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Cursed Candy Mysteries #1
Cutthroat Cupcakes
Killer cupcakes Seems improbable to Lina, but when an attractive detective snaps cuffs on her and accuses her of witchy crimes she’s forced to reconsider. The murder weapon? A cupcake topper sold in Lina’s shop, Sticky, Tricky Treats. The method? A killing curse. The curse’s origin? Lina...sort of. Except Lina hadn’t a clue that she was a witch, and certainly didn’t know she’d accidentally cursed some of her confections. She's got to catch the killer who's used her magic to murder or face a conviction as an accessory. Now, if only the wizard detective assigned to the case weren't such a distraction. Cutthroat Cupcakes is a magical witch culinary cozy with a touch of romance.
262 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 1, 2023
917 people are currently reading
976 people want to read
About the author
Cate Lawley
72 books404 followersUSA Today bestselling author Cate Lawley writes humorous, action-filled mysteries that frequently contain paranormal elements.
When Cate's not tapping away at her keyboard or in deep contemplation of her next fanciful writing project, she's sweeping up hairy dust bunnies and watching British mysteries.
Cate is from Austin, Texas (where many of her stories take place), but has recently migrated north to Boise, Idaho, where soup season (her favorite time of year) lasts more than two weeks.
She's worked as an attorney, a dog trainer, and in various other positions, but writer is the hands-down winner. She's thankful readers keep reading, so she can keep writing!
For bonus materials and updates, visit her website to join her mailing list: www.CateLawley.com.
When Cate's not tapping away at her keyboard or in deep contemplation of her next fanciful writing project, she's sweeping up hairy dust bunnies and watching British mysteries.
Cate is from Austin, Texas (where many of her stories take place), but has recently migrated north to Boise, Idaho, where soup season (her favorite time of year) lasts more than two weeks.
She's worked as an attorney, a dog trainer, and in various other positions, but writer is the hands-down winner. She's thankful readers keep reading, so she can keep writing!
For bonus materials and updates, visit her website to join her mailing list: www.CateLawley.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 194 reviews
April 18, 2021
Cutthroat Cupcakes was an okay cozy mystery book. I think I'm just in a weird funk with mystery books right now. Especially after my last book that claimed to be mystery and I got nothing mysterious.
So unlike my last book, this actually had mystery and I was engaged from start to finish. After you meet the characters, you'll realize that they are pretty likable and easy to get along with. For example, Lina had no idea she was a witch and she accidentally makes some candies with bad magic. At this point, I was completely intrigued by Lina and was excited to see what her story was going to be like.
The book was nice and I enjoyed it. Clearly. I just wish I got more twists and such. Maybe the next book will have what I'm looking for - if not, that's okay. It was still something fun to dive into and something a bit different than other cozy mysteries.
So unlike my last book, this actually had mystery and I was engaged from start to finish. After you meet the characters, you'll realize that they are pretty likable and easy to get along with. For example, Lina had no idea she was a witch and she accidentally makes some candies with bad magic. At this point, I was completely intrigued by Lina and was excited to see what her story was going to be like.
The book was nice and I enjoyed it. Clearly. I just wish I got more twists and such. Maybe the next book will have what I'm looking for - if not, that's okay. It was still something fun to dive into and something a bit different than other cozy mysteries.
January 22, 2021
This was.. um... bad! There was a magic system, but there was no explanation of how it worked?
April 18, 2021
What a great little cozy mystery with lots of fun names: Hector Bitters, the Clutterbucks, Magic Beans, Sticky Tricky Treats and more. I was thoroughly enjoying it as I was reading it. Seems like some wives of one of the characters were being killed off, so who did it? I can't say who, but I will say they did it with...wait for this because you may never want to use or have one agan...a cake topper and candy. LOL So that wasn't what I expected but it was super cute.
October 18, 2021
A cute and fun cozy mystery!
Cutthroat Cupcakes is about Lina who owns a candy shop. Lina finds out she's a witch and has inadvertently cursed some of her candy and someone has used it for murder! GASP! This was a fast paced cozy mystery and I enjoyed the world building of wizard and witch magic in this one. Lina was a fun MC and I enjoy how she narrated. She definitely has chemistry with Bastian so it will be interesting to see where this goes. I need more of Magic Beans, and someone to serve me magical coffee!!
Rep: white female MC, white male side character with ADHD (possibly).
CWs: Abandonment, death, drugging of side character w/o consent, kidnapping, murder.
Cutthroat Cupcakes is about Lina who owns a candy shop. Lina finds out she's a witch and has inadvertently cursed some of her candy and someone has used it for murder! GASP! This was a fast paced cozy mystery and I enjoyed the world building of wizard and witch magic in this one. Lina was a fun MC and I enjoy how she narrated. She definitely has chemistry with Bastian so it will be interesting to see where this goes. I need more of Magic Beans, and someone to serve me magical coffee!!
Rep: white female MC, white male side character with ADHD (possibly).
CWs: Abandonment, death, drugging of side character w/o consent, kidnapping, murder.
September 12, 2020
Love it!!!!!!
Oh my another hit from Care 😁😁 *does happy chair dance*
A Witch that doesn't know she's one 😲 her powers, a loose cannon.
Accused of cursing her candy that she sells in her Halloween CANDY STORE 😁😁😁😁
OMG it's such a wonderful start.
Add in a HOT Wizard, a nerdy, now head, barista, and a snarky witch with a VERY sweet tooth.
It adds up to a funny/serious book.
I read this on Cates blog as she wrote it and just had to purchase it so I could re-read it AND review it 😁😁😁
Oh my another hit from Care 😁😁 *does happy chair dance*
A Witch that doesn't know she's one 😲 her powers, a loose cannon.
Accused of cursing her candy that she sells in her Halloween CANDY STORE 😁😁😁😁
OMG it's such a wonderful start.
Add in a HOT Wizard, a nerdy, now head, barista, and a snarky witch with a VERY sweet tooth.
It adds up to a funny/serious book.
I read this on Cates blog as she wrote it and just had to purchase it so I could re-read it AND review it 😁😁😁
January 13, 2021
Entertaining
This book was interesting to say the least. It kept me intrigued with the tainted candy, murder and the solution to who Line's mentor was.
This book was interesting to say the least. It kept me intrigued with the tainted candy, murder and the solution to who Line's mentor was.
November 21, 2023
Review originally posted at A Keyboard and an Open Mind 22 November, 2023:
Look, I can admit, it was the cover of this book that drew me in. I’m a sucker for a good cover, and I’m a sucker for urban fantasy stories where baking is involved. So I knew I had to read this book.
Unfortunately, while there was plenty of coffee, the baking and the witchiness played pretty small parts in the book’s plot. Admittedly, the reasons for this are sound: after being arrested for using selling illicit magical baking (despite not even being aware she was a witch!), Lina spends most of her time away from her Halloween-themed candy store. And because she’s such a newbie witch, there’s not much magic involved because she hasn’t been trained yet. But it was still a bit disappointing!
The magic did ramp up in the final third as the story hit its climax, which was good.
The book is an urban fantasy/cozy mystery and it successfully hits the beats of that style of story. Lina also fits the type of main character voice that is expected in this sort of story. As is often typical in these types of stories, a potential love interest is introduced in chapter one, and we immediately learn how put together and confident and attractive he is, and how the heroine is lusting over him from the first moment. That’s fine, that’s typical of this genre, too. But the chemistry wasn’t really there for me, and descriptions of his sexiness and put-together-ness seemed at odds with his actual anxiousness and awkwardness. It would actually have been nice if the focus had been on those aspects, rather than Lina lusting over him from the get-go.
All in all, this was enjoyable, but I don’t think I’ll continue with the series. I do have a couple of other Cate Lawley books sitting on my Kindle, so maybe I’ll have more luck with one of those.
Look, I can admit, it was the cover of this book that drew me in. I’m a sucker for a good cover, and I’m a sucker for urban fantasy stories where baking is involved. So I knew I had to read this book.
