peggyemi's review against another edition
4.0
This installment in The Domestic Diva Mystery series is one of my favorites. The mystery was complex and kept me on my toes trying to guess the outcome. I really enjoy the characters and the unique friendship among the group. I'm looking forward to continuing the series.
hvtardiswltrvl's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars- the plot was interesting, but a bit predictable. The real issue I have is with the men in Sophie’s life (minus Bernie). They’re all ridiculous and annoying. Clearly, she can do better.
asanford's review against another edition
5.0
There are few cozies that I grant five stars, but I loved this one so much. And the characters are just getting better. This one was about a chocolatier family.
aholmes524's review against another edition
5.0
The 9th book of the Domestic Diva Series and it was fantastic! Sophie is such a fun character and I love the tips and recipes she gives throughout the book.
xkay_readsx's review against another edition
4.0
Decent mystery with many fun facts about chocolates. This would be good for chocolate lovers and bakers, I'm neither and still enjoyed it.
nitabee's review against another edition
3.0
Sophie's working as a planner for the 60th anniversary of a popular local chocolate store, Amore Chocolates, and she's enjoying it until the founder of the company and the family patriarch, Joe Merano, disappears. The family elects to move forward with the event, as it's a big deal, and there are winners of recipe contests in town and the such, and at the bash, .
Nat accidentally breaks Mars' arm when she tosses a box of old bathroom fixtures out the window, and when she continues to try to remodel the bathroom and they lose their water, Mars decides enough is enough and goes to stay with Sophie. Wolf is on the case of Joe's disappearance and then the murders, and since Sophie's involved, he spends some time questioning her. With both Mars and Wolf in Sophie's life, Alex gets jealous and asks her to stop spending time with them, but she refuses, of course. Alex tries to leave her but realizes he cares about her too much and wants to continue the relationship. Nat redeems herself in Mars' eyes at the end by turning their basement into the ultimate man cave for him, and all's well in their lives.
Spoiler
Sophie stumbles across the dead body of a rather horrid man named Arnaud. He's a rival chocolatier who's on the verge of opening a new store in town, and he turns out to be using an alias. He's really Arnie, the man who broke Joe's daughters' hearts (Coco and Kara) by two-timing them with each other when they were young. Kara ran after him when the truth was discovered and though their relationship ended quickly, she's still estranged from the family until this book when she turns up. The mystery is a bit convoluted, as most of the Domestic Diva ones are, and there's no lack of suspects, but it turns out that Coco's lover, Randy, killed Arnie. Randy winds up the second victim, bumped off through Coco's husband Mitch's scheming. Mitch hadn't been in love with Coco for years but stayed with her for her money and the family business, and he killed off Randy because he'd tried to hire Randy to kill Joe. He thought the deed was done, but really Joe had gone into hiding, and of course Randy had no intention of actually killing him, but since he thought Randy could tie him to Joe's death, that was the end of Randy. Why did Randy kill Arnie? Out of love for Coco. Arnie was a disgusting, sickening person who showed no remorse for the way he'd treated Coco and Kara and bragged about sleeping with both sisters "before they looked like cows" while he was at the Amore partyNat accidentally breaks Mars' arm when she tosses a box of old bathroom fixtures out the window, and when she continues to try to remodel the bathroom and they lose their water, Mars decides enough is enough and goes to stay with Sophie. Wolf is on the case of Joe's disappearance and then the murders, and since Sophie's involved, he spends some time questioning her. With both Mars and Wolf in Sophie's life, Alex gets jealous and asks her to stop spending time with them, but she refuses, of course. Alex tries to leave her but realizes he cares about her too much and wants to continue the relationship. Nat redeems herself in Mars' eyes at the end by turning their basement into the ultimate man cave for him, and all's well in their lives.
bwilhoite8's review against another edition
4.0
Another great addition to the Diva series. This was one of my favorites in the series.
_kristiew_'s review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed the chocolate aspect and the mystery itself but the forced "love" quadrangle with Sophie/Mars/Wolf and now Alex is already getting old. Why can't she be friends with Mars and Wolf without Alex or anyone else speculating? They are all grown ups and both Mars and Wolf have significant others.
Back to the story, another thing I noticed was every time Sophie served people at home, she had dishes/glassware to match the theme/food/what have you. It had me wondering just how big her kitchen is to hold all of this stuff!
I loved the new character of Nonni and hope she makes an appearance in a future book.
Back to the story, another thing I noticed was every time Sophie served people at home, she had dishes/glassware to match the theme/food/what have you. It had me wondering just how big her kitchen is to hold all of this stuff!
I loved the new character of Nonni and hope she makes an appearance in a future book.
kj80230's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 I really need to go back and start the series from the beginning but it was a great Cozy Mystery.