Kim, Author at Cinnamon and Sugar

Chocolate Molasses Crinkles

I have eagerly been waiting for the release of CAUGHT BREAD HANDED, the newest installment in the Bakeshop Mystery series by Ellie Alexander! The last book in her series introduced Juliet Montague Capshaw’s (aka Jules) estranged husband, Carlos, and I wanted to know more about him. If you are new to this series you might be wondering about Jules’ name. Yes, she was named after THAT famous Juliet because her parents were into Shakespeare and opened their bakeshop, Torte, in Ashland which is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. A great setting with a terrific story!

Synopsis

CAUGHT BREAD HANDED picks up with Carlos, a very talented chef, who is in Ashland for three more days before he has to leave for his cruise ship job. He desperately wants to make his marriage work and Jules feels like she might be ready to move beyond what she considered his betrayal. However, instead of spending as much time together as they’d like, Jule’s finds Mindy Nolan lying in a pool of blood. It doesn’t take long for the police to find out she was murdered and Jules is caught up in the investigation. She just can’t seem to keep herself from asking questions.

Mindy was a real estate developer and had recently taken over Alan Matterson’s jester-themed restaurant. She angered the other business owners by turning it into a garish fast food joint, going against the Shakespearean themed shops and buildings. Alan was also livid after losing his restaurant and blamed Mindy for it. Town gossip has it that there were numerous people Mindy crossed and it doesn’t help that her cook has a mysterious unsavory past. Can Jules learn to mind her own business or will her snooping put her in danger again? Will she find time to resolve her relationship with Carlos or will he sail off into the sunset without her?

My Review

CAUGHT BREAD HANDED was a very enjoyable read. It is much more character driven than preceding books and I truly loved having Carlos involved in the story. He adds a depth to Jules that seems to have been missing in the earlier books in this series (or else I’m just totally crushing on him 🙂 ) There has always been a very strong food theme in Ellie’s books, but her descriptions of preparing and eating are almost poetical with Carlos on the scene, which brings a much stronger connection. I have always held the belief that food and emotions are intricately connected and the author definitely captures that in this book. The mystery is satisfying with twists and turns to the plot and the subplots of Jules’ mother and the Professor’s relationship along with Jules and Carlos were woven into the mystery nicely without being distracting.

Ellie also provides several amazing recipes at the back of the her book. It was very difficult for me to choose which one to showcase with my review but in the end, Chocolate Molasses Crinkles won out. I’m a huge fan of ginger crinkles with all their warm spices. I never would have thought to add chocolate to spiced cookies but oh my, it’s a party in your mouth! The author adds very generous amounts of spices to a chewy cookie base and then loads up on chocolate chips. As soon as the Chocolate Molasses Crinkles come out of the oven, they are dipped in granulated sugar, giving them a festive, sparkling appearance with some added crunch. These will definitely be making an appearance in my annual Christmas goodie bags! Thank you, Ellie, for allowing me to share these incredibly yummy cookies!

A very special thank you to Ellie Alexander for providing an autographed copy of CAUGHT BREAD HANDED! (U.S. residents only.) Please use the Rafflecopter box located below the recipe to enter. Contest ends Monday, July 18, 2016 at 11:59 pm PST. Winners will be announced on this page and on Cinnamon & Sugar’s Facebook page, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!)

Chocolate Molasses Crinkles

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 12-ounce package chocolate chips
1/2 cup granulated sugar in extra bowl

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter, sugar, and molasses together.

Beat in the egg.

Slowly incorporate dry ingredients and spices.

Once batter is firm, add chocolate chips and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.

Spoon batter into 1-inch balls and bake for 15 minutes.

Immediately roll in granulated sugar when cookies are hot from the oven.

Set on a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days.

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Roasted Pears

I am very happy to be able to help celebrate Linda Wiken’s new release, TOASTING UP TROUBLE, in her brand new Dinner Club Mystery series! I first met Linda this past February during the Left Coast Crime conference in Phoenix and had a chance to talk about her new series. I loved the premise of her book and couldn’t wait to read it!

Synopsis

J.J. Tanner works for Make It Happen, an event planning company owned by her best friend, Skye Drake. Business is growing for them in Half Moon Bay, Vermont and J.J. is busy planning an Italian designer themed 21st birthday celebration. The catering company she contracted with quits a week before the party and talented Chef Marcotti agrees to step in due to the prestige of J.J.’s client. However, at the last minute the arrogant chef demands J.J. accept his extremely expensive signature dish even though the budget doesn’t allow for it. J.J. think she’s got a handle on the situation until she finds out that the sneaky chef served the dish anyway at the party and expects her to pay for it! Late, after the party, tempers fly and the chef threatens her during their vocal argument.

J.J. returns to the client’s home to supervise the cleanup and finds that the chef was murdered. The police question her and consider her a strong suspect since she was the last person to be seen with the chef. However, J.J. finds out that one of her friends, Evan, from her Culinary Capers Dinner Club is a suspect too. Chef Marcotti cheated Evan out of money and they had a huge public argument. Knowing that she and her friend are innocent, J.J. decides to ask questions and clear their names. It doesn’t take long before she finds out a lot of people in town had reasons to want the chef dead. Can she sift through the clues and find the killer or will she take the blame?

My Review

It’s always fun to start a brand new series with the very first book. Linda Wiken did not disappoint with her new culinary cozy. I loved how the murder mystery was intertwined with J.J.’s Culinary Capers Dinner Club. The links between her friend being a suspect to another member being a police officer to the other members wanting to help find clues (which, of course, did not please the police officer!) kept the story flowing. J.J. starts out being a tentative cook when she joins the Dinner club, but I enjoyed how she gained confidence as time goes on, turning her love for collecting cookbooks into actually cooking from them. And boy would I love to be able to browse through J.J.’s collection! I have my own “small” collection of cookbook and dessert decorating books but there’s something that draws me to beautiful food photos and I find I can’t resist buying just one more book. The author introduces and develops the characters setting the stage for both this mystery and subsequent books which slowed the beginning down just a bit. But once the murder takes place the pace of the book accelerates and kept me turning pages to find answers! There are plenty of suspects and red herrings that kept me guessing until the very end…and what a surprise ending it was!

Of course a Dinner Club themed book must have food and Linda provided plenty of it. From the descriptions of dishes prepared for the dinner club and the recipes included at the back of the book I was ready to eat. One of the recipes Linda shares is Roasted Pears, which I found perfect for serving as a light dessert on a hot summer night. Super fast to prepare with just the right amount of sweetness, the Roasted Pears can be topped with any fresh seasonal fruit, a splash of liqueur, and a creamy dollop of light Greek yogurt or ricotta cheese. I added some toasted nuts for additional texture and visual appeal. This is another one of those desserts that I didn’t share with anyone else. It was equally wonderful eaten while the pears were still warm and then again chilled, which makes it convenient to make ahead of time. Thank you, Linda, for allowing me to share your delectable dessert!

A very special thank you to Linda Wiken for providing an autographed copy of TOASTING UP TROUBLE! (U.S. and Canadian residents only.) Please use the Rafflecopter box located below the recipe to enter. Contest ends Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 11:59 pm PST. Winners will be announced on this page and on Cinnamon & Sugar’s Facebook page, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!)

Roasted Pears

One of the characters in the book, Beth, is always looking for light, healthy desserts to balance the delicious baked goods and pastries she sells in Cups ‘n Roses. Mix and match the ingredients according to seasonal produce. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Roasted Pears

3 ripe pears
1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
Zest from one large lime

Garnishments

1 cup Greek-style plain yogurt or smooth ricotta
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Clementines
Seeds from one medium pomegranate
Toasted walnuts, pecans, or almonds
Limoncello or Chambord

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F).

Line baking pan with parchment paper.

Halve pears lengthwise, remove stems and cores.

Place pears on baking sheet, cut side up; drizzle with honey or maple syrup and sprinkle with lime zest.

Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, depending on size of pears, until softened.

When done, place portions on individual dessert plates, top with yogurt or ricotta, and sprinkle with desired add-ons.

Drizzle with Limoncello or Chambord to taste.

Tip

If you aren’t going to serve the pears right away, drizzle a bit of the lime juice over the cut surface to cut down on the browning.

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Nutty Buttery Mini Muffins

I am so very pleased to be a part of the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour and share FINAL FONDUE by Maya Corrigan! While this is the third book in her Five-Ingredient Mystery series, it is the first one I’ve had the chance to read. I found it easy to immerse myself in this newest release without knowing backstory which makes this a nice stand-alone read.

Synopsis

Val Deniston lives with her grandfather, Don Myer, aka The Codger Cook. While he would like to be a great cook he mostly takes Val’s recipes and whittles them down to five ingredients, sometimes with great results and sometimes…not so much. Val has convinced her granddad to rent out the spare bedrooms to some of the tourists coming to town for Bayport’s Tricentennial Festival. Jennifer Brown, a bride-to-be, rents four of the guestrooms for herself and three members of the bridal party. They plan on enjoying the festivities and look at wedding venues at the same time.

The festivities take an ugly turn when Val finds one of the bridesmaids strangled to death in her granddad’s back yard. Even more disconcerting is that the deceased resembles Val and she’s not sure if she was the intended victim. Her nemesis, Chef Henri La Farge, is in town and appears to be stalking her. But the bride also has her share of enemies and could have been the intended target. With the police not finding the answers and Granddad taking on-line private investigating classes and wanting to practice, Val determines to find the culprit before another body shows up.

My Review

I just adored The Codger Cook! He went through a rough patch after losing his wife but with Val living with him he’s found a new lease on life by writing a newspaper column, branding The Codger Cook, and expanding his snooping skills with an on-line class. His sometimes grumpy character brings humor and humanity to the story. Val also has some “baggage” from her past that the author weaves effortlessly into a subplot intertwining with the central mystery. It kept me turning pages and guessing until the final reveal (reminding me a bit of an Agatha Christie grand-finale) which came as a complete surprise. The quaint town setting with it’s Haunted Maze left you feeling like you’d actually visited the area, not just read about it while the supporting characters meshed together creating a memorable story. After reading FINAL FONDUE I realize I have some catch-up reading to do and look forward to the next book in this series!

Of course a series titled Five-Ingredient Mystery series wouldn’t be complete without recipes! There are several included at the back of the book and all sound equally delicious. Maya Corrigan has graciously allowed me to share her Nutty Buttery Mini Muffins recipe with you which uses only FIVE ingredients! I was a bit worried when I realized that the recipe does not use any leavening, thinking they’d turn out like hockey pucks….but the author definitely knows what she’s doing! These Nutty Buttery Mini Muffins bake up amazingly moist yet light and taste reminiscent of pecan pie with the generous amount of pecans and brown sugar added. These muffins are worthy of any breakfast or brunch table (dessert too!) and as an added bonus, mix up and bake super fast!

A special thank you to Maya Corrigan for providing an autographed copy of FINAL FONDUE and given away by the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour. Contest is open to U.S. Residents only. Please enter via the Rafflecopter located below the recipe.

Nutty Buttery Mini Muffins

Yield 18 – 24 muffins

Even if you don’t like breakfast muffins, you might like these. They’re sweet enough to serve for dessert. They don’t have a lot of calories if you limit yourself to one. Good luck with that!

Ingredients

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed down
1/2 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup melted salted butter
2 beaten eggs

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).

Grease and flour 18 – 24 mini muffin cups or line them with paper muffin liners. (The cups for small muffins vary in size and that’s why the number of muffins varies.)

Beat the melted butter and eggs together.

In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and pecans.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour the wet egg and butter mixture into the well. Stir just enough to combine everything.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups. The cups should be 2/3 full. If you have some unused cups in your muffin pan, put a teaspoon of water in the empty cups.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes**. They’re done when a toothpick inserted into them comes out clean.

Cool them on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes.

** My muffins only took 15 minutes to bake. My muffin tin is very wide and shallow so it bakes faster than some.

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Drunken Raisin Scones

I’m very happy to be a part of the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour with READ TO DEATH by Terrie Farley Moran! While this is the third book in her Read Em and Eat Mystery series, it is the first one I’ve had the chance to read. It is easily read as a stand-alone and it didn’t take me long to get to know the characters and enjoy their adventure as they solve another crime!

Synopsis

Sassy Cabot owns Read ‘Em and Eat Cafe and Book Corner with her best friend, Bridgy Mayfield, in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. It’s nearing the end of “snow bird” season so the two women put together the last book club tour for the seniors, visiting Thomas Edison and Henry Ford’s winter estates. They hired talkative, know-it-all, although good-hearted Oscar Frieland as the van driver who ends up in an argument with one of the senior ladies in the group.

