Brenda H. (booksinvt) - , reviewed on 1/31/2016 + 457 more book reviews

Wedding Cake Murder is the 19th installment in the Hannah Swensen mystery series. The series centers around Hannah Swensen, who along with her partner Lisa Herman Beeseman, owns and operates The Cookie Jar, a coffee shop and bakery.

Hannah has been chosen to participate in a reality show on the Food Channel, The Desert Chef Competition. Hannah's sister Michelle is going to New York with her as her chef's assistant, and her fiancé Ross Barton is also tagging along to film the competition for the local news station KCOW. Upon arrival in New York, Hannah learns that the winner of the first round of the Competition wins the right to bring the show to their hometown for the remainder of the contest.

Hannah and Michelle win the first round and the show arrives in Lake Eden. The entourage is staying at the Lake Eden Inn, also the site of Hannah's wedding reception. Hannah has turned over all of the wedding planning to her mother and sister, Andrea.

When Michelle stumbles upon the dead body of Head Judge Chef Alain Duquesne in the walk in freezer, the girls quickly ignore the advice of the police and jump headlong into the murder investigation. The Chef was a womanizer and it seems there are plenty of suspects to choose from on the judging panel and among the other contestants.

I will admit that I had somehow skipped over the previous book in this series, Double Fudge Brownie Murder so was completely shocked on the first page to find out Hannah was engaged. As much as I couldn't stand the love triangle that has literally gone on for years between Hannah, Norman and Mike, I didn't get any warm fuzzy feelings about Ross. Perhaps when I go back and read the book prior I will get a better understanding of how this development transpired. The two seem to spend very little time together, they do not live together or even spend the night together which in today's society is a bit hard to believe. In fact, at one point I was actually hoping that Ross was the bad guy.

There were so many recipes in this book (almost 50% of the content) that this murder mystery read more like a cookbook. While some of the recipes looked good, I for one am not a baker or desert chef and found myself skipping over most of them to get back to the actual storyline. I can understand plugging the recipe into the chapter that it pertains too, but, I would almost prefer they all be grouped together at the end.

Definitely, a quick easy read with all of the regular cast of characters. It will be interesting to see how Hannah's marriage to Ross unfolds in future editions to the series.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley via Kensington Publishing. While I was not required to write a review I am more than happy to offer my honest opinion.

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