This book is just as it reads - a cozy mystery. It's about the Golden Girls tv show but it's a murder mystery. It still has all the funny fun loving characters from the show. The author kept them as true to the show and just as funny.
Rose's cousin is getting married and eloping in Miami but Rose wants her to have a traditional St. Olaf wedding so she plans one for her. Dorothy decides to find herself a date for the wedding so she signs up for a dating service and gets left at the restaurant by her date. As the weeklong wedding activities are planned and Rose is cooking and baking they bring the food to store in the hotel freezer only to find a dead body in the cheesecake. So begins adventure of the wedding preparations and the murder mystery all the girls have pitched in to help and solve a murder in addition.

I loved watching the Golden Girls tv show back in the day and this book really kept the characters true to the show. It was very nostalgic and I enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane with the ladies.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5

I ran to NetGalley for this ARC. I LOVE the Golden Girls and I was so excited to read this. I could’ve believe it. A cozy mystery series to bring my ladies back! But unfortunately it fell short.

The author did a great job of bringing the ladies back to live again but it just felt like an episode that would never end.

Rose’s antics were dragged out and I can only take so much of the St. Olaf drama. I mean, yes it’s funny, but it gets old quick because none of it makes sense.

Yes, I will be purchasing a physical copy to have on my shelf.
Yes, I am still recommending it to everyone who is around me.
Yes, I will be continuing the series.

I am just hoping that we get less St. Olaf in the next books 🫣😅

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage is an enjoyable read that blends a quirky premise with some light-hearted suspense. Why is this dude in the freezer? But what about the wedding? While the concept is fun, the execution falls a little short at times. The pacing feels uneven, with some moments dragging, and the characters, though charming, aren’t as developed as I would have liked. Still, if you’re looking for a light and easy read with a bit of intrigue, this book delivers just that.

Alright, I am a Golden Girls girlie through and through. I have so much Golden Girls STUFF, I usually get at least one more item to add to my collection each birthday and Christmas. I JUMPED at the chance to read this since it combines reading and GG, two of my favorite things. It did not disappoint. It was fun and felt exactly like it could have been an episode of the show. The ONLY thing that was hard for me and caused me to read this at a much slower pace than usual was basically envisioning each character saying the line as they would in the show. I'm so intimately familiar with the show and the characters and the house and the costuming, that it just took me longer to read because my mind was visually putting the pieces together the entire time. That said, definitely would recommend.

I absolutely loved this book! I've already ordered my special edition copy from Barnes and Noble because I can't wait to add it to my library. While reading, I felt completely immersed in the world of the Golden Girls and found myself reliving the magic of the show. It's a fantastic book!

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book since it was Golden Girls. I have to be honest, I did a large amount of skimming. I think the wedding planning was starting off great but there was just too much of it and not enough of the mystery. Another thing I had a tough time with was the fact that I felt like the need to prove the characters were the actual Golden Girls was just pushed a little too much. The jokes were spot on in the beginning but then just seemed to fall off. All in all, the book was good for a relaxing read if you’re stuck at home with nothing to do.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

I was so excited when I saw there was going to be an official Golden Girls cozy mystery series - two of my favorite comforts finally combined! This book is a fun and quirky, cozy mystery with a great cast of characters. The small-town setting and the amateur sleuthing made for an enjoyable read, and the book really captured the essence of its characters wonderfully. That said, the pacing felt a bit off—at nearly 400 pages this book was longer than it needed to be. If it had been trimmed by about 150 pages, it would have matched the snappy pacing of the TV episodes. The Girls didn't decide to solve the mystery themselves until 48% in! Still, it’s a solid read for cozy mystery fans who love a mix of humor, small-town drama, and, of course, delicious desserts! Despite it's flaws I'll still be picking up the next book in this to see what mystery my favorite group of pensioners solve next.

I absolutely love the premise of this book and the idea of reading about the Golden Girls, but I figured going in that this book could be very hit or miss. Unfortunately, after two chapters, I am DNFing. I love The Golden Girls show but this book feels like a bot was instructed to write a book about the characters from the TV show. The writing felt a bit choppy and did a lot of telling instead of showing, and I felt like the author was trying too hard to be overly descriptive. While I definitely could imagine the characters well based on her descriptions, all of the writing felt redundant and distracting.

Thank you so much for the ARC - I'm sad this one missed the mark for me but hope others will enjoy the story!

Murder by Cheesecake is a fun and nostalgic romp, perfect for fans of the Golden Girls tv series. The author captured each of the girls’ characters and it felt like watching an extended episode.

If you’re not a fan of the show and are just here for the mystery, you may feel like you’re missing a few things. I grew up watching the Golden Girls. I love how each chapter ends with a twist, as if we’re about to go to a commercial break. That really kept me turning the pages to see what happens next!

This story is lighthearted, despite the fact that it starts with a murder. In the show, Rose’s weird hometown traditions are played for laughs and rarely explained, which is what makes them funny. This story leans heavily on that, even in serious moments when a character could show a little more depth, and I think this was a missed opportunity.

This story took me right back to the 80s with several laugh-out-loud moments. Overall I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to reading more in this series.

Hyperion Avenue provided an early galley for review.

I was a big fan of the Golden Girls sitcom (would watch it with my grandmother). So, when I saw this title I felt I had to check it out.

That is not to say this book isn't without its challenges. For a cozy mystery, the mystery needs to be central to the plot. This one is, sort of, in that a vague connection between the victim and Dorothy exists. This should be a priority but takes a backseat to all of the wedding chaos (which adds in a rom-com element to the story). It is not to say that these two elements mixing can't make a good working story, but then mixing in the most identifiable element - known and established sit-com characters - then it just is juggling too much and failing to give each the proper care they need.

As someone who dabbled in fan-fiction circles for years, I know that character voice is key. Of the four characters, Courage seems to have the best ear down with Sophia and Blanche. Her Rose and Dorothy, however, very often stray from the mark. And is the challenge as those two are the primary drivers of the plot. There are hundreds of hours of the show for comparison of the mainstay cast, and this show was written by some of the masters of the medium (like Susan Harris).

The character recognition will pull in the eyeballs. The story may or may not satisfy them though.

I really enjoyed this book and was taken back to warm nights watching the GG Fab 4. Thank you to Hyperion for the ARC. You'll hear the GG voices as you're reading and picture every facial expression, especially Dorothy's LOL.

I love the Golden Girls and was thrilled to be approved to read this cozy mystery. The characters were true to the television show and I did enjoy the banter but this is in desperate need of editing. I found it to be repetitive and that took away from the story. I did not need their address multiple times throughout the story. Some of the lines in the book were repeated in the same paragraph. I hope that this has gone through editing again before publication.

The Golden Girls is hands down one of my favorite TV shows of all time (speaking as someone who has won a company wide GG trivia contest by a landslide). I went into this book with extremely high hopes, but I was disappointed. The author is trying way too hard to lean into every inside joke in the show in the first 100 pages to make it an enjoyable read. Having said that, I think a novelization of the GG would work fantastically as a book of short stories or novellas instead of a full length novel.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

As a Golden Girls fan, I loved how true this was to the show/characters. This was fast-paced and fun, but I'm not sure cozy mystery is my genre.

This is a cute, easy read is great for a quick beach book. The light hearted story leaves you curious and engaged. As a golden girls fan, knowing the characters was a fun way to immerse myself in the book.

OVERALL STAR RATING: 5/5
CLEAN RATING: 4/5

Be still my little Golden Girls loving heart! This book was an absolute homerun for me. I couldn’t believe how well the author nailed each of these amazing character’s personalities. I think it took me about five hours to read and the entire time it felt exactly as though I was sitting and watching some unearthed, never before seen episode of The Golden Girls. You could so perfectly hear and see them in your mind while reading. Who would have guessed – the girls make the PERFECT main characters for a cozy mystery. Cozy mysteries are meant to be a little off the wall and silly and this entire concept just worked so well. If you’re a Golden Girls fan, this book is a must read. Be prepared for lots of smiles, giggles and nostalgic moments. I will never tire of Rose rambling on about St. Olaf, Dorothy and Sophia’s feisty quips and well…Blanche being Blanche!

Rose is planning to host a truly authentic (and oh so funny) St. Olafian style wedding for her cousin. Things take a wild turn when the girls find Dorothy’s blind date-gone-wrong face down in a cheesecake, dead inside of an industrial fridge at the hotel where the wedding festivities are taking place. Cue ALL the chaos, mishaps and misunderstandings for this wild story that unfolds in Miami where Dorothy winds up being pinned as the suspect of the crime.

So thrilled that the author intends for this to be an entire series!

4-Star clean rating because well, the girls are the girls and 100% as they are on the television show. If you’re a fan, you know exactly what I’m talking about, and this book reads true to their on-screen banter with some sexual innuendo woven throughout.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue on the e-book ARC! As a huge Golden Girls fan I could not wait to read this murder mystery of the girls! As I was reading I was picturing the show playing in my head and I could hear each of the girls voices as I read! I enjoyed how the author mentioned famous scenes or moments from the show in the story! The story itself was a cute mystery! The ending with the twist was definitely good but to me the story focused too much on the wedding and not as much on the murder until the end! I would recommend this book and I am looking forward to the ones to follow and will definitely be reading them!

*Thanks to Net Galley and Hyperion Avenue for the e-arc*

This is defitnitly hitting my nostalgia for the show. So first I have to say that this instantly transported back to the 80's into a Golden Girl's special episode in my mind. I could clearly hear each character's unique voice, including the humor. As an avid watcher of the show this was so delightful to read.

The mystery wasn't that great, but felt similar to something the show would do. This includes disguise hijinks.

If you enjoyed and watched the show repeatedly this is for you.
If you haven't watched or only casually watched, but enjoy cozy mysteries set in the past you might enjoy this as well.

Thank you Netgalley and Hyperion Avenue for this arc.

If you’re a fan of The Golden Girls then you’ll have a great time reading this book. It hits all the marks of the TV show while also standing in its own as a mystery.

There were things I thought could have been done better, but over all I had fun reading it.

I was a huge fan of Golden Girls when I was in college. While I was reading this book, I could see the characters and I could definitely hear their voices. Sophia, Rose, Blanche and Dorothy are all such strong characters, and I think the author did them justice. I found this to be such a cozy/enjoyable mystery and can't wait to read the next one. Thank you to Hyperion Avenue for the advanced read. Opinions are my own.