"entertaining and stylish mystery"

The happiest times Lee MicKinney has ever known have all taken place in the Michigan summer tourist town of Warner Pier. She is working as the general manager for Ten Hugs Chocolate and lives in her house which might not be a mansion but feels just like home. She is soon getting married to Joe who loves her and means the world to her. Perhaps her problem is her mother who insists and entreats in the same sentence that the wedding occur somewhere else.

Nellie tells Lee that her mother left town the night before her wedding and her fiancé Bill was found dead hors later, an apparent suicide. Wanting to learn more about this unknown chapter in her mother's life, she starts investigating with some help from Joe. Her mother wanted to make sure that Sheriff Van Hoosier was out of office and had no power before coming for a visit so they go to the nursing home where he is living. They find him dead, the victim of a blow to the head and strangulation. When Lee's mother arrives for a visit she is almost kidnapped. Clearly someone has secrets to keep that involved Lee's mother and her dead former fiancé and that person is more than willing to keep killing anyone who gets in his way.

This is a very entertaining and stylish mystery filled with romance and chocolate trivia. Reading this on an empty stomach is hazardous to the waistline because the chocolate descriptions are the kiss of death so sensuously enticing that readers will crave the need instantly. Lee is very likeable without being too sweet and her brains and beauty make her a powerhouse to be reckoned with as anyone who gets in her way finds out.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 25, 2006

Summary

Something Old, Something Askew

Caught up in a whirl of champagne and china patterns, bride-to-be Lee McKinney has butted heads with her future mother-in-law over every detail of the wedding bash. The last thing she needs is trouble with her own mother. But this is bigger than the hot versus cold hors d'oeuvres debate: Sally McKinney doesn't even want to be at the wedding if it takes place in Warner Pier, her hometown.

Irked that her mom might be MIA on the Big Day, Lee heads to her aunt's chocolate shop, TenHuis Chocolade, for advice. There, the bride is shocked to learn that years earlier, her mother ran away on what would have been her own wedding day—hours before her fiancé was found dead, an apparent suicide. Now, to smooth things over with her mother—and ease her own way down the aisle—Lee must untangle a mystery older than she is....