Hey Guys! I’m here with Death by Chocolate Cake by Stacey Alabaster today!

I’d say I give this book a 6/10 on my grading scale.

Rachael decides to become a contestant on a reality baking tv show and her best friend Pippa comes back from vacation with a husband…She has known him 3 weeks and is married. He is apparently a bumbling buffoon who can’t even hold a glass of water without it shattering. Rachael goes for her audition, she feels she bombed, and to make matters worse Pierre (one of the judges to actually taste her cake) dies. The police are called and later the jerk detective (Jackson) goes to Rachael’s bakery and asks her for help in solving the case. She is too stuck on her pride to tell him yes, but she decides to investigate anyways at the insistence of the show’s producer: Justin, who the press think committed the murder.

In this we have 2 main suspects: Adam and a single mom of 5 who lives in a crappy house outside of town.

What I found off about this one:
-Rachael lets Pippa walk all over her yet again. I swear if my best friend came back married without telling me, and only knowing the guy for 3 weeks I would have kicked her out. 3 people in a one bedroom apartment is ridiculous!
-Jackson’s character is always so off. He keeps pushing Rachael as if he likes her, but yet is dating his partner.
-Jumping to Marcello as the murderer b/c she finds a picture of him with Pierre….that explains nothing. He has no motive. He just knew possibly briefly the man who was murdered. But because in the past the criminals had made nonsense to the storyline I actually believed he did it for a bit, if only to get Marcello gone forever b/c he was really annoying me.
-Rachael did less investigating in this one than before. She really let this one fall in her lap. I’ll explain at the end to avoid giving you spoilers.

What I enjoyed:
-Rachael and Pippa together are fun! Even though Marcello kinda sucks he was an interesting character. Both Justin and Adam were both so petty I loved it.
-The flow of the books is always a great feature. It’s never too fast, never too slow. It feels good for a cozy mystery.
-Definitely worth the money, or KU read.

Now what frustrated me is that the culprit was literally revealed at the last possible second only b/c Rachael found out her cake was underneath the couch in the room that the single mom locked her in when the auditions started. She then realized it was Dawn, the show’s cohost. Which we should have seen coming, especially Justin. He’s the producer, he knows who is going through and who isn’t. He knows if a cohost is on the outs. He really should have been able to come up with that lead!!!!

Alas, rant aside I did enjoy the book and I will continue with this series. It’s fun for a quick read while I’m at work 🙂

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