Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse (A Cape Bay Cafe Mystery Book 1) Kindle Edition

I enjoyed this little cozy so much. Onto the next. Coffee, a nice guy and a dog! Truly a winning combination.

This book is described as a cozy mystery and its exactly that. What a delightful introduction to the world of Cape Bay and the murder mysteries plaguing this quaint little coastal town.

It started cute. I can get down with coffee and chocolate! I had difficulty staying with thebook.In all honesty, and rating, I had recently had surgery and was on pain med.

Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse (A Cape Bay...is about Francesca who returns to her hometown after her mother's death, to run the coffee shop, that her grandparents had started years ago. She is now living in her grandparents house where her and her mother lived. She recently moved from NY from a job that she no longer was happy doing. The coffee shop, the familiar town's people, and the slower paced life is just what she needs right now. Her Summer didn't start off too well. First, her fiancee broke off with her, then her mother died, and now just shortly after arriving and still getting settled in, Francesca finds the body of one of her neighbors sitting lifeless in a chair in his backyard. The son of the deceased man, whom it was determined by police that he was murdered, is Matt, who Francesca grew up with, but hasn't seen in years. They catch up on their pasts, and together try to solve Matt's father's murder. This leads to many times to get together to discuss the case and a possible romance between the two. The characters are likable and real. The story draws you in from the beginning and you will want to find out who killed Matt's father. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

This is the first book in a cozy mystery series that features an Italian-American woman named Francesca Amaro. Francesca is a third generation American, having grown up in a small coastal town in the US state of Massachusetts, and later worked in New York City. She returns to the small town after her mother's passing, to take over the family business, an Italian café.Part of the plot of the first book in the series relates to how Francesca overcomes her grief. She is quickly joined in the grieving process by an old friend, Matt, who loses his father in mysterious circumstances. Matt and Francesca join forces to find out what happened to the father, and to deal with the grief and the uncertainty about how to live their lives from that point forward. All that loss makes the start to this cozy series not as light and humorous as other cute cozy mystery series.The books in the Cape Bay Café Mystery Series to date are:Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a CorpseTea, Tiramisu, and Tough GuysMargaritas, Marzipan and MurderCozy conventions are followed in the book, with the amateur sleuth having a link to the deceased (actually, she finds the deceased too), then she pursues the investigation for a good-hearted reason, tripping over the police as she investigates in the closed community for the killer in their midst. She may protest about her new role, but Francesca actually loves the distraction."I was a former public relations manager turned café owner and artisan barista, not a detective."The third-person limited perspective keeps us in Francesca's mind throughout the story. The book has much about friendship, with Francesca learning to accept the affection offered by the good-hearted small town residents. She slowly begins to recreate her life, bit by bit, with a new home, new friends, a new pet, and a new life in a tourist area owning and working in a tourist business. The process continues over the rest of the books in the series.There is a light love interest, too, for Francesca, which is in line with the genre, and it is chaste, as is the convention with cute cozies, verses the traditional cozy mysteries which allow for more realistic sexual relationships. Put a stray dog in the mix, and you have a cute cozy that is suitable for tweens and teens as well as adults. The covers are very cute too.The writing is at a simple, clear level, but there are still too many typos and verb errors in the text. Hopefully they will be edited out soon. And the two recipes that are included at the end of the book (there are two recipes at the end of each book in the series) are not particularly Italian, with the first one missing some instructions, which means not all the ingredients are actually mixed together! Those quibbles aside, the book and the series is light reading with a hint of Italian, for Italophile fans of cute cozies. Please visit my Italophile Book Reviews site for the full and illustrated review.

I gave this book a five star rating. I think any age person will enjoy it. I enjoyed the mystery and was great there was no blood and guts. Thanks. I

What an awesome story! The main character, Fran, was really relatable to me. Her emotions of going through her mother's passing as she dealt with the transition to taking over the family business was a great emotional connection for me. Then when she found her neighbor passed away and helped her old friend deal with the murder of his father... it gave me a smile to see the two of them rekindling an old friendship. I lost a lot of sleep staying up late with this one! I just had to keep turning the page to find out more clues and see what wouod happen. Written so well, and characters had such great personalities. Definitely going to read the rest of the series!

I really liked this book, it was short enough to read on my day off. The story line was cute..I loved Matty from the beginning..it's just a easy book to whin down too..