Unfortunately, while there was plenty of coffee, the baking and the witchiness played pretty small parts in the book’s plot. Admittedly, the reasons for this are sound: after being arrested for using selling illicit magical baking (despite not even being aware she was a witch!), Lina spends most of her time away from her Halloween-themed candy store. And because she’s such a newbie witch, there’s not much magic involved because she hasn’t been trained yet. But it was still a bit disappointing!
The magic did ramp up in the final third as the story hit its climax, which was good.
The book is an urban fantasy/cozy mystery and it successfully hits the beats of that style of story. Lina also fits the type of main character voice that is expected in this sort of story. As is often typical in these types of stories, a potential love interest is introduced in chapter one, and we immediately learn how put together and confident and attractive he is, and how the heroine is lusting over him from the first moment. That’s fine, that’s typical of this genre, too. But the chemistry wasn’t really there for me, and descriptions of his sexiness and put-together-ness seemed at odds with his actual anxiousness and awkwardness. It would actually have been nice if the focus had been on those aspects, rather than Lina lusting over him from the get-go.
All in all, this was enjoyable, but I don’t think I’ll continue with the series. I do have a couple of other Cate Lawley books sitting on my Kindle, so maybe I’ll have more luck with one of those.
April 9, 2021
This might be the first cozy I'm giving a five star rating to, right off the bat.
I really enjoyed the style of Cutthroat Cupcakes. The world-building was done in a better way than I've seen it in many cozy mysteries, although I do admit I haven't read as many paranormal ones, and especially not ones that read like urban fantasy. The way the worlds blend is done well too, as is the introduction to the magical world. I don't feel like I'm missing anything, but also not like things are overexplained to me.
The characters are also really in-depth, and from the very beginning they make you want to know more. Neither the characters nor the world building overshadows the other, and because of the way the reader and the main character are integrated into the world together they actually complement each other. I haven't seen this done as well in many novels in general, and especially not in urban fantasy type situations.
The mystery in this one was also gripping, and a welcome deviation from the "girl literally stumbles over the dead body and insists on helping" trope that I've read a lot of recently. Without saying too much, Cate Lawley actually turns this trope on its head in this novel and crafts a cozy mystery that has a lot more turns along the way than I'm used to in the genre. I totally didn't see the conclusion coming, but it also doesn't read like it came out of nowhere.
I am really glad I picked this up, and didn't wait until Halloween to read this despite the cover (it doesn't actually have much to do with Halloween, the main character runs a year-round Halloween-themed candy shop but it doesn't even take place then). It was exactly the kind of thing I needed this week. Even though I rarely buy cozy mystery sequels, I have a feeling this one will end up on my tablet before long.
I really enjoyed the style of Cutthroat Cupcakes. The world-building was done in a better way than I've seen it in many cozy mysteries, although I do admit I haven't read as many paranormal ones, and especially not ones that read like urban fantasy. The way the worlds blend is done well too, as is the introduction to the magical world. I don't feel like I'm missing anything, but also not like things are overexplained to me.
The characters are also really in-depth, and from the very beginning they make you want to know more. Neither the characters nor the world building overshadows the other, and because of the way the reader and the main character are integrated into the world together they actually complement each other. I haven't seen this done as well in many novels in general, and especially not in urban fantasy type situations.
The mystery in this one was also gripping, and a welcome deviation from the "girl literally stumbles over the dead body and insists on helping" trope that I've read a lot of recently. Without saying too much, Cate Lawley actually turns this trope on its head in this novel and crafts a cozy mystery that has a lot more turns along the way than I'm used to in the genre. I totally didn't see the conclusion coming, but it also doesn't read like it came out of nowhere.
I am really glad I picked this up, and didn't wait until Halloween to read this despite the cover (it doesn't actually have much to do with Halloween, the main character runs a year-round Halloween-themed candy shop but it doesn't even take place then). It was exactly the kind of thing I needed this week. Even though I rarely buy cozy mystery sequels, I have a feeling this one will end up on my tablet before long.
April 15, 2023
This book was just so easy. Easy to like, easy to get into and easy to finish! I liked discovering the magical world with Lena, and meeting Bastian, Sabrina and Myles. Any book with a hint of magic always draws me in, and I love a murder mystery so with witches and wizards involved, this was an easy decision for me.
