Baked Alaska: A Culinary Mystery by Josi S. Kilpack

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ll bet that my regular “readers” of my reviews grow very tired of starting a review this way, but I believe in always sharing my experience with you.  As far as I am concerned, I prefer reading reviews that tell me what the reader was thinking and feeling throughout the book rather than a rehashing of the actual story.  So here goes.

For the first one third to one half of the book, I struggled to get into this book.  I love mysteries, and I often judge them right alongside the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie.  I was hoping that Sadie would be a Miss Marple type, and when she wasn’t, I was somewhat disenchanted.  And I struggled to truly drum up any interest for the other characters or even the story.  The mystery did not seem “mysterious,” but it had two things going for it.  I had agreed to review it, and it was clean.

As I pushed onward through the book, I suddenly noticed the subtle twist the author had introduced.  Maybe I had misjudged the book.  Perhaps it needed a higher rating than 4 or 4.5.  As I continued to read, I wanted to do nothing buy finish the book.  I have to admit that action of the last third of the book sold me on this book.  Sadie was not Miss Marple, but she was one smart cookie.  And I seriously doubt that most would see the ending coming the way it did.

Since this book is part of a series, I am sure that one of the problems I encountered in the beginning was the fact that this is the first and only book from the series that I have read to date.  I certainly want to read the others after reading this one.  Though not impossible to connect with the characters if you have not read the other books, I think I can attest to the fact that reading the series chronologically works better.

If you like love and romance, I feel that you will enjoy this book, too–especially the ending.  I will admit that this got a little sappy for me and I could have used a bucket (just kidding), but it was pleasantly brief.  I can also recommend this book for its clean content.  No profanity and no sex.  Also, no gratuitous violence.

As a side note, I loved the recipes that were scattered throughout the chapters.  Some of them sound really good, and I may have to go back and pull some out to try pretty soon!

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.  I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.