Jessa Maxwell combines a bit of baking, a sprinkling of sabotage, a hint of hidden histories and mixes them with murder. The Golden Spoon is a delightful mix of Agatha Christie and The Great British Bake Off and is as entertaining as binging your favorite reality competition show.

What a stupendously fun read!
"America's Grandmother," Betsey Martin has hosted Bake Week - a competitive baking show on the grounds of her family mansion for ten summers. This reality show is normally straightforward baking, awarding the winner the illustrious Golden Spoon, and the earnings from the showpay for the upkeep of the mansion. This year, however, something is awry. There seems to be someone sabotaging the contestants. When a body turns up, it's every competitor for themselves! If you like British Murder mysteries, competitive reality programming or just want a new take on a who done it, The Golden Spoon is for you!
#Atriabooks #TheGoldenSpoon #JessaMaxwell

If you’re into “The Great British Baking Show,“ “Midsomer Murder,” and mysteries from the likes of Anthony Horowitz and Richard Osman, then Jessa Maxwell’s debut novel, “The Golden Spoon,” will undoubtedly be your cup of tea. I liked the plot and the character development; and, I would absolutely read more books from Ms. Maxwell in the future.

All right, this is another interesting, alluring concept: a highly rated baking show takes place at a historical mansion has its own skeletons in its closets. And the great part about the book is it is already adapted into series to release on Hulu!
The book’s imminent beginning with show’s creator and leading host’s scream as she finds a body lying in a blood pool, brutally murdered, I told myself: this book is definitely for me!

There are 7 POVs in this book belong to six contenders and Betsy Martin: creator, host of the show, also the owner of the mansion where the show is filming. I found some characters more interesting! Their common quality is keeping secrets. Instead of Peter, the other participants are restless, disturbed, dealing with their inner demons.

The plot concept hooked me up: Six home bakers will descend on Grafton Manor on June 5 to compete for the title of America's best baker. They will compete from Monday to Friday in a series of five intensive, daylong competitions, leading to a showdown between the final two bakers on Friday.

Veteran judge and show creator Betsy Martin and award-winning baker and Cutting Board host Archie Morris will be the judges to determine which cook is the best!

Betsy is an icon,Julia Child of baking, called “America’s grandmother “ in the press. For generations Crafton mansion has been belonging to her family. She needs this production’s success to compensate the extra financial needs of the place! She has no intention to sell the mansion.

And here are the MCs:
Gerard the math teacher is obsessed with formulas, extra perfectionist.

Lottie is oldest participant, is chosen for the show after trying numerous times, secretly lurking around east wing where is forbidden to the contestants, trying to dig out a secret about her own family.

Stella: ex journalist, less experienced cook who is the weakest contender, dealing with her own panic attacks and blackouts.

Pradyumna: a stylish entrepreneur who lives in Boston, a millionaire who is bored to death, depressed, trying to brighten his mood by competing at show but he doesn’t even care if they send him home.

Hannah, pie-maker, at the age of 22, from in the middle of nowhere Minnesota, aiming to attract more attention to leave her old life and become famous. She’s ready to play dirty to be the winner.

Peter: from nearby New Heaven, living with his husband, adoptive child happily, working at construction projects, resembling handsome Paul Bunyon may be the sweetest guy of the contenders.

All of the competitors’ eyes on Golden Spoon. But one of them takes things too far to win it! Who has killed? What are the big secrets Grafton Manor is holding?

Overall: this is interesting, riveting, claustrophobic, multi POVed debut which is easy to read! It was less exciting, mostly foreseeable but still such a good start for debut author!
Lottie and Pradyumna were my favorite characters. In my opinion: Their Only Murders in the building kind of investigation chapters were the best parts of the book.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

If you are a fan of Knives Out and The Great British Baking Show - well then this book is ABSOLUTELY for you! This book was deliciously fun and engaging, loved the short chapters and all the characters with their backstories. We absolutely love the Great British Baking show so I was hooked from page one! This book not only was enjoyable but made me want to bake (which I did!). No soggy bottom bake here - sheer perfection for a debut novel - fun characters, story and loved uncovering the whodunnit!

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC

after such a reading slump, i finished this one in one sitting. so enjoyable - for fans of great british bake off meets mystery, this one is for you. thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review!

In a old and stately manor in Vermont, six baking contestants arrive to compete for the golden spoon. Murder, mayhem, and baked goods abound.
The core mystery to this story was a joy to uncover, but the six contestants and the host relationships with one another and the house itself kept drawing me back to read. This book is for any fans of Great British baking show and some murder mystery with humor mixed into the telling.

The Golden Spoon is the perfect read for anyone who likes a good Clue-like mystery. Each main character has a distinct voice and readers will easily find a character to root for during Bake Week. Having a bake-off going on in the background was really fun, as I was not sure if the book would be more about a baking competition or the mystery. I enjoyed that the mysteries were the star of the read. I've been talking about this book to friends who love Great British Bake Off and the excitement for this book coming to market is very high!! Another thing I really loved about The Golden Spoon was the nod to Me Too and how men in power take advantage... but justice (or revenge!) is certainly sweet!!!

This was just an average read. Easy enough to get through, but left me wanting more. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this for others, but if you want a simple enough book to pass the time, I’d pick up this one.

Better than I thought it was going to be. I expected it to annoy me but really wanted to like it because I enjoy watching Bake Off. Worth the read

I wish I could say I enjoyed this one but I can’t. The overall quality was good. As I was reading I just couldn’t stay interested. I pushed through as much as I could but eventually I didn’t have a choice but to put it down. No disrespect to the author but this one just wasn’t for me.

I started this book and before the prologue was even over, I thought to myself, "Oh this is bad." And then I reminded myself that that was uncharitable, and that every book deserves a fair shot. Maybe it would get better.

It is not a spoiler to say it simply did not get better. Every single sentence was somehow more awkward than the last. The language was stilted and boring; the author's attempts to create tension and drama fell flatter than the characters' personalities.

I wanted to push through. I thought to myself again, "maybe I am judging it too harshly, comparing it with the excellent novel with the same premise that I read a little while ago." Just make it to the murder, I convinced myself. Get to the action, maybe it'll turn around.

And then the kicker, the kiss of death, the mouthful of a baked good made with salt in place of sugar. A character proudly crows about the smug perfection of his baked goods. A little insufferable, but expected. Until this character, and the author by extension, describes his "perfect" "pepper and goat cheese babka."

Tell me that you've never met a Jew without telling me you've never met a Jew.

Tell me that your only knowledge of babka comes from Paul Hollywood's under-researched, self-important, borderline antisemitic drivel on the subject without telling me that your only knowledge of babka comes from Paul Hollywood's under-researched, self-important, borderline antisemitic drivel on the subject.

I think to myself, "I am being hate crimed. I am calling the ADL."

I think to myself, "Maybe the fictional judges will call this character out on the worst goyishe nonsense a goy has ever dared make me see with my own two face eyes."

Tell me that you just take a puffed up self-important, wealthy, white British man's opinion on ethnic food as expertise without doing your own research without telling me that you just take a puffed up self-important, wealthy, white British man's opinion on ethnic food as expertise without doing your own research.

Because the fictional judges praise this.

And thus I have decided to leave this book unfinished. I wish it would go unpublished. Do yourself a favor, don't bother. If a Great British Bake-Off inspired murder mystery intrigues you, check out "A Good Day to Pie" by Misha Popp. And go find your local kosher bakery and support it by buying a real babka made by someone Jewish.

