Torte: Better Together by Jack Johnson The team at Ashland’s beloved artisan bakeshop, is always better together. Torte is so much more than a bakery. It’s a gathering space for the entire community and a place to linger in one of the cozy booths by the front windows, watching the activity in Ashland’s bustling plaza with a steaming hot latte and a fresh-from-the-oven banana nut muffin. Jack Johnson’s laidback soundtrack is on rotation in the bakeshop, especially on a lazy Sunday morning when sunlight floods into the dining room while the team pulls strong shots of espressos and makes sure the pastry case is stocked with mouth-watering savory breakfast bites.   Juliet Capshaw: Love Story, Taylor Swift Our pastry chef, turned amateur sleuth, comes by her romantic tendencies naturally. Who can blame her with a name like Juliet Montague Capshaw? When named after one of Shakespeare’s most romantic heroines and living in the sweet hamlet of Ashland, Oregon, Juliet (but please call her Jules), it only makes sense that her theme song and the theme song for the entire Bakeshop Mysteries is Taylor’s ultimate love anthem. Does she secretly—or not so secretly—play it at full volume while she’s baking orange…

Some people indulge in marathon sessions of their favorite show on Netflix. Like many other readers, I tend to rereads my favorite authors in the same fashion. I also love doing it with an author that’s new to me. In both instances the series tend to span back a few years. It’s a rare occurrence that the series is only one and a half years old. By August 29th you’ll have 6 books to devour—heaven. Pure heaven. That’s what I found when I stumbled across Sue Minix’s The Bookstore Mystery series. You don’t have to read all of them in order to love each novel. You just have to adore cozy mysteries, book stores, and pets…and S-C-O-R-E! Your vacation reads are covered. The bonus is the price on your e-reader. The first book in the series, MURDER AT THE BOOKTORE, is $6.99. The next five are $2.99. Quality stories at a great price so you can spend your hard earned dollars on the destination you deserve—even if it’s your own backyard with your feet in the kiddie pool. Enjoy! (I sure hope 2025 brings more from Ms. Minix and The Bookstore Mysteries.) MURDER AT THE BOOKSTORE by Sue Minix The Bookstore Mystery…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MURDER UNDER THE MISTLETOE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? In a fresh new Maine-set holiday cozy, landscaper Kinsley Clark must root out a killer before she becomes the prime suspect. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I grew up visiting my aunt and uncle who lived on the coast of Maine along a cliff walk and I was desperate to return. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely! Kinsley loves to work with flowers (as do I) and loves to solve mysteries. A double win in my book! 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Curious, protective, hard working 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? How to create Kissing Balls! The instructions are in the back of the book so you can try your hand at it too. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I write a thousand words a day. The next day I edit that content and then write the next thousand. Repeat until complete. I edit again after my editor makes suggestions. 8–What’s your favorite foodie…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Diane Kelly!   Writes: Cozy mysteries featuring curious, perceptive, and resourceful women and their furry, four-footed sidekicks. Plotlines feature unusual methods of murder and intriguing clues, and often involve some fascinating forensics. Handsome heroes play secondary roles, and there’s lots of humor, too. In SNOW PLACE FOR MURDER, an avalanche of trouble befalls recently divorced lodgekeeper Misty Murphy when a guest is found dead and buried in the snow outside her Mountaintop Lodge in North Carolina’s beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Solving a murder is a slippery slope but, with the help of her hunky handyman, she’s determined to find out who put her guest on ice.   About: “Mom” to two adorable yet demanding dogs and five frisky felines, I can most often be found in a lounge chair on my deck, sunning my legs while concocting humorous whodunnits on my laptop. When not writing, I enjoy hiking the wooded trails near my home in central North Carolina, or in the mountains in the…

Book Title: PAWS TO REMEMBER Character Name: Kathleen Paulson   How would you describe your family or your childhood? I think the best word to describe my family is eclectic. My parents are actors. My younger brother, Ethan, is a musician and my younger sister, Sarah, is a filmmaker. (Sarah and Ethan are twins.) At any given time when I was growing up, Mom and Dad could be rehearsing for a play—and staying in character twenty-four hours a day. Ethan was often practicing with his band, The Flaming Gerbils. And Sarah was helping with make-up and costumes and filming everything. It was never boring!   What was your greatest talent? I think my greatest talent was and is my ability to organize any situation. My parents and siblings are very creative people. I’m the one who always made sure we had socks, toilet paper and clean clothes. I’m also very, very good at road hockey and pinball.   Where do you live? I live in Mayville Heights, Minnesota. I came here to supervise the renovations to the library for its centennial and ended up staying. The town has been incredibly welcoming.   How do you feel about the place where…