I’m excited to read more and continue on with the series as more about the world is revealed. I’m so intrigued about Bastian (and his gran?!) and more details into the magic and why there seems to be a divide between a witch and wizard.
I also loved the story too. And with a name like Cutthroat Cupcakes I couldn’t not pick it up.
The audiobook I listened too was actually great, it was superbly narrated. She inputted a lot of easy emotion into it and made it effortless to get through. Really enjoyed. Surprised at how much I did!
I’m excited to read more and continue on with the series as more about the world is revealed. I’m so intrigued about Bastian (and his gran?!) and more details into the magic and why there seems to be a divide between a witch and wizard.
I also loved the story too. And with a name like Cutthroat Cupcakes I couldn’t not pick it up.
The audiobook I listened too was actually great, it was superbly narrated. She inputted a lot of easy emotion into it and made it effortless to get through. Really enjoyed. Surprised at how much I did!
November 7, 2020
I really enjoyed this cozy mystery centered around a newbie witch and her candy shop. She accidentally makes some bad magic candies, which are bought by someone and used to kill one of the local men in Boise Idaho. A wizard named Bastian goes to Lina's shop to arrest her, but instead invites her to join him and his comrades, Sabrina and Miles, to help solve the murder mystery. I really enjoyed the characters and the setting, and look forward to reading more books in this series.
October 10, 2020
Lina is a wonderful character that is a witch but did not know she was one. That is until she cursed candy she didn't know she did. Her candy was used to murder and cause mayhem. This caused Bastian a wizard to enter her life. He was a paranormal investigation. He has to discover if Lina was guilty or not. They also had to discover who really was. It was such a cute and fun read!
November 21, 2020
Fun read
Magic was not what I expected. This is an enjoyable light cozy. Interesting characters. I am willing to complete the series and check out other books by this author.
Magic was not what I expected. This is an enjoyable light cozy. Interesting characters. I am willing to complete the series and check out other books by this author.
November 10, 2020
Wow
Really good read I couldn't put it down I can't wait to read the whole series. Roll on pay day
Really good read I couldn't put it down I can't wait to read the whole series. Roll on pay day
June 5, 2021
“Christmas and cuddles.”
I actually loved this story. It was funny and cute.
I actually loved this story. It was funny and cute.
October 14, 2021
The beginning was so slow. I would like to know why Bastian cuff her but it was taking a long time for that to come because the MC is trying so hard to be quirky but it just come off as annoying.
Other than that, the mystery is decent, nothing mindblowing. And some of the sentences are really weird . It would be nice to see whether something will come out of the relationship between Bastian and Lina because Bastian doesn't seems that interested in her and they got like zero romantic interaction
Other than that, the mystery is decent, nothing mindblowing. And some of the sentences are really weird . It would be nice to see whether something will come out of the relationship between Bastian and Lina because Bastian doesn't seems that interested in her and they got like zero romantic interaction
January 15, 2021
Cutthroat Cupcakes is a sweetly delicious cozy mystery. What's a woman to do when she has worked for a dream and obtained it, only to suddenly find out she has magic and her magic has been used for nefarious purposes? Well, Lina ends up working with the local branch of the International Criminal Witch Police to catch a killer. It's not all cupcakes and candy when a murder is involved, but Lina is determined to fix the mess her raw magic caused.
This book charmed me and I read the trilogy in three days... Now I'm waiting for the sequel series, Magic Beans, to begin. Cate Lawley has created an interesting magical system and wonderful characters. Multi-generational gatherings, with old and youthful jokes abound, it's an adorable read.
This book charmed me and I read the trilogy in three days... Now I'm waiting for the sequel series, Magic Beans, to begin. Cate Lawley has created an interesting magical system and wonderful characters. Multi-generational gatherings, with old and youthful jokes abound, it's an adorable read.
August 28, 2020
Absolutely adorable book! It was cute and funny and left me wanting to read more so I definitely recommend it.
October 29, 2020
I could've read this in one sitting but I was quite distracted.
