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HoneyBun Shop Mysteries #1

Sweet and Salty Treachery

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**HoneyBun Box Set Available - http://amzn.to/21DXJt3 ***

Murder, Mayhem and Cupcakes!
When a TV reality star dies, it's up to a NYC baker to solve the case...
Ali Daniels loves baking sweet goodies for customers in her Manhattan bakery, HoneyBun Sweets and Sandwiches. When she gets an invite for a chance to cater the hottest event in NYC, she can't resist.

But it's murder, mayhem and cupcakes when the star of an upcoming reality TV show ends up dead. And Ali finds herself smack in the middle of a homicide investigation (as a suspect)—with her business hanging in the balance.

Faced with the choice of losing her beloved business and friends or hunting down a murderer, Ali doesn't hesitate to seek out the real culprit.

Becoming an amateur sleuth is one thing, staying alive is another. Will it be too late when Ali discovers she's jumped out of the frying pan and into the pre-heated oven?

This new culinary, cozy-mystery series features an amateur, woman sleuth determined to bake her way to the top!

Other Books in the HoneyBun Mystery Series:
Copy and paste the link below to view the book on Amazon

Book 1 - Sweet and Salty Treachery - http://amzn.to/1T4eyfu
Book 2- Barbecue, Bourbon and Bullets - http://amzn.to/21DXrCD - Free Download
Book 3 - Candy Canes and Criminals - http://amzn.to/1T4eqfK
Book 4 - Macaroons, Mummies and Murder - http://amzn.to/21DX3UI
Box Set - Book 1, 3, 4 - http://amzn.to/21DXJt3

119 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 20, 2015

120 people are currently reading
456 people want to read

About the author

M.E. Harmon

27 books56 followers
Hi. I'm Michelle. Born and raised in Queens, NY.

I'm an avid reader. If I'm finishing up a book and don't have another lined up and ready to go - I get really nervous. Yes, I know that's very geek like.

Speaking of geek - I'm a fan of anything action adventure, urban fantasy, paranormal (paranormal romance - not so much), and supernatural. If I ever go to Comic Con, I'll dress up as Lt. Uhura (except I might add some garters to be naughty). Walking Dead and Supernatural are two of my 'can't miss' shows on tv right now.

I started writing fanfic based on my favorite movie at age 12. Since then I've taken many creative writing classes. Several of my short stories have been published online and in print.

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
Profile Image for QNPoohBear.
3,594 reviews1,567 followers
April 17, 2020
Ali Daniels, fresh of a breakup, is happy to throw herself into her work at Honeybun Sweets and Sandwiches, making delicious mini pastries and healthy smoothies for New Yorkers and tourists alike. When a mega event planner arrives at the shop and rudely orders a green smoothie, Ali must practice her best customer service skills. Even though Ali already knows Heidi is a mega you-know-what, she's still excited to be invited to participate in a taste-testing for the mayor's Black and White ball held by Bella Events, Heidi's company. Once there, Ali discovers Heidi is in rare form, being nasty to everyone but Ali never dreams Heidi will keel over dead after eating Honeybun pastries! Of course the police set their sights on Ali and she's determined they won't arrest her for something she didn't do. Together with her best friend Izzy, she sets out to clear her name.

This story was OK but nothing special. There are some typos/spelling errors and word misplacements that bothered me and the New York City setting felt odd to me. I like small town cozies because they're an escape from reality and the suspect pool is limited. In New York, the murderer could be anyone and get away with it. Even so, I never figured out which one of the suspects did it until Ali did. I was thinking something else entirely that would have made a less predictable plot. There was one twist that surprised me though.

I didn't warm up to Ali at all. She seems like a nice person but a little two-dimensional. At first I thought she might be TSTL but she isn't entirely. I'd like to know how Ali went from working in the corporate world to baking without a culinary degree! Some of things she makes are too sophisticated for home bakers without prior experience. I also didn't understand why she was always making smoothies if her job was to bake pastries and why she didn't offer a free pastry with Heidi's smoothie, even if Heidi would be rude and reject it. In the course of her sleuthing she breaks about a million laws but does it at the urging of her best friend, an online journalist. FYI: Ali has a cat, Tika, who doesn't really do much. I tend not to get along with cat-loving heroines for some reason. Ali's mom, a former hippie, is a little too much to handle. Why is she so in favor of the patriarchal institution of marriage? She is one heck of an embarrassing and sometimes overbearing mother but she means well.

Izzy cares about Ali but she really, really wants this story and will do anything to get it. I didn't approve of her methods. I also didn't like Honeybun employee Oscar Berrega, a flamboyant, wannabe actor. I really didn't like his over-eagerness to obtain and share dirty gossip about Bella Events and anything else juicy he found out. I also felt he was stereotypical. Al, the shop owner and bread baker, is a man of few words, yet I can tell how much he loves baking and cares about the shop and employees. He reminded me of Murray Goldberg in the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs.

Heidi Slatter-Chakeris was a really nasty woman. She was ruthless in business, clawed her way to the top by unethical means and was rude to everyone. Her husband, Bernard, seems like a much more calm and rational person. His job is to hose down his wife. Taffy, senior event planner, has every reason to hate Heidi yet she continues to work for Heidi. Taffy vents her frustrations in a not-so-moral way and I can see her losing it and killing her boss. Media mogul Roman Garret, the producer of Heidi's show, is completely naive or a good actor. He runs a company producing clean and wholesome entertainment, yet Heidi did not fit that mold and everyone else knew it. Could he have killed her because she was bad for business? His daughter Meghan seems to know what's what and is a better business person than her dad.

Officer Wierzbowski really has no idea who killed Heidi or why. He seems to think it was Ali and is quick on the draw when it comes to bringing her in for questioning. Derek, Chief Assistant to Chief of Staff and liaison to the Mayor’s Office for the taste-testing is Ali's new potential love interest. He's good-looking and kind to Ali but he throws his weight around and pulls strings to help her out. He doesn't really know her or know whether she's capable of murder. Yes he eats Honeybun sandwiches for lunch every day but she doesn't make those! It doesn't make sense for him to want to clear Ali's name. Detective Avery Hamilton is much better at his job than Officer Wierzbowski. He looks at the facts and doesn't job to conclusions. It wasn't necessary to have him be "hot" and not wear a ring.

The characters are all two-dimensional and the plot wasn't all that engaging. This series just isn't for me. I won't be reading any of the others.
Profile Image for Judie.
796 reviews23 followers
December 28, 2016
Sometimes it’s nice to escape reality with a cozy mystery. On the whole, SWEET AND SALTY TREACHERY by M. E. Harmon fits the bill nicely.
Ali Daniels runs a small dessert store near the New York City Hall and the Police Department. It’s half of a company called HoneyBun Sweets and Sandwiches. She supplies the smoothies and desserts.
While the murder doesn’t happen until the end of the third chapter, it’s obvious who is going to be murdered and how it is going to happen from almost the moment the character appears on the scene. Heidi Slater-Chakiris is a nasty, demanding, ambitious woman who expects people to oblige her every demand. Ali refuses to do so. Heidi is also the premier event planner in the city so she has a lot of clout as well as a lot of enemies.
One morning, after ordering a smoothie, Heidi invites Ali to audition to cater the Mayor’s Black and White Ball, an important social event that provides a lot of publicity and networking opportunities and practically guarantees an increase in catering opportunities. The audition is that day.
The remainder of the book deals mostly with the search for the killer and Ali and her friend Izzy play a major role in the process.
The characters in the novel are well-developed, realistic, and interesting. Ali’s mother is still a new-age hipster and provides some humor.
The foods sound tasty but, unfortunately, the book does not include recipes.
Partway through the book, I was surprised to learn that Ali and many of the other characters are Black though the race is incidental to the story. (The author appears to be white.) It’s interesting how many ways a character’s skin color is described. In contrast, in most books the skin color of white characters is rarely noted. It has wit. e.g,“I’d been raised to question and analyze for the greater good, but Izzy just liked snooping.”
SWEET AND SALTY TREACHERY had a few grammatical and proofreading errors and some unnecessary repetitions. In one instance she says a magnificent office had “a 90 degree view of the city.” I think she meant it was a corner office that had a 270 degree view. Most windows offer a 180 degree view unless they are blocked’
Interesting info: There are over 300 types of honey with different tastes, colors, and textures.
Interesting observation: “People from outside of New York tend to think the city is one huge...well, city. As if it’s just a huge mass of buildings and people rushing everywhere. And yeah, sometimes it is that, but really it’s a whole lot more. Each part of the city has its own separate feel and vibe. Every few blocks are like a new little neighborhood. And within each neighborhood are collections of families and businesses that make up communities where people do know your name.”
And it applies to the recent US Presidential race and alleged cut portions of “The Apprentice”: “In the editing room, anyone can be made to look like a princess.”
Profile Image for Jean.
63 reviews2 followers
January 16, 2025
If you have a sweet tooth and enjoy reading about cute little corner shops in NY then this is the novella for you. Now, I have to say this is only a part of the story and the rest can be found on Amazon. 

  Ali works at The Honeybun, she is the master of making sweets. Her partner Al is the head honcho when it comes to infusing sandwiches with honey. And now thanks to this book I've discovered there's apparently a lot of types of honey! And I need to try them all lol! 

Anyhow, Ali and one of her workers, Oscar, are going about their regular work day when the wicked witch herself shows up for a smoothie. Everyone seems to know that Heidi (wicked witch) is big on fame and fortune and loves to be in the spotlight. 

To begin with things seem to go okay until Ali ends up at a catering event for the Mayor. And, it's even more strange that Heidi is the one that invited her. 

  Ali knows that she really needs this opportunity for her company but is it really worth being harassed and bullied. And not to mention someone just dropped dead after eating some of her samples?! What's really going on here? Did someone try and set Ali up to ruin her job and her future with The HoneyBun? If you want to know more you'll have to get the whole story on Amazon! 
Profile Image for RJ.
25 reviews1 follower
November 18, 2017
I enjoyed this so much. I'm not a hard-boiled mystery or police procedural fan at all, so I'll occasionally read cozy mysteries. This mystery involves a baker who has a walk-up sweets shop in New York with her partner. It features a multicultural cast (the sleuth is an AA woman, which you only know through physical descriptions because race isn't relevant to the plot).

I read cozies for the characterization as much as for plot, and this book has both. It's fast paced and I love the settings and situations. We learn about the sleuth in the context of her family, friends, co-workers, love-life, etc. There are a couple of hunks thrown in for good measure, but romance does not overshadow the plot.

I will be reading more for sure. If you like cozies, try this.
Profile Image for Kim.
962 reviews9 followers
January 22, 2022
Super cute! It was short but paced well for the length. I loved that the shop was actually believable, and the setting of NYC is a nice play on creating small communities inside of a bigger one to combat the "small town" feel. But it was a bunch of fun, and while romance does make an appearance I loved that Ali wasn't written as a woman who hated herself or constantly talked down to herself. You see that so often in cozies it gets annoying. Loved the Mother!
Profile Image for Melissa Basnight.
689 reviews19 followers
June 7, 2023
Ali Daniels runs a small dessert store near the New York City Hall and the Police Department. It’s half of a company called HoneyBun Sweets and Sandwiches. She supplies the smoothies and desserts. She is showcasing her food at an event where someone dies not long after eating her food so she is considered a suspect and her shop is closed down until she is cleared as a suspect. She has no choice but to clear her name and keep her shop from going out of business.
Profile Image for Donna K.
240 reviews4 followers
July 18, 2017
Great series starter

I want to give this 5 stars but there are to many errors that should have been caught in proof reading. This book was a great series starter. I loved the honeybun setting. The characters were fantastic. The story line was great. I sat down to start the book and realized I finished it and have purchased book 2.
Profile Image for RaKeya.
54 reviews1 follower
July 10, 2020
This one was an okay read. I think it was a little hard for me to really immerse myself into because I was expecting a small town cozy feel. It being set it New York made it a little unrealistic. There were a few typos in the Kindle version too. I wish there were more details about Ali’s breakup. It sort of felt like there was a hole in the storyline there since it kept being mentioned that she was afraid to move forward with any other guys. It wasn’t a bad read, just an okay one for me.
Profile Image for Ellen.
226 reviews11 followers
February 8, 2017
Definitely a book you won't want to put down . ..

