Fatally Frosted

Donut Shop Mysteries #2

by Jessica Beck

Jessica Beck has crafted another delicious Donut Shop Mystery in Fatally Frosted, the follow-up to Glazed Murder.A local busy body has dropped dead after eating one of Suzanne's famous treats. A forensic team is soon swarming through the Donut Hearts kitchen, dusting for clues, sifting through sugar, and suspecting the worst of Suzanne. But with the help of police inspector Jake Bishop and her ex-husband Max, Suzanne hopes to clear her good name—before another bad donut is fatally frosted...

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Crime, Ebooks, Mystery Thriller

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 26, 2010

About the author

Jessica Beck is a pseudonym used by
Tim Myers.
Jessica Beck is the penname of an author who has been nominated for the Agatha Award and named an Independent Mystery Booksellers Association national bestseller nearly a dozen times.

Jessica Beck loves donuts, and has the figure to prove it. It's amazing what people can convince themselves is all in the name of research! For each recipe featured in the donut mysteries, a dozen more are tried and tested.

When not concocting delicious treats, Beck enjoys the rare snowfalls near her home in the foothills of North Carolina.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/jessic...

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good and fast paced read. The only real problem I had about this book was that the murder weapon (poison) will not kill you that quickly. Mouse and rat poison can take up to 7 days to work and that's if they get enough of a dose. Judging by how much Peg ate, it should have just made her sick. Other than that, it was a good mystery that allowed you to piece together the suspects yourself as the novel gives you hints. I can't wait to read the next one!

[Richelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I initially picked this book up on the assumption that it may be similar to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. It's a cute,
easy, fast, mindless read... it started off strong. and I had some hope .. but then I just found it boring.. I had to finish it because I had to know who dun it ..! I thought the doughnut recipes were a very cute and unique touch... the middle of the book dragged on though... I'm glad I'm finally done it and I can move on..
overall a cute, easy read.. I won't be reading it again... and I don't really recommend it ...
yay.. I can finally move onto another book!!

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three things: 1) i love donuts(at least reading about them) 2) the series has spanned 17 books and Im curious with the anonymous writer as he/she is still churning out more 3) i actually guessed whodunit!

I like Suzanne Hart, one of the stronger willed cozy heroines. Being divorced and living with your mom, running your own business is not as pathetic as it sounds. Interested to know more as I devour more of the series. Thanks Katie for introducing this! :)

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not a horrible book but conversations can be awkward and by the halfway part I wanted the book to be finished.

[QNPoohBear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doughnut maker Suzanne Hart is excited and nervous to give a doughnut making demonstration for a kitchen tour benefiting a local charity. The event organizer, Peg, is uneasy about having a non-professional baker at the event and worries Suzanne will "screw it up." Suzanne plans a show-stopping recipe to wow the guests visiting her friend Marge Rankin's home. Before Suzanne can prepare any mouth-watering treats, Peg is found dead in Marge's house. The police determine Peg died after eating one of Suzanne's lemon cream doughnuts and Chief Martin sets his sights on her as the #1 suspect. Suzanne is determined to clear her name no matter what! Suzanne teams up with her best friend Grace and her neighbor George to find out who killed Peg. Meanwhile, her ex-husband Max still wants to get back together and her boyfriend Jake is not around or working on the case.

The plot is not bad. I didn't guess whodunit but that person was on Suzanne's list. I kept reading later than I intended to see what happened. This story just fell flat for me. I can't get into the setting of the town of April Springs, North Carolina and can't connect to the characters. There's also a little too much inane and repetitive dialogue going on.

Peg was not a nice woman. She was especially nasty to Suzanne for some reason or another and had a perpetual feud with Marge. Everyone gave her a free pass because she was wealthy and did so much for charity. I figured out her secret before Suzanne realized it but Peg didn't deserve to be killed.

Suzanne isn't a very nice person either. She would be shocked if someone said that because she thinks she is and she tries, but I can't warm up to her. First, she fat shames Peg (silently) and then encourages Peg to buy a doughnut after Peg had declined. Suzanne fat shames characters and then ruminates on her own less than ideal figure. Her working hours don't fit with a trip to a gym. I don't understand how Suzanne's business is only doing Ok but she can afford to give away leftover doughnuts, provide people she likes with free coffee/doughnuts and treat Grace to an expensive lunch. That doesn't make sense. Suzanne comes across as really rude in her investigation. She doesn't lie easily so she comes right out and bluntly asks what she wants to know instead of leaving the questioning to the police. She upsets a couple friends that way. When she's threatened or in danger, she doesn't call the police but either deals with it herself or calls George, a retired cop. Then she finally confronts a murder suspect on her own and is nearly killed. I give her credit for being understanding with Jake, though. I don't think I could be so forgiving. I know she gets up in the middle of the night and works all morning but when she comes home, she expects her mother to cook her dinner and have it ready. When her mom isn't home, she goes out instead of trying to find something to eat on her own. Suzanne and her mom get along like a typical mother-daughter pair but when Suzanne complains a bit, I felt like saying what my parents always say to me: "if you don't like it, move out." I gather Suzanne doesn't have enough money to live on her own? Some clarification of that would be nice. Suzanne is too lenient with Emma.

Jake is torn between his feelings for Suzanne and his duties as an officer of the law. He works hard to clear Suzanne's name but really, he shouldn't be involved in the investigation and neither should Chief Martin since he knows and has a history with Suzanne and her mother. Jake didn't need to run off for a family emergency. His niece is sick in the hospital. Would he be allowed to visit or is he helping Amy with childcare? That wasn't specified. Suzanne needs her boyfriend's love and support. Max is a charmer but once burned twice shy and so Suzanne doesn't trust him. Oddly, I believe him that his fling was Darlene was a one-time deal but he can't really love Suzanne or he wouldn't have hurt her like that. There's a third man in Suzanne's life who appears in this novel. David Shelby mysterious, aloof and slightly caustic but Suzanne and David seem to have chemistry. She has a feeling of deja vu when she sees him. I don't like love triangles and I think it's rude to flirt with a woman you don't know.

Emma annoys me. She's a teenage girl who loves to gossip and is very nosy. When you eavesdrop on someone's conversation, you don't chime in and let them know you're listening. Emma wants to be Suzanne's friend and Suzanne lets her but I feel they should have a more professional relationship.

I don't, in fact, really like any of the townspeople. Suzanne's mom still treats Suzanne like a child but is eager to fix Suzanne up with a nice man. Grace is Suzanne's best friend and always has Suzanne's back but she gets too enthusiastic about investigating a murder! I don't understand why George encourages Suzanne's investigation or why he keeps his old service revolver. Otherwise, he seems like a decent person. Trish Granger is Suzanne's good friend too and she tries to protect Suzanne from hurt and props Suzanne up when Suzanne needs a pick-me-up. I like Trish the best of all Suzanne's friends.

Gabby is a gossip but also a good friend. She's typically rude and snippy with people. Marge is a wealthy lady with too much time on her hands. Her plot surprised me and made me a little sad. Heather, Peg's niece, is grieving the loss of the only family she had left. This is very sad yet Heather is super quick to want help cleaning the house and quick to ditch everything. Doesn't she feel sentimental about anything or want to come back on break and go over the house more slowly? I know she needs the money from the sale of the house to pay off student loans but I don't think she loved her aunt as much as she claims to. Janis, another baker in town, is rude but her rudeness is justified. She feels threatened by Suzanne's business and Suzanne is very rude back. I almost feel sorry for Janis. Did she kill Peg to frame Suzanne? Bert at the hardware store is another rude person. Suzanne thinks he's nice until she starts questioning him about his personal life so I suppose his rudeness is understandable. Chief Morris is a little less belligerent for no reason in this novel. He's actually doing his job and doesn't like Suzanne interfering. I don't blame him.

