Sally BerneathyCritiques

OMG! What a shocker!! I would have never guessed what secrets would have come out in this book. The best one of the series! Even Lindsay was in shock and at a loss for words, and that's impossible for Lindsay!! One of the best cozy mystery series that I have read in a long time.

OMG! What a shocker!! I would have never guessed what secrets would have come out in this book. The best one of the series! Even Lindsay was in shock and at a loss for words, and that's impossible for Lindsay!! One of the best cozy mystery series that I have read in a long time.

In this book we learn much more about Lindsay's cop boyfriend, Adam Trent. We meet Adam's ex-wife and his childhood friends, and when one of those friends is murdered, Adam has to figure out who killed him with Lindsay and Fred's help! Another great story that I could not put down until I finished!

Oooh, this storyline was a bit creepy! Lindsay has a stalker. First, she thinks it's her ex-husband, Rick, but soon she figures out it is not! Fred is so mysterious. Who exactly is he? How does he do all the things he does? To find out, read the story.... you won't be able to put the book down until you finish it!

Sally Berneathy is an excellent cozy mystery writer. Her characters are down to earth and believable. Her storylines are fun to read, amusing and entertaining! It's hard to put one down once you start reading. In fact, I stayed up half the night reading this book because it was so good I couldn't stop! This storyline was so intriguing, and Lindsay was her usual snarky self.

OMG!!! Totally hysterically funny!! This series gets better with each book! We get to know Lindsay's "in-law's" and they make her soon-to-be ex-husband Rick look normal!! I know the character is supposed to be from around the Kansas City area, but I truly see her being from NYC! She has the snarkiness of a Brooklynite. I could not put this book down! Read it all in one sitting!

The more I read of this series, the more I love it! The main character is so snarky and obnoxious in her own style, you cannot help but to love her! We now know more about neighbor & friend, Paula, and we're getting to know Fred, the other neighbor better as well. I want to live in this neighborhood! There is so much afoot there!!

Very entertaining start to a series! I laughed so much while reading this book. The main character is so snarky!! I cannot wait to read more!

Brad Malone is an undercover cop investigating the deaths of homeless people. Allison Prescott is the TV news reporter who penetrates Brad's disguise and sets out to find out who he really is. She could blow his cover!

This is a fun, fast-paced romance combined with a search for a murderer. The characters are refreshingly real. My attention was caught from the start and held until the very end.

entertaining.½

I laughed until my sides hurt. It took me two nights to read book 2 of the Death by Chocolate series – not because I wanted to stop, but because I could no longer keep my eyes open. That wonderful cat, King Henry, is back and not only is his distaste for Rick so very obvious, he manages to save the day more than once. Our author has some hilarious dialogue in this book and you just can’t miss what she tells Rick about King Henry. That’s a quote that deserves to be framed! And what would we do without Fred, the guy who seems to be all knowing – just where does he come from? Millions of dollars are thought to be hidden in Lindsey’s house and it’s being sought by all sorts of cagey people. Who ends up with it will be the biggest surprise of all. From a senior living community to a strip club, Berneathy takes us all over town in an attempt to solve the mystery. Maybe in the next chapter, Lindsey will finally be a free woman.
~ Linda Thompson, Host of The Authors Show

When I interviewed Sally for The Authors Show, I was delighted to learn that Death by Chocolate is not only a fabulous read, but that it is book 1 of a new series. I picked up a copy of Death by Chocolate and read it in 7 hours – it’s that good! This one is a definite page turner. It’s about the mystery, but it’s also about a cast of very well-developed characters that begin to feel like friends. I fell in love with Lindsey and her cat, King Henry. I wanted to strangle Rick (her soon to be ex) and my heart cried for Paula. I read the last page wanting to know more about Fred, but Berneathy keeps us in suspense. There’s a lot of humor in this book, which makes the story even more interesting. Overall, this is the beginning of a series I’m going to be following for some time to come. I will be recommending this series to several of my friends. I can’t wait to get started on book 2.
~ Linda Thompson, Host of The Authors Show

Once again I decided to go against my first instincts and try out a cozy mystery set around a woman in the culinary industry. The audiobook sample was funny, and I thought this one might actually fill the bill.

