70% Dark Intentions (Bean to Bar Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Publisher – Golden Tip Press (July 20, 2021)
Paperback: 266 pages

Synopsis

Felicity Koerber’s bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand is bringing in plenty of customers – in part due to the notoriety of the recent murder of one of her assistants, which she managed to solve. Things seem to be taking a turn for the better. Her new assistant, Mateo, even gets along with Carmen, the shop’s barista turned pastry chef. Felicity thinks she’s learning to cope with change – right up until one of her friends gets engaged. Everyone’s expecting her to ask Logan, her former bodyguard, to be her plus one. But even the thought of asking out someone else still makes her feel disloyal to her late husband’s memory — so maybe she hasn’t moved on from her husband’s death as much as she thought.

Felicity isn’t planning to contact Logan any time soon. Only, Felicity finds ANOTHER body right outside her shop – making it two murders at Greetings and Felicitations in as many months. That night, Mateo disappears, leaving Felicity to take care of his pet octopus. The police believe that Mateo committed the murder, but Felicity is convinced that, despite the mounting evidence, something more is going on, and Mateo may actually be in trouble.

When Logan assumes that he’s going to help Felicity investigate, she realizes she’s going to have to spend time with him – whether she’s ready to really talk to him or not. Can Felicity find out what happened to Mateo, unmask a killer, and throw an engagement party all at the same time?

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Review

Calling all chocolate lovers! This cozy series will keep you entertained and salivating over truffles, chocolate bars, and many other treats that are whipped up in the Greetings and Felicitations shop in Galveston. Too bad it isn’t a real shop that I could go visit in the future!

This is the second book in this series and it does help to read the first book to get a feel for all of the characters and their back story. Felicity is running a shop that was supposed to be with her husband before he died unexpectedly. She still has many fond memories of her husband and their plans, but she moves forward without him but not without some sad moments. Logan is the potential new guy in her life that we met in the first book. They both have reservations and there are some good conversations between them and what they might be able to have going forward. Of course, there are some misunderstandings and dates with others before they get to that point. Felicity is set up with her ex-boyfriend’s girlfriend’s brother, Wallace. Wallace is a bit of an odd duck and really doesn’t knock Felicity’s socks off. It is an awkward situation for sure considering all involved parties.

I really enjoyed the variety of characters and their quirkiness. The author does a great job of bringing in multiple cultures, beliefs, interests, and personality types. It is hard to know which character to like or dislike and are they involved in the murder of Fabian found outside the front door of Felicity’s shop? It takes a fair amount of digging by Felicity and Logan to get to the bottom of the murder. I had to crack up at one of the characters that Felicity called “Fake Leslie.” This woman knew what she was doing and what she wanted to discover and wasn’t afraid to use anyone else to get the information she needed.

There is a surprising animal that could have stolen the book, Clive the octopus that is Mateo’s pet. I learned a bit about this breed and how you could have an octopus as a pet. Not that I want one, but fascinating information. The author also sheds life on sea turtles and how some are on the road to becoming extinct which is a shame.

The mystery is not an easy one to solve but I have to say that I did suspect the right character, I just didn’t know why or at least not all of the potential details. I don’t want to spoil anything so it is hard to share too many details about why I suspected this character. The character’s behavior near the end, when discovered, was a bit strange, but made sense all things considered.

There is so much to like about this series and I look forward to future installments and learning more about hand-crafted chocolate. We give this book 5 paws up.

About the Author

Amber Royer writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the BEAN TO BAR MYSTERIES. She is also the author of STORY LIKE A JOURNALIST: A WORKBOOK FOR NOVELISTS, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She blogs about creative writing techniques and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com. She also teaches creative writing for both UT Arlington Continuing Education and Writing Workshops Dallas. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes.

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