This series is just not for me. I like the recipes but not how they're included at the end of each chapter. I didn't write any down because I don't fry things. (My mom won't let me do it in her kitchen so until I have enough money to move out, I won't be making doughnuts). The doughnuts sound delicious, especially the beignets and funnel cake.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books really make you want donuts. You’ve been warned.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this series but just can't seem to. The characters don't gel for me, like they are not multidimensional . Even the main character, Suzanne, sometimes I think I get her, and then there will be some dialogue or an exchange with another character and I realize I can't pin her down at all. Her relationship with Jake is flimsy at best, and even her day to day encounters with Emma, her assistant, are weird to me. She will be some sort of boss lady to Emma one day and joking around the next, and then Emma is calling her ma'am. I don't get it. And frankly, the mystery part is pretty flimsy as well.

On the up side, I do like the font.

[Melodie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was better than the first one, but not enough so as to make me want to read anymore. Suzanne is far too abrasive and there is no way she'd get away with the kind of stuff she does in the real world. These books sure do make me hungry for donuts!

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've scrapped my first review and I'm just going to be blunt rather than a tip toe through the tulips.

My first thought is that this book is a major downgrade from the first one. I thought Glazed Murder was okay, despite not particularly enjoying anything about it. It was decently written. However, in Fatally Flawed, it seems like every single thing happening is aiming to create drama, right from the start. Despite Peg actually turning out to be a bad person, I still think Suzanne was unnecessarily rude to her. In the first chapter, they have a feud which isn't explained properly. All I really see is Suzanne belittling a women and seeming like a complete jerk. In the next chapter, Peg goes to the effort of having Marge getting Suzanne a chef's jacket, which would ordinarily honour any real chef or person hoping to become one... But, Suzanne's inner dialogue makes it out as if it's a complete insult and then once she finds out Peg has made this suggestion, she acts completely disgusted as if Peg was attacking her directly. She even compliments Suzanne by referring to her as a chef, but Suzanne acts like a complete jerk about it. At this point, it also seems like Suzanne is completely missing the point of the tour. She's meant to be showing the guests what ingredients (etc) to be using, but she actually starts preparing (mostly measuring) ingredients before any guests have arrived. Peg simply points out that she ought to wait until people get there and suggests that Suzanne take a break, which is a kind thing to do (for both Suzanne and the guests), but Suzanne acts like Peg is just out to get her.

This nastiness continues with the relationship of Suzanne and Max- the ex husband. It is still unnecessary, in my opinion. Beck has said a few times in the writing that the doughnut shop was purchased with the money Suzanne recieved from the divorce. Ultimately, it seems like an unnecessary point and could easily be replaced with inheriting money from a dead family member, an insurance pay out or a lottery win. The idea of adding the ex husband is frankly just unnecessary. It's created a useless feud between Suzanne and her ex husband who, for some reason, wants her back in his life. So much so that he visits her shop regularly. It baffles me. Later on, he's "having lunch" with Darleen, or so Suzanne considers. It's just such an unnecessary input to the novel and doesn't add anything except useless drama.

Another person she was quite rude to was Janice, the owner of a cake and cookie shop. Sure, Janice makes comment that Suzanne is stealing her business. But other than that, everything about Suzanne's mental and spoken dialogue about this woman is insulting or degrading toward Janice, going so far to mock the other woman for her product. When Janice comes to her, fearing her life, Suzanne is skeptical and even condescending toward the woman about the supposed incident. She then mocks the woman for her not having a mobile phone.

I don't know why, but the friendship between Suzanne and Grace seems forced now. In the first book, it seemed alright, but now it just seems too forced to be natural. Within the first chapter, what might have been intended to be jovial joking ends up as something like a fake friendship. Suzanne offers to buy dinner for Grace, as an example, but then Grace (I assume she's joking, but it doesn't really seem that way) demands dessert because Suzanne wasn't ready to go yet (she had been so exhausted and fell asleep watching the television). It just makes it seem selfish on Grace's part rather than something amusing between friends, just because of the wording and stiffness of the characters talking. Later on in the book, they have several more exchanges and they "investigate" the murder together. But it feels so unreal and forced. Suzanne inwardly expresses a lot of jealousy of Grace's career, again creating unnecessary drama.

