The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell is essentially the Great British Bake Off but make it American, set in Vermont.
Once a year six hand-selected amateur bakers compete to win The Golden Spoon. The Bake Week competition is held at Grafton Manor, family home of Betsy Martin, a TV personality who's famous for her baking skills (think Mary Berry) and has earned the moniker "America's Grandmother." Betsy struggles to support the large aging Manor and to keep her show ratings strong, so she's 'encouraged' to add Archie Morris as a Bake Week co-host.
At first, everything goes well, and it's interesting to 'meet' each contestant and learn their backstory. Then small things go wrong (salt swapped for sugar) and the intrigue ramps up quickly when a dead body is discovered on a dark and stormy night.
I loved this full-cast audiobook; each narrator infused personality into their character and made it easy to envision each baker. There was just enough action to keep me engaged with the story, but it wasn't so dense that I couldn't follow the plot while doing mindless tasks. This isn't the most complex mystery I've ever read, but having those elements added another layer of interest to the plot. And the cover is chef's kiss perfection.
Once a year six hand-selected amateur bakers compete to win The Golden Spoon. The Bake Week competition is held at Grafton Manor, family home of Betsy Martin, a TV personality who's famous for her baking skills (think Mary Berry) and has earned the moniker "America's Grandmother." Betsy struggles to support the large aging Manor and to keep her show ratings strong, so she's 'encouraged' to add Archie Morris as a Bake Week co-host.
At first, everything goes well, and it's interesting to 'meet' each contestant and learn their backstory. Then small things go wrong (salt swapped for sugar) and the intrigue ramps up quickly when a dead body is discovered on a dark and stormy night.
I loved this full-cast audiobook; each narrator infused personality into their character and made it easy to envision each baker. There was just enough action to keep me engaged with the story, but it wasn't so dense that I couldn't follow the plot while doing mindless tasks. This isn't the most complex mystery I've ever read, but having those elements added another layer of interest to the plot. And the cover is chef's kiss perfection.
IMO not just light but featherweight cozy mystery. I'm a fan of the Great British Baking Show, so I really liked the concept. Actually it was kind of fun to already have mental images of the scenes. I read it quickly, and it was an okay couple hours, but each secret was so obvious to me I didn't feel any satisfaction when they were revealed. It's mostly told from first-person POV of the six contestants (Betsy gets 3rd person), but they all sounded exactly alike. I read this is going to be a mini-series on Hulu and I'd probably watch it, but I'm grading the book a mid-to-low "B".
