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Saturday, 13 July 2024

Crimes and Confections (A Cookies & Chance Mystery series Book # 14) by Catherine Bruns

From USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bruns comes the next sinfully sweet Cookies & Chance mystery!

With her beloved grandmother on vacation in Italy, baker Sally Muccio has her hands full. Between running a business, running after her toddler daughter, and running to keep her crazy parents out of trouble, Sal can’t seem to catch a break.

Adding to her overload, Sal’s ever youthful mother Maria decides to enter the local Mrs. Buffalo beauty pageant, and she elects Sal and Josie to provide sweet treats for the audience. It’s sure to be an exciting day for all involved.

But when vengeful contestant Charmaine Weatherwax sabotages Maria’s gown, the beauty contest quickly turns into an ugly affair. Hours later, Charmaine is found dead in her apartment! To make matters worse, Sal’s mom is caught on a surveillance camera entering the woman’s apartment shortly before her death. Are the chaos cookies about to hit the fan for the Muccio clan? Sal will need to find the real killer before her mother’s sent up the river without her stilettos!

Recipes Included!

What critics are

"A fantastic cozy mystery!"
InD'Tale Magazine

"I want to visit more with all of the quirky characters just to see what crazy and outrageous things they will do next!"
Fresh Fiction

"The Cookies and Chance Mystery series is more than just a series....it's a family !! Once you read the first book, you are hooked and feel like a member of the crazy Muccio family."
Cozy Mystery Book Reviews   (Summary via Goodreads)


Happy reader here !!  If you know anything about me, you know that the Cookies & Chance Mystery series written by Catherine Bruns is my all-time favorite series.  I am sorry to all the other series, I love you all but after reading any book in the Cookies & Chance Mystery series, you will completely understand. Not only is the storyline always captivating and fun but you cannot help but fall in love with the characters !!!  And with Crimes & Confections being the fourteenth book in the series, there is a lot to fall in love with !!

In Crimes & Confections it is a bittersweet story because Grandma Rosa is not there.  She is on a vacation to Italy reconnecting with her first love after over fifty years.  And let me tell you the Muccio family is feeling her absence ... because she did all the cooking and she cooked WELL !!  And another reason her absence is missed is because she kept the family in check more or less and mostly out of trouble.  But with her not there the family will turn to Sally to set everythingback in order and it is a tall order ....

Sally's mom is competing in the Mrs. Buffalo Pageant and even though she has two grown daughters who are married with children, she acts like she's twenty-one and luckily she also looks it.  Unfortunately she comes in second after her evening gown is cut by another contestant.  Even though she should have come in first, she is not a sour loser although it does sting a little. But things will take a turn when Charmaine, the winner, is found dead in her apartment and Sally's mom, Maria, is seen on surveillance camera leaving the apartment complex where Charmaine lived.

Sally is pregnant with her and Mike's second child, she is busy running Sally's Samples, the bakery she owns, and even though she is always pretty good at solving murders, she does not work for the police and they really don't like her helping.  And Mike definitely doesn't like her putting herself in danger.  But what can Sally do when her mother and father ask her to prove her innocence ? And then her friend, Brian, who is a police detective but not on the case is looking at her to help.

I could keep talking about this book, this seres, the family and everything else within this series but that is taking time away form you grabbing your copy and I know you want to dive right in.  I cannot say enough about how you will love love love love this series.  Catherine Bruns knows how to grab your attention and keep it until you finish reading the book ... and I think she casts a spell on readers and you cannot help but continue to think about the story and people long after you have finished the book.



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