It just seems like Suzanne wasn't a bad character in the first. She wasn't great, but she wasn't such a major jerk. The mess she's creating is ridiculous and it just all seems overly dramatic. Beck makes it seem like something interesting has to be happening every single moment. If Suzanne isn't rushing about her busy life as a doughnut maker, she's making plans to go and donate old stock to people in need. If she's not out having fun with her boyfriend, she's going out with her best friend. Even when she sits down just to have a burger, she's got a "good looking stranger" (David Shelby) coming up and talking to her. Yet then she complains about being tired a heap and how much work she has to do, basically whining about things she chose to do. She doesn't need to solve the murder. She doesn't need to go out with friends or Jake. It's just silly that the author keeps on stuffing Suzanne's schedule and then having the character complain about never having a proper holiday. This is just painfully overdone in the attempt to make her a character that so many might relate to.

To "investigate" the crime, she (and Grace) basically go around harassing people for information in order to solve the crime. She really upsets a lot of people and then acts surprised when they're upset, her justification is that because one of her doughnuts was involved as the murder weapon, that gives her the right to go around and be nasty to people. She interrogates another person; "Burt Gentry at the hardware store isn’t as upset as he should be about the murder." Then she goes and interrogates Marge as well, multiple times, even leaving the woman in tears after one visit.

There were a lot of unnecessary elements and some weird inconsistent bits:
I really just didn't care about Bishop's family member being ill. Sure, it's sad, but it didn't add anything useful to the storyline.
An inconsistent thing is that her doughnut has supposedly killed someone (the rat poison on top of it, in the very least). Yet, the very next day, she goes to work as usual and every single doughnut gets sold. That's right, all these people know one of her doughnuts has killed someone but heaps of people come to eat them. It's very weird considering she even says that it's the first time she's every sold her entire stock.
The "good looking stranger" (David Shelby) is kind of useless. He shows up at first at the shop and at other places, quite casually. It's thrown in as something that's meant to be light, I assume an introduction. But, it really has no substance and I really just don't care about people who go up to strangers and constantly try and talk to them... Regardless of how good looking they are. Eventually, it's explained that they had known each other at a camp, but it's just still kind of useless.
It seems silly that Peg had gotten much of her nice, expensive looking furniture and decor for her home (from the charity money), yet she didn't think to pay off her bank loans, leaving her niece in debt.

Even the "mystery" was pretty bad. It's pretty obvious that Peg is meant to be a bad person judging by how Suzanne treats her and she does turn out that way, sure; defrauding a charity is a pretty bad thing to do. But, it's no mystery about who's going to die and it's just poor writing to make it look like she deserved to die for what she'd done. Sure, she might deserve prison, but everything about Suzanne's attitude just seems like she didn't give a damn about the woman's death, the only reason for her "investigation" being that she wanted to clear her own name. She basically even goes around to everyone telling them all about what a bad person Peg was. She has no respect. Even when the woman was alive (when she had no idea about the charity money), she was downright nasty. Even if Peg was a bad person, that shouldn't excuse her poor behaviour to other people, least of all the nasty accusations she made to just about everyone she "interviewed". At one point, she has managed to narrow down her suspect list to four people because of a candy wrapper left on the floor of her shop. From then on, it's even less of a mystery because it basically just gives us the last piece of the puzzle. It's no surprise and has no real climax at the end. The "evidence" of the candy wrapper could even be explained that Peg might have simply had one of them with her when she died. But, it's played off to look like major evidence against the killer (who I won't write here for spoiler reasons), who might have even given it to her. Also, considering they weren't (apparently) sold in the area, Peg might have gotten them when she was travelling as she did travel a little throughout a few counties because of her charity work. I don't consider the hair thing evidence, either; it's kind of flimsy. The ending where she suggests sending the murdered a box of the same type of doughnuts used to kill Peg was meant to seem like a joke. Yet it just turns out to look like making a complete ridicule of the woman's murder, once again making it all out to be about Suzanne.

I think two stars is more than generous since it was bad from even the first chapter. I did not enjoy this at all. I will not likely be continuing the series. This is all just my opinion, though.