I so enjoyed this book so much! Glad I got the chance to read it and I recommend it highly . It may have been free , but it was a good read.
8 reviews
January 21, 2017
Good light read!

Very entertaining. There was no swearing or sex which is a nice change of pace. I would recommend this series
Profile Image for Mary Ann.
1,771 reviews
May 15, 2017
Lots of proofreading issues

Good read, nice twist in mystery, but does require better proofreading. Many errors throughout makes for a good grammar lesson for homeschool kidsn
158 reviews6 followers
February 22, 2017
A pleasant tale you can read commuting to work.

Ali the cute cafe owner gets mixed up in a murder. A murder she probably would have committed herself if she had known the deceased slightly longer. A very pleasant read with a well thought out plot.
263 reviews4 followers
June 17, 2017
It was a good light read. I didn't put it down. I really like cozy mysteries involving cooking.
Profile Image for marilyn morrison.
52 reviews2 followers
Read
September 15, 2019
Sweet

The book wasn't long, yet very interesting. The characters were easy to identify with. And the plot wasn't easy to figure out. I enjoyed it.
Profile Image for Denise.
1,170 reviews
June 5, 2020
The taste of murder

Fun read that takes you down several avenues of finding the killer. Nice start to what is sure to be more sweet tales of cozy mysteries.
1,034 reviews
November 25, 2021
Interesting cozy with a hint of romance

A generally disliked person dies at a taste event, and Ali's was the last food she tasted, so it's time to help solve the case.
Profile Image for Tra-Day.
73 reviews
July 6, 2023
Cute, short, and sweet!

Nice "whodunit" Very quaint and quick...If you like mystery with a Romance undertone, you'll enjoy! I'm excited to read the rest of the series.
Profile Image for F.R. Southerland.
Author 5 books80 followers
February 22, 2016
The story moved at a fast pace and I really liked the main character, Ali. Having said that, the plot was fairly predictable and some of the character actions/situations seemed to happen in a way that made it seem implausible. There were a few grammatical errors throughout, which distracted me and drew away from the story. But it had a satisfying ending. I'm glad I gave this book a chance. Overall, I enjoyed this first book of the series and I will definitely read the next one.
Profile Image for Les.
2,911 reviews1 follower
March 11, 2016
This is a short and sweet little mystery. When the Honeybuns bake shop is selected as a contestant to cater the mayor's 'Black & White' Ball ali Daniels is over the moon. Unfortunately it is at the request of a nasty reality star. When someone dies at the tasting Ali is a prime suspect.
Can she clear her name, get the shop reopened and get a date with the hottie from the Mayor's office?
Profile Image for Jennifer Power.
27 reviews
August 9, 2016
Another book I couldn't finish. It started off good but I couldn't get past the grammar errors and the forced character development. Thankfully it was a free Kindle download because I wouldn't want to have paid for it.
Profile Image for Robin Resch.
651 reviews5 followers
October 23, 2016
I read this one second by accident. It still made sense. Author does not add useless information. The flow of the series is really good. Don't skip any parts of the book. Not a boring story line. Love the series.
122 reviews1 follower
March 10, 2016
Fun

This is a quick, fun, read. Cute characters . Well written. Easy to picture the whole story taking place. I will read more.
Profile Image for  Jody Reads Smut.
1,124 reviews258 followers
April 22, 2016
Good

What I enjoyed most about this book is it wasn't that long but it wasn't nice short cozy mystery I really did enjoy it
Profile Image for Shelby  Young.
432 reviews
June 12, 2016
Great story!

I love cosy mysteries. Boy did this one deliver. There were fun characters and a really good story line. I highly recommend this book.
Profile Image for LaToya Moore.
3 reviews
July 1, 2016
Captivating!

It kept my interest from go. I wish it was longer. Maybe the outcome of Ali and Derek is in the next one...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews

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