While this book takes place in England, I think that anyone from a small town can related to the characters and situations within this book. I enjoyed the uniqueness of each character and how the author portrays each of their individual personalities. The story moved at a quick pace and dropped just enough clues that the ending wasn't shocking, but wasn't predicted in chapter three.

I don't know why but I really dislike the name Barker Brown. It just rubs me the wrong way. Other than that, my other negatives are really minor. I spotted a few misspelled/incorrect words but they weren't enough to pull me out of the story. I think it would also be really nice if the author included a recipe or two at the back of the book. After all, the main character is a baker and from what I've seen, all of the books in this series has something to do with food.

A perfect rainy day read. The pace is quick but nothing feels glossed over. The romance aspect felt a bit obvious, but there's nothing wrong with that! I'm looking forward to picking up more books in this series and learning more about the characters. 

I really enjoyed most of the characters in this book. The Landers sisters especially made me smile and I would love to see more books with them and their family as the focus. I loved the small town feel to the book. It felt like someplace that I might live. Heck, if you're around my site enough, you'll know that I love recipes and crock pots. 

The author has a serious love of adjectives and describing things, even when they don't need to be described. For example, there's a UPS driver that she describes and he's nothing more than a blip in the book as he drops off 5 boxes full of crock pots. The author also makes some odd formatting choices, such as putting a recipe smack dab in the middle of the book and then having an entire recipe section in the back. There are editing and formatting errors galore, as well, which really threw me away from the story. The main character talks about being in France and how she was drunk most of the time she was there...and then I'm not sure one chapter went by when she wasn't drinking and she seemed almost proud of the fact that she was somewhat of a lush. She also mentions twice that she's a writer. The first time, I honestly thought it was a typo and the author meant waiter. The second time wasn't until chapter 33 and at no point in the book does this information have any relevance.

I know I seem like I'm being pretty harsh here, but I guess I just have expectations when it comes to things that could be fixed, should have been caught, but haven't. There's no excuse for something like the font size changing randomly for a few pages and then changing back and then changing again. As for the story itself, it could use some work. When the author contradicts her own story, there's a problem and that's something that an editor should catch. If a casual reader caught it, a good editor should have as well. I really wanted to like this book. I loved most of the characters (the main character was a turn off for me), the setting, and even the premise of the story. I loved the references to things like Murder She Wrote and taking to ones bed. I may give this author another chance, but I'll go in with lower expectations.

If you'd like to jump into a light mystery that I did love, check out The Case of the Cat Show Princess.