Baking Spirits Bright - Cozy Mystery Review

Goodreads: Baking Spirits Bright (A True Confections Mystery #2) by Sarah Fox

Rating:  Really Liked It (4 Stars)
Source:   Publishers

Description:  Winter has arrived in Larch Haven, Vermont, bringing with it holiday cheer, lots of snow, and freezing temperatures. Becca Ransom is squeezing in time to skate on the frozen canals and drink hot chocolate by a roaring fire while also whipping up new creations for her family’s chocolate shop and experimenting with holiday flavors like eggnog, gingerbread, and peppermint. At the same time, Becca is preparing for the Baking Spirits Bright holiday baking competition, a popular annual event. She’s planning to enter an edible model of Larch Haven, with a mountain backdrop made of cake, gingerbread cottages, and chocolate gondolas on sugar-glass canals.

Professional bakers and a local food blogger are also participating in the event and they aren’t about to go down without a fight. The competition quickly heats to a boiling point, with flaring tempers and mysterious happenings. When one of the entrants is found dead, stabbed with Becca’s chocolate chipper, Becca tries to salvage the season by finding the killer. But the heat is on, and Becca is in danger of getting burned.

Genre: Mystery - Cozy

Why I Picked This Book:  I enjoyed the first book in this series so of course I had to pick up the next book!

My Impression:   I wish Larch Haven was real.  Is there a real Larch Haven, Vermont?  I need to go research that.  Okay - that aside this was a fun mystery.  Becca is an interesting main character, back in her hometown and with a second career as a chocolatier.  I do question how she became a chocolatier so quickly but that's really neither here nor there.

We meet quite a bit of the community of Larch Haven that we didn't meet in the first book as the baking competition starts.  Of course, I was rooting for Becca to win but there were plenty of likable contestants and a few that weren't so likable.  There is a decent amount of setup but there was enough progress in the story that I never felt like the story was dragging.  

The wrap up did seem to come a bit out of nowhere but I enjoyed the mix of Christmas-y spirit with investigation enough that that didn't bother me too much.  I really love the community and the setup for this series and will definitely be reading the next book - even though it does make me want chocolate!

Would I Read More of this Series/Author? Of course!  I really enjoy this author's writing style and am looking forward to reading more of this series or anything else this author has written.  

Would I Recommend this Book?  If you enjoy cozy mysteries this is a fun series and one you can easily jump into.  

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *