This book didn't live up to the cuteness of the cover or the description for me personally. I was especially excited to read about "New Bison" as my parents lived in what I'm assuming the town is based on, New Buffalo, MI. I found Maddy to be very unrealistic and quite annoying, but the dog super cute and a fun addition to the story. I usually grab a cozy mystery when I'm looking for some simple, fun, no-stress plot and while the book tried to follow this formula, it didn't pack a punch for me and wasn't very memorable. Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When Maddy Montgomery’s fiance is a no-show at their wedding, there’s only one thing to do. Move to New Bison, Michigan, and take over the inheritance her great-aunt left her. She’ll get the house, a bakery, and an English mastiff named Baby. The only stipulation is she has to wait a year before she can sell. With the help of her aunt’s friends, she’s ready and willing to take on the challenge, but then the mayor is found dead in the bakery. Her aunt left her clues that something suspicious was happening, and Maddy is determined to figure it out.
The adorable cover made it a simple decision to request this book. Not to mention the cute title! I can’t deny this story is cozy and perfect if you’re looking for a quick read! Although Baby is the star of this book; I have to say Maddy really grew on me. Maddy takes charge of her life and sees that she has the potential to do great things, instead of being just a pretty face and influencer. I liked this story, but I have to say I didn’t love it. There was a lot of potential to develop a great murder mystery, but the story was very surface level. Also, because of various characters, it was hard to keep track of who was who at times. I typically enjoy any hint of a romance, but the one in this story was unbelievable and forced. The biggest letdown was it felt like the mystery surrounding her aunt was left unsolved. I would have liked more out of this story overall. I think if there were some twists that weren’t easily solvable; this series could be a winner!

Let me start out by saying that I love cozy mysteries. I love their predictability (for the most part, all of them follow the same mold), clean rating, and overall "coziness" so to speak. Though I enjoyed this one, somehow it felt "flat" and forgettable. First I will share the pros. I enjoyed the diversity aspect (sleuth is African American) but as I sit here writing this review, I can't really recall anything special about this book that I enjoyed... That should tell you something. Now on to the cons: for one this book was very basic, in every sense of the word (in fact, my main dissatisfaction with this book was that you can EASILY guess who committed the crime....this is a huge no-no) Now here me out, when I read cozies, my standards are somewhat low to begin with. I am not looking for literary prose nor thought provoking themes. Instead I look for the following: flirty banter, good chemistry w/"love interest", witty observations, charming/homey small town feel, hilarious supporting cast, and a clever culprit whose identity I cannot easily guess. In my humble opinion, this book did not have most of these things. Is it a clean, quick read? YES. Can you read it in a day/few hours? YES. Would I recommend it to someone? Ehhhh... let's just say this would not be my first choice. Hope this helps!

***A very warm thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this title.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.
I tried to give this book a chance but just couldn’t get into. I couldn’t finish it because it was a boring storyline.

Publication Date: 30th August 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Madison ‘Maddy’ Montgomery a social media influencer who has been recently made single due to being left at the alter is on her way to New Bison after her great aunt left her everything to her in her will. Her home, her money, her business (a established bakery) plus her beloved, Baby a English Mastiff. When we meet Maddy all she wants is the money however the catch is she has to live in her home and run her business for a year. Within days of her being in New Bison someone is murdered and Maddy is connected. She is determined to find out who the murderer is.

At first, I didn’t think I could get along with Maddy as a character however even though her choices were questionable throughout the book I grew to like her. My favourite character had to be Baby being a dog mum myself. The ending felt like something was missing, I think maybe this could be answered in the next one which means I will be continuing with the series

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington books for this arc and giving me the opportunity to read this early. #TwoPartsSugarOnePartMurder #NetGalley

Spoiled Stanford graduate Maddy Montgomery discovers she's inherited a house and a bakery business on the shores of Lake Michigan, she puts on a pair of Louboutin's and heads east. What she finds freaks her out. Her great-aunt who she hardly knew insists that she live in the house and run the bakery for one year before she can sell or leave. As someone who does not know how to cook, the bakery is a challenge to her, but she is game to make it work. Before she gets to spend a few days in town, people keep pestering her to sell the house or the business or both. Then someone is murdered.

This is a new series by author V.M. Burns and I have always enjoyed her books, and I enjoyed this one too. I hope in future books, she tones down the ditziness of Maddy because she is, after all a Standford graduate with an art history major and minor in foreign languages. I find it incredible that women in their twenties do not know how to cook. It seems to be a trend in books lately, Sheesh with all the cooking shows on TV, you'd think . . .

This was a super lighthearted and pleasant read! Valerie's debut novel presents some super lovable characters and an interesting plot. Although the ending was a bit abrupt, there definitely wasn't a dull or boring moment throughout the book.

I was torn between giving this a 3 or a 4, but ended up with a 4 as it was leaning closer to a 3.75 on my personal rating scale - thanks to Baby's role in the book, and the recipes at the end of the book!

A massive thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Valerie Burns for the ARC copy.

I love when an author I love begins a new cozy mystery series! I am a big fan of the authors other two series so it was with 85% excitement and 15% trepidation that I began this one. And I was hooked right from Chapter One!

Maddie inherits a house, bakery and an English Mastiff from her great Aunt Octavia, on a lake in Michigan. She leaves her life with her Dad, the Admiral..who is literally an Admiral in the United States Navy and skeptical of Maddie going out on her own.

Aunt Octavia has left clues that there is something going on in town and now two people are dead...murdered. Maddie and her new friends join in together to solve the mystery.

This book is action packed, edgy, modern and still with that cozy vibe.I loved the Instagram hashtags scattered throughout.
Thanks for the opportunity to read and review this book which publishes on 8/30/22. Thanks alsi to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing and the Author.

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder is a cozy mystery that not only had me craving croissants but made me root for people I didn't expect to root for, slash people I didn't expect to slash, and fall in love with a huge dog named Baby. Who would have thought?

Firstly, the cover is great! It's right on par with cozy mystery trends that are currently out there. It's colorful, it showcases our sleuth and main character as well as the beautiful and big dog, Baby. We can understand that she bakes in the book based on the illustration, as well as the title hints at that, and I think the colors were perfect for the warm aspect of the small Lake Michigan town we're about to become enveloped in.

We meet our main character and sleuth, Maddy, as she's decided to learn more about her Great Aunt Octavia, whom she has never met, as she learns that she has left Maddy her home, bakery business, and "puppy" Baby. She flies out against her Navy Admiral father's wishes to the small Lake Michigan community of New Bison and is quickly thrown into adapting to a smaller town than she's used to, people who doesn't know all know about her, and also that Baby isn't really a "Baby" after all - he's a huge dog that the whole community loves. Oh, and also there's a murder in her bakery within a few days of her arrival. Great.

Between running a bakery, when she's not a baker, meeting her Great Aunt Octavia's friends and they become hers, as well as going on a few dates and maybe even falling for a local single man, she has her hands full. Not to mention now she's a part of the local gathering of amateur sleuths trying to figure out the crimes that occur in New Bison, which is rare and few.

Will she figure out who the murder is? Will she be their next target? Will she finally learn how to bake?

5 Stars. This is a great start to the Baker Street Mystery series. There are a lot of connections I felt with the book on a personal level that reminded me of my mother who has passed away. The character of Great Aunt Octavia was methodist, loved baking, British shows and also her unique dog. That was my mom. So, this read honestly was wonderful for me connection wise. Alongside, the characters and setting reminded me of the show, Northern Exposure which was kind of fun.

Classic to cozy mysteries, there are a ton of characters introduced up front (I wish it was slightly slower believe it or not because I like to be able to keep track of everyone, their appearance, personality, plot line potential, etc). I enjoyed the baking aspects of it and also enjoyed that there's recipes at the end. I find it kind of funny that the chocolate cake recipe isn't included, but honestly it made sense! That's Octavia's secret family recipe, of course it wouldn't be in the book!

Would recommend. Now, I'm off to try the thumbprint cookies! Maybe I'll post them on social media this week and I'll have a line of customers awaiting!

