A Beachfront Bakery Cozy Mystery Bundle (Books 1 and 2)

By: Fiona Grace

Narrated by: Ulka Mohanty, Melissa Durbin

Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

A bundle of books one (A Killer Cupcake) and two (A Murderous Macaron) in Fiona Grace’s Beachfront Bakery cozy mystery series. This bundle offers books one and two in one convenient file, with more than 150,000 words of listening.

In A Killer Cupcake (book one), Allison Sweet, 34, a sous chef in Los Angeles, has had it up to here with demeaning customers, her demanding boss, and her failed love life. After a shocking incident, she realizes the time has come to start life fresh and follow her lifelong dream of moving to a small town and opening a bakery of her own. When Allison spots a charming, vacant storefront on the boardwalk near Venice, she wonders if she could really start life anew. Feeling like it’s a sign and a time to take a chance in life, she goes for it. Yet Allison did not anticipate the wild ride ahead of her: The boardwalk, filled with fun and outrageous characters, is pulsing with life, from the Italian pizzeria owners on either side of her who vie for her affection, to the fortune tellers and scheming rival bakery owner nearby. Allison yearns to just focus on her delicious new pastry recipes and keep her struggling bakery afloat—but when a murder occurs right near her shop, everything changes. Implicated, her entire future at stake, Allison has no choice but to investigate to clear her name. As an orphaned dog wanders into her life, a devoted new sidekick with a knack for solving mysteries, she starts her search. Will they find the killer? And can her struggling bakery survive?

In A Murderous Macaron (book two), a rude tourist dies after eating his way up and down the boardwalk, and all eyes fall on Allison, as the police blame her new macarons. The macarons have a secret ingredient that is so delicious it has customers lining up and down the boardwalk—but they are not, she knows, the cause of death. Allison, forced to clear her name and salvage her customers, has no choice but to retrace the victim’s foodie trek up and down the boardwalk, and to figure out what he ate—or who he insulted—that could have gotten him killed. With her beloved dog at her side, it is a race against time to crack the mystery and solve the crime before she loses her bakery—and her budding romance—for good.

A hilarious cozy mystery series, packed with twists, turns, romance, travel, food, and unexpected adventure, the Beachfront Bakery series will keep you laughing and listening late into the night as you fall in love with an endearing new character who will capture your heart.

Books three through six are also available!

©2022 Fiona Grace (P)2022 Fiona Grace

Book 1 was narrated well, book 2 was not narrated well at all.

There are 2 different narrators, which really altered the feel of the stories and took away any continuity between the stories. Book 1 had a very good narrator, I listened to everything. Book 2, however, was not enjoyable because of the narrator. She was trying too hard to emphasize words, most often in all the wrong places. I didn’t pay attention to many places in her narration, and didn’t really even miss anything. In addition, book 2 had at least 3 places where the narrator stopped her sentence and started again. This should have been edited so much more thoroughly!!

Narrator made lots of mistakes and had awful accents

The narrator in Book 1 was great with accents!
The narrator of this book (Book 2) is really really bad.
I’m sorry to say that - she has a nice voice as long as she’s not doing any accents. Seth’s NY accent was just horrible, and the Nate’s Australian accent is more like a bad British one.
Made me cringe unfortunately.
I hope this narrator either learns how to speak these accents properly, or doesn’t take on any assignments that involve doing other accents.
Just my honest feedback, not trying to be mean.

I enjoyed them.

I listen while work. I turn on at night and put a timer on. I don’t watch tv, and I enjoyed it. Good mind candy.

Don’t bother.

This was sappy, inane and improbable. The characters are so flat and cartoonish they could belong in the Sunday funnies. The narrator was annoying and cloying. I tried the second one, hoping it had improved, but I lasted about 20 minutes. Pass on these.

Very slow

This book bundle was not for me. The storyline is slightly immature and very slow. The narrator in the second book made numerous mistakes.