Jenn Mckinlay gave us yet another great cozy mystery. Fondant Fumbled, the 16th and latest in her Cupcake Bakery series has the staff of Fairytale Cupcakes teaming up with two Arizona Scorpions football stars in order to help the athlete's open their own franchise.
When the football team's owner is found dead and covered in scorpions on the bakery floor the morning after the franchise's grand opening event, Mel and Angie must work with the athletes-turned-bakers to find the killer and keep the bakery from failing before it even has a chance to get off the ground.
Weaving together series regulars with clever plots and .memorable side characters, Fondant Fumbled is as light and cozy as the genre's name implies. Her mysteries just keep getting better. If you are a fan of contemporary cozy mysteries, Jenn Mckinlay's books are must-read.
I've always enjoyed her audiobooks and Fondant Fumbled is the first in her Cupcake Bakery mysteries to use Allyson Ryan as a narrator. I'm used to her voice in Mckinlay's books because she has always narrated the Library Lovers mysteries, so I wouldn't have noticed the difference in narrators for this series if I hadn't just finished book 15, Sugar Plum Poisined. I love Ryan's narration and prefer it to Susan Boyce's work on the previous Cupcake Bakery audiobooks.
Fondant Fumbled is a great listen if you are looking for your next beach or vacation read or just want to make the most of some time to yourself.

3.75

I received an audio arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another cute cupcake mystery from JM! It was fun to listen to a story involving pro-football players opening a cupcake franchise as a post-retirement plan. It was a very easy listen and the pacing worked well - my only "complaint" was that we seemed to have the mystery rushed to accommodate a new storyline about the main character, so it had a bit less pull from the mystery perspective. Overall, thoroughly enjoyable and consumable and I will definitely pick up any new ones in the series.

In this sixteenth book in the series we return to Fairy Tale Cupcakes, where Mel, Angie, Tate and Joe are opening new franchises. Mel is star struck when Keogh Graham and Tyler Matthews – big name Football players – arrive to open up a franchise as an investment plan for their retirement. She gets to teach them the basics of making the cakes and running the business. Their star status attracts a lot of interest as they prepare to open the new store – not all of it positive. Several people, including the owner of their team, are angry that the players may want to ditch the sport for making money with their store, especially when they are essential for the teams run at a championship.

When the team owner is found dead on the bakery floor, there are lots of suspects, and as usual, Mel gets involved to solve the crime.

Lots of humorous and touching moments in the book, as we get to know several new characters in this installment, with both the football players and Keogh’s mother June adding well to the rest of the cast. Jenn McKinlay manages to mix football and cupcakes together in this book in a way that actually works out!

I listened to the audiobook – narrated by Allyson Ryan. She does a lovely job with these novels – I have listened to several of the previous books in the series read by this actress. You can hear the fun in her voice as she reads, and she keeps the characters very distinct – there is never any question of who you are listening to.

A really great series,love all the characters and how they are always a part of the story.
The Fairy tale cupcake get involve in another murder when a body is found in the bakery.
Always good drama, mystery,suspense fun twists and surprises.
Does Mel have a surprise of her own.
Really enjoy the series.
Very good narration and narrator..
Voluntarily reviewed.

Fondant Fumble is the latest in Jenn McKinlay’s Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. This cozy mystery has the power cupcake team of Mel, Tyler, and Angie of Fairy Tale Cupcakes Bakery at it again after Mel stumbles upon another dead body in a cupcake bakery.

As Fairy Tale Cupcakes continues to grow leaps and bounds, they sell another franchise to a couple local professional athletes. This helped to increase notoriety of the Fairy Tale name overnight when their bakery opened, but also opened the brand up to criticism and hate-orade when fans of opposing teams came by the bakery to taunt and yell abuse at the bakers and their clients.

The unthinkable happens when key people of the football team are attacked and the bakery is vandalized. Not only that, but Mel, who is always so involved in local investigations involving her interests, seems to be sidelined by a wicked tummy bug.

Will the detective assigned to the case be able to arrest the guilty person or will he get it wrong without her help?

