4 stars to Joanne Fluke's Carrot Cake Murder, the tenth book in the "Hannah Swensen" cozy murder mystery series, a series which was made into several fun TV movies called "Murder, She Baked" starring Alison Sweeney and Cameron Mathison. The series continues to delight readers, providing at least 15 to 20 recipes that sound delicious and look fairly easy to make. I recommend you give all three a try -- the book, the movie and the food! Story As set up in the previous book, Hannah's protege and

Hannah’s cat Moisha is going cat-crazy at night, and unfortunately, her carrot cake has been involved in a murder. Gus, a relative of Lisa, her coworker at the bakery, who has been gone for decades, and only recently returned to Lake Eden for a family reunion, winds up dead. Unfortunately, too many people had a reason to kill him. LOL with the mystery of the tattoo. Too funny. This one really gave me a hankering for carrot cake! And so many yummy salads! Yum! Please excuse typos/name misspelling...

Me starting this book: Me finishing this book: I stumbled across these books in Barnes and Noble back and June and thought the premise sounded so ridiculous. "I'm going to read all of these because they're probably so terrible that they're hilarious." OH MY GOD I WAS SO WRONG. They're not hilarious, they're just so bad! The first one was, meh, whatever... BUT I'M 10 BOOKS IN NOW and oh my god, JoAnne what the hell are you even doing? These books are all. the. same. Mix it up, woman! Stop using t...

#10 in the Hannah Swensen "cozy murder mystery series with recipes"This one takes place at a family reunion for 150+ people, and somehow half of the townsfolk get invited to attend, also. Again, a light fluff read with recipes inserted distractingly at the end of chapters, rather than the end of the book. The love triangle continues to move nowhere. At least 50 pages of each book so far are wasted with reintroducing characters; Hannah's cat antics; repeated descriptions of her early morning wake...

Quick read. The biggest puzzle for me, having come into the series at book 10, after "huh?" was who are these people? They don't have current computer or phone skills, they have been living in some rural backwater which seems like its intended to be reminiscent of the original Eden, for too many generations for anyone to remember. They all know each other's back stories, but the reader doesn't. They laugh at things that I could not appreciate as funny. They know acronyms for all the Native Ameri...

A piece of cake to read. Har har har. I've read almost every book in this series. The plots are formulaic but it's good when you don't have to think and in my jobs I read for work, not pleasure, too much of the time. I read culinary mysteries for the recipes. I get just as tired of goody-goody Hannah trying to choose between two boyfriends in this one -- oh grow up -- as I weary of Goldy in Diane Mott Davidson's series reminding everyone what a horrible abusive ex-husband she has -- you have a b...

Release Date: May 1, 2012 Genre: Cozy Mystery Another hit in the Hanna Swensen series- a highly enjoyable coz mystery that revolves around baked sweets and murder! Once again, Hannah is back on the case- trying to find a killer while juggling her culinary career and prospects of love. Some may say that Hanna is quite intuitive and I would agree! However, I wish she would do something about her two love interests. While the author and Hannah make it very clear that Hannah won’t jump into somet

I'm wavering between giving this book one or two stars. I thought the first few books were cute but the series has gotten progressively more lame. So many plot points, big and small, are just unbelievable. It is 2008 and the owner of the gas station has to call in credit card numbers? But not on a Sunday of course so she'll jot down a card number to call in Mon? It is 2008 and Lisa seriously has no idea what a s'more is, so Hannah has to explain it to her? Norman, the local dentist, just hops a

What was up with the ending... who the heck is Ross again? If he’s a third love interest I’m going to scream! Just pick Norman already!

As is typical in the Hannah Swensen world - Hannah is able to "save" the day while getting little to no sleep, somehow doing no work for the cookie shop, and grammatically correcting everyone around her. I read a review for the last book I read in this series and someone mentioned the annoyance they had that Hannah's two sisters were supposed to be gorgeous and stylish, but then they end up wearing the weirdest (non stylish) clothes. I noticed two times in this book people were wearing pantsuits...

Why have I read ten of these though?

"And that means one of two things. Either being in shock doesn't affect my memory, or I'm being much too used to finding murder victims!" It's time for barbecues and gatherings at Eden Lake, and summer air smells of late blossoms and hot dishes. Hannah Swensen is doing a great job in helping her partner and friend, Lisa, organizing her family reunion. Her relatives had just started wishing her long lost uncle, Gus, was there with them, when he makes a surprising appearance, riding a brand-new sh...

I'm really struggling with this. It's been several months since I've read any of this series, and coming back to it is making me realize how terrible the writing is. First, the characters are just far too goody-two-shoes and high-horse-like for me to stand any longer. If I met Hannah on the street, I would probably have to beat the daylights out of her. But beyond that, so much of the book, especially the dialogue is forced beyond anything I've seen. Dialoge to describe how you make a recipe wit...

Hannah Swensen is the owner of the Cookie Jar bakery. Hannah helps her co-partner, Lisa, cater the Beeseman-Herman family reunion. A long lost family member, Gus Klien, returns after more than twenty years absence. Gus portrays himself as wealth. He drives a Jaguar, sports a Rolex and wears a designer suit. It becomes evident not everyone is happy about his return. When Hannah finds Gus murdered in the pavilion, she starts investigating the homicide with the help of her family and friends.This i...

I'm in love with this series. It doesn't matter which book, they are really fun reads, and if you like cooking, there are some great recipes included.Carrot Cake Murder is book 10 in the series. I'd say of the three that I've read, this one was definitely one of the best.Here are the reasons this book is so great.1. Not a lot with the love triangle in this one. Its hard to deal with the whole Hannah, Mike and Norman thing, and in this book it wasn't such a huge issue.2. The mystery was really in...

Fluke has perfected her gimmick with this series: predictable murder, tasty recipes. She also recycles many descriptions and dialogue from previous books in the series, as well as drop trivia in the most random places. Hockey puck regulations? Major Native American tribes?And yet, as frustrating and mundane as it may seem, there's something to be said for how fresh-apple-pie everything is, how the biggest drama in this series and fictional landscape is having a nagging mother and the interest of...

Old family secrets are boiling just underneath the surface when a long-lost relative shows up at the Beeseman-Herman family reunion in Lake Eden, MN. Gus Herman reappears after 25 years, showing off very expensive clothes and jewelry and telling tales of his huge success. Obviously emotions are still raw, even decades after his disappearance in the middle of the night with no explanation. Hannah Swensen's business partner, Lisa, is a member of the family so The Cookie Jar is catering the event.

It's a cop-out, but the Hannah Swensen mysteries really only need a lump review:For some reason, I keep reading these when they show up at the library. I don't know why. Do I enjoy them? Sure. They're trashy murder mysteries that don't always make sense. I can huff at them in irritation when the main character does, or thinks, something especially stupid. They involve recipes.Actually, the books are formulaic enough that they themselves were written by recipe.Yes, I will keep reading them, assum...

This series is consistent in being a quick, enjoyable, quirky, and fun read. This novel did not stray from those traits and was actually one of my favourites so far in the series. This series and this novel especially, is one that can be read far after reading the previous novel. I wouldn't be surprised if the last Hannah Swensen novel I read was a year ago and I was able to quickly pick up where we left off as if no time passed at all. The characters are humorous and enjoyable, the town reminds...

3 stars. I don't know what it is about these books that keep me coming back. It's definitely not the characters but here I am, 10 books in and I don't know why. I guess because they're such easy, quick reads and there's just something about them that is very addictive even though they are very predictable and the characters aren't that great. Though I will say Hannah gets a bit more tolerable with each book because she was so insufferable in book one so that's good. The love triangle is tired th...