Today I am taking a break from the Book Riot Read Harder reviews because I am not done the book for category 10 yet. But I have less than 100 pages to go so as soon as I finish that it'll be back to Book Riot reviews! I thought I'd take this opportunity to write a review for a book that I know will definitely be up Angie's alley. You may or may not have noticed that aside from our mutual obsession with Harry Potter, Angie and I actually have pretty different reading habits. There is some overlap though :). For the most part, I tend to get my cosy mystery and chick lit recs from Angie, but in this instance, it's a book I finally beat her to haha.
Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes
Author: Karen Rose Smith
Publisher: Kensington Books
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: January 2018 (first published December 2017)
Page count: 320
Genres: mystery, cosy mystery, chick lit
Page count: 320
Genres: mystery, cosy mystery, chick lit
Date read: October 21, 2018
Number of times read: 1
Format: ebookSource: Kobo
Summary
In an old Victorian in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish country, Daisy Swanson and her aunt Iris serve soups, scones, and soothing teas to tourists and locals—but a murder in their garden has them in hot water . . .
Daisy, a widowed mom of two teenagers, is used to feeling protective—so when Iris started dating the wealthy and not-quite-divorced Harvey Fitz, she worried . . . especially after his bitter ex stormed in and caused a scene at the party Daisy’s Tea Garden was catering. Then there was the gossip she overheard about Harvey’s grown children being cut out of his will. Daisy didn’t want her aunt to wind up with a broken heart—but she never expected Iris to wind up a suspect in Harvey’s murder.
Now the apple bread and orange pekoe is on the back burner while the cops treat the shop like a crime scene—and Daisy hopes that Jonas Groft, a former detective from Philadelphia, can help her clear her aunt’s name and bag the real killer before things boil over . . .
Includes delicious recipes for Iris’s Lemon Tea Cakes and more! -- via Goodreads
In an old Victorian in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish country, Daisy Swanson and her aunt Iris serve soups, scones, and soothing teas to tourists and locals—but a murder in their garden has them in hot water . . .
Daisy, a widowed mom of two teenagers, is used to feeling protective—so when Iris started dating the wealthy and not-quite-divorced Harvey Fitz, she worried . . . especially after his bitter ex stormed in and caused a scene at the party Daisy’s Tea Garden was catering. Then there was the gossip she overheard about Harvey’s grown children being cut out of his will. Daisy didn’t want her aunt to wind up with a broken heart—but she never expected Iris to wind up a suspect in Harvey’s murder.
Now the apple bread and orange pekoe is on the back burner while the cops treat the shop like a crime scene—and Daisy hopes that Jonas Groft, a former detective from Philadelphia, can help her clear her aunt’s name and bag the real killer before things boil over . . .
Includes delicious recipes for Iris’s Lemon Tea Cakes and more! -- via Goodreads
Review
I picked up this book on Kobo, during a sale I suspect. But once I found it I chose to use it for the PopSugar reading challenge which I've ended up abandoning because I could not read as many books as I thought this year. I was too overambitious. Anyway, the category I was going to use it for was a book with a fruit in the title. At this point, I can't remember if Angie discovered it first or if I did, but I read it first so that's why I'm reviewing it for her, spoiler free of course. I like cosy mysteries and amateur investigators. I grew up on a steady diet of Murder She Wrote and medical and criminal procedurals like Diagnosis Murder and Crossing Jordan...and of course, the ultimate favourite amateur detective (when he daydreamed himself as Sherlock Holmes) among 90s kids from Canada and the US, Wishbone! That being said I am surprised that I haven't actually read more of them, I think that's an oversight I need to rectify in the future because I really enjoyed this. I'm partial to books that don't take themselves too seriously. Nothing turns me off a book faster than it being pretentious. And cosy mysteries, this one, in particular, don't tend towards pretension.
Daisy is a widowed mother of two, her eldest daughter has just gone off to college and her youngest seems to be drifting away which is stressing her out. They just recently moved back to Daisy's hometown where she's opened a tea shop with her Aunt Iris. Aunt Iris is another source of stress for Daisy though. Daisy is worried about her relationship with Harvey Fitz because Harvey Fitz is still married. It comes as no surprise that after all that setup, by the end of the first chapter Harvey is dead in the garden of Daisy and Iris's tea shop. And that's not a spoiler it's right up there in the summary. As with any cosy mystery, everyone is a suspect. But Iris of course, as the mistress, becomes the prime suspect because the murder took place at the shop she co-owns. Now of course Daisy isn't about to stand by and let her aunt be railroaded, so that's how Daisy, with the help of a neighbour who is an ex-cop, becomes an amateur investigator. She sets out to clear her aunt's name.
Overall it's a logical premise and it makes sense as to why she's gotten herself involved and why she wants to investigate. It's a tight story and it's well told and it works. I have my doubts, however. It's quite clear that Daisy is not actually a very good investigator and that the only reason she is involved is that of how much she loves and wants to protect her aunt. It's made very clear that running the tea shop successfully is her primary interest. So my doubts surround how Daisy will work as the centre of a series of books. Currently, there are two books in the series with a third due out in 2019. I feel like things are going to start to get contrived really quickly in order to force Daisy into the investigation every time. I'm not quite sold on the meshing of family and business oriented chick lit combined with cosy mysteries as a concept, but it was well written and engaging enough that I am definitely willing to get the second book in the series and find out if and how Smith pulls it off. I want more of Daisy, more of her tea shop, and more of her friends and family. I also want to bake the lemon cakes with Angie when she comes to visit in May haha.
If you like both cosy mysteries and cafe related chick lit then this is the perfect book for you! It's all about a tea shop owner cum amateur investigator who finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery in rural Pennsylvania. Daisy's like a baking Jessica Fletcher.
I picked up this book on Kobo, during a sale I suspect. But once I found it I chose to use it for the PopSugar reading challenge which I've ended up abandoning because I could not read as many books as I thought this year. I was too overambitious. Anyway, the category I was going to use it for was a book with a fruit in the title. At this point, I can't remember if Angie discovered it first or if I did, but I read it first so that's why I'm reviewing it for her, spoiler free of course. I like cosy mysteries and amateur investigators. I grew up on a steady diet of Murder She Wrote and medical and criminal procedurals like Diagnosis Murder and Crossing Jordan...and of course, the ultimate favourite amateur detective (when he daydreamed himself as Sherlock Holmes) among 90s kids from Canada and the US, Wishbone! That being said I am surprised that I haven't actually read more of them, I think that's an oversight I need to rectify in the future because I really enjoyed this. I'm partial to books that don't take themselves too seriously. Nothing turns me off a book faster than it being pretentious. And cosy mysteries, this one, in particular, don't tend towards pretension.
Daisy is a widowed mother of two, her eldest daughter has just gone off to college and her youngest seems to be drifting away which is stressing her out. They just recently moved back to Daisy's hometown where she's opened a tea shop with her Aunt Iris. Aunt Iris is another source of stress for Daisy though. Daisy is worried about her relationship with Harvey Fitz because Harvey Fitz is still married. It comes as no surprise that after all that setup, by the end of the first chapter Harvey is dead in the garden of Daisy and Iris's tea shop. And that's not a spoiler it's right up there in the summary. As with any cosy mystery, everyone is a suspect. But Iris of course, as the mistress, becomes the prime suspect because the murder took place at the shop she co-owns. Now of course Daisy isn't about to stand by and let her aunt be railroaded, so that's how Daisy, with the help of a neighbour who is an ex-cop, becomes an amateur investigator. She sets out to clear her aunt's name.
Overall it's a logical premise and it makes sense as to why she's gotten herself involved and why she wants to investigate. It's a tight story and it's well told and it works. I have my doubts, however. It's quite clear that Daisy is not actually a very good investigator and that the only reason she is involved is that of how much she loves and wants to protect her aunt. It's made very clear that running the tea shop successfully is her primary interest. So my doubts surround how Daisy will work as the centre of a series of books. Currently, there are two books in the series with a third due out in 2019. I feel like things are going to start to get contrived really quickly in order to force Daisy into the investigation every time. I'm not quite sold on the meshing of family and business oriented chick lit combined with cosy mysteries as a concept, but it was well written and engaging enough that I am definitely willing to get the second book in the series and find out if and how Smith pulls it off. I want more of Daisy, more of her tea shop, and more of her friends and family. I also want to bake the lemon cakes with Angie when she comes to visit in May haha.
If you like both cosy mysteries and cafe related chick lit then this is the perfect book for you! It's all about a tea shop owner cum amateur investigator who finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery in rural Pennsylvania. Daisy's like a baking Jessica Fletcher.
Overall Rating
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| 4.5 bolts |
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