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape media for this adorable and addictive audio ARC!! I couldn’t put it down!

When football stars Keogh Graham and Tyler Matthews decide to buy a franchise of Fairy Tale Cupcakes, everyone is a little starstruck, especially Melanie DeLaura and Angie Harper, the two women who originated the bakery. It was Mel who had quit her hated marketing job to go to cooking school in Paris, and when she moved back to Scottsdale, Angie joined her as a baking partner and her husband Tate eventually joined as their business manager.

Tate had been working with the quarterback and wide receiver to set up the franchise, so he wasn’t as surprised as Mel and Angie when the athletes walked in the doors, ready to learn the curated recipes and how to recreate them. The two stars of the Arizona Scorpions were game to learn how to bake the cupcakes and even more enthusiastic about eating them. But the opening of their store brings lots of good publicity and new customers to the Fairy Tale family.

However, it also brings some football fans who don’t want to see them distracted from the upcoming season, an angry team owner, his wife (who is also Keogh’s ex-girlfriend), and an angry agent. Keogh and Tyler just want to build a foundation for a life after retirement. Especially since Tyler has been struggling with knee issues and Keogh has had a number of concussions. But last season had brought the team close to the playoffs, and their fans and the team think that they can get the team there with one more season.

No one is more certain of this than the team’s owner, Chad Dayton. So when Keogh and Mel show up to the bakery the morning after the opening party and find Dayton on the floor, dead, they can’t believe it. And when Mel goes to check on him, to see if he is actually dead, she sees first one scorpion and then several come from his body. She jumps back, keeping a wide berth in case the scorpions are venomous. And then they wait for the police and ambulance to show up.

When it turns out that Dayton was murdered, Mel can’t seem to stop herself from trying to find the killer. She has done this once or twice before, so she knows a thing or two about an investigation. So was it Dayton’s older sons, who are angry about his new marriage to a much younger woman? Was it the new widow, who is about to inherit the football team? Was it a crazed fan? Was it Tyler, who might get cut from the team because of his knee injury? Or was it Keogh, a quarterback who wants to retire without a championship ring in order to protect his future?

Mel is busy trying to keep the cupcake displays filled in the new store without taking resources from their original store. In addition, she’s distracted by a personal issue that’s making it more difficult for her to bake. But when there’s another murder of someone close to the team, Mel knows that tackling the killer is the only way to keep Keogh and Tyler’s shop open, and to protect the reputation of Fairy Tale Cupcakes as a whole.

Fondant Fumble is book 16 in Jenn McKinlay’s popular Cupcake Bakery Mystery Series. These women know how to make a tasty cupcake, and how to track down a killer. In this book, the addition of the baking professional football players is a lot of fun, and these new characters bring lots of flavor to this cozy mystery. At the end of the book, there are also new cupcakes to try, so you can experiment with a peach cobbler cupcake, watermelon cupcake, or a chocolate pistachio covered in chocolate ganache.

I listened to the audio book for Fondant Fumble, read to perfection by Allyson Ryan. Ryan has read many of these and brings a comfort to the experience as well as some skill with reading a cozy mystery. As someone who lives in a big football town, I thought it was such a great idea to bring the footballers into the bakery and put an apron on them. Keogh’s mother also makes an appearance, and steals all the scenes she appears in, which I loved. There is a secondary plot going on that was not a surprise to me, and at first I was rolling my eyes at how it was drawn out, but then the characters got caught up to where I was with the information, and it was much more fulfilling after that. I enjoyed listening to this book a lot, and I think cozy mystery lovers will also think it’s a touchdown.

An early copy of the audio book for Fondant Fumble was provided by Dreamscape Media through NetGalley, with many thanks.

This ticks all the culinary cozy boxes: a small circle of family and friends, yummy-sounding cupcakes (with recipes) and a body. The mystery provided plenty of motives and false trails, the football players and especially Mama June were enjoyable, and I finished this book smiling but hungry. It is ably narrated by Allyson Ryan, who made it easy to differentiate between characters while keeping the pacing and humor. Although this is the latest in a long-running series it can easy stand alone. Recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a review audiobook. All opinions expressed are my own.

Fondant Fumble is another perfect book in the Cupcake series. Every book just gets better than the last.

Fondant Fumble by Jenn McKinlay is book 16 in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. I came late to this series so I've only read 6 books in the series and not all in order. So don't worry if you haven't started this series yet, you can start with this one.

I read a few culinery cozies but I love the cupcake recipes that are featured. I usually try one or two of the recipes in a culinary cozy (I have The Cookie Jar cookbook from Joanne Fluke's series). The cupcake recipes are the best. I've made the pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting (several times) from Pumpkin Spice Peril and the sugar plum cupcakes from Sugar Plum Poisoned. The audiobook (at least the ARC I receive) don't always have the recipes and I was worried I wouldn't get them with this advance copy. But the recipes were included!! The watermelon cupcakes sound perfect for summer and I love chocolate ganache so those cupcakes will need to be made.

Enough about cupcakes - here's what I thought about the book.

First, if you listen to the audiobooks of Jenn McKinlay's Library Lover's series you will recognize the voice of narrator Allyson Ryan. As I just listened to Fatal First Edition last month, I had to keep reminding myself what series I was reading. But it is an easy mystery to listen to as an audiobook. The characters hang out a lot together at the bakery just talking and the audiobook makes you feel like to are right there in the room with them.

And I love the characters of this story. For me, the mystery is kind of secondary as I love the chatting the characters do and all the talk about cupcakes. Seriously, I read this series mainly for the cupcakes. I think the next book I read in this series, I will skip to the end where the recipes are and make one of them before I start reading so I can munch on them while I read (that would be bad for my waistline, but make the reading experience that much sweeter).

I'm not much of a football fan so I'm glad there wasn't too much football talk. I liked the two players and since they bought a Fairy Tale Cupcake franchise perhaps we will see them again.

The mystery is interesting and it wasn't easy to put all the pieces together to figure out who the killer was.

It's a quick read so it would be perfect for a weekend by the pool, lake, or sea or in a hammock in your yard.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Friday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2024/06/the-perfect-weekend-read-with-sweet.html

Opening a bakery can be dangerous … and not just to your waistline

The Fairytale Cupcake Bakery team is back… and growing. We are introduced to new franchise owners, football players and best friends Keogh Graham and Tyler Matthews. Keogh has the desire for baking and Tyler is going along for the cupcakes. As quarterback and team captain of the football team, Keogh looks out for the guys and it shows in how they support him.

There was a bit of fun when we find out that Mel sometimes refers to Keogh as her football husband.

Unfortunately, the team owner doesn’t want Keogh and Tyler distracted with the bakery when the team has not yet won a Super Bowl. Keogh has other concerns: a possible Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) if he suffers another concussion and Tyler’s knee. The author did a good job incorporating the CTE into the story without it feeling clinical.

There is a slight love triangle with Keogh, the team owner and the team owners wife. I am glad that Keogh came to his senses and despite what others said, stuck to it.

Keogh became the voice for how the life of someone in the public eye changes due to safety/security concerns, social media, etc. It was well done. Speaking of Keogh. This character brings more diversity to the crew as well as quiet leadership. I loved the addition of him and Mama June, his mother. She raised him right as they say and it showed. I loved how when Mel was not quite 100% Mama June stepped up to instigate and investigate to clear her son.

While I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the new characters I missed Angie, Uncle (blanking on his name, mom’s boyfriend and detective), and the DeLaura brothers. Not a lot of Mel and Angie snooping in this one. That said, I can see Mel and Angie investigating with the help of the newest franchise owners. That would be cool. Angie was more the best friend, wife and mother than sleuthing partner. Ray and Oz were around which was fun. I had some concerns about how to include Oz after he started at the resort and TV segment. I see many possibilities with this expansion of the Fairytale Cupcake crew.

Because I listened to the audiobook I don’t know if the author mentioned the inspiration for the book. I suspect it was from The Cupcake Guys a Roku channel series about two ex-NFL players who purchased a Gigi’s Cupcake franchise.