Weeellll…

It was not terrible. Some of the writing was sharp and funny. I didn't hate the main character, Lindsay. And much of the narration was indeed delivered with comic flair.

But I really didn't love the main character, either. She had her moments, certainly, but she drove me mad throughout the story with her reactions to events. After an explosion kills her very-almost-ex-husband on his way to finally sign the divorce papers, suddenly the family he always denied having begins emerging from the woodwork, and they all want something from her. "I told myself it wasn't my problem, and I should just send them on their way with a dozen cookies in a to-go bag. I assured myself I had no responsibility for these people…" All I could say was No, it's not your problem. Yes, you should get rid of them. No, you have no responsibility for them. Lindsay had the opposite of responsibility for any of these people, and every single reason to brush them off and let lawyers handle everything. Yet over and over she put herself through minor hell for a handful of seriously hideous people, all the while complaining bitterly. I don't know if this was supposed to be evidence of a heart of gold, but for me it was just indication that she needed to grow a backbone.

The narration was often funny, but somewhat erratic. Character voices sometimes got confused. Sometimes funny lines were delivered with a sultry tone, and vice versa, and sometimes straight lines were delivered hilariously. And … the problem with giving horrible characters horrible voices is that horrible voices are horrible to listen to. And some of these were truly horrid. And at least one, the victim's purported mother, made little sense; the accent and tone didn't jive with the way the character was described. And Fred, Lindsay's neighbor, was given an English or Anglo-Indian accent, but again nothing in the description, as far as I noticed, supported it.

I thought it was odd that people needed alibis for the time of death when the murder weapon was a bomb which could have been – had to have been – set some time before it went off. I thought it was odd that Lindsay recognized her cop boyfriend Trent's ploy to get fingerprints, but not Fred's ploy to get DNA.

A minute ago I said I didn't hate Lindsay. That's not entirely true; there were moments I did want to throttle her, aside from her wishy-washyness with the annoyances. This was the third book in the series, and – sure enough – this is at least the third murder with which Lindsay has become involved. I always find that hard to swallow. What's worse, though, is that Lindsay capitalizes on the deaths. She chortles over the increase in business at her shop after the last two incidents, created desserts based on the last two murders, and announces on the news that she is "going to create a special chocolate dessert that will help the families and friends of both victims … cope with this terrible disaster." Ew. And, finally, she exhibits all the classic cozy mystery symptoms of the TSTL heroine: she ignores all orders to stay out of danger. When called on it at one point, she huffs that if she followed the rules she would never have created her own spectacular chocolate recipes. Which is true – but has nothing to do with being too dumb or pig-headed to stay out of the range of gunfire. And if I were a cop I don't think I'd be able to sustain a relationship with someone who ignores direct instruction to stay put.

TLDR: not as awful as it could have been, but won't be pursuing the series.

I received this via Audiobookblast.com in exchange for a review.

Amanda is driving her motorcycle on a trip that was supposed to be a celebration of the end of her divorce, but Charley, the scumbag, had it postponed again this morning. She’s driving too fast when her brakes begin to fail and she loses control and ends up falling over a cliff. Charley is yelling at her to wake up; goading her to climb up to the road or she’s going to die, yet he won’t give her a hand. It turns out Charley had been killed right after she’d last seen him and it’s believed she’s the murderer, and his ghost is tied to her.

Her bike had been tampered with by the guy who killed Charley. She needs to get proof or she’ll end up in jail—or dead. It turns out Charley, a conman, had lied about a lot of things during their short marriage, including the fact that he was an orphan. So Amanda is really surprised when this warm loving woman comes to see Amanda, telling her she’s Charley’s mother and the entire—large—family wants her to spend time with them.

