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A review by rusereviews
Hard Dough Homicide by Olivia Matthews
3.0
Hard Dough Homicide by Olivia Matthews is a culinary cozy mystery set in Brooklyn, NYC and the second book in the Spice Isle Bakery Mysteries series.
Lyndsay and her family must solve yet another murder tied to their bakery after her mother's former boss Emily Smith, a local high school principal, is apparently poisoned during her retirement party. Lyndsay didn't want to host the party in the first place--their first catering party--and now yet another murder investigation seems to be driving away her customers.
I'm typically a sucker for culinary cozy mysteries. The first book in this series was alright, so I decided to pick up the next in the series. You can probably read this one as a stand-alone even though I do recommend reading them in order if possible.
If you're a fan of tight-knit families, you may enjoy this series. I'm sure it's a cultural thing regarding Lyndsay referring to her parents as "mommy" and "daddy," but it was repeated a lot in this book since they were more featured as characters than in the first book.
Lyndsay still tends to act younger than her stated age, though she has a bit more confidence in this installment. The author continues to be very repetitive with random things, like descriptions of the bakery or reminding us her grandmother doesn't like to wear the store "uniform," which was fairly annoying to me.
In general, the plot moves pretty slow. It was a little hard to believe that a second murder happened within a month from the first murder they tried to solve. Additionally, the police don't seem to research leads that Lyndsay provides to them, which seems like a stretch. Character development here is hit or miss.
As always, there are recipes in the back of the book featuring some of the items mentioned during the story.
I read this one as an ebook, and I had listened to the audiobook version of the first book in the series. I think that if I were to move forward with this series, I would have to listen to them and not read them with my eyes.
Tropes in this book include: cozy mystery, bake shop, locked room mystery, immigrant community
CW: murder, poison
I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.
If you want to see more from me, check out my blog and my bookstagram!
Lyndsay and her family must solve yet another murder tied to their bakery after her mother's former boss Emily Smith, a local high school principal, is apparently poisoned during her retirement party. Lyndsay didn't want to host the party in the first place--their first catering party--and now yet another murder investigation seems to be driving away her customers.
I'm typically a sucker for culinary cozy mysteries. The first book in this series was alright, so I decided to pick up the next in the series. You can probably read this one as a stand-alone even though I do recommend reading them in order if possible.
If you're a fan of tight-knit families, you may enjoy this series. I'm sure it's a cultural thing regarding Lyndsay referring to her parents as "mommy" and "daddy," but it was repeated a lot in this book since they were more featured as characters than in the first book.
Lyndsay still tends to act younger than her stated age, though she has a bit more confidence in this installment. The author continues to be very repetitive with random things, like descriptions of the bakery or reminding us her grandmother doesn't like to wear the store "uniform," which was fairly annoying to me.
In general, the plot moves pretty slow. It was a little hard to believe that a second murder happened within a month from the first murder they tried to solve. Additionally, the police don't seem to research leads that Lyndsay provides to them, which seems like a stretch. Character development here is hit or miss.
As always, there are recipes in the back of the book featuring some of the items mentioned during the story.
I read this one as an ebook, and I had listened to the audiobook version of the first book in the series. I think that if I were to move forward with this series, I would have to listen to them and not read them with my eyes.
Tropes in this book include: cozy mystery, bake shop, locked room mystery, immigrant community
CW: murder, poison
I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.
If you want to see more from me, check out my blog and my bookstagram!