Sunday Synopsis

 

Killer Cupcakes by Leighann Dobbs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After the last two books I've read, which totalled almost 1,000 pages, I needed a short read. I actually just needed some fluff, and this fit the bill.

Lexy Baker (who is a baker) is doing well. She's opened her own bakery and created a new treat, the cupcake topper. Things are looking up until her ex dies from eating poisoned cupcake toppers. Lexy has to close the bakery while they attempt to find the killer because she is suspect number one. She will have to find the real killer, without getting herself killed, if she hopes to maintain her business.

This was a cute yet predictable short story. I don't know if I would even call it a novella. It was quite sappy, for example, when it said on page 15, "glancing down at the floor, her cheeks a slight shade of red as she recalled the breakup." It reminds me of teaching middle schoolers to create sensory images. Sometimes they would use cliches too often, and other times they would include a sensory detail that was totally disconnected in placement. Dobbs does this. Another example is when a character says to Lexy, "Now you'll get yours!" Cliche. I can just picture the character shaking his fist as he says this, much like a cartoon.

I also didn't like the fact that there were several grammatical errors. I can forgive one, maybe two in a long book, but these were obvious mistakes like the misuse of apostrophes and incorrect tense. Last, I didn't like the fact that it was a 3rd person omniscient point-of-view. I didn't like that one paragraph would be from Lexy's POV and the next from Cassie's. I feel the reader would be more invested if things were told in first person by the main character, or third person limited.

But if you need a quick read that is cute, light-hearted, and won't require your brain to constantly be in overdrive, this might be a good book for you.

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