Sweet Masterpiece

Samantha Sweet Series, Book 1

By: Connie Shelton

Narrated by: Andrea Bates

Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Samantha Sweet breaks into houses for a living - all perfectly legal as a caretaker for the USDA. But her real dream is to open her own pastry shop, 'Sweet's Sweets.' Life is a little crazy for Sam right now.

At one of her break-in properties, a dying woman insists that she take a small wooden box. Sam doesn't realize that the old woman was known locally as a 'bruja,' a witch, until she begins to feel some strange effects from the box. Meanwhile, at another property, she finds an unmarked grave and the authorities come to investigate. The property owner disappeared a few months earlier and Sam wonders - who is the body in the grave? A small mural in the house leads to a connection with a famous artist; a bogus will points to possible fraud; and the handsome deputy investigating the case seems completely enchanted with Sam. While Sam scrambles to fill bakery orders and keep her properties in order, she's equally intrigued with the idea of a new romance. It all makes for a delightful romantic mystery with elements of the paranormal.

©2010 Connie Shelton (P)2013 Books in Motion

Picky, I know I'm Picky.

I really enjoyed this book -- the plot, the characters, the locale, the whole thing....BUT....Ms Andrea Bates needs to learn the pronunciation of the few Spanish words in the text correctly (unless of course, Spanish in NEW Mexico is pronounced differently than it is in "OLD" Mexico)

.As a writer and editor details are extremely important to me and as a US citizen living in central Mexico, near Guadalajara for 26 years, my Spanish pronounciation is good, even though my grammar is flawed.

Ms Bates just misses on a couple of words, but each is used multiple times and they grated, and made the back of my neck stiff.

First -- Brujas (witches, curanderas) is said bru-haas NOT Bru jaws as in the tape.

The second is Quinceareas, the celebration of the 15th birthday, and that number is the more commonly used slang for the event -- a girl has her "Quincea~nos" of just Quince. Actually that is the part of the word causing the problem -- Quince (15) in Spanish is not pronounced like the fruit, the quince. Any time there is a qui in a Spanish word, it is pronounced "key" So it could phonically be written keencee or the full Quincea~nos (with the tilde over the n) is pronounced Keencee anYos

I know, it's picky....but the first couple times she said Bru-jaws I didn't know what she was talking about.

Thanks for an enjoyable listen and if I could I'd give the performance 3.5, in spite of these words and the 3 or 4 times she had lost her place or fumbled on a word.

Sweet, Artsy and Fun

I didn't expect to enjoy this one quite so much! But I connected with Samantha right away . . . down to earth, no frills, no pretense . . . and gutsy! And not as skinny as a toothpick to boot! Cleaning repossessed houses and baking, she runs onto a dead artist in one of the homes she has come to reclaim . . . and the authorities want to tie it up with a bow as "natural causes" . . . but Sam is pretty sure that something diabolical happened here . . . This is a clean, entertaining listen . . .

A Pinch of Romance,Mystery & Paranormal

Connie Shelton's Samantha Sweet Series features a forgetful, part-time caretaker of foreclosed properties for the USDA and single parent with dreams of owning her own bakery shop, who currently runs her dream bakery business part time from home.

Whilst entering a property the USD thought to be vacated in order to clean it and make it ready for resale, Sam found a dying woman who insists that she take a small wooden box, that changes her life . . . in somewhat weird ways.

Sam is different from the normal fantasy heroine in that she is in her 50's, but she appears to have the energy and outlook of a much younger woman, for example most people in their 50's are not still dreaming of opening their own business where they will be working long hours at least 6 days a week on top of every thing else . . .

Sam still fits the fantasy heroine mold however, in as much as she refuses to believe in the magic of the Box and its . . . . ( well you have to read the book to find out - sorry but I try to keep spoilers to a minimum)

In the first book Sam finds two bodies in two new properties she is given to care take in one day and meets Deputy Beau Cardwell who she slowly becomes close to.

Sam appears to be unable to stop herself from being caught up in the investigations. Some parts of the mysteries uncovered in the investigations and who the possible real villains are, where not that hard to figure out, but then again the whole series seems to be overall a light, relaxing read (if one ignores the murders).

Admittedly I have only listened to two books to date and have just downloaded the third.

The characters are well rounded & developed, bad language, violence and sexual content references, are few or hinted at rather than reveled in.

The baking descriptions seem to get more than it's fair share of space as does chocolate, which the author admits to loving. But it does not take too much away from the flow of the book.

The plots however seem to rely heavily on Sam's forgetting things until prompted or suddenly remembering later . . . a plot device overused I feel in both books so far. But this is not a book or story killer for me and some may not even agree or see it as an issue.

Sam treads where angles fear to tread in her "investigations". Often confronting suspects and prominent people, and at times it becomes unreal and once even jarred me from the story. Again this is me and my impressions and i have not read any other review that makes an issue of this. I have after all purchased Book 3 so it did not kill this series for me

In one instance Sam gets upset when she is herself is threatened with eviction by someone close to one of the suspects because of her "investigations". Sam is saved by her neighbours who rally to her side. Whilst its was a nice touch with the neighbours. In real life if they went ahead with their "retaliation", they would find that contracts etc would be the least of their worries in the real world and relocation would not be cheap or easy . . . but that's why this fiction I guess.

The Narration is good and I would recommend this series (at least to date) to any who like a touch of paranormal in their reads.

Connie Shelton has created a very well developed, likable, characters in Sam Sweet, and her friends. I look forward to reading more of this series.

Good read

I love having a new author to read. Love her books keeps you going tell the end.

Fun book, narrator OK but has no Spanish skills.

Where does Sweet Masterpiece rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This mystery was pretty good and the characters were fun. The narrator was good with the exception of her Spanish. She needs to take a basic course on pronunciation. If you are not a Spanish speaker it will probably not bother you.

Sweet masterpiece

This audio is great ,you can shut your eyes and be there. Thank you for this book.

A sweet little book ...

... definitely going to read more to see how the character develops! Certainly worth a read!

Good book

The story really kept my interest. Samantha was a good woman that thought of others. I liked her character. The reader of the book did a great job. She could always be understood and had an extremely pleasant voice. I believe a woman between 40 and 80 would like this book best.

cute and different!

I really enjoyed reading about someone a little older, a little less perfect but still living life aggressively! I got a kick out of her jobs and appreciated how hard Sam had to work. thanks for the realistic fiction!

Sweet is Sweet

Enjoyed the story and the reader. That's quite a job she has, and brave too, yikes! The descriptions of her baking and frosting designs are so fine I actually saw them in my mind. "Who done it" really was a surprise!! oh my!!

Dull.

I really couldn't get into this story. There's nothing really wrong with this book, it's just dull. Really, really dull. Nothing really seems to happen. The narrator is okay, but I don't think I'll bother with the rest of the series.