Source: Publisher
Description: Living in Paris, Kentucky, and having a sidekick cat named Pepe le Pew gives Marci Beaucoup’s life a certain je ne sais quoi . Combining her love of baking and France, Marci opened La Belle Patisserie to bring her small Southern hometown a bit of French flair and lots of croissants. Everything is sunshine and macarons at the bakery until her landlord calls to tell her she’s selling the property. Marci’s relieved to hear that if the top bidder, an enchanting Frenchman named Antoine Dubois, gets the property, he’ll renew her bakery’s lease. Charmed by Antoine, Marci figures this development isn’t half bad and sees a handsome new landlord in her future—but then Antoine’s estranged ex-girlfriend Kelly turns up dead in front of her bakery. Sacrebleu!
Everyone calls Marci’s pastries “to die for,” but nobody’s actually died at La Belle Patisserie before. Antoine quickly becomes the main suspect to everyone in Paris—including to womanizing detective Maverick Malone. Who else would have killed Kelly but the ex-boyfriend she was just seen fighting with on the day of her death?
Marci finds out from her landlord that if Antoine is arrested, his purchase of her building will fall through—and her landlord will sell to developers instead, who plan to demolish the building and construct a strip mall in its place. Enamored with Antoine and with her patisserie dreams hanging in the balance, Marci is determined to prove Maverick and the rest of Paris wrong and find the true killer before Antoine winds up in jail—and she has to say au revoir to her bakery.
Now Marci finds herself mixed up in the murder investigation, and she must find the killer before her half-baked theories result in her untimely death.
Genre: Mystery - Cozy
Why I Picked This Book: I love a foodie cozy and I can never resist a new series.
My Impression: I do love a foodie cozy and I love the idea of a French bakery in Paris, Kentucky. There's an interesting collection of characters and the main character Marci has a cat and a dog which is a selling point. The mystery was interesting and the motive ended up being solid.
Why I Picked This Book: I love a foodie cozy and I can never resist a new series.
My Impression: I do love a foodie cozy and I love the idea of a French bakery in Paris, Kentucky. There's an interesting collection of characters and the main character Marci has a cat and a dog which is a selling point. The mystery was interesting and the motive ended up being solid.
That said this one fell a bit flat for me. I was never able to fully connect with either the story or Marci as a character. We spent way too much time in Marci's head and a lot of her decisions and conclusions didn't make a great deal of sense. Her investigation seemed to involve sneaking repeatedly into the victim's workplace with every movement described in detail. All of the thoughts and detail got a bit repetitive and definitely impacted my enjoyment of the read. As well, I felt this kept me from feeling connected to any of the characters including Marci herself.
I really liked the premise and the framework of the story but the execution just didn't quite work for me. I will probably try the second book but this wasn't a winner for me.
Would I Read More of this Series/Author? I've read another book by this author (under another name) and enjoyed it so I will give this series another try.
Would I Recommend this Book? Umm - probably not. If the second book is much stronger I would change my mind but at this point I'd be hesitant to recommend it.
* I received this book in exchange for an honest review. As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *
I've never eaten a macaron, I wonder if I'd like them. Pity this had some flaws that really killed it!
ReplyDeleteI felt exactly the same way you did. I, too, will give the second book a chance. We'll see how it goes.
ReplyDeleteToo much description over every little detail slows down the plot, especially for a mystery. Hopefully the second book will be better.
ReplyDelete