It was a nostalgic idea and read but it read a little slower than my usual reads. Still, these ladies will always have a special place in my heart.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion for this e-ARC. All opinions are my own.*

DNF @ 33%

I was so excited for this book. I wanted to love it so bad. It had everything I could've wanted on paper. In reality, it read really juvenile. Rose's characterization felt so off, she felt downright mean at times. I'm just too autistic about my comfort shows to read novelizations like this, I think. Everything felt all wrong. And the murder plot of it all didn't even seem to matter as much as Rose bullying her niece into having a wedding. Idk. What a letdown.

When I saw there was a Golden Girls cozy mystery on NetGalley, I about screamed and submitted a request SO fast! I was so excited when I was approved, ready to dive in and see my fav Miami gals turn into detectives. Well, this ended up not being what I expected at all. 🥲

Let me start with the great things about this book. The characters!! The author stayed so true to their personalities. Their dialogue and quips felt so natural. It literally felt like an episode of the show. I loved that the Miami setting set in the 80s played a huge part too. The atmosphere was perfect.

The unfortunate part was the plot. We start off the book with Rose throwing her cousin Nettie a St Olaf style wedding in Miami. The charmingly funny St Olaf traditions started off cute, but every page there felt like a new tradition that needed to be incorporated into the wedding. It was way too much, and fully took over the story. We didn’t even get to the murder until around 50% in, and even then it wasn’t the main focus.

I definitely think this series could get better, and I fully intend on reading more! I loved being able to reconnect with my favorite characters in a different story! 🩷

This cozy mystery kicks off a brand new Golden Girls-inspired series, and it’s everything you’d hope for if you grew up watching Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia. The story follows the ladies in Miami who find themselves tangled up in a murder investigation—with plenty of hijinks, heart, and humor along the way.

This book might not be for everyone, but if you love the Golden Girls, it brings back so much nostalgia. I’ve been a Golden Girls fan since I was 6, and reading this made me laugh out loud at all the one-liners from Sophia and those classic St. Olaf tidbits from Rose.

I love a good cozy mystery, and this one totally delivered—with that signature Golden Girls flair and plenty of 80s charm. It was such a fun read and I really enjoyed it, but I do think this is one of those books that might not hit the same if you aren’t a Golden Girls fan.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This cozy really paid homage to the Golden Girls and was very nostalgic. The mystery got a little lost in the chaos of the wedding and St. Olaf's tradition, so only expect about 20% mystery, 60% Rose, and 20% the rest of the cast.

This is a fun Golden Girls cozy mystery. The author does a fantastic job of portraying the characters just as they were in the show. There are tons of ‘80s references, and A LOT of St. Olaf history as Rose plans her niece’s wedding, bringing the St. Olaf family to Miami. When the ladies find a body and Dorothy becomes the prime suspect, everyone gets involved to clear Dorothy’s name. Disguises, a kidnapping, St. Olaf traditions and Sophia’s jokes keep things rolling to the final conclusion.

so I attempted to read this book, and while I could hear all four of the golden girls in my head, I ended up not finishing it at about 10%. It had nothing to do with the writing or the set up of the story, it was simply just the format of the ARC made it far too hard to read. I will definitely be borrowing this from the library if not outright purchasing it because I think that might be a better medium for me with this particular book. I also will definitely be purchasing this for my best friend who is obsessed with the golden girls.

I am still giving this a three star, simply for the characterization of the Golden girls being spot on.

When Rose Nylund’s cousin Nettie’s wedding is ruined by a fire at the venue in St. Olaf, Minnesota, Rose invites her cousin to Miami to have her wedding there. Rose is determined to make the wedding special, with all the traditions of St. Olaf, even if some of the items will be difficult to source in Florida. But she does have her best friends and roommates, Blanche, Dorothy, and Dorothy’s mother Sophia to help her. Rose plans every detail for a perfect wedding, down to making the cheesecakes for the Welcome Tea herself.