After the tour the ladies scatter to get ready for their book club meeting and Bridgy returns to the van to retrieve her sunglasses. She finds Oscar dead, stabbed to death with scissors. With the shock of finding the body, Bridgy is overheard saying things that could be construed as admission of guilt. With the police focusing on Bridgy instead of finding the real killer, Sassy knows she needs to start asking questions instead of staying out of the investigation as Lieutenant Frank Anthony (aka Lieutenant Judgmental) demands. When Bridgy and Sassy’s mothers show up, Sassy finds she has a lot to juggle. Can she keep her Cafe going, keep the mothers happy, and find the killer before they fly out of town? Or will her best friend and business partner spend the rest of her life in jail?

My Review

READ TO DEATH is a fun, lighthearted read that is character driven. The senior citizen group has some quirky characters, such as Bridgy’s Aunt Ophie. There is tension and mystery surrounding the fallout Aunt Ophie had with Bridgy’s mother and the subplot weaves nicely with the story Sassy’s mother, who calls herself Sage at the moment, has a free spirit keeping everyone on their toes and provides some humor. I also enjoyed the historical facts woven into this cozy mystery. I had no idea that both Edison and Ford wintered in Florida! I missed Oscar after he was murdered because he was a great tour guide providing all sorts of insight into the history of the area.

The author cleverly provides funny nicknames for so many things such as Sassy’s Heap-A-Jeep. She has also creatively named the food items sold in the cafe to correspond with books, such as Old Man and the Sea Chowder and My Secret Garden Salad. In addition to a cute culinary cozy, Terrie also includes a couple recipes with her book. The one that I was instantly drawn to, Drunken Raisin Scones, was provided to Terrie by Karen Owen, blogger at A Cup of Tea and a Cozy Mystery. They have graciously allowed me to share the recipe with you…and oh my, these are amazingly flavorful scones! Plump raisins are simmered in a whiskey and cinnamon sauce that infuses the flaky, tender pastry. Additional whiskey and cinnamon reduction is used in the glaze to add another layer of flavor that will have you asking for seconds! Thank you, Terrie and Karen, for allowing me to share such a scrumptious recipe!

A special thank you to Terrie Farley Moran for providing two giveaway copies of READ TO DEATH and given away by the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour. Please enter via the Rafflecopter located below the recipe.

Drunken Raisin Scones

Ingredients

Raisin Whiskey Reduction

1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup whiskey
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar

Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup soft salted butter
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
Raisin reduction minus 2 tablespoons

Whiskey Glaze

1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons reserved reduced whiskey mixture (liquid only)
2 tablespoons milk

Icing Drizzle – optional

2 tablespoons powdered sugar
3/4 teaspoon milk

Instructions

Raisin Whiskey Reduction

Place raisins, whiskey, water, cinnamon, and sugar in a small saucepan.

Stir and bring to a boil, then simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.

Remove from heat and set aside 2 tablespoons of the reduction liquid for the glaze.

Set aside the raisins and the remaining reduction liquid for the scones.

Scones

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F).

Sift flour, sugar, and baking powder in a bowl.

Cut butter in small pieces and blend into the flour mixture until it resembles bread crumbs.

Whisk the egg and milk together then hand stir mixture into the flour mixture.

Add raisins and liquid reduction to scone batter and mix.

If dough is too wet, add a small amount of flour.

On a cutting board, shape dough into a mound.

Cut into eight triangles and place on a cookie sheet without pieces touching.

Bake until the edges are golden brown, approximately 15 – 17 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly before glazing.

Whiskey Glaze

Place powdered sugar in a small bowl.

Stir in the reduction liquid and milk.

If glaze is too thick, thin to taste with a few drops of water.

Brush over warm scones.

Icing Drizzle – optional

Mix powdered sugar and milk together until smooth.

Drizzle in zigzag pattern over glazed scones.

Tip

If you’d rather not use whiskey, substitute apple juice.

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Topsy-Turvy Pineapple Torte

I have been a fan of the books written by Elizabeth Buzzelli (aka Elizabeth Lee) for some time. When she told me she was writing a new series and asked if I would be an early reader for A MOST CURIOUS MURDER: A Little Library Mystery, I jumped at the chance! Even though the book does not have recipes, Elizabeth created a special dessert, Topsy-Turvy Pineapple Torte, to celebrate the Alice in Wonderland theme of the book. The torte is a meringue-based cake, baked in a cast iron skillet which creates crispy edges. Brown sugar mixed with butter, crushed pineapple, and maraschino cherries provides an easy base to support the cake while baking. But when it’s turned upside down for serving, that’s when the magic happens. The sugar caramelizes with the pineapple, creating a rich contrast to the light cake. Even though my husband shouldn’t eat dairy, he couldn’t stop eating this delightful dessert and declared it was one of the best he’s ever had! Elizabeth has also included a yummy optional rum sauce to drizzle over the cake. While not necessary to use, it does add an additional level of decadence!

Synopsis

Jenny Westson has returned home to Bear Falls, Michigan after a bitter divorce and the loss of her job and friends. When she pulls up to her mother’s house in the early morning hour, she finds her mother’s Little Library broken into smithereens with the books destroyed. Sick at heart, her deceased father had built the Little Library as an anniversary gift just months before he was killed in a hit and run accident, Jenny tries to clean up the mess before her mother sees it.

She’s interrupted by her mom’s “little person” neighbor, Zoe Zola, who loves to quote Lewis Carroll. With her exhaustion and emotional heartache, Jenny doesn’t care for Zoe all that much, but despite her attitude, Zoe pitches in to clean up and help break the news to Jenny’s mom, Dora. When the police tell them it’s probably just a hit and run, Zoe points out all the evidence which indicated it was something much more malicious. She thinks it could be one of their neighbors, Adam Cane, who destroyed the Little Library since he hated it and her dog, Fida. When Fida disappears Zoe points the police in the direction of Adam again, but when he turns up dead in Zoe’s fairy garden, she’s suddenly suspected of murder.

Evidence is even more incriminating when Adam’s brother, Aaron, is found murdered with Zoe’s dog locked in his impoverished cabin. Jenny knows Zoe is innocent, despite her quirks, and decides she has to find the real killer before the small-town police railroad Zoe right into prison. With the madness of murders going on around her, Jenny must find the answers that they and the killer are looking for but time may be running out for another innocent victim.

My Review

I enjoy reading cozy mysteries for a variety of reasons: good character development, happy endings, and of course they are a source of wonderful entertainment. A MOST CURIOUS MURDER fits my criteria for what makes a book good, but then the author went a step further and made it great! This first book in her brand new series has a strong plot with plenty of twists, turns, and falls into the rabbit hole which kept me up late at night turning pages. But what made this book stand out in my mind is the intertwining of emotions in the subplots that pulled me in, made me relate, and made me think about the story and the characters long after I had finished the book. Ms. Buzzelli has a lyrical cadence to her writing which fit the theme of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland and enhanced the settings so I felt like I was experiencing the book instead of just reading a story.

One of the quotes Zoe shares with Jenny that I thought was quite appropriate for my review is “….words and words and words – until the words sort themselves out and everything is clear, or it becomes completely unclear and it doesn’t matter anymore.” Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli’s words are perfectly clear and come together to make a delightful, thought provoking read. Well done!

A very special thank you to Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli for providing an autographed hardcover of A MOST CURIOUS MURDER! (U.S. residents only.) Please use the Rafflecopter box located below the recipe to enter. Contest ends Monday, July 11, 2016 at 11:59 pm PST. Winners will be announced on this page and on Cinnamon & Sugar’s Facebook page, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!)

Topsy-Turvy Pineapple Torte

Ingredients

Cake

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 twenty-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained and patted dry (reserve juice for rum glaze)
10 Maraschino cherries, halved

4 eggs, separated
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Rum Sauce (optional)

1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup dark rum
1/4 cup butter (optional)

Garnish

1/2 cup crushed walnuts
Whipped cream
Maraschino cherries

Instruction

Cake

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F).

Warm a well-seasoned 9-inch cast iron skillet in the preheated oven for about 5 minutes. Don’t let it smoke.

Remove skillet from the oven and melt 1/2 cup butter in it, over low stovetop heat.

Remove from heat and sprinkle brown sugars evenly over the pan.

Sprinkle pineapple over the brown sugars, to cover bottom of the skillet.

Arrange halved cherries around pineapple.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites just until soft peaks form.

Gradually add the granulated sugar, beating well after each addition, then beat until medium-stiff peaks form.

In a small bowl, beat egg yolks at high speed until very thick and yellow, about 2 minutes.

Using a whisk, gently fold egg yolks and flour mixture into the egg whites until blended.

Fold in 1 tablespoon melted butter and vanilla.

Spread batter evenly over pineapple in skillet.

Bake until surface springs back when gently pressed with fingertip and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

Loosen the edges of the cake with table knife.

Cool the cake for 5 minutes before inverting onto serving plate.

