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Cupcakes, Pies, And Hot Guys - ABNA 2013 Entry (2013)

by Pamela DuMond(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

series

Annie Graceland Mystery

review 1: 3.5 stars. I am not the ideal audience for this book - I'm not a foodie, and I'm still not a fan of mysteries (though I keep trying them anyway).Set (mostly) in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, Annie Graceland and her two best friend sidekicks have come out from L.A. as a "celebrity" judge for the first annual (yes, we all know it should be inaugural) Hot Guys contest. There's a shooting, missing luggage, and a murder, and a ghost who wants Annie to solve his murder. There's margarita cupcakes (which made my mouth water despite me not being a foodie) and many other delicious-sounding foods and drinks described, WITH recipes. There's an angsty grown daughter-mother dynamic that many readers could recognize, something of a love triangle, and hot guys described parading in evening suit... mores and swimsuits with the names of their cities on them: Mr. Wisconsin Dells, Mr. Madison, Mr. Milwaukee, and more. That part was especially fun for me, since I'm originally from those parts, myself. I cracked up about Mr. Bitterhausen's talent, for that part of the competition.There was a lot of going back to high school, either literally, to the physical building, or in terms of old grudges or old flames, that felt forced for a character who's supposed to be twenty years or so past high school. All in all, a fun, quick read that'll make you smile and sometimes laugh out loud.
review 2: Annie Graceland, the dysfunctional detective of Pamela Dumond's Cupcakes mysteries, is up to her sweaty décolletage in hot guys, mystery and madness when she returns to her Wisconsin home in the middle of a heat wave to judge a pie contest. Oops, make that a hot guy contest, replete with hunky, Dairyland beefcake. Alas, all goes riotously awry - but then fans of Dumond's work knew it would - when one of the contestants doesn't show up for the cooking competition. (Winning recipes are included.) Hijinks ensue as the empathetic Annie and the dear departed's ghost set out to find out whodunit. Annie, already an affable heroine reminiscent of Sandra Bullock's nerdy "Miss Congeniality," endears herself further in this outing, which finds her struggling with the timeless dilemma of going home to find that everything has changed. Including Annie. less

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