Baking Spirits Bright by Sarah Fox

 Baking Spirits Bright

Book Summary

In a cute new culinary cozy from USA Today bestselling author Sarah Fox, budding chocolatier Becca Ransom must solve a murder before she meets a sticky end.

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.

My Thoughts

Baking Spirits Bright by Sarah Fox takes readers back to Larch Haven, Vermont where Becca Ransom is entering the Third Annual Baking Spirits Bright competition.  Larch Haven is a unique town.  It is a cross between a cozy Vermont town and Venice with the canals.  I would love to skate on the canals in the winter and then warm up with a delicious cup of hot chocolate.  Becca is getting the hang of being a chocolatier.  The luscious descriptions had my mouth watering (had me heading to the pantry where I keep my chocolate stash).  Competition brings out the bad side in individuals.  Irma, the perpetually grouchy owner of the local bakery, is found dead before the final round in the competition.  

Becca switches her Tam O'Shanter for a deerstalker cap and begins sifting through the clues.  Becca needs to be careful, or she could get burned.  I figured out the mystery before Irma was murdered.  I felt that there needed to be more clues along the way to help lead readers to the guilty party.  I would have loved a twist.  There is some action to spice things up.  The whodunit is neatly wrapped up at the end.  One of my favorite characters is Lolly, Becca’s grandmother.  She is a sweet, warmhearted woman.  There is some romance as well.  It seems that Becca’s old schoolgirl crush might finally reciprocate her feelings.  I could have done with less repetition.  The author captured the chilly climate of Vermont in the winter.  I could feel Jack Frost nipping at my nose.  Baking Spirits Bright is the second book in A True Confections Mysteries.  It can be read as a standalone for those new to the series.  Baking Spirits Bright is a merry mystery with chocolate confections, a butchered baker, a distinctive stranger, taking a tumble, gossip girls, and enlightening notes. 

Baking Spirits Bright is available from *.  The first A True Confections Mystery is Six Sweets Under.  You can follow Sarah Fox on Amazon in order to receive an email when she has a new book release.  Thank you for dropping by today.  Tomorrow I am a stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for Overdue or Die by Allison Brook.  It is the seventh A Haunted Library Mystery.  I am off to complete the Halloween display in my front yard.  The final piece has finally arrived.  I hope that you have a tranquil day.  Take care and Happy Reading!

Kris

The Avid Reader 

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