The narrator is different for this book than the others in the series. For the most part, I thought she did well with the exception of Marty and Oz. I don’t feel she quite captured them.

All-in-all a good story and nice addition to the Cupcake Mystery Series.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the opportunity to do an early read and share my thoughts on the story.
Happy Reading!

This was a fun addition to the cupcake mystery series! These characters feel like family and I loved revisiting them. I also did not guess who did it.

This is the 16th book in the series and it’s pretty consistent with the other books within the series. There is a big surprise within this book, that will change the series going forward. But the tone of this book remains the same.

I have listened to all the other books in this series, so I was excited for the newest book in this series. However, I was not excited with the new narrator. I always like it in a series when the narrator stays consistent, so I was a little taken back when there was a new narrator, this far along in the series.

I would rate this book as three stars, just because it was nothing extra special, and it was pretty easy to figure out who the murderer was, in my opinion, of course. However, when you enjoy a series, you wanna stay with the series. So I will continue to listen to the rest of the series no matter how long it goes, but that doesn’t mean I will enjoy it as much as I did at the beginning.

The newest franchisees of Fairy Tale Cupcakes are a little different than the other franchise owners. These owners are both pro football players. And not just any pro players - they are the star QB and receiver for the Arizona Scorpions, Mel and Angie's local team. The team that everyone cheers for. Wanting to invest in a local business, Keogh Graham and Tyler Matthews have decided to open the bakery near their stadium. Problem is, not everyone is as thrilled as the girls and Angie's brothers. Before they even opened, a rival fan was outside the bakery making a nuisance. And then the team owner, who is now married to Keogh's ex, is found dead in their new bakery...

I love this series, but this may be it. Small spoiler is why: Angie's pregnancy was annoying. I remember thinking that it seemed like she was carrying the Christ child with all be gentle crap. And now with Mel being pregnant (not a huge spoiler because we learn early, but didn't want to get anyone mad), there was just SO MUCH. I get it, she couldn't stand the smell of vanilla and she used it perfectly to her advantage at the end, albeit not on purpose. And this one wasn't so bad because she just found out and not everyone knew. Except soooo many people are like - "Are you glowing?!" "Your butt is bigger." "You seem different." Where I'm from, you don't comment on whether a woman is pregnant until they tell you or a baby is falling out of them. Guess not in this world. Anyway, it was too much for me.

The mystery was enjoyable, and I found it tough to figure out the guilty party. I really hate to give up on this series, but we'll see.

Fairytale Cupcakes is back to solve the case in Jenn McKinlay's newest addition to the series, Fondant Fumble.

When two local NFL superstars decide to buy a franchise of Fairytale Cupcakes, things seem to be only looking up. That is until Mel finds the body of the owner of the local NFL team dead in the franchise bakery. Fingers are quick to point to the team's quarterback, Keogh Graham, who was first in the bakery calling 911 when Mel arrived. Mel isn't about the let this franchise fail and Keogh go to jail for something he obviously didn't do.

I really enjoy this series and this one didn't disappoint. We are introduced to two new characters, Keogh and Tyler, who buy the franchise. They are a nice addition the delightful cast of characters we've come to know throughout this cozy mystery series. The only thing that would make listening to this mystery any better would be to have a tray of cupcakes at my side while I was listening. As with each new story in the series, I hope this isn't the last we see of the Fairytale Cupcake crew and they'll be back for more sleuthing in the future.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

3.75

I’ve determined that no series over 10 has any new mystery plots and the only changes occur in the regular characters’ growth, which has definitely been my experience with this series recently. However, this book is different to recent books. If I’d had to listen to another book taking place in some sort of hotel or convention center catered by Fairytale Cupcakes, I might have screamed.

This one was unique, though the fake NFL team names is a little annoying, as though I am supposed to really envision the absolute celebrity of these football players for a city with a completely different mascot and colors. Anyway, in this version, two celebrity football players want to open a cupcake franchise right there in the same city. We also don’t get bogged down in the murder really being pinned on one person, though technically it is, but we can tell right away that he is not guilty. Also this time Mel is not the one to find the body. There is definitely some character growth happening, but the delay in Mel speaking up about it really goes on just a little too long.

It seems like a fast moving story, though, and I liked it. Angie isn’t as prevalent in this one, nor are many of the characters. It does sound like Marty has a different voice, this time he sounds more like Aunt Nancy in Connecticut rather than Marty in Arizona. That brings me to the other thing I noticed: that getting a craving for reading isn’t nearly as dangerous as the craving I had for cupcakes during this book. I really, really, really want a cupcake!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with a free advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for my unbiased review.

Fondant Fumble is the 16th entry into the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series. You do not need to have knowledge of the other books to enjoy this story. It works very well as a standalone. I have read a few entries in this series but to be honest I could not remember who was a returning character and who was new so I took this truly as a standalone and enjoyed it.

Mel is franchising her bakery to another location that two professional athletes purchased. Two athletes owning a bakery caused a big commotion that ended with the team owner's murder. The owner was found dead and covered with scorpions inside the bakery. The main suspect is one of the players and the new franchise owner.

Another body turns up and Mel and her team try to solve this mystery to save an innocent man from going to jail and save their business.

I enjoyed this book like I have other books in the series. My only complaint about this was the lack of characters. There were so few characters so this was an easy case to solve for the reader.

This book is great for any mystery fan, if you are a veteran of the series or a newcomer this is one to check out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Another installment in one of my favorite series! Loved this book as much as the others. This is such a fun series and the cupcakes sound oh so delicious throughout the book too!

FONDANT FUMBLE is the sixteenth book in the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries by Jenn McKinlay. You can always count on yummy cupcakes, fun characters, and a deliciously puzzling mystery to solve when you pick up a book in this long-loved series. Who would have thought that cupcakes and football would mesh so seamlessly?! Somehow Ms. McKinlay makes it work and I couldn’t help but chuckle multiple times over the antics of Mel and Angie’s newest business partners who just so happen to be professional football players. The scenes involving them donning aprons and baking cupcakes and swirling frosting are perfectly penned; I felt like I was right there breathing in the mouthwatering aromas and tasting the sugary sweet treats. And while the characters draw me to the series, the author provides a fast-paced plotted mystery to keep the reader on their toes. Thrown in are some heartwarming scenes along with humor, which brings Fondant Fumble to the end zone for a huge win!

I listened to the audiobook, thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley. Narrated by Allyson Ryan, the characters were brought to life. She expertly differentiated the characters, be they female or male, and enhanced accents as needed. I was so enthralled with both the story and the characters, I listened to the entire book in one day.

Great installment in the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries and it has recipes! So much fun catching up with series regulars and the new characters are endearing, hope to see them in future books. Any Jenn McKinlay book is a must-read for me but her series are my favorites!

Audiobooks are my favorite because I can do quiet chores while listening!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6533548809

Fondant Fumble is the 16th fabulous book in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series by Jenn McKinlay and I absolutely loved it! This series continues to be awesome! Melanie (Mel), Angie and Tate own Fairy Tale Cupcakes and two football players, Keough Graham and Tyler Matthews, want to buy one of their franchise cupcake bakeries. They all hit it off and there are some laughs over the characters being star struck and the vision of large football players as bakers. Mel is teaching Keough and Tyler about the business and baking. The football team owner is not happy and there is a big argument. Keough is a suspect when the owner ends up dead. There are rumors and arguments. Mel, and her team, Marty, Oz, Angie, Tate and Ray all jump in to help out and do some sleuthing. They run into other problems and the story moves at a good pace and it was hard to put down. The ending was really good and there is a surprise along with some new wonderful characters. The characters, relationships and humor are what make this series so awesome! It was enjoyable from beginning to end! The audiobook narrated by Allyson Ryan was very well done and she brought the voices to life. #FondantFumble #CupcakeBakeryMystery #NetGalley #DreamscapeMedia #Berkley