This is a really fun murder mystery (light-this book isn’t gory) that takes place on the set of a baking show at Grafton manor, a huge old house on beautiful grounds on the east coast. I loved that each chapter was narrated by a contestant and loved the found family the contestants become with each other. The ending is great. Justice is served. This is a really entertaining, satisfying read.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

This cozy mystery is The Great British Bake-Off, but with murder. If you think that sounds delightful, it absolutely is. A colorful group of contestants, a familiar setting, and hosts that were clearly inspired by the real thing made this a quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

While I have decided that GBBO has jumped the shark and will not be watching it anymore, when I heard the description of this book I thought it would be a fun read. Told from multiple viewpoints, it does jump around a bit and I sometimes confused some of the characters after picking my ebook back up, but I liked the characters included and I was guessing the end until the last few chapters. I hope that there is a sequel in the works so I can see what happens..

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review, however all opinions are my own.

*Thank you to Atria Books, Jessa Maxwell, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/the-golden-spoon/

“Baking and cooking bring me inner peace, like a tasty version of yoga, without all the awkward stretching and sweating. When my life spins out of control, when I can’t make sense of what’s going on in the world, I head straight to the kitchen and turn on my oven, and with the press of a button, I switch one part of my brain off and another on. The rules of the kitchen are straightforward, and when I’m there I don’t have to think about my problems. I don’t need to think about anything but cups and ounces, temperatures and cooking times.” ― Dana Bate, The Girls’ Guide to Love and Supper Clubs

f you are a fan of The British Baking Show or any baking challenge, this book is for you. Jessa Maxwell’s debut mystery is so much fun with sabotage, talk of yummy baked goods, a little romance, some naivety and a few laughs. It feels like a cozy mystery but is so much more and all the characters are charming in their own way. Most interesting are Betsy Martin, a Martha Stewart type character, and the patriarch of the Golden Spoon baking challenge and Archie Morris, a Gordon Ramsay type, known for his loud yelling at contestants and throwing things.

The 8 main characters include the above mentioned Betsy and Archie but also the 6 contestants. All well fleshed out characters, with their own secrets. We have Lottie, the oldest baker there, a retired nurse, who has applied to Bake Week every year of its existence. Stella Velasquez, a former journalist for The Republic, who has challenged herself to master the art of baking in under a year. Hannah Severson, the second youngest contestant in the history of Bake Week, hailing from a small town in Minnesota. Gerald, a Bronx native, who spends his spare time hand grinding his own flours and making his own essences from scratch. Pradyumna Das, a billionaire entrepreneur who has taken up baking as a hobby out of boredom. He has no interest in winning the competition but is interested in the experience. And finally Peter Gellar, who specializes in restoring old buildings, but loves to bake for his husband and three-year-old daughter. Every character has a unique voice, and each chapter is devoted to an individual character.

All contestants have arrived at Grafton Manor, the estate of master baker, Betsy Martin, who hosts an annual baking competition. It is the 10th year of this competition and the producers, wanting to make things more exciting, have added Archie Morris as a co-host. The book starts out with a murder, but then the murder doesn’t happen until the last 20% of the book. For a debut author, The Golden Spoon is written very well with suspense, fluid writing, relatable characters. I loved that Jessa Maxwell included character outlines in the first chapter, as there were a lot of characters. She also delved into a back story from many decades ago that really added to the mystery. Another thing I truly loved about this book was that I thought I knew who the killer was, and I was wrong. The ending is so clever. I can’t wait to see what this new author comes up with for her next mystery!

Creepy and hypnotic! This book will leave you wanting more and more. You’ll have a hard time putting it down.

Anyone who enjoys classic mysteries and Bake Off should read this book. It kept me engrossed from the first page until the last page. A highly enjoyable way to spend a cold afternoon!

2.5 stars

This is like Unreal meets The Great British Baking Show meets Clue..

It moves along quickly enough and we don't spend enough time with the characters to really get to know them. And oddly Betsy was told on the third person all the contestants have a first person POV.

Settle in for some delicious sounding dessert, an easily solvable mystery but that doesn't detract that it's a decently paced book sprinkled with just enough intrigue to keep it light and fluffy (despite the murder and all)..

I was very excited by this title, then I was disappointed with the execution. We meet the unlikeable host, and then each participant in turn for the big competition. I wasn’t invested in an of them, and didn’t make it past their descriptions.