Book Review: Scone Cold Killer by Lena Gregory (All-Day Breakfast Café Mysteries #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: The characters are wonderful to spend time with

Cons: The plot could be stronger

The Bottom Line:

Trying to start new

When past leaves a dead body

Solid characters

Gia Finds Trying to Outrun Her Past is Murder

I love breakfast foods, so I have been eyeing The All-Day Breakfast Café series for several years now.  I’ve even had the first one for over a year.  I finally sat down to read Scone Cold Killer, and I enjoyed it.

Gia Morelli is moving from New York City to a small town in central Florida.  She’s running from the fall out of her ex-husband’s financial scandal, but she’s picked this town because her best friend, Savannah, lives there.  And she’s turning her love of breakfast into the new All-Day Breakfast Café.  She’s ready for a little quiet after all the drama the scandal has brought to her life over the last year.

Unfortunately, she’s not going to get that quiet just yet.  As Gia is taking the trash out to the dumpster after her first day opened, she finds a dead body in it.  It’s her ex-husband.  Why had he followed her to Florida?  And who killed him?

A premise like that caught my interest right away.  And we don’t spend too much time before Gia finds the body.  I quickly got caught up in the story, and I had a hard time putting the book down.  While there are plenty of events to keep us engaged, I felt like it was a bit more of an incident driven book instead of a deduction driven story.  The ending is a little weak as well, although it does answer all of our questions.

But I loved the characters.  Gia really only knows Savannah when the book starts, so we are meeting characters at the same time she does.  The bonds that are already forming with the cast is wonderful.  I loved spending time with them, and I look forward to seeing them again.  In fact, I feel like it was the characters who really drew me into the story.

I did find Gia a bit annoying a few times.  She’s a city girl in the country for the first time, and I felt like some of her reactions were over the top stereotypical.  I’m sure they were supposed to be funny, but that’s not quite what it felt like to me.  But this was a very minor irritant.  Overall, I really did like Gia.

Oh, and her puppy?  I’m ready to get one myself.  If only I weren’t allergic to dogs.

This is a quick read.  I easily breezed through it in a couple of days, although I did make some extra time to read it one evening.  I wanted to spend more time with the characters.

Sadly, there are no recipes at the end of the book.  I would definitely love to know what are in some of the dishes talked about.  The food will have your mouth watering as you read.

All told, Scone Cold Killer is a solid debut.  I would definitely enjoy spending more time with the characters in the future.