Author: Amanda Flower
Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496734617
Kensington Publishing
304 Pages
$8.99; $6.99 Amazon
August 23, 2022
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Thanksgiving is Bailey King's busiest holiday weekend. This year promises to be even more hectic, since Bailey's candy shop, Swissmen Sweets, is providing desserts for Harvest, Ohio's first village-wide Thanksgiving celebration. Yet, even with a guest list close to seven hundred people -- Amish and English alike -- the event's organizer, Margot Rawlings, is unfazed...until she discovers her mother, former judge Zara Bevan, will be in attendance.
Zara's reputation as a harsh critic is matched only by her infamy as a judge who has actively harmed the Amish community. So no one is prepared when Zara arrives with much younger boyfriend Blaze Smith and reveals their impending nuptials at dinner. That should have been the day's biggest news, except shortly after the announcement, Blaze suffers an allergic reaction to something he's eaten and dies on the spot.
Now, Bailey's desserts are prime suspects, along with Margot and nearly everyone who attended the meal. With such a cornucopia of possibilities, Bailey must dig in and get to the bottom of this murder, before the killer goes up for seconds...
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Bailey King, along with her Amish grandmother, owns a candy shop, Swissmen Sweets, in Harvest, Ohio. Bailey is a chocolatier who left New York City to help care for her ailing grandfather before he died. She also has a television show that showcases her talents, and her life is full. But right now she's trying to help get ready for the weekend after Thanksgiving, when her shop will be full of tourists looking to purchase sweets for their families and friends. But when Margot Rawlings, the town's best organizer of events, asks her to help with the Thanksgiving feast, she can't refuse. Especially when she learns the reason -- Margot's mother is coming. Margot, along with most of the town, is terrified of Zara Bevan, a harsh judge who retired and moved to Florida. Zara is hated in Harvest, so neither Margot nor anyone else knows why she's coming.
But when she arrives, the reason becomes plainly clear -- she's attended by a man younger than her daughter, Blaze Smith. But when she announces to everyone that she's marrying Blaze, mouths hang open and people sit stunned...all except Blaze, who has an allergic reaction to something and drops dead at the table. When it's discovered that Blaze was murdered, Margot asks for Bailey's help in proving her innocence. Stranger still, Zara also asks Bailey to prove her daughter innocent, even though the two detest and don't want anything to do with each other. All Bailey can do it accept it.
But when Bailey's boyfriend Aiden Brody shows up, it's soon apparent he's not just there to see Bailey. As an employee of the BCI, he's there to investigate the death along with local law enforcement. While he wants Bailey to allow the police to handle it, he knows deep down she won't, and Bailey has every plan to take down a killer...
This is the seventh book in the series and I have read them all. While I love this series, I must say that I love this book more than the last. There was plenty of action between both the Amish and the Englisch, with both pointing fingers at the other side. And Bailey has more on her plate this time than usual, with wanting to help her grandmother before the woman wears herself out completely, and decide just exactly where her and Aiden's relationship is going. But it all takes a back seat to solving the murder, and when it all comes together, it's because of a strange event and a clue that might never have ordinarily been found.
I love the characters in this one, including the addition of Leon, who though young, makes you want to put an arm around him and bring him into your home to live. I felt that he's lost in more ways than one, and I hope that in future books we find him coming into a better life. I also thought it was a hoot about our little pot-bellied pig friend Jethro being a celebrity on his own, and even as a subplot it was fun to read.
When the ending comes and the murderer is revealed, I had a feeling all along, but I wanted to see how it played out. Bailey is up to her usual sleuthing best, and she puts it together nicely and while it left shocks all around, I felt that it was handled realistically and well. The author is very good at setting scenes and putting the clues out there, and bringing everything together just as it should be.
All in all, I did enjoy the ending and like how it gives us something to look forward to in the next book. Highly recommended.
I received an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Amanda Flower's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/amanda-flower/
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