A Diet To die For

A Diet to Die For: A Skinny Mystery

Author: Sarah Steding

Paperback: 352 pages (also available in e-formats)

Publisher: Pocket Books (June 25, 2013)

Rating 

Blurb

Meet Jen Stevens—a hungry New York City event planner who’s 31 years old, 30 pounds overweight, and flirting with disaster when it comes to sticking to her diet. Working for the food-centric Yummy Channel, it’s hard to resist temptation. But when there’s a crime for Jen to solve, it’s easy as pie. . . .

Baker extraordinaire Bess Brantwood is one of the Yummy Channel’s brightest stars—and biggest divas. Despite the off-camera drama, Jen has to admit that Bess’s chocolate buttercream cupcakes drizzled with caramel are simply to die for—and kill for, as it turns out—when Bess’s body, like a baked good gone bad, is discovered . . . in a Dumpster.

Who iced the cupcake queen? Jen is determined to find out. With the help of her BFFs—fab foodblogger Gabby and lively life coach Elizabeth—she starts sifting for clues. She’s got all the ingredients to solve the perfect crime, including one delectable detective, one divalicious diary, and enough industry rivals for a battle of the network stars. But is Jen prepared to risk her life as well as her waistline? No matter how you slice it, revenge is sweet—and loaded with carbs.

My thought

The romance building between Jen and sexy detective Alex is a good one. Things are going to be interesting between these two. A Diet to Die for is a ridiculously, entertaining, not to be missed, good read! Steding has created extraordinary characters and let readers get to know them while leaving plenty of room for growth. I love Jen. The true friendship she has Gabby and Elizabeth just shines, even a bump or two in the road. My favorite character was “Officer Hazel Eyes”. He just kept popping up everywhere Jen went and hopefully that will continue in the next installment.

Author Sarah Steding’s strong point seems to be characters. Billy, Jen’s ex and a bakery employee, was wild — I would love an entire book with him as the main character. And the workplace chefs at the Yummy Channel, complete with baking specialties and personalities to match livened up the book. This would be a fun book for a cozy mystery lover to read while wiling away a summer afternoon at the beach or poolside.