Mint Chocolate Murder by Meri Allen (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

 

Title: Mint Chocolate Murder

Author: Meri Allen

Publication: 26 July 2022

Format: Kindle eARC via NetGalley & St Martin's Press

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I did not read the description for this before I requested it on NetGalley, or before I started to read it, beyond finding out that it was the second in a series, following The Rocky Road to Ruin (which I teased on Friday). I'm opting to not include the usual Amazon Description because I discovered that I kind of liked not knowing ahead of time who the victim was going to be. I wasn't surprised but, really, it could have gone in a number of ways and I kept thinking to myself "ooooh maybe it's going to be her/him/whomever."  If you really want that bit spoiled, go ahead and read the description by clicking on the cover or the teaser collage and going to Amazon ... but I'm not going to be the one to spill the beans.

This story still takes place in Riley's hometown of Penniman, Connecticut, but we see very little of the ice cream shop and farmstead and spend most of our time at Moy Mull -- the castle-turned-artist colony. It's a reproduction Scottish castle with all sorts of history and outbuildings and a dungeon-turned-conference room and I have loved reading about all of it (especially the potential hauntings). It does kind of make me sad because I'm at 60% right now and we have yet to see two of the side characters from Rocky Road who had been staying there, but there's enough going on that I'm only kind of sad -- not completely devastated. Besides, there's still 40% left for them to suddenly appear and there's still a little matter of who killed ....... someone.

 

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"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

The Rocky Road to Ruin by Meri Allen (Book Beginnings & Friday56)

Title: The Rocky Road to Ruin

Author: Meri Allen

Publication: 27 August 2021

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description

Riley Rhodes, travel food blogger and librarian at the CIA, makes a bittersweet return to her childhood home of Penniman, Connecticut – land of dairy farms and covered bridges - for a funeral. Despite the circumstances, Riley’s trip home is sprinkled with reunions with old friends, visits to her father’s cozy bookshop on the town green, and joyful hours behind the counter at the beloved Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop. It feels like a time to help her friend Caroline rebuild after her mother’s death, and for Riley to do a bit of her own reflecting after a botched undercover mission in Italy. After all, it’s always good to be home.

But Caroline and her brother Mike have to decide what to do with the assets they’ve inherited – the ice cream shop as well as the farm they grew up on – and they’ve never seen eye to eye. Trouble begins to swirl as Riley is spooked by reports of a stranger camping behind the farm and by the odd behavior of the shop’s mascot, Caroline’s snooty Persian, Sprinkles. When Mike turns up dead in the barn the morning after the funeral, the peace and quiet of Penniman seems upended for good. Can Riley find the killer before another body gets scooped?

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

The second book in this series is due out next month and has been sitting on my NetGalley shelf for a while now so I figured now would be a good time to finally read the first. I am so ridiculously behind on my NetGalley reads and I hate that ... but I'm working on it and will eventually catch up. Or not. Whatever.

When I first read the description for this and saw that the main character, Riley, was a librarian for the CIA, my brain immediately went to Culinary Institute of America. Nope. Not that CIA. The other CIA. It gives an added oomph of suspiciousness and paranoia and angst to the character that made this cozy a bit less predictable than I was originally expecting. 

It's full of delightful (and not so delightful) characters and descriptions and sooooo much food ... and ice cream! It has kept me guessing from the get-go which is a rare treat from a cozy. Almost as rare as sunflower ice cream (which I really really would like to get my hands on).

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader