Tuesday 16 July 2019

Toxic Toffee (Amish Candy Shop Mystery #4) by Amanda Flower


Toxic Toffee (Amish Candy Shop Mystery #4)
A sweet tooth for murder . . .  
 
Bailey King’s in New York wrapping up a six-week shoot on her first cable TV show, Bailey’s Amish Sweets, when she gets a call from her Ohio town’s resident busybody. With Easter around the corner, Bailey’s been recruited to create a giant toffee bunny for the weeklong springtime festival that will also feature live white rabbits. But back home in Harvest, death becomes the main attraction when Stephen Raber keels over from an apparent heart attack—with Bailey and Raber’s pet bunny as witnesses.

Except it wasn’t Raber’s heart that suddenly gave out—a lethal dose of lily of the valley was mixed into a tasty piece of toffee. Who’d want to poison a jovial rabbit farmer who reminded Bailey of an Amish Santa Claus? To solve the murder, she and her sheriff deputy boyfriend Aiden must uncover a twenty-year-old secret. She’ll need to pull a rabbit out of a hat to keep a healthy distance from toxic people, including one venomous killer . . .    (Summary via Goodreads)




Toxic Toffee by Amanda Flower is the fourth book in her Amish Candy Shop Mystery series and the second one that I have read.  I fell in love with this series when I read Premeditated Peppermint, the third book in the series.  There is so much to love and I am sorry that I only learned of this series with the third book.....however I am now a devoted fan !!

Bailey King is the main character of this series and while she is a character to love, she is also a character to respect.  She grew up with Amish grandparents but not the Amish way of living.  Her father had left the Amish lifestyle to marry her mother.  Bailey had an amazing job in New York City as a chocolatier but leaves that life behind to move back home to Harvest, Ohio to help her grandmother run the candy shop her grandparents started.

Moving back home is a huge shock to Bailey because she has to respect her grandmother's Amish way of life as well as half of the town who are Amish also.  But as you will learn fast while reading these books, Bailey is quick to adapt to everything......including murder !!

It seems murder has a way of working itself into her life and she is soon becoming the person to go to when someone dies.  Even though the better choice would be Aiden, her boyfriend who is actually a Sheriff Deputy.  

In Toxic Toffee Aiden has no other way to work a murder investigation without agreeing to let Bailey stay involved.....it is the only way that the Amish will talk to the police, through Bailey.  Bailey is beside herself with this great responsibility but soon realizes just how dangerous Aiden's work is......

Flower has a special knack of blending the Amish way with the English way in her storytelling.  She gives the Amish a voice that they wouldn't get otherwise.....giving the reader a different view of thier lifestyle.  Flower shows the reader the hardship that the Amish face daily as well as the family dynamics that holds them together.   I love getting lost in this series and look forward to the next time I venture to Harvest, Ohio.  I know it will be a TREAT !!!


Review by Missi M.

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