In the seventh and final book of Bree Baker’s critically acclaimed Seaside Café Mystery series, Pleading the Fish, Everly Swan’s wedding plans are upended by a dead body. She’ll have to run her teashop, find a dress, and catch a murderer all before she can walk down the aisle!

Café owner and amateur sleuth Everly Swan, like every Swan woman before her, is cursed in love. The only problem? Her fiancé Detective Grady Hayes has something to say about it—he doesn’t believe in magic and is determined to prove the curse wrong so they can spend their lives together. Everly wishes it could be so simple!

It feels like a sign when a historian looking into Swan history is found dead in an antique wishing well, and Everly fears the curse is spreading. Grady takes the case, looking to find justice and prove the curse wrong, while Everly does a bit of investigating on her own. Big change is coming for Everly and her friends, but with mysterious strangers lurking about and someone leaving increasingly threatening messages for the happy couple, Everly’s not sure she’ll get her happily-ever-after!

Review:

Lighthearted, quirky, and highly entertaining!

In this latest novel in the Seaside Café Mysteries, Pleading the Fish, we head back to Charm, North Carolina, and into the life of tea shop owner Everly Swan as she once again finds herself unexpectedly tied up in a local murder and dividing her time between baking treats, investigating who killed the local historian and why, and working on overcoming her fears about the infamous Swan curse and finally marrying the man she loves the handsome, patient Detective Grady Hays.

The writing is smooth and sweet. The characters are sharp, supportive, and rash. And the plot is a delightfully whimsical whodunit full of misdirection, amateur sleuthing, suspicious personalities, small-town living, community, romance, and decadent delights.

Overall, Pleading the Fish is another playful, mysterious, charming read by Baker, and even though it’s a little bittersweet to say goodbye to all the characters I’ve come to know and love over the past seven novels, it is nevertheless a superb ending to a fabulous series that I will undoubtedly miss and highly recommend.

This novel is available on March 29, 2022.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Could this be the bitter end for Everly?

It’s almost Halloween, and the small island of Charm, North Carolina is decked out for the festivities. When Everly Swan agrees to close her iced tea shop early to help her aunts host their annual haunted historic walking tour, she expects some good-natured spooks. But the night turns grave when one of the ghostly actors is found dead. To complicate matters, the victim scratched Everly’s name into the ground before she died, making her a key suspect.

The murder mystery heats up when Everly’s potential boo, Detective Grady, takes the case―and he definitely doesn’t want her getting involved. Will their seaside romance be threatened by all the ghostly drama? But when a phantom sailor straight out of local legend starts leaving Everly threatening messages, she has to get involved… With a local election under way, ghosts on the loose, and a search for long-lost buried treasure, Everly can’t help but stir the pot!

The fifth book in Bree Baker’s acclaimed Seaside Café Mystery series, Closely Harbored Secrets is a frighteningly fun read!

Review:

Cosy, entertaining, and atmospheric!

Closely Harbored Secrets is a whimsical, murder mystery set in Charm, North Carolina that features Everly Swan, a tea shop owner who after stumbling upon a murder victim lying on the sand during the annual historic haunted walk joins together with the handsome, reluctant, Detective Hays to try and solve this baffling case that seems to revolve around ancient maps, old legends, and long-lost treasure.

The writing style is light and witty. The characters are unique, impulsive, and endearing. And the plot is a well-paced whodunit full of amateur sleuthing, red herrings, suspects, deduction, attraction, community, scrumptious treats, and small-town living.

Closely Harbored Secrets is the fifth book in the Seaside Café Mystery series, and if you love cosy mysteries with a touch of romance this novel won’t disappoint. It is a quirky, enjoyable, fun read that is the first novel I’ve read by Baker but undoubtedly won’t be my last.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.