The Golden Spoon is a captivating character-driven story that will make your mouth water and your heart shudder. Jessa Maxwell has perfectly combined a dash of reality cooking show, a pinch of murder mystery and a smidgen of eccentric personalities to deliver a scrumptious tale sure to please every palate.

Six new contestants arrive at Grafton Manor, ancestral home of celebrity chef Betsy Martin, to start filming the latest season of the hit show Bake Week. The beloved competition is known as fun, uplifting and entertaining, but everything is not as it seems on TV. Betsy is chagrined to share hosting duties for the first time with another television chef with whom she doesn’t get along. The contestants make suspicious mistakes with their bakes, bringing sabotage into question. The grounds of this venerable estate hold dark secrets from the past that can’t stay hidden forever. And to top it off, a dead body is discovered before the competition can conclude. With everyone a suspect and hidden agendas coming to light, this season of Bake Week will serve up more than delectable pies and cakes…it’ll dish up a delicious murder mystery.

While The Golden Spoon can hold its own just based on the twists and turns of the murder mystery and the competitive nature of the baking contest, it’s the characters that really make the book sizzle. Each member of the diverse cast brings something unique to the table and, as you would expect from people entering a television reality show, they have an agenda they wish to pursue that goes beyond just being named the best baker. Whether they are trying to find themselves, seeking closure from events long ago, want to become a celebrity, need to satisfy their OCD or are attempting to gain/retain power, each person’s actions will put them either in conflict with or in alignment with others. Which leads to intriguing storylines that keep you guessing throughout. And as an added bonus, it demonstrates that people of different backgrounds and dispositions, who might not normally get along, can find common ground in the right setting.

It’s not often that a murder mystery can be described as delightful, but it’s an apt description of The Golden Spoon. It has more than its fair share of dark and anxiety-inducing moments, but in the end there’s something uplifting and satisfying about the journey these characters go through and the destination at which they arrive. In fact, it’s a bit like a beautiful and tasty cake. The process may be messy, frustrating and require hard work, but it’s totally worth it when finished and you savor the lusciousness on your tastebuds.

Kudos to Jess Maxwell for crafting a thriller that is entertaining to read while making you salivate for baked goods. I recommend at least a muffin, donut or tart be within arms reach when you pick up this book. It would make for a pleasant paring.

Sabotage at a baking competition. Think Great British Bakeoff mixed with Clue.

The story takes place within 1 week on set at a baking competition. For me, it was heavy on the technical aspects of baking breads and pies, light on the murder. The first 75% was about the competition, last little bit about the who dun it. I actually do enjoy baking shows, so that was its saving grace. The characters were all pretty surface level, but I felt like the book was written that way with purpose, not taking itself so seriously.

This was a fun, quick read. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and thought it was different than anything I’ve read recently. I loved the lock room mystery feel and I would say this is more of a cozy than a thriller. It was a bit predictable and I do wish the mystery started a bit sooner in the book. All together a fun weekend read that would make an excellent Hulu series!

This was an interesting read. The narration style wasn't my favourite but I still appreciated the story.

The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell is a light whodunit read. The story begins with baking and likable characters who open up throughout the story. Great detail is taken to set up the baking scenes. However; getting to the mystery took time. I was ready the second the book started to start playing clue. Roughly about 70% through the book I couldn't put it down. I had to know! The Golden Spoon offers readers a classic mystery with a sweet ending.

This was a quick and fun murder mystery, focused on a reality baking show with a unique cast of characters. I thought another reviewer said it best that this book was fun because it didn't take itself too seriously- that's spot on! It has kind of a locked room, cozy mystery type feel, where first there is sabotage in the competition and then someone is murdered. There are other ulterior motives throughout, and I found the majority of the characters to be charming in their own way.

There are really only 8 main characters- the 6 competitors and the 2 hosts. They all have distinctive voices and it's not confusing to keep them all straight. The chapters alternate between characters. The switch in voices and short chapters make the book flow quickly. My only real complaint is that the ending, while compelling, was rather abrupt and I wish there had been more lead up to it. That being said, the loose ends all got tied up after the murder was solved and I felt satisfied about how it all came together after.

Overall, a fun little mystery that I'd recommend. There were a couple a pronoun discrepancies but this was an ARC and I assume those will be fixed before final release- didn't take away from my enjoyment. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a FUN mystery. This will thrill all our fans of classic mystery stories.

