Delectable Desires by Farrah Rochon (Draysons #2)
The Drayson family in this series is kind of like the family in Empire…except with more cake (and common sense). The Draysons are a baking dynasty and own Lillians, a large bakery that dominates the Chicago desert scene. Despite being one of best cake artist at the bakery Carter Drayson has always feels left out because he is the only illegitmate child. He meets and falls instanstly for the straight laced Elise when she comes into the bakery looking for a cake for her sister. What he doesn’t know is she is a member of the Hawthorne-Hayes, an upper class jewelry family.
The romance in this novel was pretty basic; they meet and through their relationship are able to be their true selves. But. geez some of the moments in this book were so saccharine it kind of hurt. There were a lot of children just moppet-ing it up. There are a couple of scenes where Carter brings cupcake to a ward of sick (and extremely well behaved) children and it’s like Rochon forgot to decsribe his halo. While it didn’t blow me out of the water this romance was sweet in both ways and I think I’ll continue with the series. Each of the books in this series are written by a different author and I’m curious to see how it will differ. The next one is by Yarah St. John, someone I’ve never read before.
Also…someone had way too much fun with Photoshop on this cover. – ★★★
Gingerbread Cookie Murder by Joanna Fluke (Hannah Swensen #13.5)
I’m starting to think the first rule of cozy mystery is that you take the most inoffensive thing you can think of and just put MURDER behind it. Back to School Murder. The Secret Ingredient Murders.Death by Pantyhose.
This is a collections of (um, gingerbread themed?) novellas and I started the titular one by Joanna Fluke when it was on the library’s Christmas display and decided to take it home. Even though this novella comes much later in the Hannah Swenson series, I was able to keep up.
Baker Hannah Swenson is looking into the murder of her upstairs neighbor. I think what kept me reading was meeting all the characters and seeing how they reacted to the murder and trying to guess whodunit So, I know it’s in the genre name, but this cozy mystery was just so…cozy. The town of Lake Eden, Minnesota felt so quaint and everyone loves themselves some baked goods. Sarah Koenig should take note; If you bring cookies people will tell you anything.
I didn’t realize these books had recipes in them and they was she talks about the desserts makes me want to make ALL the food. There were 5 recipes in this novella alone and I can only imagine how many are in the full books. I think I’ll try the Game Day Burgers. I just finished two pretty heavy adult books, so this was just what I needed. It was as if Monk and Pushing Daisies were baked into a book and I definitely want seconds. I’ve already purchased the first book in the series So…Cupcakes, Mysteries & Sensibility…eh ? eh ? – ★★★.5