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    Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder: A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery, #1
    Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder: A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery, #1
    Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder: A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery, #1
    Ebook147 pages2 hours

    Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder: A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery, #1

    By Ann S. Marie

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    "Great book! It kept me intrigued until the end. Never would have considered whodunit!" --Amazon Reviewer

    "The story has a good pace and the ending reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel. I didn't guess who'd dun it, can you?" --Amazon reviewer

    "Excellent read." --Goodreads reviewer

    Reverse your stress at Cozy Cupcakes Café. Remember, 'stressed' is 'desserts' spelled backwards!

    Her ex-fiancé ran off with her money, her dreams, and her best friend. But that won't stop Dana Sweet from trying to make a fresh new start. They say the best revenge is sweet success and that's what Dana plans to do. Turn the struggling cupcake café she inherited from her grandmother into a success. Dana takes a chance and re-opens the café under a new name, Cozy Cupcakes Café, where frosted cupcakes are served with a spoon and delivered with a sweet fortune cookie-like message to brighten customers' days.

    But moving back to Berry Cove in Ontario is not as easy as it looks. For one thing, Dana is not welcomed to town by her competitor. Moreover, the employees at the bake shop haven't warmed up to her yet. And when the Berry Cove Gazette food critic who gave the café a scathing review turns up dead, all sticky fingers point to Dana. And now a gorgeous detective has her under surveillance...

    A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery series:

    Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 1)

    Blueberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 2) Available now!

    Chocolate Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 3)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnn S. Marie
    Release dateJan 25, 2017
    ISBN9781524270094
    Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder: A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery, #1

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    3.5/5

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    • 1/5
      Look, it’s a short book. Somehow, the author managed to bungle up the name of the victim. The detective gives a name of the victim at the beginning, but somehow the big ahha moment found her using a different name for the victim. The “major clue” that set her down the path of whodunnit was wrong. The book isn’t long enough to forget a major detail like that.

    Book preview

    Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder - Ann S. Marie

    Thanks to my Father above for every blessing.

    ***BONUS RECIPES INCLUDED!***

    STRAWBERRY CREAM CUPCAKE & MURDER

    (A DANA SWEET COZY MYSTERY, Book 1)

    Reverse your stress at Cozy Cupcakes Café. Remember, ‘stressed’ is ‘desserts’ spelled backwards!

    HER EX-FIANCÉ RAN OFF with her money, her dreams, and her best friend. But that won’t stop Dana Sweet from trying to make a fresh new start. They say the best revenge is sweet success and that’s what Dana plans to do. Turn the struggling cupcake café she inherited from her grandmother into a success. Dana takes a chance and re-opens the café under a new name, Cozy Cupcakes Café, where frosted cupcakes are served with a spoon and delivered with a sweet fortune cookie-like message to brighten customers’ days.

    But moving back to Berry Cove in Ontario is not as easy as it looks. For one thing, Dana is not welcomed to town by her competitor. Moreover, the employees at the bake shop haven’t warmed up to her yet. And when the Berry Cove Gazette food critic who gave the café a scathing review turns up dead, all sticky fingers point to Dana. And now a gorgeous detective has her under surveillance...

    A Dana Sweet Cozy Mystery series:

    Strawberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 1)

    Blueberry Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 2) Available now!

    Chocolate Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 3)

    Strawberry Meringue Cupcake & Murder (Book 3.5) * Bonus Short Story

    Vanilla Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 4)

    Holiday Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 5)

    Valentine’s Cupcake & Murder (Book 6)

    Buttercream Cupcake & Murder (Book 7)

    Coconut Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 8)

    Cherry Cream Cupcake & Murder (Book 9)

    Chocolate Chip Cupcake & Murder (Book 10)

    Chapter 1

    GRANDMA RAE’S KEY INGREDIENTS for a good day:

    1 cup of gratitude  

    1 spoonful of hope

    1 ounce of laughter

    A dash of resilience

    A sprinkle of service to others

    1 cup of integrity

    1 cup of self-respect

    1 good trusted friend (2 is optional)

    A whole lot of love for yourself  

    1 cupcake with a tasty whipped cream frosting with a cup of kind words to sweeten your day

    A nostalgic smile touched Dana Sweet’s lips as she remembered Grandma Rae’s key ingredients for a good day. Dana drove her blue Ford Escort on 401 eastbound toward the small town of Berry Cove, Ontario. She was finally leaving the state of New York behind her. She thought about the Sweet Family Recipe Book her grandmother left to her in her will. The last page of the recipe book had the poem on the key ingredients for a good day attached to it.

    Though this was her final drive from New York with the last of her stuff, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of nervousness. Was she making the right decision to come back? She hardly knew the town. She hadn’t lived there since her childhood.

    An uneasy feeling settled inside Dana but she swept it out of her mind.

    It’s only nerves, girl. You’re just worried about what people would say if they found out about what happened in New York, Dana murmured to herself as the wind blew her shiny brunette locks. The car window was cracked open slightly. The sun was so bright so she reached into the glove compartment to pull out her sunglasses. She couldn’t believe how warm and sunny it was considering it was now Fall.