1–What is the title of your latest release? SUGAR PLUM POISONED 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? It’s Christmas time and a country singer’s manager is murdered. Because she’s friends with the cupcake bakers, they feel that they have to prove her innocence before her career is frosted for good. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? It’s a series, so Scottsdale, AZ is where the bakery is located and where the mysteries take place. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely. She bakes cupcakes for a living. She has to be my friend! 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Smart, talented, and funny. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Sugar plums are not plums! Who knew? They’re actually little oval or plum shaped candies. I had no idea! 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I wait until the manuscript is done. 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? Cake. Always cake. 9–Describe your writing space/office! I have an office in my house that is full of bookcases and my desk is set so that I can look out the…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Olivia Blacke!   Writes: Light-hearted cozy mysteries set just outside of Austin, Texas where the only thing hotter than the cowboy-hat-wearing Detective Beau Russell is the weather. Luckily, you can dip into Sip & Spin Records, the local vinyl records shop/coffee café, where Juni Jessup and her sisters always have the perfect music selection and delicious caffeinated beverage to help you beat the heat, that is unless they’re off solving a murder at the annual Cedar River Bluebonnet Festival.   About: Must love unicorns! I’m a little nerdy, a lot awkward, and just the right amount of weird. Luckily, I finally found a way to put my Criminology degree to use by writing mysteries. And please, don’t judge me by my search engine history or any notes you might find lying around about how to get away with murder. They’re for research. I promise.   What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: Appreciates a wide variety of music and isn’t afraid of…

1–What is the title of your latest release? FATAL FUDGE SWIRL 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Hard to do without spoilers! Riley Rhodes, a former CIA librarian who now runs the Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop, has been tasked with making a lavish Halloween themed wedding cake for the owner of Penniman’s Inn on the Green. But a murder at the Inn puts Riley at the center of a police investigation and in the murderer’s crosshairs. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? One fall weekend I visited an ice cream shop in the northeast part of Connecticut – what we call the Quiet Corner. Full of farms, rolling hills, and beautiful country lanes bordered by stone walls and fields of sunflowers, it felt like I’d stumbled into the perfect setting for my series. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Absolutely! Riley and I share a love of travel, books, and food. 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Riley is curious, loyal, and adventurous. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? Because I included a character who is a celebrity chef who specializes in molecular…

1–What is the title of your latest release? MARIGOLDS, MISCHIEF, AND MURDER 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Gwen Stevens will do just about anything to prove she’s ready to take the reins of the family business, Camelot Flowers. But when Gwen stumbles on the dead body of a high school friend, everything else in her life suddenly takes a backseat. Between a corpse, an attraction to two different inconvenient men, and slew of suspects, can Gwen find the killer…before they have her pushing up daisies? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I grew up in rural Wisconsin and knew I wanted to have this book take place in a rural midwestern town. Setting it in rural Illinois was a nod to the years I spent attending college in a suburb of Chicago. Small towns are rich with a sense of history and community, and I wanted to capture all of that in this book. The name Star Junction sounded magical to me, and that’s what I worked to create—a magical, but not perfect small town set in the heartland of America. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life?…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Mindy Quigley!   Writes: Twisty, funny cozy mysteries that’ll keep you guessing. Give me a great setting—say, a charming, upscale pizzeria nestled alongside a stunning lake—and I will put a dead body in it. Just as the best marinara sauces balance sweetness with acid, I like cutting through hominess and humor with a vinegary little splash of murder. I also love taking a strong, slightly flawed protagonist who readers can root for and surrounding her with a unique supporting cast who come to feel like family. My favorite reader reviews say things like, “People on the train thought I was crazy because I couldn’t stop laughing out loud” or “Stayed up way past my bedtime because of all the plot twists at the end.” If I’ve managed to make someone snort-laugh their morning Starbucks on the subway or stay up ‘til 2 A.M. reading, I know I’ve done my job.   About: Originally from Chicago, I spent several years living in the U.K. before…