A Chocolate is Announced (Lone Star Book Blog Tour)

 

A CHOCOLATE IS ANNOUNCED

Bean to Bar Mystery, #7

By Amber Royer

Cozy Mystery / Culinary Mystery / Women Sleuths

Publisher: Golden Tip Press

Pages: 277

Publication Date: June 25, 2024

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SYNOPSIS

Felicity Koerber is finally getting her life together.  She has a fiancé, her bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand has become a gathering spot for the community, and she is ready to embrace whatever the future holds.  She’s ready for another launch party – despite the disaster at her grand opening, when she’d first gotten involved with solving a murder.  And this time she’s embracing her status as a sleuth.  She’s hosting a murder mystery weekend to celebrate the new Mystery Flavor line of craft chocolate bars.  She’s held a contest to choose the attendees, who will all stay at her aunt’s flip hotel and enjoy the island.  It’s all supposed to be perfectly random – only, Felicity starts to uncover connections between her guests.  When one of them winds up murdered, Felicity has to keep her aunt from becoming the main suspect.

The killer is very clearly calling Felicity out, leaving clues that mean little to anyone other than her.  But that doesn’t narrow down the suspect pool.  Her guests are there because they love the true crime podcast she’s been featured on.  And she can’t decide whether the killer wants her to catch them – or just wants to taunt her.

Meanwhile, Felicity is also playing host to her future in-laws and discovers that her fiancé’s sister, who is also a cop, is very competitive.  Can Felicity hold her own and make a good impression, while keeping her business together and her aunt out of jail?  And can Felicity solve it in time to protect the people she cares about from becoming additional victims?   

Satchmo the retired police dog turned therapy dog returns to help her sniff out a few clues, and one of the guests brings along a ferret named Cheeseburger, who keeps showing up in the most unexpected places.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amber Royer writes the Chocoverse comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the Bean to Bar Mysteries. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach. 

Amber and her husband live in the DFW Area, where you can often find them hiking or taking landscape/architecture/wildlife photographs. 

If you are very nice to Amber, she might make you cupcakes.  Chocolate cupcakes, of course! Amber blogs about creative writing techniques and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com.

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REVIEW

A Chocolate is Announced is the seventh book in the Bean to Bar Mystery series. I've really loved the books I've read in this series and have grown very attached to Felicity and her supporting cast. Past books have had quite a bit of romantic suspense, but I like seeing Felicity settling in a bit more than she has before. Another extra fun element is the newly added family drama. Each of the new key characters is very interesting and adds a bonus layer of difficulty for Felicity to navigate. I tend to love stories where the sleuth's family is involved in suspicion and intrigue since it always ups the stakes. That was definitely a welcome twist for me with this entry in the series.

Felicity is still such an interesting character, and her acceptance of her role in mysteries is providing a different direction for her personality. I really like how she's growing and being shaped by the events occurring around her, especially as they become more present in her personal life. I've loved the way this series has progressed so far, and I love recommending it to my mystery-loving friends. 

Another aspect I really enjoyed was the addition of an animal cast. Pets and random animals are one of my favorite aspects of cozy mysteries, so a new dog and a ferret being added into the mix are especially fun for me. I'm a sucker for helpful and mysterious critters - which might stem from an appreciation for Scooby-Doo and his own mystery gang. Adding in dogs to mysteries is always a win. 

I give A Chocolate is Announced a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯. I was entertained, intrigued, and it felt extra cozy to come back to characters I've read so much about. I love the new characters, Felicity's expanding family, and the change in her character dynamic. Amber Royer has crafted a series that has become a must-keep-up-with adventure that I greatly look forward to reading more of. 

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