for batter or worse
Published April 28, 2021

For Batter or Worse by Jenn McKinlay

For Batter or Worse by Jenn McKinlayFor Batter or Worse by Jenn McKinlay
Series: Cupcake Bakery Mystery #13
Published by Berkley on April 27, 2021
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
four-half-stars
Also by this author: Pumpkin Spice Peril, Strawberried Alive, Sugar Plum Poisoned
Also in this series: Strawberried Alive, Sugar Plum Poisoned

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

About For Batter or Worse

For Batter or Worse is the 13th enter in Jenn McKinlay’s oh so bingeable cozy Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. The cupcake crew has a lot on their plate – Angie and Tate have a baby on the way, Mel and Joe are just days away from getting married, and Oz is settling into his job as the pastry chef at an exclusive resort while planning the cupcakes for Mel and Joe’s wedding reception.

Mel, along with several others, witnesses Oz and the head chef have a very public argument which unsurprisingly makes Oz the prime suspect when the chef turns up murdered in the kitchen. Mel has to clear her protege, find the real killer, and find a replacement for Oz at her bakery all before her wedding that’s just days away.

My thoughts about For Batter or Worse

As always, the relationships between the characters are the stars. Mel and Angie’s friendship is enviable as it’s grown over the series, expanding to include significant others, spouses and now an almost here baby. Definitely friendship goals

Mel and Angie’s extended family is large, boisterous, teasing, sometimes eccentric but you can always feel the love and care they feel for each other. No matter how serious the problem or dangerous an investigation gets, you know they’re there for one another. I’ve loved watching those bonds develop over the 13 books in the series.

Jenn McKinlay describes the cupcakes in such rich, enticing detail that I absolutely understand why friends and family members are constantly dropping by to mooch cupcakes.

Your thoughts

Is there a mystery setting that you’re tired of? I keep waiting to have my fill of culinary mysteries but I keep remaining intrigued by my favorites. Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

Other books

sprinkle with murder
Sprinkle with Murder by Jenn McKinlay
murder at the beacon bakeshop
Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop by Darci Hannah
and then there were crumbs
And Then There Were Crumbs by Eve Calder

Make sure that you read the entire Cupcake Bakery series, starting with Sprinkle with Murder. Read my review of Pumpkin Spice Peril by Jenn McKinlay.

Looking for a new cozy mystery series set in a bakery? Try Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop by Darci Hannah set in a bakery in a lighthouse on Lake Michigan. Read my review.

Eve Calder’s Cookie House mystery series begins with And Then There Were Crumbs. Read my review of the second in the series, Sugar and Vice.

In conclusion

Culinary mysteries like the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries are perfect bingeable, gentle reads.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC.

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About Jenn McKinlay

I wrote several mysteries. I submitted to agents and publishers. No one loved the whole package. They loved my characters and hated my plot or vice versa. It was agony. Then a lone voice, an agent, decided she thought I was a genius (always a good sign).

She signed me and now I had a buddy to suffer the rejection with me. It still hurt. We kept trying. It went on for two years. And then we sold! In 2008, I agreed to write a decoupage mystery series, then I submitted an idea for a cupcake bakery mystery series and it sold. Sadly, my original agent left to pursue new and different dreams of her own. I stayed with my agency, liking her partner very much. I knew it was a good match when I submitted an idea for a library lover’s series and my new agent loved it and sold it.

You’d think I’d rest now. You know, take a chill pill and just enjoy the ride. Yeah, I’m not built that way. After so many years of hours hunched over my keyboard, banging out stories, years spent checking my mail box and my email inbox for good news, I don’t think I’ll rest until I really feel like I’ve achieved what I set out to do. And so, I agreed to write the bargain hunters series and then, I sold another idea for a mystery series set in London, which is my fifth mystery series.

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