Tag: cozy mystery

Book Review | The Crêpes of Wrath by Sarah Fox

Posted August 7, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

The Crêpes of Wrath by Sarah Fox

When Marley McKinney’s aging cousin, Jimmy, is hospitalized with pneumonia, she agrees to help run his pancake house while he recovers. With its rustic interior and syrupy scent, the Flip Side Pancake House is just as she pictured it–and the surly chef is a wizard with crêpes. Marley expects to spend a leisurely week or two in Wildwood Cove, the quaint, coastal community where she used to spend her summers, but then Cousin Jimmy is found murdered, sprawled on the rocks beneath a nearby cliff. After she stumbles across evidence of stolen goods in Jimmy’s workshop, Marley is determined to find out what’s really going on in the not-so-quiet town of Wildwood Cove. With help from her childhood crush and her adopted cat, Flapjack, Marley sinks her teeth into the investigation. But if she’s not careful, she’s going to get burned by a killer who’s only interested in serving up trouble.


For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #1: A pun in the title)


The Reason

I was looking for books to fit the prompt for the 2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge with a pun in the title. This title caught my attention, and the rest of the series have similarly fun titles too!

The Narrator(s)

Marguerite Gavin. She did a great job, I think I like the book more than I would if I was reading on print because of her narration.

My Thoughts

I don’t read a lot of cozy mysteries but I love reading the occasional one when I come across them. This book caught my attention because of the brilliant title, and I thought I’d try it. It was quite fun and entertaining, and the narrator was also very good and made listening to the story very easy. However, I found the characters a little two-dimensional and didn’t connect with them as much as I wanted to. I also thought the plot itself was a little flimsy, and in the end, I don’t like the book enough to continue with the rest of the series.

One thing to note, that I both like and dislike, is that the MC constantly calls the detective every time she has any new information. I dislike it because that sort of removes the MC as the unofficial sleuth in this genre, but I like it because the practical, cautious person in me is like, finally! A portrayal of what an actual, smart person should do if this was a real life situation; let the professionals handle this and never, ever keep important clues to yourself or decide to investigate on your own!!

In any case, it was an entertaining read and I enjoyed it.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Crime and Poetry (Magical Bookshop #1) by Amanda Flower

Posted August 23, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Crime and Poetry (Magical Bookshop #1) by Amanda Flower

From Amanda Flower—who writes the national bestselling Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries as Isabella Alan—comes the first in the new Magical Bookshop Mystery series.

Rushing home to sit by her ailing grandmother’s bedside, Violet Waverly is shocked to find Grandma Daisy the picture of perfect health. Violet doesn’t need to read between the lines: her grandma wants Violet back home and working in her magical store, Charming Books. It’s where the perfect book tends to fly off the shelf and pick you…

Violet has every intention to hightail it back to Chicago, but then a dead man is discovered clutching a volume of Emily Dickinson’s poems from Grandma Daisy’s shop. The victim is Benedict Raisin, who recently put Grandma Daisy in his will, making her a prime suspect. Now, with the help of a tuxedo cat named Emerson, Violet will have to find a killer to keep Grandma from getting booked for good…


For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge


The Reason

Now that I’m finished with the 2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge, I thought I’d try to make a dent on the other reading challenges I signed up for. This was a bookish book, and it’s a series, so there’s lots more bookish books to read!

The Narrator(s)

Rachel Dulude. I love her! It was smooth listening all the way! I especially love it when she narrates the cat’s meow; it makes me believe it was a real cat!

My Thoughts

Seriously, this book hits all the right spots for a witchy book lover! There’s a magical bookshop, there are magical books, there’s a resident crow and the most adorable cat! There’s also a birthright legacy passed down from grandmother to granddaughter in regards to taking care of the bookshop, and I love everything about it!

There’s also a murder mystery to solve, of course, and I just love how the story unfolds.

It’s not perfect; there are still characters making bad decisions, some things happen too conveniently, and I have issues with one of the characters – Audrey, the victim’s daughter – being so vilified, due to personal beliefs. However, this is meant to be a light-hearted cozy mystery, and so I’ll take it the way it was meant and not analyze it too deeply. It’s actually really well-written and I really enjoyed this book. I plan to read the next books in the series too!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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