Monday, February 15, 2016

Dying for a Cupcake - A Cozy Review

TITLE: Dying for a Cupcake (A Deveraux's Dime Story Mystery #4)
AUTHOR: Denise Swanson
PUBLISHER: NAL
PUBLISHING DATE: March 2, 1015

FROM GOODREADS: When Devereaux “Dev” Sinclair hosts a cupcake contest at her five-and-dime store, she discovers that someone is just dying to win...

Kizzy Cutler finds it so delicious to be back in her hometown of Shadow Bend, Missouri, that she seems to have forgotten why she fled twenty years ago. For now, she’s excited to kick off her new line of cupcakes with a competition, which Dev has agreed to host in her shop. But before the first yummy cupcake is even baked, Kizzy's assistant Fallon dies from a mysterious ailment.

While the medical examiner attempts to discover what killed Fallon, Kizzy declares that the show must go on. However after Kizzy escapes several near misses, Dev is convinced that someone in Shadow Bend has it in for the Cupcake Queen. Is the secret from her past so dark someone still wants to kill her for it?

With a list of not-so-sweet suspects, Dev’s in a race against the timer to solve the murder before someone else gets iced…


MY THOUGHTS: 
This was another great installment to the Deveraux's Dime Store Mystery series. Kizzy Cutler, a past resident of Shadow Bend, has hit the big time with her cupcakes and returns to her hometown to host a contest to discover her new flavor. Along the way, it seems someone has different plans for Kizzy and the wrong person ends up killed.

I always enjoy this series by Swanson. The characters are interesting and amusing to say the least. Plus, Shadow Bend seems like such an interesting small town and that is one of my favorite aspects about cozies in general. The mystery in the book is good and it wasn't until Dev started to figure out who was the culprit that I started to do the same. I really like that Swanson has written Dev as a somewhat flawed, "real" person and I am interested to see how the dynamic with her newly paroled father shapes up. However, not only is she torn between the two love interests in her life, but Swanson had to go and add a third. Now while I am finding myself quickly hopping on the firetruck and hoping Dev gives this new hunky fire chief a chance, it seems a tad unrealistic that she is going to be able to juggle three men for long.

Swanson does a great job setting up for the next installment at the end of this book and I am glad it comes out soon so I don't have a long wait. If you enjoy cozies, this is definitely a series you should check out. 


RATING: 4 PAWS
 

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