Pies and Prejudice (A Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery series) by Ellery Adams

This is a fun cozy mystery for foodie lovers.  There is plenty of charm and lovable characters.  This book was released July 3, 2012.   I'm looked forward to the second book in this series due to come out March 2013.  I love that her when she finds trouble, her mom and aunts gather round her to offer comfort and help.

When the going gets tough, Ella Mae LaFaye bakes pies. So when she catches her husband cheating in New York, she heads back home to Havenwood, Georgia, where she can drown her sorrows in fresh fruit filling and flakey crust. But her pies aren't just delicious. They're having magical effects on the people who eat them--and the public is hungry for more.

Discovering her hidden talent for enchantment, Ella Mae makes her own wish come true by opening the Charmed Pie Shoppe. But with her old nemesis Loralyn Gaynor making trouble, and her old crush Hugh Dylan making nice, she has more than pie on her plate. and when Loralyn's fiancé is found dead--killed with Ella Mae's rolling pin--it'll take all her sweet magic to clear her name.

On Lavender Lane (Shelter Bay series) by Joann Ross

Another great chic-lit read.  Joann Ross creates characters that you want to meet and keep as your own friend.  Cooking, romance, and a warm, inviting setting work together for an enjoyable book.

Navy SEAL Lucas Chaffee recently returned to Shelter Bay. His father, world famous architect Duncan Chaffee has unexpectedly passed away. They had planned to work together when Lucas completed his Navy career, restoring old homes on the West Coast. Lucas is at loose ends, wondering what he will do.

Celebrity TV chef Madeline Durand has been publicly humiliated by a philandering husband. So Madeline jumps at the chance to return to Shelter Bay to recover and help her grandmother turn the family farm into a new business.

Little does she know that the man who broke her heart years ago is already on the job-or that he's going to cook up a recipe of passion, patience, and perseverance to win her over.

Some Like It Hawk: A Meg Langslow Mystery by Donna Andrews

I love Meg Langslow mysteries.  They are full of fun in a crazy town filled with lots of family and friends.

Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at “Caerphilly Days,” a festival inspired by her town’s sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail." The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated —except Phineas Throckmorton, the town clerk.

Mr. Throckmorton's siege has only been possible because of a pre-Civil War tunnel leading from the courthouse basement to a crawl space beneath the bandstand.
But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict Mr. Throckmorton—and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement. 

Meg and her fellow townspeople suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton. Unless the real killer can be found quickly, the town will have to reveal the secret of the tunnel—and the fact that they've been aiding and abetting the basement’s inhabitant.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

The story is set around 'The Blue Ridge Madam' - a mansion in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina that was built by Willa Jackson's once well-to-do family. The house is being restored as a historic bed and breakfast and with the restoration comes the unearthing of secrets. Add to these secrets a romance or two, truly likable characters.

 It’s the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather and once the finest home in Walls of Water, North Carolina—has stood for years as a monument to misfortune and scandal. Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite Paxton Osgood—has restored the house to its former glory, with plans to turn it into a top-flight inn. But when a skeleton is found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, long-kept secrets come to light, accompanied by a spate of strange occurrences throughout the town. Thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the passions and betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover the truths that have transcended time to touch the hearts of the living.

Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness

This is the 2nd book of the All Souls Trilogy.  I completed this book in August but am just now getting around to entering all my book reviews.

Deborah Harkness, a professor of history, has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries.  She has become one of my favorite writers.

Shadow of Night picks up a second after A Discovery of Witches ends. We join Matthew and Diana in their time jump to the 1500s where their goals are to 1) find a witch to train Diana and 2) find the mysterious Ashmole 782. 
As the book opens we find Diana and Matthew entering Elizabethan London, where Mathew is part of the mysterious School of Night, a group that counts Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh among its members.  It was wonderful to get lost in sights and smells of Elizabethan history.

I couldn't get enough of Discovery of Witches so it was no surprise that I was a bit disappointed in the Shadow of Night.  It is still an excellent book and well written, but Discovery is a VERY tough act to follow.  I found disappointment in Matthew as he kept too many secrets but I was still enthralled with Diana.

A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness

I loved this book.  I enjoyed reading it so much I made myself slow down and stop every so often so I could enjoy the story longer.  I've never done that while reading a book before. 
I actually finished this book in July, but just getting around to posting it since I've been on hiatus.

It all begins with a lost manuscript, a reluctant witch, and 1,500-year-old vampire. Dr. Diana Bishop has a really good reason for refusing to do magic: she is a direct descendant of the first woman executed in the Salem Witch Trials, and her parents cautioned her be discreet about her talents before they were murdered, presumably for having "too much power." So it is purely by accident that Diana unlocks an enchanted long-lost manuscript (a book that all manner of supernatural creatures believe to hold the story of all origins and the secret of immortality) at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and finds herself in a race to prevent an interspecies war. A sparkling debut written by a historian and self-proclaimed oenophile, A Discovery of Witches is heady mix of history and magic, mythology, and love (cue the aforementioned vampire!), making for a luxurious, intoxicating, one-sitting read.

The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate

I really enjoyed this book.  It's about finding your passion, struggling through emotions, listening to your head but opening your heart.  A fun mix with great characters.  I hope they all come back in another book.

Holly Maguire's grandmother Camilla was the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island, Maine--a Milanese fortune-teller who could predict the right man for you, and whose Italian cooking was rumored to save marriages.

Holly has been waiting years for her unlikely fortune: her true love will like sa cordula, an unappetizing old-world delicacy. But Holly can't make a decent marinara sauce, let alone sa cordula. Maybe that's why the man she hopes to marry breaks her heart. So when Holly inherits Camilla's Cucinotta, she's determined to forget about fortunes and love and become an Italian cooking teacher worthy of her grandmother's legacy.

But Holly's four students are seeking much more than how to make Camilla's chicken alla Milanese. Simon, a single father, hopes to cook his way back into his daughter's heart. Juliet, Holly's childhood friend, hides a painful secret. Tamara, a serial dater, can't find the love she longs for. And twelve-year-old Mia thinks learning to cook will stop her dad, Liam, from marrying his phony lasagna-queen girlfriend. As the class gathers each week, adding Camilla's essential ingredients of wishes and memories in every pot and pan, unexpected friendships and romances are formed--and tested. Especially when Holly falls hard for Liam . . . and learns a thing or two about finding her own recipe for happiness.