Fun mystery! Anyone who enjoyed the Great British Baking Show and the classic Christie type mysteries will find much to enjoy in this great debut novel!

I loved the description I saw of Only Murders in the Building and The Great British Bake-off.

This is set at Grafton Manor, home of renowned baker and America’s grandmother Betsy Martin. It is also the set of Bake Week which is hosted by Betsy.
Unlike in the past, Betsy had a new cohost who is the complete opposite of her style.

I was nervous when read there were the six bakers thinking how will I keep them straight. That was not an issue at all. each character is so unique do once I remembered the names it was easy to remember each back story.

Around halfway is when we start getting past competition and into things that are not what the seem territory.

The rest of the book flew by. Some of the mystery points I correctly guessed but others I did not which was fun. I would not say that this is a MURDER mystery but is a mystery to solve. The ending was a good twisting and had me at times thinking oh man I’m going to hate if ends like this then boom nope it wrapped it up nicely.

I really enjoyed this debut novel and thank NetGalley, Simon and Schuster and Jessa Maxwell for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

the moment i read this synopsis, i KNEW this was an ARC i needed to request. this isn’t quite the fast-paced, suspenseful thriller that it’s advertised to be. in actuality, it’s a delightful cozy mystery that was exactly what i needed to read right now. it had multiple elements that i loved: single room setting, diverse characters, misfit friendships and a mystery interwoven throughout. the pacing was a bit slow for the first 2/3 of the story, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment. I loved the character interactions, and felt that the plot resolution was both unexpected but made sense. if you love baking, you will love the focus on baked goods throughout. i was drooling while reading 😂

excited to read more of jessa’s work in the future!

The Golden Spoon is the coveted prize that one lucky baker wins after competing in Bake Week. This year's competition is very different compared to previous years when someone ends up dead.

Maxwell borrows heavily from The Great British Baking Show, which I don't mind at all because it helped me visualize everything better. I enjoyed how each chapter came from a different contestant's perspective including the host's, Betsy. While I didn't love every character, I think Maxwell did a great job developing her characters in a shorter read and I was thoroughly entertained throughout the novel!

Quite honestly you could have completely cut the murder mystery part of this and I would have still enjoyed it. This book is very much Great British Baking Show meets cozy murder mystery and is incredibly digestible. I flew through it, generally enjoying the differing POVs, even if some characters were a bit one note. The actual mystery / murder came a bit later than I expected, and from a murder mystery only perspective I think the book was a bit lacking. But I LOVED the competition angle and could have read an entire book without the mystery, just hearing updates about who was getting eliminated for not baking a proper pie.

The Golden Spoon reads like a cozy locked room mystery. The multiple POV helps create an unreliable narrator and adds to the suspense. When the contestants are participating in the baking challenge of the day, I can vividly imagine the set of the baking show. I could easily picture this novel as a limited series on Netflix.
I wouldn’t necessarily consider it to be a thriller. There wasn’t any point that I was on the edge of my seat but it did maintain a consistent cliffhanger style ending to each chapter.

I will be sharing this review on Instagram and Goodreads (links below) as well as Amazon.

I LOVED this! Cooking competition shows are some of my favourites to watch on TV, so I was excited when I read the synopsis of this book. I thought the characters were so fun, and I loved how chapters alternated character perspectives.

Lottie and Gerald’s chapters were my fave, but I couldn’t put this down once I started reading! I did predict certain twists in the book, but it was a fun ride regardless.

Especially for a debut novel, this book is amazing and I can’t wait to see what Jessa Maxwell comes out with next!

4.5/5 stars ⭐️

Many thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

Thanks so much to Atria and Netgalley for sharing this delightful mystery! I’ll just say if you like The Great British Bake Off, just grab this book. You’ll love the vibe. The mystery part wasn’t too bad either.

What a fun mystery! This story is told in multiple POV of the host and contestants on a popular baking show that takes place at a grand mansion of Betsy Martin. Betsy is the epitome of bakers and it is truly an honor to be on her show Bake Week

All the contestants have their peculiarities but are quick to prove their worth. When baking days are slowly sabotaged and contestants start to go home, a few of those left aren’t who they seem to be. And that includes Betsy and her new, arrogant co-host Archie

Lives are upended the night of a thunderstorm and a murder has been committed. But who’s to blame? And how far back will this murder mystery take us?