Interesting characters and concept, and you just have to love Charley’s family. The story has a lot of emotion, humor and intensity.

Via Charley, who can no longer tell a lie, we know quite a bit of the who and why. But proving it will be another matter, especially since the guy is both rich and in a rather high ranking position.

A somewhat entertaining story as long as you overlook some things that don’t make sense, such as her divorce lawyer also working as her defense lawyer.

There are a lot of what I call “Bakery Mysteries” out there. There is a whole list at: http://cozy-mysteries-unlimited.com/bakery-dessert-list that are, well, delicious. Some are quite yummy, some not. In this case, Sally Berneathy’s Murder, Lies and Chocolate was my first taste, and I found it quite creamy and with a pleasant mouth feel. (Grin)

This isn’t the first in the series, but I did not feel out of place starting my taste of Berneathy here. The story was well paced and I never felt that I was missing parts by not having started at the very beginning. Lindsay runs “Death By Chocolate” a restaurant featuring not only lunch, but luscious chocolate desserts (yes, there are recipes in the back, and they sound marvelous!!!!) She runs the restaurant with her friend Paula who lives next door to Lindsay with her son, two and a half year old Zack. Lindsay’s other best friend, Fred, lives in the house on the other side of her. Fred is a day trader. Or maybe a hacker. Or maybe an undercover agent for MI-6 or the CIA or something. Who knows? Lindsay doesn’t, but that doesn’t keep her from trying to find out!

Rounding out the cast is King Henry, Lindsay’s huge white and yellow “Attack Cat,” Trent the police detective and maybe boyfriend to Lindsay – that is, if she can ever get rid of her useless, self centred, spineless “I want him to be ex if he will ever sign the damn papers” husband, Rick the dirty real estate agent. And boy, is he ever a piece of work!

Lindsay’s day starts off with the unctuous Rick showing up in the restaurant with a criminal wanting to buy Lindsay’s house for twice it’s value. Things go downhill from there when the man drops dead in front of the restaurant, leading to a chain of break-ins, arson, and homicide. Lindsay herself is smart, snarky, and impatient, but not as dumb as some of the other “bakery mystery” characters, and nowhere near as self centred and irritating as, say, Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen. I had to put those down after the first few. The whole ‘love triangle’ and acting like she was some kind of puffed up, ‘real live detective’ just didn’t do it for me. Lindsay sits on the edge – not quite dumb enough to think she can do it all by herself. Besides, she has Fred the Superhuman Next Door Neighbor to back her up. Whets not to like about a guy who shows up with a machine gun he “found in his attic” to run off the smarmy ex?

Overall, this was a 99 cent investment I was happy to pick up from Amazon. I just looked, this is number two in the series, the first one is Death By Chocolate and features Paula. In the blurb about that one, Paula dyes her blond hair brown, hides from everybody and insists on always having an emergency exit from any room. Secrets from Paula's past have come back to put lives in jeopardy. I will admit it is kind of a bummer to know the outcome of the Paula edition because I read the second one first, but I have no doubt I will enjoy reading the book anyway.

This is recommended for anyone who likes a good, solid cozy mystery who also loves and adores CHOCOLATE! Yep, that’s me!

A fun and interesting novella, but i found it a little predictable and it didn't really hold my interest for very long. I really wanted to like this book more.

Beach read

Shortly after her parents' funeral, Rebecca discovers a tiny, old dress along with a hand-written letter. In it, she discovers that she was adopted and her birth mother begs them not to let Rebecca come looking for her...ever. Rebecca's world is shattered when she realizes that her family was not related to her at all. She wonders what her birth parents were like and why they gave her up. More importantly, why has it been such a secret all these years? Facing a sort of life crisis, Rebecca hires a private investigator, Jake, to uncover the secrets of her past. Jake's had a rough family situation of his own and has reunited enough clients with their birth parents to know that Rebecca will not find a mother waiting with open arms for her. In fact, he tells her, she is likely headed for more heartache. It's best if she clings to the parents who raised her and loved her and forget all about the note from the woman who did not keep her.

