"Can Clare Cosi make this Fairy Tale have a happy ending before her own Prince Charming gives up?"
Reviewed by Teresa Cross
Posted October 14, 2015
Mystery
Cleo Coyle did it again with the latest cozy mystery novel
ONCE UPON A GRIND
from the Coffeehouse Mystery series! The writing
duo and husband and wife,
Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini use a pseudonym, Cleo
Coyle to write and with
every story they bring their characters alive. I feel when
I open the first page I
walk back into the Village Blend and follow my friends on
their next adventure
and I cannot get enough.
In the ONCE UPON A GRIND, Clare Cosi, the Village Blend
Coffeehouse
manager is on her way to solving the next mystery that has
her business partner
and ex-husband arrested for a murder she is out to prove
he did not commit.
With The Fairy Tale theme in New York leaving a princess
found drugged and
Clare's coffeehouse supplying "magic" coffee beans that
help her have visions,
will this be enough for her to be able to get to the
bottom things before it is too
late? She may have to walk with the high and mighty at a
secret Prince Charming
Club to get her answers.
Cleo Coyle is one of my favorite authors because the
storyline is always
unpredictable as it should be in a mystery, and the
characters keep me coming
back. They are down to earth, next-door kind of people
with personalities that
keeps you laughing. As you read you cannot help but relate
to any one of them.
Everyone probably knows an Esther or Madame and the flavor
that they bring to
life. Cleo Coyle's writing connects me to the characters
in a way that I can feel
the emotions of fear, confusion, and uncertainty. I love
the excitement of
finishing Cleo Coyle's books, thinking about it for days
afterwards, and thinking I
cannot wait for more!
A powerful description of the setting keeps you intrigued
with Cleo Coyle's
mystery novels as well. Taking place in New York, as I
read I can almost hear the
cars passing buy on the busy streets as Clare walks out of
her coffee shop to
feeling the chill in the air on an October day. I can even
smell and taste my
favorite espresso drink when one is being made to calm
someone's nerves.
(Warning: do not attempt to read without a cup of coffee.)
This is how a great
writer makes the New York Times Bestseller list when they
are able to connect all
your senses at once in their writing.
The Coffeehouse Mystery series is easy to follow
and is written to where you
can pick up with anyone of them to read and easily catch
up to who is who in the
storyline. Though I recommend reading the whole series
because you do not
want to miss one exciting detail! ONCE UPON A GRIND by
Cleo Coyle satisfies my
rich taste for a yummy mystery. A plus as always with her
novels is the delicious
recipes at the end and with this one a guide to coffee
tasseography is included as
well.
SUMMARY
Fresh Pick - Fresh Fiction
Top Pick - RT Book
Reviews
A Best Books of the Year Pick - Kings River Life
Magazine From the New York Times bestselling author of
Billionaire Blend comes an enchanting new entry in
the "satisfyingly rich" Coffeehouse Mystery series. Includes wicked good recipes. When coffeehouse manager turned amateur sleuth Clare Cosi
serves "magic" beans for a Fairy Tale Fall event, she brews
up a vision that leads to a sleeping beauty in Central Park;
a big, bad wolf of Wall Street; and an East Side enclave
with storybook secrets...
Fairy tale fever has descended on New York City.
Broadway fans are flocking to Red Riding Hood: The
Musical; museums are exhibiting art inspired by the
Brothers Grimm; and Clare Cosi and her merry band of
baristas give their coffee truck a "Jack and the Beanstalk"
makeover for a Central Park festival. Clare's coffee hunter
ex-husband contributes a bag of African beans with alleged
magical properties. His octogenarian mother entertains
customers with readings of the grinds, but Clare remains
skeptical--until she receives a vision that helps her find a
young model's body in the park's woods.
The police dismiss "sleeping beauty" as the victim of a drug
overdose. Then Clare uncovers evidence that points to a list
of suspects--from a New York Giant to quite a few wicked
witches--and a cold case murder that reaches back to the
Cold War. Now Clare is really in the woods with a dangerous
predator on her heels and an investigation that leads from a
secret Prince Charming Club right back to her own NYPD
detective boyfriend. If she doesn't solve this mystery,
those magic beans predict an unhappy ending.
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