Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This winning series launch from the pseudonymous George finds the 28-year-old Paris-trained pastry chef Chloe Barnes returning home to her idyllic beachside hometown of Azalea Bay, Calif., following a humiliating breakup with her cheating fiancé. When her much loved grandmother falls ill with cancer, Chloe puts her five-star baking skills to work making cannabis brownies to help Grandma Rose cope with pain. The brownies are such a hit with Grandma Rose and her friends that Chloe's Aunt Dawn proposes the two of them go into business and open a shop selling THC-infused baked goods. Chloe is intrigued, but before she can get Baked by Chloe off the ground, a former high school classmate, Brendan Chalmers, with whom she recently had a frightening run-in, is found stabbed to death. Since the knife has Aunt Dawn's initials on it, she becomes the prime suspect. George checks off all the requisite boxes, including an appealing small-town setting, cute dog, close family, and the possibility of romance on the horizon. Cannabis-infused recipes round out the volume. Cozy fans will eagerly await the next Cannabis Café mystery. Agent: Jill Marshal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
George's debut, the first in her "Cannabis Café Mystery" series, is a cozy with all the necessary requirements--family members in trouble, a smart amateur sleuth, a charming small town, and a sense of community. Chloe Barnes leaves her fancy pastry-chef job and her cheating ex-fiancé in Paris and returns home to California to help her grandmother, who's recently been diagnosed with cancer. While Chloe deals with her losses, she ponders how best to use her culinary talents. Then, seeing her grandmother's struggle with the side effects of chemotherapy, Chloe decides to open a cannabis café, giving her a chance to create delicious concoctions that make people feel better. The brutal murder of a former high school classmate puts her plans on the back burner, and when Chloe's eccentric aunt Dawn is named as a suspect, Chloe knows that it's up to her to discover the truth. Narrator Chelsea Stephens adorns the novel with a variety of character voices and an enthusiastic presentation. VERDICT This cozy mystery with a modern twist offers informative details about cooking with cannabis and includes several recipes too. A winner for fans of Maddie Day, Ellie Alexander, and Mia P. Manansala.--Joanna M. Burkhardt
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Paris-trained pastry chef gives a modern twist to baked goods, California-style. Like so many disappointed young women, Chloe Barnes returns to the place where she grew up with a keen sense of failure and a wealth of family support. But Chloe has a little something extra in her toolbox: Thanks to California's newly relaxed recreational-use marijuana laws, she finds an innovative way to reinvent herself. Food critics in France may have panned her raspberry and chocolate mousse cake, but folks in Azalea Bay love her special brownies, the ones she first made to help her Grandma Rose cope with the debilitating effects of chemotherapy. Chloe now has extensive experience with cannabis cookery. She knows how to temper the herb's funky notes and balance its pungency with salty, sweet, and acidic flavors. In partnership with her ever supportive Aunt Dawn, she secures a space with both dine-in and retail potential. Now all they need is a license from the state. But their plans are jeopardized when town bully Brendan Chalmers is found dead in the park. Surveillance footage shows Dawn entering the park the evening before Chalmers died, and she's soon the chief suspect in the police investigation. Chloe's pretty sure the state won't grant a dispensing license to someone convicted of murder, which is still a crime even in California. Her only hope is to unmask the real killer. Far from half-baked--George's series debut is cooking with gas. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
