A Killer Cupcake (Beachfront Bakery #1) by Fiona Grace

A Killer Cupcake (Beachfront Bakery #1) Reviews

• 
  Robin Arnold

  Good grief, this could have been so much better. One and done.
• 
  Sara Lawson

  I love a good mystery. And I love that cozy mysteries don't make me think too hard and aren't super gruesome. But I'm beginning to feel that I wasted my time when books start to feel the same. I loved Fiona Grace's first book. She has a fun, easy style of writing. But I have two major problems with her writing and this book highlighted those more than ever. She doesn't do her research (I guess there's no time for that if you publish a book every month) and she uses the same template for all of her books.
  
  Research problems: There are two actors in this story. I guess if it's set in LA, there have to be actors. Both actors are gay. Seriously? Not all actors are gay, okay? Then you have the stereotypical surfer from Australia living the dream of running a surfboard shop and riding the waves. Fine. But then he smacks himself in the nose with his surfboard, giving her the excuse to run out into the waves and hand him a napkin. Seriously? And of course, there is mention of the "typical California beauty" with "endlessly long, tanned legs and bleached blonde hair." But fine, I can handle the stereotypes. What I can't handle is the same story told over and over again. Which brings me to...
  
  The template: Girl loses job (or quits) standing up to the big bad boss. Her boyfriend/fiance/husband dumps her. She moves to another country/state/city to start over in an industry completely unlike her previous one (in this case it is similar, except that she's having to learn to run her own business). Then there are the family problems. Sister is always a know-it-all who is somehow more successful than the girl. Mom is a downer, trying to get girl to come back home and give up on her dreams. And for some reason or other, Dad is missing, but he was oh-so-wonderful! Oh, and there is always a local successful shop owner/CEO next door posed to become the new love interest. Yes, there have been a few twists, but for the most part, this is where each series begins.
  
  So why, my mom asks, do I keep reading these books? (Same answer as to why I gave this review 3 stars.) I like the writing style. I like the pacing. I like the new settings Fiona uses. And I keep hoping she will come up with a new origins story. Will I read more of her books? Probably. But at this point, only if I can get advance review or library copies. I'm still hoping things will change.
  
  I received an ARC from BookSprout and have reviewed it willingly.
• 
  David

  A Killer Cupcake (Beachfront Bakery #1) by Fiona Grace is the debut novel in a charming and hilarious new cozy murder mystery series by #1 bestselling author Fiona Grace, whose bestselling Murder in the Manor (A Lacey Doyle Cozy Mystery) has nearly 200 five star reviews. The story introduces us to Allison Sweet, 34, a sous chef in Los Angeles, who has had it up to here with demeaning customers, her demanding boss, and her failed love life. After a shocking incident, she realizes the time has come to start life fresh and follow her lifelong dream of moving to a small town and opening a bakery of her own. While taking time off to recover from her recent setbacks, she spots a charming, vacant storefront on the boardwalk near Venice, she wonders if she could really start life anew. Feeling like it's a sign, and a time to take a chance in life, she goes for it, not anticipating the wild ride ahead of her. The boardwalk is filled with fun and outrageous characters and is pulsing with life, from the rival Italian pizzeria owners on either side of her who vie for her affection, to the fortune tellers and a scheming rival bakery owner nearby. Allison just wants to focus on her delicious new pastry recipes and keep her struggling bakery afloat-but when a murder occurs right near her shop, everything changes. This was definitely a pleasant surprise for me as I began reading and was almost immediately drawn in by the likeable character as well as the murder to be solved. Will they find the killer? And can her struggling bakery survive?
• 
  Hákon Gunnarsson

  Allison Sweet’s life as a sous chef in Los Angeles finally falls apart, and she gets fired. To make matters worse (or better, depending on your point of view) her relationship with her boyfriend also crashes. So she decides to make a fresh start and move to a small town to open a bakery of her own. Things don’t go as planed. Customers have a difficulty finding their way into the bakery, and even worse, Allison becomes a murder suspect.
  
