Reading Hour

Reviewed from a Nook (Barnes and Noble) e-book.

I reviewed the first of this series (Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder) without mentioning the recipes once.  That probably shows how important they are to me.  :)  But I have read posts from readers who enjoy - and even try the recipes. 

In every book in the series, at the end of every couple of chapters, the author shares a recipe - frequently a cookie from Hannah Swenson's shop (The Cookie Jar), sometimes an entrée or dessert.  Basically I page quickly through these, though sometimes at the end there's a cutesy note about how one character or another likes this recipe.

Ok, the title here - referencing Strawberry Shortcake - does relate to a dessert that is important to the story.  But it also made me wonder - you have a heroine who owns a Cookie Store, creating her own types of cookies...  and in the SECOND book in the series, you name the book after something other than a cookie?  So, will the third book be the Pot Roast mystery? 

The story is fairly straight forward.  Hannah is the chief judge for a baking contest sponsored by a flour company.  The final bake offs are being televised out of the High School auditorium.  There are 12 contestants, with 4 baking and competing the first three nights.  The winners of those 3 contests will compete in the final night of the competition.  To promote the contest, Hannah is creating a dessert every day during the on-site newscast, and serving it to the news crew.  One of the judges drops out after needing some dentistry, and is replaced by the High School Basketball Coach, Boyd Watkins.

Boyd was introduced in Chocolate Chip - a pushy, demanding and successful coach, he's also a pushy, demanding and abusive husband to Danielle.  After judging the first night's offering, he accepts the rest of the Strawberry Shortcake that Hannah had made for the news crew to bring home to Danielle. 

Later that evening, Danielle phones Hannah and asks her to come out.  When Hannah arrives, Danielle takes her to the garage, where Boyd and the Strawberry Shortcake are on the floor.  Neither is doing very well.  Hannah stays with Danielle while she is questioned by the police, and then Danielle is sent to the hospital - because she has a cold.

People with colds go to the hospital.  Lake Eden must be a special kind of place, huh?

Hannah "has" to solve the murder because the chief of police wants it solved quickly, and doesn't want his detectives to - you know - detect... which means that Danielle is obviously going to be held responsible for the death of Boyd the wife beater.

Hannah is much more likeable in this story than in Chocolate Chip.  Yeah, she's still judgmental and a know it all, but there's less of that crap poisoning the story.  Maybe I read this book before Chocolate Chip, originally...  that would have explained why I kept reading.

Lisa, Hannah's assistant, is made a partner in The Cookie Jar in this book.  This seems to be a fantastic deal for Hannah - Lisa is a strong person and fills in for every task that Hannah leaves open.  She even takes over all the tasks of running the shop while Hannah investigates the murder.  Now notices - in book 1, Hannah considered making Lisa a partner, and in book 2, Lisa is made a partner.  So, clearly, Hannah can make a decision quickly.  And apparently can make the right decision when she decides quickly.  Let's see how long it takes to break the Mike-Norman-Hannah triangle. 

Mike is more of a know it all, though.  He's chauvinistic and obnoxious.  You have to wonder why the hell Hannah feels anything positive around him.  If it's only physical, what the hell? She's supposed to be smart - why is she letting the attraction override the fact that he's a creep?

Mike doesn't want Hannah investigating Boyd's murder.  And, given that Hannah breaks into a residence and tampers with evidence, I completely understand why Mike wants Hannah to stick to baking cookies.  But he expresses that in a very chauvinistic, high handed, creepy way.  I wish he'd just say, "Look Hannah, we get it.  You think you're smart.  You trip across murderers and almost get yourself killed, and somehow you think that makes you bright, instead of a complete moron.  What. Ever.  But, every time you hold up the investigation, every time your finger prints end up where they should not be, you will be placed in jail.  Just try running The Cookie Jar from behind bars."

Unfortunately, he doesn't say that, and she fumbles through the clues once more, goes looking specifically for a basketball player on steroids, but doesn't find it odd at all that a kid went from sitting on the bench, to basketball camp, and came back a playing phenomenon.  Anyone missing that chain of clues, just so that she can (again!) be held at gun point by the killer is an IDIOT.

Besides being an idiot, Hannah is a liar.  One of the times that Mike is nagging her about not getting involved in the investigation (instead of - you know - being a man and telling her how long she'll be in jail, if she does get involved)... "You should know better than that, Mike.  I'd never ignore your advice."  Hannah answered him truthfully, not voicing the other half of her thoughts.  I considered your advice for a long time last night, and I came to the conclusion that you were wrong and I was right.

If the author considers Hannah honest, this is NOT a person I would ever want to have to depend on.  Not any more than I'd want to depend on Hannah. 

The author is very focused on detail in her writing.  Sometimes this is fun, others it comes back to bite her.  For the second book in a row, she has Hannah use a card to be released from the condo parking lot.  "When she rolled down her window to use her electronic gate card to raise the wooden bar at the exit of the complex, the frigid air whistled into her truck."

How many times have you been required to use a gate card on the way *out* of a parking lot that isn't a lot where you pay to park?  (And even there, you don't use a gate card on the way out - you pay.)  You DON'T use a card on the way out, because why hold up people leaving?  You DO use a card on the way in, for security's sake.

There are shortcuts the author uses - kind of like catch phrases from Saturday Night Live.  Any time that Andrea does something intelligent or clever or especially something that Hannah couldn't do, someone says, "Of course she did that.  She's a Real Estate Agent."  That happens for the first time in this book, and it almost makes sense in the context.  Every time after this, it's just a lazy author using an insipid joke.

In Chocolate Chip, the author specifically mentioned a time when Hannah swore.  She didn't express the swear words, but she did mention the swearing.  Now the author turns to "words she wouldn't say in front of her niece."  You know, if the niece is standing there, that's fine.  Otherwise, WHO CARES?

There's also the Hannah-always-right-correcting-the-idiot-(usually-Andrea) game.  That starts out in Strawberry Shortcake, when Andrea mentions blackmail, which Hannah corrects, extortion.  According to Thesaurus.com, extortion is a synonym of blackmail.

Way to go, author...  But yeah, I kept reading.  This series Definitely Qualifies for "turn off your brain and read."