[Connie N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

#2 in the Donut Shop Mystery series

I seem to be a lot less forgiving as I get older. I rated the first in this series 4 stars and said how I liked the main character. But this time Suzanne annoyed me several times with her frank rudeness and insistence on investigating the murder even though she was told repeatedly to stop. Not to mention the danger involved. Her romance with Jake (police detective) seems to be very much stalled despite his flowers to her, and her ex Max is showing that he still has some feelings for her. But, in any case, the premise is that Suzanne was supposed to provide donut-making demonstrations as part of a local house tour when the coordinator of the event was killed as a result of eating one of her donuts. Of course, Suzanne is a prime suspect, plus her business is suffering because of the suspicion surrounding her. So she feels the need to investigate the murder to "save" her business. Her method of investigating was fine--she talked to several people involved in order to get their stories. But I didn't like how she ignored the Chief of Police, claiming that he doesn't like her and that he doesn't seem to be making any progress. Of course, he's not cluing her in on his progress (nor is she telling him anything either). Everyone seemed unnecessarily disjointed, and I didn't think Suzanne handled herself very well in several sticky situations. All that being said, however, I still will continue with this series because I like the secondary characters, the small-town atmosphere, and the non-complicated mystery.

[Tari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun borrow from my library via Overdrive. I love how the book covers to this series are being redone too. I enjoyed Suzanne and her friends a lot from the first book and eventually want to read through all of them. I think my favorite character is retired policeman George. In this book too, he was always there for Suzanne like a dad protecting her. Emma who works for her is a real sweetheart, and the two work really efficiently together in the donut shop.

Grace always cracks me up! She and Suzanne make a good sleuthing team. We got to meet some of the other business owners that weren't too happy when Suzanne questioned them about the murder that happened during a kitchen tour she was part of. Suzanne needed to watch her back, because someone else was watching it who didn't want her poking her nose into things. I had my suspicions about who eventually came out as the killer, but I wasn't really sure about anyone. I'll eventually be borrowing the next one! I'm always rooting for Suzanne and Jake to finally be able to have more time together. It would sure be great if he was assigned a little closer to her town.

[Luffy Sempai · Rating 4 out of 5]

It takes a peculiar mind to be able to appreciate Fatally Frosted. I mean, most of the fans of the series are normal, but it takes someone with a different set of priorities and limitations to really not only overlook but turn the stilted aspect of Fatally Frosted into a success story. I like that there were no impenetrable word play. I loved the slightly boring signature of Jessica Beck. I knew 'her' as Chris Cavender in the Pizza Lover Mysteries. He brings the same welcome additions to the table in this book.

I always lack in analysis when trying to review a book that's more than the sum of its parts. I think I am like cinephiles who only appreciate films from the 30's and 40's. We share a common strain. The artifice of the book freezes the puzzling whodunit in a fairy tale-like pastiche. With the only exciting nugget of the book being the murder, the sentences that describe the days of the protagonist, dull as they may seem, inherit a delightful quirk from the said murder. All of a sudden, the entire book is one big wait. But since the book is about someone's life, the dullness becomes vibrant, full of color and life. That's as close I can get in explaining why I'm rating this book so highly.

I rated the first book one star. I have completely forgotten its blurb, let alone its contents. But something tells me, put it down to experience, that if I re read it, it would not score any higher. The good things about this second book repeat themselves. Things like a lack of annoying humans or pets, paucity of too much liberal leaning, nods to beloved influences (Ellery Queen magazine and Roger Ackroyd), all contribute to the polished niceness of this book. It's, after all, a cozy mystery. And doesn't it know it.

[Jennifer Oberth · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are so many irritating mistakes that take me out of the story. Like when three men enter the doughnut shop and none of them are called Thomas but suddenly one of them refers to another as Thomas.

I was ignoring the missing words from sentences throughout, but that Thomas thing really bugged me.

I'm also irritated by seemingly every character calling or visiting Suzanne (the main character) with urgent news and then not stating whatever the news was that brought them there. One conversation was with someone saying they had to call her even though it was late, it was that urgent. Then he never said why he called. Ever. Not for the rest of the book. Another person visited her specifically and when she asked what did they want to ask her, he said "Nothing." Seriously?

I can't tell you how I'm enjoying this series enough to keep reading it, but I do and I am. The irritations I'm experiencing are not enough to overcome my enjoyment of the overall lightness of the book and gosh darn it - I like these characters (even though they aren't consistent).

[Karyn Lewis Bonfiglio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a quick, cozy mystery and loved the premise of this book, so I snagged it at the library.

But everything disappointed me in this book, from the way the main character unrealistically jumped to the conclusion of murder before anyone had even examined the body, to the way she interviewed and annoyed all her neighbors in her small town.

There was no tension, just a huge snooze.

However -- this writer showed competence in her writing and in the way she thought up her characters, and I wonder if I would have enjoyed this book more had I started with the first of the series. Perhaps it just wasn't to my personal taste.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

~ This was the first book that I have read in this series. I really liked it.
The story seemed to move along - and the characters were interesting.
Plus..there is a little bit of a romance brewing..
If you like doughnuts and cozies, you should try this one!

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very good book and a great mystery. However, the romantic part of Suzanne's life still feels like it's up in the air. I don't know if Jessica Beck intends it that way or not, but some of the things the character said about her current boyfriend left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt the series started to gel a little more in this title. I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Bert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, this book kind of sucked. From the start of the book Suzanne comes across as rude and judgemental, but frankly I find a lot of protagonists in this genre are hyper-critical of other female characters so I let it slide. But she doesn't get better. She harasses people then acts surprised when they don't like her or want to talk to her. She has absolutely no business investigating, since the police seem to be doing a perfectly fine job. At the end the police have already narrowed it down to the same two people Suzanne has. Both are planning to leave town, but given that they're the prime suspects it seems unlikely the police would just shrug their shoulders and say "oh well" and give up on their suspects like that. Suzanne seems to think she needs to meddle because the chief of police is stupid and she is a suspect, despite the fact that he appears no dimmer than Suzanne (to be fair that is pretty dim) and makes no serious attempt to investigate her. There's all sorts of random crap that adds nothing to the story. What was the point of those random birdwatchers? The mysterious stranger? Why did I need to hear about Suzanne's mother's favourite television programme?

This is the only one in the series I've read, so maybe if I'd read the first one I'd find Suzanne less of an obnoxious, judgemental idiot. On the other hand, maybe the whole series is poorly-written with flimsy, one-dimensional characters and stilted, unnatural dialogue. Who knows.

Also this book contains a recipe for deep-fried cake. I already dislike random recipes in novels, the authors could at least include ones that aren't incredibly disgusting. Gosh.

[Jo Anne B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as the first on or the most recent Drop Dead Chocolate. At least I know the rest of the books in the series aren't all downhill after this one. If I hadn't already read the latest one to know this then I may be hesitant to read another book in the series. It just seemed so rushed and the exact same thing as the first book but with subpar writing and a boring murder victim. Plus, how does Suzanne afford to pay for her friends' meals when they go out to eat or give them all free donuts all the time? She always says how she barely breaks even from her sales. Why was Jake rushing out of town to see his sick niece when it isn't like he can help her get better rather than comforting his girlfriend being investigated for murder? This book seemed way shorted than the other two I have read and more shallow too. I hope the next one is better. I count on these books for a fun read that the author at least put some effort into.

[bella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the first book in this series, Glazed Murder, and was so enthused to start reading the second book, Fatally Frosted.

This time it is Suzanne that is framed for murder, when Peg Masterton eats one of her donuts and dies!

Fatally Frosted was a enjoyable read, as Suzanne tries to discover who the murderer is, with the help of her friends Grace and George. However her love interest, Jake, is caught up in the investigation and unable to help, so its up to them to solve it themselves.

I really like the setting for these books, and I will definitely be picking up the next one in the series. Fatally Frosted introduces a couple of new minor characters and I can't wait to see what the writer has in store for them!

Definitely recommended for fans of cozy mysteries, but be warned it will have you craving donuts with all the delicious recipes!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this donut mystery was even better than the first one. A fun, light and quick read that will leave you craving donuts! Suzanne Hart is in the middle of doing a cooking demo at a neighbor's house when Peg, the sharp talking woman who organized the event, is found dead in the backyard. When it becomes clear that her death was caused by one of Suzanne's donuts, she sets out to find the killer and clear her name. This book wasn't exactly life changing but it was a real page turner- I was in the mood for something light and entertaining and Fatally Frosted hit the spot!

[Carmen Long · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really care for the first book in this series- I'm pretty sure I also rated it 2 stars. I normally wouldn't have continued with the series, but I bought both books at the same time and I figured I would go ahead and read the second one, just in case it was better than the first. It wasn't. I can't really even begin to express how awful I found this book. I suppose if you really liked the first one, you might like this one, but I wouldn't count on it.

[❂ Murder by Death · Rating 1 out of 5]

I struggled with the first in this series and this one just didn't do it for me either. I found the dialog to be stilted and un-natural, although there were some hints of humor, and I just didn't care about the characters. I did love how the main character didn't hold back and stood up for herself, though. Something that should happen a bit more often in cozy mysteries. :)

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick, easy and fun read. If you weren't in the mood for donuts before you started this book you will be by the time you are finished. I enjoy reading the donut recipes included as well. They sound easy enough to do at home even though I probably never well (better to leave some things to the professionals). I like Suzanne and the mystery was done well.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really did enjoy this book but I have one complaint. Seems like Suzanne (the main character) is getting really pushy. It kind of got on my nerves. But other than that the book was great and the recipes are definitely going to get a try.

[The Book Granny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute, mindless read for those days when you just want to relax. I picked it up at the library on a whim. It would be good for plane/train rides or vacation, but I think I'd wait for it to be available at the library instead of paying any money.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love this North Carolina town and the Donut Hearts bakery. It is amazing how much murder takes place in such a small town! If you read it, you will want to return again and again.

[Deb Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Love Donuts!

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this is my first “cozy mystery” I’ve read, and I thought it was OKAY.

I’m not following the series, this is the first book I’ve picked up in A Donut Shop Mystery, with that said, the author did do a good job with keeping a new reader in the loop. A drawback to that is that there’s too much exposition with establishing characters and relationships.

This book follows our main character Suzanne Hert, occasionally accompanied by her BFF Grace as they harass the locals because they fancy themselves junior detectives. Since when has law enforcement ever had the competence to solve a murder mystery in small towns?

“It wouldn’t be a very big book if the heroine called the police at the first sight of trouble, though. I think we have to suspend our disbelief while we’re reading, don’t you all agree?”

There’s a mystery book club in this! It’s so self aware and doesn’t take itself seriously.

The overall mystery of who done it was alright. I like the bit of drama and truths that surfaced throughout the investigation. However, Suzanne can be kind of an annoying narrator, she’s also incredibly selfish and lacks empathy during her quest in trying to clear her good name.

Her relationship with Jake is such a bore. And out of all the locals, bless George, he’s such a sweet man.

This did make me want to eat some donuts, has anyone tried the recipes in this book?

[Alabama Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not going to tell you the entire plot of this book, the second in this series, but rather am going to tell you the weapon used to commit the murder.
It was a lemon filled powered donut. This shocked me since that was my go-to favorite as a seventeen year old young man. Every night after I closed up at the steak house where I worked I would stop at an internationally renowned donut shop and be handed two of these lemon filled beauties when I entered the store and sat on my favorite stool at the counter. It was not my girlfriend at the time that worked there, but rather her mother who in retrospect may have had a bigger interest in me than her daughter, not for her own physical gratification but at the prospect of furthering the relationship I had with her eldest daughter. That is my brief version of my lemon filled romance with a donut and not the one you though you were going to read about.

It seems half of April Springs became a suspect with Suzanne at the top of the list.
You might need a deck of index cards to keep all the characters straight and to figure out who had the real motive to commit this homicide.

If you enjoyed my own version of this synopsis then send me a short message or give me a like on this review.


I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.