, and she is ready to embrace whatever the future holds. She’s ready for another launch party – despite the disaster at her grand opening, when she’d first gotten involved with solving a murder. And this time she’s embracing her status as a sleuth. She’s hosting a murder mystery weekend to celebrate the new Mystery Flavor line of craft chocolate bars. She’s held a contest to choose the attendees, who will all stay at her aunt’s flip hotel and enjoy the island. It’s all supposed to be perfectly random – only, Felicity starts to uncover connections between her guests. When one of them winds up murdered, Felicity has to keep her aunt from becoming the main suspect. The killer is very clearly calling Felicity out, leaving clues that mean little to anyone other than her. But that doesn’t narrow down the suspect pool. Her guests are there because they love the true crime podcast she’s been featured on. And she can’t decide whether the killer wants her to catch them – or just wants to taunt her. Meanwhile, Felicity is also playing host to her future in-laws and discovers that her fiancé’s sister, who is also a cop, is very competitive. Can Felicity hold her own and make a good impression, while keeping her business together and her aunt out of jail? And can Felicity solve it in time to protect the people she cares about from becoming additional victims? Satchmo the retired police dog turned therapy dog returns to help her sniff out a few clues, and one of the guests brings along a ferret named Cheeseburger, who keeps showing up in the most unexpected places.
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 technique 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. A Chocolate is Announced Trailer .mp4
Author Links
Website: http://www.amberroyer.com
Blog: http://amberroyer.com/blog/
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Twitter/X: 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
Purchase Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZMXM3BN/
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