The Chocoholic Mysteries series is one I began reading right after my son was born, so over 2 years on this very cute series.
It is about a woman, Lee McKinney who lives in a resort town on Lake Michigan and works as an accountant for her aunt's Chocolade, or chocolate shop. There her aunt uses classic Dutch techniques to create wonderful chocolates for customers and mail order clients.
In past books, Lee began a relationship with a man in town and in this book, she's about to marry him. But her mother is being oddly reluctant to return to the small resort town, even though it is her only daughter's wedding.
It turns out that when Lee's mother was just out of high school she ran away from town on what should have been her wedding day, never to return. The groom in question was found dead of an apparent suicide that same time and Lee's mom never looked back.
Clues indicate that her mother's groom wasn't a suicide at all, leading Lee and her fiance to hunt down the truth so that her mother can feel comfortable in Warner Pier and their wedding can be a happy occasion.
I like three main things about this volume in the Chocolate series.
a) Lee got married. I like it when books continue on in chronological time in a reasonable way--I don't like it when romances in these books are all Nancy Drew/Ned Nickerson--nobody ages, and nobody commits. I don't even care that much if couples break up and get back together a few times before living happily ever after, but just don't have stagnant beaus that don't go anywhere.
b) the focus of the mystery didn't have anything to do with the actual wedding. I love a good "closed set" mystery or small town mystery where the hero or heroine stumbles upon a dead body and solves the crime. But I would find it very upsetting and incredibly unbelievable if there were murder involving Lee's wedding and she was able to put aside grief or stress and solve a crime and blissfully marry on the last page of the book. Good on Joanna Carl for coming up with a wedding related mystery without compromising the main character's happiness.
c) the book takes place in spring and there was a chocolate mold used by the chocolatiers that I loved the description of--bunnies playing jazz instruments! How cute would that be to put in an Easter Basket?
Next on the list: another new series w/recipes I've never dipped into before!
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