Dorothy wants to find someone to take to the wedding as her plus one. She has decided to try a new video dating service to try to find a date. She watches men present themselves over and over, and finally, towards the end of the video, she finds a man who stands out to her. Henry is handsome, like Tom Selleck without the mustache, and he is looking for someone he can talk to about books. A couple of phone calls with him, and Dorothy feels comfortable enough to meet up with him in person. They meet at a popular restaurant, but after ordering drinks, Henry goes to the bathroom and never comes back to the table. Dorothy is devastated, but she doesn’t want to let her sadness affect Rose or the wedding.

When the wedding party arrives from St. Olaf, Nettie’s fiancé Jason tells Rose a secret. He’s actually from Miami, and his parents own a hotel there. They want to host everyone for the wedding and do all the planning. He originally moved away from Miami because his parents were so controlling. He doesn’t want his parents to plan the wedding, so Rose agrees to continue with the plans but change the venue to the hotel. The ladies take all the food Rose has prepared for the Welcome Tea the next day to the hotel to store in their refrigerator overnight. It’s not until the next day that everything falls apart.

Rose and her roommates show up to the hotel in the morning and find out that they had put the food in the freezer instead of the refrigerator, so they go to take out the sandwiches and cheesecakes to let them defrost before the tea. And that’s when they find the man lying the freezer, his face in one of Rose’s cheesecakes. It’s not until the police show up and remove the man that they find a note in his pocket with Dorothy’s name on it, along with the name of the restaurant and time of their date. At that point, Dorothy realizes that the dead man is Henry. And the police realize that Dorothy is their prime suspect.

In order to save the wedding and keep Dorothy out of jail, the women realize that they will have to figure out who wanted Henry dead. They investigate everyone associated with the wedding and with the hotel, but searching for someone willing to kill means that the ladies will have targets on their backs. Will they find the killer before the killer strikes again, closer to home?

Murder by Cheesecake is a cozy murder mystery starring The Golden Girls, with all their smart-talking, sharp-dressing glory. Fans of the classic sit com can spend more time with the four women as they flirt, tell stories, eat cheesecake, and support each other. The show ran from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, and the book is set during that same era. It tries to be sensitive to modern sensibilities, but there is a lot that is definitely of the era of shoulder pads. That makes it a little corny in places, but for me, it works, because these women could be a little corny onscreen.

I thought Murder by Cheesecake is a lot of fun. The women are back in full force, Sophia with her stories, Blanche with her flirting, Rose with her herrings, and Dorothy with her dating troubles (although the murder was new). The descriptions of their clothing felt a little over-the-top at times, but the outfits they wore on the show were as well. This book is just a celebration of all the fun, sweetness, snark, snacks, and support of The Golden Girls television show, along with a murder mystery to solve. What’s not to love?

Egalleys for Murder by Cheesecake were provided by Hyperion Avenue through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.

This book was a fun romp, especially for fans of the Golden Girls. The author perfectly captured each of their personalities and the way they approached the crime/ investigation matched up perfectly! This book was funny and lighthearted, wi5 enough mystery to keep me turning the pages!

I was so excited to receive this ARC - huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher. As soon as I heard this book was coming out I jumped at the chance to read it. However, this one was not a hit for me.

I do think the author did a good job of bringing these beloved characters to the page. However, Rose being “the dumb one” and her quirky St. Olaf-isms felt pretty heavy handed and got old quick for me. It was also troubling that the girls didn’t seem to be on the same team for the first 50% with poor Dorothy having to convince them to help her. This didn’t feel true to their dynamic.

I felt the set up for the actual murder mystery was great - who wouldn’t want to know how a dead man ended up in a freezer? The bummer here was that the murder investigation felt like it took a back seat to the other plot points. I would be open to trying the next book in the series to see if we can find the right balance, but I’m sad that this was a miss for me.

A lovely morphing of the Golden Girls into amateur sleuths. Took a bit of time to get into the groove, but once I did, it felt great to be back with my girls. Looking forward to book 2! Meanwhile, 3.5 out of 5 for this cozy 80's gem.

