Review: A Perilous Cake Pop by Fiona Grace

A Perilous Cake Pop is book 3 in Fiona Grace’s Beachfront Bakery cosy mystery series.

Once again A Perilous Cake Pop is  pretty similar to books one and two, in fact the author definitely follows a predictable formula so if you’ve read either of the first two books you’ll recognize it.

I want to clarify before I continue that I did like this book. I liked the characters, it was funny at times and was just a nice, quick read.

Also there may be some spoilers ahead, so read with caution.

My first problem with this book is the title. In book one, A Killer Cupcake, Ali started selling cupcakes as her bakery was getting off the ground. In book two, A Murderous Macaron, she expanded her goods to include macarons. In book three, A Perilous Cake Pop, there is not a single mention of a cake pop in the entire book, so how did the author come up with this name?

Problem number two, how long can a brand new, small town bakery survive when it’s being shut down every other week for a homicide investigation? And how many times can Ali be accused of murder? Why does she always have to be the one accused? Can’t she investigate a murder if one of her friends is accused?

Problem number three, I feel like Ali needs to grow a backbone. She can’t stand up to anyone in her life, including the two guys she’s dating/not dating (they think they are dating her, she is insisting they are just friends, but won’t tell either of them about the other guy). And now there’s the possibility of a third love interest?

Problem four, Ali is still obsessed with this fantasy version of her dad that she has from her childhood, before he abandoned their family and then disappeared. I keep wondering if the father will eventually show up and the author will try to give him some sort of legitimate reason why he disappeared from their lives without a word for over ten years.

For the most part the book was enjoyable, but I think I may need to take a break between books and read something else so that I’m less irritated by some of the things I just mentioned.