Tasty Tussles and the Old Cupcake Hustle: Of Prints and Princesses

Publish or perish.  Also, high school never ends.  These maxims came to mind as I read Jenn McKinlay's Going, Going, Ganache and Dying for Devil's Food.  Even if Going, Going, Ganache isn't about academia but a struggling magazine.  

After turning a photoshoot into a food fight, Mel and the rest of the Fairy Tale Cupcakes crew are sentenced to run a baking boot camp for the Southwest Style staffers.  But things really go south when one of the reporters is murdered.  As a writer who exposed Arizona's elite, the guy had a lot of enemies.  So it's up to Mel to find out which one silenced him for good.  

In Dying for Devil's Food, Mel is guilted into catering her fifteenth high school reunion despite being bullied as an overweight teen.  True to form, some of the popular kids, including the class mean queen, sling backhanded compliments about her now-svelte figure.  But the real trouble starts when said queen goes to powder her nose -- and never returns.  A poisoned cocktail points to murder -- and a lipstick-scrawled message makes Mel the prime suspect.

So there you have it in a pastry shell.  Copy and cattiness kill.

That said, the real crime would be if Fairy Tale Cupcakes used pastry shells.

Library Lovers and a Sleuth Undercover

They say that knowledge is power.  But sometimes it's a lifesaver too.  At least according to Jenn McKinlay's Library Lovers mysteries.  Yes, she of the Cupcake Bakery and Hat Shop mysteries -- not to mention standalone romcoms -- also pens this cerebral-themed series.  Here's the 411 on what it's about:  

Lindsay Norris has reinvented herself.  After finding her fiancé in flagrante with his grad student, she ditched her Yale gig and relocated to coastal Briar Creek.  Now she's a library director, hosts weekly crafternoons (book club, crafting, and lunch, oh my!), and is devoted to her rescue dog Heathcliff.  Also, sometimes she solves mysteries.  Because being research savvy is one sure-fire way to find out whodunit.  And so with the help of her fellow crafternooners and hunky boat captain Mike "Sully" Sullivan, Lindsey proves that ignorance isn't bliss.  

Also, that mystery and romance go hand in hand. 🔎💖

Are You Ready for Some Cupcakes?

Always!  And not just the pretty pastries themselves, but Jenn McKinlay's cupcake-themed cozies.  Which means that I was more than game to read one of her latest, Fondant Fumble.  Although I don't follow football, I was hooked the moment the nefarious owner of the Arizona Scorpions (not a real team) turns up dead in his own QB Keogh's cupcake shop.  The owner didn't want Keogh selling cupcakes -- apparently it isn't a good look -- and that doesn't look good for Keogh.  Naturally, cupcake MVP Mel sets out to clear Keogh's name -- as well as prevent his punting partner from eating all the profits.  But then the killer kicks things up a notch.  With the goalposts constantly moving, the cupcake crew needs a Hail Mary more than ever in this, their flour of need.     

Fondant Fumble is a sweet treat touchdown.  Partly because the plot is clever, partly because it shows that football players are people too.

And sometimes people just want to bake cupcakes. 🏈🧁

Clued for Thought: Murder Mysteries on the Menu

Lately, I've been reading even more cozy murder mysteries than usual.  Maybe because some other genres left a slightly bad taste in my mouth.  Anyway, in doing so, it hit me that most of the series I follow are food-related.  Many even include recipes, which I never use but nevertheless enjoy.  I guess that's part of why I'm so drawn to these wholesome whodunits.  They consistently serve up a helping of happy.  Because although it's fun to figure out who did in the nibby neighbor or arrogant heiress, it's the comfort of home-baked cakes and casseroles that keeps me at the table.

So here's a quartet of titles I recently read, arranged on poster board like entrées on seen-from-space plates:

Sprinkle with Murder by Jenn McKinlay, a Cupcake Bakery Mystery

Lemon Curd Killer by Laura Childs, a Tea Shop Mystery

Death of a Clam Digger by Lee Hollis, a Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery

Peking Duck and Cover by Vivien Chien, a Noodle Shop Mystery

Seeing them in all their quirky glory is like snuggling under a crazy quilt of culinary delights.  I even read some of Death of a Clam Digger to Charlotte (although not, I promise, the murder part!), and she was riveted, or, as the husband put it, on the edge of her blanket.

Now that I'm done writing this post, I realize that I haven't said anything I haven't said countless times before.  My love for cozies remains reliable, just like the mainstay stories themselves.  Suspense?  Sure. But no surprises.

And that's just how this creature of habit likes it. 🍰🔎🥘

Berries and Baubles: The Final Countdown

Sparkly Sky Necklace

Top: FCUK by French Connection for Sears

Bag: Amazon

Headband: INC, Macy's

Selfie Saturday with Geoffrey at Macy's.

Clip: Wild Fable, Target

Necklaces: Betsey Johnson

Top: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Bag: Zulily; Top and clip: Marshalls

Tomorrow is D-Day.  "D" as in "delivery."  But also as in the actual D-Day, i.e., the World War II one.  Hopefully, mine won't be as violent.  

That means it's time to post my last pregnancy pics.  Also, a shot of the last book I read, Jenn McKinlay's Strawberried Alive.  A somewhat grittier-than-usual cozy, it's about a serial killer bumping off small business owners as well as, of course, strawberry cupcakes.  That said, I have four paperbacks stashed in my hospital bag, two romcoms and two mysteries.  I'm not naïve enough to think that I'll be able to read them, but I feel better just knowing they're there.

It's a weird feeling, this hurry-up-and-wait for the most important day of my life.  But I take comfort in knowing that countless women have felt the same way, and that most of them -- unlike those soldiers -- lived to tell the tale. 

So I don't think there's anything left to say except this:

See you on the other side. 

Cake Walk, Perp Walk: A Book Between Two Blouses

Top: Modcloth

Top: Hell Bunny, Modcloth

When Mel and Angie are invited to sell cupcakes at the Juniper Pass Rodeo, they're nervous and excited and all of the things.  Even though -- and surely you'll excuse the pun -- it's far from their first rodeo.  By which I mean that they discover yet another dead body.  Such is the sweetly sinister setup for Jenn McKinlay's Red Velvet Revenge.

But catching a rodeo clown of a killer isn't the dynamic duo's only challenge.  When their freezer goes on the fritz, they're faced with more thawed cupcakes than they can sell, forcing them to pivot to cake pops.  Ah yes, cake pops, that cutesy craze of the 2010s (this caper came out in 2012).  Needless to say, the cupcake catastrophe means that Mel and Angie's square dance card is full.  Particularly Angie's, as she juggles not only perps and pastries but the affections of two not-quite-gun-slinging suitors.  

But these two aren't the type to let men or mayhem get in the way.  And it's fun to find out just how they make -- no, bake -- their way out of this one.  

Speaking of twosomes, I couldn't help but post this pair of retro-licious blouses.  I wore the cherry one during a Zoom call, and I've never worn the heart one at all.  So I thought I'd show them off here.  Because murder mysteries remind me to make the most of the everyday.

Including always eating the cupcake. 

Cozy Christmas Crime Time

Christmas can be murder.  Wrapping, baking, and decorating are enough to make even Santa's helpers head for hibernation.  That's why it's so satisfying to leave it all behind and disappear into a Christmas-themed murder mystery.  There's something soothing about sitting back as the heroines deal with last-minute guests plus all manner of pests and put up their trees at the eleventh hour.  In other words, whatever stress fest you've got going on will seem peaceful in comparison to catching a killer.  Here are two Christmas cozies I enjoyed this week:    

In Jenn McKinlay's Sugar Plum Poisoned, cupcake queen Mel DeLaura née Cooper is already inundated with holiday orders when she takes on a baking gig for singer Shelby Vaughn.  But then Shelby's shifty manager bites the big one, and rumor has it that it might be because he bit into one of Mel's cupcakes.  What's a baker to do?  Investigate!  Well, that and prepare to host fifty-plus of her nearest and dearest for Christmas.  Both make for a nerve-wracking -- and entertaining -- Noel.  

In Lee Hollis's Death of a Christmas Caterer, food columnist Hayley Powell is in a pickle when the caterer she hired for the Island Times Christmas party is murdered.  Now the pressure's on to discover the killer before Santa slides down the chimney.  As if hunting down a homicidal maniac isn't hard enough, Hayley's also juggling not one, not two, but three suitors.  Will one of them turn out to be the wise man she wants, or just another elf to shelve?  Only time -- and mistletoe -- will tell.

Before I go, here's something else cozy: Christmas in Cape May.  This pic's from four years ago, but the magic remains.  

As far as I know, there were no murders.    

Cupcake Wake: Unwed and Undead

It's the day before Halloween, and you know what that means.  One more spooky story!  This one is Jenn McKinlay's Dark Chocolate Demise, in which Fairy Tale Cupcakes baker extraordinaire Mel Cooper faces off with, not fairies, but zombies.  Scottsdale is hosting its first-ever Zombie Walk, and Mel and company are serving Dark Chocolate Demise, Strawberry Brains, and Marshmallow Mummy cupcakes to the undead masses.  But, as they say, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye -- or, in this case, a life.  Because Mel discovers a dead undead bride in the photo op casket in front of her cupcake van.  Not only that, but the woman looks just like Angie, Mel's bestie and business partner.  Now Angie is freaked and Mel has no choice but to investigate who knocked off the corpse bride and why, an undertaking that involves mob bosses, rock stars, and not one but two love interests for Mel.  There's also a shopping spree-slash-makeover scene, which I, of course, adored.  So if you like scary and silly and sweet (but mostly silly!), then Dark Chocolate Demise is the pick of the trick or treat reads. 👻🎃

Pumpkin Spice and Things Not so Nice: Another Cute Cupcake Caper

As you know, I've read many a Jenn McKinlay romcom and hat shop mystery.  So when I was looking for fall books and found Pumpkin Spice Peril, I thought, why not start reading her cupcake shop mysteries too?

Bestie bakers Melanie Cooper and Angie Harper are busy at their beloved, Scottsdale-based Fairy Tale Cupcakes when they're met with a most unhappy ending.  Their dear friend, glass artist and pumpkin spice cupcake enthusiast Rene Fischer-Klein, has been murdered.  Never content to let the cops do their thing -- even when one of them is her uncle -- Mel delivers condolence cupcakes to Rene's studio in hopes of obtaining intel.  What follows is a mix of confections and complications as Mel works to separate the lies from the truth.

I enjoyed the arts angle in this book, especially McKinlay's descriptions of Rene's breathtaking work.  Also, unlike in most murder mysteries, Rene seemed genuinely missed as opposed to being a baddie who had it coming.  Finally, this cozy includes a tempting recipe for root beer float cupcakes that I'll probably never break my box-mix-only rule to attempt.  But I like that it's there if I get gutsy.

So it's safe to say that I'll be returning to Fairy Tale Cupcakes.  

Even if safe is the last word I'd use to describe an RIP bakery.