Assaulted Caramel
Amish Candy Shop, Book #1
Amanda Flower
5+ Stars
Synopsis:
Sometimes you need a sweet tooth to take a bite out of crime . . .
Bailey King is living the sweet life as assistant chocolatier at world-famous JP Chocolates in New York City. But just when Bailey’s up for a life-changing promotion, her grandmother calls with news that her grandfather’s heart condition has worsened. Bailey rushes to Harvest, Ohio, where her grandparents still run Swissmen Sweets, the Amish candy shop where she was first introduced to delicious fudge, truffles, and other assorted delights.
She finds her grandfather is doing better than she feared. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for a local Englisch developer, whom Bailey finds dead in the candy shop kitchen—with Jebediah King’s chocolate knife buried in his chest. Now the police are sweet on her grandfather as the prime suspect. Despite the sincere efforts of a yummy deputy with chocolate-brown eyes, Bailey takes it on herself to clear Jebediah. But as a cunning killer tries to fudge the truth, Bailey may be headed straight into a whole batch of trouble . . . (Goodreads)
Review:
Bailey is a smart strong woman who is not afraid of hard work. She is up for a promotion as head chocolatier at a New York based chocolate shop. But when she gets a call from her grandmother, telling her that her grandfather is very sick, she does not hesitate to leave New York and go back to Harvest, Ohio, where her grandparents live, to spend time with her grandfather and help him get better. While she is there, Bailey finds a dead body in her grandparent’s Amish candy shop, Swissmen Sweets. When her and her grandfather find themselves high on the suspect list, Bailey knows she has to find the real culprit to clear their names.
The characters are well rounded and well developed. I really enjoyed getting to know Bailey and her grandparents. They had such a special close bond and it was heartwarming to read how they interacted with each other. Although Bailey did not grow up being Amish, she respected the ways of the Amish people in the town and her grandparents. I really liked how the author combined both worlds seamlessly and gave this book a unique twist. I also enjoyed meeting Cass, Bailey’s friend and coworker from New York. She brought a lot of humor to the story.
The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and through much of the book, I felt like I was right there watching all the action taking place and listening in on conversations. I could smell the chocolate and see all of the fantastic creations that Bailey and Cass made.
The mystery was well plotted and difficult to solve. With so many suspects to consider and clues to sift through, I was unable to solve it until the reveal at the end. And I must say I was surprised at who the killer was. I really like when that happens.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. It has everything that I look for in a cozy: great characters, a wonderful small town setting, humor, suspense and a hard-to-solve mystery. I cannot wait to read the next book in this series whenever it is released.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Advertisements Share this:
