The Perfect Weekend Read with Sweet Treats, Charming Characters, and MURDER!

by Donna Huber

The Fairy Tale Cupcakes crew helps two professional football players in knead when the athletes are suspected of murder and their dream of opening a bakery is crushed.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free audiobook was provided for an honest review.

June 2024; Dreamscape Media; 9781666662184
audio (6h 45m), ebook, print; cozy mystery

Fondant Fumble by Jenn McKinlay is book 16 in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. I came late to this series so I've only read 6 books in the series and not all in order. So don't worry if you haven't started this series yet, you can start with this one.

I read a few culinery cozies but I love the cupcake recipes that are featured. I usually try one or two of the recipes in a culinary cozy (I have The Cookie Jar cookbook from Joanne Fluke's series). The cupcake recipes are the best. I've made the pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting (several times) from Pumpkin Spice Peril and the sugar plum cupcakes from Sugar Plum Poisoned. The audiobook (at least the ARC I receive) don't always have the recipes and I was worried I wouldn't get them with this advance copy. But the recipes were included!! The watermelon cupcakes sound perfect for summer and I love chocolate ganache so those cupcakes will need to be made. 

Enough about cupcakes - here's what I thought about the book.

First, if you listen to the audiobooks of Jenn McKinlay's Library Lover's series you will recognize the voice of narrator Allyson Ryan. As I just listened to Fatal First Edition last month, I had to keep reminding myself what series I was reading. But it is an easy mystery to listen to as an audiobook. The characters hang out a lot together at the bakery just talking and the audiobook makes you feel like to are right there in the room with them.

And I love the characters of this story. For me, the mystery is kind of secondary as I love the chatting the characters do and all the talk about cupcakes. Seriously, I read this series mainly for the cupcakes. I think the next book I read in this series, I will skip to the end where the recipes are and make one of them before I start reading so I can munch on them while I read (that would be bad for my waistline, but make the reading experience that much sweeter).

I'm not much of a football fan so I'm glad there wasn't too much football talk. I liked the two players and since they bought a Fairy Tale Cupcake franchise perhaps we will see them again.

The mystery is interesting and it wasn't easy to put all the pieces together to figure out who the killer was.

It's a quick read so it would be perfect for a weekend by the pool, lake, or sea or in a hammock in your yard. 

Buy Fondant Fumble at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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