Chocolate Cupcakes with a Side of Murder

Sabrina Carlson Cozy Mystery, Book 1

By: Meredith Potts

Narrated by: Lili Dubuque

Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Sabrina Carlson has a lot on her plate. When she isn't busy running her family's coffee shop, she is helping her detective husband solve murder cases in their small coastal hometown of Treasure Cove.

Suddenly, she has something else to worry about. Against Sabrina's wishes, her 18-year-old daughter, Jessica, is enrolling in the police academy. If the thought of Jessica risking her life constantly isn't bad enough, Sabrina's fears only intensify when a murder occurs.

Will Sabrina be able to pull herself together long enough to help bring the killer to justice?

Find out by buying a copy of Chocolate Cupcakes with a Side of Murder right now! 

©2019 Meredith Potts (P)2019 Meredith Potts

Chocolate Cupcakes with a Side of Murder

I have to say I have been enjoying these books 📚 of late. I am really able to catch up on a lot of my reading without straining my eyes. Thank you Miss Potts

Reader annoying and book is badly written

Reader is really annoying. Her voice falls with every period. It reminds me way too much of listening to my children when they first learned to read. It is difficult to pay attention to the story. I'm going to try but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to stand. Okay, I gave it about 8 more minutes and returned it.

SO, I forgot to return it but now I'm stuck at home because of COVID-19 and tried to listen again. I tried to just get used to the reader and after a while it didn't bother me so much plus the story was starting get intriguing. Now, to preface my next statement I want to let you know that I am religious. I pray..a lot. The author starts inserting prayer a lot and badly, really badly. I have no problem with a novel organically mentioning prayer but this author just drops it in like a brick on a bowl of pudding. It was obvious within the first few lines of this book that this is a very, very bad writer and has never studied grammar. I was willing to let that go if the story was interesting and suspenseful but the combination of the bad grammar, annoying reader and dropping in "praying'" every few minutes made me literally scream and shut if off. I hope that I can just delete it so that I won't be tempted to listed again because i might have forgotten that this audio book is very, very bad in every possible way.

Good Story & Narration

Sabrina has a problem she can’t stop when daughter joins police academy. Then another murder, enjoyable to figure out. Good story and narration by nLili Dubuque was excellent . Given ARC for my voluntary review and my honest opinion

Chocolate Cupcakes with a Side of Murder

Sabrina Carlson is at a crossroads..her daughter has enrolled into the police academy. Sabrina and her dad are dropping her off at the academy. Now she's learning how her mother felt over the years when she was younger and investigating. As life goes along with the Carlson's adjusting to being empty nesters, a late call one night sets events into motion. A fire at a policeman's home comes in and a body is found..a friend of both Carlson's. Now the hunt is on to discover who murdered the policeman.
Lili Dubuque is a fantastic narrator and brings each character to life.
Fantastic audio and story.

Good story

This is a good story/book but narrators/readers leave a lot to be desired. Monotone reading gets real old real fast to the point I could punt wait for the end. I may buy the book and be able to enjoy it better.

Great Read

Chocolate Cupcakes with a Side of Murder (Sabrina Carlson Cozy Mystery Book One) was another great read by Meredith Potts. Sabrina not only runs her families coffee shop but helps her detective husband solve murder cases. She doesn’t want her daughter to follow in her father’s footsteps but she enrolls in the police academy when she is eighteen. Sabrina needs to put her personal emotions aside as she is looking for the killer in a new murder. I can’t wait to read more by Meredith Potts.

Family issues tossed with a murder, fun story

This was another good story. I loved the interactions between Sabrina and her daughter Jessica. Again, clues to the murder made it easy to follow the action. Another good performance by Lili Dubuque with narrating this story. I have been listening to this series out of order but it has not taken away from each story.

I received a copy of this audiobook as a gift, and this is my unsolicited review.

Cozy Mystery

Cozy mysteries are among my favorite genres to read. Ms. Potts writes well from a technical standpoint, and her story flows well. I think this was an early novel, as it has some of the problems of a newer author. She hadn't mastered "show, don't tell" and the scenes in which the police officer is blustering around, demanding answers & accusing his people of interest of lying is (I hope) not terribly realistic. That said, I liked the narrator (I listened to the audiobook) and the characters & story, and will continue to listen to this series. I related to the newly empty-nest mom/protagonist who has an only daughter a little too well! She definitely captured my sympathy!

Great quick listen

This is a really great, short, cozy. Plenty of action to hold your interest. I like the husband and wife sleuthing team; Sabrina, a coffee shop owner and her policeman husband David. The story is engaging so you will want to go on to the next in the series. (And it will leave you wanting a cupcake.)

A fun story!

I listened to this audiobook in spurts in my car. I found it a little difficult to keep up with who was who, but it cleared things up as the story went on. The reader was great. I like it when they change their voice for the different characters. When they don't i get totally lost. =P Very enjoyable. Looking forward to more from this author!

SAID

Over use of SAID almost drove me to throwing my phone away! I suggest the author buys a thesaurus! Will avoid Meredith Potts books until she stops putting SAID in every sentence!

Absolute Trash

Where to start? The narrator is awful, she just doesn't read in a conversational manner and it was very unpleasant to listen to and the story is awfully written example.. so Steven said so I said and then the sheriff said so Steven said so I said then my husband said so I said so he said so I said. It was painful to listen to.
I was also disappointed to not start the journey with Sabrina as a PI, at the beginning she just says I started investigating over 20 years ago even though my husband the sheriff didn't like it but now they take me on as a consultant. Also there was no substance to the storyline. There was a crime committed but all I can remember is her video chatting with her daughter and talking about coffee and cake and then it just so happens she thinks so knows who the culprit was. All I can say is DON'T believe the good reviews, I'm definitely returning this book and if you want to read/listen to a really good cosy crime series I recommend read/listen
👍 Cherringham 👍