Meet Your Baker

Meet Your Baker by Ellie Alexander - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Description from the Publisher

Welcome to Torte-a friendly, small-town family bake shop where the treats are so good that, sometimes, it's criminal...

After graduating from culinary school, Juliet Capshaw returns to her quaint hometown of Ashland, Oregon, to heal a broken heart and help her mom at the family bakery. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is bringing in lots of tourists looking for some crumpets to go with their heroic couplets. But when one of Torte's customers turns up dead, there's much ado about murder...

The victim is Nancy Hudson, the festival's newest board member. A modern-day Lady Macbeth, Nancy has given more than a few actors and artists enough reasons to kill her...but still. The silver lining? Jules's high school sweetheart, Thomas, is the investigator on the case. His flirtations are as delicious as ever, and Jules can't help but want to have her cake and eat it too. But will she have her just desserts? Murder might be bad for business, but love is the sweetest treat of all...

My Review
This book is set in Ashland, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. This setting was one of the reasons that I was drawn to this book. Ellie Alexander also writes as Kate E. Dyer-Seeley, and the mysteries she writes under that pen name all take place in the Pacific Northwest. Ashland feels like a cozy little town, which is perfect for this cozy mystery. 

The action starts quickly, and, as with most cozies, readers can easily guess who is going to get murdered. We get a glimpse of Nancy Hudson's nastiness, which provides many people with a motive for murder. 

What I Enjoyed: 

• Juliet "Jules" Capshaw is a very likable protagonist. She is down to earth and has flaws. She is also not too nosy. 
• The setting. Torte sounds like a very cozy, family style bakery, and I enjoyed reading about Jules' baking. 
• The plot. The story was engaging, and I didn't get bored at any point in the story. 
• The characters were realistic, and I loved that Ellie Alexander was able to bring out their personalities so well. 

Overall, this is a quick, fun cozy mystery. Ellie Alexander is one of my favorite cozy authors.