Okay,  I am running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.....baking etc for my church fall festival, plus the dryer vent was giving us  trouble and spent time at a hardware store trying to figure out all the details of fixing it.

So I am just being general here,  Better questions in the next day or so.

Question 1.   Do you read many cozies?

I read lots of cozies.  I started out with Diane Mott Davidson, didn't even know about the genre.  I just love her books so much, they are the only ones I will pre-order on Amazon in hardback.  I was given the Dorothy Cannell series at some point later, but I have only read the first one so far - The Thin Woman.  An internet friend introduced me to the term cozy just a few years ago.  Currently my TBR pile of cozies is about 100 books, or maybe more.  I just brought home at least 3 dozen more from the library sale.  

I have read all of Julie Hyzy's White House Chef (except the latest which is on my WL), Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse series, Monica Ferris Needlework Series, Joanna Carl's Chocolate Shop series, Kate Carlisle's Bibliophile series, Laura Childs Cackleberry Club, and most of Jessica Becks Donut Shop series, Elizabeth Lynn Caseys Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries, and Laura Childs Scrapbooking and Tea Shoppe series.  They are easy, quick reads that I don't have to think about too hard.  Sometimes I guess who the culprit is, and sometimes I don't.

The copy I ordered went lost in the mail so I never got one :(  In general though no, I don't read cozies. 

I have only read half a dozen or so, so I am still trying to figure out the genre.  One thing that is hard for me is the 'cast of thousands.'   I feel like I have to take notes about who everyone is, and what their relations are to each other.  Is this typical of cozies?

I am home from my church festival and I'm glad to say my bake sale stuff generated about $75.   I make the world's best carmels and I make quilted hot pads.   I actually worked in the rummage sale section and worked with a woman who I had not met before.  She was 39 (I am 56) and said she had some health problems and I was overwhelmed when it came out that she has breast and brain cancer.  Here I complain about aches and pains and this poor thing probably won't see her kids get into middle school.    Sorry about the vent, I am off to bed now/

Deb, just because someone else has bigger problems that doesn't mean your problems aren't important. No need to feel guilty about complaining. I do have to question on whose authority you claim to make the best caramels. I don't recall being consulted in this and I believe I must be given a sample immediately to rectify this situation!

I have to change my answer - I love Nero Wolfe mysteries and since there isn't really any violence in them I think they're cozies. I tend to think of cozies as revolving around women which isn't for me but men can be non-violent too. They just aren't that often. 

I used to read a fair number of cozies -- especially the Lillian Jackson Braun  "Cat Who" series, of which I owned all at one time.  I´ve dabbled with a couple of other series, but haven´t been into cozies or really much fiction at all for, oh, maybe the last 10 years or so.

I don´t recall being mystified by the "cast of thousands" aspect before, but I definitely was in this Carrot Cake story.  Maybe it´s because of the book´s family reunion theme; most people are related in one way or another, so a lot of them are mentioned just a aunts or other assorted relatives and the author doesn't really say what they do or did for a living, etc., so it´s harder to actually get an idea what these people are like as individuals.  What I mean is, they are all out there doing reunion things and not in their daily contexts, so it get to be kind of generic, in a way.   I was like, wait, who is Patsy again?

Perhaps such things are gone into in other books in the series, but I haven´t read any of them.  I might see which ones my library has, though.  I wouldn´t say I was fascinated by this book (it was relatively ho-hum in many ways), but now that I have been introduced to Hannah I might try another volume in the series and see if she grows on me.  Her mom and sisters kind of rub me the wrong way, though.  :-(

Barb,  the carmels are a recipe i got from a nun from the college I went to.  She used to make them and sell them under the name of the group of nuns she was vowed.    Here is the recipe.

3 pints of heavy cream

4 cups of sugar

2 cups Karo syrup

Cook in a very large pot stirring continuously.   Heat to 240 degrees.  This will take at least an hour, maybe more.

  Pour into a 9x13 pan lined with heavy foil which is buttered.  When cool, cut into bite sized pieces and wrap in wax papers.

Get back to me and tell me these aren't the best carmels in the world.

I am reading a description on how to lead a book group discussion and it says to ask people what their initial ideas on the book are.

My thoughts on the book are that I loved the recipes, and looked forward to them maybe even more than the story itself.   This is the first book in this series that I have read, and overall I liked it.   I live in Minnesota and could relate to a lot of the setting of the story:  the lake, the dock, etc. As I said earlier, there were so many people in the book that I also had to look back to see who Patsy was.

I've read several Joanne Fluke, but not Carrot Cake. Didn't know what a cozie was, but it seems that I have been reading them forever (Cat Who & Sneaky Pie Brown Series).

Going to try the Caramels, though!

Question 2

This story is written in narrative format, with only a few flashbacks.   Does this make for a good way to tell the story?

Question:

Did it bother any one else the bit about all these different women (quite a few characters too many) came forward in secret about the tatoo?  I thought it was a little much and then after all these many woman coming to tell her that they knew he had this tatoo and all the hush-hush-ness, not much was said about this proving he was the real person or not.

that was just a little tedious to me.  All and all though i liked the book, it was the first in her series i have read and am going to start back again with book one.

Any thoughts to this?

Cindy

I thought it was a touch of humor, or an attempt to get her word count up there.  hahaha.

My biggest problem with the book was there were so many people in it that I kept getting confused as to who was who.    I generally read before bed and maybe I was falling asleep and that made it hard for me to keep track of everyone.  

And for the record, does it bother people when the mother is someone who is ditsy and manipulative?  I like to think I am a normal person.   My kids and I get along for the most part.

Stepping down off my soap box.

Is anyone out there?

Maybe we should just check in and talk about what we thought about bits and pieces of the book.    Like things that we thought were weird.   I was struck by the fact that Hannah felt bad that the ice pick that her grandfather had given out during a sales promotion had been used.   I just thought it was strange that she commented on it a couple times.  I guess I wouldn't take it so personally.

Did anyone have the crime solved before the end of the book?   I did not.   I am not very good at solving these things.   I don't read them for the murders either.  I read them because they are sort of easy reading......unless you get confused by all the characters involved.

Would you recommend this book to a friend?

I will be giving this book to a friend who reads cozies.  She says she is happy with mysteries as long as there is a 'body' hahah.

Given that I am the only one posting here, I'm signing off here.   I liked the book, though it seemed a little long and stretched out at times.  The recipes were good.  

I do read quite a few cozies, although I didn’t know they were called that until I came here.  I’ve read all of Diana Mott Davidson’s books except for the last one and have really enjoyed them.  Looking forward to expanding my horizons on the cozy front here at PBS J  I do read Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, though I’m not sure if that is considered a Cozy… can someone answer that for me?

I am not daunted by the “cast of thousands”, I kind of like it actually.  Though I do like to read the books in order because I think it helps you enjoy the books more as you go along, since you already know all the characters.

Deb, that caramel recipe looks like a real keeper!  I look forward to trying them out!

I agree with Deb about the recipes.  I love books with recipes of any kind J  (Also Threads!! LOL)  I actually made the Mexican hotdish recipe and it came out pretty good, though I would do a few things differently next time.

I will probably try the other hotdish recipe, it looked really good too!

I doubt I will read any other of the books in this series, because I didn’t like the writing style of the author.  I can’t quite put my finger, or my words on what exactly it was, but something was bugging me all the way through the book.  Maybe I felt like she repeated herself a lot, I’m not sure.

This book was fun and I especially liked that the main character has a cat.  I’m a sucker for cat lovers J

I like the narrative style of the book.  It seemed ok to me.

The tattoo thing I just thought it was funny that all these women had seen this guys butt!

The ditsy, manipulative mom thing was a bit annoying.  My mom and I get along well, and while I don’t think she always makes the best choices, none of us do, but being manipulative is a whole other thing.  I don’t like being manipulated in real life, and I don’t like to see it happening to characters I like in books.

I agree with Deb about the ice pick.  What a strange thing for her to feel bad about.  I don’t remember now if I figured out the ending by the end of the book, but I know I didn’t go to the last page to read the end first like I do in some of the romance novels LOL!

I would give it to a friend if they wanted to borrow my copy, and if I end up keeping it, it will be strictly for the recipes, not because I’d want to read it again.

Sorry that it took me so long to post Deb.  I liked the book overall, but I agree that it was drawn out a bit too much.  The recipes definitely seem to be keepers and I’ll post back to this thread when I try more, and most definitely when I try your caramels recipe J

How do you store your caramels, or do they not last long enough to store?

Charlene

Yeahhhhh the carmels don't last that long as to worry about them needing storage.