Thank you to Camel Press for an ARC of A Half-Baked Murder.

4/5 stars.

Part of the reason for a high star rating for me is that I could relate to Chloe immensly. She's a 28 year old who just left Paris, her dream location where she was working her way up to be a pastry chef, to take care of her grandmother with cancer. It's a complete change she wasn't expecting in her life and I feel like I'm in that same headspace.

Chloe discovers that she can cook cannabis-infused pasties and they help her grandmother with pain relief! Her aunt Dawn loves the pastries too and convinces Chloe to open a cannabis cafe. This is the first cozy mystery I've read where the shop is not open during the mystery and the entire backstory for that was interesting. However, Aunt Dawn is the prime suspect in a murder in this small town. Chloe has to juggling adjusting to her life in the states, taking care of her grandmother, and helping to clear Aunt Dawn's name.

Why I took off a whole star was for 2 reasons: first, there was a random subplot starts like 6 hours into the book that (while it was cute) felt clunky and unnecessary, slowing the pace of the book for me. Second, the ending of the book when a suspect is clear just left a bad taste in my mouth, especially considering this a modern day book? I don't fully know how to explain it, but I just think the reasoning seems a bit archaic considering what we know about the character.

Overall, I enjoyed the pacing, characters, learning about the town, and the action in this book considering it's a cozy mystery. The audiobook narrator was great so I would recommend either a physical or audiobook copy of this book!