Review/Book Giveaway/Guest Post: Fry Another Day by J.J. Cook

About the Book

Genre: Cozy Mystery, #2 in A Biscuit Bowl Food Truck Mystery Series
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
Release Date: February 2015



Synopsis from Goodreads...

From the national bestselling author of the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries comes the second in a new series featuring Zoe Chase, a Southern food truck chef who serves justice on the side.

With a few loyal friends in tow—including her handsome attorney, Miguel, and her cat, Crème Brûlée—Zoe drives the Biscuit Bowl to Charlotte, North Carolina, to enter a nationally televised food truck race. The contest features challenges across the Southeast, and with a fifty-thousand-dollar grand prize, competition isn’t just fierce—it’s killer.

As everyone gears up for the first challenge, another food trucker from Zoe’s hometown is found dead. The race rolls on, but when the body count rises, police begin to suspect Miguel. Now Zoe must race to catch the killer before her attorney needs an attorney.

My Review

Zoe Chase is back with her Biscuit Bowl food truck and her cuddly cat, Crème Brulee for another fun filled, mysterious adventure.

This time Zoe enters a nationally televised food truck race. The race starts and ends in Zoe’s hometown of Mobile, Alabama and goes through the Southeast. Helping her is her Uncle Saul, friends Ollie and Delia, and Zoe’s sexy lawyer Miguel. Zoe hopes this race is successful in more ways than one. She not only wants to win it all and collect the fifty thousand dollar grand prize, but she wants more than friendship from Miguel.

However, there’s never a dull moment in Zoe’s life when one of the other food truck owners is found dead. He happens to be from Zoe’s hometown. At first the police rule it an accident, but the circumstances seem too suspicious. As luck would have it, Zoe is sure she overheard a plot to kill him and reports it to the police.

When another dead body shows up, Zoe finds herself getting deeper and deeper into the investigation. To make matters worse, the police focus on Miguel as their prime suspect. No way is Zoe buying that and she intends to prove his innocence.

This is a wacky, fun filled, cozy mystery with a cast of off beat characters. Some will make you laugh, some will make you smile and others will make you cringe. But, each one adds to make this story both amusing and an interesting case to figure out.

This was a quick read for me and left my mouth watering to try a spiced peaches biscuit bowl. There are recipes included, although I haven’t tried those. They sound yummy. Plus I get to read about Zoe’s cat Crème Brulee again, as well as catch up with other characters I met in the first book. I thought the first one was good but this one was even better as the characters developed and felt more like friends than characters in a book. I really grew to care about Zoe’s circle of friends.

There's also Zoe's budding relationship with Miguel.  They are sweet, moving along tentatively and not just jumping into bed.  It's refreshing to read about two people taking it slow and getting to know each other.

I’m truly amazed at how many different cozy mystery series this author has written (as both J.J. Cook and Joyce/Jim Lavene). They continue to keep each book and series fresh and entertaining. I’m still making my way through their backlist, but it’s no hardship. It’s an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours for me.



For reading challenges:
Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge 2015
2015 Foodies Read Challenge
Cruisin’ thru the Cozies Reading Challenge
Where are you reading? challenge (Alabama)

FTC Disclosure: The publisher/author provided me with a copy of this book to review for this blog tour. This did not influence my thoughts and opinions in any way. All opinions expressed are my own.

Author Guest Post

The Sweet Magnolia Food Truck Race

By Zoe Chase

From Fry Another Day

The Biscuit Bowl Mysteries

By J.J. Cook

I am so excited about being part of the Sweet Magnolia Food Truck Race! Food trucks from all over the South will be part of the race that will start in Charlotte, North Carolina and go to Columbia, South Carolina before winding its way to Atlanta, Georgia then to Birmingham and finally to my hometown, Mobile, Alabama.

At stake is thousands of dollars in cash and prizes for the drivers and their crews as they compete so see who has the best food, the best service, and great management.

There’s my food truck, The Biscuit Bowl. My specialty is deep fried biscuits with filled centers. There’s also Shut Up and Eat – famous for their loose meat sandwiches. Our Daily Bread from Jacksonville, Florida is run by a group of ministers who make the most heavenly bread. And there’s Reggie Johnson, owner of the Dog House. He’s from Mobile too. He specializes in greasy hot dogs and sausages served with dirty hands!

We all have our reasons to win the race – and the $50,000 grand prize. Me? I want to open my own restaurant which is my longtime dream that I hope to accomplish by taking my food truck out each day.

The race is almost cancelled on the first day when a driver is murdered. Bad luck continues to plague us. But I have faith that my team is the best, and that we can win the race! Nothing says good southern cooking like a fantastic biscuit, right?

I just wish the police would find another suspect besides Miguel, the man I hope to call my boyfriend sometime soon. I know him. He wouldn’t kill anyone. He’s only here with me for the race because I thought it would be a good place to find out if we really care about each other.

I’m not giving up on that yet either. I can’t be completely wrong about Miguel. I guess that means I’ll have to help the police find the real killer.

Between making biscuits.

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!!

Now you can win a paperback copy of Fry Another Day by J.J. Cook? Thanks to Berkley, I have one paperback to giveaway to one lucky winner.

Just a few simple rules...

1) You must fill out the rafflecopter form below.

2) Contest is open to anyone over 18 years old

3) US Residents Only

4) For one extra entry: Tweet about this giveaway.

5) For one extra entry: Leave a comment for the authors.

6) For one extra entry:  Follow this blog...old followers, too!  Just let us know how you follow and under what name.

No purchase necessary.  Void where prohibited.

The giveaway begins on February 3rd (midnight est) and ends on February 10th (midnight est).

The winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter. The winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. I will announce the winner here on my blog.

Good luck!

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