3.49

It takes guts (or maybe something else) not just to write a fanfiction about the iconic Golden Girls, but to publish it for the world to read. I don’t know that I appreciate it when authors do that, at least when it takes liberties with an age old storyline. Different audience, but I’m still not over “March” by Geraldine Brooks and I wasn’t even a “Little Women” lover. Even though it won the Pulitzer Prize, probably not a consideration with this book, unfortunately, I was never sure that she had the right to mess with an iconic story and characters.

The book goes between general narration, Rose’s point of view, and Dorothy’s point of view,, though occasionally we find ourselves briefly in Sophia’s or some other character’s point of view. Probably my biggest issue with this story is the portrayal of Rose. In all other circumstances, she’s the traditional ditzy Rose, but she makes very astute and methodical points internally when we are in her head. I can’t imagine her being so intelligent in her mind but so simple minded to the world.

Generally, this is a fun and cozy mystery, though it seems very far fetched much of the time. To that end, I had to remind myself of two things which helped me deal with that. First, this story takes place in the early 90s. Not only did none of the characters have the Internet, cell phones, or any of the technology that would make some of the work and problems much simpler. That also means that the population of Miami was likely much smaller than it is now, making some of the details more feasible, though Miami was in no way a small town. It also means that some of the standards and regulations would be less allowing for more leeway to get away with some things that are unfathomable now. The second thing that I had to remember was that the story is centered around Saint Olaf, so we knew that a book about it would have to play that up. That by no means makes everything plausible and things really do get ridiculous, but it helped some of the time.

I think that the story takes place earlier in the series timeline and I was very curious about many of the details that were provided about the characters lives. Did the author watch all the seasons in depth and document all of the small details about the character and then insert them into the story or were they simply made up? A difficult book to justify in my head, I can’t help but wonder if I would better appreciate the same mystery where the same characters are not iconic and are introduced in the story. We wouldn’t fully grasp the ridiculousness of Saint Olaf or Blanch’s obsession with men, or other quirks of the characters. Would critical if it was an iconic series but the start of a book series that could build appreciation as a series progressed.

Thank you to Rachel Ekstrom Courage, NetGalley, and Hyperion Avenue for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book for my unbiased review.

Very light palette cleanser type book. I’m not a Golden Girls fan, but I’ve seen the show. A little cheesy at times, but it’s a good light hearted read. A good book after a super heavy one.

Being an avid fan of The Golden Girls, I knew I had to read this book, and I was not disappointed.

First off, I have to applaud the perfect characterization of the four women. From Blanche's flirtatious ways, Sophia's quick wit, Dorothy's no-nonesence approach to life, and Rose's innocence, everything was spot on.

Having Dorothy use a VHS dating service truly showed that the story was set in the same timeline as the show because initially, I wasn't sure if it would follow that or not. While this is far from her normal way of seeking out dates, she's desperate and decides to give it a try.

One big highlight of this story is all of the zany St. Olaf traditions. Anyone familiar with the show knows of the many crazy things that happen in St. Olf through Rose's stories; however, the traditions for the wedding show just how random some of them are.

Also, watching Rose try to navigate her way through balancing the St. Olaf traditions with the more toned down traditions of the grooms demanding family certainly left her with a lot on her plate - and that doesn't even account for the murder mystery.

While Rose is often portrayed as a bit of a bumbling idiot, and that is something she acknowledges in this book, it's nice to see her take on several serious tasks and nail them. It shows that she isn't just the dumb blonde of the group and can pull her weight when needed.

Watching the women navigate this wedding is one thing, but seeing how they tackle their own murder investigation, much to the frustration of Detective Silva, was fantastic. The lengths they will go to in order to track down some evidence was highly amusing.

Now, we can't forget about the bride and groom, Nettie and Jason. These two added a dash of youth to the story and helped move the wedding plot along, though their role in the story was smaller than the four main women. And, of course, there was the rest of the St. Olaf visitors who certainly added a lot of variety to the story as well.

Much like with Nettie and Jason, their roles were light but had a few key contributions to the story. Not only did they help to push through some of the particular St. Olaf traditions, but their reactions to the murder investigation and Miami as a whole were entertaining.