  I like the voice, the tone of the book. It is the typical light hearted tone of a cozy mystery. And in many ways I do like the main character, Allison, and the dog of course. The dog is a lovable character. The mystery is perhaps nothing great, but okay. The problem is the characters, or the caricatures. The way they sometimes behave makes it hard for me to really get into this. For example, the argument between Allison, and her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend really makes little sense if one starts to think about it. The story isn’t funny enough look past this lack, but still, it’s an okay, nice forgettable mystery.
• 
  Carmen Lang

  1.5. I am more than willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of a good book. This was not a good book. A good cozy mystery gives you the warm fuzzies and has a smart, likeable main character with fun, quirky friends and family. The main character was ridiculous and didn't have an ounce of common sense. A newcomer to the town, but she ran all over confronting strangers with charges of murder. She opened a business on a whim with no business plan and no money beyond one month's rent for her business and apartment. There are stereotypes of Italians and gay actors. She didn't solve the murder. She conveniently was in the right place at the right time. This book gives cozies a bad name. Don't recommend and will avoid this author.
• 
  Cate Hart

  *I received an ARC of this book in exch asnge for a n honest review*
  
  A pretty standard cozy, this is a fun and light read for typical cozy lovers but I had a few issues with it.
  
  Because its the first in its series there is *a lot* of setting up the scenario - its more than a third of the way in before a body drops.
  
  The main character is very passive aggressively disparaging of people with anxiety/mental illness and its incredibly irksome.
  
  Typical amateur sleuth has dysfunctional relationship with mother and detective hates amateur sleuth vibes. But there is literally no real established reason for the detectives animosity toward the main character (she's not even an established possible suspect at the point the animosity begins) and the main ccharacter starts detecting like her life depends on it.. wjen the stakes absolutely are not that high for her at that point.
  
  Not a lot of time is given to making characters endearing in any way and a lot of heavy racial stereotyping is used.
  
  Unsure if will read further in the series.
• 
  Donna Foster

  A clean read that is sugary sweet.
• 
  Sonia Vice

  I thought I wouldn't mind seeing what's out there in mysteries, so I just sorted the Hoopla list by popular and picked something on the top row. Alas, it was this book.
  
  I'm not sure what stands out to me the most about this book. Maybe that the main character whose surname is Sweet needed a lot of brainstorming to name her bakery. Maybe that everyone in the book misuses the word undercut when they mean outbid. Maybe it's the play pretend diversity where the boyfriend that dumps her in chapter one is the only non-white character until we meet a caricatured Asian nurse. Maybe it really is the butch female police detective who actually says, "you may have those men fooled, but not me," because you see she's jealous of the heroine, or ... something.
  
  Said Sweet heroine is right out of a bad rom-com, only there's no rom, and precious little com here. In reality Ms. Sweet should be the weird red herring character who lies to the police for silly reasons, is a very stupid person and bumbles around getting in the way. Instead she's the "detective".
  
  I went in expecting very little, and this book managed to undercut those expectations.
• 
  Stephanie Williams

  I love an easy mystery read with lovable characters. This was not it.
  So many flaws and stereotypes crushed any hope of this story being a "beach read."
  You have a bakery opening that day and you don't even have a name? You randomly keep closing your brand new store and wonder why no one comes? The crazy balloon guy everyone hates is supporting his sick mom, but no one has any compassion for him.
  Do not pass go. Do not read.
• 
  Lauren

  DNF: abandoned ~14%. Didn’t like the protagonist or the reader. I really considered giving this book more time to change my mind, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it— too many other books out there :) Moving on.
• 
  Alaina

  A Killer Cupcake is the first book in the Beachfront Bakery series. It's been a little while since I've read a cozy mystery book. So, I'll admit that I was kind of excited to jump into this one. Even though I'm pretty sure I didn't finish a bunch of other cozy mystery series. Which, yes, is awkward but I will continue my ghosting ways until I remember which ones I've actually ghosted.
  
  In this, you will meet Allison. She's a pretty likable character throughout the book. Even if she was quick to be judgmental in some areas. Other than that, the overall mystery was okay but a little predictable. Easy to read and digest as well. I'm just not sure why I didn't like it the entire time.
  
  Sure, things were easy to put together. The little twists were entertaining to a point. I... I just wasn't completely invested in it. Maybe it's because of how easy things were to see coming or solve. Or maybe I was just in a weird cozy mystery funk while reading this.
  
  In the end, I'm not sure if I will jump into the next book or not right now.
• 
  Donna

  I was attracted to this one due to its foodie title and having read a few of this type of cosy mystery novels I thought I'd give it a go.
  
  It was a fun book to read, not overly exciting and I found the murder and mystery part seemed to only come into it about 2/3's of the way through. I did like the quirky characters, the two pizza brothers and Scruff the dog.
  
  It was a bit of fun, easy to read and quite light-hearted.
  
