Lemon: Under Squeeze

by Blake Rivers

Some recipes are worth killing for.

Pastry chef Marcus Chen comes to Sunnyside expecting molecular gastronomy demonstrations and lemon preserve competitions. Instead, he

Heritage recipes failing without explanationFarm equipment mysteriously malfunctioningCorporate "solutions" that come at a devastating priceWhen traditional methods start failing and families face losing their agricultural legacy, Marcus must uncover the truth before Sunnyside's four-generation lemon groves disappear forever.

📚 MORE CULINARY CHRONICLES 📚
🍎 ROTTEN TO THE CORE (Book 1)
🍞 RISING TO THE OCCASION (Book 2)
🍪 CRUMBLING UNDER PRESSURE (Book 3)
⭐ START THE SERIES ANYWHERE! ⭐ Each Culinary Chronicles mystery is a complete standalone adventure. Jump in with any book and fall in love with Marcus Chen's world of food, friends, and fascinating mysteries.

"Finally, a cozy mystery series that teaches you real cooking techniques while keeping you guessing!" - Food & Mystery Blog

Perfect for readers who love their mysteries served with a generous helping of heart, humor, and heritage recipes that have been perfecting themselves for generations.

152 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2025

About the author

Hi, I'm Blake and as you may have guessed by now, I'm a writer. Yup, that’s right, I write books and I wrote my first novel, The Assassin Princess, in 2011 when I was twenty-eight. Two sequels followed, A Step into Darkscape and The Assassin's Codaci. This magical fantasy series started as a story written about my girlfriend, at the time, an artist who dreamed of being a fierce warrior in another world, who kicked butt and swung a sword to battle the enemy. It grew and became The Assassin Princess, a tale of an artist who is kidnapped and taken to a strange land full of magic, talking unicorns and dragons. It goes dark, exploring jealously, greed and hunger; it goes light and reaches for the best in even the most flawed of characters. But in essence, it still remains about her at its heart.

I started writing when I was seven years old. Back then it was mostly poems about whatever interested me at the time, be it the seasons or the planets, or my love for libraries and books. I also turned my hand to a few short stories, all hand written and lost over time.

I don’t remember why I started writing, but I do remember what inspired me to do it. It was Yuri, writing his poems to Lara in the frozen house in the film Dr Zhivago, and the beautiful music played, Lara’s Theme; it was the sound of the typewriter at the very start of the film Misery, where Paul Sheldon finishes his latest book.

These still inspire me to this day, along with whole host of other influences: the novels by Brandon Sanderson, Sarah J. Maas, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Patricia Cornwell to name a few. Any movie that shows a typewriter.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lemon: Under Squeeze has the perfect book title. Marcus Chen, chef/catering van owner, drives up from Magnolia Bay specially for the Sunnyside Lemon Heritage Festival. He plans to cater the VIP reception and demonstrate molecular gastronomy techniques. He's the "pastry chef with the chemistry set." What he finds is a community with preserves that won't set properly. Some investigating leads to the discovery that families are getting pressure from corporations to form partnerships. The majority of this story focuses on the community becoming empowered and fighting to solve problems. This is a quick read and I had fun reading it.