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theavidreaderandbibliophile's review against another edition
4.0
Murder Freshly Baked by Vannetta Chapman is the third book in the Amish Village Mystery series. Amber Bowman is the manager of The Amish Village in Middlebury, Indiana. Things have been going well for the last few months and Amber is looking forward to the weddings of her friends, Hannah and Mary. Then she starts receiving strange emails. The emails are bad poetry stating that pies and other pastries are poisoned. Then someone starts leaving pies with poetry around town. Then the Poison Poet (as they have dubbed him) starts making it personal and attacking Amber. Hannah, Tate, Amber, Jesse, Pam and friends set out to find who is behind the notes and pies. Who is the Poison Poet?
Preston Johnstone is still having PTSD episodes (he was the homeless man in the first book and now works and lives in the Amish Village). He is dating Zoey Quinn who is a nurse who works at the nursing home where Preston’s father lives. Zoey has found out about a special program that pairs dogs with people with PTSD. Zoey has convinced Preston to fill out an application for a dog. Preston is not sure how a dog will help him, but he is willing to give it a chance (with a lot of encouragement from Amber, Tate, and Zoey). Preston would like to get over his past so he can have a future. Hopefully, Mocha (his new PTSD dog) will help him so Preston can go after the girl of his dreams.
Hannah (manager of coffee shop) and Mary (The Cat’s Meow) are busy planning their weddings. They are having a double wedding. Their finance’s are finishing up their rooms. They will be living at the Miller’s home (the boy’s parents). Hannah, Mary, Pam (assistant manager at The Village), and Amber are worried about their friends. Martha Gingerich, Letha Keim, and Georgia Small are all dating Ryan Duvall. Ryan is something of a playboy. He is Englisch and two of the girls are Amish. No one wants to see them hurt, but it is destined to happen. Ryan would never convert to the Amish faith and Martha and Letha would not want to leave the Amish. Then after Ryan finishes The Race for the Cure he is shot dead. Who killed him? Was he shot because of philandering ways or because of his gambling problem?
Murder Freshly Baked is a charming novel. The book contained great, likeable characters, a little romance, a beautiful setting, and good mysteries. However, I did not enjoy this book as much as the first two in the series. I liked that Preston was getting help for his PTSD, but I did not enjoy all the scenes of his time in Afghanistan. They did not seem to go with the book (maybe if there had been only one or two scenes). I liked hearing about how dogs can help people with PTSD. What a great program. I give Murder Freshly Baked 4 out of 5 stars.
I received a complimentary copy of Murder Freshly Baked from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own.
http://bibliophileandavidreader.blogspot.com/2015/06/murder-freshly-baked.html
Preston Johnstone is still having PTSD episodes (he was the homeless man in the first book and now works and lives in the Amish Village). He is dating Zoey Quinn who is a nurse who works at the nursing home where Preston’s father lives. Zoey has found out about a special program that pairs dogs with people with PTSD. Zoey has convinced Preston to fill out an application for a dog. Preston is not sure how a dog will help him, but he is willing to give it a chance (with a lot of encouragement from Amber, Tate, and Zoey). Preston would like to get over his past so he can have a future. Hopefully, Mocha (his new PTSD dog) will help him so Preston can go after the girl of his dreams.
Hannah (manager of coffee shop) and Mary (The Cat’s Meow) are busy planning their weddings. They are having a double wedding. Their finance’s are finishing up their rooms. They will be living at the Miller’s home (the boy’s parents). Hannah, Mary, Pam (assistant manager at The Village), and Amber are worried about their friends. Martha Gingerich, Letha Keim, and Georgia Small are all dating Ryan Duvall. Ryan is something of a playboy. He is Englisch and two of the girls are Amish. No one wants to see them hurt, but it is destined to happen. Ryan would never convert to the Amish faith and Martha and Letha would not want to leave the Amish. Then after Ryan finishes The Race for the Cure he is shot dead. Who killed him? Was he shot because of philandering ways or because of his gambling problem?
Murder Freshly Baked is a charming novel. The book contained great, likeable characters, a little romance, a beautiful setting, and good mysteries. However, I did not enjoy this book as much as the first two in the series. I liked that Preston was getting help for his PTSD, but I did not enjoy all the scenes of his time in Afghanistan. They did not seem to go with the book (maybe if there had been only one or two scenes). I liked hearing about how dogs can help people with PTSD. What a great program. I give Murder Freshly Baked 4 out of 5 stars.
I received a complimentary copy of Murder Freshly Baked from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own.
http://bibliophileandavidreader.blogspot.com/2015/06/murder-freshly-baked.html
justicepirate's review against another edition
3.0
I am glad that I got to finish this series and that it ended very well and nicely.
I was confused at the beginning of this book because it started differently than the other two. It started with part of the ending and then went backwards leading up to that particular part. I like how it wrapped up into that later because I was able to see what was happening more easily (after my confusion went away after the first couple chapters, of course).
Our main characters from the first two books make their return and this time Amber is receiving threatening messages. She begins to try to understand why she is being threatened. Haven't there already been two murders within the past year? Now she worries there will be a third, and she will do whatever she can to try to protect her friends and family.
The whole story is wrapped around in faith and trying to bring love and forgiveness around as well. I liked this book. It wasn't my favorite of the books, but it was still enjoyable and well written.
