Regarding Julian, that is where reading the series in order may help.  Julian is explored in a lot more detail in earlier books, he had a hard childhood and Goldy gave him the first real feeling of family he ever had.  He would do anything for her.  She inspired him to want to learn to cook, to become a chef.  His own experience contributed to him wanting to become a vegetarian chef. 

Okay,  I'll loosen up on my opinion of Julian.   Hey, are the rest of you out there?   I'm slaving away, trying to come up with these brilliant though provoking questions!   Okay, I'll admit I'm just typing them off a recommended question list. hahah. 

I'm struggling trying to come up with something to say, all I keep thinking is this reminds me of doing school book reports and my inner child is whining LOUDLY!  LOL!

Charlene

Oh, it's not supposed to make you feel guilty.  Mostly I realize I just read and don't give it a lot of thought.  I do like to hear what other's think cuz I think I miss alot of what is going on.  So just jump in and say anything!

I'm not a big analyzer either, I just like talking about the stories mostly. I don't answer all of the questions, if nothing comes to you don't worry about it. Some books have a lot more to discuss for me than others and you don't really know until you read them so if one doesn't motivate a lot of thought for you that's ok, the next one might. 

SPOILER ALERT

Question 6     Did you figure out 'whodunit'  before the end?  

I did not.  There certainly were lots of characters in the story to choose from.   I thought it was going to be Suki since she seemed to have that compulsive cleaning going on.

I didn't either, there were too many possibilities. 

I thought it would be Michaela, but I think that is what the author wanted me to think.  She is great at misdirection.  I have not figured out whodunit in any of her books, even when I guessed that it would be someone other than the one the evidence pointed to at first.

Last Question of discussion:    Are there any other things you want to comment on for this book?

I liked the book.  I'd recommend it to other cozy readers.

Make sure you vote on the next  cozy.   Discussion starting  Sept. 15.  I'm having some major dental stuff in mid August......failed root canal.

Read them all!!  Great recipes in every book. 

ETA - Hope your dental work goes well this time, Deb!

Q2

I think the romance kind of got in the way in this story.  I thought it was annoying that she didn’t call him sooner, and while I have read all of the other books and love Tom, he was just kind of in the way of this story.  The love triangle seemed a little petty too.  What if he had died, and why didn’t she say something to him about it sooner.  Argh!

Q3

While I think the book stands on it’s own and she does a good job explaining things, I definitely think you gain something from reading the other books in the series.

Q4

I like that the book is written in the first person.  Sometimes I have a hard time following books that aren’t in the first person.

Religion and Yoga (not related)

I think the fact that they go to church and are a part of the church plays into some of the storylines but I don’t feel like they are shoving it down your throat at all… throughout the books it’s kind of take it or leave it.  I have to say that she does normally regularly practice yoga and when she talks about stretching through her yoga moves in the morning it inspires me to want to take up yoga.  It sounds so relaxing.

Q5 & Q6

I loved the story (except for the romance part) and I loved that it was my second time through this book and I didn’t know who did it until the reveal at the end.  I also love the recipes in the books, though I haven’t made one yet, I fully intend to.

Can’t wait for the next cozy!  I do love doing this, I guess I just needed permission to do it when I had time to think about it hence the above long post 

Charlene

It was alright but really not my style. I tend to prefer male heroes, no religion and a bit less niceness in my crime novels. I'll stick to my Scandinavian writers. I'd live to add one to the voting but I haven't come across one yet that isn't wishlisted.