Flip the skillet and leave a few minutes before removing. The cake will release easier this way.

Rum Glaze

Add all the ingredients to a saucepan and boil for 3 minutes.

While the sauce is hot, pour over cake and garnish with crushed walnuts, whipped cream, and Maraschino cherries.

Tips

Separate the eggs while they are cold then allow them to come to room temperature while you collect the remaining ingredients. Cold eggs separate easier while room temperature eggs will whip up fluffier.

Make sure there is not even a speck of yolk in the whites and your bowl and beaters are grease-free or the egg whites won’t whip up fluffy.

The difference between light and dark brown sugar is simply the amount of molasses each contains. Dark brown sugar has a more assertive flavor but they can both be used interchangeably.

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Lemon Tarts

I have been a huge fan of the Domestic Diva Mystery series by Krista Davis and was elated when I won an early copy of THE DIVA SERVES HIGH TEA! Shortly after receiving the book my 11-year-old granddaughter, Emory, came to spend a long weekend with me. We browsed through Krista’s recipes together but it only took her two seconds to decide we HAD to make the Lemon Tarts and have a tea party! Lemon has long been Em’s favorite flavor and these Lemon Tarts will become a much requested dessert from here on out. The tarts were easy enough for Em to make on her own with a bit of help from me rolling out the dough and providing a few tips. I liked that the filling did not have to be baked but instead, cooks quickly on the stovetop. The tartness of the lemons and zest perfectly compliments the sweetness of the luscious filling, while the shortbread style cookie crust provided a tender and flaky bite. Thank you, Krista, for allowing me to share such a delicious recipe with my granddaughter and on my blog!

Synopsis

Sophie Winston’s nemesis and ex-husband’s girlfriend, Natasha, is frantically organizing the Tea, Brie, and Skeleton Key fundraising event. The new tea shop in town, The Parlour, is hosting the event and Sophie and her friends gather to support the charity. Numerous antiques have been donated to the cause and Robert Johnson, owner of the antique store in town, is in charge of the auction. Many of the ladies in town have crushes on the handsome man and he has developed quite a reputation.

The day after the auction Sophie drops by Robert’s house and finds him lying on the floor, barely conscious. He doesn’t survive and it is determined that he died from botulism. The Parlour is shut down and the new owner is devastated by both the loss of life and the loss of her business, but she’s sure her food isn’t the cause. Not long afterwards a young mother, with ties to Robert, is found murdered and her son begs Sophie to find out who killed her. When Sophie’s ex-husband, Mars, comes down with botulism poisoning, Sophie decides it’s time to take action and find out who is behind the crimes since the police aren’t any closer to stopping the killer. Can she stop the culprit before they strike again or will she be the next victim on the list?

My Review

THE DIVA SERVES HIGH TEA by Krista Davis is book ten in her Domestic Diva Mystery series and I think her best book by far! The preceding books in this series have all been great and I eagerly anticipate each new release, but THE DIVA SERVES HIGH TEA captivated me from the very beginning. The first page starts off with a bang and the fast-paced story continues throughout. I literally kept saying ‘just one more chapter’ even though my sleep-deprived eyes begged for rest…it is a true page turner of a story and I couldn’t put it down until I finished it!

Aside from a terrific plot with many complex (in a good way) characters and suspects intertwined, Krista writes with humor. I truly enjoyed beginning each chapter with the Dear Natasha or Dear Sophie letters, and then got a chuckle when Sophie gave opposite (correct) advice to Natasha’s answers. It takes a very creative writer to think to put Natasha and chickens in the same sentence…the results are hilarious! And even though Natasha can be an annoying character, it was nice to get an inside peek at why she’s become this way and she’s earned some sympathy from me. It was a bittersweet moment when I closed the book after finishing the very last sentence…it’s much too long of a wait for the next book in the Domestic Diva Mystery series!

A very special thank you to Krista Davis for providing an autographed copy of THE DIVA SERVES HIGH TEA! (U.S. residents only.) Please use the Rafflecopter box located below the recipe to enter. Contest ends Friday, June 24, 2016 at 11:59 pm PST. Winners will be announced on this page and on Cinnamon & Sugar’s Facebook page, as well as notified by email (so check your spam folder!) If you are a new commenter, please be aware that your comment won’t post until I approve, however, your entry will still be valid. Since I am traveling the end of this week there may be a delay in comment approval.