Tag: texas

A Chocolate is Announced (Bean to Bar Mysteries)
by Amber Royer

It is my pleasure to welcome Amber Royer to Escape With Dollycas today!

When a Place Becomes a Character
by Amber Royer

In my Bean to Bar Mysteries series, I have protagonist Felicity living with her house-flipper aunt. In the first few books, said Aunt keeps buying new properties. I thought it would be fun, having Felicity pack up and move between books. But then a funny thing happened – she and her Aunt both fell in love with the flip hotel that became the setting of multiple books. It makes sense. A hotel takes a long time to renovate, especially when working with a small crew of people.

But the longer Felicity’s been there, the more it has come to feel like home to her. But a flip project can only last so long, and in the current book – A Chocolate is Announced, the 7th volume in the series – Felicity is having to face the prospect of her aunt actually selling the hotel. A lot of things are changing in her life, now that she’s engaged, so having her move makes sense, but there’s something about the place that appeals to her and fits her personality. Felicity is already a craft chocolate maker, so there’s no time in her life for her to also run a hotel (not to mention that she keeps having to solve complicated murder mysteries while trying to keep my fictionalized version of Galveston Island stocked with chocolate bars and truffles). But when a murder happens at the hotel, that makes the prospect of trying to flip it even more complicated. Felicity knows from experience that there’s a certain crowd interested in true crime – but would one of them even want to buy a boutique island hotel?

Something similar happened with Felicity’s shop, Greetings and Felicitations, which has been a major setting in most of the books. It started as something Feliciy started in memory of the dream she had with her late husband, then as she opened up as a character, it became something she shared with several other characters, including Logan, who became her business partner. Eventually, it has become a hub in the community, where her friends meet with their writers’ groups, or to play board games, of for concerts.

Both of these spaces have changed over the course of the books. Obviously, the hotel is under renovation, so pieces of it have gone from trashed and unsafe to enter to spaces where characters enjoy spending time. But the chocolate shop has also expanded, when Logan acquired the space next door to create an area for classes and events, and where people could watch chocolate making demonstrations. I think the fact that these settings are growing and in flux has helped make them memorable. They function almost as characters in the books.

Even more than how the spaces have physically changed, the way characters in the books relate to them has changed too. Most clearly, Felicity has grown in the way she sees her shop as something to be shared, rather than just a personal dream, and the space has grown from shabby chick pink and gray beginnings to a more eclectic lived-in feel, with quirky art and a giant chocolate fountain. The shop has been the site of several of the murders in the series, and has acquired a reputation among tourists as a place to visit if one wants to tempt death by chocolate. Felicity is still ambivalent about this, and it’s definitely not the vision she had at the beginning for her quaint historic space, but she has compromised by including a glass case where the books that keep popping up surrounding these murders are displayed.

For the flip hotel, it has become an increasingly important setting as the series has progressed. This is the first book where it is a site for the murder Felicity has to untangle. (The mystery is actually a locked room puzzle, involving one of the rooms, which Felicity’s aunt Naomi has furnished with antiques and thrifted finds.) Other recurring characters have started to put their stamp on the place too, including Felicity’s uncle, who typically works offshore, but loves plants. Aunt Naomi has started work on a garden for Uncle Greg to enjoy when he’s home. Which means she too has started to think of the place as home.

I think this emotional shift is the key to making a setting feel like a character. People have conversations and develop friendships or other relationships with other people, and with animals. This comes across naturally in books. (Readers usually love the animal companions Felicity gets to hang out with in the books. There’s a different one featured in each book – plus recurring animal characters such as Felicity’s bunny Knightley, and her friend Bea’s beagle Satchmo.) But it isn’t easy to portray that when dealing with a place. Characters don’t talk TO places, and it can feel hollow if they talk about how they feel about places but nothing seems to back those feelings up. So events have to be crafted to highlight the space, because you don’t want to have scenes that are only about the location without something exciting happening in the plot.

I hope you have as much fun reading about these spots as I did writing them.

Thank you Amber for visiting today!

Keep reading for more information about Amber and her Bean to Bar Mystery!

About A Chocolate is Announced

A Chocolate is Announced (Bean to Bar Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
7th in Series
Setting – Texas
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Golden Tip Press (June 25, 2024)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 277 pages
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CZMXM3BN

Felicity Koerber is finally getting her life together. She has a fiancé, her bean to bar chocolate shop on Galveston’s historic Strand has become a gathering spot for the community, and she is ready to embrace whatever the future holds. She’s ready for another launch party – despite the disaster at her grand opening, when she’d first gotten involved with solving a murder. And this time she’s embracing her status as a sleuth. She’s hosting a murder mystery weekend to celebrate the new Mystery Flavor line of craft chocolate bars. She’s held a contest to choose the attendees, who will all stay at her aunt’s flip hotel and enjoy the island. It’s all supposed to be perfectly random – only, Felicity starts to uncover connections between her guests. When one of them winds up murdered, Felicity has to keep her aunt from becoming the main suspect.

The killer is very clearly calling Felicity out, leaving clues that mean little to anyone other than her. But that doesn’t narrow down the suspect pool. Her guests are there because they love the true crime podcast she’s been featured on. And she can’t decide whether the killer wants her to catch them – or just wants to taunt her.

Meanwhile, Felicity is also playing host to her future in-laws and discovers that her fiancé’s sister, who is also a cop, is very competitive. Can Felicity hold her own and make a good impression, while keeping her business together and her aunt out of jail? And can Felicity solve it in time to protect the people she cares about from becoming additional victims?
Satchmo the retired police dog turned therapy dog returns to help her sniff out a few clues, and one of the guests brings along a ferret named Cheeseburger, who keeps showing up in the most unexpected places.

Great Escapes Praise for A Chocolate is Announced (Bean to Bar Mysteries)
by Amber Royer

5 stars! Return to Galveston for a surprising, locked-room murder mystery!
~Boys’ Mom Reads!

This closed-room mystery, one of my favorite kinds, had that Clue-like vibe. I haven’t read books one to six, don’t worry, they have all been added to my TBR! Lots of fun to read and I’m happy to have a new to me series to read!
~Sarah Can’t Stop Reading

About Amber Royer

Amber Royer writes the CHOCOVERSE comic telenovela-style foodie-inspired space opera series, and the BEAN TO BAR MYSTERIES. She is also the author of STORY LIKE A JOURNALIST: A WORKBOOK FOR NOVELISTS, which boils down her writing knowledge into an actionable plan involving over 100 worksheets to build a comprehensive story plan for your novel. She blogs about creative writing technique and all things chocolate at www.amberroyer.com. She also teaches creative writing and is an author coach. If you are very nice to her, she might make you cupcakes.  Chocolate cupcakes, of course.  

A Chocolate is Announced Trailer .mp4

Author Links

Website    Blog    Instagram    Facebook    Youtube    Twitter    Amazon Author Page    Goodreads

Purchase Links:  

TOUR PARTICIPANTS – Please visit all the stops. 
June 24 – Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense – SPOTLIGHT
June 25 – Eskimo Princess Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 26 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 27 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
June 28 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 29 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
June 29 – fundinmental – CHARACTER GUEST POST
June 30 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
July 1 – Maureen’s Musing – SPOTLIGHT
July 1 – Boys’ Mom Reads – REVIEW
July 2 – Ruff Drafts – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
July 3 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT
July 4 – OFF DAY
July 5 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
July 6 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading – REVIEW
July 6 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR GUEST POST
July 7 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using my links, I will receive a small commission from the sale at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Escape With Dollycas.

Have you signed up to be a Tour Host?
Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today!
Want to Book a Tour?
Click Here

Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent