A wonderful series, with fun characters, that just keeps getting better! This story is a great read for a relaxing weekend! This story brings us back to an old murder which occurred in town of a young high school girl. When her body is finally discovered, people begin to show up in town, people who haven't been seen in years and are top suspects then and now! While trying to solve the murder, a local cooking contest is taking place and shenanigans are afoot! Ivan becomes a guest judge and results are sure to surprise you. I just love this town, the simple life, and the relationships between these characters. Don't miss adding this to your to be read list!

This was a light fun cozy mystery. Marley finds a body and must use her investigative skills to find the murderer and solve the crime. I really like this series and the characters. The pancake recipes from the Flapjack menu are a plus.
Many thanks to Kensington Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Crepe Expectations is the fifth installment.of The Pancake House mysteries. If you love cozy food mysteries and love food competition, this is the book for you. The writing is good, the characters

Back in Wildwood Cove with Marley McKinney for the fifth Pancake House mystery, we're treated to another visit with engaging characters and an interesting story. Marley McKinney has volunteered to help out at an amateur chef competition while her chef at The Flip Side is scheduled to help judge. Except,is someone purposely making some of the participants sick. Making matters worse, human remains are found where her boyfriend, Brett is working and are determined to be from a high school girl missing for over a decade. Marley has her hands full figuring things out.

I usually shy away from this genre of cute pun title mysteries but was pleasantly surprised by this one. Consistent with the overall genre, the mystery is in the past, there's lots of food descriptions, and low tension. A pleasant read with a cup of tea, and a crepe?
I provided this honest review in exchange for a free advance reader's copy.

While Crepe Expectations is the fifth novel in A Pancake House Mystery series, it can be read alone. Marley cannot believe that she is once again wrapped up in a cold case (neither can I). She is loving her life in Wildwood Cove with running the Flip Side, her beautiful Victorian home on the beach, good friends, a friendly feline named Flapjack, and a handsome boyfriend. If Marley could just avoid these pesky bodies that keep turning up. Sarah Fox’s writing style is casual like friends chatting on the front porch. The story proceeded as a relaxed pace with interesting characters, a charming tourist town, and adorable cats and a frisky dog. The little kittens’ antics had me chuckling and Bentley, Brett’s dog, with his happy, welcoming demeanor had me smiling. Marley is busier than a kitten with a ball of yarn in Crepe Expectations with the cold case, judging the competition, running the restaurant, worrying about Chloe, curious if someone from her past has risen from the dead and wondering if someone is sabotaging the contest. I would have liked more complexity to the cold case so it would have been more challenging to solve, and I hope cold cases have run their course for this series (need something different). Crepe Expectations has amiable cozy moments with girl’s movie night, the animal’s antics, shared meals, and romantic interludes. Readers of the series will especially love the ending. There are recipes for Boston cream crepes, marzipan pancakes, and banoffee crepes at the end. Relax back in your lounge chair as you enjoy the lighthearted Crepe Expectations.

Marlie and the crew of the Flipside Pancake House are back and this time the mayhem and murder surround a local armature chef cooking contest. Cooking contestant sabotage isn't the only problem in this latest mystery as the remains of a local girl who was thought to have taken off for bright lights of a big city are found in the woods behind Brett's latest landscape job. A cold case warms up as graduates of Chloe's high school class are under suspicion. Marlie can't seem to help finding dead bodies and doing good which one of the reasons I so like her character. She has a heart of gold and wants to help everyone, even lost little kitties. As with the other Flipside mysteries there are great recipes and I can't wait to try out the Boston Cream Crepes!

In this fifth book of the Pancake House mystery series, our heroine Marley McKinney is fully enjoying the life she’s building on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. Her pancake house, The Flip Side, is thriving, and her domestic life is going even better than expected since her landscaper boyfriend Brett moved in. Her cat and his dog are also getting along well in their blended fur family. When the two animal lovers see a stray kitten darting off into the woods behind the inn where Brett is working, they immediately set out to find and rescue the ball of fluff. What they don’t expect to find is a human skull unearthed by recent flooding from a shallow grave in the woods.

Forensic investigation reveals that the skull belongs to Demetra Kozani, an 18 year-old who went missing around a decade ago. The graduating class of the local high school had thrown a party out in the woods the night Demetra disappeared. She had big plans to move to New York City to model once she was done with school, so everyone assumed she’d just taken off without further notice. But then her mom, who had moved to Arizona, started calling around to ask questions, and the inhabitants of Wildwood Cove realized that perhaps Demetra wasn’t safely on the road to stardom after all.

Ten years later, and the question of where Demetra went is finally, tragically solved. Marley, who only moved to the area as an adult, finds herself immersed in the case regardless as the sheriff’s department starts questioning the townsfolk who knew Demetra in high school, including Brett’s sister, Chloe. Everyone knows that there was no love lost between the two, and that Chloe and Demetra had had a very public argument at the party. Demetra had been the kind of hateful person who made more enemies than friends. As the official investigation progresses, more and more of Marley’s own friends get caught up in its web.

In addition to the cold case, Marley is also involved in Wildwood Cove’s amateur chef competition, which is starting to look like the victim of sabotage when people fall ill while taking part. Add to this the appearance of a stranger who looks shockingly similar to Marley’s dad -- who died before she was born -- and Marley is having one heck of a springtime.

I quite enjoyed the twisty layers of mystery that kept the reader guessing throughout, but probably my favorite part of this book was Marley’s relationship with Brett. It’s so refreshing to read of a culinary cozy heroine whose boyfriend backs her up one hundred percent. It helps that Marley doesn’t go rushing headlong into danger while doing her sleuthing, but I did very much appreciate the lack of manufactured drama between the two.

Three delicious breakfast food recipes were included, and I decided to try one of my favorite flavor combinations in crêpe form:

QUOTE
Banoffee Crêpes

Crêpes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter or oil for greasing pan

Sift flour and sugar into mixing bowl. In separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in half the liquid ingredients. Whisk until smooth. Add the remaining liquid ingredients. Whisk until smooth again.

Optional: Refrigerate batter for up to 6 hours.

Heat crêpe pan or small skillet over low heat for several minutes. Grease lightly. Increase to medium heat and leave for 1 to 2 minutes. Pour ¼ cup batter into the pan. Tilt and swirl to coat the pan. Cook until lightly browned. Remove from pan; repeat process. Makes 12 to 16 crêpes.

Filling:
2 tins dulce de leche
4 large bananas, sliced
Whipping cream
Chocolate shavings

Spread some dulce de leche on each crêpe and add several banana slices. Fold the crêpe and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
END QUOTE

I’d never made crêpes before so I don’t know if I got the thinness exactly right but I think I did a pretty good job. The crêpes themselves were very tasty even before adding the filling. I must say that I didn’t use even an entire tin of the dulce de leche, but I also wound up making only nine crêpes total from the recipe provided above. I did find that it helps to spread the dulce de leche as far over each crêpe as you can, and to be generous with the bananas and chocolate shavings. I used a German chocolate bar for that last, and made my own whipped cream, as is my wont. This is a truly delightful breakfast recipe that feels like a decadent dessert, and one I’m looking forward to making again, especially since I still have that other tin of dulce de leche waiting in my pantry!

Next week we increase our altitude and make a yummy tea time treat to go with our mystery-solving. Do join me!

"Crêpe Expectations" earns 5/5 Amateur Chefs...Entertaining and Clever!

Excellent! Once again I was totally entertained by the fifth book in Sarah Fox's Pancake House Mystery series. Life is buzzing in Wildwood Cove. The town is preparing for the annual amateur chef competition. Marley volunteered to help register competitors and convince her pancake house chef Ivan Kaminski to act as a replacement judge, but the competition turns very competitive. Then, the grand opening of the Wildwood Inn will be marked by a garden party. Brett, Marley's boyfriend, was hired to manage the renovation of the landscaping, but while Marley and Brett were trying to rescue a wayward kitten, they come upon a skull. Sarah Fox puts the "wild" in Wildwood Cove with a clever mystery focusing on a decades old cold case and the nature of competition. The story unfolds with a first-person narrative using Marley's perspective along with vivid descriptions and dialogue that does well to illustrate personality and tone. I like Sarah's writing style and clever cozy murder, but I really enjoy the well-developed characters and their close-knit nature which comes in handy when one becomes a "person of interest." Newbies can start her with problems, but be warned you'll be hooked!

My favorite part (No, not "it's murder!") is "recipes included." From The Flip Side readers get three delicious easy-to-follow brunch treats: unique Marzipan Pancakes, my favorite Banoffee Crêpes, and hard to resist Boston Cream Crêpes. The crêpe recipe gives you the beginning to be creative with savory or sweet tastes.

Darn Crepe Expectations! The good news is that I have found another great cozy mystery series where the characters feel like real friends. The bad news is that I will have to buy and read the four prior books in the series even though my To Be Read pile is already overflowing.

Marley owns the Flip Side pancake house in Wildwood Cove, a small seaside town in the Pacific Northwest. She is a volunteer for the local annual amateur cooking contest, where her chef Ivan is one of the judges. As the contest progresses over three weekends, questions abound about sabotage when several of the judges get sick.

When Marley brings a snack to the work site of her boyfriend Brett, a kitten causes them to chase it into the woods. When Marley catches the kitten, she also finds a human skull. The skull belongs to Demetra, who vanished twenty years ago after a high school graduation party nearby. When the sheriff suspects the attendees at the party, suspicion falls on Brett’s sister, Chloe. Marley decides she must clear Chloe’s name and solve the murder.

The characters are enchanting in Crepe Expectations. The plot moves quickly and has many red herrings that were totally believable. The use of one major plot and at least three subplots kept the story interesting. The killer of Demetra was a challenge to discover before Marley. The clues are fair and that makes this a fun read for amateur detective readers like myself. I enjoyed spending a relaxing evening reading Marley’s story especially the chemistry between her and Brett. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars!

Thanks to Lyrical Underground and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is the 5th in the series and my favorite of the series. I highly recommend this mystery series for all readers who enjoy a seaside Northwest location, a cafe with fabulous food and a good mystery to solve. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity.

Our intripd protagonist Marley McKinney is busy running her successful cafe and enjoying her oceanfront home that a relative left her in his will. She inherited his cat, Flapjack who is a orange tabby with a attitude. Flapjack is a great addition to this series. She has a knack for solving mysteries in the past. She works well with the local Sheriff who is a relative to her boyfriend a landscaper.

Going to see a home her boyfriend is landscaping she finds a small kitten alone and follows it into the woods where she finds a body. They young girl was last seen many years before.. This is only one of several mysterious happenings in this next in series .

Marley is pleased her chef will be participating in a chef cook off that is famous in their area. One by one the judges become ill and Marley is on the case of the mysterious illnesses. Soon she is deep into clues for the murder and for the cook off poisonings.

I highly recommend this series to all who enjoy cozy mysteries with a well crafted sleuth and a pleasing writing style with fun charcters and a great location. A very enjoyable read.

Marley and Brett come across a human skull in the woods near one of Brett’s lanscaping jobs. The body is a former classmate of Chloe, Brett’s sister. Ten years ago, Demetra disappeared. Now Ray is interviewing all her old classmates and anyone else who may have been involved.
Marley is curious but doesn’t do much investigating because she is involved in volunteering for a local cooking competition. A judge and a couple of competitors get sick along the way and it looks like someone is trying to sabotage the competition.
This is a nice cozy mystery series. In this fifth book, I had a bit of a hard time going along with the investigating Marley did because she really wasn’t involved in the situation, but she manages to be in the right place to have her life threatened by the murderer.
Cold cases seem to be cropping up a bit more in cozy mysteries. But at least no one anyone likes is dying.

You will crave pancakes or crepes by the end. Some fantastic sounding ones are included. There is a ten year old murder to solve. Many old relationships are revealed. A cooking contest. A kitten, cat and dog round out the cast of human characters. Kept me guessing until the end. Speaking of the end...awwww.

CREPE EXPECTATIONS, the fifth book in the Pancake House Mystery Series, is a delight. Warm characters, a lovely Pacific Northwest setting, and multiple mysteries that kept me on my toes come together for a satisfying read.

The flooding spring rains have come and gone, and restaurant owner Marley discovers a human skull that the rains have exposed. Ambitious Demetra disappeared shortly after a graduation party in the woods, but no one knew for sure if she met with a bad end…until now. The decade old crime cracks open a whole new murder investigation with most of the suspects still living locally. Marley feels compelled to investigate when even her boyfriend’s sister Chloe comes under suspicion. Marley must also deal with a stranger that reminds her of the past and a mysterious illness that affects several contestants and a judge in the local amateur chef competition.

I like Marley. She may be a bit of a busy body, but her heart is always in the right place. She is smart and just adventurous enough to get herself in the occasional investigative bind. All of the characters are relatable and interesting, and I can see myself easily being friends with them in real life. I adore the inclusion of Flapjack the cat and Bentley the dog.

Demetra’s death really had me stumped for the majority of the book. Even with several suspects, clues, and red herrings, the identity of the killer came as a surprise, making the book all the more enjoyable. The other minor mysteries allow Marley to grow and fill out the story. Marley and Brett’s relationship continues to blossom here which will please longtime readers of the series.

I really enjoyed CREPE EXPECTATIONS and recommend it, and the entire series, to any cozy mystery reader, especially those who enjoy a culinary theme and the incorporation of pets.

I received an ARC of this title from the author and Kensington Publishers and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.

CREPE EXPECTATIONS by Sarah Fox
The Fifth Pancake House Mystery

While chasing an errant kitten in the woods behind Wildwood Inn Marley McKinney makes a startling discovery: a skull. The remains belong to Demetra Kozani, a local girl gone missing ten years prior. The former classmate of Chloe wasn't short on enemies, but was she actually killed by another student? As the town of gets ready for its annual amateur chef competition Marley finds herself puzzling over the long ago mystery. Could the killer still be in Wildwood Cove?

Sarah Fox deftly combines daily life in Wildwood Cove with an intriguing mystery to create a thriving community filled with interesting people you want to know better. Character growth and development are paramount and Marley's search for family identity is key in this book.

I love being back in Wildwood Cove and am happy to drool over Chef Ivan's creations (Boston Cream Crêpes!) as well as the gruff chef himself. In this fifth Pancake House Mystery we're treated to a cooking competition as well as a cold case mystery.

CREPE EXPECTATIONS delivers both heart pounding and heart warming moments as Marley gets involved in another murder.

Recipes included.

This is one of my favorite diner-based cozy series, and Crepe Expectations is the best in the series so far. I love the Pacific Northwest coastal setting, despite the spring rains that flooded the area. It sounds like the perfect place to visit or live with some of the best neighbors anyone would want to have. We have multiple mysteries in this novel, each of which is a challenge to solve.

The Flip Side pancake house had belonged to Jimmy, a cousin of Marley McKinney. It was a rousing success when he was murdered. To Marley’s surprise, Jimmy had left her the restaurant, the gorgeous Victorian oceanfront home that he and his late wife had owned, and his orange tabby, Flapjack. Marley had spent summers visiting Jimmy in the past when she was growing up and is now a full-time resident of the town that has welcomed her.

Marley has helped the sheriff’s department solve crimes over the past several months, including who had killed Jimmy. The sheriff is “Uncle Ray” to Brett, the landscape designer who was once a teen that Marley had a crush on. They have been dating since she moved to Wildwood Cove and continue to grow more and more in love. This time, Marley tries hard to keep out of the mysteries that appear, but she has questions here and there and…she just seems to find them!

Take the events in this novel. Marley goes to a soon-to-open grand Victorian that will be an inn where Brett is putting in flowers and shrubs. As she admires his work, she sees a little black kitten that they try to capture. She found the kitten…and a skull. Yup, a human skull. In the woods neighboring the inn. The investigators find the related skeleton. Sadly, it belongs to Demetra, a young woman last seen on the night of her graduation ten years earlier.

One afternoon a man nearly walks into Marley, and she is stunned to see what looks like her father would look like today if he were still alive. She has only seen photos of him as a young man, since he passed away before she was born. Could she have relatives she hadn’t heard of yet or worse, was her father’s death faked for some reason?

Marley attends the annual amateur chef cookoff on the Olympic Peninsula. One of the towns on the peninsula sponsors it each year, and it is now Wildwood Cove’s turn. Her expert chef, Ivan, will be a judge at the first of the three rounds of competition. Brett’s sister Chloe is in the competition, and the son of a neighbor is in the teen category. When the second round began, one of the judges was sick. As the final round begins, a chef from each category suddenly becomes ill and can’t compete. Was it sabotage, and if so, why?

There are some great clues and a couple red herrings that kept me busy, but I could not figure out who killed Demetra. Her ‘tude would have been a big motive, but it was so long ago. Guessing who the strange man could be was beyond me, but even guessing who might have reason to make amateur chefs sick was hard. The prize money could be a motive, but probably not the reason given the clues. There are some intriguing surprises at the end, and one huge delight! I was very satisfied with the end in every way, and highly recommend this to fans of the author and series, well-written cozy mysteries with a seaside setting, café, and pets.

From a thankful heart: I received an e-Arc of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley, and this is my honest review.

This is a fun cozy mystery, aiming to solve a 10-year-old murder of a high school student. Marley and her friends set out to find the killer of the teen, all while running her pancake house and filling in for a judge in an amateur cooking competition. I also loved the setting of Wildwood Cove, WA.

Cozy Olympic Peninsula Mystery
This cozy mystery will keep the reader's interest for the entire book. No one will be able to predict the ending. The story is also filled with good food. There are great recipes included at the end of the story. I am looking forward to reading more of this author's work. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

Crepe Expectation is the fifth book in Pancake House mystery series. The book can be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone, but I always suggest reading a series in order to fully understand the characters.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Crepe Expectations, the characters were well developed , the storyline well paced and entertaining, there were plenty of twists and turns and multiple suspects that kept me guessing as to the solution of the mystery.

I definitely recommend this for all cozy lovers, especially those that love culinary cozy’s!

Crepe Expectations is the fifth book in The Pancake House Mystery series.

Marley McKinney decides to head over to Lonnie and Hope’s Victorian home that is being turned into a B&B to see her boyfriend, Brett, who is doing the landscaping on the property. As they are talking Marley sees a very young kitten that she can see shouldn’t be running around by itself. She tries to catch it before the kitten falls into the swollen river. As she reaches out and grabs the kitten Marley slides down to the river's edge. As she slides to stop, clutching the kitten, she notices a skull. Brett calls his uncle, Sheriff Ray Georgeson, and with the help of the crime scene unit are able to recover the skeleton. There’s no identification, but it is soon learned to be the body of a female. Speculation soon centers on the body being Dermetra Kozani who had disappeared shortly after graduation. Her mother had moved to Arizona shortly before Dermetra’s graduation and Dermetra had been living in her mother’s home by herself. At first, no one was really concerned by her going missing as she had been saying for a couple of months that has soon as graduates she was heading to New York City become a fashion model. Plus, for the most part, she didn’t really have any friends that would be concerned about her. With her attitude to her fellow classmates, there is no shortage of possible suspects. Marley, along with Chole, Brett’s sister, begin to investigate the disappearance of their classmate, hoping that neither of them suffers the same fate.

Also going on in Wildwood Cove’s annual amateur chef competition is starting and will be held over three consecutive Saturdays. After the first round, one of the judges has to withdraw and Marley, after some arm-twisting, convinces her chef at The Flip Side to help judge. As the second round is progressing, another judge becomes ill. The question that is raised, is someone trying to sabotage the competition or was the judge the intended victim.

This was another enjoyable visit to Wildwood Cove and The Flip Side. The story like the others in the series is well-told and very interesting. Most of the previous characters are back once again.

Looking forward to reading the next book in this delicious series.