Death by Scones

A Danger Cove Bakery Mystery, Book 3

By: Jennifer Fischetto, Elizabeth Ashby

Narrated by: Melissa Meshey

Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

From USA Today best-selling authors....

Someone's about to get their just desserts.

Riley Spencer is officially the new owner of the Cinnamon Sugar Bakery in the small town of Danger Cove. She's excited about the grand re-opening, but when she learns a hoax letter went out to the residents of Danger Cove informing them of free baked goods, she panics and does the only thing she can - quickly sets out plates of muffins, cupcakes, and cookie bars. Crisis seems to be averted...until the body of local recluse Nathan Dearborn is found in the bakery bathroom. The cause of death: peanut allergy.

Riley's certain not a single item made with nuts left her kitchen, but no one believes her, least of all the police. To save her bakery and her reputation, Riley is determined to figure out who brought in the fatal pastry. With support from her best friend, Tara, and her long-time crush, Jared, Riley discovers secrets from Nathan's past that make her question if his death was truly an accident or something more sinister. With suspects galore, the police breathing down her neck, a love life in turmoil, and a bonanza of baked goods, Riley has her work cut out for her catching a killer...before he strikes again!

©2015 Jennifer Fischetto (P)2017 Jennifer Fischetto

Death by Scones

I enjoyed the book...I wish I had read the previous books.
Riley takes over her grandma's bakery. She is seeing Will and thinks life is good. In walks Jared who sends her body tingling (unlike Will), in walks Tara - intent on making trouble & to top things off she finds a dead body in her bakery! He has died from a nut allergy but Riley's bakery is a 100% nut free establishment so to her...this spells murder and she is determined to figure out what happened. This takes the friends & family into a spiral of who done its and how the dead body ties in with Riley's life.
It had me guessing right until the very end.

“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

Enjoyable dessert!

I really enjoyed this story. A young girl, an orphan, takes over ownership of her grandmothers bakery. Soon after a strange email a dead body turns up in the bakery on the day of its grand reopening no less. The characters were likable and the main character was funny. It was a light cozy mystery and I look forward to the next in the series. The narrator was good, her voice was perfect for the character, on occasion I found it a little difficult to follow who was talking as her voice for the characters were similar. It wasn't overly distracting though and most of the time I followed ok. I would certainly listen to her again. I received a free review copy of this book at my request in exchange for an honest review.

Light, Fun, Murder Mystery.

What did you love best about Death by Scones?

The main character is funny and loveable. The story is well-written. The ending is foreshadowed but a bit of a surprise. It is a good ending. This book is suspenseful but fun.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked all the characters. There was very good character development in this book. Grandma is awesome, and so are the two boyfriends.

Have you listened to any of Melissa Meshey’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I am new to this narrator. She is very good and perfect for this book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh repeatedly. The concept of the book is great.

Any additional comments?

I received this book for free from the author, narrator, or producer in exchange for an honest review. Relatively clean book.

Cute story but poor narrator.

I received this audiobook for an honest review.

I almost gave up near the beginning of the story because of the narrator. Please, authors, publishers, whoever chooses the narrator, please keep in mind: A bad narrator can make a great story seem like it's not. If a listener can't get past the narrator's lack of skill, this looks bad for the story overall. I hate leaving bad reviews when the majority of the issues were on the narrators part. I'm sorry but the narrator did a horrible job. I see on Audible that this was her first time narrating. Wow. Poor choice authors. Even for a new narrator you would have thought she would have brought more to the table, so to speak.

Issues with the narrator:

1. There was no change between any character voices and narrator voice (big issue there since it was hard to tell who was talking at times).

2. There was a steady, almost, stilted way of talking on the narrator's part, which meant there were no pauses between scenes. A perfect example, as I saw someone else mention, is when Riley is talking to Max in Nathan's former home and suddenly she's at her house trying on a wig. It was confusing because the narrator provided not a second of pause between these two sentences/scenes. It was one sentence to the next as if she were reading a school report...or IDK what, but she's probably one of the worst narrators I've listened to and I've listened to a lot. Sorry.

Story:

Overall, this was a cute story and I'd be curious to listen to books 1 and 2. Good job, Authors!

Comments/questions about the story:

I've read plenty of food kind of stories where the author incorporates a recipe at the beginning of each chapter. This was the first audiobook with that concept and I wasn't a fan. If I want to get a new recipe, I'll look it up in a cookbook. I'm listening to a story to listen to a story.

All the clothing talk! I get an author wants to help give the reader a visual of what the characters look like, but unless the character's outfit is important or going to become important, skip the overly detailed parts.

Had Riley actually told the police about Nathan's message when he came into the bakery? I can't remember. I'm thinking no, otherwise, you'd have thought she would have taken his death a little more seriously in the beginning.

Murder & Mystery at Danger Cove

The story was interesting and kept me engaged and trying to figure out who committed the murder. There is a bit of romance to spice things up. I was definitely caught by surprise at the person responsible for all the craziness. I did not see it coming!

