Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496722751
Kensington Publishing
312 Pages
$6.59; $6.26 Amazon
November 26, 2019
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Courtney Archer is known for hosting the show Cooking with the Farmer's Daughter...despite the fact that she's actually a pediatrician's daughter. Now she's signed on for a role on The American Baking Battle. On this reality show, she can start developing a more authentic image for herself -- and as a bonus, the usual backstabbing and manufactured drama isn't part of the Baking Battle script. But genuine drama is heating up behind the scenes...
During a film shoot in the scenic Pocono Mountains, Courtney has to juggle career commitments like pots on a six-burner stove. Adding to the stress is Mick, a contestant who finds out about her farm-girl story. Determined to succeed at her new gig, she whips up a cherry cobbler in a cast-iron fry pan one evening and leave it out to cool. But the next morning, it's Mick's body that's cooling -- right next to Courtney's pan, now classified as a murder weapon...
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When Courtney Archer, successful show host of Cooking with the Farmer's Daughter, signs on to cohost a new show being filmed in the Poconos, she thinks it will be nice to be out of a studio and all the drama that goes with it. She's also tired of pretending she grew up on a farm, but her producer Eric tells her that she hasn't a choice since it's in her contract. However, their conversation was overheard by one of the contestants, Mick Henderson, and he hints that her secret is safe with him.
But she also needs to film episodes of her own show while she's there, so she spends one evening making a cherry cobbler for her show the next day. The next morning she goes to pick up her cobbler and finds Mick on the floor dead with her cobbler surrounding him. Now she's considered a person of interest in the murder, and Courtney, against the wishes of Eric and security chief Drake Nolan, decides to investigate on her own to clear her name. But even when she angers some of the contestants, she doesn't stop hunting. Unfortunately, she's also drawing the attentions of a killer, who decides it might be time to put her out to pasture permanently...
This is the first book in a new series and I have to say it's very good. While I felt it started slow, so slow I almost didn't pursue the book, I'm glad I stayed with it as it picked up soon enough and then became interesting. The plot was done well, and the dialogue fit the book so there were no lags after the first chapter or so.
The only thing that bothered me was the possibility of a love triangle, and I absolutely abhor them, so I'm hoping the author doesn't continue in this vein in future books (don't worry, this isn't really a spoiler as it becomes apparent early on in the book). I always say that if it were a man stringing along two women you'd think him a hound, or worse; so why is is okay for a woman to string along two men? It's not. Period.
Anyway...when Courtney decides she needs to prove her innocence, she uses the Internet to do so. In that, she digs up information about a couple of the characters in the book, and she has her eye set on one in particular she thinks is the murderer. However, she doesn't overtly go into peoples' rooms to search, or stalk them, and I did like this point of the book. It gets tiresome with the stalking angle.
She does make a new friend in Shannon Collins, host of her own television show, and I did like Shannon quite a bit, and I'd like to see more of her. I don't feel that we got to involve ourselves in Eric much, though; he seemed to only pop in and out now and then, much as the show contestants.
All in all, when the ending comes and the murderer is discovered, it was a bit of a surprise, but that's not a bad thing. The reason for the murder came down to a motive as old as man itself, so it was believable. I did like the ending quite a bit, and I look forward to reading the next in the series. Recommended.
More on Rosemarie Ross's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/rosemarie-ross/
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