Review: Wedding Cake Crumble

Wedding Cake Crumble (Cupcake Bakery Mystery - Book 10) by Jenn McKinlay

Publication Date: 04/03/2018
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Imprint: Berkley Prime Crime
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 288
ISBN-13: 978-0399583834

(Received for an honest review from Berkley Prime Crime)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, itunes

Jenn McKinlay on the WEB: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

Books in the series:

  1. Sprinkle with Murder
  2. Buttercream Bump Off
  3. Death by the Dozen
  4. Red Velvet Revenge
  5. Going, Going Ganache
  6. Sugar and Iced
  7. Dark Chocolate Demise
  8. Vanilla Beaned
  9. Caramel Crush
10. Wedding Cake Crumble

Coverart: Click the image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.

Excerpt from Wedding Cake Crumble, courtesy of Barnes and Noble

Synopsis:

For the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew, wedding bells turn to death knells in this latest mystery in the New York Times bestselling series.

With Angie and Tate's wedding just around the corner, it's a happy time for Melanie Cooper and the bakery crew. Not only are they finessing the last minute details of the big day, but their bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, has just been hired to bake cupcakes for the blockbuster book signing of a controversial author who wrote a steamy bestseller filled with juicy local gossip.

But one by one, the people Angie has hired to work at the wedding begin turning up dead. As the body count rises, the bestselling author is the next to bite the dust. Mel quickly realizes she needs to figure out how the murders are connected and why--before the killer brings the entire cupcake crew crumbling down. After all, Angie and Tate deserve their sweet happily ever after.

Thoughts:

Jenn McKinlay knows cupcakes... and murder! Readers will get a taste for it too in the tenth book in the Cupcake Bakery series, Wedding Cake Crumble. Long time readers of the series will be excited about the upcoming nuptials of Angie and Tate. But all is not well at Fairy Tale Cupcakes, when the wedding purveyors start ending up dead. McKinlay really puts it all on the line with tons of murders in this one. It's one big cozy mess and readers will love it!

What I liked: 

This is one of those books that has so much going for it. I love a good cozy mystery with lots of red herrings and twists and turns that make you scratch your head, but this one is in a league by itself. You don't just one murder tied up with a bow in this. How about five or six, and one wicked killer. McKinlay is just full of surprises. You'd think ten books into the series, things would be slowing down a little bit, not so with this author. It's full steam ahead! I liked the fact that she really catches the reader off guard. I mean six murders, really? That's impressive. 

I always wonder if Jenn McKinlay is a cupcake maker herself. I mean the way she describes cupcakes in her books is just mouth watering. One of my favorite parts is always that little section at the back of the book with recipes in it. But just the general reading of the book, let's the reader know that this author has done some research and what better thing to learn about than cupcakes. Description, description, description. This book is a sensory feast for readers who like the overall theme of the series. Cupcakes. 

Angie and Tate are long time favorites of mine. I've always enjoyed their relationship and how they interact with the heroine of the series, Mel. When the photographer, the chauffeur and the baker are among the dead, the reader has to wonder, who in the world the happy couple ticked off. My first thoughts were, that someone was out to stop the wedding. Then a local inflammatory author is in the mix of dead. How does the author tie into the wedding? Oh what a tangled web we weave and readers will love trying to figure it all out before the end. 

What I didn't like:

I wouldn't say I didn't like this, but it is something to consider. How do you fit all that murder into one book? There would have to be a murder every other chapter. Some readers might not like that and think that it takes away from the overall arc of the story. How can the characters interact and move the series forward with all this going on?  But in my opinion it was pretty daring and I think it worked. It could be a little much for some readers though, so keep it in mind. 

Bottom Line:

There's a lot, lot, lot going on in this book. Readers get some real bang for their buck when it comes to murder in this book. The cupcake descriptions are out of this world as usual and McKinlay's general humor and sense of the macabre is on point. If you're looking for a book that packs a punch this is it. Cozy mysteries can often seem a little predictable. I think you can throw that assumption out the window with this one. And Angie and Tate are so cute together. Ahh wedded bliss with a murderous twist. So good!

Wedding Cake Crumble is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Jenn McKinlay is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several mystery series, including the Good Buy Girls series and the Decoupage Mystery series, which she wrote under the pseudonyms Josie Belle and Lucy Lawrence. A former librarian, she studied English literature and library science at Southern Connecticut State University before moving to Arizona, where she lives in a house that is overrun with kids, pets, and her husband's guitars. For more information, visit her at www.jennmckinlay.com.