The narration was good and brought the story to life.

The characters were well developed and the story progressed at a good pace. I felt really bad for Riley. Her first day as owner of Cinnamon Bakery and everything goes wrong. And when she thinks things could not get any worse, they do! The book kept me on my toes and quite entertained.

I'm looking forward to more stories from this delightful series.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Fun Mystery

What made the experience of listening to Death by Scones the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed the writing style and characters. Also, mention of various baked goods and recipes always made me hungry! :)

Did Melissa Meshey do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Not particularly. It was difficult to determine who was talking during dialogue scenes. Although I did like the pleasant and youthful sound of her voice, I found her reading style to be sleepy and disengaged at times, making it hard to follow the story.

Any additional comments?

I was provided a free audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

The scones didn't do it!

cozy-mystery, danger-cove, amateur-sleuth, recipes

I want to visit Danger Cove! Any of the books stand alone very easily, but reading more of them adds layers. The emphasis in this one is the bakery, the new owner, Riley, with her vintage clothes, there are recipes, and, of course, a totally unexpected murder and the investigation. Lots of twists and a few red herrings, and an assortment of romances make this one interesting read.
Melissa Meshey is perfect as narrator here. She has the perky bouncy persona just right!
Turns out that I had an ebook copy hiding in my TBR pile, but won an audio!

Good book, wrong narrator

I really enjoyed the story and characters in this book. It had just the right amount of suspense and surprise coupled with great character development. I liked the quirky style of the protagonist and felt she stayed true to form (even if she sometimes irked me when she jumped to conclusions and read into things too much, but it was her personality). She has a fun sense of style (and very similar to my own so I am biased) and seems to have a bit of a astrological side. Nothing overdone, but enough to add to her as a person and give you a good visual.
The story itself was well written and other than a couple of scene to scene flits it progressed naturally and smoothly. An example is our main character is doing one thing at place A and in the next sentence is doing something else in place B. I think it could be contributed to the reader though.
Speaking of the reader....I use that term rather than narrator because it was as if she was reading a teenage diary. First she sounded like a teenager. I know the character is younger, but not high school young. Second, there was little to no voice change with characters. Third, as mentioned before, I believe she lacked the pauses needed to imply a scene change. Fourth, the reader missed several spots of humor because it was read entirely wrong. Again, it was read as if she was writing in her diary. I don't look for an overly produced book, but the author would have benefited by working with the narrator beforehand to explain how it sounded in her mind when she wrote it. I think the mark was missed completely which is a shame because this has potential to become a very fun series. All in all, I would buy another book or use one of my credits to continue this series.

I was provided a copy of the book free of charge for an unbiased review.

who baked the scones

This book was pretty good. i enjoyed the story line and the characters. This was my first book by these authors but i had no problem following the story even though it was book 3, Riley takes over the bakery after her grandmother decided to let Riley run it. On the reopening day a ton of people came in for free samples after receiving the emails. Problem is Riley never sent any emails. Then the town "hermit" came in to talk to Riley but she did not get to talk to him with all that was going on in the bakery, The next day she finds him in the bathroom dead. Later, the ME said he died of a peanut allergy. Problem is the bakery does not use peanut products. Also he had eaten scones. Riley and staff did not put out scones as samples. Where did they come from? Who put them out?

I was surprised at who the murderer was. I look forward to reading/listening more in this series. I received this book free in exchange for an honest opinion.

The narrator did a great job too.

Ok listen

This was an ok listen. The narration wasn't that great. There was little difference between the voices of the characters. There were also a few mispronounced words. The story had some odd skips too, there was one scene where the main character was in a house speaking to the nephew of a dead man and in the next sentence she was in a car with her best friend putting on a wig. The book just wasn't for me and that may have contributed to finding flaws where others wouldn't.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Death by Scones

Any additional comments?

I gave it a three because I thought that the grandmother was a bit selfish. I don't care if she is retired. When a family member is involved in a murder you would at least ring them to find out what is going on. She didn't. Her granddaughter Riley had to ring her a few times and leave a message. Did she call back? No! Riley had to ring her back. You would think that she would come down even it is for a day or two but still no. Then Riley gets into trouble her friends ring her grandmother thinking that she would like to know. Does she come down then? Yes but she had to be convinced! What kind of grandmother is that! If someone did this in real life I would of thought that the grandmother did not love or care for that person at all. That is why it went down to three for me. I just couldn't get past the fact her grandmother acted this way and I don't care what she was doing at the time.
on a positive note, I did not guess correclty on who done it. It came as a shock when I found out who it was. I also liked the romance too.

The narrator unfortunatily I did not like. I felt that her voice didn't change. She tended to keep it at one pitch. I did not feel the fear, surprise, anger, etc. She suited Riley's character but she didn't change it for the other characters.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.