  A Killer Cupcake
  
  Fiona Grace
• 
  Kate McMurry

  This is an extremely strange book with a doormat heroine who is used and abused by one narcissistic jerk of a subcharacter after another. Good grief.
  
  DNF.
  
  I got the audiobook version free through Google Play and am returning it.
• 
  Kwab

  I read this book at work in one day it’s a very quick read. It was not what I expected in an almost bad way. The main character was just too annoying and made such rash decisions that did not make sense. The end was a letdown from what I thought would happen, and I feel like my ending would have been better. I kind of want to continue this series but I know it’ll annoy me and possibly get even stupider than this book was. Lmk if you want spoilers.
• 
  Nurse Lisa In Ohio (PRN Book Reviews)

  Cute, quick, enjoyable read :-)
• 
  Susan

  Fun cozy mystery.. first in a short series... Very enjoyable.
• 
  Tari

  This was a fun beginning to a new series and what a great location for a bakery! I liked Ali, but I really liked her brother Teddy. He really cracked me up sometimes but he got her to do something she probably wouldn't have done on her own after losing her job. From a new cranky competitor neighbor business to a cute surf shop dude, the boardwalk has all types of business. Some might have been even a tad...shady? Ali knew that someone was hiding something, so like any good new sleuth, she started investigating. She may not have had a human sidekick, but little pup Scruff sounded like a great buddy for her.
  
  I didn't see the plot moving the way it did due to all the red herrings, but it was a good showdown and ending. I never really would have guessed whodunit. I think the author did a great job of making readers (at least it worked for me) dislike the mean people in the story. I really loved the very end. Poor Ali had so many awful things happen to her throughout the book, that it was awesome to see her get a good break for once. I'm really anxious to see what she and Scruff get into in the next book!
• 
  Abby

  I was intrigued by the cozy mystery in a coastal small town combined with a plot about a woman opening a bakery, but I was disappointed with the execution of this idea. Both plots sound like something I’d enjoy, but neither plot in this story engaged me. Both felt shallow and events seemed to come out of nowhere. I think this is because the author had complex ideas for each plot but not enough space, so the plots felt like they were competing throughout the book, rather than developing.
  
  My biggest issue were the characters. All of the characters, even the main character, felt like caricatures. They were very one note and felt like stereotypes instead of real people. There were also too many character relationships for the length of the book. I think the book would’ve benefited from cutting a few of the side characters.
  
  While I was disappointed in this book, it was mostly a 2-star read for me. However, the ending felt completely ridiculous, and the main character’s inner dialogue became tedious, leading me to give it 1 star.
• 
  Sherri

  I listened to the audiobook.
  
  This was not what I expected. Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers are my ideal writers, I like cozy over gory. But this, this was cozy and not much else. The heroine was, in the parlance of the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website, too stupid to live. Yet she did.
  
  There was so much that made me stop and say aloud "really?" The heroine blunders her way through a murder investigation when she becomes the primary suspect. The other characters are stereotypes or just flat. For example there's a mobster named Fat Tony.
  
  I finally realized this read as a book written for junior or middle school readers. When I understood this it made the story bearable. I was glad to finish and doubt I'll read this author again.
• 
  Eunice

  This was an absolutely delightful murder mystery. It was simple and light-hearted, which made it quite enjoyable. Ali is a lovable character and I particularly connected with her relationship with her mother as she worked hard to chase her dreams, in spite of the disapproval of her family.
  
  I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
• 
  Jennifer Brown

  I really enjoyed this start of the series! It was a little unbelievable how the main character just jumps into a new life, but I thought it worked. There were funny parts and it was a pretty clean mystery. This series and it's characters has so much potential! I can't wait to read them all!
• 
  ☆☆Hannah☆☆

  This was an okay read. Everything that could go wrong did for Allison. Which is how she ended up opening up her shop on the boardwalk. Then a murder happens and she becomes a suspect. Of course she figures out who really did it and all is well for now.
• 
  Kelly

  I was in a cozy mystery sort of mood, but I got REALLY stuck on how quickly Allison managed to get her business set up and running with basically no money. Sure, I was here more for the death and accidental run-ins with the mob (or whatever they are) than Allison's sweet shop, but still. The lady rented and cleaned up a storefront, got it set up as a bakery, and started selling goodies on a shoestring budget. And then she solved a murder.
• 
  Amy Neale

  As cozy mysteries go this was a fun read.