Fatally Frosted - Jessica Beck

Fatally Frosted by Jessica Beck

As I stated in my previous blog post, I continued to read this novel in hopes it would tie up some loose ends from the first one, Glazed Murder.  It didn't, and I was extremely disappointed.

In this book, our slightly plump heroine, Suzanne Hart, discovers a pushy local has been murdered by one of her own donuts.  In order to clear her name, she has to solve the mystery and capture the real murderer.  Once again, the similarities from the Joanne Fluke novels continue.  The relationship between Suzanne and her ex-husband, Max, is becoming more and more tense as she tries to tell him she is moving on and he should do the same.  While her new budding relationship with the police office becomes strained as she is the number #1 suspect in this most recent murder. 

The recipes embedded through out are good, however they don't have the underlying theme that the ones in the Hannah Swensen books have.  (I may be comparing these two series just a little too much, but I can't help it, they are just so similar.)  I finished this book in just one day.  It was good light reading and a nice break from the other novels that are currently on my list.

This book gets a 3.5 out of 5 for me.  It just didn't have enough meat in it to give it any more then that.

Glazed Murder - Jessica Beck

Glazed Murder by Jessica Beck

I started this book for a little light reading before I went back to the Maximum Ride series.  I have read all the Joanne Fluke novels about Hannah Swensen and the Murder She Baked series and this looked similar to those books.  I didn't know how similar they were until I started reading.

Our amateur sleuth in Glazed Murder  whose name is Suzanne Hart, owns a donut shop, Donut Hearts, in a small town in North Carolina.  A body gets dumped on her front doorstep which she witnesses and puts her and her family in danger.  She decides that the local police are not going to do everything they can to catch the murderer, so she takes it upon herself to solve the mystery in order to get herself out of danger.  She is slightly overweight, has an overbearing mother, a retired police officer helps her investigate and has a real estate broker best friend who is always there for her when she needs her. She also starts dating a State Trooper.

In this book there were so many different directions that the suspect list took Suzanne that I was struggling to keep up with plot.  I was wondering at the end if she was going to tie up loose ends in the next novel, Fatally Frosted, but i was disappointed. 

I couldn't help but notice the similarities with the Joanne Fluke novels.  I'm sure anyone who has read her books and then read the above paragraph will also notice similarities.  Joanne Fluke writes about Hannah Swenson who owns a cookie shop in a small town in Minnesota I believe.  In one of Joanne's books, Hannah is presented with some competition in the form of a southern bell from North Carolina who opens up a sweet shop down the street.  She is promptly murdered, therefore eliminating the competition.  In one of Jessica Beck's books there is an already established cookie and cake shop down the street that is threatening to make donuts as competition for Suzanne's business.  Suzanne refers to the cookies and "too bland" for her taste and quickly dismisses them as competition.

I find the references fascinating.  And to take it one step further, I will say that there are some similarities in Joanne Flukes novels to those written by Lilian Jackson Braun, or The Cat Who books.  I challenge anyone to read just one of these books by all three of the authors I've listed and not see the similarities in each.

I like Glazed Murder, but I'm not thrilled by it.  I think I like the Joanne Fluke novels better.  However I will continue to read the books by Ms. Beck just to see how the similarities progress.

I give it 4 out of 5 overall and that's mostly for the recipes.

First Book Read of the New Year - Sizzle

Sizzle - By Julie Garwood.  I really enjoyed this book.  A thriller, suspense mystery that wasn't too intellectual to be entertaining.  The setting in sunny California was typical and the main characters were young hard bodies who, predictably hooked up.  The sex scenes were okay, not great writing, and the ending was also predictable.

It took me about 24 hours total to get through this book, which is not a lot of time, so it was an  easy read with an easy flow, even after taking pain meds for a tonsillectomy surgery.

The only thing that left me hanging in the end was the relationship between the main character, Lyra's, parents and her grandmother was never fully resolved.  There was still a lingering conflict that I wanted to have buttoned up but it never was.  I have to wonder if Julie Garwood is planning to write a sequel or not.

All in all I would give it a 3 out of 5!