Thanks to the publisher, Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy to read and review. Review will also be posted to my blog (www.kagoodsell.com/book-reviews), GoodReads, TikTok (@unearthingeco), as well as NetGalley reviews.

When I was scrolling through Netgalley, this book stood out to me for two reasons: the title and the cover. If you know me, you know that I love two things — sweets and “whodunnit” mysteries. The title perfectly captures both of those elements. And as for the cover, this fun and colorful image is an accurate representation of the book.

I’m not sure if it was because I read this on my Kindle (and I tend to read faster when I’m using my Kindle), but I flew through this book. I was eager to find out who the killer was, but I also loved reading the descriptions of the setting and characters.

I was able to predict who the killer was pretty early on (within the first 25% of the book), but that did not take away from my experience of the book — mostly because there were a handful of characters that were easy suspects, so it kept me second guessing myself. The one and only downfall of the book for me is that I feel like the ending was so sudden. Even though two out of the three murders were solved, it didn’t seem like there was a clear answer to who Octavia’s killer was.

Regardless, I really enjoyed this book. If you are looking for a cozy mystery, this is the book for you! I also thought the “Recipes from Baby Cakes Bakery” at the end of the book was a nice touch. I might just have to try out one (or all) of the recipes!

This was a decent read and I don't usually like fast pasted books, but somehow it worked in this book, right up until the end when it all ended abruptly and anti-climatic.

It's also weird for me to dislike a character at the beginning of the book, they did not change at all, yet I learned to like them in the end. Maddy was introduced as a spoiled princess and ended the book as a spoiled princess and we learned to love her anyway.

Let me start off by saying, I love Valerie (V.M.) Burns. I should also mention I’m not a huge fan of superficial and entitled characters – which Maddy starts out as. So, I really wasn’t sure which way the book would go for me. Would I love it because Valerie Burns penned it? Would it be a miss for me because the character is not my cup of tea? Oddly enough, the answer is both. Valerie Burns plotted a fun story and created some delightful characters, however, Maddy wasn’t one of them for me. But by the last third of the book, I found Maddy becoming more likeable. If you like fun mysteries involving the mishaps of a social media guru type adjusting to a more down-to-earth environment and becoming surprisingly savvy, I highly recommend this book.

Who can resist a murder mystery with a dog on the cover? I can’t, plus from the description I was hoping it would be like the Mia P. Manansala’s Tita Rosa’s Kitchen Mystery Series (if you haven’t read those, check them out)! This book is similar but only on the surface. I guess my new favorite sub genre is cozy mysteries.

I don’t want to give away too much of story, plus the main plot is given in the description. The main character, Maggie, is shallow and follows all of the horror movie troupes on “how to get murdered.” But she starts to grow on you and she also grows as a person throughout the book. I’m happy this is set to become a series and can’t wait to read the next book!

I received this ARC from Netgalley & Kensington in exchange for my honest review.

I was quite surprised by this debut cozy mystery by Valerie Burns. I really enjoyed it! This is the story about 20 something Maddy Montgomery when she moves to a charming little town after her failed engagement. She's so emberrased she tries to escape the public eye by moving to New Bison, where she takes over her late aunts bakery in order to prove to herself that she can be selfsufficient and make it on her own. Together with her inherited 200-pound English Mastiff and her new found family in New Bison she sets off to solve a murder she claims she's being framed for.

This book was good fun. I really enjoyed my time reading it, and flew through it. When we first met Maddy I was a bit apprehensive, after all she does come across as a rich. bratty girl that has everything she's ever wanted and still finds a way to complain. But throughout the story she becomes more and more relatable, while staying true to herself. I loved all the scenes with her aunt's friends, where she learns more about them, but also learns new things about herself. I absolutely love stories that involve any type of baking or cooking, so this was really enjoyable for me for that reason too.

I will say that there are some scenes where she comes across as quite dim.... I understand that the character was supposed to read as helpless before she starts learning how to take care of things herself. But her not being able to figure out how to turn on a stove...... Girl you're constantly on the internet. You know how to figure that stuff out.
The other thing I had a problem with was the twist around 80% into the book. At that point the novel starts to move at breakneck speed, some characters have complete personality overhauls and all in all that part felt very rushed to me. It could've used some more time plotting. The twist should've happened earlier in the book or the book should've been longer. Either way, I personally needed more time to process everything that happened, since this sudden change in direction really threw off the atmosphere this book had cultivated so far.