When Sophia uttered the words, "Picture it, Sicily..." I could not help but smile because it is a key part of her character to throw out stories that start with those three words. Her contribution to the murder investigation, along with helping to entertain the St. Olafian's was fantastic. Sassy as she can be, Sophie is always ready to help.

The references to some episodes of The Golden Girls truly brings this story fully into that world and shows great dedication to detail in this book.

The clues scattered throughout were fun to try to piece together, and while I had my suspicions of who the murderer was, I'm happy to announce that I got it wrong. However, the way that the murdered was revealed was fantastic.

Sprinkle in a few unexpected moments along the way, especially at the end, and this was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Overall, this book was fantastic. It has everything you would expect from an episode of The Golden Girls but with a dash of murder mystery to add extra character. I truly hope there are more books to come in this series because I will happily add them to my TBR.

This book is perfect for fans of The Golden Girls but also for those who enjoy cozy mysteries.

When I saw this book, I knew it would be fun to read. I was ready for the interaction between the Golden Girls and was thrilled I could hear their voices as I was reading.
Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia were perfect to have solved the mystery.
The author did a great job of giving us a new series and I am looking forward to the next one in the series.
Thank you NetGalley, Rachel Ekstrom Courage and Hyperion Avenue for the copy of Murder by Cheesecake.
This is my personal review.

this book is just like watching The Golden Girls! it's funny and makes you feel like you're right there with the characters. it's a nice, easy read that feels like a warm hug.

*******Happy Publication Day!*****
This fun filled story stars everyone's favorite foursome, the Golden Girls in a laugh out-loud adventure centered around Rose's niece's upcoming wedding. When Rose is put in charge of coordinating everything for her quirky family visiting from St. Olaf, Minnesota, chaos and comedy naturally follow. Between the over-the-top relatives, a mountain of mishaps, and plenty of classic one liners, Rose does her best to keep things on track with the help, and occasional hindrance of Dorothy, Blanch, and Sophia. This is a charming, hilarious romp that captures the warmth, wit, and wonderful unpredictability we love about the Golden Girls. Recommend for those who enjoy a cozy mystery or a laugh-out-loud story.
Thank you NetGalley, and author Rachel Ekstrom Courage for the advance copy of this fun story for my honest review.

If you love the golden girls on TV and you love a good cozy mystery, this series is for you! I absolutely adored it and thought it was cute and well written. I can’t wait for more in this new series.

** “I couldn’t have done it without my friends.” **

Rachel Ekstrom Courage brings the dynamic Golden Girls foursome to the page with “Murder by Cheesecake,” a delightfully fun cozy mystery.

When the wedding of Rose’s much-younger cousin Nettie is threatened after St. Olaf’s hotel burns down, Rose offers to host the wedding in Miami with the help of Blanche, Dorothy and Dorothy’s mother Sophia. But even though Rose knows this wedding must feature the many quirky traditions involved in a St. Olaf wedding, the ladies are willing to take on the challenge.

The family of Nettie’s fiance Jason owns a hotel in Miami, so they generously offer the location and resources for the wedding. But can the two families come together and agree upon what to include in the wedding? And when a tragic event occurs at the hotel, will the wedding ever take place? And will one of the Golden Girls be accused of a horrific crime?

The author does a great job of creating the world everyone loves from the beloved TV show. Readers can experience the well-known banter and interactions between the ladies, all while enjoying a fun mystery filled with drama and exciting occurrences. The story celebrates the power of friendship, never giving up, and the importance of traditions, and even includes a recipe for “St. Olaf’s Kiss Cheesecake.”

Of course, fans of the Golden Girls tv show, as well as fans of cozy mysteries and stories featuring strong and plucky women, will love “Murder by Cheesecake.”

Four stars out of five.

Hyperion Avenue provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.

I’m such a big golden girls fan that when I saw this book I knew I had to read it! The author did such a good job capturing the characters personalities that I could hear their voices in my head. It was like watching an extended episode! I highly recommend this one if you too are a fan of the Golden Girls or just want to read a fun and cozy murder mystery!