The Rainbow Recipe

Psychic Solutions #4

by Patricia Rice

In the spooky town of Afterthought, Halloween is no time to die. . .
Psychic caterer Priscilla Malcolm watches in disbelief as a glamorous boutique owner drops dead at her Halloween party. Pris isn’t about to blame her appetizers, even if she knows the death isn’t natural. But when the victim’s ghost attaches to her ghost-busting cousin, Evie, she has no choice except to find out what happened.

While Evie’s Sensible Solutions team investigates motives for possible murder, Pris seeks the source of the boutique’s fame in Italy— coincidentally, the home of her nemesis, Dante Ives. Pris’s telepathic skills are limited, but while she searches for a heartless killer, she will need to call on every gift she possesses to deal with the handsome archeologist and the adorable twins his enigmatic ex dumped on him.

Knowing his past is the reason Evie is haunted now, Dante must join eccentric Pris and the anarchic Solutions team to solve the murder before Evie becomes the next victim.

315 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2022

About the author

With several million books in print and New York Times and USA Today's bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice writes emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances which have won numerous awards, including the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards.

Her books have also been honored as Romance Writers of America RITA® finalists in the historical, regency and contemporary categories.

A firm believer in happily-ever-after for good reason, Patricia Rice is married to her high school sweetheart and has two children. A native of Kentucky and New York, a past resident of North Carolina and Missouri, she currently resides in Southern California, and now does accounting only for herself.

She also writes under the pen name Jamie Quaid

Reviews

[Cathy Geha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rainbow Recipe by Patricia Rice
Psychic Solutions 4

Returning to this series is always a delight. Quirky character that are a joy to spend time with, a plot with mysteries and murders to solve, paranormal abilities that come in handy, and romance to enjoy. Truly a fun way to spend time!

What I liked:
* Pris: caterer, telepathic, prickly, influences others, wants to clear her name, in Italy to find answers, steps up to assist when needed, strong, capable
* Dante: Italian conte, father of twins, archaeologist, ability to pick up information through touch, related distantly to the paranormal Malcolm-Ives families, wakes up slowly as the book progresses
*Evie & Jax: a couple that are wards of wealthy Loretta, work together and separately, great together
* Psychic Solutions: company that solves mysteries using paranormal abilities
* Alex & Nan: five-year-old twins of Dante and Lucia, add a lot to the story
* Reuben & Roark: work for Jax, ex-military, have love interests in Afterthought
* Larraine: new mayor of Afterthought and love interest of Reuben
* Ariel: Jax’s sister, brilliant, on the spectrum, Roark and she cohabit
* The way the family of Evie & Pris come together to help one another and work for the benefit of their town
* The mysteries solved related to who killed Katherine and where Lucia might be, motivation for murder and a bloggers libelous claim, where the Etruscan artifacts were coming from
* Hoping there will be another book in the series

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Knowing that abuses and crimes such as the ones in this story take place in the real world

Did I enjoy this book: Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes

Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 stars

[Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a long time reader of Ms. Rice’s books and she still surprises me with her ability to write about so many different themes with such vivid imagination.
Her forth book in the series Psychic Solutions Mystery is indeed 90% mystery with a little of romance. I think readers who haven't read a book in the series yet will find a bit difficult to distinguish all the characters properly. It wasn't like that with her other books.
It is an easy to read book that you can finish quickly, if you can put your work or household work aside for a few hours.
Spoiler: this time was easy to know who did murdered the boutique owner. But not the why. The why of the murder slowly became clear and it was well written, with a fast pace.
I'm not sure if the fact that the book was written from different points of view helped make the book better.

[Carey S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Priscilla Malcolm Broadhurst and Dante Ives Rossi get caught up in a scheme involving the principal shareholders of a facial cream company from Europe. It starts with the death of one of the company founders, and gets more complicated from there. There is a vicious and lying reporter who gets stirred into the mix, and there are relatives and significant others who play large and small roles. This is a story that will keep readers guessing about the villain or villains. Yet it is written so well, that the story pulls readers in from the start and holds their interest throughout.

We get to see how the relationship between Evie and Jax is progressing, and see the same with Roark and Ariel’s relationship. We discover interesting information about Rueben and Larraine, and we learn the winner of the mayoral race. There are some wonderfully accurate insights into reporters and elections that mirror events currently happening in America.

This book includes some foreign travel, and the struggles of a man who is learning to be a father in spite of having had a poor example of fatherhood in his own past. Yet he is willing to learn and he is trying the best way he knows how. There are many intriguing elements to this story. It can potentially be read as a stand-alone, but would be a much better story with the background imparted from the prior stories.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, it was fun to catch up with Jax, Evie, Loretta and there friends and relatives. As was done in Book #3, this story goes between the point of view of Jax, Evie, Pris (Evie's cousin Priscilla), and Dante (Jax's recently found cousin in Italy). We really did not know much about Pris and Dante in previous stories, so it was nice to learn more about both of them.

It is always interesting to see what new and crazy thing is happening in Afterthought. However, it was fun to see this expand beyond just South Carolina into England and Italy where the Ives and Malcolms came from. This is also a very intriguing my mystery that has a lot of twists and turns.

For any of you who read Patricia's other independent series "Evil Genius", I highly recommend that you give this book and series a shot. It has all the great trademarks that "Evil Genius" had -- great characters, an addictive plot, and a very intense mystery.

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DISCLAIMER: I received an advance reader copy of this book provided by the author in exchange for a fair, objective, and honest review.

[SylviaV · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Rainbow Recipe: Psychic Solutions Mystery #4 by Patricia Rice.
This is book 4 in the series and continues to tell the story of Evie and Jax relationship and their interactions with the people in their community following the election of a new Mayor and a murder mystery with a twist, which takes the story to Italy. This mystery story is told from Evie & Jax and her cousin Priscilla & Dante's point of view (romance in the air for Pris and Dante). This could be read as a stand-alone book but the number of characters may be overwhelming for someone who starts the series at book 4, luckily there is a list of characters at the end of the book for you to reference. For me this book reads like catching up with friends and for a brief time, the reader gets to be immersed in the community of Afterthought, with all the good, the bad and the ugly undercurrents that flow in any community. Another great read.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This landed on my kindle yesterday and I devoured it in one sitting. It continues the tale of Evie the ghost buster and her crazy but lovable family, but the story is shared by her cousin Pris this time. Pris can read and influence minds, but she doesn’t always want to as the clamour becomes too much sometimes. But when there’s a murderer on the loose and she’s the accused, she has no choice but to use her gift. The search for the real murderer takes her to Italy and Dante Rossi, a man who also has a gift he tries to suppress. I loved the developing relationship between Pris and the grumpy Italian count, and her reluctant bonding with his adorable five year old twins. Throw in some truly heinous villains and a pretty useless ghost and you have a cracking story. I’m already looking forward to the next one but if you haven’t started yet I’d recommend you begin with the first book in this amazing series. You won’t want to miss it!

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great addition to the Jax and Evie stories that started branching out to others & now includes Evie's cousin, Pris and Jax's spoiled and arrogant Italian cousin, Dante and a set of cute twins. After a catering disaster, Pris flies to Italy to get some answers and ends up taking care of the twins, who she instinctively understands better than anyone else in the villa. In the process, she gets to know Dante better and teaches him about his children. As everyone in Afterthought works to uncover a murderer, there are more questions than answers. I love how Patricia has built a family (that includes friends & lovers) in Afterthought that work together know matter what to help each other. And lovely romance in every book, of course.

[H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of The Rainbow Recipe and this review is mine and mine alone.
I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful fun read. Amazing how Ms. Rice can weave her mysteries using a lot of characters from her other books in the Psychic Solutions series. I recommend reading this whole series for an enjoyable reading experience with mystery, romance and adventure. The Rainbow Recipe features Priscilla, a caterer and her psychic powers who witnesses a boutique owner drop dead at a halloween event. Using their psychic powers, she and her gifted paranormal relatives help get to the bottom of this murder. Pick up a copy, you won’t be disappointed.

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pricilla and Dante were meant to be from the moment in the previous book when they started sniping at each other. LoL

I just hate how she had to go all the way to Italy to figure it out. Also Dante!?! Come on! Twins!? and he just lets them run rampant, expecting his mother to handle it all?? Not cool!

I love how Pricilla calls him out on his bs, and straightens out the family, gives Nonna a vacation, & solves the mystery of the disappearance of the mum, (its wild that she figured it out in a few weeks when those that knew her assumed she would just abandon her babies!!!) I guess being psychic works out.

[Julia David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent adventure. Evie and the gang are forced into another investigation when Pris is catering a reception and one of the attendees drops dead. The woman's last thought was of Dante, Jax's cousin. Immediately a blogger blames Pris and the new mayor. Of course, the ghost of the woman starts talking to Evie. Pris heads to Italy to see if she can uncover some clues there. There ends up being more questions than answers. There are plenty of suspects and Evie and the crew keep digging up more information. Will it help them catch the murderers?

[Lizette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun mystery, characters, family, and love relationships

A myriad of realistic characters--delightful, horrible, and run-of-the-mill. Men and women, adults and children, family and townspeople, American, Italian, and British. All are satisfying additions to this quirky mystery with lots of unexpected action, twists, and turns. Their quirkiness and interactions had me laughing. The action develops via four POVs: Pris' and Dante's, Evie's and Jaxes. The happy endings between these two couples are immensely satisfying.
The many threads of the mystery are eventually revealed.

[Lucia Valenzuela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story continues with the lives of the Malcolm family and their friends in Afterthought. Told from several different viewpoints and actions occurring in both Afterthought and Italy, my attention was caught immediately and it was a real struggle to put it down to sleep. Lots of mystery in this one. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I received a free copy of this book and this is my voluntary, honest review.

[Gail Daley · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Intriguing Story

This book hops back and forth between Italy and America with dizzying speed. I had already figured out the missing woman was probably dead, but then I’m a mystery buff. All in all a satisfying conclusion.

[Margaret A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review

I can't get enough of Patricia Rice books. Sometimes I wish they were a little shorter but I always make time to finish them. After the plot grabs you, it's hard to put them down!