Live and Let Chai (Seaside Café Series #1)

by Bree Baker

Overview

FIRST BOOK IN A NEW BEACHSIDE COZY MYSTERY SERIES!

When a body turns up on the boardwalk outside Everly Swan's iced tea shop and café, she becomes the number one suspect in a murder case. Can she bag the culprit, prove her innocence, and dish up the real killer before it's too late?

Hitting All the sweet-tea spots, this series is:

A delightful Tea Shop and Café Culinary Mystery

The ideal cozy beach read

Perfect for fans of Laura Childs and Kate Carlisle

Life hasn't been so sweet for Everly Swan over the past couple of years, but now she's back in her seaside hometown of Charm, North Carolina. The proud new owner of Sun, Sand, and Tea—a café right on the beach—Everly thinks that things are finally starting to look up. Until a grouchy customer turns up dead on the boardwalk with a jar of one of her specialty teas lying right next to him! When an autopsy reports poison in his system, things don't look good for Everly or her tea shop.

As the townspeople of Charm, formerly so welcoming and homey, turn their back on Everly, she fights to dig up clues about who could have had it in for the former town councilman. With the maddeningly handsome Detective Grady Hays discouraging her from uncovering leads and a series of anonymous attacks on Everly and her tea shop, it will take everything she's got to keep this murder mystery from boiling over.

INCLUDES DELICIOUS FOOD AND DRINK RECIPES

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492664758
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	07/10/2018
Series:	Seaside Café Series , #1
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	92,409
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 6.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Bree Baker is a Midwestern writer obsessed with small-town hijinks, sweet tea, and the sea. She's been telling stories to her friends, family, and strangers for as long as she can remember, and more often than not, those stories feature a warm ocean breeze and a recipe she's sure to ruin. Now she's working on those fancy cooking skills and dreaming up adventures for the Seaside Café mysteries. Bree is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, and the Romance Writers of America. Visit her online at breebaker.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Fun and intriguing, Live and Let Chai is filled to the brim with Southern charm." - Kirsten Weiss, author of A Pie Town Mystery series

"Bree Baker's seaside town of Charm has everything readers could want: an intrepid and lovable heroine who owns an adorable ice tea cafe, a swoon-worthy hero—and murder.  Fast-paced, smartly plotted, and full of surprises, it's as refreshing as a day at the beach!" - Kylie Logan, bestselling author of French Fried

"A smart and likable protagonist, a vividly rendered setting, a suitably twisty plot, and some colorful supporting characters are the ingredients for a concoction as appealing as any of Everly Swan's specialty sweet teas. I can't wait to try out some of her recipes and to visit this delightful series again." - Livia J. Washburn, national bestselling author of the Fresh-Baked Mysteries

"A charming cozy debut with characters as sweet as the titular tea, a mystery with numerous attractive byways, and a budding romance waiting to be explored." - Kirkus Reviews

"An enjoyable setup for Baker's series, best enjoyed with a sweating glass of sweet tea." - ShelfAwareness

"From the book's expertly evoked North Carolina beach town setting to its charmingly quirky cast of characters, everything about this debut mystery will hit the spot." - VOYA Magazine

From the Publisher

2018-05-15
Forever tied to Charm Island, a native daughter returns to fulfill a dream.Everly Swan left the quiet barrier island she called home to follow her cowboy on the rodeo circuit. After he's injured, he refuses to support her enrollment in cooking school, so she drops out and returns alone to Charm, where she opens Sun, Sand, and Tea in a beachfront house she purchased because it was zoned for the shop that would pay her mortgage. Her major problem is Benedict Paine, a town councilman who's opposed to any changes in Charm and who's therefore harassed her from the get-go. When Everly finds him dead with a glass of her tea next to him, Detective Grady Hays, the new homicide investigator in town, suspects that she killed him. Paine was poisoned, and the rumor mill, abetted by a local blogger, paints Everly's fledgling business as being in dire straits. Fortunately, the aunts who raised her stand behind her, together with some of her old friends, who pitch in to help her find the real killer—much to the dismay of Hays, a widower with a young child who's attracted to Everly in spite of his professional objections to her interference. Paine was a troublemaker who certainly wasn't universally beloved, and Everly finds an especially promising suspect in a bullying builder who wants to turn some of Charm's lovely old homes into B&Bs, a plan Paine would have fought to the death. When someone smashes up Everly's shop just before a party she's planned, the damage only makes her more determined to solve the crimes with a little help from her friends.A charming cozy debut with characters as sweet as the titular tea, a mystery with numerous attractive byways, and a budding romance waiting to be explored.

Kirkus Reviews