This is book three of the Charmed and Dangerous series and sees earth witch Kat being asked to help her cousin Emily, a kitchen witch, with her entry in a baking competition. Not just any baking competition, but the biggest baking competition within the witching world and it was going to be held in Haven! Emily is only one of four contestants, but is a skilled baker, having her own shop in town and loads of happy customers. When they arrive at the competition site, out in the middle of some farmer’s field, with a huge ward around it to dissuade humans from getting close, they find the rules have been changed at the last minute and the bakers are now on their own, with no helpers allowed. That brings great relief to Kat as she is not very good in the kitchen and now she and Albus, her cat familiar, can sit and watch the competition and cheer for Emily.
The competition starts well, with Emily getting her favourite item to bake, but it wouldn’t be a competition without a twist! The bakers are made to switch counters and end up having to work on their competitor’s best dish. Emily is at a disadvantage as her cookbook, her kitchen recipe grimoire, which includes all her notes on magic infused recipes and the spells she would use, went missing on the very day she needed it the most. When the bakers are finished the judging starts with Emily’s pumpkin pie that has to have a magical twist to it. Unfortunately, the message she spelled into to it has a slight error in it, which could be taken badly, but when the judge tastes her pie and dies right in front of everyone, well then she is a world of trouble! After the initial shock and Emily’s protests of innocence, A warlock appears, seemingly part of the PEA, the paranormal investigative agency, and he whisks Emily away, before warning everyone else to stick around for questioning.
Kat can’t leave it alone, especially when she can’t get in touch with Emily to find out what has happened to her, nor if she has been released. She gets a call early the next morning, to tell her to come for questioning, but she doesn’t like the warlocks questioning style and it doesn’t seem like a true PEA interrogation. It seems it will be up to her amateur investigating skills to solve yet another murder in the town, but this time she can’t involve the human cops, nor her sort of boyfriend Chance and his family. If the PEA are in town and investigating not just the recent murder, but their missing agent and stories of a rogue werewolf, then Chance and his whole family are in danger! She finds out where the other bakers are staying and uses her friends and knowledge of the town, to get herself invited in, to listen in to their conversations and even talk, or question the other suspects. It seems there was no love lost between the other bakers and each had their own secrets they wanted to keep hidden and which could cause them problems if revealed. One has more reason to want one of the others out of the way than anyone else, but curse magic, a form of lack magic was used in the killing and Kat needs to find out who did it and why, to get her cousin Emily vindicated.
Another interesting case, with talk of lovely baking, a scrumptious meal at the B&B and lots of intrigue with the PEA, or maybe not the PEA investigating the town as well as the murder, a killer to be found and Chance and his family kept safe from those who would kill all of their kind! Funny seeing Albus getting scared of something for once, instead of all his usual wisecracks. Kat needs to use some of her uncle’s gadgets to case out the murder scene in secret, leading to one of her midnight escapades in the danger zone as usual. A touch of unexpected romance, sort of, and a missing friend, all add to the storyline. A confession will bring the truth to part of what is happening and now a new mystery for Kat to solve. Looks like Haven has some unwanted visitors and I can’t wait to read the next book to find out what happens next. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.