    She thought about what her new life would be like now. In a small town, conformity was the law. Being different could sometimes make you an outsider. And she intended to fit in. Even though the newly revamped café idea was...well, different.

    Dana had changed her Nana’s beloved cupcake café since it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy after her death. She’d met the employees a few months ago and had implemented a couple of big changes. Initially, they’d been distrustful of her ‘out-there’ ideas (the icing-heavy cupcake served with a spoon, and the messages at the bottom of the cupcakes and on the wrappers), but those ideas had managed to make the café popular again, and they’d come around. Well, some of the employees had come around to her ideas.

    Nana had always told her that people were like layers of cakes with many different ingredients. Some people were sweeter than others. You’ve got to know how to move good with people, Grandma Rae would always say.

    Life had many layers, too. Some sweet stuff, some bitter stuff, all mixed in to make a tasty cake. Like baking powder made a cake rise but you sure as heck wouldn’t want to taste it on its own.  

    Boy, Dana needed a scoop of confidence right now. Speaking of which...

    Her late grandmother, Grandma Rae, always told her that Life is like a delicious scoop of ice-cream—you’ve got to enjoy it before it melts.

    And Grandma Rae also used to preach that the word stressed was desserts spelled backwards. It depended on what you did with the letters. It’s not what happened to you, it’s what you decided to do with it that counted. Life was ten percent of stuff that happened to you and ninety percent of how you responded to it, she would discourse. Plain and simple. Of course, Grandma Rae lived through three divorces, nine lay offs, two wars and thirteen grandkids, so she knew what she was talking about.

    She had always been free-spirited, youthful and full of life, even at eighty-five.

    Dana’s heart squeezed in her chest. Oh, how she missed her nana so much. She missed the evenings cozying up by the warm crackling fire at the fireplace while sitting on the antique Victorian-era sofa with quilted cushions while her grandma told funny stories and often with the most outrageous twists in the end. Or Grandma Rae would tell famous tales about the lessons of life.

    Little did Dana know then that they were having more than just fun family time, they were creating happy memories that would linger sweetly like the scent of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. That was what life consisted of, happy moments or whatever we did to capture and sweeten each moment with those we care about.

    Grandma would always tell Dana and her cousins, If life gave you lemons, sweeten them and make lemonade. Don’t come to me with any sour faces because you bit into a raw lemon, she would playfully tease them. God rest her wonderful soul.

    She also told Dana that you need to have something to live for—or else what would be the point. If you don’t believe in yourself, who do you think would? If you were not your own best friend, why would anyone else want to be? And that was the truth. She also told her that sometimes you need the lows to appreciate the highs in life. And sometimes life didn’t unfold perfectly as planned. Well, she was going to enjoy her life for once.

    Trust me, child, Grandma Rae once told Dana, If you don’t have anything to worry about, you don’t have anything to live for. If life were always easy—where would be the adventure?

    Yes, life was always an adventure to Grandma Rae. And Berry Cove was a small town filled with the best walking trails and wooded forests and scenery and was always a fun adventure from what Dana could remember from her childhood visiting the area.

    Grandma Rae died a few months ago, around the same time Dana’s fiancé bailed out on her. He’d found someone better in his books. He’d been seeing a rich socialite—one of Dana’s former classmates and study buddy. He had his high-profile life in the city as a hot shot advertising executive now and he didn’t think she was good enough for him now that they’d both finished college.

    That was what happened. Still, Grandma Rae’s words of wisdom on moving forward and how life was an adventure lingered in Dana’s mind right now.

    The words caused her lips to curve into a smile as she drove past the sign on the highway that read: Welcome to Berry Cove, Ontario.

    Thank God she had her dual Canadian and American citizenship. She didn’t want to be anywhere near her ex right now.  She needed a break from the competitive circle of acquaintances they’d accumulated. A change of scenery. And moving from the busy city life to a small town on the lake scented with the fresh fragrance of berries in the air and the sounds of birds chirping in the trees, instead of sirens and honking horns in traffic with city congestion was a perfect change for her.

    Dana inhaled the sweet cottage country air as she drove on the lakeside with a breathtaking view of the waterfront.   

    Though sadness filled her heart at the thought that Grandma Rae was no longer around, she was glad to be moving back. After the funeral, a few months ago, she and her Aunt Petunia went through Nan’s stuff, which was hard to do but at the same time she felt closer to her. It was as if her spirit was still in the home, her warmth, and the scent of her perfume. She always wore Chanel No. 5.

    God, she missed Nana Rae, Dana thought as she pulled up to the gas station off the highway.

    Well, welcome back, stranger, Gerdie-Sue called out to Dana at the gas station when Dana had pulled up to refill her tank.

    Gerdie-Sue came out of her dark grey Mercedes Benz ready to pump gas. She was a rich widow whose husband number two left her very comfortable when he died. But she was also known as the town gossip. Dana knew better than to divulge any information about herself that she didn’t want to see on the front page of the Berry Cove Gazette.

    Morning, Miss Sue. You’re looking very well. Dana smiled cheerfully.

    "And so are you. Honey child, it must have been awful for you with your grandma passing on like that, right

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