Tea, Tiramisu and Tough Guys – Book Review

Just finished reading Harper Lin’s second book of the Cape Bay series, Tea, Tiramisu and Tough Guys.

From USA TODAY Bestselling Author Harper Lin: a culinary cozy mystery series with recipes set in a charming beach town!

When Francesca’s old high school crush, Todd, is accused of murder, she is convinced he is innocent. The police don’t believe Todd’s story, and neither does Matty.

During the busy summer tourist season at Cape Bay, Francesca sets out to prove Todd’s innocence. Matty, however, investigates to prove Todd is guilty. Why does Matty detest Todd so much? But what if he’s right—what if Todd is a murderer?

Harper Lin is a USA TODAY Bestselling Author of cozy mysteries. When she’s not reading or writing mysteries, she loves going to yoga classes, hiking, and hanging out with her family and friends.

In case if you have been following my blog, I have done a book review of the first book of the Cape Bay series, Cappuccinos, Cupcakes and a Corpse, written by the same author. So in here, a man named Joe was stabbed in the car park of a gym owned by Francesca’s former high school classmate and crush, Todd. Since Todd does not have a good alibi, he becomes the main suspect of Joe’s murder. Francesca believes that Todd is innocent and like in the first book, she goes out to find the real murderer.

• So I read the book or rather listened on audio book. It was actually short about four hours long so actually for people who want a quick read or want to listen to an audio book that is not too long, this book is good.
• I still like the community setting of Cape Bay and I like how Frannie is introducing new items into her cafe to make her coffee shop more successful. In this case, she introduced tea into her coffee shop by studying and experimenting with different types of tea and makes a business deal with an Italian restaurant owner Monica to make tiramisus. So that’s why the title comes from. Oh and Joe who was murdered was doing kick boxing and that’s why the third title, tough guys comes from.
• Just like the first book, Frannie along with Matt goes out to investigate on their own. However, Matt initially was convinced that Todd killed Joe. This also shows the growing budding romance between Matt and Frannie.
• The writing sounds simple and the description of tiramisus made me mouth water!
• I like the relationship Frannie had with her co-workers in the shop.
• This is a cozy mystery novel so you can kind of guess who the murderer is.

Overall, this is a good quick book to read and if you like cozy mysteries, try reading Cape Bay mysteries. P.S. you don’t really need to start from the beginning. There’s no continuation part I have noticed except the main characters are the same.

Overall I give four stars!