Murder on the Vine (A Sullivan Sisters Mystery Book 1) by Jenna St. James

Jaycee Sullivan thought it was just another typical day when her pastry chef sister, Jax, asked her to help deliver chocolates to a local winery. However, the discovery of a dead body was anything but typical for Jaycee. Then when the new detective in town, Mike Connors, demands Jaycee keep her nose out of the investigation, she decides she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. After all, her sister’s baking reputation is on the line and the killer is still on the loose. With the help of Gramps, a retired Army colonel, her mom, and Tillie, a former trapeze artist and contortionist, Jaycee is on a mission to snag the killer before her sister’s reputation is forever tainted.  (Summary via Goodreads)


OMG ! ! !  A bookstore with a bar... A bookstore with a bar with  drinks and desserts that go together... One sister runs the bookstore/bar and the other makes the desserts.....  Sign me up ! ! !

Not only do the sisters work together but their Gramps works with them also !!!  And they have a dog.....in the store !!!   Add a hunky detective, wineries and a contortionist throw a murder in the mix and you have a GREAT book to read !!

We met Jenna St. James with her Ryli Sinclair mysteries series.  Those books had the elderly great-aunt helping Ryli follow leads.  Now with her Sullivan Sisters mystery series we have Gramps along for the ride !!  Maybe down the road the 2 series will collide and a book will be born....How FUN would that be ?!?  But alas, I am getting ahead of myself.  

Murder on the Vine has everything you are looking for in a new series of cozies and it is so much fun reading.  While Jaycee tries to solve the murder of the manager of the winery her sister Jax just got hired to make chocolates for, she has to dodge the hunky detective running the show.  Taking her mother and new neighbor the contortionist Tillie around to other wineries to poke around doesn't provide the answers she is looking for....it only gets the ladies drunk and sillier.  

I could tell you a lot more of whats in the book but in doing so it would be giving it all away and that wouldn't be fun.  I will say this..... You will LOVE the Sullivan family, the bookstore/bar, the story, the mystery and the romance...... and the desserts !!!

I, for one, cannot wait for the next book in this series.  Come on its a bar and a bookstore......


Review by Missi S.