Welcome to Cozy Wednesday!
The new Coffeehouse Mystery is out and I am thrilled to give you my thoughts!
Brewed Awakening (A Coffeehouse Mystery)
by Cleo Coyle
About Brewed Awakening
Brewed Awakening (A Coffeehouse Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
18th in Series
Berkley (December 3, 2019)
Hardcover: 368 pages
ISBN-10: 0451488873
ISBN-13: 978-0451488879
Digital ASIN: B07GQHK51D
From Cleo Coyle, the New York Times bestselling author of Shot in the Dark and Dead Cold Brew, comes a delicious new entry in the “fun and gripping” (The Huffington Post) Coffeehouse Mysteries.
When coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi awakens on a bench in Washington Square Park, she has no idea she’s been missing for the past week, or that her friends and family have been frantic with worry. Now that she’s back, everyone is overjoyed, including a handsome NYPD detective who claims to be her fiancé. But to Mike Quinn’s crushing distress, Clare doesn’t remember him, or much of anything about the last decade of her life.
Clare’s missing memory is tied to a crime she witnessed. An acquaintance of Clare’s elegant employer–and fellow member of an exclusive Gotham circle known as “The Ladies Who Brunch”–invited Clare to her posh hotel to sample gourmet wedding cakes. The pair took a stroll after their indulgent tasting and, according to security camera footage, a masked figure snatched the hotel heiress at gunpoint with Clare looking on. Did the kidnapper take Clare, too? The camera went dark, just like Clare’s memory. Soon authorities grow suspicious. Is Clare really a victim? Or merely acting like one? Evidence is mounting that she set the woman up.
To clear her name, Clare must find a way to reclaim her memories and rescue the heiress before this high-stakes crime ends in tragedy. Otherwise, instead of walking down the aisle, Clare may find herself perp-walking to prison as an accomplice to kidnapping and murder.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
This time Cleo Coyle turns things inside out when our protagonist becomes the victim. Clare Cosi has been missing for a week when she wakes up on a bench in Washington Square Park, disoriented and scared, she wanders the area finally finding the Village Blend coffeehouse. Her friends, family, and employees are all thrilled to have her back but realize she has no memory of several years. She thinks her daughter is still a youngster waiting for her to come home. That her divorce was recent and the anger at her ex, Matt, is still vivid. But worst of all she has no memory of Mike Quinn, the man who loves her so much. A man she was ready to marry.
Everyone believes her memory loss is due to a tragic event. She had been meeting with hotel heiress/owner, Annette Brewster, to taste wedding cakes. After the tasting, both women disappeared. While now Clare has been found, Annette is still missing. Evidence shows Clare may have been in on a kidnapping. Without her memory, she has no way to clear her name. She is willing to do anything to get her memory and her life back even working with her ex, who she really hates at the moment.
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Never deny the power of coffee!
Cleo Coyle has brewed up a truly stellar story. Over the course of this series, fans have come to love these characters. Putting the star in peril really perks up all of our antennas. We are rooting for her more than we ever have.
What I loved is that she hasn’t lost her love of coffee and her talent of discerning every bit of its flavor profile. She also hasn’t lost her sleuthing ability and the need to find the truth. Not sure who she can really trust she is tentative at first. But she knows she not only needs to recover her memory for herself but there is another woman out there that needs to be found.
The author has given readers a mystery that is impossible to put down. There is action and suspense with the requisite humor required by the genre. I was totally captivated by Clare’s memory loss and the treatment it received within these pages. There are plenty of twists and surprises as the clues started to fall into place, including an old case that is not what it seemed to be.
While the Village Blend is an excellent backdrop for a mystery I liked that this time the mystery and keeping Clare safe took us on quite a journey, New York, New Jersey, and for one character farther up the coast. We also get to visit a grand home. Oh my word, it sounded like quite a place.
I absolutely love this series and these characters. Each new book becomes my new favorite. This time Cleo Coyle has really topped herself. This story is derived from the research of true amnesia cases. It felt fresh and new and was explored in a caring way while twisting it into a fascinating mystery. All the cozy touches expected were there including all the coffee and food descriptions fans of the series have come to expect.
Well-plotted, well-written, with wonderful characters, Brewed Awakening
About Cleo Coyle
CLEO COYLE is the pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. CLEO COYLE grew up in a small town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After earning scholarships to study writing at Carnegie Mellon and American Universities, she began her career as a cub reporter for The New York Times. Now an author of popular fiction and New York Times bestselling media tie-in writer, Cleo lives and works in New York City, where she collaborates with her husband (also a bestselling author) to pen the Coffeehouse Mysteries for Penguin. Together Cleo and her husband also write the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries under the name Alice Kimberly. When not haunting coffeehouses, hunting ghosts, or rescuing stray cats, Cleo and Marc are bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for NBC, Lucasfilm, Disney, Fox, Imagine, and MGM. In their spare time, they cook like crazy and drink a lot of java. You can learn more about Cleo, her husband, and the books they write by visiting www.CoffeehouseMystery.com.
You can also friend or follow Cleo on Facebook as well as Twitter and Pinterest
Purchase Links
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Click on covers for more book information or to order from Amazon.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
