A. Gardner (2)Besprekingen

Book 1 in a cozy mystery series starring Poppy Peters. Very light reading, but the characters were likeable even if the story line was unconvincing. Goodreads: From USA Today bestselling author A. Gardner comes a deliciously dangerous new series...After an injury derails Poppy Peters' ballet career, she gathers the courage to follow in her grandmother's footsteps and attend Calle Pastry Academy in a small-town in Georgia. Poppy has her work cut out for her not only fitting in with her charming (and not-so-charming ) Southern classmates but also proving her worth to her teachers after her first publicly humiliating attempt at making the school's famous peach pie. But Poppy's pastry problems go from bad to worse when she's suddenly accused of stealing expensive black truffles, and her attempt to clear her name goes awry...resulting in her finding a dead body instead! If Poppy's going to survive this culinary experience, she'll need to find the missing truffles and track down a killer, all while honing her baking skills to compete in the school's dessert competition for a coveted pastry internship in Paris. Can Poppy prove she's one tough cookie? Or is her life about to crumble?

Poppy Peters has decided to enter culinary school, but not everyone wants her there. Still, she's met a nice guy named Cole who seems to be on her side, and even after a cooking fiasco, she's still willing to take the chance. But then things are stolen and someone is killed, and she just might be suspected of murder. Poppy has to clear her name while keeping away from the real murderer...

Oh, my. There are so many things wrong with this book, the first beginning with the way it's written. I absolutely detest first person as-they-are-doing-it, as I refer to it. Such as: "I am going to the store now. I am parking my car and entering the store. I grab a cart and am putting tomatoes in it." I just hate it. I don't really care what the person is doing right now. I don't care if they're going to the bathroom or washing their hands. We know they do it; everyone does. But if you write in first person, it's so much nicer to read: "I went to the store and picked up a few things." So there's my rant on that.

Plus, has this person ever been to cooking school? Or even watched a cooking competition on television? You call anyone your superior 'chef.' You bring your own tools. You wear a uniform and a hat. These are simple things that could have been discovered by watching the Food Network. Do a little research and the book is better.

It got to the point that I could not finish the book, and I really didn't care who the murderer was. I did skim to the end and found that they were all making desserts they'd grown up on. Shouldn't competitions be making something new? Just sayin'...

Anyway, I wasn't impressed by this book and probably won't read another because of the narration. Sorry.

I enjoyed reading this cozy mystery. It took longer than I expected only because I fell ill while reading it and wasn’t able to read as much. I did want to get back to it so I knew I was hooked. I like the characters though it was a kind of slow warm up to them and the town for me. I think, for me, that was because there was tension among the sisters, Ember and Stevie. I needed to see who, if either, I was going to trust. In the end I liked both and was happy to see the relationship repairing. I do plan on continuing with this series. The mystery was written welll. I didn’t guess the killer until the big reveal. This is the first book in the series and the way the threads were woven, my recommendation is to read the series in the order in which it was written. There is a fairly easy wheat bread recipe included. If your a baker, it will be a tasty recipe for you.

Southern Peach Pie and a dead guy by A. Gardner
This story starts out with Poppy, almost 30 and she's enrolling in a culinary school down South. The arrangement is you live at the location and work in the bakery shop.
She takes many classes and before she knows it she's being accused of setting the oven too high causing evacuation and fire dept shows up to put the fire out. She then is accused of killing a teacher.
She gathers the clue along with Cole. She lies with Bree who loves to bake. They follow the leads to the clues they have and end up at a farm where they learn the beginning of the school and traditions.
She heads back to Oregon for a break where someone follows her.....
Love just when you think the story is over you have 10 more chapters to go and you wonder why. Great read, keeps you on your toes. Excited to see who wins the end showoff of a favorite recipe to make.
Recipes are included at the end along with listing of author's other works.
Free from the author and this is my honest opinion.

Essie Stratter lives in the small town of Bison Creek, up in the Rockies. Bison Creek has been chosen for the Sugar Mountain Bake-Off and everyone is excited.

Out for a walk, Essie finds the body of a former client, in the snow and very dead. Asked by the Sheriff to assist in the investigation, Essie finds there are a lot of secrets surrounding this murder victim; secrets that could affect many residents in Bison Creek, if they became public. It isn’t just who killed the victim, but what she knew.

To complicate the investigation, there is a new detective in town who makes investigating difficult and feels a civilian should not be involved. It doesn’t matter that Essie is a home town girl and knows people and how to get information. He feels things should be done ‘by the book,’ but Essie may change his viewpoint.

A cozy, light read with good twists and turns to keep it interesting and fun to read.

This is the first entry in A. Gardner's new series "Bison Creek," and it's off to a great start. It has everything a great cozy should - a likeable and intrepid main character, several interesting secondary characters, a unique and mysterious plot and most important of all, a wonderful setting. The town of Bison Creek was made so real to me, that I felt I wanted to live there myself, especially above the wonderful bookshop where Essie Stratter lives. The author does such a wonderful job of describing Pinecliffe Mountain Resort and the wintry landscape, that I wanted to escape there immediately and curl up with a cup of hot chocolate and a doughnut. Luckily, there's already another entry in the series, so I plan to take up residence there for the duration of this series.

**I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review**

The second entry in A. Gardner's Bison Creek Mysteries, is even better than the first. This series continues to excel and is very unique in its setting and atmosphere. In this second outing, we get to reconnect with some characters from the first book, as well as become introduced to other residents of Bison Creek. I enjoyed the bit of light-hearted romance, as well as the cozy mystery theme. I would highly recommended this series to anyone who is a fan of either.

There are a lot of cozy mysteries out there now, with everything from needlepoint, to tea shops, to bakeries and everything in between, however, the Bison Creek Mysteries by A. Gardner are ones you should definitely squeeze in there with all the rest and make time to read. This series gets better and better with each book and I hope the author continues with this setting and these characters for quite some time yet.

This was a fun cozy that reminded me of the mysteries I enjoyed when I was younger. The ending was a tad drawn-out, though.

I have usually found that the second book in a series is not as good. In this case, I read the books out of order, and found the third in the series pretty awful. This book, the second in the series, was really quite good, or would have been, had the author just written out the subplot of Essie and Patrick. Really, get over it! I don't care if Patrick was your idol in high school (middle school, even), by now you should be able to move on, dear.

3 stars, but would have been 3.5 without the unbearable teenage romance. Middle School crushes are not attractive in twenty-somethings.

I thought this was the second in the series. Oops. It is the third.
It really was not much better than the first. Gardner is beginning to flesh out her other characters, but in a mostly heavy-handed way. I will read the second next, but I seriously doubt I will read any more.½

Not bad. Cozy mystery. Good plot as far as it went, but read more like a first draft. The sleuth in question changed clothes frequently without ever leaving her work, lived in sneakers yet managed to walk through snow and ice in stilettos....that sort of thing one would expect a decent editor to help with--except I doubt she had one. Recipes at the end (to be expected, I suppose).