Highly recommend for fans of murder mysteries who enjoy multiple POV and a good old whodunit

As a lover of The Great British Baking Show and all things mystery, I felt like this novel was written just for me. Maxwell developed a great cast of characters who all brought a unique flavor to the novel. I always enjoy a book that has a mystery within a mystery. I'm excited to see what else Maxwell has in store in the future.

As soon as I heard The Golden Spoon described as a mix between Clue and The Great British Bake Off it instantly became one of my most anticipated books of 2023. The story centers around a week long baking competition that takes place on the grandmotherly judge, Betsy’s, family estate. We follow along with the bakers as they arrive at the estate and as they are competing against one another. Eventually there is a murder when a terrible storm cuts the judges and contestants off from the crew of the show.

Unfortunately, this story didn’t work at all for me. When someone mentions the word Clue the first thing that comes to mind is a whodunnit. This is in no way shape or form that. And while the prologue is about Betsy finding the body we don’t get back to that until 80% of the story is done. And even then the events unfold so quickly that we still have about 10% of the book left to deal with aftermath. This is also not a murder mystery because to do that you have to leave clues and the only true clues given were not relevant to the murder at all. Or you at the very least should have the characters trying to solve the murder. Which doesn’t happen and I actually found the ending ridiculous.

Even I, an intense lover of everything character driven, found this book boring. And I think it’s because I went into expecting something Clue like and instead I was given a contemporary story with an extremely rushed murder aspect that is practically over before it starts. This book is under 300 pages and so the potential for this story to be more is there. If you were going to base this whole story on only one murder then more time should have been devoted to it. And instead of showing the readers something that would have actually been interesting to see Maxwell instead decides to just tell us about it after the fact. And to make it more frustrating, this thing we are told is the biggest part of the murder.

The Golden Spoon is clumsy and suffers from a marketing problem. I don’t know who gave this book the Clue tagline but I honestly find it a little insulting. Clue is so much more than a bunch of characters in a mansion which is all this book really gave us.

This was one of my highly anticipated reads (a debut!) and it did not disappoint! I love British Bake Off so I had a feeling I would love this book. The characters were unique, interesting and diverse. I really loved the mystery at the heart of this one and took many guesses to figure out who was responsible. Seeing the production behind the show was fun. I highly recommend this fun, cozy read and can't wait for Maxwell's next book!

The new season of Bake Week, a reality baking competition that is filmed at the host's old New England estate, is shaping up to be a good one. A range of new contestants, from brand new novice baker to lifetime experienced home baker; all of them with juicy backstories. When a murder occurs during the week of filming, who did it and why? As relationships are formed and secrets uncovered, the contestants' quest for the Golden Spoon isn't the only thing they're vying to win.

I don't want to give too much away about this cozy mystery. The Golden Spoon is definitely an homage to Agatha Christie, in the style of Lucy Foley or Ruth Ware. I loved the isolated estate setting but with the baking reality show group. The murder is pretty memorable and the characters, although there are a lot of them, are easy to keep up with while reading. I loved the cover and the title as well. I wasn't surprised by the conclusion and I'm not sure I'll remember anything but the premise of this book, but this is a fun, interesting, and well written debut mystery.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

The Golden Spoon was such a fun read! It is definitely a great mix between Only Murders in Building and Great British Bake Off. so you if like these shows there’s a good chance you’ll like this book! I loved the setting “in the tent” and hearing from the contestant’s perspectives. It gave just enough from everyone to advance the plot but without giving too much away or dragging on.

This book follows seven point of views between the contestants and judges and takes place on the set of a baking competition show. When a body is found during a storm midway through the shows filming, everyone is trapped in the mansion on location until the police come. Including the murderer!

Overall I really liked this book, it was a quick read and a great book as this is the author’s debut novel! My favorite parts of the book was definitely following some of the contestants trying to investigate and sneak around the mansion.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books For this ARC!

Wow! This was an amazing debut novel by Jessa Maxwell! Those who love a good murder mystery mixed with a bake off will love this book.
Betsy is the host of the famous bake off show The Golden Spoon. It is her tenth season and they are mixing it up with having a new co-host.
There are six contestants that go to her Victorian mansion, The Grafton estate, for the week of the competition to show off their baking skills. The book is told over four days of the competition by 7 different POV and was done so well. The character development was excellent! The competition ends short when a body is discovered.
I devoured this book up! It was fast paced and kept me wanting to read more about each character. This is a great whodunnit murder mystery that was absolutely delightful! Can’t wait to see more books from this author!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars

Betsy Grafton, aka America’s Grandmother, has spent the last decade hosting the popular show Bake Week. Six contestants spend the week competing at Grafton manor for the coveted Golden Spoon and a cook book deal.

This season is already off to a rocky start when Archie Morris joins as the new cohost. And it doesn’t stop there, seemingly small accidents start happening during competition such as sugar being replaced with salt. But when a body turns up it leaves everyone wondering who among them is responsible.

I want to start by saying this is marketed as a suspenseful thriller but I believe it’s more of a cozy mystery. So keep that expectation in mind when you start this. It may not knock your socks off but its perfect for when you want an entertaining, easy read.

Reading and baking are my favorite hobbies so when I heard locked room murder mystery + baking show I was sold! While I loved the setting of baking competition and the details we got of some of the bakes, I do wish there had been a bit more drama around it.

Told in multiple POV (7 to be exact) it can feel a bit overwhelming at first but in the end I loved it. It was great being able to follow each POV as they each had their own subplots. And I really liked some of the characters, but with how split the time was between all 7 it was hard to see true character development.

Overall a good debut that kept me engaged throughout. I can’t wait to read more from this author. I’ll also definitely tune into the limited series whenever it aires.

As a GBBS fan, I found this to be initially soothing in the way that I find GBBS soothing. The storyline and concept was refreshing and I enjoyed reading this unique story and unravelling the mystery.

3.5 Stars

When I heard about this book, I LOVED the premise. Group of people at a mansion for a baking competition? A murder? I'm in! (I love British Bake Off.)

While I enjoyed the various POVs and short chapters, the writing at times really did feel like a debut novel to me. The pacing of storytelling felt inconsistent and the bake week murder and confession felt abrupt. The setting of the show and going through the bakes with the diverse cast of contestants was fun and I really liked the little press release way of introducing them.

It's definitely more cozy mystery than suspense or thriller, but it was a really enjoyable read. I just really felt like the ideas were better than the actual story. Maybe my hopes were too high since it seemed tailor made for me!

It has already been picked up by Hulu for a limited series and I'll definitely check it out.

Thank you to @netgalley and @atriabooks for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I adore cozy mysteries so when I read reviews comparing this to The Maid, I ran my little bookish behind to Atria requesting an ARC and I am so grateful they provided me with one 🫶🏼

I read this while listening to the Great British Bake Off soundtrack and it was just purely delightful. The story focused on a very unique cast of characters, with origin stories you get to explore as the plot unfolds. There are 8 main characters but they all have distinctive voices so it’s not confusing to keep them all straight.

If you’re a baker, I can almost guarantee you’ll eat this up (pun intended) since on baking days the pages are filled with scrumptious descriptions of the contestants bakes. You can tell Jessa Maxwell is a well studied fan of baking and that really made the story come to life.

Who would I recommend this to? Bakers, fans of The Maid & The Thursday Murder Club and readers who prefer a closed door mystery. If you’re expecting earth shattering reveals and twists and turns, I would adjust your expectations and come into this one expecting more of a slow burn cozy mystery with a plot that moves at a comforting pace.

I really liked it - 4 ⭐️’s for me! I stayed up late into the night finishing it and I can’t wait to listen to the audiobook.

So bookish besties! My advice? Head to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of The Golden Spoon. You won’t regret it ✨🥄

This was not bad, but not exactly what I was expecting from the description. This is not a locked door mystery, for one. It’s also much more character driven than plot driven. The author does a decent job creating different voices for the different characters, especially with Gerald. The characters go from being pretty unlikeable to likeable (apart from Hannah, who’s an unrepentant schemer). There are a few places the book falls short of its potential. I don’t understand how the murdered person on the tent could have gotten there unless the tent butted right up against the house, which I don’t think it did. The tent was described as being out on the lawn. The couple people who were trying to sabotage the contestants got away with no one seeing any of it happening? That is so extremely far fetched. The show takes place in the U.S., but the contestants, apart from one from Minnesota, were all from the East coast and were mostly white (as far as I could tell from the descriptions). In a real show like this the producers would absolutely make sure there was some diversity and would definitely choose contestants from around the country.
Overall, I feel like this book had potential, but just needs some editing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!