I liked this author's writing style. It was really light and quirky that's why it's such a good read. It's obvious that Lina and Bastian have chemistry but that is quite unexplored since there's a murder to solve.
The story was fast-paced and entertaining. I liked the supporting characters and I'd also like to get to know her cousin, Bryson. He was only mentioned in passing and someone she texted and talked with over the phone. The other characters were unique and each has his and her own strengths.
There's not much outright display of magic but if you're looking for a fun, and magical read that's really like watching a small-town series, I'd recommend this. It reminded me of the series "The Good Witch" even though Lina is a candy-maker.
I liked this author's writing style. It was really light and quirky that's why it's such a good read. It's obvious that Lina and Bastian have chemistry but that is quite unexplored since there's a murder to solve.
The story was fast-paced and entertaining. I liked the supporting characters and I'd also like to get to know her cousin, Bryson. He was only mentioned in passing and someone she texted and talked with over the phone. The other characters were unique and each has his and her own strengths.
There's not much outright display of magic but if you're looking for a fun, and magical read that's really like watching a small-town series, I'd recommend this. It reminded me of the series "The Good Witch" even though Lina is a candy-maker.
September 1, 2024
I had hoped this one would be Halloween themed (based solely on the cover). It was not. It does have some supernatural elements that could give it that somewhat Halloween feel, but it's not a "fall" or "Halloween" book. Honestly, that's what I'm in the mood for right now, but this book was good enough that I found that didn't matter. I still wanted to keep reading it.
The book is interesting, and it's well-written. It does grab you, so you want to know what's going to happen. The characters are fun, and there is a sort of "promise" for what's to come later in the stories that made me add this to my list of cozy series that I will likely continue in the future.
I recommend this one!
The book is interesting, and it's well-written. It does grab you, so you want to know what's going to happen. The characters are fun, and there is a sort of "promise" for what's to come later in the stories that made me add this to my list of cozy series that I will likely continue in the future.
I recommend this one!
November 18, 2020
At first I wasn't sure I was going to like this book. It seemed silly this woman is being arrested for baking pumpkin tops which supposedly were magic. I am so glad I didn't give up then but continued. The story line after the beginning was really quite good and the characters personalities are great and I ended up really loving the book. I also liked that the witchcraft wasn't just good but also evil.
May 25, 2025
This is the first book that I’ve read by this author, and I’ve already bought the next two in the series. I really enjoy the cozy, paranormal mysteries and it feels like this series is going to hit spot.
October 14, 2020
My favorite cozy mystery author strikes again! This is such an adorable story. I finished it in a day and had to buy the other books in the series!
November 4, 2020
I enjoyed it.
I liked the characters.
This book was a surprise I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and I will more than likely read others in the series
I liked the characters.
This book was a surprise I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and I will more than likely read others in the series
November 10, 2020
Just what I want from a cozy mystery, great characters, action plot and no stress!
October 20, 2022
When I started this book I really thought it had such promise. But for me, it just fizzled out.
September 17, 2025
Cute fast read.
October 12, 2020
Arrested for committing a magical murder?
What do you do when you're accused of committing a murder with magic you had no idea you had? You help the magical law enforcement to find the real killer. You might even fall for him a little in the process.
What do you do when you're accused of committing a murder with magic you had no idea you had? You help the magical law enforcement to find the real killer. You might even fall for him a little in the process.
December 2, 2020
Funny
Really enjoyed this, immediately downloaded book 2.
Need to know what happens next read in one go.
Highly recommend this book!
Really enjoyed this, immediately downloaded book 2.
Need to know what happens next read in one go.
Highly recommend this book!
March 14, 2021
Been trying to find another good, cute, mystery series!
It's hard, as the genre is swamped and I have an issue with bad editing and clumsy storytelling... This has none. A couple lose punctuation errors and a story that follows and I didn't want to put down I can't wait to start the next!
Bravo Ms. Lawley!
It's hard, as the genre is swamped and I have an issue with bad editing and clumsy storytelling... This has none. A couple lose punctuation errors and a story that follows and I didn't want to put down I can't wait to start the next!
Bravo Ms. Lawley!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 194 reviews