They also decide to host a contest that brings one very determined senior citizen to their bakery. Melanie and Angie are teaching a couples cupcake class with some pretty interesting clients. Melanie's mom has a big date that she is very excited about. Thing get moving pretty quickly in this story and there is really a whole lot going on in this one. This was a rather short audiobook that I was able to finish up in just a couple of days and really enjoyed myself in the process.

This audiobook never had a boring moment since there were so many things going on in the story. Fans of the series will enjoy seeing some of their favorite characters from the first book back for this installment. I had a lot of fun with this cozy mystery! This is the second book in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series but it could be easily read as a stand-alone novel. This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books. thankfully we have variety and creative authors like McKinlay to keep us entertained. I will continue to read them all and catch up to the ~15th or so waiting in my queue! Ah, the life of a reader. A lot like a Janet Evanovich novel, just not as spicy. That said, it's funny and has great scenes, so overall, it's a solid read. the details were a bit missing to really believe it 100%. I actually guessed the identity well in advance, but at the same time. Overall, the mystery was clever but the killer revealed him/herself rather quickly. She blames the dress, which had coincidentally given a man in a department store a heart attack when she purchased it! What a hoot! But he dies in the hot tub, and Mel's mom looks guilty because she had an investment that went belly up with the man. Mel's mom is in trouble this time, when she goes on a first date decades after her husband passed away. They call each other's family 'Mom' sometimes, so it was a little tricky but by the end of the book, I had it sorted out. Angie and Tate secretly love each other but have been dating different people. Though the POV is 3rd person, it generally focuses more on Mel, who is dating 1 of Angie's 7 brothers. It was easy to settle back into the story, as McKinlay's writing style is strong and witty.Īt first, I struggled to keep the two main female protagonists separated: Mel and Angie have co-owned the bakery with their third pal, Tate, for years. Today, I reread reviews of the first book to reorient myself again, then I took on Buttercream Bump Off, the second in the series. Given the author has 6 or 7 series, I dove into several others first, and now that I've caught up on those, I am turning back to this one. It's been a few years since I read the debut in the Cupcake Bakery series written by Jenn McKinlay.

Buttercream Bump Off by Jenn McKinlay