This is the 15th book in the Mystery With Recipes series, but only the second one I have read. It did take a bit of time to get into this story due to that fact, but once I got into it, it was fine. Bernie and Libby run a catering business, but sleuth on the side. Their family is estranged from Ada Sinclair's side of the family, but when she comes to them for help, they agree to help her out. She believes that someone killed her father years earlier, even though it was ruled an accidental overdose. They agree to cater a family dinner on New Year's Eve and see what they can find out. Well, what happens is another death, a poisoning. When Ada is arrested, the sisters set out to prove she is innocent.

The plot is intriguing, with an entire family of suspects to keep readers in suspense. There are some red herrings along the way that had me guessing as to the culprit. Perhaps it is because I have not read other books in this series, but I did not connect with the sisters and their father actually annoyed me somewhat. The mystery is interesting and I really liked the way everything was tied together at the end. Overall, this is a fun, easy to read cozy that was enjoyable. I did like the recipes at the back, and will be trying the lentil soup recipe that is from Bruce Coville. If you enjoy culinary cozies, pick this one up, but I might recommend you start this series at the beginning if you have the time and access to the earlier books.

A good read. I really enjoy this series and as per usual, enjoyed this book. The characters are well written and the plot was fun. I was unsure of how the mystery would resolve until the end and appreciated the suspense. Well worth the read.

Sisters Bernie and Libby Simmons are reunited with a distant relative, Ada. Years earlier Bernie and Libby’s parents had a following out with Ada’s side of the family. The sisters are excited to learn more about Ada and the rest of their lost relatives. Ada wants Bernie and Libby to help her with a New Year’s dinner so she can find out what happened to her father on New Year’s years earlier. But when history seems to have repeated itself when a guest drops dead. Ada is arrested for the murder so Bernie and Libby want to find a resolution to the deaths of the past and present.

I have read several of the books in this series. I haven’t read them all or necessarily in the order they were written. The books can be enjoyed as stand-alone mysteries although reading them in order will give you a better understanding of the character’s backstories. Most of the books are holiday-themed so I really enjoy reading them during the coinciding holiday season. The characters are relatable and great chemistry. The mystery moves at a fast pace with several red-herrings along the way. I was surprised by who turned out to be the murder.

I voluntarily agreed to read a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own and in no way have been influenced by anyone.

The fifteenth book in the Mystery with Recipes book series by Isis Crawford is A Catered New Year's Eve. I had not read any of the previous books in the series which might have led to the fact that I did not like the main characters, Bernie and Libby. The two honestly made the worst decisions. They get tons of red flags regarding some estranged relatives but continue to pursue a relationship. Then the engage in a high speed chase in a snowstorm driving a van on its last legs. Their father should be the main character as he is the only one with good sense. The mystery was okay, but the characters were just not people with whom I connected.

This book has lots of family drama and dialogue with a little mystery thrown in. I have read books in this series before and enjoyed them more than this one. A book with New Years Eve in the title should have a little more of the holiday in it. This book was good but if you haven't read the series year don't start with this one

his is book 15 in the Mystery with Recipes series. The Simmons sisters are hired to cater an event for some distant relatives. Curious why there is an estrangement between the two sides of the family they agree and soon realize that there were good reasons not to mingle. Now several past murders are uncovered and a new one puts the ladies in harm's way. Can be read as a stand alone. I read this series hit and miss. This book was not my favorite but a good cozy to solve. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4 Stars

This is the fifteenth book in the A Mystery with Recipes series by Isis Crawford.

The book starts out with an Agatha Christie-like gathering of all the suspects in a room and a woman named Ada is trying to ferret out a killer of her father and business partner by reading from a diary she found in her mom’s attic. Bernie and Libby get drawn into this mess as Ada’s friends. Then someone from this bizarre meeting dies and Ada is suspect number one. Now Bernie and Libby have to clear her name and save her from the mess she stirred up.

I felt like this was a little convoluted at the beginning and since this was the first book I had read in this series, it’s no wonder. I had a lot of missing backstory that a normal follower would already know. But once I got the main characters clear in my mind, it was much easier to navigate this. I wish there had been more of the “catering aspect” in the book since that seems to be the thrux of the series premise. Other than that, I felt the flow of the mystery was good. And the whole red herring aspect was in full force since every time I thought I knew who the suspect was, they turned up dead or cleared of wrong doing.

The ending provided quite a twist! I really need to dust off my whodunit muscles since authors are really throwing me for a loop with all these least likely suspect people coming out of the woodwork with ulterior motives.

This started out a bit on the wobbly side but that was mostly due to the fact that it was my first time reading this author and this particular series. This turned out to be quite a good jaunt into the cozy mystery genre and I know I will be picking up a book from this author again in the future.

If you love a good cozy mystery check this one out. You won’t be disappointed.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.

I enjoyed this book, although the author has a tendency to wander a little bit which makes the plot hard to pay attention to. It’s a decent cozy mystery, the 15th in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

Overall this was disappointing. It has many elements of a traditional cozy, but lacks a real thread to tie everything together. The theme of food/catering could be good, and I did enjoy when the sisters talked of food and their mother. However, any other dialogue was stilted and forced, and it made it extremely hard to read. It was almost like watching two robots converse; the language is english and entirely correct, but something is just...off.

In the end the mystery isn't even solved by the sleuths anyway, at least not properly. Then I finished the book, went to sleep and woke up without being able to remember WHO killed who and what exactly happened, so I had to read it again. And again. I was still confused as to how any of it went down that I gave up and chalked it up to never being sure. A mystery should be clear by the end, and this one was just long winded and entirely too confusing.

Not my favorite book of the year, and I honestly don't think reading more in the series will help. Two stars.

Princess Fuzzypants here: I have read books in this series before and enjoyed them. I am not sure why this one was not as much fun. It might have been the constant bickering between the two sisters. They seemed to disagree with each other one practically everything and the sensible one always seems to get caught up in the reckless one’s antics. Most people at that point would simply say you are on your own.
The idea of two daughters of a former police chief who lives with them both trying to solve crimes is an interesting premise. When an oddball member of their extended and estranged family, Ada, approaches them with a rather unusual request, in spite of their father’s advice, get involved with a family that “puts the d in dysfunctional”.
Was the Ada’s father and his business partner murdered ten years ago or were they just too tragic coincidences? Everyone is convinced it was the latter until there are two more murders. Once Ada is arrested, it seems both Libby and Bernie are even more determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.. Can they and their father figure out who is the killer before the killer comes after them? I confess I suspected the villain for the same reason their father did.
It wasn’t a bad book. I still give it three and a half purrs and one paw up.

This is the third I have read by this author and not one of my favorites, but it is still a quick read. The dialogue between everyone was a bit tedious.

A Catered New Year's Eve by Isis Crawford is the fifteenth book in a Mystery with Recipes series but can be read as a standalone.

This is the first book in the series for me and I had no problems getting to know the characters. All previous references are clearly explained and new readers such as myself have no problem following the story.

Libby and Bernie are sisters, who own a bakery and solve mysteries on the side. They live with their father and have no other family than their mother's estranged relatives.
After many years of being distant all of a sudden their relative Ada has come to ask for their help. Not listening to their father's advice than nothing good will come out of it, Bernie is delighted to get to know Ada.
Ada's father has been dead for many years, and she is still convinced that both he and his partner have been killed.
So wants Libby and Bernie to provide food for New Year's party and she is going to read from her father's diary hoping to provoke killer into some sort of action.
This results in getting their close family friend poisoned and diary going missing. Scared Ada flees and it's up to the sisters to solve the puzzle.

I had high hopes for this book. Staging such a dramatic show reminded me of old fashioned mysteries, however I found the book very repetitive and very slow going.
The story stared well and things were moving pretty steadily and then started to drag. The characters lacked depth, very often they behaved silly and unrealistically.
The plot was intriguing enough but it couldn't follow the story.

This book was fast paced. Hard to put down. It flowed well and it was very well written. It caught hold of me and had me hooked from the start . I was literally on the edge of my seat reading this book.

Caterers and Murder in New York
This was a very difficult book to read. It felt like walking into a room where everyone knows everybody and you know nobody. I never did get used to the writing style. I found nothing likable about any of the characters or situations. Perhaps this is just not my cup of tea. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

This is the 15th book in the “A Mystery with Recipes,” and a holiday theme cozy perfect for the holiday reading season. , Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity. My review opinions are my own.. Review cross posted across review platforms.

Sisters Libby and Bernie are catering a New Year's Eve job from part of their family that their parents had refused to have anything to do with years earlier. They are warned not to take the job but they never turn down a job and are curious about the family they do not know. and hope to mend ties. Things go from bad to worse when one cousin of theirs claims her father didn't die ten years ago on New Year's Eve of a drug overdose. Then someone is actually poisoned after their catering job was completed . Amid the chaos they decide they will investigate and to do so means having to dig deeper into their family history and put themselves in danger. In the meantime they are faced with a mean winter storm and perilously driving in the storms.

This was a fun holiday theme mystery. i enjoy the two sisters Libby and Bernie and how well they work together solving crimes. This series is a delight and I hope it will continue.

Bernie and Libby run the family shop they live above. Their skills in the kitchen come from the Mother they loved dearly and are excited to find some relatives of their Mother who they have been asked to cater New Year’s Eve dinner for. But their father warns them that there is a reason their Mother walked away from the family…but surely time has changed things, no?

When a guest at the dinner dies, it turns out to be murder and they do not believe their young cousin is guilty as suspected. Against their father’s advice they agree to help clear the young woman, and eventually even Dad pitches in when it looks like the young woman was framed.

While this is the first book I have read in the series, it is book number 15 for the author. While I get excited about finding new series with a hefty set of books that I can binge on, this is sadly not one I will be devouring. I just could not get past the way the two sisters interacted and their banter.

A Catered New Year's Eve by Isis Crawford is the 15th book in A Mystery with Recipes series. Bernie and Libby Simmons are sisters who do catering. In this book the sister's agree to cater a New Year's Eve party of their estranged side of the family, to try a catch a long ago killer. Unfortunately a guest of the party dies, so a new mystery develops. I found this book to be a quick fun read, although the sisters are not my favorite characters. If you enjoy cozy mysteries, than give this book/series a try.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and Kensington Publishing. Thank you.

I throughly enjoyed A Catered New Year’s Eve. A well crafted plot and well developed characters sells this murder mystery. Fans of cozy mysteries will not want to miss this book. I received an arc from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.

Sisters Bernie and Libby find themselves sucked into a mess at their cousin Ada's when they cater her New Years Eve party. They didn't know Ada before she reached out to them with a request that they cater AND help her figure out who killed her father. She's invited a group of suspects (also other family members) and plans to read a diary but then things go wonky when one of the guests/suspects is poisoned by cyanide. Luckily, Bernie and Libby aren't suspects but Ada is, especially when more bad things happen and when she doesn't help herself. In classic cozy fashion, the sisters work through the mysteries and find the villain. Thanks to Netgalley for the arc. This was more or less a standalone for me- I'm sure I missed a few details about the sisters but it was a nice read.

Bernie and Libby are sleuthing sisters who also run a catering business and (I think) work in a restaurant? I’m not completely sure about the restaurant. After doing a DNA test, they connect with a cousin, Ada, who convinces them to cater a family New Year’s Eve party. Sean, Bernie and Libby’s dad, tries to convince them otherwise, saying that that branch of the family is less than honest—or sane. They go anyway and meet their relatives…who aren’t happy to see them. It’s also the tenth anniversary of Ada’s dad’s death. While the police chalked it up to accidental, Ada has always believed he was murdered and she’s out to prove it. Unfortunately, a family friend in attendance ends up being murdered and Ada is the prime suspect. It’s up to Bernie and Libby to find out who the real killer is.

This was a challenging book for me to read. It’s almost all ping-pong dialogue with very little setting details. Other than it’s freezing, snowing, and they drive around in a less-than-reliable van, there’s not much else in the way of description. We don’t even know exactly where they are (somewhere along the Hudson River) until chapter thirteen. Point of View is all over the place with multiple people so you’re not even sure who the main character is supposed to be. The sisters do nothing but snipe at each other and argue about what to do—mostly with Bernie winning. They remind me of a couple of old biddies who have nothing better to do than argue. Their father, Sean, seems to have a Blofeld complex (James Bond character who always had a cat) in that he’s always petting one. Sean, Bernie, and Libby keep chasing down clues to the murderer, but ex-cop Sean seems to be the one who puts it all together. So I’m not sure who the sleuths are supposed to be. Also, the girls go through the dead woman’s house looking for clues and find one, but wouldn’t the police have already done that? There are just too many things here that don’t make sense to me.

Things I liked: The story has an interesting premise and the ending is satisfying. And the recipes are good!

Things I didn’t like: the ping-pong dialogue with no relief; multiple POVs in the same scene; no descriptions (I don’t even know what the girls look like); the incongruities with police procedures (the police would have gone to the dead woman’s house). Half the time, I couldn’t figure out what anyone was doing—and I read cozy mysteries on a regular basis (at least two a week). So I’m not new to the genre.

Recommendations: I know this is the next book in an on-going series, but honestly, there is nothing here for me to recommend. Maybe I’d like it better if I’d read the earlier ones, but this needed a heavier hand in the editing. If you’re okay with multiple POVs, head-hopping all over the place, ping-pong dialogue, then maybe you’ll like this. As for me, though I hate to say it, it’s a no for me. I am sorry.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.