Spiced and Iced by Jenny Kales

Item: Spiced and Iced
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted July 7, 2023 by karenbaron in #BookishRecipe, #HolidayMystery, Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

Spiced and Iced

by Jenny Kales

Series: Callie's Kitchen Mysteries #2
Series Rating:

on September 4, 2021
Setting: Crystal Bay, Wisconsin
Genres: Cozy Culinary Mystery
Pages: 239
Format: Kindle, Paperback
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: Slayed by Souvlaki , A Stew to a Kill, On the Chopping Block, Secrets and Pies

The holidays can be murder! Don’t miss this Christmas cozy mystery with a Greek twist, plus recipes!!

Picturesque Crystal Bay, Wisconsin is abuzz with good cheer when Callie Costas delivers her Greek snowball cookies to a Christmas-themed bridal shower at a charming inn. But the most wonderful time of the year turns deadly when Callie finds a party planner murdered.

The perennially busy owner of “Callie’s Kitchen” soon finds herself up to her spiced Greek biscotti in drama. For one thing, the inn’s staff are freezing her out as she tries to uncover information, helped by her Grandma Viv and her feisty aunt “Sweetie” who is visiting from Greece for the holidays. And then there’s her deepening relationship with the suave and mysterious Detective Sands, who has a few secrets of his own.

As the inn’s annual Christmas Tea approaches, things are heating up, but a desperate killer has plans to put Callie on ice! Will Christmas be merry – or will it be murder?

Turn to the end of the book for six delicious recipes, including Greek cookies and savories, plus traditional Midwestern holiday favorites!

Spiced and Iced by Jenny Kales bring out the Christmas cheer and a dead body!

Will Callie solve the mystery before the snowstorm arrives?

Callie Costas is happy to have a busy shop, and so many people want to hire Callie’s Kitchen for catering. Her biggest job yet is for a bridal shower hosted at the English Country Inn, and it’s a big ask since it’s the holiday, so she’s already busy. Callie is a great person for taking on so many new projects while keeping it together with everything to do at her business. She also has some things going on at her home front, but Callie doesn’t have the time or energy to deal with that.

Callie has her aunt Sweetie coming to visit. I must admit I loved Sweetie when I met her on the Greek islands. Now meeting her in this book, and I love her more. She’s the funniest character ever, and her antics with Viv are great. I feel bad for Callie, but they bring some laughter into her life.

I love all of the characters in this series, and Callie is doing great, remaining positive and not allowing anything to bring her down.

The Mystery

Callie Costas finds the party planner deceased on her way out of the English Country Inn after dropping off her food for the bridal party. At first, Callie isn’t investigating as she has too many things on her plate. Especially considering that she still has things to do for the bride and run her shop and her kid. Except when a friend calls you, everything is off the table; that and two nosy relatives who can’t help but stick their noses in it make it her business. Callie makes sure this time to give any information to Sands as soon as she learns it so that she doesn’t get hurt again.

I have to say that I guessed who did it perfectly this time, but the reason had me stumped. Ms. Kales got me good with the motive.

Five Stars

I am giving Spiced and Iced by Jenny Kales five stars and recommending it to anyone who loves a good cozy culinary mystery. One of the things that I love about this series is that Ms. Kales brings together food, a good mystery, a tinge of romance, and family fun, all wrapped together in a good book. Ms. Kales is a fantastic author, and I can’t wait to read more in this wonderful series.

Seriously, one of these days, I might have to convince Jen to do a Greek recipe from this series! Speaking of recipes, don’t forget to check those out at the end of the book. They are Spiced Greek Biscuits (Paxemathia) (Greek biscotti), Greek Snowball Cookies (Kourabiethes), Blueberry Greek Yogurt Scones, Sweetie’s Spinach Squares aka LAzy Spanakopita, Wisconsin Supper Club Cheese Spread, and Spiced and Iced Gingerbread. All of these are mentioned in the book!

Callie’s Kitchen Mysteries

This series is available on Kindle Unlimited.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Spiced and Iced by Jenny Kales.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

About Jenny Kales

Jenny Kales is the author of The Callie’s Kitchen Mystery Series, featuring Greek-American Calliope Costas, feisty food business owner and amateur sleuth, who lives in a scenic Wisconsin town with colorful characters — and a high murder rate! Each book contains several delicious recipes, both Greek and American. Callie’s latest adventure, SLAYED BY SOUVLAKI is the 5^th Callie’s Kitchen Mystery series and was released in October 2021.

Jenny is an avid reader, cook and baker and she’s addicted to reading and British TV mysteries. She lives just outside of Chicago with her husband and is the mom of two daughters and one cute but demanding Yorkshire terrier. She’s hard at work on additional writing projects including more Callie’s Kitchen Mysteries and a new series releasing in 2022.

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