I was confused at the beginning of this book because it started differently than the other two. It started with part of the ending and then went backwards leading up to that particular part. I like how it wrapped up into that later because I was able to see what was happening more easily (after my confusion went away after the first couple chapters, of course).
Our main characters from the first two books make their return and this time Amber is receiving threatening messages. She begins to try to understand why she is being threatened. Haven't there already been two murders within the past year? Now she worries there will be a third, and she will do whatever she can to try to protect her friends and family.
The whole story is wrapped around in faith and trying to bring love and forgiveness around as well. I liked this book. It wasn't my favorite of the books, but it was still enjoyable and well written.
icygrl7's review against another edition
4.0
I give this one a 3.5. I liked it but not as much as the first and second installment. I hope there will be more books in this series though. I would love to revisit the character sometime in the future.
meezcarrie's review against another edition
4.0
If we must say goodbye, Murder Freshly Baked is a delightfully charming way to end this wonderful series. Sweetly passionate romance, two puzzling mysteries, a dash of tangible tension, a handful of selfless friendships, and just the right amount of witty humor all mix together to produce a delicious story that you won’t want to put down.
I just really love these characters! The interactions between Amish and Englisch (non-Amish) are natural and refreshing, especially in today’s world where differences so publicly divide. The sincerity and genuineness of their friendships warms the reader despite the suspense and adds elements of humor in the midst of tension (Pam’s reactions while being held hostage by a paintball attack comes to mind here).
One thing that kept coming to mind across all three books in this Amish Village series is the “Agatha Christie” feel to the writing, the atmosphere, the cases, even the characters. It delighted me in Murder Freshly Baked to see several references to Agatha Christie, my favorite being when Hannah mentioned Amber loaning her some of the mystery author’s books. I just knew they had to be mystery readers, too! All the best amateur sleuths are, of course.
The entire Amish Village series is a must read for both Agatha Christie/Sherlock Holmes fans and Amish genre fans!
(I received a copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for only my honest review.)
Read my full review here: https://readingismysuperpower.wordpress.com/2015/07/03/review-murder-freshly-baked/
I just really love these characters! The interactions between Amish and Englisch (non-Amish) are natural and refreshing, especially in today’s world where differences so publicly divide. The sincerity and genuineness of their friendships warms the reader despite the suspense and adds elements of humor in the midst of tension (Pam’s reactions while being held hostage by a paintball attack comes to mind here).
One thing that kept coming to mind across all three books in this Amish Village series is the “Agatha Christie” feel to the writing, the atmosphere, the cases, even the characters. It delighted me in Murder Freshly Baked to see several references to Agatha Christie, my favorite being when Hannah mentioned Amber loaning her some of the mystery author’s books. I just knew they had to be mystery readers, too! All the best amateur sleuths are, of course.
The entire Amish Village series is a must read for both Agatha Christie/Sherlock Holmes fans and Amish genre fans!
(I received a copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for only my honest review.)
Read my full review here: https://readingismysuperpower.wordpress.com/2015/07/03/review-murder-freshly-baked/
melmo2610's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this book and the whole series. Great mystery, wonderful characters and a lot of fun to read. Wish there were more of this series!
eeyore031370's review against another edition
Could not put it down!!!
This book was very good. I enjoyed getting to know each character. I kept wanting to know what would happen next !!
This book was very good. I enjoyed getting to know each character. I kept wanting to know what would happen next !!
delaneybull's review against another edition
3.0
OK, full disclosure. I read this for a class, and I had no prior interest in Amish fiction. In fact, I had a whole lot of assumptions about how this book was going to represent women, and generally how the writing was going to be. So I had to eat my words a little bit after finishing this one. The plot and writing were generally good, the characterizations were a little too pure and unbelievable, but not so much that I didn't see them as believable people. I enjoyed the story, but it was interesting that the murders were more like a secondary plot, with the relationships between characters taking precedence instead. I didn't love some of the stereotypes surrounding the one black character and the one veteran, but generally the treatment of characters was good. The language toward women also ran a little more toward being traditionally feminine and "proper," and it really bugged me that whenever a woman was contemplating continuing work after marriage or not, the end-all-be-all was when pregnancy and child-bearing happened, as I personally believe women can raise children and work outside the home if they so choose. So I probably will not be reading more Christian/Amish fiction, but this was an enlightening experience.
shammons's review against another edition
3.0
I was able to finish up this trilogy after having read the first one several years ago (thanks to finding #2 and #3 free from Prime Reading). I have also read the Shipshewana series from the same author and remember enjoying them. I did enjoy this book and series, but I didn't just love them. This third and final one especially was a bit more suspended disbelief than I had wanted in a book, with the "poison poet" notes intertwined with the murder. The murder was presented at the very beginning, then we backed up a few weeks and the plot unfolded from there, so we see what happened and how it ended up that way, before finding out "whodunnit". I appreciated that change of pace, but the overall plot was just so-so for me. Onward and upward with more great books I hope!
kentuckybooklover's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
onecraftchick's review against another edition
2.0
Another easy read.
Just one of those books that is entertaining and can get you out of a book funk.
Not as good as the other two though.
Just one of those books that is entertaining and can get you out of a book funk.
Not as good as the other two though.