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Sky Valley #1
Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder
Welcome to Sky Valley, Georgia—a scenic town set in the heart of Rabun County, full of lush trees, greeneries, mountains, and nice people. It is paradise on earth; a place that you’d aspire to come home to. But, "Gasp!", some of the people really aren’t every nice and this seemingly serene place has secrets hidden within.
After spending seven years in Paris, Emmy is back in Sky Valley to set up her own wedding gown store and help her father, famous coffee shop owner and restaurateur Troy Byrne, with one of their coffee and pastry shops, Time for Coffee. Emmy realizes that not everything is what it seems anymore, and that a lot has changed since she left.
Take for instance her good, old friend Annabeth Meyer, who’s now getting married to her ex, Matthew Mills. It was a whirlwind romance, they said, and Emmy has to design the wedding gown for Annabeth, and she has to help with the festivities, too. But there are other things that Emmy has to know…
There’s also Audrina, her dad’s assistant, who seems to be a nice girl but is known to have a temper, and Tripp Meyer, Annabeth’s dad whom Emmy has always hated. How will they affect Emmy’s life now?
A then there’s Daniel, one time boyfriend, and the person whom Emmy considers as the love of her life. But does he still feel the same? Or does he already have someone else? More so, what would happen now that Emmy is back? Will they be able to rekindle the fire in their relationship, or has it fizzled out for good? And is there even a future for them?
Emmy had no plans of staying in Sky Valley forever, but with the change of events, she knew she had to stay. Two days after marrying Matthew, Annabeth died in front of Emmy, and it’s up to her to make sure that the real culprit gets caught. But how would she do that when the police think that she’s one of the suspects? And how would she be able to find out who the real suspect is when it seems like the people around her have their own motives to kill Annabeth?
The Sky Valley Mysteries Book 1: Coffee, Cupcakes, and Murder is a novel that will get you hooked. From finding out who killed Annabeth, to knowing her secrets and the secrets of the people around her, join Emmy in this spine-tingling adventure of all sorts and realize that people, good or bad, have their own stories.
Read Coffee, Cupcakes, and Murder now! It’s a novel that you certainly shouldn’t miss.
After spending seven years in Paris, Emmy is back in Sky Valley to set up her own wedding gown store and help her father, famous coffee shop owner and restaurateur Troy Byrne, with one of their coffee and pastry shops, Time for Coffee. Emmy realizes that not everything is what it seems anymore, and that a lot has changed since she left.
Take for instance her good, old friend Annabeth Meyer, who’s now getting married to her ex, Matthew Mills. It was a whirlwind romance, they said, and Emmy has to design the wedding gown for Annabeth, and she has to help with the festivities, too. But there are other things that Emmy has to know…
There’s also Audrina, her dad’s assistant, who seems to be a nice girl but is known to have a temper, and Tripp Meyer, Annabeth’s dad whom Emmy has always hated. How will they affect Emmy’s life now?
A then there’s Daniel, one time boyfriend, and the person whom Emmy considers as the love of her life. But does he still feel the same? Or does he already have someone else? More so, what would happen now that Emmy is back? Will they be able to rekindle the fire in their relationship, or has it fizzled out for good? And is there even a future for them?
Emmy had no plans of staying in Sky Valley forever, but with the change of events, she knew she had to stay. Two days after marrying Matthew, Annabeth died in front of Emmy, and it’s up to her to make sure that the real culprit gets caught. But how would she do that when the police think that she’s one of the suspects? And how would she be able to find out who the real suspect is when it seems like the people around her have their own motives to kill Annabeth?
The Sky Valley Mysteries Book 1: Coffee, Cupcakes, and Murder is a novel that will get you hooked. From finding out who killed Annabeth, to knowing her secrets and the secrets of the people around her, join Emmy in this spine-tingling adventure of all sorts and realize that people, good or bad, have their own stories.
Read Coffee, Cupcakes, and Murder now! It’s a novel that you certainly shouldn’t miss.
- GenresCozy MysteryMystery
86 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 10, 2015
28 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
William Jarvis
80 books6 followersLibrarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 29, 2024
Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder is book one in William Jarvis's Sky Valley series. After spending seven years in Paris, Emmy Byrne decided to return to Sky Valley, Georgia, to be closer to her father, Troy Byrne, the owner of the local Coffee shop. On arrival, Emmy became involved in the wedding of her friend Annabeth Meyer to her ex-boyfriend. However, she was not expecting Annabeth to die two days after her wedding. Emmy wanted answers, so they decided to investigate. The readers of Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder will continue to follow Emmy Byrne's investigation to discover what happened.
Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder is an excellent cozy mystery and the first book I have read by William Jarvis. I enjoyed reading it, especially on a wet Sunday afternoon. I love William Jarvis's portrayal of his characters and their interactions throughout this book. Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder was well-written and researched. I also liked William Jarvis's description of the settings, which complemented the book's plot.
Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder readers will learn about running an online Cupcake business and living in Sky Valley, Georgia.
I recommend this book.
Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder is an excellent cozy mystery and the first book I have read by William Jarvis. I enjoyed reading it, especially on a wet Sunday afternoon. I love William Jarvis's portrayal of his characters and their interactions throughout this book. Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder was well-written and researched. I also liked William Jarvis's description of the settings, which complemented the book's plot.
Coffee, Cupcakes & Murder readers will learn about running an online Cupcake business and living in Sky Valley, Georgia.
I recommend this book.
July 15, 2025
The premise was good, but the writing, mistakes, and all just made it kinda painful. I hate giving bad reviews, but this was a poorly written book.
April 7, 2015
Not great writing, but a cute story with many twists as the young as Emilia returns to her home town to set up her own bridal gown shop and a bakery to boot. Her first customers are her high-school first love.......and his fiancee.
Light reading with twists and fun despite the murders.
Light reading with twists and fun despite the murders.
May 5, 2017
This book seems to have been written by a 10 year old. The tenses keep changing. The plot could be better because events don't flow smoothly at all. I was glad to see others have also written similar reviews. This is the first time I've had to give such a poor rating or review. I am glad I followed reading this with reading one of Laura Childs' Tea Shop mysteries, which I enjoyed. A good cup of tea can take away a bad taste!
June 27, 2017
I looked at the author's profile to see if they were 10 years old. If so, I would congratulate them on a job well done and move on to the 2nd and 3rd book in the series. However I have to assume Jarvis is an adult so... just bad. I recommend moving on to another of many good authors if you are looking for an enjoyable cozy.
January 5, 2017
The story base was good it could have gone in so many better directions but didn't there were errors is wording it was like a 12 year old wrote it (sorry) just disappointing
June 7, 2017
Terrible!
March 18, 2022
Don't waste your money.
January 18, 2017
The amount of mistakes in this book is ridiculous.
“Audrina then came back out with a tray of macaroons, two irish coffees, one each for Emmy and Matthew, and one French vanilla coffee for Emmy.” – Sooo, French coffee gets capitalization but Irish does not? And exactly how many coffees does Emmy need? Considering this coffee transaction sets the stage for murder, I would think that it would be important to get it right.
“The following morning, Daniel and Emmy decided to make cupcakes just to lighten the situation. Emmy said that they should make walnut-zucchini cupcakes. Daniel while Emmy sliced the zucchinis.” At this point in the story, I’m not entirely certain what “situation” needs lightening. The author writes like he’s in grammar school. Teacher : Students, please use the word zucchini in a sentence. “Emmy said that they should make walnut-zucchini cupcakes.” The Mad Libs-sentence structure heightens my suspicions. Daniel, what? Daniel danced while Emmy sliced the zucchinis? Daniel shot heroin?
I finally gave up on this book after this exchange :
After brewing coffee, she poured some in the cups on the table, and Emmy noticed some wounds on her left arm because the sleeve of her shirt rolled up a bit.
“Audrina,” Emmy said, “what are those?
“What?” Audrina said, then noticed that Emmy was looking at the wounds on her arms, “Oh, these? Don’t.. don’t mind them,” she rolled down her sleeve, “I just… I-“
“Were you hurting yourself?”
Audrina sighed. “I’m not proud of it,” she said, “I just have no idea how to release stress sometimes… I’m…sorry…”
“Oh dear,” Emmy said and hugged her, “you have us now okay?”
“I know,” she said, “thanks… it’s just… it’s not easy to let go of all these feelings… I don’t know anymore.”
“I understand,” Emmy said and took out the cupcakes from the oven, “go and eat, you’d feel better.”
Forget about the horrible sentence structure and misuse of contractions for a minute… Did the author just introduce us to the tough topic of self-mutilation and the response is, “go eat something, you’ll feel better”?
Shame on you William Jarvis, charging people to read this crap.
“Audrina then came back out with a tray of macaroons, two irish coffees, one each for Emmy and Matthew, and one French vanilla coffee for Emmy.” – Sooo, French coffee gets capitalization but Irish does not? And exactly how many coffees does Emmy need? Considering this coffee transaction sets the stage for murder, I would think that it would be important to get it right.
“The following morning, Daniel and Emmy decided to make cupcakes just to lighten the situation. Emmy said that they should make walnut-zucchini cupcakes. Daniel while Emmy sliced the zucchinis.” At this point in the story, I’m not entirely certain what “situation” needs lightening. The author writes like he’s in grammar school. Teacher : Students, please use the word zucchini in a sentence. “Emmy said that they should make walnut-zucchini cupcakes.” The Mad Libs-sentence structure heightens my suspicions. Daniel, what? Daniel danced while Emmy sliced the zucchinis? Daniel shot heroin?
I finally gave up on this book after this exchange :
After brewing coffee, she poured some in the cups on the table, and Emmy noticed some wounds on her left arm because the sleeve of her shirt rolled up a bit.
“Audrina,” Emmy said, “what are those?
“What?” Audrina said, then noticed that Emmy was looking at the wounds on her arms, “Oh, these? Don’t.. don’t mind them,” she rolled down her sleeve, “I just… I-“
“Were you hurting yourself?”
Audrina sighed. “I’m not proud of it,” she said, “I just have no idea how to release stress sometimes… I’m…sorry…”
“Oh dear,” Emmy said and hugged her, “you have us now okay?”
“I know,” she said, “thanks… it’s just… it’s not easy to let go of all these feelings… I don’t know anymore.”
“I understand,” Emmy said and took out the cupcakes from the oven, “go and eat, you’d feel better.”
Forget about the horrible sentence structure and misuse of contractions for a minute… Did the author just introduce us to the tough topic of self-mutilation and the response is, “go eat something, you’ll feel better”?
Shame on you William Jarvis, charging people to read this crap.
July 14, 2015
This was not good. The main problem is that either the writer is not a native English speaker or has only a rudimentary education in the use of the English language. I have TAUGHT English, both to American students at the Jr and Sr high level as well as ESL classes for adults, and the writing in this book lacks even the most basic of writing skills. The grammatical errors were horrid - from the constant fluctuation of present, past and future tenses (in the same sentence!!!) to misuse of common words (these for this), it made reading the story a real challenge. At one point, I was more concentrated of finding a single sentence without an error than what was happening in the story!
That being said, there are still a few redeeming qualities to this story. The premise behind the plot is good. The writing is horrible, and the character and place descriptions are flat and one dimensional, but there is an idea that is worth investigating further. IF a TOTAL re-write were done, by a COMPETENT editor AND IF the story and plot were fleshed out a bit more to make it less one dimensional, I think this COULD be a good book. As it stands, however, it NEVER should have been published!
It really does feel as if the writer is not a native English speaker, and that English is at best, a second (perhaps 3rd or 4th)language. Using the grammatical and syntactical errors as a guideline, I would guess that the author may be French or perhaps Hispanic and tried to handle the translation on her own. I do applaud the effort, if that is the case, but really wish she had availed herself of a competent editor...
That being said, there are still a few redeeming qualities to this story. The premise behind the plot is good. The writing is horrible, and the character and place descriptions are flat and one dimensional, but there is an idea that is worth investigating further. IF a TOTAL re-write were done, by a COMPETENT editor AND IF the story and plot were fleshed out a bit more to make it less one dimensional, I think this COULD be a good book. As it stands, however, it NEVER should have been published!
It really does feel as if the writer is not a native English speaker, and that English is at best, a second (perhaps 3rd or 4th)language. Using the grammatical and syntactical errors as a guideline, I would guess that the author may be French or perhaps Hispanic and tried to handle the translation on her own. I do applaud the effort, if that is the case, but really wish she had availed herself of a competent editor...
August 14, 2015
I liked the story and the mystery was ok, but I just couldn't get past the fact that, other than the statement that Annabeth died, absolutely NO ONE spoke of her as if she was dead!!! Not once during the entire story did ANYONE speak of the deceased in past tense. I kept expecting for at lease someone to finally realize that they were speaking like Annabeth was going to walk into the room at any moment and finally reverse what they had said to, "She was such and such, or she use to do such and such". Anything to acknowledge that the person had actually died.
There were also a lot of typos and wrong words used. Mr. Jarvis really needs a good proof reader or a good editor.
There were also a lot of typos and wrong words used. Mr. Jarvis really needs a good proof reader or a good editor.
March 1, 2015
Quirky Mystery Cozy
Easy afternoon reading, finding myself curious about Emilia's next adventure and her continuing aspects of returning to hometown roots. This first book has started the development of the characters cast, and I look forward to seeing where he goes with the relationships.
Easy afternoon reading, finding myself curious about Emilia's next adventure and her continuing aspects of returning to hometown roots. This first book has started the development of the characters cast, and I look forward to seeing where he goes with the relationships.
June 16, 2015
Coffee, Cupcakes, and Murder is an enjoyable and entertaining cozy mystery by William Jarvis. Emmy Byrne is a likeable character and I look forward to finding out what lies in store for her in the second book of Jarvis' Sky Valley Cozy Mystery series.
Gorgeous cover, btw! It made me crave chocolate cupcakes (served with or without a nice, hot cup of coffee) . . .
Gorgeous cover, btw! It made me crave chocolate cupcakes (served with or without a nice, hot cup of coffee) . . .
April 11, 2015
It held my interest but very poorly written. It was almost as if it was translated from a foreign language !
July 3, 2015
Not even bad enough to be good. Just bad.
July 16, 2015
One of the worst books I have ever seen. The grammar and uses of tense could have been done better by a fifth grader. Do not waste your money on this one!
August 11, 2015
I chose this rating because of the approachable skills and i felt the story could have come from a second grader . I will not be recommend this book nor buy the sequels.
December 28, 2015
The best thing about this book was the title.
January 16, 2017
Good first book
Good plot line however there we times when the character names were mixed up. I also found some sentences missing words making it a little hard to read through.
Good plot line however there we times when the character names were mixed up. I also found some sentences missing words making it a little hard to read through.
March 24, 2015
The book had a good storyline, but apparently it was not proofed. It was very hard to understand.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews