Murder At The Bake Sale by Lee Hollis is the second book in the cozy Maya and Sandra Mystery series. As with most cozy mysteries the Maya and Sandra Mystery series is one that has a fully solved murder within each book so they can be read as a standalone or in any order if choosing to do so. There will be of course be character development that carries over from book to book for those reading from the beginning.

The Maya and Sandra Mystery series is a little different than your average cozy in the fact it has two lead characters and changes the point of view between them to give both sides to the story. Sandra Wallage is a housewife and the PTA president that is married to a scandalous politician. Maya Kendrick is a an ex cop whose husband went to prison and now had become a private investigator that has a huge workload with her partner being pregnant and close to giving birth.

When Sandra’s husband became a victim of a gossipy website called Dirty Laundry outing him as a cheater and then the woman running the Dirty Laundry website was murdered it brought Sandra and Maya together to work the case. After that was solved Sandra found she enjoyed helping Maya and proposed being her new partner. Now the ladies are taking on a new case when hired by the students at their kids high school after the spanish teacher, Diego Sanchez, was found murdered after the high school bake sale.

I will admit that I wasn’t totally sure if I would enjoy The Maya and Sandra Mystery series when I first dove in with book one. The series is a cozy with some humor but along with having two main characters that alternate the point of view it’s also a little different in being a little darker than your normal cozy but I was certainly curious having an actual private investigator as one of the main characters so I did return to this second attempt. With my rating of this one being top notch it’s probably obvious that I did enjoy this second book even more than the first and while some may not enjoy the uniqueness of this series I will definitely be returning for more.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The second book in the Maya and Sandra series, I have enjoyed both books so far. The main characters, Maya and Sandra are investigators and I have loved getting to know them. From their failing marriages to their teenage children to their ability to get pulled into a murder investigation, you are hooked from the first page! There were a lot of plot lines scattered throughout the book. as a retiree from a University, I was intrigued about the college entry fiasco. And a teacher having an affair with a student?! But the two women are crafty and intelligent and juggle their personal lives while trying to help solve the mystery. I am looking forward to the next adventure with these two wonderful ladies. Can’t wait to see what they get involved in for the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

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This is a new to me author and I have to say I am looking forward to reading more by this author! I loved this book

Wow! This book was great fun. The joy of the season and the realistic characters make this holiday themed mystery come to life. You can almost taste the delicious baked goods. But it's not all fun because there has been a murder. This book is just adorable and so fun to read. It's fast paced and full of clues. It's a brilliant read.

I really enjoyed this book. I like that we get to watch the relationships Maya and Sandra to evolve as Sandra moves into a PI role. I also learning more about the families of each.


This book had lots of twists and turns that kept me reading late into the night. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

Princess Fuzzypants here: Former cop Maya and political wife Sandra are an unlikely duo as friends and even more unlikely as partners in Maya’s detective agency. Sandra wants more clout in the partnership but Maya is unwilling to relinquish control. But for all of her background, Sandra turns out to be a strong and savvy lady. The two are going to need all that and more as they search for the killer of a popular high school Spanish teacher.

They are hired by his students who held a bake sale to raise funds for a trip he had planned for the students to Spain. It turns out that the poison that killed him may have come from one of the cookies they were selling. Who wanted the handsome fellow dead and why. There were a lot of ladies who were swooning around him but it was Maya who had caught his eye.

They are going to have to dig deep to find the villain and in the process, they learn more about their own errant husbands than they wish to know. But whatever comes their way, they are more than up to the challenge. Four purrs and two paws up.

Murder at the Bake Sale
After reading this one I was craving chocolate chip cookies and feeling better about my abilities to make a decent batch. This is one of the few cozies where you have a partnership that would seem to make no sense but for the wonderful coziness of the characters. Maya and Sandra were friends once upon a time and now they are private investigative partners, well ex-cop Maya is the PI and senator’s wife Sandra is in training. Their lives seem to mirror each other at times while also appearing to be completely opposite and you just aren’t sure which way they are going to go, but you get the feeling that these are a couple of decisive ladies. More than one mystery, but are the intertwined? Hard to tell because of the red herrings and excellent twists and turns in the plot. A great read and I look forward to the next one!

Maya and Sandra are working their private detective agency but they are also single moms, with teenagers attending the same school. They are enlisted to provide bake goods for a fundraiser benefitting a student trip to Spain. They get dragged into investigating the murder of the Spanish teacher by the students who loved him.

The investigation gets rather dangerous when political intrigue draws Sandra into situations that involved her estranged husband, a US Senator.

The characters are very interesting and their backgrounds continue to develop. The writing is crisp and grabs the reader quickly.

Loved reading this book and author. If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend reading it. I suggest reading in order

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

Love the school setting.

This is the second book in the Maya and Sandra Mystery series. I have read the first book and I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and also this one.

The very popular Spanish teacher is found murdered and one of his Spanish classes hires Maya and Sandra to solve the case. Maya and Sandra start seeing a whole other side to some of the parents in their community. But is this reason enough to kill a teacher? That’s what they hope to find out without become another notch in the killers belt.

There are many twists and turns, tense moments, and an unexpected ending but in the meantime, the reader is taken on a thrilling adventure that is gripping and exceptionally well written.

Lipstick taser?

Now that I have your attention I'll note that though it took me longer to get into this book than expected, once I got into it I was thoroughly into it. I had the advantage of having read the first in the series and found the budding partnership between Maya and Sandra intriguing, so it was doubly interesting to see how it had progressed. They are definitely an odd couple, with layers of illusion they've garbed themselves with the protect their inner core, layers that are slowly being peeled away in "A Murder at the Bake Sale". I honestly had no clue who the murderer was until the very end. With several parallel stories drawn from both the political and real world,

There are many, many things going on within the larger whole. The relationships Maya and Sandra have with their husbands is given a bit more emphasis here, with decisions being made that will impact more than just Maya and Sandra. One of my main takeaways from the book is how the smallest action or lack of action can impact so many, ranging from high school students and school staff to political movers and shakers, not to mention ones own children. Thus, as the book wound up some loose ends, I couldn't help feeling both satisfied and sad. Real life has a way of doing that and author Lee Hollis pulls us into not just Maya and Sandra's worlds but the world and people about them.

Despite it taking me awhile to get into the book, which may be as much my fault as the plot, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and ultimately went with the five star rating. I came away thinking of, well, so many things and looking forward to the next visit to Maya and Sandra. One of the things I'm thinking of, of course, is that darn lipstick taser. While I'm checking on where to buy one, make sure you add this one to your "To Be Read" list.

Maya and Sandra are both still working on their relationships but still have to go about their everyday routines. The PTA is holding a bake sale to raise funds to help the Spanish class raise money for a trip to Spain. The Spanish teacher Diego Sanchez is a huge flirt and asks Maya out. Trying to move on from her ex dating is something new for her. When she finds the teacher dead she wonders who in the world would kill him and why. Diego's students hire the ladies to figure out who murdered their teacher and why. The two soon learn more than they bargain for when it comes to the students and their parents. Follow along as the two search for a killer and along the way find out some interesting facts about their town.

The plot of the book was such a great page turner. The plot of the book was very well written. I truly cannot wait to read another wonderful book from this great author. This was a truly great book.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are so vibrant and realistic. Both MC's are mothers and, at least for me, that makes them more relatable. I also like how different they are but they still work really well together. The only thing about this book I didn't like was the way that it ended. The motive was a little flimsy and the method seemed a little off to me. I don't want to say much so I don't give anything away but this is worth picking up if you like cozy mysteries!

Another compelling and entertaining book in this series. I was glad to catch with the two sassy heroines and had fun in reading this story.
It's fast paced and the solid mystery kept me guessing.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Murder at the Bake Sale is a solid cozy mystery set in Maine. I enjoyed the mystery, but am not one who enjoys love triangles, which this book seemed to have a lot of.

Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Maya and Sandra are private investigators, a former cop and a former PTA president. When one of the popular high school teachers is poisoned at the school bake sale, they’re hired by the students to find the killer. There’re great side stories in this mystery. I loved this book.

I honestly don't know how to rate this. This is advertised as a cozy mystery, but I do not agree. The content and plot twists were not within the cozy genre. There was also a plot thread that made me very uncomfortable, and I feel as though the characters' responses were not realistic. I will not be continuing with this series.

I'd forgotten how much fun the first book of this series was since it's been a while since I read it. These two very opposite friends made a heck of a good sleuthing team! And Sandra had grown a little since the first book too seeming more confident and after finding out something in this book, she was more determined to prove she could be a worthy PI partner for her pal Maya who was a former cop and knew exactly how to play things to stay by the book and out of trouble.

Maya cracked me up with her kitchen efforts always backfiring. But just as Sandra was trying very hard at sleuthing, Maya gave it a shot for her daughter's bake sale. Collectively, these two ladies had some pretty cool kids, two of which were dating (Maya's Vanessa and Sandra's Ryan). I know I was suspicious of someone throughout the book for something but never really thought about them being the killer.

The showdown was good with the police getting there in time to haul off the perp. Both Maya and Sandra had a couple of life-changing moments in their individual lives, so it'll be interesting to see how any future books play out.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by Kensington via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.