Sally "Sal" Muccio is making a fresh start after
divorcing her cheating husband. She and her best
friend, Josie Sullivan, have opened a cookie bakery
and are determined to be successful- even when a murder
threatens their business. Unfortunately, the very same
woman Sal caught her husband cheating on her with dies on
her front porch and now Sal and Josie's entire livelihood
is in jeopardy.
TASTES LIKE MURDER is the first book in the Cookies
and Chance Mystery series as Catherine Bruns
introduces us to a whole host of quirky characters. Sal's
family is outrageously wacky, from her mom who acts and
dresses like a teenager to her father who is obsessed
with funerals. However, it is the minor character of
Nicoletta Gavelli who captured my interest. I love her
gruff personality, particularly when she barters for and
then complains about her fortune cookies.
And speaking of the fortune cookies, the various fortunes
made me laugh each and every time as Catherine Bruns uses
the fortunes quite cleverly. In fact, I love each and
every aspect of TASTES LIKE MURDER except for one thing,
which is a personal preference and may not affect the
reading enjoyment of others. I'm not a fan of love
triangles and TASTES LIKE MURDER has a very intense love
triangle. Sal is torn between a past boyfriend, Mike, and
a new love interest, Brian. Catherine Bruns does a
marvelous job at showing Sal's inner turmoil over the two
men and I suspect others will appreciate the conflict
more than I did.
TASTES LIKE MURDER is an intriguing start to the
Cookies and Chance Mystery series. I want to visit
more with all of the quirky characters just to see what
crazy and outrageous things they will do next!
Sally Muccio’s had her crosses to bear: a cheating ex-
boyfriend, crazy Italian parents, and an unfaithful
husband,
just to name a few. After her divorce, she returns to her
hometown to start a novelty cookie shop whose specialties
include original fortune cookies, served with a sprinkle
of
foreshadowing. But there’s no warning when her ex-
husband’s
mistress drops dead on Sal's porch, and police confirm
it’s a
homicide.
Determined to stop her life from becoming a recipe
for disaster, Sal takes matters into her own hands. With
two
very different men vying for her affection, dead bodies
piling
up, and a reputation hanging by an apron string, Sal
finds
herself in a race against time to save both her business
and
life—before the last cookie crumbles.