What does that mean for the future of this series or this author in general? I liked this book enough to know that I will be continuing the series, and if the premise sounds interesting enough I would be willing to pick up any other book this author writes. Keeping in mind that this is the author's first ever release, I will give this book a 3,5 star, rounded up to a 4.

This was such a fun and lighthearted murder mystery. Maddy is keen to escape an embarrassing relationship breakdown - namely being left at the altar of her live streamed wedding - when she discovers her aunt she’s never met has left her something in her Will. Her inheritance turns out to be a house and a bakery in a small town, plus a giant dog called Baby. Under the terms of the Will she needs to live in the house, keep the business running and Baby happy for at least a year. Despite the fact she can’t cook at all, Maddy is determined to make this work and prove to her dad that she can stand on her own two feet. Things take a turn for the worse when the mayor is found murdered in her bakery though, and Maddy needs to figure out who the killer is, before they come after her.

Funny and heartwarming with characters I really enjoyed (especially Baby!), Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder brought together an unlikely set of friends, an intriguing mystery and a lot of heart. A great story to curl up with when you’re looking for a mystery to solve that’s not too hard hitting or serious.

Amusing Culinary Cozy
Ms. Burns combines a insta-gramming spoiled young woman with a small town bakery, laden with secrets. L.A.diva, Madison Montgomery, not trained for anything, but getting married and taken care of, inherits a home and bakery in small town New Bison.
After being left at the altar, she’s determined to make a go of the bakery, even as she’s totally clueless about what that entails. She finds a support system and….a body and clues that things are not as they seem. Along with her new friends, they figure out what is going on behind the scenes.
Great characters populate the scenes and the intrigue keeps you turning pages. I highly recommend for any cozy lover.
Ii requested and received a NetGalley ARC and offer my opinion freely.

The first book in a cute new cozy mystery series. Maddy Montgomery is a social media influencer who is embarrassed by being stood up at the altar in her livestreamed wedding. What to do? Luckily for her, her aunt in small-town Michigan dies and leaves Maddy her house, bakery and giant dog, with the stipulation that in order to inherit, Maddy has to live in the house, run the bakery and take care of the dog for a year. In this fish-out-of-water scenario, I expected to hate Maddy but she makes a go of things and the quirky cast of characters in this small town are fun. Things are going well until the mayor is murdered with a knife from the bakery bearing Maddy's fingerprints! She has to solve the mystery before it is pinned on her. Turns out she's not some ditsy wannabe socialite, she has skills.

I enjoyed this cozy mystery. Interesting plot and fun characters. I agree with some of the other readers, the ending was rather abrupt. But I would definitely read more from this author and even if this continues as a series.

Thank you Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC to review. ~I was given this book and made no commitments to leave my opinions, favorable or otherwise. ~

This is a fun, new cozy mystery series with a great premise. Maddy is a young social media influencer, but for various reasons, her career and her love life are going nowhere. Out of the blue, her great aunt dies and Maddy inherits her lovely Lake Michigan-front home in quaint New Bison, Michigan. The only catch -- she has to live in her aunt's house for a year and run her aunt's bakery. Maddy gets used to things pretty quickly and proves herself to be a character readers will really like. There's a murder, and Maddy and her new friends get to work solving it. I look forward to the rest of the books in the series. The only thing I did not like about this book was that the ending was so abrupt, I actually thought I'd accidentally skipped a few chapters. It's still a good story, but I would have love to see some of the loose ends fleshed out a bit at the end.

This is a great cozy mystery. It's based in the SW Michigan, and it has an interesting collection of characters, well described and believable. I loved it right up until the end, but I still recommend it. I'd read another by this author,and this has the potential to be a series, if she can avoid the "too many bodies piling up too quickly in a small town" cozy trap.
It's really a 3.5; tightening up the ending would have moved it to a 4 in the cozy genre.