Another fun, escapist read in this series. I like the festival setting, although like our protagonist Willa, I also am not a fan of beauty pageants. A tad slow-paced, but I enjoyed the time spent with the characters and contemplating the cheese flavors.

Where in the world is cheesemonger Willa Bauer? In book five of the Cheese Shop Mysteries, Willa has left her shop Curds & Whey located in Yarrow Glen and is taking part in the Dairy Days Festival in Lockwood. In addition to having a booth at the festival she and Archie have volunteered to help with the Miss Dairy pageant.

Being a fan of detective Heath, I am super excited that he and Willa are working together. Since the murder takes place out of his jurisdiction, it isn’t his investigation that Willa and Team Cheese are trying to solve. Willa isn’t stepping on his Detective Heath’s toes, but she is butting heads with Chief Womack who seems to be hiding something and has Mrs. Schultz on his suspect list. How anyone could even think for the briefest of seconds that Mrs. Schultz had anything to do with the death of Nadine the pageant director. Not that she goes out of her way to be difficult. AJ JDJDJ, now he is another story altogether but he and Willa have an understanding, a quid pro quo, as it were.

Speaking of difficult people, Nadine is not anyone's favorite person. She is not popular with the participants or their mothers. Nadine has high expectations and takes the pageant very seriously, unlike Grace Kelp, journalist for the Lockwood Weekly who is reporting on the misogynistic aspects of the contest and her call to have shut down. Fiona, the number-one seller of Becky's Bakeware and pageant judge is butting heads with Nadine. Nadine's cousin Mary Ann is beside herself with the loss of Nadine, but she is keeping a stiff upper lip in order to honor Nadine and the pageant. There are a lot of clues, most of which Chief Womack seems to be ignoring which puts Willa on high alert and she manages to get Heath to work with her while taking his suggestions for safety.

I really liked reading how Willa and Heath worked as well together as Team Cheese. Maybe, just maybe...I am team Heath all the way and love a happy ending. The clues were well placed and I didn't figure out the mystery until the big reveal. After enjoying this stand-alone Cheese Shop Mystery, I was enticed into doing a little internet search for interesting beauty pageants and came upon the garlic festival beauty pageant so the idea of a cheese sponsored pageant is not such a stretch. Another well written and highly enjoyable cozy and the best part is that there are recipes at the end of the story so you aren't salivating for nothing while enjoying the book. I took time to make and enjoy the Extra-Cheesy Alfredo and I encourage everyone to give it a try.

Dairy Days have arrived for the Yarrow Glen and Lockwood communities. Willa Bauer and her staff at the cheese shop Curds & Whey plan delicious items for sale. But when the Miss Dairy Pageant director is killed, Willa is a witness and finds herself in the middle of the investigation. Someone wanted Nadine out of the whey. Can Willa discover who or will she be the next victim?
This is a clean, cozy mystery that kept me guessing until the end. It includes a variety of characters with different personalities, motivations and secrets.
All the cheese - yummy! And I appreciate the recipes at the end.
I have read one previous book in this series, so I had a basic understanding of the character dynamics and setting. However, readers could better understand some of the details if they've read the previous novels.

Willa Bauer and her friends are always fun to spend some time with. In this mystery, they're running a booth at the local Dairy Days festival, selling carefully curated snack boxes of different cheeses. And, after the woman running the annual bauty pageant is found dead under a pile of milk jugs, they're investigating whether it was an accident or a murder. While this isn't my favorite book in the series so far, it was an enjoyable read.

Fondue or Die by Korina Moss is a delightfully charming cozy mystery that had me hooked from the start! The settings—a cozy cheese shop and a local festival —add a perfect backdrop to the intriguing mystery. The characters are endearing and relatable, the type of people that you'd want as friends in real life. (I received an advance reader copy and all opinions are my own.) The perfect balance of suspense and heart makes this a must-read.

Willa owns a cheese shop, Curds and Whey, in Yarrow Glen but has a booth in neighboring Lockwood for their weekend Dairy Days Festival. Businesses have booths to sell their wares but the big attraction is the Miss Dairy pageant. Young women participate under the eyes of Nadine, the pageant director, and she demands perfection. Each year, her sister Mary Ann comes to visit and help.

This year, Nadine’s had an accident and hurt her ankle. She doesn’t let that stop her and is seen zooming from one area to another on a cart. The pageant is filled with the usual cries of “her costume is nicer than mine” and “my prop has a paint chip missing.”

Mrs. Schultz and Archie, Willa’s employees and good friends plus Baz, her neighbor, seem to have everything under control for the Curds and Whey booth so Mrs. Schultz is helping with the pageant. When she’s tasked with going to an old mansion on the grounds, used for storage of props and more, Willa and Baz go along–only to find Nadine’s body. It looks like a bookcase fell over on her—or did it have help?
Was it murder or an accident isn’t the only mystery to solve. Detective Heath is back in Willa’s life – she thinks (who can be sure?), Archie finds a potential girlfriend, Mrs. Schultz is a suspect, the pageant is going off the rails, and a long ago fire might play into what’s happening now.

This is book five in the series. Readers will be glad to see recipes included. The suspense builds in this book as cases from the past and present are under scrutiny and love may be in the air for Heath and Willa. This was an enjoyable read, the mystery a good one, the solution satisfying as a fondue snack.

Book six, Bait and Swiss, will be out at the end of April 2025 and is available for pre-order now.
Recipes at the back of this book include: homemade pimento cheese spread for sandwiches, extra-cheesy Alfredo, and fall fondue which contains pumpkin! There are also tips about cheeses and how to use them throughout the book.

Korina literally cannot write a bad cozy mystery. She couldn’t even if she tried.

I have loved this series and these characters for so long now that they honestly feel like friends. Especially since I went through some hard pandemic days with them. So any new entries into this series feels like revisiting my hometown, it’s that serious.

This entry gets so deep into the characters’ lives outside of the mystery itself (always has, but moreso here!) in ways that are really unique in the cozy mystery genre.

Loved it! Can’t wait for the next!!

5⭐️

I think I would have liked it more if I had read the previous novels. It's an entertaining cozy mystery, features an interesting groups of characters in a small town with the murder rate of any place at the top of the murder chart.
Enjoyable, entertaining
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A fantastic addition to this series! The ending for this book... WOW. I was on the edge of my seat and I'm really curious to see where the (possible) new cheese shop employee plotline goes.

I will also share this review in my upcoming December reading wrap up video in early January! :

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra

Fondue or Die by Korina Moss may be the fifth book in the Cheese Shop Mystery series but it is the first book that I have read by this author. One may ask why I gave a low rating…maybe the disconnect is that I started at book 5 in this series, thus not having a history with the characters? Additionally – I found that the pace was a bit slow for my taste. When time permits, I may go back and start the series from the beginning but until then…here is my review.

Willa Bauer is the owner of Curds & Whey, a locale cheese shop. She and her crew are excited to have a booth at Dairy Days – an annual Labour Day weekend bash. Being a first time vendor at this annual event is exciting for the crew. And Willa is even a judge for the Miss Dairy pageant. Well, excited until Nadine, the pageant director turns up dead. As this death has occurred at the beginning of the weekend festival, the local police wish to keep this quiet, not necessary to upset the local community! This however, does not stop Willa and her crew from quietly investigating for a possible suspect or two J

Loved the scene where Heath went undercover. His reticence was palpable and kind of cute. Going undercover should have been no problem for him but when he said the following – I burst out chuckling as the imagery was cute as well as funny:

“You mean in all your years as a police detective, you’ve never gone undercover?”

“Not as Woody from Toy Story,” he said dryly.

Through the story, this reader learned of the history between Willa and Heath. These two originally had a budding relationship but when Heath asked her to stop looking into it – Willa would not step away from the previous case, putting her and their budding relationship in danger. This ended their relationship four months previously. With a bit of trepidation, I might add, maybe there is still a chance? It seemed like it in this storyline they worked well together. But time and another book in the series will probably shed light on this.

The sleuthing at times was slow (or at least that is the impression I got) but in the end, everyone worked together in piecing together the events that lead to murder and the culprit. I found the name the group named themselves quaint, if not a bit predictable given they all work for a cheese store – “Team Cheese”. I did have an inkling of who the culprit might have been, but not sure until the end, which is good as this is how I like my cozy mysteries!

I would also like to say that I loved the cover art! Makes me want to go on a fondue picnic, Yum!!!

It is Dairy Days. Willa and her team have set up a booth to sell her cheeses and both Mrs. Shultz and Archie have volunteered to help with the pageant that will close the festival. They have full faith in Nadine, the power behind the scenes, will pull off another successful event. Nadine is not going to be available. Willa and Mrs Shultz find her body in the museum and there is some question whether it was an accident or murder. Because of the involvement of her friends, Willa is drawn into the investigation. But the local Police Chief is downplaying any suggestion of it being murder and in frustration Willa reaches out to Heath, the detective with whom she has some unfinished business.

There have been some shady things going on behind the scenes of the pageant and Nadine wanted to can one of the judges. The first mystery she and Heath uncover is the reason behind the desire to sever the relationship with the contest. In doing so, Willa dredges up some old and disturbing news whose tentacles have reached across the years and may have figured in current events. It evolves into an exciting finale where all is revealed and the killer is revealed. Four purrs and two paws up.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Paperbacks, and Korina Moss for providing this advance reader copy of the book. My honest review is below.

Amazing how many murders occur in small towns. No one seems to have an accidental death, it's always murder. People come from far away to murder in small towns. What would we do without cozy mysteries. Willa and gang are back and working another festival, Miss Dairy, and find a dead body. The book blurb gives away as much as I feel should be told without ruining the story for others. Suspend your sense of belief and enjoy a cast of fun characters and a cheesy mystery. Recipes included at the end, I love cheese.

#FondueorDie #KorinaMoss #NetGalley #StMartin'sPaperbacks # Cheese Shop Mystery #cozymystery #murdermystery #smalltownmurdermystery.

Time to venture back to Yarrow Glen with a brief stop off in Lockwood for the Dairy Days Festival!  What's better than a festival - especially one honoring dairy?  How about a pageant and a murder?  

I'm not sure what it is about Willa, but I always think she's older than she is.  This is not a criticism of the character at all, because she is fun and lively and inquisitive.  But I often find myself surprised by the things she's doing because my brain thinks she's sixty.  I'm sorry, Willa!  She is a great lead, however.  She's smart and wants nothing more than to see justice done... and maybe have a bit of cheese.

Team Cheese is also present and accounted for with everyone in rare form as their festival booth and the pageant have everyone juggling several commitments at once.  I always love the way that they come together to not just help solve the case, but help each other out as well.  There was a new person introduced in this novel and I'm eager to see if she becomes a more regular fixture, possibly even part of Team Cheese.  It'll be interesting to see.  

Probably the best part of this installment, however, was that Willa and Detective Heath got to work together instead of against each other.  Can't lie, they make both a cute couple and a great detective team.  Even though I know we won't get another chance like this with them, it was what really made the story for me.  

Although I jumped into this series in the middle, you can easily pick one up and not feel too lost in regards to what happened in previous novels.  Everyone in Yarrow Glen is a character and I think it'd be a great place to visit, minus all the murders.  I'd recommend this series to anyone who wants a quick, enjoyable read stuffed with lots and lots of cheese.

This was another fantastic novel in one of my favorite cozy mystery series! While I love Yarrow Glen, it was fun to see the characters in a different town in this book. Th mystery part was interesting and well written. Willa was, as always, a great MC. I loved the moments with Heath! All the supporting characters are delightful. Overall, I highly recommend reading this newest book!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

Sinking back into a beloved series should always be this wonderful! Korina Moss has created a great cast of characters to rally around Willa and it's simply a joy to read about them. Fondue or Die is the fifth in the series but it held up to the standards of the previous books. The mystery was solid and the hi-jinx were as expected. I'll continue to read this series as Moss writes more!


Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my e-arc. Fondue or Die was released on October 22 so you can pick it up now!

Dollycas's Thoughts

The annual district-wide Dairy Days Festival takes place up the road from Yarrow Glen in Lockwood with thousands expected to attend. It will be Willa Bauer's Curds & Whey's first year at the event. Willa is excited to share her themed cheese grazing boxes with the masses. The three-day festival includes goat races, cheese wheel relays, butter sculptures and a Miss Dairy Pageant. Willa's employee and friend Mrs. Schultz will be assisting with the pageant while Archie and Baz help Willa with the Curds & Whey booth.

Pageant director Nadine Hockenbaum has an injury and she is stressed out so she needs Mrs. Schultz and her cousin Mary Ann's help dealing with the contestants and their mothers. Later Willa and Archie visit the Lockwood Historical Society Museum and find Nadine's dead body under a toppled shelving unit, books, and broken pottery. The chief of police quickly deems the death an accident but Willa points out why she thinks it was murder. When Mrs. Schultz agrees to take on directing the pageant she paints a target on her back and becomes a suspect in the murder. Team Cheese, plus one are on the case and will separate the curds and whey and fondue the real killer or die trying.

______

I love #TeamCheese. Ms. Moss has created a group of wonderful characters. Willa, Baz, Archie, and Mrs. Schultz are unique and genuine characters who feel true to life. A multigenerational group of friends who work together to serve up everything cheesy and solve a murder or two in their spare time. They are joined this time by Detective Heath as the case is out of his jurisdiction. Officer Shepherd (Shep) lent a hand too as he was working security at the festival. I love how much the characters have grown since the series started and how they continue to evolve throughout this story. The author gives them all places to shine.

Dairy Days was a fun theme for this story. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth I participated in a pageant in my hometown and was thrilled to be crowned 2nd runner-up. For me, it meant a summer full of parades and dinners. For the girls in this pageant, it meant the chance to win scholarship money. Sadly, someone has it in for this pageant and its director.

The mystery Ms. Moss has put forth is a twisty one with a surprising motive. An old mystery is mixed in with a new one and I fell from every twist, turn, and misdirection the author penned so brilliantly. I was right there with Willa when she thought all her clues fell into place but we were both shocked by the dangerous and suspenseful showdown when the truth was revealed. I enjoyed all the detailed descriptions the author provided. I could visualize everything so clearly and my other senses were activated as well.

Fondue or Die is a splendid addition to this cozy cheese-filled series. The story was very well plotted with a mystery that kept me guessing. The characters kept me entertained and the ending left me with a huge smile on my face. I am excited that the next book Bait and Swiss will be released on April 29, 2025. I have saved a spot on my reading calendar.

4.25⭐
#teamcheese strikes again With the Dairy Days Festival in a neighboring town, Willa Bauer gets a booth for Curds & Whey, her cheese shop. The festival brings together three small towns and features a pageant with $15k scholarship for the winner. Between contestants, their stage-door mother's and a dictatorial pageant head, there's plenty of opportunity for drama. The mystery will keep you guessing while you're rooting for teamcheese to figure it all out. Fun characters. Fun story.

Fondue or Die is the fifth Cheese Shop cozy mystery by Korina Moss. Released 22nd Oct 2024 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in mass market paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.

Cheese shop owner Willa Bauer is back with her quirky helpers, her cheese store Curds & Whey, lots and lots of cheese trivia, lots of groan-worthy puns, and another bizarre murder/accident to solve. This time, it's labor day weekend and annoying event organizer Nadine's been discovered under a pile of ceramic milk jugs. It's up to cheesemonger Willa and friends to get to the bottom of the mystery before her friend Mrs. Schultz gets sent to the big house for the crime.

As with most cozies, the emphasis is on the characters and the puzzle. The crimes are described off-scene and without being gruesome. The language is very clean. The series continues to improve, from a strong start, and the ensemble cast of Willa and her employees continue to mesh and become more three dimensional and believable (for a cozy).

Although it's the fifth book in the series, the plot arc and resolution are self-contained, and it works well enough as a standalone. With five books currently in the series (and a 6th due out in second quarter 2025), it would make a good choice for a cozy series binge or buddy read.

Four stars. Definitely one for shopfront cozy fans. It's full of esoteric cheese minutiae and readers will surely find a number of specialty cheeses to try out. The author has also included intriguing cheese themed recipe for a special upgraded pimento cheese sandwich (yum!).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I’ve been a fan of Korina Moss’s Cheese Shop Mysteries series since book one, Cheddar Off Dead. So when I saw a new release was coming, I knew I had to pick it up, and Fondue or Die did not disappoint.

I’ve been in a major reading slump lately, and I needed to reunite with some favorite characters in a familiar setting. Willa and #teamcheese were just the remedy to my situation. Willa and her friends and co-workers are so diverse yet entertaining that I want to be part of their circle. And the fact that they band together to solve crimes while going on with their daily business is just a bonus.

If you’ve ever read my reviews on mysteries, you’ll know that one of my pet peeves is that so often, the mystery, especially in cozies, tends to be an afterthought to the character and world-building. In Fondue or Die, there was a wonderful balance between the mystery and everything else. There was enough world development to set the stage for the mystery. There was a lot of advancement in relationships and friendships, but well mixed in with the mystery. And then the mystery itself was interesting and well done. I can’t say I was terribly surprised at the resolution, but everything made sense to me in the end.

Fondue or Die is an excellent addition to the Cheese Shop Mysteries series. It hit all the right notes, and I can’t wait for the next installment in the series. If you enjoy culinary mysteries and don’t mind a deep dive into cheese, this book and series may be for you.

n this next installment in the Cheese Shop Mystery series, Willa Bauer and Team Cheese help law enforcement solve a murder. Dairy Days is in full swing, including a pageant directed by Nadine. However, Nadine meets with an untimely accident when a shelf falls on her at the historical museum. When Willa finds Nadine at the scene, some things just do not add up, and Willa and her team jump in to help. Past secrets come to light and add to the suspense of this cozy mystery novel. Yummy cheesy recipes are the best part of this novel, along with a little bit of romance.

This is part of a series but can be read as a standalone. Readers of cozy mysteries will find this a fun addition to their reading list, as there are no scenes of gory details or intimacy, and no strong language.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.