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A review by meezcarrie
Éclair and Present Danger by Laura Bradford
4.0
Eclair and Present Danger is everything a cozy mystery should be! Laura Bradford has created the perfect recipe for fans of the genre – winsome characters, humor, quirky pet, cute small business, and a whodunit that isn’t immediately obvious. Plus, a dash of romance to make your heart flutter and a fun title to make you smile!
I loved Winnie, a baker in her thirties who lives on a street with mostly senior citizen neighbors – who were a hoot & the source of most of the book’s humor. Mr. Nelson and Bridget and their bantering (the way Bradford subtly wrote in a line where Bridget sticks her own finger in Mr. Nelson’s ear to turn up his hearing aid had me chuckling out loud), Mr. Nelson and his flirting, Mr. Nelson in general. Clearly, Mr. Nelson is my favorite character in the book!
The Emergency Dessert Squad business idea was super fun as well, and I loved all the dessert names Winnie and Renee came up with to treat those life emergencies that call for something sweet – stat! Names like “Hot Flash Fudge Sundae” or “Don’t Be Blue Berry Pie” or “You Are One Smart Cookie” or even “Worry No s’More Bars”. Besides making me drool and wish a dessert ambulance would pull up outside my own house, these creative names made me smile throughout the book.
Of course the key element to any mystery is … the mystery. I thought there was a nice realistic balance between Winnie’s life upheaval going on and the still-unsolved questions regarding the death of her friend Bart. She wasn’t focused on one to the exclusion of the other, nor did she suddenly morph into Nancy Drew overnight. Her crime-solving actions actually seemed “normal”, like something I would totally do in the same situation – not annoyingly foolhardy or surprisingly skilled, etc. Bradford did an excellent job of creating an amateur sleuth that could be any one of us … well, so long as we drive an antique ambulance decked out with an icing-dispensing IV pole.
Bottom Line: With Eclair and Present Danger, Laura Bradford delivers a fun, heartfelt cozy mystery full of well-written characters and great dialogue. The whodunit is just out of reach enough to keep armchair detectives on their toes, but it also stays enough in the background so as not to overwhelm the other storylines. All of the plots and subplots blend together perfectly in a delicious treat for readers!
(I received a copy of this book in exchange for only my honest review.)
Read my full review at Reading Is My SuperPower
I loved Winnie, a baker in her thirties who lives on a street with mostly senior citizen neighbors – who were a hoot & the source of most of the book’s humor. Mr. Nelson and Bridget and their bantering (the way Bradford subtly wrote in a line where Bridget sticks her own finger in Mr. Nelson’s ear to turn up his hearing aid had me chuckling out loud), Mr. Nelson and his flirting, Mr. Nelson in general. Clearly, Mr. Nelson is my favorite character in the book!
The Emergency Dessert Squad business idea was super fun as well, and I loved all the dessert names Winnie and Renee came up with to treat those life emergencies that call for something sweet – stat! Names like “Hot Flash Fudge Sundae” or “Don’t Be Blue Berry Pie” or “You Are One Smart Cookie” or even “Worry No s’More Bars”. Besides making me drool and wish a dessert ambulance would pull up outside my own house, these creative names made me smile throughout the book.
Of course the key element to any mystery is … the mystery. I thought there was a nice realistic balance between Winnie’s life upheaval going on and the still-unsolved questions regarding the death of her friend Bart. She wasn’t focused on one to the exclusion of the other, nor did she suddenly morph into Nancy Drew overnight. Her crime-solving actions actually seemed “normal”, like something I would totally do in the same situation – not annoyingly foolhardy or surprisingly skilled, etc. Bradford did an excellent job of creating an amateur sleuth that could be any one of us … well, so long as we drive an antique ambulance decked out with an icing-dispensing IV pole.
Bottom Line: With Eclair and Present Danger, Laura Bradford delivers a fun, heartfelt cozy mystery full of well-written characters and great dialogue. The whodunit is just out of reach enough to keep armchair detectives on their toes, but it also stays enough in the background so as not to overwhelm the other storylines. All of the plots and subplots blend together perfectly in a delicious treat for readers!
(I received a copy of this book in exchange for only my honest review.)
Read my full review at Reading Is My SuperPower