Rebecca, however, is determined to uncover the truth. In fact, she isn't content to let Jake do his job alone. When a tip from the dress leads him to a small town outside Dallas, Rebecca gets an adjoining hotel room and joins him. Together, they uncover small-town secrets deeper than they ever dreamed of, and along the way the broken Rebecca and calloused Jake just might fall in love with each other.

I enjoyed the way SECRETS RISING was written. The narration shifts from the present (Jake and Rebecca) to the past (Rebecca's mother and the villain in the story). As we piece together the story, it's obvious very early on who her "real" parents are, but it's still worth reading to watch all the details fall into place. The development of Jake and Rebecca's romance is a nice benefit, but it's not really the main focus. The main focus is on Rebecca as she puts the pieces of her life back together and becomes whole again. Jake takes his own journey, and the ending is a HEA with the villain getting his just desserts.

Lindsey finally has her divorce and her relationship with hunky Detective Trent is progressing. King Henry is as wonderful as ever with an obsession for catnip that even a 2-legged druggie couldn’t beat. The mystery in this 4th book of the series, goes back in time, long before Fred, Lindsey and Paula have lived on this street. Now it’s Fred who is in a predicament and his lack of knowledge about women is very evident. Will King Henry figure it out before the others? Will Lindsey’s life, once again, be at risk? You’ll never know until you start reading. Each of Berneathy’s books are quick, easy reads, each with their own story but involving the same base group of characters. While reading them in order is not necessary to get the gist of each story, it would certainly make understanding the who, what and why much easier to understand. I could easily become borderline obese if I didn’t carefully watch how many of these dynamite recipes I indulge in. Once again, I’m eagerly anticipating the next book in the Death by Chocolate Series.
~ Linda Thompson, Host of The Authors Show

First there’s one red rose, and someone dies. Then it’s a dozen roses and another one dies. The gifts keep coming and the body count rises as well. What’s going on? Is it Rick, Lindsey’s ex or as Fred suspects, does Lindsey have a stalker? Plus there is spousal abuse and Lindsey’s house becomes a shelter for an abused woman and her 3 young boys for a couple of days. Is it any wonder that King Henry is grumpy? As each book in the series is released, the characters become more developed and the stories more complex, making the reader eager to read the next one. And I can’t think of anyone who could resist the Chocolate Marshmallow Pudding recipe. I can only hope that book 6 is not far behind I’ve told all my friends about this delightful series.
~ Linda Thompson, Host of The Authors Show

All Lindsey wants is a divorce so she can pursue her relationship with that hunky cop, Adam Trent. Once again her plans are put on hold. While waiting in her attorney’s office for her soon-to-be-ex Rick, she receives some very disturbing news. First Rick’s dead, then he isn’t. What’s going on? Lindsey is surprised by the appearance of Rick’s rather strange family – the ones he’s always told her didn’t exist – up to and including a former girlfriend and her young son. What a mess and it seems that nothing but an overdose of chocolate can keep Lindsey on target to reach her goal of being divorced. Of course, we are visited by King Henry again and he doesn’t like Rick (or his family) any better than before. There’s no doubt that with the help of her best friend Paula, and her very mysterious neighbor Fred, that the murder and the mystery will be solved. Each of the books in the Death by Chocolate series just gets better. I’ve come to care about Lindsey and her cat, King Henry. If ever there was a kitty who had a sixth sense, King Henry is it. So when is the next book being released? I’m going to be in chocolate withdrawal until I have it in hand, although in the meantime I’m going to be busy making all the delicious chocolate recipes at the end of the book.
~ Linda Thompson, Host of The Authors Show