Lemon Tart by Josi Kilpack

Lemon Tart by Josi Kilpack
This is an adult culinary mystery that I really enjoyed.  Usually murder mysteries are not my thing, but this was great.  Sadie is a widow, mom of 2 college age kids, a busy volunteer in everything in her small Colorado town, and she loves to cook.  She lives in a cul-de-sac, and one day 2 police cars pull into one of the houses in her loop.  It is the home of a young, single mother named Anne.  She is found murdered in her back yard, her little 3 year old is missing and a Lemon Tart is cooking in her oven.  The recipe to the lemon tart is found after chapter one.  This kept you guessing who did it until the end, and when she talks about certain recipes that she is making in the book (like baking brownies to apologize to a neighbor for not being able to watch her kids because she was at the police station giving a statement), the recipe is listed at the end of that chapter.  Her brownie recipe is divine.  I tried it this past weekend.  So if you want a fun, clean, mystery, I would highly suggest this one.  It was a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to reading her other titles Devil's Food  and English Trifle.  So if you need a good read and some new recipes, please check this out.

The Wide-Awake Princess

The Wide-Awake Princess by E.D. Baker
This is the story of Sleeping Beauty's younger sister who when she was born the fairy blessed her that no magic can affect her--good or bad, so when Sleeping Beauty touches the needle of a spinning wheel and puts the whole castle to sleep, it doesn't affect her sister.  So the wide-awake sister sets out to find the true love of Sleeping Beauty to break the spell and wake everyone up.  Along the way she meets several other fairy tale characters--the frog prince, Hansel and Gretle, the bear from Snow White and Red Rose, and a few others.  It is a fun adventure to save her sister and her kingdom and maybe find own true love also.  Loved this!  It was as lot of fun to read.  My 10 year old daugher also read and enjoyed it. 

E.D. Baker's The Frog Princess Series

Been some slow reading weeks, see here for details if you are interested, just normal crazy life stuff, anyway, I am currently reading The Wide-Awake Princess  by E.D. Baker.  I really like her stuff and thought I would spotlight her Frog Princess Series.  There are 8 books in this series.  Number 8 just came out in September and is called A Prince Among Frogs.  The Frog Princess is the first book in the series and a great fractured fairy tale.  Now I have seen and read that Disney's Princess and the Frog was based on this book.  I would say very extremely loosely based, and I would never have made the connection if I hadn't read it, and the first time I did read it was based on this book I didn't believe it because they are just not the same.  There is a boy in both movie and book that turns into a frog, and when the girl (a princess in the book, not a princess in the movie) kisses said frog she does turn into a frog, but all similarity ends there.  I couldn't even compare them beyond that, no other similarities because they are such totally different stories.  Not a fan of the movie, but love the books.  Each book in the series continues the tale of the Frog Princess and her children, grandchildren and on, and one is a prequel about her mother and grandmother.  All very entertaining.   If you love a good fairy tale, which I always do, these are great reads.  My girls have all liked them, and they are also entertaining for adults.