I’m doing something a little bit different this week by giving away four books to one lucky winner! Today it’s books by Darci Hannah from her Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries!
Often Kensington Publishing will send me a print book (sometimes an advance readers copy or even the finished book) for authors that I’m reviewing, even though I read the ebook ARC from NetGalley. A lot of authors, like Darci Hannah, are truly generous and instead of me using the publisher’s copy for giveaways, will offer to send out signed copies of their books to winners. Thank you, Darci! But that leaves me with a lot of books on my shelves. While I love looking at them there, I’m rapidly running out of room, plus I have the books on my iPad if I ever have the time to reread.
So, I’ve decided to do a giveaway to share books that I’ve already featured with their recipes on the blog. Please use the Rafflecopter link below. Contest ends March 9, 2025 and is limited to U.S. residents due to insane shipping fees outside the country.
If you’re interested in my detailed reviews, I’m including links to the original blog post for each of them. Simply click on the book cover or the recipe title and it will take you to that page for the review and the featured recipe.
Featured Recipe: Carrot-Raisin Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting
Synopsis
After catching her celebrity chef fiancé sizzling in the arms of another woman, Lindsey Bakewell left big city Wall Street for small town Beacon Harbor, Michigan to pursue her own passion as a pastry baker—and gets mixed up in someone’s sweet taste of revenge . . .
More interested in kneading dough than adding it up, Lindsey’s breakup inspired her to set up the shop she always wanted in a place that always made her happy. She’d spent many childhood summers near this beach community and converting the old run-down lighthouse into a bakery café and home offers a perfect fresh start for Lindsey and her devoted Newfoundland dog, Wellington.
But not everyone in town has a sweet tooth. The preservation society won’t have the lighthouse’s history sugar coated by lattes and cakes—and a protest group crashes Lindsey’s Memorial Day opening. Then her ex-fiancé Jeffrey Plank and his girlfriend Mia Long arrive to trash the place. In the ensuing chaos Mia chokes on a donut and dies.
An autopsy reveals cyanide in Mia’s bloodstream and Lindsey is the police’s prime suspect. To clear her name, she’s going to need to combine ingredients found in the town’s checkered past to uncover the identity of a desperate killer . . .
Featured Recipe: Fabulous Frosted Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Synopsis
Lindsey prefers to keep her bakeshop’s Halloween decor light and autumnal, rather than gruesome and ghoulish. But everyone knows her lighthouse home is haunted. Some intrepid teens have even tried to break in to witness the resident ghost themselves. Dreading Halloween night, Lindsey reluctantly allows her influencer and podcaster best friend, Kennedy, to host a live ghost hunting investigation in the lighthouse, conducted by a professional team. Protective of her ghost, Lyndsey is understandably nervous about what they might uncover . . .
The segment is uneventful—until things take a terrifying turn. The team freaks out. As Kennedy joins the mad dash outside, she bumps into what looks like the prankster teens’ creepy clown costume hanging from a tree. But when Lindsey’s dog, Wellington, begins to whine, they make a grim discovery: the clown is no dummy. It’s a corpse.
Now Lindsey and company will need to keep their cool if they want a ghost of a chance to solve the murder—and see another Halloween . . .
Featured Recipe: Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake
Synopsis
Follow the aroma of shamrock sugar cookies to the Beacon Bakeshop, a lighthouse on the shores of Lake Michigan where amateur sleuth Lindsey Bakewell is busy preparing for Beacon Harbor’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities – with a little help from her adorable Newfoundland, Wellington, of course!
Lindsey is baking up a storm—shamrock sugar cookies, Guinness chocolate cupcakes, Irish soda bread—for the well-timed grand opening of the Irish import gift shop, the Blarney Stone, owned by her boyfriend’s uncle, Finnigan O’Connor, recently relocated from the Emerald Isle.
But it’s Uncle Finn himself who seems full of blarney when he gleefully reveals a pot of real gold he claims he stole from an actual leprechaun. And Finn’s fortune takes a turn for the worse when he’s arrested for the bludgeoning of a small unidentified man dressed as a leprechaun—the murder weapon alleged to be his now-missing shillelagh.
Eccentric Uncle Finn may enjoy believing he’s outwitted a leprechaun, but he would never be so deluded as to clobber one with his walking stick. Now Lindsey will need more than the luck of the Irish to seize a golden opportunity to catch the real killer . . .
Featured Recipe: Lindsey’s Raspberry Lemon Bundt Cake
Synopsis
Lindsey’s patrons have a new outdoor patio where they can eat their treats in the glorious summer weather. But even more exciting is that the Beacon Bakeshop is going to host British celebrity chef Vivi Lemonberry—and what could be a more appropriate event than a tea party?
What Lindsey didn’t realize is that Vivi is here to put some distance between herself and her recent professional and personal scandals. Despite assurances that Vivi is as sweet as a chocolate-dipped strawberry, Lindsey is cooling rapidly toward the culinary icon . . . especially after she banishes Lindsey’s beloved dog, Wellington, from the bakeshop and then flirts outrageously with Lindsey’s boyfriend.
She’s not the only one feeling hostile, though. While Vivi’s in the middle of making a tart in front of the cameras, a woman runs up and slaps her. Soon, Vivi’s nowhere to be found, and folks are speculating on whether she’s run off with her secret lover or just laying low due to embarrassment. That is, until Lindsey finds a body bobbing near the surface of Lake Michigan. It’s a sour ending for the diva, but Lindsey is determined to squeeze the truth out of every clue until she finds the killer . .