This story is so much fun. It's the perfect marriage of The Great British Baking Show mixed with Knives Out and Clue.

It isn't silly, but it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's just... fun. I could almost feeeeeel how much fun debut author Jessa Maxwell was having crafting her story. And that makes it fun to read!

I loved the first person POVs of each of the contestants - their back stories were well done and well played all the way through. Now, this is not what I would call a character driven novel, but we do get well-drawn characters here. We can understand their motivations as the story sings along and that makes the resolution make so much sense.

And the food! Well, the baked goods. My lord, there were delicious descriptions of breads, cakes, pies and cinnamon rolls. I found myself adding ingredients to my shopping cart and googling great recipes as I read. I found myself wishing this book would include recipes, but I think they will be trying to eschew the cozy implication that might make.

Because this isn't a cozy, this is a locked roomy mystery where family secrets abound. There are hidden staircases, hidden documents and most definitely hidden motives.

But this is not a story where everyone is suspicious. Not even close, and I loved that. There were plenty of good people who were exactly what they seemed and I was rooting for them all the way though.

This has that Knives Out feel because it's fun and just doesn't take itself too seriously.

Bonus is that it's a fast read with short chapters and a satisfying ending.

I loved it and I think you will, too.

I LOVED this book! How fun! It's the Great British Baking Show meets your standard suspense thriller and I just loved it. Appreciated the different perspectives from all the characters and love how the book was divided up by the baking challenge days. I think my favorite character was Gerald. Will be recommending all over the place, such a fun read!

This was delightful! Literally if you took a Christie mystery and mixed it with GBBO. Delightful, murderous, mysterious a devious treat.

I am a huge fan of the Great British Baking Show, so I was expecting to love this book. However, I found it quite lacking. The beginning read just like a script from the TV show, the characters were one-dimensional and the ending was anti-climactic. So many grammatical errors, even for an ARC.

This book was decent and the storytelling was great, my only issue is that the plot felt a bit rushed towards the end and the climax happened in the last quarter of the book. However, I personally loved the individual chapters for each contestant, as I loved getting to read from the different perspectives because they all could see and hear different things. I just felt that the ending was super rushed, as nobody died until the last quarter of the book. The first three-quarters were plot building and were interesting, but I wish there was more drama and more fallout. Other than that, it's still a good read.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this free arc in exchange for my honest review.

I have a serious bone to pick with whoever did the promotion for this book. You would think given the reviews that it was this super spooky murder mystery? No. It was the most boring book where nobody died until over 70% through the book and the ending was so rushed it was maddening. The best thing about this book is the cover and I will leave it at that.

Also, I know this is an ARC but there were soooo many grammatical and punctuation errors in my copy. Hopefully that can get fixed before publication.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!!

3.7.
Okay, so I enjoyed the reading experience tremendously, which is the thing, but I'm going to tell you the pacing was weird as hell and some of the setup didn't make a ton of sense. There is still a story there, so I got over it, but...somewhat reluctantly.

Loved this! Lots of fun, food and suspense! A take-off on the Great British Bake-off, but set in Vermont. Great characters, can't recommend this enough!

Absolutely Agatha Christie like told through a baking contest. This book has locked room Mystery vibes but it’s really exciting. I couldn’t wait to find out who done it and believe it or not it was a shocking conclusion.

I was really expecting so much more from this book. I mean so much more. The way that it was touted, I was expecting a little bit of hilarity, more mystery, more fleshed out characters. I didn't receive any of this I foresee that this is going to be a series in fact I'm betting that this is going to be on either hallmark, lifetime or Hulu. Because it's going to appeal to a certain age set. It wasn't horrible but I found myself flipping through it quickly just to pass through the book. I knew who the murderer was in the first quarter of the book. I don't know if I've just progressed to more sophisticated genre of mystery or what but I was disappointed.

First, if this is the authors debut novel, I can’t wait to see what she writes next, and I’ve become an instant fan.. I LOVED The Golden Spoon for many reasons. From the first sentence to last I didn’t want to put the book down and there are enough twists and turns to make this a very successful suspense mystery.
The book starts on the third night with the discovery of a murder, and we’re not told who it is. Next we segue to the first day meeting the contestants who have been selected to participate in the 10th season of Bake Off, at the estate of the famous master baker and tv host, Betsy Martin. Told through the eyes of six exceptionally well crafted characters we follow the first three days of the competition where all is not what it seems.
Grab this book and enjoy the ride.