REVIEW: Sweet Tea and Secrets by Joy Avon

Sweet Tea and Secrets by Joy Avon
Series: Tea and a Read Mystery #2
Genres: Cozy Mystery

Sleuth Callie Aspen wants to light up the Fourth of July tea party by solving a celebrity’s decades-old disappearance, but her digging results in more fireworks than she expects.

Last Christmas, Callie Aspen left her tour guide job and settled in Heart's Harbor, Maine. Now, she helps out at Book Tea, her great aunt’s vintage tearoom, where each treat has a bookish clue. Though she’s excited to start her new life, Callie worries she may regret having burned her bridges behind her. Fortunately, she finds immediate distraction in the preparations for a spectacular Fourth of July tea party, which will recreate key moments from the town's rich history.

Intrigued to learn that 1980s TV star Monica Walker was last seen in Heart's Harbor before she vanished—allegedly to elope—Callie probes the townsfolk for information. She’s stunned when several locals share contradictory stories about the last day before Monica's disappearance. Did she intend to leave her hit TV series? Was she being stalked by her ex? And why is the newspaper editor who investigated the story at the time so anxious about the cold case heating up?

When one of the talkative townspeople turns up dead, Callie aims to catch the killer. But it’s no picnic: Deputy Falk doesn’t want her meddling, and the locals suddenly know more about the past than they’d been at liberty to admit. If Callie and the Book Tea crew can’t crack the case, they’ll pay a very steep price in Joy Avon's explosive second Tea and a Read mystery.

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I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It had been a while since I read a cozy mystery when I selected this book from NetGalley. In fact, I selected a couple of them that day and I have to say I was ready to shift gears a little in my reading. This is the second book in the A Book Tea Shop Mystery series. However, it can be read on its own as each book has it’s own mystery to be solved.

Having moved to Heart’s Harbor, Maine, Callie Aspen is working in her aunt’s book themed business. Callie meets Quinn when he offers to make the repairs to the cottage she is going to rent. When she tells Quinn of a project she has volunteered for he tells her to visit the library for ideas. It is at the library that they find the story of the disappearance of the famous Monica Walker. There’s no harm in looking into a decades old case right? I mean it certainly couldn’t be the reason for the new murder, right?

Since I didn’t read the first book prior to this one I didn’t have anything to judge or compare from before. I thin that was great because I had read that this one was better than the first. To me this one was great on its own. I love the idea of a decades old murder mystery to solve and Callie was certainly a great character. Although I do wish there was a bit more tea and books but that is certainly alright. All in all this was a good book.