I do not like goodbyes, so it was with some trepidation that I began reading what I knew was the last of the Seaside Café mysteries by Bree Baker, Pleading the Fish. The heroine, Everly Swan, runs Sun, Sand, and Tea, a café and tea shop in Charm, North Carolina. This book kicks off with Everly planning her long-awaited wedding to local detective Grady Hays, and of course she's still battling the old family superstition that says Swan women are cursed in love. Grady is determined to help rid Everly of that notion once and for all, but before the two of them can delve too deeply into her family history, Everly gets a local historian, Susan Thames, to help her—but Susan soon turns up dead in a well. Despite Grady's pleas for Everly to leave the murder investigation to him, she (naturally) marches right on into the sleuthing, and threats are soon coming her way.
In between trying on old family wedding gowns and planning her beachside nuptials, Everly manages to make a few enemies, including several who clearly had reasons to want Susan out of the picture.
In this cozy wrap-up, Everly makes her peace with an old nemesis, and a surprise find in the attic helps her finally put the Swan curse to rest. A delightful-sounding lemon cake has a starring role in the book, and the recipe is, blessedly, included. There are lots of loose ends to wrap up here, and Baker does so beautifully. If only there were more of these sweet books to come!
I'm going to miss Everly and Grady. This has been one of my favorite series ever.
ReplyDeleteI agree! I certainly understand that an author has a particular story to tell and eventually needs to wrap it up, but I sure loved these characters!
ReplyDeleteI think I've read at least one in this book series, I'll have to check into the rest. I know the sadness of reading the "last" book in a series, though. I'm still wishing for more Deborah Knott books...but since Margaret Maron passed last year, I guess I need to be glad she wrapped up the series and nothing was left hanging!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of the books in this series, so I will have to look for them! Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteBooks like this are fun. I just finished two such books, which I will review on my blog soon. There is a lot of tea in them too. For some reason I come up as anonymous lately on your comments. This is Marilyn at Hearts Delights.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad that I didn’t know this was the last book. I’m sad to say goodbye to these characters as well but they Browne lots of enjoyment. My extended family vacations in the Outer Banks each year.
ReplyDelete