Monday, September 8, 2014

Book Review: The Wedding Soup Murder

The Wedding Soup Murder (An Italian Kitchen Mystery, #2)Author: Rosie Genova
Publication Date: September 2, 2014
Publisher: Signet
Series: An Italian Kitchen Mystery # 2

Victoria Rienzi came home to the Jersey Shore to write a new book, learn the family restaurant business, and practice the fine art of Italian cooking. But when delicious dishes are paired with murder, Vic has a little too much on her plate…

When Vic asked her nonna for more responsibility in the kitchen, she didn’t mean forming a thousand tiny meatballs by hand for the family’s famous wedding soup. The dish is to be served at the reception for a close family friend at the exclusive Belmont Country Club. And once there Vic has to deal with a demanding bridezilla and clashes in the kitchen—between the staff and servers, between two egocentric head chefs, and between the country club president and…well…everyone.

The wedding comes off without a hitch—until the body of the club’s president is found on the beach below a high seawall. Now Vic will need to use her noodle to find out who pushed whom too far…before she’s the one who lands in the soup!


“C’mon, Vic, you don’t need my help. You’re the girl who’s got it all under control, right?” “Right,” I said through my teeth. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I swung around at the sound of her voice and came face-to-face with the Iron Lady herself – Elizabeth Merriman.

Great, I thought. I can’t even have the satisfaction of hating her.

In book two of the Italian Kitchen Mysteries series, Victoria Rienzi is working diligently preparing for her dentist’s daughter’s wedding. She is slaving away making Italian meatballs and fanciful desserts all to be served at the lavish wedding at the Belmont Country Club. All is going well, the soup that Vic prepared is a hit, and everyone is having a great time, until the club president, Elizabeth Merriman, is found dead. Victoria spends a lot of her time writing her beloved mystery novels, but here lately she finds herself starring in a lot of them as well. This mystery is the best one in the series yet!

What makes these books so interesting to me is the fact that Vic aspires to be a mystery writer herself, but she can’t catch a break from solving mysteries long enough to write one of her own. For some reason this just makes the story and plot so much more interesting to me. I love that Vic has ambitions and this makes her character all the more real for me. The fact that Vic also has Sofia, her sister-in-law, is another plus. These two leading ladies are the perfect duo and together their wit and charm cannot be beat.

I have to give it to Rosie Genova; this is the second book in the series and the second time she successfully fooled me. Three-fourths of the way through this book I was convinced that I had it all figured out; she proved me wrong. Genova has a clever way of throwing in those crazy twists right at the last minute, and this murder mystery definitely showed me that not all cozy mysteries turn out the way I think they will. I was pleasantly surprised by the end and I am so ready for the third book in this amazing Italian Kitchen Mystery series! Thanks for a great read, Rosie!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Signet in exchange for my honest review***



1 comment:

  1. Hey Chelsey! Thanks so much for the kind words. (And we have much in common, as I am also a reader, blogger, fashionista, and yes, an English teacher!)

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