Book Review: Wedding Cake Crumble by Jenn McKinley (Cupcake Bakery Mysteries #10)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Characters, mystery, wedding

Cons: Non-fans might find it uneven

The Bottom Line:

Hear the wedding bells?

Still a dead body or two

Fans will eat this up

Murder Doesn’t Stop for a Wedding

With all the romances that have been building in the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries, I’ve been looking forward to Wedding Cake Crumble.  I mean, it’s about time that someone got married, right?  Fans of the series will be absolutely delighted with this book.

It is one week until Angie and Tate’s wedding, and Mel, as maid of honor, has joined Angie in running errands to various venders to make payments.  A stop at the photographer turns up a nasty surprise – his dead body in his office.  Mel’s Uncle Stan, a homicide detective, quickly makes a connection to another murder, that of Angie and Tate’s limo driver.  Is someone out to sabotage the wedding?  Will any of them be the next target?

Oh, you expected a wedding free of murder and mayhem?  You won’t get that here since this is a mystery series, after all.  I’m leaving my teaser at this, which just covers the first couple of chapters, so I will leave it for you to discover just how the plot twists and turns from here.  Trust me, it is a lot of fun, and it reaches a satisfying conclusion.

Things do slow down mystery wise in the second half of the book as the wedding takes center stage.  Normally, I would complain about the pacing, but here I just can’t since I didn’t mind in the slightest.  This is the tenth book in the series, and we’ve been waiting that long for this moment (although the author makes it very clear it’s only been a couple of years for the characters).  It was wonderful.  Non-fans won’t enjoy it as much, but this fan found it worth it.  And no, I wasn’t crying happy tears when I was reading those scenes.

All of the characters get cameos if not their own sub-plots.  I loved that as well since I love them.  It’s always wonderful to spend time with them.  The suspects were as strong as they needed to be for this book to pull off the mystery.

In addition to her cozy mysteries, author Jenn McKinlay has released some romantic comedies over the last year.  I think some of that filter into this book since there are some of the funniest scenes in the series here.  And some of the sweetest.

Speaking of sweets, what’s a cozy mystery set in a cupcake bakery without recipes.  We get three new ones perfect for any celebration.

There is a lot of love about Wedding Cake Crumble, and fans won’t want to miss it.  Settle in with your favorite cupcake and enjoy Mel and Angie’s latest adventure.

Need to catch up?  Here are the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries in order.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book.

Giveaway!

Thanks to the publisher, I have one copy of this book to give away.  Because it is a physical book, the contest is limited to residence of the US.

Just leave me a comment with your e-mail address so I can get in touch with you if you win.  I will pick the winner Thursday April 12th, so please leave your comment before midnight Pacific Time on 4/12.  You will have until midnight on 4/17 to get back to me, or I will choose a new winner on 4/18.