Ella Mae LeFaye is still getting used to owning the Charmed
Pie Shoppe in
Havenwood, Georgia, where she's taken shelter after leaving
New York when
she discovered her husband cheating on her. The pie shop is
named such
because Ella discovered that she has the ability to bake
into pies whatever
emotion she is feeling at the time, and that emotion
transfers to the person
who consumes the pie. People are unaware of this mystical
ability, but it's
turned the pie shop into a thriving business. Therefore,
it's not a big surprise
when Ella Mae is asked to handle the desserts for a young
couple's wedding.
However, before the wedding arrives, a friend of the LeFaye
family is found
dead under mysterious circumstances. Then, during the
wedding, the bride's
step-mother falls ills and dies a few days later. Ella
Mae's family becomes
convinced that the deaths are not only related, but they are
part of an evil plot
against not only their family, but against all those who are
Enchanted and will
be gathering within a few weeks to renew their magical
powers at Harvest.
Therefore, Ella Mae springs into action to bake special pies
to force customers
to disclose information to her so she can get confessions
and solve the
mystery.
Since Ella Mae initially discovered that she not only has
the ability to bake
enchanted pies but that her entire family has various
enchantments, she has
been determined to discover the source of their magic. This
meant that a
significant part of the book was spent on fantasy and
science-fiction aspects,
such as explaining the history of the family's magic, the
warring enchanted
factions of the land, and what something called the Lady of
the Ash is.
The amount of fantasy elements from the first book in the
Charmed Pie
Shoppe Mystery series to this book (the second book in the
series) were
exponential, which was quite a shock to my system, as what I
liked about the
first book was that it was about a woman who happened to
accidentally
discover that she and her family had these little charms
that could work. This
book, however, was a huge step into the land of sci-fi,
which was a
disappointment. I also felt this series was oddly
reminiscent of the Magical
Dressmaking series by Melissa Bourbon (each family member
has a charm by
way of a curse by a family member), and I am disappointed
that this series
echoes another contemporary cosy series so much. Sadly, I
will not be
continuing with this series, although I enjoy the characters
very much.
I was also disappointed that I guessed who committed the
murders nearly as
soon as the character appeared in the book for the first
time. There's a
character who makes a life-changing decision that I also
guessed as it simply
made the most sense, plot-wise. All in all, this book was
too predictable and
too heavy in a genre that it wasn't marketed as.
Ellery Adams serves up a mystery that’s a real peach...
Ella Mae LeFaye’s Charmed Pie Shoppe is wildly popular in
Havenwood, Georgia—which is not surprising since Ella Mae
can lace her baked goods with enchantments. The shop’s
extraordinary success seems destined to continue when Ella
Mae meets an engaged couple who hire her to handle the
dessert buffet at their wedding.
But Ella Mae has a lot on her plate. She is also searching
for the origin of her magical powers—and hoping to determine
if the spark of attraction she feels for the handsome Hugh
Dylan is authentic or just her new abilities gone awry.
Then Ella Mae discovers a high-standing member of the
community dead, and a wedding guest becomes seriously ill at
the event she’s catering. Now she’ll have to use all her
sleuthing skills and culinary talents to prove her pies
don’t contain a killer ingredient . . .
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