Thirty-something Hope Early is in crisis after a messy divorce & an embarrassing reality show appearance derailed her career. She returns to her picturesque New England hometown of Jefferson seeking refuge from her dysfunctional life and romance in the big city. In pursuit of a new life as a professional blogger & Internet influencer, Hope renovates a quaint, old farmhouse into a charming blogging laboratory and residence in which she lives with her all-too-adorable pets—Bigelow, Princess, & Poppy—while pursuing a romance with her former high school crush & current police chief Ethan. With her best friend Drew and her ragamuffin entourage of sister, studly boyfriend, and assorted townfolk, Hope decides she must solve the murder of the neighborhood’s crazy old harridan because the local police suspect Hope of being the murderer and—quite frankly—they’re too lazy and incompetent to figure it out for themselves.

So, once again we have a dimwitted amateur sleuth dating the local lawman…does the Mystery Writers’ Union actually make that mandatory now? That is just soooo trite!

Ethan really is a creep, but Hope is too stupid to figure it out. He uses her for free childcare, free meals, and free booty calls while his beloved ex-wife is off at rehab. All the while, Ethan can’t even be bothered to remember Hope’s name; I swear, if he had referred to her as ‘babe’ one more time, I would have thrown this stupid book through the window.

Hope really is an unbelievable piece of work.
When the town’s weird curmudgeon, Birdie, decides to start a petition to force Hope out of her newly renovated home, Hope loses her mind and her temper. But, why? No neighborhood petition is ever going to be able to force a resident out of a lawfully owned home; that’s just ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that Birdie has made enemies out of just about everyone in the community and has virtually no friends or allies. Hope knows that no one—No. One.—is signing Birdie’s bogus petition. So why does Hope flip out and make a colossal production out of absolutely nothing? Any rational person would just laugh at the ravings of the town’s eccentric loon and move on with life. That whole episode made Hope come across as slightly unhinged and more than a little dumb...

Which probably explains why she doesn’t hesitate to fling unfounded accusations all over town. Hope is incensed at being wrongfully accused of murder by the local constabulary, yet she herself goes around randomly accusing her friends and neighbors of committing the crime—then she wonders why they hold it against her? Ummm, that’s nothing short of stupid. And, at this point, I don’t even know how Hope would expect to live in Jefferson after all of her atrocious behavior.

But let’s not give Hope any credit for having the least bit of intelligence. Even when the actual murderer brazenly kidnaps her and holds her hostage, it STILL takes Hope a little while to figure out the identity of the killer. Unbelievable.

This series gets such glowing reviews, I really expected it to be semi-decent. But all I got was a cookie-cutter formula with a brainless sleuth who is so helpless she probably has trouble figuring out how to tie her own shoes. ( )

When I dive into a Food Blogger Mystery by Debra Sennefelder, I know I’m in for a lot of action. The Corpse in the Gazebo has Hope so busy with her baking blog, sponsors, teaching a class, taking care of the chickens, and more that it makes me wonder what Sennefelder’s day to day life is like. It’s been said to write what you know, and if this is true, then Sennefelder is a very, very busy woman!

Besides getting a glimpse into a blogger’s life (and how much work there is!) with fantastic recipes that are also shared at the end, this time Hope is investigating because she’s the one that all the clues are pointing to. But Sennefelder’s wonderfully developed characters are there to assist Hope in her crime solving. All of the series core characters are wonderful, but I’m a bit partial towards Jane because of her wisdom and patience and Drew because of his sass. And, of course, we can’t forget Ethan, the boyfriend/chief of police. I really appreciate that Sennefelder doesn’t have him constantly telling Hope not to investigate. And in The Corpse in the Gazebo he even pulls back from his job to help.

As for the mystery, Sennefelder always supplies the reader with lots of suspects and red herrings. I did suspect the murderer earlier on because of a thing that was mentioned that just really stood out, but that didn’t take away anything from the story, especially since there are so many other crimes going on…. that may or may not be relevant to the murder.

Another fantastic addition to the Food Blogger Mysteries, and since my husband and I have started @shidycakes on Instagram, I’m going to try out the Orange Creamsicle Cupcake recipe at the end of the book and maybe a couple of others too! ( )

amateur-sleuth, blogger, cozy-mystery, culinary, family-dynamics, foodie, friction, friendship, law-enforcement, lawyers, murder, murder-investigation, pets, read, small-business, small-town*****
It was no real feat to guess who the murder victim would be as the woman was a nasty piece of work.
Hope left NYC and is renovating her farmhouse in a small town in Connecticut. She is a food blogger, teaching a class on blogging at the local women's shelter, and an amateur sleuth (despite the protests of her boyfriend, the local police chief). Her lawyer is an ex-cop and a good friend. And then there's her sister. The publisher's blurb is a good hook, no spoilers here. Great characters and lots of twists and red herrings as well as plenty of family and friendship. An excellent cozy!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )