A Doomful of Sugar by Catherine Bruns Review

 Hello Everyone :)

I pray that today finds you all doing well, and I'm thankful you decided to stop by The Preppy Book Princess.

If I'm being honest, last week was a really rough one for me. I was going through some stuff, and people have been honestly kind of awful of late. Lately, every time I have to encounter people whether at work or out and about, everyone just seems to be in a bad mood, and taking it out on those around them.

It makes me sad that this kind of smallness has to be such a big part of our world, and I think we can all do so much better than this.

That being said, there were still a couple of wonderful things about my week. Over the weekend we actually got our first snowfall of the season! It was beautiful, and gave off all the perfect chilly day vibes that made the ideal atmosphere for curling up with a great book. 

And curling up with a great book I did! I couldn't have picked better weather for reading the first title in a brand new cozy mystery series, and this book was definitely one of my highlights from the weekend.

Today I can't wait to tell you guys all about it, and if you're interesting in reading it, it actually releases tomorrow so you don't even have to wait that long.

Keep reading down below where I'll be sharing my full review with you all.

A Doomful of Sugar by Catherine Bruns:

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Publication Date: October 25th, 2022

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Series: Maple Syrup Mysteries

Synopsis:

First in a new cozy mystery series!

There's nothing sweet about murder…

Leila Khoury has always believed that everyone loved her father as much as they loved his artisanal maple syrup. But when he's killed, and she returns to Sugar Ridge, Vermont to take over his business, she starts to realize how much of his life she's left untapped.

With her brother under suspicion, her mother just barely holding it together, and police not producing any leads, Leila will have to investigate herself if she wants answers about her father's sticky end. But the more she learns, the more she worries that there won't be a sappy ending to the story.

A cozy mystery perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke, this edition includes 5 delicious maple recipes for mystery readers with a sweet tooth!

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

As someone who has been a longtime fan of cozy mysteries, it's actually quite surprising that this was my first time picking up one of Catherine Bruns'. I've always heard great things about her books, but had never gotten around to trying one. When I read the synopsis of this one, and saw that it was going to be set in Vermont on a maple syrup farm during the fall season, I knew I needed to give it a try. Wow was this a wonderful story, and I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I ended up enjoying it. 

We follow a young woman named Leila who has recently returned back home to Vermont after the sudden death of her father. Soon information emerges that the death wasn't accidental, and on top of taking over the reigns of the family's successful maple syrup business, Leila now has to try and piece together who on earth could have wanted her father dead. 

With a well rounded plot, characters the came alive on the page, a wonderful atmospheric setting that truly brought Vermont in the fall to each and every reader, and mouthwatering food descriptions, A Doomful of Sugar was a clean and sweet cozy mystery that I never wanted to see come to an end. I loved the emphasis on family; especially the struggles that emerge from certain relationships not going in the way you wanted, and the lovely friendship that exists between Leila and her best friend Heather. I hope there's more great things to come from that relationship in future books, as well as more of the complicated dynamic between Leila and her mother and brother. I also have to mention that I enjoyed the set up for the possible romance in future books, and I look forward to seeing what direction the author is going to take with the characters.

The only negative I have to say about this one is that I personally figured out the majority of the mystery long before the initial reveal happened, but I still enjoyed reading through it, and this is definitely a new favorite cozy mystery series.

Final Rating: 5/5.

I'm so thankful that my first experience with a novel by this author was such a pleasant one!

Thanks so much to Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to advance read and review this one!

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Poisoned Pen Press) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and this is my honest review. 

Thanks so much for reading guys! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day :)