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1.I always carry ________________ with me.
2.I would love to know why ______________?
3.I express my love in the form of _________.
4. _________ makes me feel like the luckiest individual alive.
1.I always carry my phone with me.
2.I would love to know why family values no longer exist?
3.I express my love in the form of actions and words.
A baker with secrets
Witches in trouble
The cameras are rolling
Ready, set, die.
Poppy Wilkinson is thrilled to be chosen as a contestant on The Great British Baking Contest. As an American with English roots, winning the crown as Britain’s Best Baker would open doors she’s dreamed of. In more ways than one. Appearing on the reality show is her chance to get into Broomewode Hall and uncover the secrets of her past.
But strange things are happening on the show’s set: accusations of sabotage, a black cat that shadows Poppy, suspiciously unsociable residents at Broomewode Hall—and the judges can be real witches.
There are murmurs that Broomewode is an energy vortex. It certainly makes Poppy see and do things that aren’t exactly normal, and seems to draw interesting characters to the neighborhood.
When a fellow contestant dies in mysterious circumstances, Poppy has more to worry about than burned pies and cakes that won’t rise. There’s a murderer on the loose and it’s up to Poppy and her new friends to solve the crime before it becomes a real show-stopper.
From USA Today Bestselling Author Nancy Warren, this delicious series of cozy paranormal mysteries will have you guessing until the end. Includes recipes.
Book Details:
Genre: Culinary Cozy
Published by: Ambleside Publishing
Publication Date: January 15th 2020
Number of Pages: 250
ASIN: B07ZL472PK
Series: Culinary Cozy #1
Purchase Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Nancy Warren is the USA Today bestselling author of more than seventy novels, including the best selling Vampire Knitting Club series and the Toni Diamond mysteries. She’s from Vancouver, though she tends to wander. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa university, appeared on the front page of the New York Times when her book Speed Dating launched the Harlequin/Nascar series. She was also the answer to a clue in a crossword puzzle in Canada’s National Post newspaper.
Hi and thanks for having me.
Ten facts about Poppy Wilkinson that the reader doesn’t know.
1. Poppy grew up in Seattle and her first job was babysitting for the founder of a huge multinational software manufacturer.
2. She loves the ocean but when she first tried water skiing she got pulled under head first again and again leaving nothing above the water line but her blue bathing suit-clad butt. Naturally, the video went viral.
3. Because her parents both worked, Poppy used to bake after school and often made dinner for the family. The family dog used to hang around in the kitchen and wait for her to drop things. She became deliberately clumsy, especially when cooking Bingo’s favorite foods.
4. Because she was adopted, she never knew who her birth parents were, but she knew she was from England. For a while she was convinced that David Beckham and Posh Spice were her parents.
5. She tried out for the soccer team at school and spent most of the season on the bench.
6. She tried to start an all-girl band but her friends refused to join as she couldn’t sing in tune. At this point, she stopped believing that Posh and Becks were her mum and dad.
7. She’s a contestant in the Great British Baking Show and she has a little superstitious ritual. Before she starts baking, she kisses the palm of her hand and puts it against the oven for good luck.
8. Baking calms her and helps her solve problems. She’s been known to bake muffins at four in the morning when she can’t sleep. Usually, when she’s finished, the solution to her problem is there.
9. She was the captain of the swim team her senior year in high school but she prefers swimming in lakes and the ocean to swimming pools.
10. She reads cook books for pleasure, the way other people read novels. She also collects old and obscure cookbooks.
As life-changing moments go, getting the call that I’d been chosen to compete in The Great British Baking Contest was right up there. I’d practiced, auditioned and practiced some more. I was a decent home baker, but was I really the best in Britain? Probably not. But I didn’t have to be.
The contest was my way of getting into Broomewode Hall, where the show was filmed. I had my own reasons for going there that had nothing to do with baking.
Still, it hadn’t been easy to be chosen. There were thousands of applicants every year and then an excruciating selection process, where the show’s producers chose twelve from the short list and made us bake on camera. Some people went to pieces; some were just really boring. They randomly selected bakers off the short list and tried out different combinations of personalities, a bit like baking, really, seeing which ingredients created the most interesting results. I quickly learned that the trick was to be a good character, try to be funny, be a good sport, pretend you didn’t notice that cameras were on you and a clock was ticking down the minutes, and still turn out a decent jam tart.
Easy peasy! Not.
One of the reasons they chose me for the show, I think, was that while I was British, I’d grown up in the States, which was kind of fun, as the show had become a huge hit in America. I’d also started life in a bakery. Or, more accurately, in a cardboard box outside a bakery in Norton St. Philip, a charming village near Bath in Somerset.
I like to think my mother, whoever she was, chose the bakery so she knew I’d be warm and, since bakers start work so early, I’d be found. And I was. When Gareth Philpott came to work that morning, he said he looked into the box and found me wide-awake, staring up at him. Not crying, not fussing, just staring as though I’d expected him. They named me Poppy. The Philpotts would have kept me if they could have. They’re a nice family, but they already had three children, and the authorities don’t just give a family a baby because they happened to stumble across one. First they tried to find my mother or any information at all about my origins. When that proved impossible, I was adopted by Agatha and Leland Wilson, and they became my parents.
They were both teachers. They’d tried for years to have their own children, and their delight in getting me was reflected in the way they pretty much turned their lives around to give me the best upbringing they could. They were loving parents, kind and patient. Strict when they had to be. We lived in Bath for the first eight years of my life, and then my dad was offered a teaching job in Seattle.
I grew up there, mostly, lost the British accent, became a typical American teenager, and then when I finished high school, my folks retired and moved back to the UK. I could have stayed in Seattle. I had friends, and I could’ve gone to college there, but I chose to come back to England. I think, deep down, it’s always felt like home. Besides, like a lot of adopted kids, the mystery of my beginnings haunts me.
Soon after returning to England, my folks moved to the south of France to bask in warmer weather, grow lavender and cook gourmet meals. My dad, who taught history, was writing a book. My mom was learning French.
They’d saved up a nice chunk of change for me to go to college but, in spite of having teachers as parents, I never felt the urge. I was always more artistic than intellectual, so I went to an art and design college for two years, and they let me use the rest of the money toward buying a tiny cottage in Norton St. Philip. It’s probably crazy, and nobody even thinks my mother was from there, but I started my life in that village and so it pulled me back. The Philpotts still ran the bakery and were my second family. I guess you’ll always have a bond with the person who picked you up off the street as a newborn. Besides, growing up as an only child, I was fascinated by their sprawling, noisy family.
I became a freelance graphic designer, which allowed me to work from home.
Gina Philpott was my age and my best friend. She was also the only one who knew why I really wanted to get on that show.
It went all the way back to when I was just a baby in that cardboard box. I’d been wrapped in a curious blanket.
I saw my baby blanket one day when I was watching The Great British Baking Contest. They always filmed at Broomewode Hall, a Georgian manor house that wasn’t open to the public. Broomewode Hall was the seat of the Earl of Frome, Robert Champney and his family. During one of the behind-the-scenes segments on the show, Lady Frome, showed them around her home.
As the camera panned around the great dining hall I was instantly transfixed by a woman in an oil painting who seemed to be wearing my baby blanket! I saw now that, in fact, it was a shawl. But the pattern was the same. I was certain of it.
And from that very moment, I began my quest to find out more about Broomewode Hall. Lord and Lady Frome guarded their privacy tenaciously, and it was impossible to get access to them and their family home. Besides, what would I say? “I think one of your ancestors once wore my baby blanket? The best way I could think of to spend time there was to qualify as a baker on The Great British Baking Contest.
I’d done it. Against incredible odds, I’d been chosen as one of twelve bakers. It was one step toward finding how who I really was. All I had to do now was figure out how to get the rest of the way.
***
Excerpt from The Great Witches Baking Show by Nancy Warren. Copyright 2019 by Nancy Warren. Reproduced with permission from Nancy Warren. All rights reserved.
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!
Packed with the electrifying pacing and pulse-pounding suspense of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner, a thrilling debut about a mother desperate to find the connections between her missing husband and a deadly stalker who knows too much about her own dark family history.
Driving home one rainy night, Cassie Larkin sees a man and woman fighting on the side of the road. After calling 911, the veterinarian makes a split-second decision that will throw her sedate suburban life into chaos. Against all reason and advice, she gets out of her minivan and chases after the violent man, trying to help his victim. When Cassie physically tries to stop him, he suddenly turns on her and spits out an ominous threat: “Let her die, and I’ll let you live.”
A veterinarian trained to heal, Cassie can’t let the woman die. But while she’s examining the unconscious victim, the attacker steals her car. Now he has her name. Her address. And he knows about her children. Though they warn her to be careful, the police assure her that the perpetrator—a criminal named Carver Sweet—won’t get near her. Cassie isn’t so sure.
The next day—Halloween—her husband disappears while trick-or-treating with their six-year-old daughter. Are these disturbing events a coincidence or the beginning of a horrifying nightmare? Her husband has been growing distant—is it possible he’s become involved with another woman? Is Cassie’s confrontation with the road-side attacker connected to her husband’s disappearance? With all these questions swirling in her mind Cassie can trust no one, maybe not even herself. The only thing she knows for sure is that she can’t sit back while the people she loves are in danger.
As she desperately searches for answers, Cassie discovers that nothing is as random as it seems, and that she is more than willing to fight—to go the most terrifying extremes—to save her family and her marriage.
I can now write my review after holding my breath throughout much of this book!
As the synopsis states, Cassie, coming home late again from work, see a couple fighting and the male throwing the victim down a ditch. She calls 911 but then makes the fateful mistake of getting out of her running car to get closer to see if she can help. When the police sirens are heard, the man takes off in her car with all her personal information. Her decision to help begins a cat and mouse game with possible deadly consequences. And then her husband goes missing. Is this a coincidence or a calculated plan to hurt Cassie and her family? But why?
The events in the story are built on an incident that happened many years ago with revenge motives. Events that Cassie never knew.
This book had me on the edge of my seat with the constant acceleration of suspense and action. A tense page-turner!!
An exceptional story by a debut author. I can’t wait to see what the future brings from this author!
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗
Mailbox Monday
Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.
Sunday:
In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn ~ eBook from Amazon Prime
Tuesday:
Have You Seen Ne? by Kate White ~ eBook from Harper Collins via NetGalley
You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce ~ eBook from Macmillan-Tor/Forge via NetGalley
Mailbox Monday
Click on title for synopsis via GoodReads.
Monday:
Ten Days Gone by Beverly Long ~ PB from Harper Collins
Thursday:
This Is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf ~ print ARC from Harper Collins
Friday:
The Girl From Widow Hills by Megan Miranda ~ eBook from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley
Sister Dear by Hannah Mary McKinnon ~ eBook from Harper Collins via NetGalley
The Vacation by T.M. Logan ~ eBook from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley
Saturday:
You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen ~ HC from St. Martin’s Press
Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser ~ PB from St. Martin’s Press
My favorite quote is everything happens for a reason.
My favorite part of February is my granddaughter’s birthday.
A little known fact about me is I’m a retired RN.
Having children, for me, is the most rewarding experience in the world.
I was hoping that I would have read 5-6 books this month but real life interfered in my reading time.
Breakfast With The FBI by Erina Bridget Ring
Overall Thoughts: I enjoyed this book especially since it was based on a real life experience of the author.
The Better Liar by Tanen Jones
Overall Thoughts: A psychological thriller that will have you guessing throughout.
No Stone Unturned by Andrea Kane
Overall Thoughts: A story that will have you turning the pages as quickly as you can. My review will be posted on March 20th during her VBT.
Behind Every Lie by Christina McDonald
Overall Thoughts: Another thrilling read by this author.
