Final Sentence by Daryl Wood Gerber

Item: Final Sentence
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted November 29, 2024 by karenbaron in #BookishRecipe, Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

Final Sentence

by Daryl Wood Gerber

Series: Cookbook Nook Mystery #1
Series Rating:

Published by Berkley on July 2, 2013
Setting: Crystal Cove, California
Genres: Cozy Culinary Mystery
Pages: 283
Format: Audible Audiobook, Kindle, Paperback
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: Sifting Through Clues

FIRST IN THE COOKBOOK NOOK MYSTERY SERIES!

In need of a change, Jenna Hart leaves the high-pressure world of advertising to help her aunt, Vera, open a culinary bookshop and café. Back with her family in Crystal Cove, California, Jenna seems to have all the right ingredients for a fresh start—until someone adds a dash of murder.

As a marketing expert, Jenna wants to make sure the grand opening of the Cookbook Nook draws a crowd, and no one is better at getting attention than her old college roommate, celebrity chef Desiree Divine. But when Desiree arrives in quiet Crystal Cove to do a cookbook signing, the diva stirs up more trouble than business…especially when she turns up dead.

Known for stealing husbands and burning bridges, Desiree left behind plenty of suspects—including Jenna. Though the celebrity’s life always appeared to be an open book, Jenna will have to read between the lines in order to clear her name, and catch a killer before another body is served cold.

Includes recipes!

Final Sentence by Daryl Wood Gerber is the first book in a wonderful culinary cozy mystery.

Will Jenna find the real killer?

Jenna Hart

Jenna Hart has recently returned home from San Francisco and hopes to make a fresh start in her hometown. Everything was going great until Jenna’s best friend from college came to bring business to Jenna’s new venture as the manager of the Cookbook Nook. I have to say that seeing Jenna from the beginning of the series is quite lovely. The main thing that I liked is how she is still grieving her husband and her mom while knowing it’s time to move on with her life and coming home to have a better life. Jenna is a great character, and I think we can bond over our not-so-great cooking abilities even though we are both working on it.

The Mystery

Jenna was walking on the beach one early morning and found Desiree Divine’s body in a sand mermaid sculpture. Since she was dead, it isn’t looking great for Jenna. Pepper, Vera’s tenant, wants Jenna in jail. I have to say that I was worried about Jenna getting put into prison for something she didn’t do. Cinnamon did a great job building the case, with and without Jenna’s help on some things, and it was awesome. I have to say that I was stuck on two red herrings until I started to think about it and realized that it couldn’t be them. I then figured out who did it but not the killer’s motive.

Five Stars

My rating for Final Sentence by Daryl Wood Gerber is five stars, and I recommend all of Daryl Wood Gerber’s series. She is a fantastic author, and I love returning to her books. Since I started this series with the eighth book and then going back to the first one threw me for a loop, but it was funny to see Pepper, Cinnamon, and Jenna not being friends at first but knowing that they somehow get there in the end.

Ms. Gerber also put recipes in the back of the book, so be sure to check them out. They sound pretty good to me. The recipes are Mexican Wedding Cookies, Maple Leaf Rag Cookies, Gluten-Free Orange Chocolate Biscotti, Savory Cheese Cookies, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Crisp Bonbons. I love how Ms. Gerber adds a note at the beginning of the recipes from a character (Jenna, Vera, or Katie has a note at the beginning of each recipe), making it feel like a recommendation from a friend.

Cookbook Nook Mysteries

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Final Sentence by Daryl Wood Gerber.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

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About Daryl Wood Gerber

Agatha Award-winning author Daryl Wood Gerber is best known for her nationally bestselling Fairy Garden Mysteries, Cookbook Nook Mysteries, and French Bistro Mysteries. As Avery Aames, she penned the popular Cheese Shop Mysteries. In addition, Daryl writes the Aspen Adams Novels of Suspense as well as stand-alone suspense. Daryl loves to cook, fairy garden, and read. She has a frisky Goldendoodle who keeps her in line. And she has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane and hitch-hike around Ireland alone.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges: